How to spring clean your phone

  • 27 February 2020
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How to spring clean your phone
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Apps that keep crashing, poor battery life, and no space for photos – just a few of the problems you might run into if you’ve had your phone for a while. Headaches like these are typically caused by accumulated junk – the apps, pictures, music and other temporary files that build up on your device everyday. If your phone feels like it’s working in slow motion, cleaning all that mess off it could be the answer.

 

Spring is in the air, so what better time to get started? Here are a few tips on how to give your phone a thorough spring clean.

 

1. Delete old photos and videos

If you’ve got more than 1 GB of photos or videos on your phone, it’s probably time to copy them all over to your laptop, hard drive or online storage service. Deleting content from your mobile will free up space for more pics and help boost its performance.

 

2. Remove old apps

The more apps you install on your phone, the slower it becomes. This is because lots of apps keep working in the background, even when you’re not using them. Clearing out ones you haven’t touched for a while is an easy way to free up space and speed up your phone.

 

Deleting apps can be a tedious job, but if you have an iPhone, you can remove them automatically using the Offload Unused Apps feature. This will uninstall any app you don’t use regularly, but won’t delete data that it has generated – so you’ll still have all your personal files and settings if you ever need to reinstall it.

 

3. Turn off location tracking

Allowing apps to track your location can drain your phone’s battery. Not every app needs to know where you are all the time, so find the main culprits and turn off their location tracking. Even if you leave tracking enabled on some apps, like Google Maps or Uber, your battery should still get an immediate boost.

 

4. Clear your cache

When you are using apps or browsing websites, information from them is stored on your phone. This temporary data – called a cache – is helpful, because next time you use the website or app, your phone won’t have to download the same data again. But the more cached data you have on your phone, the slower it will become. So, one of the best ways to improve performance is to clear cached data from your browsers and individual apps.

 

On an iPhone, you can clear Safari browsing data by going to Settings > Safari, and then selecting Clear History and Data. With Android phones, it differs depending on the model, so search online and follow the instructions.

 

5. Reset

If all else fails and your phone is still lumbering along in the slow lane, it might be time for a factory reset. This will wipe all personal data (messages, contacts, photos, etc.) from your device, which should speed it up and boost the battery life.

 

To do this on an iPhone, go to Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings. On an Android phone, go to Apps > Settings > Backup and reset, and then hit Factory data reset.

 

Obviously, remember to back up all your personal data before you reset your phone. If you have an iPhone, you can do this easily using Apple’s backup service, iCloud. For Android phones, use a storage service like Google Drive, Dropbox or Microsoft OneDrive.

 

Now you’ve spring cleaned your phone of clutter, why not pick some apps that can help you achieve your 2020 goals.


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