Your iPhone is lagging — again. It has become impossible to get anything done on your phone because it all takes so long, files won’t download quick enough to be any use to you, and it seems to take a million years to get from one website to another on your Safari browser.
Don’t accept inefficiency from a really expensive device. Unless your phone is very old and has an old battery that needs to be replaced, there’s no excuse for a slow phone. But there are common reasons why your phone keeps lagging, and addressing these issues is the key to helping to get your phone up to speed.
Here are five common reason behind phone lag and what you can do to address them.
1. You Lack Storage Space
One of the top reasons why your phone is acting like a snail these days is because you don’t have enough storage space. Storage space slowly and then quickly becomes consumed by apps, files you’ve downloaded, text messages with attachments you’ve accumulated, and all of those amazing photos and video you have stored on your device.
The only options you have to sort out this problem are: purchase more storage space (but if you keep up your storage habits, the same issue is likely to resurface) or get rid of some of the files that are taking up space. Clearing the cache on your Safari browser on occasion is also important to free up space. To do this, go to Settings > Safari > Clear History and Website Data.
First, go to Settings > General > iPhone Storage to see which files are taking up the most space on your phone. Now you can decide which files you’d like to save to iCloud or another cloud service and which you can outright delete. The goal is always to delete as much as possible from your phone to clear up storage.
2. You Have Too Many Apps
Having too many apps on your phone that you don’t use is a surefire way to drain your phone of its storage and memory, both of which will slow down your device. You’ve probably already guessed the solution: go through your apps and delete anything you can live without.
3. Apps Are Running in the Background
When you have the setting Background App Refresh enabled, your apps will run in the background, which takes up a lot of your phone’s resources. Even though this setting can provide the convenience of ensuring all of your apps are refreshed with up-to-date content that you can access as soon as you tap on them, this setting isn’t necessary. Turn it off by going to Settings > General > Background App Refresh.
4. Your Software is Outdated
Apple continually updates its software to improve performance and fix any bugs it finds. A lagging phone could be the result of software that hasn’t been updated — it’s important to make checking for updates a routine part of your phone maintenance. Go to Settings > General > Software Update to check for updates.
5. Visual Effects Are Slowing Your Device
Visual effects and animations look amazing on your phone and can enhance your visual experience, but they can also be taxing on your phone and slow it down. You may have to choose between a more efficient phone and one that has interesting animations. The solution is to turn off the Reduce Motion and Reduce Transparency setting by going to Settings > Accessibility > Motion.
