How to fix a slow Android phone

Make your Android fast again — it is possible

We’ve all been there. You have a fancy, new, highly complex Android device that can do everything from checking your email to surfing the web to controlling your microwave so your popcorn doesn’t burn. It’s shiny, and screaming fast while doing all the things we wanted it to do. Everything is roses all around.

Fast forward a year down the road, and besides the shiny wearing off, things aren’t as zippy as they used to be. Apps take longer to open and run. Transitions between screens take longer to redraw than we would like. The speed demon that your device once was is starting to get a little frustrating to use. Your Android is slow.

Don’t fret. This happens to every computer, even the Android one you carry in your pocket. The good news is that there are a few things you can do to alleviate your pain and get back to Speed Racer mode again. None are difficult, and we’re going to take a look at the five best things you can do to “fix” a slow Android.

Note: To keep you up to date with the latest information, we’re periodically updating this page.

Delete all those apps you’re not using

You know the ones I mean. We all download apps on a whim, try them a time or two, then forget they are even there. They sit in the app drawer, counting their days and plotting ways to make your phone slow by using resources like CPU cycles for background services, taking up memory blocks and fragmenting your storage, and generally cluttering the place up. It’s not you, dog whistle simulator app, it’s us. Things just aren’t going to work and we have to say goodbye. We’re still the best of friends, right?

To delete any app you’ve downloaded, you can head into the device settings to find the App “manager.” The people who made your phone might have buried it inside another section (hello there, Samsung!) but poke around or ask somebody and you’ll find it.

Once open, you’ll see lists of apps that are installed on your phone with various sorting options. When you find an app that needs to go away, tap the list entry to open the application’s info screen. At the top you’ll see a button to Uninstall it. Tap. Boom. Bam. Goodbye unwanted application.

Be vicious here. You can always download an app again if you decide you needed it after all — and that includes apps you paid for — but getting rid of the stragglers and hanger-on apps can make a big difference in how your phone runs the apps you do want.

Clean up that device storage space

After some time, you’ll find a literal crap-ton of “junk” in your storage. Remember all those times you said, “Wait, let me take another one” while you had the camera open? All those pictures you didn’t want are still there. So are the screenshots you took to share then promptly forgot all about them. Add in the Downloads folder and you just might have one hell of a mess. I know I do.

This is also an easy fix. To delete the pictures you no longer need, simply open the gallery app and choose the ones that need to go, and delete them. The same goes for videos. And doing it this way, through the gallery, means you have to see each picture or video before you delete them to be sure you really want to delete them.

Next, open the Downloads folder from your app drawer. There’s a good chance you’ll find it’s filled with images, zip files, sound clips and any number of files that you no longer need. If you don’t need them, there’s no reason they should be taking up storage space, right? Zap them to oblivion. Again, doing it this way makes sure you look at files before you delete them.

Finally, open the storage page in the settings and move down the list until you see an entry for “Misc.” or Other. Tap it, and you’ll see a list of miscellaneous files that applications have created on your device storage. If you see something you know you no longer need, you can delete it here. If you don’t know what a file is for, don’t delete it.

If you root and ROM, be sure to look at your backup files and toss any that you no longer need. Those suckers can be HUGE.

Clear your cached data

Cached data is generally a good thing. Intelligently keeping some things in a local storage, like the post thumbnails for the Android Central app, means you don’t have to download or generate them each and every time you open the app itself. And a well-written app knows when to clear its cache and start it all over again. But like all good things, there are drawbacks.

Apps you rarely use will have cached data that not only takes up space, but is always out of date and will need flushed and rebuilt anyway. Sometimes, cached data can be buggy and cause apps to misbehave — especially when it’s woefully out of date. You can clear the cache for an individual app in the Application’s info page (see section one about deleting apps above), but if we want to freshen things up so that our Android runs faster we want to wipe the cache all at once.

That’s also easy!

Open the settings on your Android, and go into the device storage page. Scroll down the list until you see the Cached data entry, and tap on it. You’ll see a pop-up telling you that you’re able to clear out all cached data. Say yes with no fear — there’s nothing here that an app needs, and anything important will be re-cached the next time you open the app.

