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Fixing Android
We're now so reliant on smartphones for so much of our day-to-day lives that everything can grind to a halt when something goes wrong with them - from keeping in touch with our nearest and dearest to trying to get a payment through on a banking app.
Fortunately, today's smartphones - with their limited file system access, carefully guarded app stores and touchscreen interfaces - are a lot easier to troubleshoot than laptops, car engines or cloud services, so you don't have to be a technical expert to work out a fix.
In fact, Android comes with a set of troubleshooting tools that can be used to solve almost any problem: essentially, you're going to reset the app you're having trouble with, or reset the entire phone, and this fresh start should theoretically wipe your issues away.
However, the same can't be said if you smash your screen or drop your (non-waterproof) phone in the sink - if you've got a faulty hardware problem then you're going to have to consult the experts at the local repair shop. If you lose your smartphone, or it gets stolen, then make sure you check out our guide on how to survive when your smartphone goes missing. For everything else, this guide should help.
1. Clear out the app cache part one
First, some detective work is required: are you having problems with one app in particular, or your Android device as a whole (with bugs, crashes or whatever)? If it's the latter, focus your attention on that app. Tap the square Overview button on your phone, then swipe left or right on the specific app to remove it from memory.
2. Clear out the app cache part two
If that doesn't work you can go in a little bit deeper with your cached data clearout. Every app stores a certain amount of data locally on your phone - it means loading times are faster and the app doesn't have to check the web as frequently. Problems with the cached data can eventually lead to bugs, however.
3. Uninstalling apps part one
As well as clearing data from inside an app you can uninstall it completely: these two procedures essentially do the same job of wiping out any data associated with an app, data that may have become corrupted or which may be causing an app to crash. You can then start again afresh with the app.
4. Uninstalling apps part two
Uninstalling apps you don't need is a great way to clear up storage space on your phone - if you're very low on space then this can lead to a variety of bugs, from apps misbehaving to random resets. So, it's a good idea to keep the number of apps you've got installed on your Android device down to a minimum.
Still got storage space problems? Move your Android phone apps to an SD card.
5. Connectivity problems part one
If you're having problems connecting to Wi-Fi or a cellular signal then you need to make sure it's actually your Android phone and not the network itself that's at fault. The easiest way to do this is to use a different device to test the network, though you may not always have another one with you.
6. Connectivity problems part two
By reconnecting to a troublesome network, you're forcing your Android phone to make the connection again from the beginning - as with clearing cached app data, this simple act of resetting is more effective than you might think at wiping away problems you're having with your phone.
7. Reboot your phone
Switching your phone off and on is something of a troubleshooting cliché but only because it works. It covers a lot of what we've already talked about, forcing apps and data connections, and the phone itself, to forget everything in its recent memory and start up again with a clean slate.
8. Check for battery hogs
A lot of people experience problems with a quickly draining battery, which (unfortunately) is an inevitable part of a phone getting older. If you've bought a handset with a removable battery then you can pop in a new one, but otherwise you're just going to have to keep close to a power source at all times.
9. Perform a factory reset
This is the 'nuclear' option that wipes everything off your phone and makes it brand new again - you're then free to reinstall all your apps again or start off fresh. The factory reset option is under the 'Backup & reset' option in Settings and should be enough to solve the majority of software problems on Android.
10. Dealing with other problems
If your problem isn't solved after a factory reset, then either you're using software not intended for your handset, or there's some physical damage to the device that's stopping it from running properly. A factory reset puts the phone back to the state it was in when you first unboxed it, so there shouldn't be any issues.
