Is your phone so slow that you can’t even watch YouTube? Yeah, it happens. As your phone gets older, many more bloatware and unneeded apps are stored on your device. A big reason for the slowdown is that these apps have background processes running even when you’re not using the app.
Your phone lags, stutters, and ultimately crashes. When this happens, it usually means that you don’t have enough RAM. You can increase RAM in Android phones using a micro SD card, but you need to have a rooted phone. Otherwise, you can maximize your phone’s performance by optimizing the device. I’ll show you how to do both.
Note: RAM is short for Random Access Memory. Basically, it’s where your device stores the information that it needs and will need. Simply put, the memory lets you run apps on your device. The more RAM you have, the faster your device performs.
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- Increase RAM in Android phones using a micro SD card
- Maximize your Phone’s Performance using Smart Booster
- Optimize your Phone’s RAM Usage
Related: Slow Android phone fixes
Increase RAM in Android phones using a micro SD card (for rooted devices only)
This method is free and is designed for rooted Android smartphones and devices–although it does have its risks.
Before I proceed, let’s make a checklist of what you’ll need:
- A class 4 or higher class micro SD Card
- An SD card reader
- A rooted Android phone/tablet
- A Windows-operated PC
If you’re prepared, let’s proceed.
Warning: This is not a sponsored post. We are not responsible for any micro SD card malfunctions that may occur if the process instructions have not been precisely followed.
1. Check If Your Android Device Supports Swapping
This is very crucial. It’s highly important that you check if your Android smartphone or device supports swapping.
To do this, you can install the “RAM Truth” app.
2. Partition Your Micro SD Card
The micro SD card will be used as secondary memory storage. To partition the card, you’ll need an app or a tool. You can use the Mini Tool Partition Wizard for this.
To start making partitions, insert your micro SD card into the card reader and connect it to your PC. From there, you can make partitions in the card. Open the Mini Tool Partition Wizard and format the SD card you’ve inserted.
Now you can make partitions by right-clicking on the SD card. Select the partition as primary for a card with more than 4GB. Select FAT32 before formatting. For the next partition, allot at least 1GB. Click “Done.”
Again, right-click on it to make a partition. Select primary partition. But this time, change the file system. Instead of FAT32, make it EXT2, EXT3, or EXT4, accordingly.
To complete the partition, click “Apply all the changes.”
3. Link Your Micro SD Card With Your Android Device
Once you’ve partitioned your micro SD Card, the next step is to link it with your rooted smartphone or device. To do this, you’ll need to download Link2SD.
Once you’ve downloaded the app, launch it and give root permission. Choose “.ext” partition and link your Android device to the micro SD Card.
4. Increase RAM in Android Phone
For the final step, you’ll need to download another app. This time, a root swapper.
Download (Root) Swapper and select the increase you need. This will create a .swp file, which increases the RAM of your phone. You can also use this app to track SWAP memory usage and change storage preferences.
Maximizing Your Phone’s Performance (rooted and unrooted devices)
If you want to boost your phone’s performance and accelerate its RAM without root access, the Smart Booster will help you do the trick. It’s a very light third-party app that does a decent job at speeding up your device.
1. Download And Install Smart Booster
Download and install the Smart Booster app on your Android device.
This light optimization tool allows you to boost your device in 5 ways:
- Auto-boost (automatic and in timing conditions)
- Overlay widget (on by default)
- Home screen widget (one tap to boost from the home screen)
- Notification bar (one tap to boost from a toggle notification bar)
- Boost Now (tap from the app’s main screen)
You can get the app through the Google Play button below.
2. Select the Boost Level
The app features 4 auto-boost levels, depending on how much you’ll want to speed up your device. They are as follows:
- Aggressive- this level effectively kills most low-priority apps.
- Strong- this kills apps marked as low-priority and some that are slightly below “average”.
- Medium- this kills apps that consume above “average” memory.
- Gentle- this only kills apps that use a considerable amount of memory.
If you want to really boost your phone’s performance, choose the aggressive level. However, this will also kill most of the apps that you cycle.
3. Use The Advanced Application Manager
With this feature, you’ll be able to manage your apps accordingly. You can use this to do the following:
- Disable system apps
- Hibernate rarely-used apps.
- Recommend which apps to move to your SD card.
- Easily backup or uninstall apps.
- Manage .apk files.
- Scan auto-start apps.
4. Manually increase RAM
If you want to manually increase RAM in Android phone devices, click on “Boost Now” or use the “Boost” button on your notifications bar. This will kill unneeded processes, and will increase your phone’s performance.
Other features include a one-tap cache cleaner and a quick SD card cleaner.
Optimize your phone’s RAM
Unfortunately, for non-rooted devices, you can’t simply add more RAM memory. In this method, you’re not really increasing your phone’s RAM. It’s more about preserving your RAM’s memory and making the most of what you have.
To reiterate, the more your Android smartphone or device is doing, the more RAM it’s using. So if you want to make the most of your RAM, make sure that you free up memory by reducing what’s running to prioritize more important tasks.
Here are some of the things you can do to maximize your phone’s RAM.
Related: Best Phone Cleaner Apps for Android in 2020
1. Limit Widgets
Widgets actually take more RAM space than you think. They occupy bandwidth and many often refresh. Some of them are continuously active, which means that they’re always occupying a portion of your RAM. The same is true with live wallpapers.
Not only do live wallpapers and widgets take up RAM space, they also drain your battery faster.
Reassess if you need the widgets and live wallpapers you’re currently using. Make sure that you’re keeping just the important ones. That way, you’ll free up space and optimize your phone’s RAM.
2. Force Stop Apps
If closing apps and limiting widgets or live wallpapers still doesn’t significantly improve your phone’s performance, you might need to take it to the next step and manually close the apps.
To do this, first you need to go to “Settings>Apps.” Tap on a particular app to check how much RAM it’s using. If it’s taking up too much space, you can force stop it. Tap“Force Stop”and confirm your action.
3. Uninstall Apps
However, if you feel like you’re not using an app that much, then you can just uninstall it to make space for more important ones.
For apps that can’t be deleted, you will need to remove their “advanced rights.” To do this, go to “Settings>Security>Device” admin apps. Just uncheck the box that appears next to a particular app. Then uninstall.
Note: Some Android devices, like Samsung smartphones, allow their users to see an overview of RAM usage. With this, you can see which apps are taking up too much RAM. To check, just go to “Settings>Device maintenance>Memory.“
Frequently Asked Questions
How to check how much RAM your Android phone is using?
Go to Settings and open System Settings. Tap “About phone.” Enable the Developer Options and look for “Memory/Running processes.” Tap this. You should see your phone’s RAM usage in real-time.
How to increase RAM in Android?
You can increase your phone’s RAM by using a third-party app or by linking a partitioned micro SD Card. You can also optimize your phone’s RAM using a RAM booster app.
How much RAM does Android use?
The Android OS alone takes up to 1G of RAM.
Speed Up Your Device
The best way to increase the speed of your Android phone without risk is by deleting your unnecessary apps and processes. These background apps can take up the memory that other apps need, thus decreasing the performance of your device.
Make sure that you follow all the steps properly, and make sure that you don’t delete any system apps that your phone needs.
If you’re still having trouble with any of the processes above, let me know in the comments section below!
Which of these methods worked for you?
