What causes Android phones to lag over time?

[jackadillo]

I'm sure many of us had the experience of owning a phone that started lagging after several months of use. Apps like Chrome and even the launcher would take ages to load. Reflashing the rom seems to solve the problem until it starts lagging again a while later.

Any ideas? Some say it's the lack of trim support in some older phones. Android 4.3 seems to solve this problem as many Nexus 7 first generation owners reported vastly improved performance after they updated to 4.3. Trim support seems to really go a long way with garbage collection.

Others say it's the cache that needs clearing over time.


Any thoughts? I have a Nexus 4 I bought secondhand and I'd rather that it not face these problems. Hoping I don't run into any lag later down the road as I did with my old LG G2x.

 

[JeffDenver]

I have seen the lag-over-time problem before, but not since I have had nexus devices. My Nexus 4 and 5 both seemed immune to it. So I blame vendor skins.

Over time you also install new apps, and they eat system resources (RAM especially). Try uninstalling the apps and see if that fixes it.

 

[Jayden Nembahe]

I usually reboot my phone first thing in the morning. And run DU Battery Optimise, Fast Reboot and Cleaner (memory boost)... My phone never lags. But I am using Note 2.

Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk

 

[jackadillo]

I have seen the lag-over-time problem before, but not since I have had nexus devices. My Nexus 4 and 5 both seemed immune to it. So I blame vendor skins.

Over time you also install new apps, and they eat system resources (RAM especially). Try uninstalling the apps and see if that fixes it.

Hoping my experience is similar with my N4. I do plan to flash an XDA rom onto it.

My old LG G2x was perpetually stuck at 2.3 Gingerbread no thanks to LG and required a rom flash to even get ICS. I didn't have too many apps installed on it aside from Waze, Mr. Coffee Card, ES File Explorer, and a few other staples. I generally always had somewhere between 40-50% of my RAM available. But man...after a year of use, it started lagging. Flashing a new rom would make things fast and slick only for a while. But then it would start lagging again and I'd have to rinse and repeat by clearing the cache and installing a different rom.

 

[jackadillo]

I usually reboot my phone first thing in the morning. And run DU Battery Optimise, Fast Reboot and Cleaner (memory boost)... My phone never lags. But I am using Note 2.

Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk

Does rebooting clear anything? I may give DU Battery a try. Juice Defender seems to be great only for turning off my HSPA+ radio when the screen's off.

 

[Jayden Nembahe]

Does rebooting clear anything? I may give DU Battery a try. Juice Defender seems to be great only for turning off my HSPA+ radio when the screen's off.

Yes, it does. All apps that run in the background shut down. Plus I just prefer rebooting my phone every morning when I wake up. Also with DU Battery you can configure which apps boot up with the phone. So I disable apps that I don't want to automatically start during a reboot.

Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk

 

[xceeder]

There is also an app in the playstore called clean master that's quite good at cleaning the cache and other junk

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

[JeffDenver]

I've never needed to use this on my Nexus devices, but I use it all the time on older phones and on my tablets. It works very very well, and it very fast...the whole process is like 3 seconds.

https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...om.greatbytes.fastreboot&hl=en&token=Fqf6ZLBH

It's free.

It basically forces all apps in memory to exit and immediately restarts them. So any memory leaks or whatever are cleared out. All you do is tap the icon and it runs and clears it immediatly (no menus or anything). I have never had any problems with any apps it has restarted either.

The effect is immediate. If it works at all, you will see the speed increase immediately.

 

[someguy01234]

Use Greenify. Also clear apps from the Recent Apps menu (this will actually free up RAMs).

 

[turb0wned]

Buy Moto X. Problem solved.

 

[UJ95x]

Buy Moto X. Problem solved.

TRIM ftw!

Sent from my Galaxy S4 running SlimKat 4.4.2

 

[UJ95x]

Use Greenify. Also clear apps from the Recent Apps menu (this will actually free up RAMs).

RAM is random access memory

Sent from my Galaxy S4 running SlimKat 4.4.2

 

[someguy01234]

RAM is random access memory

Sent from my Galaxy S4 running SlimKat 4.4.2

Even iPad run out of RAM using Google Earth.

sent via tapatalk

 

[Tsepz_GP]

Lag over time shouldn't be an issue since Android4.3 with TRIM Support and now with 4.4 being more aggressive with RAM management I think Android is done with lag and that is now something due simply to a poorly optimized OEM skin.

Haven't had any lag on my GS4 Octa, and it seems even snappier now on Android4.4.2 Kitkat, I expect it to continue operating like this for a long time to come.

Your Nexus 4 won't lag, that would be VERY odd if it did, especially if you're on Android4.3 or higher.

 

[jackadillo]

A lot of interesting info and tips posted here. It's all very helpful. Thanks for the app recs!

I'll probably hold onto the N4 for 1.5-2 years and do regular maintenance as needed. Trim support sounds like it'll be a godsend compared to what I had with the G2x.

My only worry at this point is whether my phone will get Android 4.5. It's currently on 4.4.2 and was released on mid-November of 2012. If it's truly the case 4.5 is releasing July of this year, that puts this device outside of Google's official 18-month window. Hopefully the good people at XDA can do a port somehow!!

 

[Ry]

Motorola uses F2FS in the Moto X and Moto G which is designed to be better optimized for use on NAND flash based storage.

 

[jackadillo]

Motorola uses F2FS in the Moto X and Moto G which is designed to be better optimized for use on NAND flash based storage.

It surprises me more XDA devs aren't trying to get this feature into their kernels.

 

[Ry]

Also, F2FS was in Motorola's Android 4.2.2 Moto X build, which is why I felt like 4.3 (and 4.4) weren't big steps for the Moto X.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[UJ95x]

Even iPad run out of RAM using Google Earth.

sent via tapatalk

How is that relevant?

Sent from my Galaxy S4 running SlimKat 4.4.2

 

[A895]

Motorola uses F2FS in the Moto X and Moto G which is designed to be better optimized for use on NAND flash based storage.

Extremely informative. Now I know why the Moto X performs so well over time.

Posted via VZW Moto X on the Android Central App