How to Speed Up Your Android Tablet

Restart Your Tablet

One of the simplest yet most effective ways to speed up your Android tablet is to restart it. This action clears cached data, closes background apps, and frees up your tablet's processor and RAM resources. Here’s how you can do it:

• Press and Hold the Power Button: Locate the power button on your tablet and press and hold it until you see the options to Restart or Power Off.
• Restart: Select Restart from the options. This will temporarily clear out any issues that might be causing your tablet to run slowly.

While restarting is a temporary fix, it can provide a significant speed boost if your tablet has been up and running for months without shutting down.

Update Android Software

Ensuring that your Android software is up-to-date is crucial for maintaining optimal performance. New updates often come with performance enhancements, bug fixes, and new features. Here’s how you can check for updates:

• Go to Settings: Open the Settings app on your tablet.
• About: Navigate to About > Software Update.
• Check for Updates: Look for any available updates and follow the prompts to download and install them.

Additionally, it’s important to keep your apps updated. Developers continually optimize and improve their apps, which can significantly enhance performance. To update your apps:

• Open Google Play Store: Launch the Google Play Store app.
• My Apps & Games: Tap on My Apps & Games.
• Update Available: Look for any apps that need updating and tap Update to download and install the latest versions.

Manage Battery-Draining Apps

Battery-draining apps can not only consume battery life but also use a significant amount of processor power, contributing to performance issues. Here’s how you can identify and manage these apps:

• Go to Android Settings: Open the Settings app.
• Battery: Navigate to Battery > Usage.
• Identify Draining Apps: Look at the list of apps that are using the most battery power.
• Uninstall or Restrict: If an app is using excessive battery power, consider uninstalling it or restricting its background data usage.

By removing or limiting these resource-intensive apps, you can free up more processing power and memory for other tasks, thereby speeding up your tablet.

Remove Pesky Widgets

Widgets can be useful for displaying information like the time, weather, or providing app shortcuts. However, some widgets regularly update and may use up a chunk of your tablet’s RAM and processing power, contributing to performance issues. Here’s how you can remove them:

• Open Settings App: Launch the Settings app.
• Apps: Navigate to Apps > All Apps.
• Widget Apps: Look for apps that offer widgets (e.g., Weather, News, Music Players).
• Uninstall Widgets: Uninstall these apps or remove their widgets from your home screen.

By uninstalling these widgets, you can free up extra performance and reduce the load on your tablet’s resources.

Shorten Animations

Animations on your Android tablet can make it feel slower than it actually is. Shortening these animations can significantly improve the overall responsiveness of your device. Here’s how you can do it:

• Enable Developer Mode: Go to Settings > About and tap on ‘Build Number’ seven times to unlock Developer Mode.
• Developer Options: Go back to Settings and open Developer Mode.
• Window, Transition, and Animator Duration Scale Settings: Scroll down until you see Window, Transition, and Animator Duration Scale settings.
• Adjust Animation Scale: Select each setting and return the animation scale to .5x.

By reducing animation times, you can make your device feel faster and more responsive.

Use Faster SD Cards

If your tablet supports expandable storage in the form of MicroSD cards, using a faster card can significantly improve performance. Here’s how you can upgrade your storage:

• Backup Data: Before switching to a new card, make sure to back up your data. The easiest way is to use a USB card reader adaptor which plugs into a USB port on your laptop or computer.
• Copy Data: Plug the MicroSD card into the adaptor, open it in your computer’s file explorer, and then copy and paste the contents to your desktop or a ‘backup’ folder.
• Install New Card: Reverse the process when you have your new card and simply pop it back into your tablet.

Investing in a better card with faster read and write speeds can greatly enhance your tablet’s performance. Look for Class 10 cards from brands like Samsung, SanDisk, or Kingston, which guarantee a write speed of at least 10 MB/s.

Clear Cache and Data

Over time, your tablet accumulates cache and data from various apps. This can lead to performance issues as these files take up space and slow down your device. Here’s how you can clear cache and data:

• Open Settings App: Launch the Settings app.
• Storage: Navigate to Storage > Internal Storage or External Storage (if using a MicroSD card).
• Clear Cache and Data: Look for each app and tap on Clear Cache and Clear Data. Be cautious when clearing data as it will delete all app settings and data.

Clearing cache and data regularly can help maintain your tablet’s performance by removing unnecessary files that might be slowing it down.

Close Background Running Apps

Background running apps can consume resources and slow down your tablet. Here’s how you can close them:

• Swipe and Tap: Make a swipe from the top of the screen downwards and tap on the trash bin icon to close all background running apps.
• Force Stop Apps: If some apps are not responding, you can force stop them by going to Settings > Apps > All Apps, selecting the app, and tapping on Force Stop.

Closing background running apps can free up RAM and processor resources, thereby speeding up your tablet.

Perform Storage Cleanup

Storage cleanup is essential for maintaining your tablet’s performance. Here’s how you can perform it:

• Go to Settings: Open the Settings app.
• Storage: Navigate to Storage > Internal Storage or External Storage (if using a MicroSD card).
• Storage Cleanup: Look for the Storage Cleanup option and follow the recommended measures to clean junk files, app data, and other unnecessary files.

Storage cleanup will help remove files that are no longer needed, freeing up space and improving performance.

Turn On High Performance Mode

Many Android tablets come with a high performance mode that can significantly boost performance by limiting non-essential features and focusing on core functions. Here’s how you can turn it on:

• Go to Battery Settings: Open the Settings app and navigate to Battery > Battery Saver.
• Turn On High Performance Mode: Look for the option to turn on high performance mode and enable it.

Turning on high performance mode can help your tablet run more efficiently by prioritizing critical tasks over non-essential features.

By following these steps, you can significantly improve your Android tablet's performance, ensuring it runs smoothly and efficiently over time.