There are loads of apps running in the background
It’s the bane of owning a smartphone-apps car, and wilt, demand data. And when they’re not demanding it, they’re sending it. While you’re or a Wi-Fi connection this will usually be okay. The problems start when you’re using metered mobile internet.
There are several ways you can deal with background apps, but first a question: does it actually matter? Do you really need to worry about these apps?
It really depends on what they’re up to. Battery discharging often? Metered connection exceeded, resulting in big bills? If either of these things have happened to you, or your Android is just running slow through the sheer weight of expectation from all of the background apps currently running, then yes, it matters.
You can get a handle on which apps are causing problems by opening Settings>Apps and switching to Running. Here, all active apps and services are listed, along with the resources currently apportioned. Spot apps that shouldn’t be there? You can tap an app to force stop It.
This won’t stop apps from restarting later on, however. Unless you plan to uninstall your data vampire apps, the best way to proceed is to prevent them from getting online in the first place.
Using Android’s data usage tool you can manage which apps access the internet, potentially saving yourself a bit of battery power and even reducing your phone bill.
In Settings>Data Usage you can check how much data your phone has used over the past month. All web-connected apps are listed, displaying the data use of individual apps as well as a grand total.
To cap data use by apps while they’re running in the background, open the menu and select Restrict background data. You’ll find this makes quite a difference to your Android’s performance.
There are too many junk apps installed
While checking what apps are making a connection to the internet, you’ll probably notice a few that you had forgotten about, or don’t want to use anymore. There may also be some that you don’t access all that often. You can tidy things up pretty easily, either by disabling the apps, uninstalling or even freezing them if your phone is rooted. You might also move the apps to a secondary launcher, so they’re visible only when you want to use them. Open Settings>Apps to view your current apps, tapping Disable to prevent the app from running or Uninstall to remove it from your system. Is your phone rooted? If so you can take advantage of an application such as Greenify, which will freeze a problematic app for you, preventing it from running in the background. This is ideal for apps you use rarely but still need to run occasionally.
If your phone isn’t rooted, don’t worry. Third-party launchers – such as Go Launcher EX or Nova Launcher-can be installed and set up, with your rarely used apps dropped into the new home screen. Once you’ve done that then you can go ahead and delete the shortcuts from your main home screen, saving space.
Your phone doesn’t look the same as other phone
Wondering why your friend’s Android has a different look, or built-in apps missing from yours? One way to make your standard Android handset look like your friend’s is to install a launcher that supports themes, such as Launcher EX. For instance, if you like the look of the HTC One, you car add a HTC Sense theme on your phone or tablet. Meanwhile, if you’re a fan of the Galaxy S4 Lockscreen, its functions are replicated in an app for non-Samsung devices. Search the Play store for “Galaxy S4 Lockscreen” to view your options.
Your phone slows down after time.
Android phones slow down over time. When you switch your phone on it is typically fast and responsive. As apps are launched and closed and tasks switched, however, things tend to become sluggish, with the user interface hanging and apps slow to launch.
These five tips offer hope to lethargic Androids…
1.Restarting your phone wiil refresh Android and kill any resource-draining apps.
2.Blocking apps from accessing the internet (as described previously) can speed things up.
3.Selecting an app and using the Clear data button on a troublesome app in Settings>Apps will clear the app cache, although third-party apps such as App Cache Cleaner will do the job in bulk.
4.The System Monitor app by Pavel Petrov (find it in the Play store) displays resource use and enables you to kill all non-essential tasks with a single tap.
5.Widgets for email, social networks and other reguiarly updated services can ‘slew things down considerably, so drag these to your Android trash can.
Notifications sound once and then never again
Phone Notifier offers excellent configuration options for delayed alerts It can be easy to miss a notification on Android, especially if your phone is out of earshot. Rather than keep checking your smartphone, you can use an app to repeat audible notifications until you respond to them. Phone Notifier, available for free in the Play store, is a good solution to this problem, and is easy to set up. Open the app to display the settings. Here you can tap the entries for SMS notifications, MMS notifications and Missed call notifications, each of which can be configured with a different notification sound, LED, repeat frequency and repeat interval.
Map has very limited offline support.
Using Google Maps? Without an internet connection, sooner or later you’re going to walk off the edge. With the latest version of Google Maps (make sure yours is updated before setting off) you can download map data for offline use. Just open the app to check the area you’re travelling to later, tap into the Search bar and tap the Make this map area available offline button, which will appear at the foot of the screen. A few moments later the map data will have downloaded, ready for offline viewing – ideal for trips to places with limited connectivity!
Apps continually force close
Apps misbehaving? Continually seeing them force ciosed by the system? There are a couple of straightforward ways to fix force dose problems. The first method works for all devices and versions of Android – open Settings>Apps, select the app you’re having problems with and use the Clear Data and Clear Cache options. Note that game progress will be lost if its data/cache is cleared!
For rooted devices, you might reboot into recovery mode to use the provided utility to solve force closing apps by fixing permissions. You might preferto save time by installing Fix Permissions, a free Google Play utility.
The back button never seems to work the same way twice
Confused by the Android back button? You’re not alone. It seems inconsistent, but this is due to poor implementation ora misunderstanding of its purpose, by users and developers alike. As a rule of thumb, the difference between the hardware back button and the back button found in apps is simple -the phone’s back button should cycle you back through previously opened apps, while the app back button should take you back within the app. It is importantto recognise that the in-app back button isn’t in fact referred to as ‘back’, but as ‘up’.