Look at your SD card

Not all Androids have one, but if you do, a messy slow SD card can really make your Android chug. We can fix that to some extent. What we want to do is backup the card, format it so that it’s clean and ready, then put our files back into place. The easy way to do this is with a computer.

Warning — you can lose game progress, app data, coins you paid real money for in Tiny Tower and other things you may not want to lose by doing this. If your favorite application doesn’t use Google Cloud save, think about this before you do any tapping clicking or popping.

Power down your Android, then take the SD card out of the device. Place it in an adapter so that it can go into either an SD card slot on your computer or into a free USB port on the computer, and insert it in the appropriate hole. Your computer will take a second then mount it so that you can see all the file on the card itself.

Next, make a folder on your computer desktop to put all the files in. Name it something you’ll remember, like sd-card-backup or the like. Using the file manager on your computer, copy all the files from the SD card and paste them into this new folder you created. Double check that they are all there. Then triple check that they are all there. Once you know all the files were copied, unmount the SD card from your computer and pop it back into your phone.

Fire up your phone, the dive into the storage section of the settings again. This time, we’re going to format the SD card. This wipes all data off the SD card. Make sure you have everything backed up, or you’ll be sorry. Go ahead and format the card, then power the phone off again.

Pop the SD card back into the computer and open the backup folder. Go through and delete anything you know you no longer need, but be sure you don’t need it first. I have three DVD images for Red Hat on the SD card in my Note 3. Those don’t need to be on my phone, so I wouldn’t copy them back over to the freshly-formatted card. Err on the side of caution here, and if you don’t know what a file or folder is, copy it back over. Once you have everything you want and need copied back to the SD card, place it back in the phone and power it back on.

Once everything is up and running again, go into the app drawer and say “Dammit, Jerry, what happened to my apps!?” Some of your apps were partially installed to the SD card in a secure image when they were installed. Find those apps in Google Play and reinstall them to fix it.

Pro tip: This step is sort of a pain in the butt. It also can make a huge difference, so it could be worth doing. Either way, it’s not something you want to do very often, so think about upgrading that SD card when you do it. This is a perfect time to move to something faster and bigger than that Class 4 16GB card you bought when you first got your phone …

If all else fails, factory reset

Trust me: I hate resetting a device as much as you do. They take hours to set back up, and no matter how careful you were backing things up you always lose something. Not to mention all the game progress you are going to lose. But sometimes, things are so FUBAR that you just have to go here. Especially if you’re the type of person who just has to root and mess with things to make them “better.”

Factory resetting makes everything go away and returns your phone to the same condition it was in when you first opened the box. Firmware updates will still be in place, but things like your text messages and other data not in the cloud are gone forever. But sometimes, a fresh start is the best way to go.

You’ll find a way to reset your phone in the device settings. Look for words like backup and restore or privacy to find the exact entry. Once you find it, tap away and wave goodbye to all those Knights of Pen and Paper levels.

When things boot back up into Android, you’ll be nice and fast again, which is good because you’ll be spending plenty of time swiping and tapping to set everything back up.

OnePlus introduces OxygenOS 3.5 as its first Community Build

OnePlus has announced Community Builds, a new way for people to test upcoming software updates, and the first version will be OxygenOS 3.5 for the OnePlus 3. The company wants to give users a chance to try the software before anyone else and help give feedback on it in the process. With OxygenOS 3.5, OnePlus has introduced some back-end changes that it says will improve the user experience in the long run, but that comes at the cost of some other issues.

Some of the new features include:

• Several UI improvements
• New and improved OnePlus apps, including clock, weather and file manager
• Improved camera software
• More robust settings and customization features

With it being the first build, there are also a number of issues as well. Some of them include:

• Android Pay is not currently supported
• Only English is currently supported in several OnePlus apps
• Some performance issues
• Some UI issues when using custom themes
• System UI tuner is unstable (do not use); using the system UI tuner could cause serious issues that can only be resolved via factory reset
• You will need to re-register your fingerprints if you have fingerprint authentication enabled

Getting started is easy. OnePlus has set up a downloads page with instructions to get started. You will need to be on the stock OxygenOS with the OnePlus recovery for this to work. If you take the plunge and load it up, be sure to let us know how it is working out for you.

