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Why is my phone acting sluggish and freezing?

When a smartphone is handling too many processes or the RAM is full, the phone's performance can suffer, causing it to lag, run slowly, or appear to freeze. Try out the tips below which may help solve the problem.

Power off and then power back on

Powering off the phone for a few seconds will clear and refresh the RAM, returning the device to normal performance.

Press and hold the POWER button until the power options appear.
Tap Power Off and wait until the phone powers down completely.
After a few moments of the phone being powered off, hold the POWER button to power the phone back on.

Check your storage space

Some apps and processes can run more slowly if there is not enough storage space available or if a faulty storage card is installed.

Check your phone's storage in Settings > Storage, and delete or move files if your storage space is too low. If your phone supports a microSD card and there's one installed, try replacing the storage card to see if that improves performance.

Update apps from Google Play Store

Make sure all of your apps are up to date, since many app developers will include performance improvements with app updates.

Open the Google Play Store app.
Tap , and then tap My apps & games. In the Updates tab, available updates for installed apps will be displayed.
Tap Update all to update all installed apps. To update specific apps, tap the Update button next to the app.

Uninstall third-party apps

If your phone is regularly slowing down or freezing, there may be an installed app that is misbehaving and taking up too much of the phone's resources.

If the problems started after installing or while using a particular app, try uninstalling that app to see if it fixes the problem.

Update your phone's software

If the issue is not being caused by an app, check for updates to your phone's software and if an update is available, download and install it.

Go to Settings.
Tap , search for Software updates, and then tap it in the search results.
Note: In certain phone models, you may need to search for System update.
Tap Check now.

Perform a factory reset through Settings

As a last resort, you can reset your phone to factory settings. Before you do so, please be aware of the following:

A factory reset will erase all data, media, and files from the phone storage. You'll lose them and won't be able to restore them if you didn't sync or back them up before. Make sure you've backed up all important information and files before you proceed.
Make sure the phone is charged to at least 35% before performing the reset, or is connected to an HTC charger and is actively charging.
Make sure you know your Google Account name and password. You'll need them to unlock your phone after the factory reset.
For phones with Android 5 Lollipop or higher, Device Protection may be enabled, which means that after the factory reset, you'll need to sign in using the same Google Account that was logged into your phone. If you forgot your Google Account password, use your computer web browser and go to www.google.com/accounts/recovery to reset your password first.

To perform a factory reset:

Go to Settings.
Do one of the following:
- Tap System > Reset.
- Tap Backup & reset.
Tap Factory data reset, and then tap Reset phone.
If you have a security lock on the device, you'll need to enter your security information as well.
Tap Erase eveything or tap OK when prompted.
The phone will reboot and reset.

Reinstall apps

After resetting the device, try to test the performance before and after reinstalling your apps. If the issue returns after apps have been reinstalled, the issue is most likely caused by an application, and that app will need to be uninstalled.

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