Tidy up your Android with the best phone cleaners

Found the culprit? Then clear the app’s cache manually

You can go into the settings on your device and take a look at each individual app and determine which is causing problems for your phone. The majority of our site’s readers and editors don’t use a cache cleaner for Android, but clear cache manually as well as frequently delete images and videos that they receive through WhatsApp, for example.

By doing so, you can get to know your device and its features better. You can even take preventative measures, like blocking those avalanches of automatically downloaded pictures on messaging apps. Furthermore, by doing this manually, you can be certain that you won’t cause any long-term damage to your device.

Many cleaners for Android phones promise to improve the memory and performance of your device. This does happen, but it’s mostly due to cleaning out your apps’ caches. A cache is basically a storage area where data or frequently used processes are saved for quicker access in the future. In the end, the cache actually saves time and avoids unnecessary use of the hardware on your phone. So, always cleaning your app when your phone is running slowly or the memory is full could seem like the best option in the short run, but it could have consequences in the long term.

I recommend using a cache cleaner for Android on occasion, and when you do it, do it from the list of Apps with the most data. In order to do this:

• Go to the Settings Menu;
• Click on Apps;
• Find the All tab;
• Choose an app that is taking up a lot of space;
• Click the button Clear Cache. If you’re running Android 6.0 Marshmallow on your device then you’ll need to click on Storage and then Clear Cache.

However, this only works to clean one app. In order to clean the cache of every app at the same time, follow the steps below:

• Go to Settings;
• Click on Storage > Cache Data or Saved Data;
• A screen will ask for confirmation to remove everything stored within the caches. Confirm and save to remove the content.

Sometimes a factory reset is necessary

Just as the name implies, restoring your phone to factory settings takes you back to zero and resets your device’s settings to exactly how they were the day it came out of the box. There won’t be any extra apps, contacts, settings or any type of data, only what comes standard on Android.

However, if you have updated your system to a more recent version, the system will keep the most recent upgrade. So, if you were running Lollipop or Marshmallow and updated to Oreo, after the reset, your phone will continue running Android Oreo.

This feature is mostly used by people that like to install different ROMs on their device but it could also be very helpful to users who have an older phone. Doing this will give your device a breath of fresh air. I especially recommend it if you’ve had your device for more than a year and you’ve never formatted it. Additionally, it’s important to back up your data before resetting your phone.

In order to restore your phone to factory settings, the most common way is:

• Go to Settings;
• Click on Backup and Reset (It may sometimes be under Additional Settings)
• Make a backup in the Android system itself by using Drive;
• Factory Data Reset;
• Reset phone;
• You may have to put your PIN in again;
• Click on Reset phone or Erase Everything;
• Restart.