Top tips to spring clean your smartphone & give it a new lease of life

1. “Organise your apps: The easiest way to declutter your phone is to remove any apps you don’t need (you can always download them again if you need to later down the line).

2. “Clear your cached data: Cached data is information that is stored on your mobile after visiting a website. Developers use cached data to improve your online experience and the files in your cache are usually small. But over time, they can impact your device’s speed. Luckily, you can easily clear your cache in your mobile settings, under ‘Clear History’. 

3. “Review your mobile’s settings: Check to see what is cluttering your mobile storage by visiting your mobile settings. On Android, you can access this data under ‘Battery Care > Storage’, while, for iPhones, you will need to head to ‘General > iPhone Storage’ in your mobile settings. This will bring up your available storage, as well as what’s already taking up the most space.

4. “Clear out your camera roll: The biggest storage hogs on your phone are likely to be photos and videos. But, with sentimental value often attached to our snapshot memories, it can be difficult to clear them from our camera rolls. Start by removing old screenshots, duplicated videos and blurry photos. If you still can’t narrow down the thousands of photos you have saved of your dog, you should consider using an online cloud backup service, like Apple iCloud or Google Photos.

5. “Safely clean your mobile’s exterior: Don’t forget to clean the exterior of your mobile, too! Studies have shown that mobile phones often carry ten times more bacteria than most toilet seats, so it’s important to clean your handset regularly. Wipe down your mobile with a dry microfibre cloth or a disinfectant technology wipe and use a circular motion to prevent scratching.

6. “Check for mobile updates: Although software updates won’t declutter your phone, they are necessary to help protect you and improve your mobile experience. There are two types of software updates to be aware of – version and security updates. Version updates are designed to tackle bugs and performance issues, such as poor battery performance. Meanwhile, security updates are necessary to solve security breaches, such as password leaks. To check if your iPhone needs updating, head to Settings > General > Software Update. The screen will show the version of iOS currently installed and whether there is an update available. If you use an Android, open Settings > System > System Update”.