It is frustrating to see Chrome taking longer to load a webpage, not to mention the pain of losing great opportunities just because your slow data connection won't let you do things faster.
Are you experiencing a slow internet problem on your phone right now? We bet it is making you feel bad, but you don't have to. Slow internet problems are not rare, and you can easily fix them on your TECNO, Infinix, or itel phone, a few minutes, regardless of which network you use.
Sometimes, slow internet problems are caused by natural conditions such as weather and general network outage. But in most cases, the fault lies in your phone. It could be a simple setting, phone lagging, or just anything. Nonetheless, the following solutions are the quickest way to fix slow internet problems on your phone. Give these fixes your shot and get things working again. You deserve the speed!
1. Restart Your Devices
First things first: a quick restart can often fix problems on mobile devices. And when you face a slow internet problem on your phone, it's worth restarting it. Doing that cuts down all connections refreshes the system, and closes all running processes. Don’t know how to restart your phone? You can reboot most TECNO, Infinix, and itel phones just by long-pressing the power button for about 10 seconds.
If you're connected to a Wi-Fi, Mobile Hotspot, Broadband, Modem, or any other internet devices, you should restart them as well. Luckily, that might be the only thing you need to solve the slow internet problem on your phone.
2. Cut Down On Background Apps
Sometimes, we do many data-intensive and memory-hogging tasks simultaneously on our phones, but most of these apps may take up your bandwidth without informing you. Are you downloading an extensive file, syncing your latest shots on Google Photos, saving YouTube videos offline, and trying to play an online game at the same time? It might not work out well.
To ensure you don't use up your bandwidth when you need it the most, try limiting the background apps using your mobile data. Also, if you're sharing your Mobile Hotspot with other people, you may ask them to pause tasks that require heavy network usage in the meantime.
How to disable background data usage for apps on Android:
- Open ‘Settings’ on your phone and tap the Search bar.
- Type ‘Data usage’ into the search bar.
- Select ‘App data usage’ from the result.
- Scroll down to view apps sucking your data.
- Tap an app you want to disable background data for, then tap the ‘Background data’ switch to disable it.
Do the same for other apps you want to block. But beware of blocking your work and social media apps to avoid missing important messages with no access to background data that will connect to the internet normally when you’re actively using them.
3. Check Your Network Speed
Having a speedy or slow internet connection has to do with your network speed in most cases. Factors such as data plan, phone capacity, location, network provider - be it MTN, Glo, Airtel, or 9 Mobile - affects your connection speed in most cases. In that case, you need to check your internet speed to know what you really have.
To check your real-time internet speed, visit fast.com or speedtest.com on your browser (preferably Chrome) and hit the start button. You should see how fast your internet connection is by now. Getting slow download and upload speed from the result translates to what you get on your phone - whether you're downloading or uploading a file.
Network speeds will vary based on your location and network provider. You can try checking your network speeds in various locations to see the perfect place for browsing in your area. Also, if the Glo network is sluggish in your area, for instance, you can try switching to MTN or Airtel to make a comparison and get the best network provider for you.
4. Review Phone Network Settings
If you're having a bad day because of slow download and upload speed on your phone, ensure you're using the appropriate settings and that your phone is connected to the fastest network type before it cranks up your anger. Naturally, most TECNO, Infinix, and itel phones use 4G, 3G, and Edge network mode. And it is supported by Airtel, MTN, Glo, 9mobile, and other network providers in most cities in Nigeria. But you may experience poor network performance and bandwidth if you accidentally switch from 4G to 3G or Edge on your device.
So, the best thing to figure this out is to review your network settings and ensure you’re connected to 4G. Here’s how to do it on your TECNO, Infinix, or itel devices.
- Launch ‘Settings’ on your phone.
- Tap ‘SIM card and mobile network’. It may also appear as Network & internet on some devices.
- Select the SIM card you’re using for mobile data.
- From there, tap ‘Preferred network type’ and make sure you set it to the highest network type - 4G(auto) in most cases.
5. Clear browser cache
It sucks to have a slow internet connection while trying to access something on your school portal, for instance, but fixing it might be simple as clearing your browser cache. If a website seems to load for eternity on your browser, it might be because the browser cache is full. Perhaps it got corrupted or expired. In that case, all you need is to clear your browser cache by following the simple steps below. We'll use Chrome as an example.
- From your app drawer, long-press the 'Chrome' icon.
- You'll see a pop-up menu: click on ‘Application details’ to visit the settings page for Chrome.
- From there, tap ‘Storage & cache’
- Finally, tap Clear cache to erase the browser cache. You may now restart your phone and relaunch the browser to see if the connection speed improves.
6. Disable Data Saver
Both TECNO, Infinix, and itel devices come with a Data Saver feature to help you cut down on mobile data usage. If you have one of the recent TECNO or Infinix devices, you should also be familiar with another data-saving feature called WhatsApp mode. When enabled, it helps you pause data usage from other apps except for WhatsApp.
These features are advantageous if you don't want to burn your mobile data in the background. But if you experience internet lagging and delayed messages/emails and notifications when they’re turned on, consider turning them off for a while to see if your connection speed improves.
