Over time, Android phones start to slow down for various reasons. Among the reasons are outdated software, both the Android system and installed apps, the usual wear and tear effects of using any product for a long time as well as long-term accumulation of unused apps and system data, caches and other residual files.
These files eat up the memory on your phone and when full (heavily loaded), the phone begins to slow down. Huawei knows this and as such, the company has provided a number of tips that you can use to improve the speed of your phone.
Usually, performing a full factory reset is the ultimate trick for improving the speed of your Huawei phone, but this should be your last option after trying any of the following:
Check for software updates
Outdated software can be the one sole reason your device is slowing down, be it the Android OS version, EMUI version or even the versions of the installed apps. To rule out any such possibilities, make sure that your Huawei phone has the latest software system-wide, including the preinstalled apps that you don’t use regularly.
To check for system updates, go to Settings > Updater and you should see the new update, if available. As for individual apps, make sure the Google Play Store auto-update setting is enabled by launching the Play Store app then head to Settings > Auto-update apps and select Over Wi-Fi only. Choosing Over any network will attract extra data charges from your network provider.
Reset network settings
Resetting network settings on your device will erase the currently stored Wi-Fi networks, their passwords and hotspot tethering data, mobile data network, and Bluetooth settings, but nothing about the other phone settings will be affected.
Also, resetting your devices network settings won’t erase any data or files stored on your Huawei phone.
To reset network settings, go to Settings > System > Reset > Reset network settings. Follow the on-screen prompts to complete the process.
Reset all settings
When you reset all settings of your Huawei phone, you get back the initial settings for network, fingerprint and facial scanning, lock screen passwords, and so on. Information about Find my Device and Huawei ID will remain intact even after resetting all settings. In addition, this method will leave your files on the device untouched.
To reset all settings, go to Settings > System > Reset > Reset all settings and follow the on-screen prompts to complete the process.
Clear apps cache/data
As noted, the accumulation of unused data and caches can play a huge role in slowing down an aging device. To make it lighter and faster, you need to regularly clear app cache and data.
To do this, go to Settings > Storage > Cached data and clear all app caches at once. For an individual app, go to Settings > App Manager > Select the app you want > App info > Clear Cache.
Note that if you choose to clear app data, you will lose all the info stored by the app, including settings, passwords, preferences, and so on, meaning you’ll have to start from zero for each of the apps whose data has been cleared.
Wipe cache partition
If clearing app caches doesn’t improve the speed of your Huawei phone, perhaps wiping the cache partition will. This requires you to boot the device into recovery mode, which is simple.
- First, turn off your Huawei phone. When it’s completely turned off, press and hold the power and volume up buttons simultaneously until you see an unusual, recovery menu.
- Using the volume rockers, scroll down to the Wipe Cache Partition option
- Use the power button to select this option
- The process will wipe the system cache and when done, the device will reboot.
Restore factory settings
As noted at the beginning, performing a full factory reset fixes just about every other problem with systems that are slowing down. However, the fact that this method will erase everything on your phone, including settings, installed apps, and all photos, music, videos and other files stored in the internal memory of the device, we recommend that you take it as the last option.
Before you take this road, be sure that you have created a backup of your most important files so that when done, you can easily restore them.
To restore your Huawei phone to factory settings, go to Settings > System > Reset > Reset phone and enter your password/pattern (if any) to authorize the process. Follow the on-screen prompts to complete the factory reset.
Your device should restart as a brand new phone ready to be set up afresh, just like you did when you unboxed it back then.
If until now your problems persist, you either need a software update with serious performance improvements or a new Huawei phone. And what better phone than the newly launched Huawei Y9 Prime 2019?
You can read more about it, including specs, pricing and availability details, here.