Why is your Android phone so slow? Doesn’t matter, here is how to fix it!

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: things require maintenance. Just like a car! Or a bike! Or an Android smartphone? Yep, you heard that right, folks: your brand-new Galaxy S23 Ultra will show signs of slowdown if you don’t know how to treat it right.

For most people, maintenance is something that you physically do. Like changing your car’s motor oil or splurging a fresh bit of thermal paste on your PC’s CPU. But there’s another side to this called software maintenance.

So what is Android maintenance and why is it important?

Android is a very smart operating system and it is only getting smarter. It is optimizing itself in real time more than you know, but there’s one major flaw in that design: you. Well, rather the apps you install, because the wise ‘Droid can’t exactly reach out and teach them how to work properly.

See, the apps you install rely on more than just horsepower to get the job done. Sometimes, they require proprietary files and folders, which they create on their own. But it’s not rare for those files to remain on your phone long after they’ve stopped being of use.

Now, teaching an app to clean after itself is something that its dev is responsible for, but in most cases it gets overlooked. Reasons vary from malicious intent to lack of knowledge, but one thing is for sure: you certainly want to get rid of these files in order to optimize your Android system.

What is Stuck Cache on Android and why do I hate it

Cache is the fine assortment of files that your phone has loaded up in its RAM, as per your request. This, in turn, allows you to do cool things like multitask, feel the fluidity of your system and enjoy fast loading times for your favorite apps.

But if you have some of those nasty leftover files, this may confuse your system, resulting in its cache getting stuck. Let’s go through a quick example:

1. An app you love functions in a specific way, so it sets its files up as such
2. Then, it gets updated, and now it works differently
3. The dev didn’t think to program code that takes care of the old leftovers. Oops!
4. Now, Android thinks that all the files are useful and loads them up when you open the app
5. Some of those files use the same values, so they clash with one another
6. Others have entirely new values, so when you close the app, Android doesn’t understand that it’s time to flush them out of your RAM
7. There you have it! Stuck and corrupted cache bothering poor ‘Droid

We can’t stop this from happening entirely, as unintentional glitches will always be a thing. What we can do, though, is help Android stay in shape through helping it get rid of all the unnecessary junk. If you don’t, you are bound to get:

• Interruptions to your connection
• Slow loading times
• Battery drain
• Heating
• Screen freezing
• Crashing

Oh, and this also helps all those shady data trackers, as they often take advantage of cached data in order to learn as much about you as they can. While a quick restart of your Android phone typically resolves issues like this, it is only treating the symptom, instead of the disease. As long as the old files, which caused the issue initially, remain on your system, the problem may always return to haunt your phone.

Do I need an app to clean my Android system?

The good news about cache is that you can take care of it on your own, no app required. It is time consuming, but it beats having your phone be slow for no reason.

You will, however, need a dedicated app for cleaning empty folders. Naturally, you can browse for them through a PC and spend half a day cleaning them up manually, but something tells me that this isn’t a good way to spend your afternoon.

While I will recommend some apps in this article on the basis of my experience with them, this is only because I know how to check if they are safe or not. And even that isn’t to say that they will be safe forever.

So, I’m taking the time to state it loud and clear: stay away from random smartphone cleaning apps. Even those published by big brand names are trying to get to your user data, without offering much in return. Stay vigilant!

How do I clean my Android phone?

So, the process for taking care of leftover app junk is pretty straightforward:

1. Open your Settings app
2. Bring up the Apps section
3. Select “see all apps”
4. Browse for the apps you use the most, with special regard to social media apps
5. Select one of those from the list
6. Tap on “Storage & Cache”
7. Purge evil through the “Clear cache” button to the left, just below the app icon

And that’s all it takes to stock Android! Great job!! The workflow should be pretty much the same on other versions of Android too. If you can’t find a specific menu, then a quick Google search for your specific phone model is sure to point you in the right direction.

