Don’t panic if your Android phone is feeling slow and unresponsive, it might not be necessary to trade it in for a new model. A few simple tweaks, fixes and behaviour changes can often restore smoother, more reliable performance.

TCL suggests some quick tips for restoring your Android device’s performance if your phone is not working the way it should. 

1.      Restart your phone

Your first step when your phone feels sluggish and unresponsive is a good, old-fashioned restart. On most devices press the power button for about 30 seconds, until your phone restarts. This is often all you need to do to sort out the issue, especially if you have not rebooted your phone for a while.

2.      Update to the latest version of Android

New versions of Android will often include performance tweaks and bug fixes that can help your phone run smoother. On most phones, you can find the software update function in System on the Settings app.

3.      Clear out your storage

You may start to experience performance issues on your phone when the storage is full. On most Android smartphones, you can check how much storage you have available in the settings app. If you have less than 10% free, consider freeing up space by deleting unused apps and unwanted media. You can store your photos and videos in the cloud if you don’t want to lose them.

4.      Close apps not in use

Many apps will keep running in the background and consuming resources on your phone, even when you’re not using them. You can usually force stop an app through your phone's settings app. 

5.      Look at permissions

Changing the permissions an app has via the Android permission manager is an alternative to deleting or disabling it. Turning off permissions like location access, notifications and access to files will reduce how frequently an app wakes up in the background and the resources it uses.

6.      Restart in safe mode

If closing apps and restarting does not help, you can try safe mode. If you restart in safe mode, all downloaded apps will be temporarily disabled. If the problem goes away, an app is probably to blame. Restart your phone normally and remove recent apps on by one until the problem goes away. After you remove the problem app, you can add back the others.

7.      Try lite app versions

Many apps are available in lite versions, including some of the popular social media and media streaming apps. These apps will typically use fewer mobile data and run more efficiently on older and lower-specced Android devices. Google’s “Go”-branded apps, for example, use less data and processing power than the full version.

8.      Avoid resource-draining apps

There are many apps that are meant to help ‘kill’ tasks to improve performance, but many of them do more harm than good. Rather use Android’s own tools for the job. Also carefully consider whether you really need to install anti-malware apps.

Most Android app stores and the Android operating system do a good job of protecting your device. For most users, an anti-malware solution that chews up device resources is unnecessary.