According to a tech repair specialist who specializes in refurbishing old cell phones, most people ignore the top reasons why phones are running slow. Kewin Charron, senior manager of renewal operations at BackMarket.com, outlined his suggestions for why your phone might be running slow.
According to Charron, first of all, you should keep in mind that many apps are running “secretly” in the background and can slow down your device. There are also a number of battery optimization features that most users are completely unaware of. Fortunately, on both iOS and Android, it’s easy to close battery-intensive apps and optimize your phone with a few simple settings changes.
Applications running in the background
As Charron says, “The increased computing power of our phones, combined with the increase in the number of apps available for download, means that phone users today use more apps than ever before.” Charron states that apps can run in the background, consuming your phone’s RAM and CPU and slowing down the entire device. Users often do not realize that these applications are running.
To get this under control, you need to visit your phone’s settings menu and determine which apps are allowed to run in the background.
“For Apple users, go to Settings > General > Background App Refresh and turn Background App Refresh off completely,” Charron says. Select Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi & Cellular Data or Off to stop it.”
“Similarly for Android users, go to ‘Settings > Developer Options > Running Services’ to see what apps are running in the background. You can then turn them off by going to Settings > Apps, selecting an app you want to stop, and tapping Force Stop.”
“This will have an immediate impact on phone speed,” Charron says.
Kewin Charron, senior manager of renovation operations at BackMarket.comStorage space full
Another classic reason for a phone to run slowly is when the phone’s storage is nearly full. This means that the phone has less space to use, which can slow down its operation.
“Phones need about 10 percent of available storage to store caches and temporary files that keep apps running smoothly on your device,” Charron said. Having available storage also means you can keep the phone’s software up-to-date,” he says.
Charron recommends uninstalling old apps (especially games take up a lot of space) and deleting videos or moving them to cloud storage to free up space on your phone.
Battery problems
Charron says another common reason for the phone to run slowly is battery issues. Even newer batteries can fail, especially if they’ve been used a lot, and you may not always be able to see your battery’s actual values on your phone’s screen.
Charron notes that if you have an iPhone 6 or later updated with the latest operating system, you can click Settings > Battery > Battery Health to view your battery’s maximum capacity, which will be somewhere between 0 and 100 percent. A typical Apple battery should retain 80 percent of its original capacity. As the battery ages, this percentage may decrease, causing the battery to no longer hold much charge.
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