Android phones slowing down or "getting full"

[The Deerhunter]

My wife has a Samsung Galaxy S3 which is not of the original series. It is in a new colour series made much later and is only about 18- 20 months old.  I use cleaning apps on it and dump her old "recent" pages and junk files etc. regularly but it just gets slower & slower & now seems to get hot too lately.   It now takes many MANY seconds to open apps and the charge time has doubled.   She originally had a warranty problem from new with a bad battery.  That was replaced and the second OEM battery lasted only about a year.  It now has an "accessory brand" battery and was working fine for about 4-6 months.  To me it seems like if it was a PC it would need a memory clean, disk check & defrag.  The shops all say "Buy new phone every 18 months" which  I reject.  I have read about problems with "Touch-wiz" or something filling up but I have no idea what the problem is or how to fix it.   She needs 2 phones one for business & one for private & if we can get it  working she will use it in the less demanding role.  Any Android experts out there who know what is likely to be wrong and how to get it fixed.(No, not Steve Jobs fan boys saying "Buy an Apple.")    If this topic has already been done-to-death on this site, or another one, someone please send me a link.

Edited November 7, 2016 by The Deerhunter
fix errors

[katana]

Did you try a factory reset? If it still runs slow after that, I guess it hardware related.

[The Deerhunter]

Not a bad idea but I try to avoid factory resets because all the customized items in 2nd & 3rd level menus get cleared.  I would prefer not to "try" anything!  I hope someone can tell me exactly what is the cause and what is the correct remedy.

Edited November 8, 2016 by The Deerhunter

[Davedub]

Trying stuff until something works is usually the only way forward, as due to the complexity of modern technology, there are often multiple possible causes for similar problems.

In my experience, silver bullet solutions for generalised problems like "device slowdown" are rare.

[jpinx]

You may save your data and make a list of the apps you really really want and do a factory reset.  The chances are that one of the apps is causing the problem by doing stuff in the background.   Re-install them one by one and look at each one is doing before installing another.  Alternatively you could try uninstalling apps one at a time to see which one is munching battery and cpu, but be aware that only a factory reset will actually clear out everything.  Uninstalling an app will sometimes leave bits and pieces behind.

[faraday]

Go to 'My Files' & delete all unnecessary files/video/images.

[MikeyIdea]

Quite a common problem on Androids, it is normally not hardware related.

 

Android is bad at cleaning up temp files, de-install software and still crap not used left etc. You can use the phone longer if you move apps to SD card and of course you must always store all videos, music and pictures on the SD card all the time but you'll finally run low on internal memory in the phone anyway.

 

This happened to both my daughters and her mothers Galaxy tabs, factory resets cleared the problem. Took 2 hours each to install and set everything back as it was - Phone quick again

 

Facebook and Line apps normally stores all their images and videos in internal memory and not external SD card, removing all content can often give you half a gig or more. Good place to start 

 

The mobile phone IS quite old, if you plan to keep a mobile phone that long then you should turn off automatic operating system updates too. Each one adds a bit of functionality and 18 months adds so much overhead that you'd like a more powerful processor

 

Edited November 8, 2016 by MikeyIdea

[The Deerhunter]

10 minutes ago, MikeyIdea said:

Quite a common problem on Androids, it is normally not hardware related.

 

Android is bad at cleaning up temp files, de-install software and still crap not used left etc. It works for a while if you move apps to SD card and of course you must store all videos, music and pictures on the SD card all the time but you'll finally run low on internal memory anyway

 

This happened to both my daughters and her mothers Galaxy tabs, factory resets cleared the problem, fast again. Took 2 hours each to install and set everything back as it was - Phone quick again

 

The mobile phone IS quite old, if you plan to keep a mobile phone that long then you should turn off automatic operating system updates too. Each one adds a bit of functionality and 18 months adds so much overhead that you'd like a more powerful processor

 

Thanks for that.  I note it is my wife and your two females having the problem.  But not me & perhaps not you. Women love Line which I don't use. My wife gets & sends scores of Line messages each day.  I wonder if files created by or using Line are the problem?  Hmm!

[MikeyIdea]

Probably :)

 

Fist of all, go in and delete all data for Facebook and Line. I use File Manager but there are many ways to do it. You can check how much internal memory you have left at Settings - General - Storage (Device memory and Available Space less than one gigabyte is a warning sign) - where this is differs a bit depending on operating system. 