Don’t miss out on this Quick Charge 2.0 charger for just $5

Aukey is once again offering its Quick Charge 2.0 wall charger for just $5 at Amazon with coupon code URYA2AKG. Normally priced at $12, you’ll save $7 on this charger that will help get your phone charged up at a quick pace. The charger comes with both the charging brick and a 3.3-foot microUSB cable in the box, so whether you need one for the office, your travel bag or to have around at home, you won’t want to miss this deal.

This deal has been extremely popular in the past, so it may not last long. If you are interested, you’ll want to act quickly so it doesn’t sell out. Remember, you’ll need coupon code URYA2AKG for the full savings.

See at Amazon

HTC 10 review: The best Android phone you’re not buying

The HTC 10 is a stellar smartphone from the company that brought you the aluminum unibody. Unfortunately, it’s not quite the Perfect Ten its name implies – a reality reinforced by T-Mobile’s decision to drop the phone from store shelves amid rumors of sluggish sales.

Still, it’s hard to escape the conclusion that the HTC 10’s shortcomings would be totally forgivable ones … if only the price were a little lower. The HTC 10 has been on the market for months, MrMobile has used it for much of that time, and you wouldn’t stop asking for a review in the comments – so settle in for Michael Fisher’s HTC 10 review to learn why it’s the best Android phone you’re not buying!

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Your Nexus phone will soon automatically connect to open Wi-Fi networks

Google’s Nexus phones get yet another great exclusive value-added feature.

Google’s awesome Wi-Fi Assistant, which was previously available only to Project Fi phones, will be opening up to all Nexus phones in the coming weeks. The feature lets your Nexus — with your permission — connect to all open Wi-Fi networks that it finds, offloading data usage that would otherwise end up costing you on a limited mobile data plan.

With Wi-Fi Assistant enabled, which you’ll soon find behind a settings gear in your Wi-Fi settings, your phone still always be scanning and will latch onto any open network that it can find that doesn’t require a login or captive portal check before connecting. The best part about this is that it does the checks for you without any of your input, so you don’t have to bother hunting around to find a Wi-Fi network — just use your phone and let it do its thing.

One of Project Fi’s best features comes to all Nexuses

For your protection, when your phone connects to an open network via Wi-Fi Assistant, all of your traffic automatically passes through a Google VPN, keeping the data safe from the potential dangers of an open Wi-Fi network. Wi-Fi Assistant is also regularly checking the speed of the networks it connects to, and is very willing to drop off of the Wi-Fi if it’s slow or unstable, which gives you the best experience. After using a Project Fi phone for well over a year now, I never turn off Wi-Fi anymore and simply let it handle things, saving me dozens of megabytes per month.

Together with the ability to switch between multiple mobile data networks, Wi-Fi Assistant was actually one of the biggest selling points of Project Fi — bringing us closer to the idea of just connecting to any data source that was available, without you having to worry about the specifics. With that feature coming to Nexus phones, it’s yet another one of Google’s great value-added services that can be a huge benefit to Nexus owners, currently and in future buying decisions.

The feature will roll out to all Nexus phones running Android 5.1 or newer, and in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, UK and Nordic countries. The process will take a few weeks, but we will start to see it on some phones right away.

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HTC reverses course, starts displaying Android Security Patch date on HTC 10

Making sure your HTC 10 is up to date is now a little easier.

We were admittedly disappointed when we noticed that the HTC 10 was missing the line in the settings to let you know which Android Security Patch was installed. It didn’t make the phone any different, and the good things about the 10 were still the same good things (and likewise with the not-so-good) but it just feels like that’s one of the things we all should be able to see and check. Having the patch date displayed didn’t make anything better, but it did let us know when the last update was and if we needed a new one.

HTC has changed that policy, and you can see when your HTC 10 was last updated with the latest patch.