- The fastest way to disable Data Saver and WhatsApp Mode on TECNO and Infinix phones is via the quick settings panel. Swipe down twice from the top of your screen to open the quick settings panel.
- Find and tap to disable Data Saver and do the same for WhatsApp Mode.
7. Use an Ad Blocker
Seen all those ads and pop-ups on your browser recently? They can suck up most of your resources: including your phone's performance and mobile data. Not just that, ads make loading websites slow to some extent. So, to fix slow internet problems on your TECNO, Infinix, or itel device, consider using an ad blocker.
Perhaps the easiest way to block ads on Android is by using a private DNS. All it requires is your phone to be on Android 9 or later. If you meet the requirement, follow the steps below to set up private DNS on your Android phone.
- Launch ‘Settings’ on your phone
- Tap the search bar at the top of the screen and type DNS. You may need to wait for a few seconds to show the result
- Select ‘Private DNS’ from the search result, then tap it again on the next window.
- From there, tap ‘Private DNS provider hostname’ to insert a custom DNS address on your phone.
- Finally, enter adguard.com as the provider hostname and tap ‘Save’.
That’s how to block ads with private DNS on Android 9 and above. We recommend you turn on and off Airplane mode after the process to make it more effective. Additionally, you can install an ad blocker app such as AdGuard, AdBlock Plus, and AdAway from the Play Store. If that doesn't suit you, try Browsers with an inbuilt AdBlocker such as Brave, Opera, and others.
8. Find and Pause Memory Draining Apps
Sometimes, your connection speed is not the culprit but your phone. And if you have many apps on your phone, they may be hogging up the phone memory and drastically decrease your internet speed. So, if you experience internet lagging and delayed messages/emails and notifications, you might need to find and pause memory-draining apps on your phone.
Before you start, if you have tons of unused widgets on your home screen, try removing them to speed up your phone. To do that, just long-press on the widget and tap 'Remove'. This doesn't affect the app's functionality, as you can continue checking any update from the app.
When you're done with that, the next thing is to get the culprit app draining your phone memory. And doing that requires some extra steps. First, you need to enable Developer options, and we continue from there.
How to enable Developer options on Android
- From your launcher, tap the ‘Settings’ app.
- Select ‘My phone’ from the top of the screen. On some old devices, you need to go to System > About device
- From there, locate and tap ‘Build number’ for 7 times. You may require confirming your password during the process.
How to find memory draining apps on Android
- After enabling Developer options, go back and scroll to System under settings.
- Tap ‘Developer options’ and turn it on.
- On the top, select ‘Memory’, then select ‘Memory used by apps’ to view apps that are using the memory.
- Go through the apps. If you find anyone you don’t need (excluding core apps like Android OS, System UI, Google, Google Play Service, Android System, and your launcher) that is hogging your memory, you’ve found the culprit. Select the app.
- From there, select the 3-dot button at the top-left corner and tap ‘Force stop’ to close it.
In addition to that, you may freeze apps you rarely use with the inbuilt Freezer on your phone to speed things up. It’s simple, open Freezer from your home screen; click the + button; go through your apps and select the ones you don’t need.
9. Update your Apps and Phone
Equally important, keeping your phone up-to-date play a compelling role in fixing bug and introducing improvements, which translates to faster performance and connection speed in some cases. The same goes for your favorite apps; ensure you update them on arrival. System and app updates are not only for additional features, but they can speed things up sometimes.
How to check for app updates on the Play Store
- Open ‘Play Store’ on your phone.
- Tap on your profile to view the options, then select ‘My apps & games' from there.
- You should see a list of available updates now. Check your favorite apps and tap ‘Update’ to install the latest update.
How to check for System Update on TECNO, Infinix, or itel phones
- Fire up the ‘Settings’ app
- Scroll to ‘System’ and select it.
- Tap ‘System update’ from there.
- Select ‘Online update’ to check and download the latest update, then tap ‘Install now’
10. Pause/Disconnect Your VPN
VPN apps are good in what they do. Yes, they help you stay safe online but can also slow down your internet speed drastically. You're likely to experience that if you use a free VPN or when it doesn't work well with your service. In that case, you should try disconnecting from your VPN.
If you notice a network speed bump after disconnecting your VPN, that’s the root of the problem. You may try using other VPN apps or get a paid one if it’s a necessity.
11. Reset Your Network Settings
In case everything else doesn't work, your last resort could be to reset your network settings. This often works if some recent changes in your phone network settings are causing the problem. You won't lose any personal data when you reset your phone's network settings, but you'll need to reconnect to Wi-Fi and other network connections again. If that's not a problem, follow the steps below to reset network settings on your Android phone.
- Open ‘Settings’ on your phone.
- Scroll to ‘System’ and select it.
- Tap ‘Reset options’
- From there, carefully tap ‘Reset Wi-Fi, Mobile & Bluetooth.
- Finally, hit ‘RESET SETTINGS’ below the screen to reset network settings on your phone.
After doing that, give your phone a simple reboot and continue enjoying fast network speed on your phone.
If you continue experiencing a slow internet problem on your phone, that means the problem is from your service provider. Perhaps it's with your SIM card. Try contacting them via their Twitter handle, or visit the nearest physical office for help.
