GOOGLE has warned Android phone owners over a common mistake that could be slowing down your handset.
If your Android is struggling to perform, it might be your fault.
1
You may have noticed that your phone is running slowly, lagging or taking a long time to respond.
It’s worth restarting your phone to see if that fixes the problem.
But you may also find that the problems are being caused by your storage being too full.
When devices come close to having their maximum storage capacity filled up, they can slow down significantly.
Google confirmed this, urging users to consider freeing up space on their devices.
The warning was included in an official memo on how to “speed up a slow Android device”.
“Your phone can start having issues when less than 10% of storage is free,” Google warned.
“If you’re running low on storage, learn how to free up space.
Most read in News Tech
“On most phones, you can check how much storage you have available in the Settings app.
“Settings can vary by phone.”
Thankfully it’s very easy to free up space on your device.
A good place to start is to simply delete unwanted photos, movies, music and other media.
You should also check your storage to see which apps are taking up significant amounts of space.
If you rarely (or never) use them, consider deleting them from your phone.
You can also set up app archiving, by going into the Play Store and tapping Settings > General then activating Automatically Archive Apps.
“Your device can automatically archive apps you don’t use often to free up space for new apps,” Google explained.
“When this setting is on, the apps you don’t use often will be removed, but your personal data on the app will be saved.
“The app’s icon will remain on your device. You’ll be able to download the app again, as long as it’s available on Google Play.
“If you try to install an app but don’t have enough space, you’re notified to automatically archive apps.”
Of course there may be other reasons why you Android phone is running slowly.
One solution can be to update your Android phone to newer software.
You may also need to update apps that are causing problems.
Consider force-quitting troublesome apps.
And if you’re really struggling, it could be worth resetting your phone to factory settings – although be aware that this will totally wipe it.