 

Find the folder where Line pictures and videos are stored and delete all (but keep the directory). There is a option in settings in Line that deletes all content, works the same. Do the same for Facebook

 

I use a little app called AppMgr III to move software from internal memory to SD card but it can also be done by going to Settings - general application manager and move there. Not all apps can be moved. Another really irritating thing is that while this function moves the actual application, it does not always move temporary files, pictures and videos. This differs depending on mobile phone operating system but Line is a good (bad) sample where videos and pictures (content) often continue to be stored in the phone memory also after actual application is moved to SD card... Idiotic

 

You need to watch out which SD card you have if you move apps to external SD card

SD cards have speed classes from low speed (2, 4, 6) to high speed = 10 and even faster nowadays (not necessary). The SC card will say "Class XX" somewhere. Class 2, 4 is slow, we should only buy class 10 nowadays, prices are cheap anyway. Class 10 can handle high quality video without stuttering.

 

Facebook and Messenger may very well stop working if you move them to a slow SD card, only move if class 10 :)

 

 

[oldcarguy]

is there an App manager that can be programmed to go fetch content every 5-10-20 minutes or whatever period you want ?

 

I know most people love the thrill of the "ding" that you have a message , but I really do not need to know most of the time, 

 

not that I am that busy , but it just seems like the dog sitting at the door waiting for the owner to come home :)  

[jpinx]

2 minutes ago, oldcarguy said:

is there an App manager that can be programmed to go fetch content every 5-10-20 minutes or whatever period you want ?

 

I know most people love the thrill of the "ding" that you have a message , but I really do not need to know most of the time, 

 

not that I am that busy , but it just seems like the dog sitting at the door waiting for the owner to come home :)  

Depends which app, but most have a "notifications" item in the settings menu where you can turn the "ding" off, or set to vibrate only. 

[jpinx]

16 minutes ago, MikeyIdea said:

Probably :)

 

Fist of all, go in and delete all data for Facebook and Line. I use File Manager but there are many ways to do it. You can check how much internal memory you have left at Settings - General - Storage (Device memory and Available Space less than one gigabyte is a warning sign) - where this is differs a bit depending on operating system. 

 

Find the folder where Line pictures and videos are stored and delete all (but keep the directory). There is a option in settings in Line that deletes all content, works the same. Do the same for Facebook

 

I use a little app called AppMgr III to move software from internal memory to SD card but it can also be done by going to Settings - general application manager and move there. Not all apps can be moved. Another really irritating thing is that while this function moves the actual application, it does not always move temporary files, pictures and videos. This differs depending on mobile phone operating system but Line is a good (bad) sample where videos and pictures (content) often continue to be stored in the phone memory also after actual application is moved to SD card... Idiotic

 

You need to watch out which SD card you have if you move apps to external SD card

SD cards have speed classes from low speed (2, 4, 6) to high speed = 10 and even faster nowadays (not necessary). The SC card will say "Class XX" somewhere. Class 2, 4 is slow, we should only buy class 10 nowadays, prices are cheap anyway. Class 10 can handle high quality video without stuttering.

 

Facebook and Messenger may very well stop working if you move them to a slow SD card, only move if class 10 :)

 

 

Some makers versions of android do not allow moving everything around so much, so a powerful "app-manager" app would be useful indeed.  Selectively deleting gazillions of pics from LINE etc is serious PITA, so try a powerful file manager and copy them onto an external sd, *not* the phones SD.  The continuing mis-naming of the storage in mobiles is frustrating, so be careful where you're putting stuff.   Once you have all the data on an external SD, the prospect of physically removing it and doing a factory reset is nothing like the same drama. 

[Katipo]

The S3 is an old phone, an phone with hardware from over 4 years ago. There is little you can do to improve the speed if your trying to run newer applications and services.

The version of Samsung's touchwiz you are running will be old too. Old and cluttered, and yes, very prone to slowing down. I imagine Samsung hasn't put out any updates for it for 2 years too.

 

In summary, while you might have bought the phone quite recently, it's still an 'old' phone, and as such will never be snappy. If you want bang for your buck, next time look at a Chinese Manufacturer (Huawei for example).

[MartinKal]

The slow running might mean too many apps. open and each taking up a bit of live memory. Or maybe a register to clean. Or could be that storage is no longer continuous. 

Have you tried CCleaner or similar?

I don't think it's likely to be no room left in storage as you've probably already sorted that.

[AlQaholic]

The S3 is technology from 2012, which is 4 year old technology, which is "ancient" in smartphone lingua.

Software developed and updated in 2015-2016 will be slow on an ancient device. 

There is no need to use "cleaning" apps and deleting stuff or closing apps, Android memory management system takes care of that very efficiently, unfortunately the old S3 does not have much memory, this is partly why modern apps are slow on the device.

