It’s not uncommon to notice your iPhone just isn’t running as quickly as it once did. If you’ve owned your phone for any length of time, it’s natural to experience battery degradation. But some of your own user habits may be making your phone issues even worse. You could have settings enabled that are a drain on your battery, or you could be neglecting weekly maintenance that keeps your storage space abundant.
It isn’t all your fault — but if you can stop making these five common iPhone mistakes that are slowing down your device, you may benefit from a better overall user experience.
You Never Delete Anything
Even if you’ve purchased additional storage space on your iPhone, there is going to come a time when you begin eating some of that up — and you’ll need to either buy more storage or get into the habit of deleting data. Never deleting anything — photos, apps you don’t use — just eats up storage space and this will make your phone sluggish. Start by going through your media, which takes up a lot of storage. Delete old podcasts and TV shows you’ve downloaded, enjoyed, and no longer need stored on your device. Move onto your photos and videos. See which you can store in iCloud or delete and then change your settings so that you are routinely clearing out your trash folder that contains these deleted files. Finally, any apps that you no longer frequent, like old games, should also get the boot — delete them and don’t look back.
Update Your iOS
Your iPhone storage should be updated whenever a new update becomes available. Sleeping on this important maintenance step not only can slow down your phone, but it can also make you more vulnerable to bugs and viruses. Go to Settings > General > Software Update and update your iOS if need be.
Update Apps
This same update rule applies to all of the apps that you frequent. Apps, and especially popular ones, are constantly being updated in order to fix any bugs and issues within them or to simply optimize and make them better. But you’ll only benefit from these changes if you routinely visit Settings > App Store > App Updates and make sure the setting is turned on.
Reduce Screen Brightness and Motion Settings
Two settings that enhance your iPhone experience, but can also make it really slow are screen brightness and motion settings. There’s a good chance your screen is brighter than you need it to be — and all of that brightness is draining your battery and stalling your phone. At the same time, Apple offers a number of cool animation features, but they all also take up battery and can affect your phone’s speed. Go to Settings > Accessibility > Motion to toggle this setting off. Then adjust your brightness by heading over to Settings > Display & Brightness.
Check Your Wi-Fi Connection
Sometimes the problem with your phone is actually a problem with your Wi-Fi connection. Try toggling your Wi-Fi off and then on again. You can also restart your router and perform an internet speed test to make sure everything is running the way it should be.
And, when all else fails, many tech experts say to try the most obvious (but not always obvious enough) of fixes: turn your phone off and then on again. That might be just the only maintenance your phone needs right now.
