So summon your inner mechanic and get ready: It’s time to give that old Android phone a much-needed tune-up — and a fresh lease on life.
Step 1: Clean up your storage
First things first: Let’s take a look at that local storage. Lots of phones have limited local space, and clearing out the clutter can go a long way in making things run better.
The easiest way to get your house in order is with a one-two punch: First, open up Google Photos (or if your phone is old enough that it didn’t come with Photos preinstalled, go download it from the Play Store and thenopen it).
Tap the menu icon in the app’s upper-left corner, select “Settings,” then select “Back up & sync” and activate the toggle that appears. (If the toggle was already activated when you got there, congrats! Take a victory sip of the nearest beverage and jump ahead to the next paragraph.) Follow the steps to set up syncing and then wait while Photos backs up your entire image and video collection to the cloud.
Step 2: Get rid of unused apps
The second step in our phone rehabilitation process is saying so long to apps you no longer need. Such items eat up space on your local storage (remember step 1?) and also have the potential to slow down your device by running in the background and using up resources.
The Files Go app we just installed is an excellent starting point for figuring out what to eliminate. On its main screen, you should see a card labeled “Unused apps” that lists every program you haven’t opened in at least four weeks. Tap it and scan through the list. In my experience, it sometimes gets things wrong — for instance, it might include a keyboard app that you haven’t technically “opened” (as in, touched the icon in your app drawer) but most certainly have used — but if nothing else, it’ll get you thinking about what you do and don’t actually need.
With that knowledge in mind, mosey over to the “Apps” section of your system settings, look for the command to view all of your installed apps, and look carefully through the complete list. With each app, ask yourself: Have I even thought about this within the last few months? If not, then you probably don’t need it. Tap it, then tap the “Uninstall” button — and move on with your life.
By JR Raphael
See Full Story at www.computerworld.com
Leave a Reply