In addition there might be hardware problems such as a faulty battery heating up the internals of the phone, at which point the CPU will automatically slow down to attempt to cool down. If temperature continues to incerase it will shut down.

[SOUTHERNSTAR]

As if Apples dont fill up. My wifes Apple 6s was full and my Samsung A7 still have space available, we bought at the same time. Its not a manufacturer problem but a user problem. As for a later model S3 I doubt it very much, there was only one series although refurbished versions are still sold as new in Thailand. The S3 runs on outdated operating system which is about equal to an Apple running on ios 6 or 7. My experience is that when a phone start to slow down you can only get its speed up a little bit, it is as if these phones never get back to full/original speed. There is 2 things you can do, one get the wife to get into the habit to clear her unwanted files on a weekly basis or buy a phone that runs on new operating system with bigger memory capacity. 

[norbra]

since I started using 360 security app my insufficient space alerts have stopped. The app also has battery monitor/saver,CPU load monitoring that can clean up background apps and my phone runs cooler

[The Deerhunter]

1 hour ago, SOUTHERNSTAR said:

As if Apples dont fill up. My wifes Apple 6s was full and my Samsung A7 still have space available, we bought at the same time. Its not a manufacturer problem but a user problem. As for a later model S3 I doubt it very much, there was only one series although refurbished versions are still sold as new in Thailand. The S3 runs on outdated operating system which is about equal to an Apple running on ios 6 or 7. My experience is that when a phone start to slow down you can only get its speed up a little bit, it is as if these phones never get back to full/original speed. There is 2 things you can do, one get the wife to get into the habit to clear her unwanted files on a weekly basis or buy a phone that runs on new operating system with bigger memory capacity. 

Ah, but does your wife use Line lots, every day?  I am coming the the conclusion that it may be the common denominator.  Huge amounts of pix, vids and junk files from Line!!!!   But I will have a look at 360 security as suggested by Norbra above!  P.S.  Her business phone is a Samsung J7 which she loves, but if my guess is right, that will "fill up" in another year too.

Edited November 8, 2016 by The Deerhunter

[JaseTheBass]

Once you've cleared out all the crap from the memory try the Greenify app which prevents apps running in the background if you're not using them. If you're not sure, read up on it first - it's highly recommended.

[SOUTHERNSTAR]

2 hours ago, The Deerhunter said:

Ah, but does your wife use Line lots, every day?  I am coming the the conclusion that it may be the common denominator.  Huge amounts of pix, vids and junk files from Line!!!!   But I will have a look at 360 security as suggested by Norbra above!  P.S.  Her business phone is a Samsung J7 which she loves, but if my guess is right, that will "fill up" in another year too.

Yes she use Line but on her work phone which is a J7. The problem is videos and photos at high pixels on Line and normal. But the real question is why phones dont regain its full speed after you cleaned it up. My thoughts are that with operating system upgrades the older phones cant cope and this is in the end making them very slow. 

[hargri]

Something that works on my old Samsung Galaxy Note is to go to the phone keypad and enter: 

*#9900#

No need to press call. If it works it takes you automatically to 'sysdump'.

Select 'delete dumpstate/logcat'

Select 'ok' to confirm

Scroll to end of screen and select 'exit'

Yesterday with just over 200MB internal memory my phone refused to update app mngr3. ran the above and has over 500MB.

[Sooo Upto Me]

8 hours ago, The Deerhunter said:

Not a bad idea but I try to avoid factory resets because all the customized items in 2nd & 3rd level menus get cleared.  I would prefer not to "try" anything!  I hope someone can tell me exactly what is the cause and what is the correct remedy.

 

If u don't try anything how u gonna get it fixed?? ?

[wcoast]

The Facebook app is known to slow phones considerably, I uninstalled and just use a browser for Facebook. You loose a bit of integration and functionality, but to me it's worth it.

Sent from my SM-A510F using Tapatalk

[bkkmick]

If you're having a problem with facebook then try metal.

[guzzi850m2]

I know Thais need to have a Samsung or an iPhone so they look cool but my 200$ 4gb ram China phone don't have problems with slow going.

 

You pay top $ for above 2 brand phones but get so little, expect the name. Okay the top phones from those brands are pretty good but we are talking +500$ now and some of them even explode unprovoked, hence you can't even bring it when flying places

[The Deerhunter]

16 hours ago, Sooo Upto Me said:

 

If u don't try anything how u gonna get it fixed?? ?

I hoped someone could tell me exactly what is the cause and what is the correct remedy rather than experiment myself and risk messing things up too much further.

