Is your phone slowing down? Try these tips to speed it up

We all slow down with age. And your phone is no different. As it gets older, you might notice that it just doesn’t have the zip it once did.

But before you embark on an upgrade, there are a few steps you can take to speed up your old phone and keep on using the device you’ve come to know and like.

Restart often

You should restart your phone at least once a week. Shut it down, let it rest for a minute, then switch it on again. If your phone is running quite slowly, you might want to restart a few times a week. Restarting your phone will free up memory, minimize those annoying screen freezes, extend battery life and help your phone perform more smoothly in general.

That’s because every webpage loaded, every software update, every new app you install or uninstall will add or delete code in your phone’s operating system. This clutter can slow down your phone. Restarting will clear out most of it and make your phone run better.

A restart will also turn off apps that are running in the background. You may not know it but when you close an app, you’re not really closing it, you’re just putting it on the sideline. It will keep on operating, taking up memory and using battery power until you restart.

Delete apps you don’t use

You’ve probably got at least a couple apps on your phone that you never use. Most people do. Streaming apps they don’t watch, fitness apps they’ve given up on, games that have grown boring. In fact, a fourth of all apps downloaded are used just once and never again. Far more are used a few times and forgotten.

These zombie apps are, well, if not an apocalypse, at least a drag because they use storage and memory, and slow down your phone. Some apps start eating space on your phone the minute you install them. Call of Duty: Mobile sucks up a massive 15GB. Other apps start out modestly, then hog more memory as you use them. Photo and video editing major consumers, as they save a version of all the original photos and videos that you edit. The more you edit, the more space the app takes.

If you use an app often, it’s OK to give it space. But you should delete the apps you don’t use—the games you’re tired of, the zany photo filters that were fun for 20 minutes—to free up juice for the apps you do use and enable them to run faster.

Ready to go all Marie Kondo on your phone? If you have an iPhone, touch and hold the app you want to delete. When the menu appears, tap Delete app, then Delete. Uninstalling apps on an Android phone works the same way. Find the app, touch and hold it, and when the menu pops up, tap Uninstall.

Update apps you do use

Once you’ve cleared out the apps you don’t use, you should make sure you’re running the most recent, most efficient versions of the apps you do use.

If you have an iPhone, open the App Store. Tap your profile icon at the top of the screen, then scroll down to see if any updates are pending. Tap Update next to an app to update just that app or tap Update all. If you have an Android, open the Google Play Store. Tap your profile icon at the top right. Tap Manage apps and device > Manage, then select the apps you want to update. And tap Update.

Clear the cache

Every website you go to and every app you open may place bits of data on your phone that slow it down. Clearing the cache will free storage, fix app technical glitches and boost performance.

If you have an iPhone, open Settings, tap Safari > Advanced, then select Website data. Tap Remove all website data. On your Android, open Settings, then tap Battery and device care. Tap Memory > Apps not used recently. Go through the list of apps and select those you want to clean up. Tap an app and select App info > Storage. Tap Clear cache at the bottom of the screen.

Upgrade when the time comes

Try as you might—and should—to extend the life of your current phone, there will come a day when it’s time for a new phone. At CREDO Mobile, we have a wide selection of the latest devices.

And while every phone has features, CREDO Mobile phones have a little extra: a purpose. Because whenever you use your CREDO phone, you’ll raise vital donations for nonprofit groups like Friends of the Earth, Social Security Works and Reproductive Freedom for All.

To date, we’ve given over $95 million to these and many other nonprofits dedicated to making our world a better place. These donations cost our customers nothing extra. But they mean everything to the groups that rely on us.