Troubleshooting tips: Squash bugs on Android – Advanced
Last time, we learned about the most basic moves when trying to troubleshoot a program. Those steps are pretty basic, and many of us had to use at least one or two of those steps in dealing with the PCs of the past.
Since our smartphones are now every bit as powerful and complex as a PC, there are similarities to errors and even fixes. Now, we will talk about some of the more advanced troubleshooting techniques that you may or may not have used back when then.
These are mostly specific to Android devices, and are usually done to try and fix errors in a deeper level.
Clearing the cache of a faulty app
Some users find that clearing the cache of an app pretty much stops some of the slow load times and repeated crashes that they might experience while using an app. It may be because of a corrupt cache that is not being cleared by the new data that is causing an error.
Despite being an ‘advanced’ step, it is actually a very simple step, which is not normally done unless the situation calls for it.
To clear an app cache, you need to go to your phone’s application manager in the settings. Look for the same page where you would manually uninstall the app from the device. In this same page, you will find that there is an option to “Clear Cache”.
Once the cache is cleared, try launching the app again. For a better and more successful experience, do a reboot after clearing an app cache.
Clearing the data of a faulty app
Unknown to many, when you uninstall an app from your device, it is not always completely deleted. Sometimes, there are apps that leave some footprint or reference data on the internal memory of the device.
The space consumed by this data is very small, but it can hold data regarding a previous setting, or special app details that may pertain to the old version of the app and is interfering with the new version.
Rather than scouring the phone for this left out data, you can clear the data manually before it is uninstalled.
To clear the data, simply head over to the same page where you uninstall your apps. From here, simply choose “Clear Data”. Take note that clearing the data leaves the app in the same state as if it was just installed. You would have to set it up again and you lose any save data that you were not able to back up.
Some users clear the cache and the data before uninstalling to make sure there are no footprints left of an app, especially apps that are not particularly liked. Clearing the data also clears the cache though, so you are pretty much wasting time.
Clearing Android Cache Partition
This is clearing cache on a larger scale. If in case you don’t know which app is causing the issue or if you find that your entire operating system or overall performance of the phone is significantly slowed down or tripping, then this is what you do.
This procedure requires that you access your phone’s recovery menu. Accessing the recovery menu is usually different depending on the phone model.
Some phones only require you to press and hold the power button and the volume up button together for about 5 – 10 seconds. Some devices require you to press and hold the power button, volume up key and the home button together to access the recovery. It would be best to research about the procedure for your model. It would be too lengthy to list them all out over here.
Once you are in the recovery menu, all you need to do is to scroll down to the “Clear Cache Partition” option. Confirm it with whatever button is set up as confirm (usually either the home or the power button).
Clearing the cache from this end is considered more effective than individually clearing them. Sometimes, when you are clearing the cache of a running app, it misses some of the data that is locked up by the running system process. Since the phone is practically off and in recovery mode, all apps and functions are closed. This means that when you clear the cache, it won’t miss a thing.
