Home Android Troubleshooting Methods to Consider

While certain issues that arise with your Android phone may seem like a big deal, many of them have relatively easy troubleshooting methods that come along with them. And while certain such problems may require assistance from trained phone repair specialists, others will be simple enough that most phone owners can perform them from home without any issue.

At FixIT Mobile, we're here to help with a huge variety of mobile phone repairs, including for a wide host of Android phone models. If there's any concern you're having problems with, no matter how simple or silly you think it may be, we're happy to assist you as-needed. However, we're also here to offer clients some basic troubleshooting techniques they can often perform on their own at home -- and if they don't work, or if you need assistance with any part of them, simply visit our professionals for help. Here's a rundown.

Data Connection Issues

If your phone is having continued issues with data or internet connection, there are many cases where the simplest fix of all will do the trick: Simply restarting the phone. While that may seem like an obvious or easy solution, it actually works quite often, and can be performed with no prior troubleshooting techniques necessary. Even if you've tried this before without success, it's still worth considering for your particular situation; you could very well be experiencing a coincidence of timing not related to the restart at all.

If this doesn't do the trick, next try toggling your Wi-Fi, mobile data and Airplane Mode settings on and off one by one, and then testing your phone's data usage for a minute. If at any time you notice the problem stopping -- even if it's not connected to the settings change, but rather just when it happens in time -- try hammering out any apps you have been using that require network connectivity, or turn on Airplane Mode and test again. If this shows the data connection as stable, chances are that one of those particular apps is what was causing the problem.

If those ideas don't work, it's time to consider more advanced troubleshooting options, and time to contact our team.

Limited Battery Life

If your battery is draining too fast, the first area to look at is your phone's settings. For starters, you can turn on battery-saving features like automatic brightness and auto-sync, and then adjust the settings on your phone where you're able to. If you can't tell whether something is set wrong or not, we recommend resetting all of these back to their defaults just in case.

If that's done and it doesn't work or causes other problems, consider removing any widgets added by apps you don't use (or consider whether you truly need them), and then uninstall any apps that are known to cause battery problems.

Overheating Issues

In many cases, overheating Android phones are caused by third-party apps that take up too much CPU or memory, and as such can be remedied by simply restarting the phone. If that doesn't do the trick, try closing out any apps you've been using and consider uninstalling those that may be causing problems, too; this includes making sure there's nothing running in the background of your phone that shouldn't be (especially high-end games, with their power-sucking graphics).

If that still doesn't solve the problem, consider doing a factory reset of your phone (but be sure to back up anything you don't want to lose beforehand) and see if that does the trick. If not, contact us immediately for further help.

Low Internal Storage

This notification you might receive isn't actually a bug so much as it's a notification to help you run your phone more smoothly. When your device is low on storage space, it's smart to consider deleting photos you've taken in the past that are just filling up hard drive space, or apps you don't use any longer.

If a little basic deletion doesn't solve the issue, go to your Application Manager in Settings and review which apps are taking up the most storage space. If you recognize a certain app that's using far too much storage on your phone, uninstall that one and consider whether it belongs on the device at all.

In addition, you may need to clear your cache to free up space on the internal storage of your phone. This can be done by going to Settings, tapping Storage & USB, and then choosing Cached Data; tap OK at the prompt to confirm that you want to clear this data cache, and wait for it to finish clearing up before testing again.

Not Reading SD Card

If you keep getting notifications that your Android phone cannot read its own SD card, the first attempt is once again the simplest: Restart the phone and see if this changes anything.

If not, you will have to try unmounting and remounting your card. While it's dislodged from the phone, insert it into a separate card reader and connect this device to your computer. This will allow you to view the drive from a computer.

In other cases, you may have to erase contents from your SD card if a card-read error is taking place. This involves heading to Storage and USB Settings, then finding the option to format your SD card. If you're confused about any part of this, our Android specialists are happy to help.

For more on this or any of our phone repair services, speak to the staff at FixIT Mobile today.