musicMagpie Blog

Your phone is slow and you want to speed it up, but just thinking about RAM and CPU gives you a headache.

Well, we're here to help: here are 9 super easy and super quick ways to speed up your Android device.

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Delete unused apps

It sounds obvious but how many times have you downloaded the latest "˜hot' app, used it for a day and then never thought about it again?

While it may have left your mind, it hasn't left your phone; it's sitting there happily gobbling up resources like a dog left on his own in a butcher's.

To delete unused apps, go to Settings > Apps > All. Scroll down, find what you don't use anymore, tap it then tap "˜uninstall'.

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Delete music, videos and photos

1000s of dodgy photos, blurry videos of concerts with terrible audio, albums you haven't listened to for years: they're all slowing you down.

Go through your gallery, pick out the good shots and delete the rest. For music, delete whatever you're not listening to at the moment or shove it onto a cloud account for easy access.

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Lose the widgets

Android's widgets are very useful, but they also demand a lot of resources. Remove anything that isn't essential from your home screen and marvel at your Android's new-found pace.

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Close down apps properly

If you leave an app using the "˜back' button, it might not have closed completely. If you have Lollipop, you can tap and hold (or double tap) the home key to bring up a list of apps currently running and then swipe to close them.

You can also go to Settings > Apps and disable apps by tapping on them. Be wary of what you disable though: games and non-Google apps are generally fine, but take care when disabling anything else.

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Clear your app cache

Apps cache data so they can run faster, but the amount of data apps store can build up and have the opposite effect.

To clear app caches, go to Settings > Apps, click on the relevant app and tap "˜Clear Cache'.

If you want to take the nuclear option and clear everything, go to Settings > Cached Data and clear it there. Just bear in mind this will get rid of everything in your cache, some of which could be useful!

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Disable animations

Brace yourself: we're about to head into a top secret area of Android! Go to Settings > About > System and look for the "˜Build Number' option. Tap it seven times and shazam! You're now in developer mode!

Go back to the System menu and you should now see "˜Developer Options'. Tap it, scroll down to "˜Window Animation Scale', "˜Transition Animation Scale' and "˜Animator Duration Scale'. Set each of these to off and your phone should speed up significantly.

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Turn off auto-sync

Many apps will auto-sync in the background so they can provide notifications and updates. While this is useful for some apps, most of the time it's just a distraction.

The good news is you can turn auto-sync off for most apps. You can either go to Settings > Accounts > Auto Sync and turn absolutely everything off, or head to actual apps and look for sync options in the settings menus.

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Update your phone

Your phone will usually notify you about new Software Updates, but it's easy to postpone and forget about them entirely. Updates contain performance-boosting upgrades, however. Find out if your phone is up to date by going to Settings > About Device > Software Update.

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Factory reset

If all of the above options fail, you might need to factory reset your phone. This deletes everything on your device and provides your phone with a fresh start, free from the demands of apps and data.

To factory reset your Android, go to Settings > Backup and Reset and then tap Factory Data Reset (or the equivalent on your device). Make sure you backup everything you want to keep before resetting your device though!

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