When we find ourselves in front of a smartphone or tablet that slows down dramatically, our first thought is to replace it, especially if a few years have passed since the purchase. For when this practice will solve the problem immediately (it is assumed that we will buy a new and much faster device), we can avoid such an expense by optimizing the slow smartphone or the old tablet (for example the good Nexus 7), so that we can still use it for other purposes or to give it to some relative without a modern device. In this guide we will show you the best tricks and tips to optimize an old portable device, so as to make it as fast as it once was (in most cases). For the guide we will show you how to do it for old tablets and smartphones with Android and for Apple devices ( iPhone and iPad ).
Make free space
The first tip is also the easiest one to apply: the internal memory of our device can fill up with cache files and other useless files, which take up unnecessarily space. When the internal memory starts to fill up (around 70-80%), the device will slow down dramatically, as there is no longer enough space for new cache files.
On Android we can remove all useless files in the device's internal memory in one fell swoop, using the free app SD Maid.
Many Android devices integrate an automatic cleaning tool, which we can use for the occasion (it will certainly be effective if made by the same company that manufactures the phone). If we want to proceed manually and without the help of the app indicated above, we invite you to read our guide on How to empty the Android cache and recover memory .
To free the cache on an iPhone or iPad we can use the free Mobile Doctor app.
With this app we will be able to monitor the space occupied in the memory of the Apple device and detect unnecessary files, duplicate photos and anything else that takes up useful space and that can be deleted without problems. If we want to avoid using this app, we can act with the tools made available by the system, as recommended in our iPhone Space Management app: emptying memory and full archive .
Remove unnecessary or old applications
The apps inside the smartphone or tablet can help make the system very slow, since they can place themselves in auto-start or continuously synchronize data with the Internet. To further extract space from the internal memory and to speed up the execution of really important apps (especially if we have a device with less than 3 GB of RAM), we recommend uninstalling the apps that are useless or that we haven't used for at least 2 months.To uninstall apps from Android, open the Settings app -> Applications or Apps, use (if possible) sorting by frequency of use and uninstall the older apps, often indicated with Never used or Rarely used .
To remove the old apps on the iPhone or iPad, let's open the Settings app, go to General -> iPhone free space and check which apps we haven't used for a long time.
If we want the iPhone or iPad to delete the old apps that we don't use by ourselves, we can also press on the Enable item on the same screen, next to the Remove app item you don't use .
Reset the device to factory conditions
If not even cleaning the cache and the old apps can make our phone or tablet faster, the time has come to restore the factory settings. In doing so, the device will return as new, immediately uninstalling all the additional apps and any blocked or corrupt files in the system.
To restore an Android smartphone or tablet, let's go to the Settings app and then to Backup and restore . From this menu we use the item Reset factory data and then Reset phone to delete all data and apps on the device. We can choose to format the whole phone or only the internal memory.
On an iPhone or iPad we will be able to format the device by opening the Settings app and going to the General path -> Restore . From here we will have to choose the item Initialize content and settings in order to proceed with the definitive deletion.
NOTE: for security reasons, some smartphones require the login credentials of the last system account (Google or iOS) in order to re-access a formatted device again. We therefore keep at hand the credentials of our Google or Apple account used on the formatted device.
Install another operating system (Android only)
If we didn't fix anything even with the recovery, the operating system probably became too slow to run on the hardware available. While on iPhone and iPad we can not do anything else (if not buy one of the new Apple devices), on Android we can try to install LineageOS, or a modified and lightened version of Android.
By installing this new operating system we will get rid of the system apps pre-installed by the manufacturer (almost all useless and that take up memory and RAM), thus having more resources for our apps. On some smartphones and tablets it is necessary to first unlock the bootloader before proceeding with the installation; to do this we can read our guides on How to unlock the Android Bootloader and on How to use ADB Sideload to install ROM, updates, recovery .
To install the actual operating system instead, we can follow the steps described in our guide on how to Install CyanogenMod (LineageOS), the best Android ROM, on your mobile phone .
