[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] enweazudaniel:
Note:

We all need to know a little about Basic Android Troubleshooting. If any engineer/programmer came up with a perfect phone, who could put a price on that? It’s somewhat like finding the fountain of youth, or anything perfect in this world. It simply doesn’t exist. We and the phones we make are imperfect—subject to the laws of entropy that dictate a gradual decline into disorder.

Thankfully, we humans can problem solve. But not all problems are intuitive. There are some common solutions to try, however, and certain information that you can collect that will greatly assist you in finding the answers. This is a guide to help you discover solutions and implement them as simply as possible.

Disclaimer: This guide is about promoting different fixes for common problems with Android devices, but it cannot guarantee that each type of fix will work with any phone. Therefore, it’s best to read carefully and see which ones apply to your device

How to Improve Battery Life

This is something practically every Android user runs into at least once in a while. Hopefully, you are somewhere you can load up on more juice, but this problem doesn’t only occur when it would be most convenient. That’s why a discussion on how to save battery life is a must when it comes to the basics of troubleshooting Android phones.

There are many reasons why a battery drain can occur. But it is good to detect it in time and figure a way to solve the problem before it is too late.

1) Go to the Source

Nearly every Android has a Battery section in Settings that will give you a breakdown of what is consuming the most resources. If there is anything unnecessary consuming your battery, get rid of it.

2) Disable Connections

If you aren’t using Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or GPS, turn them off.

3) Change Settings

You can take individual steps, like lowering the brightness of your display and limiting automatic syncing, or you can rely on Battery or Power Saving Mode to do it for you.

4) Check Charging Conditions

Does your phone have a broken or bent port? Does the charger fit too loosely? Have you tried a different charger? A different outlet?

5) Enlist Battery Saving Apps

Not all apps work against your battery. Some are here to help. For this, I’d recommend the Greenify App, it’s a pretty popular choice and has great reviews.

How to Fix a Slow Interface and Memory Problems

Even though memory problems tend to impact older Android more frequently, you could also find yourself dealing with this issue if you are a heavy user or simply like to store a lot of media directly on your phone.

If you have a ton of apps or photos, you can run into this on newer phones too. No guide on troubleshooting the basics of Android phones would be complete without addressing slowness or performance issues.

1) Outsource Your Storage

Store your photos on someone else’s server (in the Cloud) or on the SD card if you can. Services like Dropbox or Google Drive can assist. You can automatically backup to Google Photos by going to Settings > Backup & Sync; you can visit Accounts and enable Auto Sync.

2) Delete What You Don’t Use

Not only do photos and apps occupy digital space, but consider your music and videos also.

3) Backup & Restore

There are apps that will help you—one of the best is Titanium Backup – Free, but your phone must be rooted.

If your phone is not rooted, you should try Helium – App Sync and Backup – Free.

4) Close Apps

Ensure you are closing your apps when you are done with them; not just returning to the Home Screen while the app is still open and running in the background.

5) Reduce Animation Transitions

This won’t help your memory, but it can make your phone seem faster. Obtain developer status by visiting Settings > About Phone and tap on Build Number approximately seven times. Go back to Settings and a new choice should appear—Developer Options.

Tap on it, scroll down and reduce the Window Transition Animation Scale and Animator Duration to .05x. You can remove the settings altogether, but movement on your phone may not seem to flow as well, and your user experience may suffer.

6) Soft Reset

Most of the time a soft reset will cause your phone to snap out of its stupor. Long-press the Power key for approximately 10-15 seconds.

7) Clear Cache

You can start out by clearing the cache for any individual apps that are giving you problems. Go to your App Manager, select the app, and tap the Clear Cache option. If this doesn’t suffice, you can wipe the entire system’s cache partition.

8) Hard Reset

If that doesn’t cut it, consider performing a hard reset. This wipes data so you might want to backup what you wish to save!

How to Fix a Phone that Won’t Power On or is Frozen

A soft reset usually solves a host of issues, but what to do when you can’t even do that? Additionally, removing the battery can be very helpful, but what if you don’t have a removable battery? We will take you through some basics of troubleshooting unresponsive Android phones.

1) Try Safe Mode

To determine which app, it could be (or if this is the problem at all) try going into Safe Mode. Safe Mode only uses those apps that come with your phone without loading any of the third-party software that could be causing the issue.

The method by which you enter, Safe Mode can vary by device. If you do not experience the same problem in Safe Mode, try uninstalling any third-party app, one-at-a-time, that you think might be the culprit. If the phone still misbehaves in Safe Mode, your problem could be related to the hardware or a corrupted OS, which can be tougher to fix on your own.

2) Charge Battery

If you see the empty battery symbol when you try to turn the device on, it’s time for a charge.

3) Perform a Factory Reset

It’s easiest to do this from the Settings menu, but if you can’t access that you will have to use Recovery Mode instead. This wipes your phone like it just came out of the box. If you want to know more about the factory reset

4) Restore Firmware

This entails connecting your phone to your computer using the proper drivers, going into Download Mode, and flashing the stock firmware for your specific make and model. For Samsungs, this is best accomplished through Odin. For HTCs, Google your phone + ROM upgrade utility, and for LGs, use LG PC Suite.