Edited November 9, 2016 by The Deerhunter

[The Deerhunter]

14 hours ago, wcoast said:

The Facebook app is known to slow phones considerably, I uninstalled and just use a browser for Facebook. You loose a bit of integration and functionality, but to me it's worth it.

Sent from my SM-A510F using Tapatalk
 

Neither of us use Facebook at all.

[MikeyIdea]

18 hours ago, SOUTHERNSTAR said:

. But the real question is why phones dont regain its full speed after you cleaned it up. My thoughts are that with operating system upgrades the older phones cant cope and this is in the end making them very slow. 

 

I normally do not see that phones don't regain their full speed after clean unless... Big unless though. Ehh... 2 unless actually

 

Unless 1

It's a very common thing that Line, Facebook loving Thai's complain on that their both Androids and iPhones are bad, root cause is the same, not enough internal memory left. They go to a shop and get it reset and installed again for 200 baht. It's quite often fine if it's a small shop somewhere that only resets but if you bought the phone with a subscription and therefore go to a service center, then they will also upgrade to the latest OP and you normally end up with a turtle  

 

I checked my daughters mothers Galaxy Grand 2, now bad of course and now with Android 4.4.5 something when it originally was shipped with 4.2. Bad idea

 

Unless 2

Android is not as good an operating system as "the other brand that I don't like that much". iPhone is more controlled and thereby also more stable, I don't like to admit it actually but it is true. My highly scientifically analysed statistics come from using my ears and listen to the noise from the commercial dept in the company I work for. They have a couple of hundred Androids and equal number of iPADs/iPhones. I work in the IS dept

 

Android does have a problem with that also "OP" (operating system) gets clogged up with crap over time and it can go as far as it slows down too. Reset doesn't always clear that, I don't know why because it should. I would guess it is because the small shops / counters fixing bad Androids mess up / take short cuts. We don't have this problem at work, hard reset and our Galaxy tabs are fine

 

Mikey

Edited November 9, 2016 by MikeyIdea

[The Deerhunter]

17 hours ago, hargri said:

Something that works on my old Samsung Galaxy Note is to go to the phone keypad and enter: 

*#9900#

No need to press call. If it works it takes you automatically to 'sysdump'.

Select 'delete dumpstate/logcat'

Select 'ok' to confirm

Scroll to end of screen and select 'exit'

Yesterday with just over 200MB internal memory my phone refused to update app mngr3. ran the above and has over 500MB.

Thank you for the suggestion (and everyone else for their ideas too.)  I feel that it is loading and shuffling un-necessary stuff around  in RAM that is the bottleneck as she has over 6.6GB of main memory available and another 12GB still on the SD card.   I have just loaded 360 security as recommended by another post.  I already ran Cleanmaster yesterday but 360 found and deleted 600MB of Samsung system "Junk", alone today, plus other stuff.  It seems to have sped things up quite a lot.   I will see how this works for a few hours and if not enough improvement , try your idea next.  Thank you again.  

[The Deerhunter]

55 minutes ago, MikeyIdea said:

 

I normally do not see that phones don't regain their full speed after clean unless... Big unless though. Ehh... 2 unless actually

 

Unless 1

It's a very common thing that Line, Facebook loving Thai's complain on that their both Androids and iPhones are bad, root cause is the same, not enough internal memory left. They go to a shop and get it reset and installed again for 200 baht. It's quite often fine if it's a small shop somewhere that only resets but if you bought the phone with a subscription and therefore go to a service center, then they will also upgrade to the latest OP and you normally end up with a turtle  

 

I checked my daughters mothers Galaxy Grand 2, now bad of course and now with Android 4.4.5 something when it originally was shipped with 4.2. Bad idea

 

Unless 2

Android is not as good an operating system as "the other brand that I don't like that much". iPhone is more controlled and thereby also more stable, I don't like to admit it actually but it is true. My highly scientifically analysed statistics come from using my ears and listen to the noise from the commercial dept in the company I work for. They have a couple of hundred Androids and equal number of iPADs/iPhones. I work in the IS dept

 

Android does have a problem with that also "OP" (operating system) gets clogged up with crap over time and it can go as far as it slows down too. Reset doesn't always clear that, I don't know why because it should. I would guess it is because the small shops / counters fixing bad Androids mess up / take short cuts. We don't have this problem at work, hard reset and our Galaxy tabs are fine

 

Mikey

Lots of interesting stuff there, Mikey.  Please see my #29 post. And yes I use neither Line or FB and have no problems but Wifey uses Line all day.  I am sure it is RAM getting cluttered with loading and shuffling unnecessary stuff somehow.

I would think that Google 's system checks and would not load a version of Android that the phone cannot cope with.