Why is my Moto G5 plus so unbearably slow?

[Android Central Question]

I've had a moto G5 plus (amazon edition, 2 gb ram) for a month now, after having a windows phone for years.

I like some things about it but I find using it most days to be unbearably frustrating due to the fact that if I don't reset it once every 12 hours, it slows to a crawl.

By that I mean, it'll take 5 seconds to register keyboard presses, I can't swipe the keyboard because it won't register until after I've already written a sentence and it comes out a garbled mess.

Apps will become non-responsive and crash constantly. It's like getting ahold of someone else's Windows PC that is bogged down with toolbars and spyware and is basically unusable.

I can reset it and it's good for a few hours then it slows to a crawl again.

I do have a lot of apps installed (apps for my financial institutions, travel apps because I'm on the road a lot), social media (facebook, Instagram, snapchat, skype, twitter), email apps (outlook and nine), Microsoft office suite, and other apps that help me out for my job. I also use Microsoft launcher and swiftkey. The only game I have installed is words with friends.

Is the only answer to uninstall apps? That's the answer I see a lot online and it's frustrating, I was glad about switching from my windows phone because I'd actually have access to all the apps...except apparently I can't use them because they make my phone unusable.

Is there another solution? I can't find a way to force apps to not run in the background. I hate having to manage apps (making sure I keep the app switcher empty of apps) and reboot my phone every 12 hours.

Do I just need to get a more powerful phone?

Any advice is welcome, even if it's "uninstall everything" if that's the only fix.

Is there a way to reliably see which app is consuming the most resources? I can't find something as simple as the Windows 10 task manager where you can just easily show all the running tasks and how many resources they're using. All the system monitors I've found don't really offer useful information other than "Hey this app is using 100 mb of RAM!", which when there's still 200 mb free makes me feel as though shouldn't be trashing my phone.

I also have an SD card, can that make your phone act like trash?

Ready to throw it out the window, so any advice would be helpful.

Sorry for the rant it's just a very frustrating thing when your phone barely functions as a phone.

 

[fede01_8]

Post a screenshot of your running services (instructions to access it here: https://www.howtogeek.com/258300/ho...of-running-apps-in-6.0-marshmallow-and-above/

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! That isn't normal -- the phone should be more than capable of handling a lot. One thing to try first would be to go back to the stock launcher, in case the Microsoft Launcher is causing issues.

Another common culprit is 3rd party "RAM cleaner" or battery-saver apps. These often work by automatically killing apps in RAM, with the mistaken notion that emptying RAM leads to better performance. This can actually lead to poorer performance and more battery drain, since it's fighting against Android's normal way of operating. If you do have any app like that, uninstall it immediately.

Antivirus apps may also cause performance problems, if they're scanning too much in the background. If you follow some basic security guidelines, antivirus apps don't really add much on Android devices.

 

[Siah1214]

Post a screenshot of your running services (instructions to access it here: https://www.howtogeek.com/258300/ho...of-running-apps-in-6.0-marshmallow-and-above/

I'll try disabling microsoft launcher, I hate the stock launcher so I hope that's not it.

Not currently running any ram optimizers or anti virus

 

[Rukbat]

Another overlooked problem is the way some people use their phones. If you use the Home button when you're finished using an app, it's still running. Then doing the same with the next app leaves it running too. Eventually you run out of memory (RAM), so Android has to keep switching apps out of RAM and into storage, then back again - because you've told it to keep all these apps running.

Use the back button when you're finished using an app.

And periodically hit the "recently used apps" button and kill then all in there. A phone with 3GB of RAM and a 2GHz octacore CPU should be snappy, not slow. But if you fill any computer with enough running apps, it's going to slow down.

Uninstalling apps has nothing to do with speed - running apps do. (I have 278 apps installed (and about 100 disabled apps in addition) on an old Note 3, and it's running as fast as when I first got it.) But I use the back button, and I periodically wipe off all recently used apps (except 1 that won't close even that way, but 1 running app isn't going to slow the phone down).

 

[B. Diddy]

hate the stock launcher so I hope that's not it.

Try Nova Launcher. It's excellent and versatile, and I've never seen it cause performance issues. In fact, it actually improved performance somewhat on my old 2013 Nexus 7, compared with the Google Now Launcher.

 

[Siah1214]

Another overlooked problem is the way some people use their phones. If you use the Home button when you're finished using an app, it's still running. Then doing the same with the next app leaves it running too. Eventually you run out of memory (RAM), so Android has to keep switching apps out of RAM and into storage, then back again - because you've told it to keep all these apps running.

Use the back button when you're finished using an app.

And periodically hit the "recently used apps" button and kill then all in there. A phone with 3GB of RAM and a 2GHz octacore CPU should be snappy, not slow. But if you fill any computer with enough running apps, it's going to slow down.

Uninstalling apps has nothing to do with speed - running apps do. (I have 278 apps installed (and about 100 disabled apps in addition) on an old Note 3, and it's running as fast as when I first got it.) But I use the back button, and I periodically wipe off all recently used apps (except 1 that won't close even that way, but 1 running app isn't going to slow the phone down).

This is really good info. In the windows phone world, apps didn't stay open after you left so I'd just use the home button all the time. That's my muscle memory now so I never use the back button to close apps. I'll start doing that and see if it helps.

So I tried Nova launcher ( and removed MS launcher) and the slow downs have slowed down. It's too bad I really liked the MS launcher but if that's the cause then I guess I'll just have to live without. Thanks for the tips everyone.

 

[chanchan05]

Based on the stuff said here, it's a combination of MS Launcher and you leaving apps in the background. Compared to uncustomized Nova, MS Launcher has a lot more running with the left panel accessing calendar, news, etc. This can be achieved in Nova but is normally disabled on outset. Plus there's the swipe up toggles and stuff (this is what I hate on MS Launcher, duplicate toggles of stuff and no way to remove them, just change them to other stuff I already have toggles for). Now since MS is already running a lot of stuff and you leave stuff running in the background, you get it. Switching to Nova reduced the problem because on a basic setup it uses less resources than MS Launcher.

 

[108256shetty]

its Been one year,My moto G5 plus starts performing poorer and also battery draines off at a faster rate. When type names in contacts list , it display very slowly.... I had updated the software too.... But y this is happenning..... ? Is this the way you are forcing to buy a new One?

 

[Maljunulo]

Worst case ......... back it up, factory reset and restore.