Next up, we must destroy the evil Empty Folder empire. And for this, you will need an app. I recommend this one, as it’s the one I use on a daily basis. I’ve never had issues with it, but just in case this ever gets outdated: make sure to check the user reviews.

So here’s what you’ve got to do:

1. Open the app
2. Select “DELETE EMPTY FOLDERS – INTERNAL”
3. Wait the progress bar out
4. Become astounded at how many empty folders your phone actually had
5. Done! Close the app

Quick note here: there are two other menu options in the Empty Folder Cleaner, but I advise you to steer clear of them. The first one is pretty harmless — just a scan, but the third one may mess up your SD card, so don’t touch it unless you know what you are doing. Now, there is one final thing to do:
And I can’t express how important it is that you do this. This is a little known fact, but our smart devices restart only when we tell them to literally do that. Powering off, in most cases, just keeps them on deep standby.

But restarting your smart device, be it smartphone, TV or even your PC, is like a healthy nap for it. This is the point at which it resolves any system conflicts, applies urgent patches and makes sure that you are protected as can be.

If you can’t clean your phone daily, make sure to at least restart it from time to time, or just before you go to bed.

How often should I clean my Android smartphone?

Well, if you ask me: daily! And then, again after each time that it acts up in any unusual way. Especially if you suspect that you’ve had some malware-related incidents recently.

Personally, I deep clean my Android system while brushing my teeth, daily. I’ve certainly felt the difference and I believe that this practice is what has kept me safe from experiencing numerous widespread glitches and bugs.

While the process takes several minutes at most, sometimes you’ve got to skip it due to one reason or another. If you just forget or can’t afford to do it daily, make sure to do it at least once or twice a week. I’m certain that you’ll notice a difference too.

That being said, there are some special occasions, after which I find it beneficial to clean your Android up, such as after a:

• Mass app updates, like after you’ve been on a no-net vacation for a week
• OS updates, just in case
• Uninstalling apps, especially if they were huge or numerous, as most do leave files behind

Lastly, just in case you can’t bear the thought of clearing your apps’ caches individually, I can recommend 1TapCleaner. This is the only app — to my knowledge — that literally just automates the process I’ve described above. I’ve used it for quite some time, and I’ve found it to be both safe and effective.

My phone has a built-in cleaner, should I use it instead?

One thing is for certain: using it won’t harm your device. But in my experience, it will likely not do what has been described above.

That isn’t to say that Samsung is looking to set you up for failure. Many of these cleaners cater to brand-specific needs, which in turn actually means that you should make a habit of using them… Alongside the method I’ve described above, and not instead of it.

Still though, if you feel like your built-in cleaner is getting the job done, here’s a quick list of steps through which you can check if that is actually the case:

1. Open the “Storage & Cache” section of an app on your phone, preferably one that accumulates cache quickly, like Facebook or Instagram
2. Take a screenshot
3. Run your phone’s built-in cleaner
4. Navigate to “Storage & Cache” on the same app again
5. Compare the results to the screenshot and check if the cache has been cleared

And here’s what you are looking for:

• Did your cleaner actually clean up the app’s cache?
• Does it do this for all the apps or does it skip some apps?
• Which ones? Do they gather user data?
• Did the cleaner take care of empty folders at all?

In review: if your cleaner does what your phone needs and keeps it operating at 100%, then power to you: use that software! You’ve effectively paid for it, so you might as well use it.

Woah, my phone feels like a brand new one!

I told you, champ: software maintenance is a skill that every techie needs to master!

Even if you get yourself one of the newest phones on the market, like a Pixel 7a or a Pixel Fold, you are still bound to experience some form of slowdown. And that’s fine: as long as you know how to combat it.

Now that you have that knowledge, all that’s left is to build a habit of using it. I’ve managed to get quite a lot of mileage out of learning to clean my Android smartphone daily, so I hope that my experience comes in handy to you too!