Knowing this can help you to work out exactly which button to press, and when. For instance, if you’re readingyour emails, tappingthe hardware back button will send you to the previous app; tapping up will return you to the inbox. The Email app is a good example again when it comes to widgets. Using the Gmail widget to compose a new message will take you directly to that screen. Tapping the back button will return you to the home screen, while up will move you within the app to the inbox. Use the back button consistently, and Android should behave as expected.
Chrome always default to the mobile website
Mobile websites can be useful, especially if you have limited bandwidth, But what if you want to enjoy a feature that is only available to desktop browsers, such as leaving a comment or voting in a poll? Instructing the mobile Chrome browser to open the desktop version of the site is the answer. You can quickly do this by opening the browser menu and checking the Desktop View option. The menu should close as the page reloads in the background In desktop mode. If the text appears small, double-tap the screen to zoom in for easier reading. Find a desktop class browser The Opera Browser includes a full, permanent desktop mode that will bypass the mobile site in almost all instances. if you still need Flash an your mobile device then Flash Fox is just about your only option. Dolphin with a hacked Flash player also works. Firefox for Android has desktop quality rendering and supports a ‘growing range of extensions to enhance its useability.
Some apps have stop working since you rooted your phone
Rooting your smartphone enables you to run special utilities that require enhanced permissions. Unfortunately some apps can stop running correctly after rooting. You can easily deal with this by finding a way of unrooting your phone temporarily, so as to allow the application that no longer works to run as intended while enabling you to quickly re-enable the root when you require it to work. There are several apps that allow this – all you need to do is search for “unroot” in the Google Play store. OTA Root keeper is one such example, and is equipped with a handy temporary unroot button – however, it currently doesn’t work with Android 4.3 or above.
The shared menu is overloaded with options.
Sharing links is a great way to highlight interesting material to friends, family and even save links to read yourself later when you’ve got a bit of spare time on your hands. With too many sharing options, however, the share menu can become bloated, overloaded with way too much choice. If only there was some way to speed things up, to organise the sharing list. Well, searching the Play store will reveal And made Share (free and premium versions available) – a share menu replacement that is fully customisable. You can decide which sharing services appear in the list, as well as in which position, saving you time when you want to share something quickly.
Alarms for all-day events go off at the midnight
It would be great If alarms for all-day events didn’t go off when the clocks strikes midnight. Switching off audible notifications might sound like a good idea, but you run the risk of missing something important. The best way around this is to employ a third-party app. A popular option is AudioGuru Audio Manager, which lets you set up volume for everything from voice to alerts and alarms. To do this, install the app from Google Play, create a new profile and tap the clock button. This opens the schedule screen where you can specify a time for profiles to be activated.
Notifications keep going up when i don’t want them
Rather than be disturbed by notifications at inopportune times – such as pesky spam notifications from some apps-you can easily block notifications. When such an alert appears, long-tap the notification and tap App info (or open Settings>Apps and select the app in question), looking for the Show notifications checkbox. To block future notifications from this app, clear the checkbox. A warning box will appear informing you that no more notifications will appear for that app-click OK to confirm. If you need to re-enable notifications for any app, tap the checkbox again.
Use wakelock detector to identify battery-draining apps
There are two stages of WakeLock: partial (CPU) and full (display). Wakelock Detector enables you to check which apps are draining your battery in standby mode. You can then edit the permissions or uninstall apps.
1.Patient Required
After installing, make sure your phone is charged above 90%. Wakelock Detector will need a couple of hours to assess which apps are using the Wakelock function.
2.Apps in focus
After a couple of hours, run Wakelock Detector. A list of apps that have used WakeLock will be displayed The clock icon switches between screen and CPU Wakelock-using apps.
3.Get rid
Want to close an app with reguiar Wakelock activity? Tap the app entry, then App Info and usethe Info screen to Force Stop, Disable or Uninstall battery-draining apps.
You dismiss the notification and now can’t remember what it was
Ever dismissed a notification in error? Perhaps you were in the middle of a call when it sounded. Either way, you want it back, as soon as possible, as it might just have been a calendar update informing you of a very important birthday. In previous versions of Android, if a notification was dismissed, it was gone unless you were prepared to go looking. Since Android 4.3, however, notification history has been introduced…
1.Notifications menu
Open the app drawer, then Widgets, selecting Settings from the Shortcut menu and dragging it to the home screen. You will be prompted to select a shortcut type – choose Notifications.
2.Find widget
Switch backtothe home screen where you dropped the widget, and tap to open It. This is where you wilifind a list of all the notifications you’ve received over the past few hours.
3.View App info screen
Tapping a notification entry will open the corresponding App info screen. From here you can opt to disable notifications for the chosen app. Dismissed apps cannot be reset.
In previous versions of Android, if a notification was dismissed, it was gone unless you were prepared to go looking
You are set the default app and cannot change it
ln order for Android to open particular files with the right app, an association is made that sets an app as the default for that file type. For example, you wouidn’twant an APKfiletoopen with your image editor-instead, it opens with the Play store app. When associations become disconnected, problems occur. If the wrong app is set as the default fora part leu larfile type, correcting this will ensure the continued stability of your phone. It’s always useful to pick a default app for speed and simplicity, but if you have multiple apps that can handle the same file you can also use the app picker as an ‘Open with’ menu.
Choose the right open to deal with your files
1.App picker
After disassociating your app, you can use the native app picker to set a new default. This will happen when you try to open the disassociated file type.
2.Make sure
A box labelled Complete action using will appear, prompting you to select from two or more suitable apps. Make sure you’re happy before proceeding.
3.Be selective
If you want to try all available apps, select the Just once option, choosing each in turn to assess which you prefer. The menu will appear until Always is selected.