Mobile Phones Android Why Is My Phone So Slow: 10 Ways to Speed Up Your Smartphone Fixes for when your phone is lagging, and you can’t take it anymore by Molly McLaughlin Writer, Editor Molly K. McLaughlin has been a technology writer since 2004. Her work has appeared on many tech sites across the web including PCMag, Dealnews, Wirecutter and many others. our editorial process Twitter LinkedIn Molly McLaughlin Updated on September 11, 2020 Tweet Share Email Android Switching from iOS Smartphones, like all tech, start to slow down after a while. There are plenty of reasons why phones start lagging, many of which you can resolve relatively quickly. It’s also important to note your phone might only seem slower, as it seemed much faster when you first bought it. Sometimes, though, upgrading to a new model is the solution. Common reasons why phones slow down: Bad data or Wi-Fi connectionOut of date software and appsPower-hungry appsLow storage space Is Your iPhone or Android Frequently Freezing? Here's How to Fix It How to Speed Up Your Phone There are many solutions for speeding up a slow phone, which include anything from rebooting, updating the operating system, offloading data, and resetting to factory settings. Many of the solutions can solve all sorts of other problems too. Check the Wi-Fi signal strength. Sometimes it’s not your phone that’s slow, but your Wi-Fi connection. It could also be a mobile network issue. Check these connections and switch to another Wi-Fi network or move to another location. Reboot your Android or reset your iPhone. If you haven’t restarted your phone in a while, that might do the trick. It’s always a good idea to give it a try before looking into other possibilities as it can fix an array of performance issues. Check for updates to your Android or iOS smartphone. Operating system updates often contain fixes for issues that might slow a phone down, such as background processes. If there’s one available, go ahead and update your Android or iPhone operating system. Uninstall Android apps or iPhone apps you don’t use anymore, or that take up the most space or bandwidth. If anything, this frees up space for new apps, photos, and other data. Check for Android app updates or updates to iOS apps. For apps that you do use, make sure they’re up to date. As with OS updates, app updates often contain bug fixes that can cause performance issues. Free up storage space on your Android or your iPhone. Take advantage of cloud storage, and back up your Android or iPhone using a cloud service like Google Drive, Google Photos, iCloud, and Apple Photos. Clear the cache data on your Android or your iPhone. Occasionally, the data your smartphone saves to make things move faster can slow things down. Clearing it can immediately fix smartphone issues and also free up space. Reset your Android to factory settings or reset your iPhone. If nothing else works, try a factory reset, but be sure to back up your data first. Contact tech support. For Android phones, contact your carrier or manufacturer; iPhone users can set up a Genius Bar appointment. If your smartphone is still running slow after a factory reset, it’s time to get outside help. Consider upgrading. If you’ve had no success, it might be time to upgrade to a new model. Android users should consult our guide to when it makes sense to upgrade. Apple users can sign up for the iPhone upgrade program or check if they’re eligible for an upgrade. Was this page helpful? Thanks for letting us know! Get the Latest Tech News Delivered Every Day Email Address Sign up There was an error. Please try again. You're in! Thanks for signing up. There was an error. Please try again. Thank you for signing up. Tell us why! Other Not enough details Hard to understand Submit