While it’s tempting to get silly and make light of this, we shouldn’t. Whether or not you take the security of your private data seriously enough to make sure you have the latest patches for your phone, we do. It’s our job to care. There are other easy ways we can check when the phone was last updated, but having it displayed with the rest of the software information makes it easy for the average user. Google designed it this way — they want you to be able to tell if you have the latest security “fixes” they provide. Hiding that means most people weren’t likely to know.

We’re not sure why HTC originally decided to not display the patch date, but it’s no longer an issue, at least on the 10. Thanks for that, HTC. Little things mean a lot.

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Uber partners with startup Betterment to offer retirement accounts

Previously, Uber hasn’t exactly treated its drivers with the same kind of respect and fairness you’d expect from an employer of its stature. With several lawsuits in the works surrounding the company’s avoidance of offering traditional benefits, it seems like Uber could finally be taking a step in the right direction with its partnership with Betterment, at least in terms of managing finances.

Betterment is a firm that offers automated investing solutions for customers, a startup with over 175,000 customers and over $5 billion in assets. It’s offering Uber drivers traditional or Roth Individual Retirement accounts, according to their preferences.

Uber’s fleet of 300,000 drivers will both benefit from Betterment and offer a boon for the startup in turn. Flexible retirement accounts through the service will be offered to the first year exclusively to Uber drivers, which could ensure those with accounts continue to use the service even if they decide to part with the company in the future.

Drivers in Seattle, Chicago and Boston will gain access to Betterment first, with the rest of Uber’s drivers across the nation joining in at a later date.

Uber’s lack of 401k or insurance for its employees, which are considered to be independent contractors, has been a subject of debate among ride-sharing companies, namely Juno, which has made it a point to compete with Uber by treating its drivers better, going so far as paying Uber drivers $25 a week to switch sides, so to speak.

Offering its drivers Betterment’s services doesn’t mean Uber is doing an about-face or anything like that, but it could mean a brighter future for its drivers if the company continues down this path.

Via: Business Insider

People will lie to robots to avoid hurting their feelings

In the future, it’s possible that robots will be able to prey on our emotions. Or at least, behave in a way that makes us sympathetic towards them. Research carried out by the University College London (UCL) and the University of Bristol has discovered that humans prefer robots who are expressive and apologise for their mistakes — even if they’re less efficient than a silent alternative. Fleshy controllers are also more likely to forgive a robot’s shortcomings if they think it’ll make them sad as a result.

In a test lab, Bert2 — a humanoid robot with three separate displays, allowing its eyes and mouth to express different emotions — performed in three different ways. One was silent and made zero mistakes, while a second was mute and programmed to make a single blunder (which it would then correct, quietly). A third was able to speak and could accept simple “yes” or “no” responses from the user. In a basic kitchen scenario, the vocal android would apologise for its mistakes — dropping an egg, for instance — and give a heads-up when it was about to try a new technique.

While the slowest, it was the robot that most people preferred.

But here’s where it gets interesting. At the end of the exchange, the robot would ask for a job. Some participants were reluctant to say no — even if they preferred the silent, more efficient robot — because they thought it would upset the machine. “It felt appropriate to say no, but I felt really bad saying it,” one of the test participants recalled. “When the face was really sad, I felt even worse. I felt bad because the robot was trying to do its job.”

Another said “maybe” at first, but — because Bert2 can only accept “yes” or “no” responses — quickly changed their answer to “yes.” Later, in a post-experiment questionnaire, they revealed that they actually preferred the silent, more reliable robot. According to the research team, one test subject wrote “emotional blackmail” on their notepad during the experiment.

It’s already been proven that humans can feel empathy towards robots. (We also have a good giggle when they fall over.) The new research by UCL and the University of Bristol, however, points to a deeper and more complex relationship with robots in the future. It’s dependent on more expressive android interfaces, however, and the way human perceptions change. For now, there’s a novelty factor — we’re willing to forgive a robot’s mistakes because the experience feels so new — but in the future, that could change. When I’m late for work and need a quick breakfast, I won’t be too impressed when my robot butler spills milk all over the floor.

Via: Gizmodo

Source: UCL