Sometimes, you may find that your Android smartphone is running slow. Various issues can cause this problem, ranging from low storage space to bugs in the OS or apps to hardware faults.
Low storage space will make your mobile device freeze or lag, and one of the most effective ways to fix it is by clearing the cache on Android. In a bid to improve your experience using browser and apps, these pieces of software routinely save bits of information.
These files stored by your smartphone may accumulate with time and occupy a considerable amount of storage space, causing performance issues. Let’s take a look at how to clear cache on Android and make your device work faster.
What’s cache on Android?
Caching is a term in computing that allows apps on your phone — such as games, social media apps, browsers, and the likes — to store data temporarily. Such stored data is seen as relevant to make load times faster and improve the overall user experience.
For instance, when you open Boomplay or a similar music player app on your smartphone, Boomplay might cache your most frequently streamed playlist. That way, the app won’t need to load their song lists each time you launch the music player.
Spotify, YouTube, Facebook, Chrome, and many other Android apps store information in the form of cache data. Such data can include search history, video thumbnails, pictures, fonts, documents that are stored temporarily. The technique helps minimize the redundancy that arises when a user is asked to enter or retrieve information from the Internet often.
A cache file only works for the associated software or program. For instance, Boomplay doesn’t have any use for WhatsApp’s cache. Typically, once a piece of software or an app decides the data stored temporarily isn’t of use any longer, it gets rid of the accompanying cache files.
Caching isn’t only done on your Android smartphone as the technique is also carried out on desktop (PC) browsers and other programs. On your Android, apps, websites, browsers, media players, and games all utilize cache files to provide a faster and better user experience.
Caching saves the user a lot of time since Internet quality and speeds vary from one location to the other. However, ironically, when mobile apps are offloading huge amounts of data onto your Android, the process eventually slows down the device, especially if the phone doesn’t have much storage space to hold cached data.
Is your mobile device running slow? One way to solve the issue is by clearing cache on the Android.
How to clear cache on Android
Let’s look at how to clear cached data in your browser app and other third-party apps:
Clearing cache in your Chrome app
Chrome is the default or preloaded web browser on Android smartphones. Like other browsers, it stores cache data to make your browsing experience quicker.
Here’s how to clear cache data on the app when you need to free some space on your phone or when Chrome isn’t working well:
- Launch the Chrome web browser app on your Android
- At the top right, press the three-dot icon (the More option) to access a drop-down menu
- Tap History>Clear browsing data
- Use the Time range option to choose the specific date you would to clear (if you so wish)
- Tap Cached images and files
- Tap the Clear data option
Please, bear in mind that when next you visit some websites, they could load more slowly.
Clearing cached data for third-party apps
Just like browser cache, app cache also contains small bits of information saved to provide you with a quicker experience using a mobile app. When your phone often lags, or some apps close suddenly or stop responding, cached data could be the cause of these issues.
Thus, you need to free up space — and fix a malfunctioning app — by clearing cache. Outlined below are six steps to take when you need to clear app cache of any app:
- Swipe down the Home screen to access the Quick Settings panel
- Tap the Settings icon
- Press Apps & notifications
- Tap See all apps or a similar feature on your phone to view all apps
- Tap the specific app(s) whose cache you want to clear
- Press Storage>Clear Cache
All Android smartphones perform caching of application data using the same technique. However, certain phone makers provide separate options for keeping apps in check. In this post, we’re using TECNO Camon 11 Pro, and the settings may be a bit different on your handset.
But generally, you can clear cache under Settings > Storage or Apps Manager. Please keep in mind that clearing app cache doesn’t erase app data such as account information, saved games, logins, and the likes.
Once you clear the cache of any app, when you open it next time, it will download all the data it requires from the Internet just as the software did when you launched it the first time.
How often should you clear app cache? You may do so periodically. However, clearing app cache regularly isn’t necessary. If you find that you’re clearing app cache regularly to free up space on your device, you may need to buy a microSD card as a secondary storage option (if you don’t have one already). Alternatively, you may need to uninstall unused apps or archive stored photos and videos in the cloud.
