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How Often to Reboot Your Phone

sa7375
Town Hero / Héro de la Ville

Rebooting Phone.jpg

Two distinctly different recommendations on how often to re-boot your phone:

 

  • Reader’s Digest recommends every week. “To help preserve memory and prevent crashes, consider restarting your smartphone at least once a week”. More here
  • Times recommends every year. “So once a year, not once a week, power your phone off all the way. And don’t let anyone else — not even your IT guy — tell you otherwise.”. More here

Any thoughts Smiley Surprised

26 REPLIES 26

sherr6
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

I don't shut my phone down every night, but I do a restart twice a day. Once in the morning, and once at night. Excessive? Maybe. But the surprising thing I've found is all my apps are updated, but after a restart, 1 or 2 updates are suddenly available.

Barryere
Great Citizen / Super Citoyen

For the past few days I've been using a flip phone and since it's not a smartphone it ain't going off every 2 seconds with people bugging me. I don't tend to text a lot of people and I highly encourage people I talk to to call me rather than text because texting is horrendously annoying and a call is not only promotes a healthy conversation with emotional integrity but it also gets the conversation/job done quicker because you aren't waiting for an answer.

 

The last few nights I've just had my flip phone on vibrate and then when I get up I turn the volume up all the way, I haven't really restarted/rebooted it other than to f*** around with the SIM card.

shskr
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

I shut the phone down every night and turn it on in the morning. The battery last 2-3 days, but Im not a social media Hoe. And I don't expect a phone call in the middle of the night. Sleep is more important, thats why I have voicemail. 🙂


@srlawren wrote:

@geopublic wrote:

More like Apple does not allow them priviledges to do the cleanup. Smiley Happy


 


@geopublic "Apple Knows Best" Robot LOL


@srlawrenTrue, but only if you are part of the iHerd. Smiley Wink

srlawren
Retired Oracle / Oracle Retraité

@geopublic wrote:

More like Apple does not allow them priviledges to do the cleanup. Smiley Happy


 


@geopublic "Apple Knows Best" Robot LOL


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@srlawren, my reboots or restarts are generally also about once per week.  I'm not saying I reboot it every hour or whatever... I give the device a chance to recover.

 

I'm not a slave to my single device.  I've also set up for future device replacements and backups.


@TheGx wrote:

I've used all kinds of phones, and Apple phones seem to need less maintanance such as rebooting etc, for example there's an app called ccleaner I use on desktop/laptop that I also got on androids - but that app isn't available for Iphones, maybe because Iphones don't really need it.

 

More like Apple does not allow them priviledges to do the cleanup. Smiley Happy


 

srlawren
Retired Oracle / Oracle Retraité

@stonechucker wrote:

When apps stop working correctly, or I have an issue with my device not functioning properly, I will do a restart or reboot.

 


@stonechucker while I respect this approach, I don't agree with it.  Would you wait until your car threw a rod through the engine wall before replacing the oil?  No, you do your regularly scheduled maintenance every X,000 km to prevent that from happening. 

 

Granted, this is a horrrrrrible analogy since the oil example leads to a very costly engine replacement bill whereas the phone situation can be resolved in 60 seconds with a reboot.  But I still see this as a preventative thing to do.  It literally takes about 60 seconds on most modern devices--maybe 120 tops if you have a particularly slow one. 

 

Maybe you won't get a mutl-thousand $ repair bill from not doing it, but what if it starts acting up in an importand phone call, or it prevents you from getting a call from a friend in need or a prospective employer with a job offer, or a client wanting to place a nice juicy order?  Or you're not receiving urgent IMs from a friend or family member that needs help because that process is hung?  These should be rare situations, granted, but the effort required to simply reboot about once a week to avoid the vast majority of them seems totally justified, IMHO.


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When apps stop working correctly, or I have an issue with my device not functioning properly, I will do a restart or reboot.

 

Cellular phones are no different than desktop PCs, laptops, or servers.  Sometimes, you just need to turn it off and back on.

TheGx
Deputy Mayor / Adjoint au Maire

I've used all kinds of phones, and Apple phones seem to need less maintanance such as rebooting etc, for example there's an app called ccleaner I use on desktop/laptop that I also got on androids - but that app isn't available for Iphones, maybe because Iphones don't really need it.

 

The Androids I've used always needed reboots often, like every week or more, but the iphones seem be able to run forever - as @TheOldVR said.

Barryere
Great Citizen / Super Citoyen

I hardly ever turn my phone off. Your phone no matter what hardware its got will slow down over time. It's just the nature of hardware... not to mention any updates to software to deliberately cause lag.


@sa7375 wrote:

Thanks & appreciated. 

Would the ability to move a thread to another group be available to an average user too: if so, I'll apreciate instructions on how.

@computergeek541 


What you could do would be to tag a couple of the Oracles and ask that it be done for you.

sa7375
Town Hero / Héro de la Ville

Thanks & appreciated. 

Would the ability to move a thread to another group be available to an average user too: if so, I'll apreciate instructions on how.

@computergeek541 

thread moved to Phones & Hardware

@sa7375 Thanks for the interesting read.

There's no need to reboot every week but waiting a full year to reboot is a heck of a long time.

 

If you want your phone running well, it's also good to check your phone's storage and memory. Make sure it isn't being overloaded. Just my 2 cents.Smiley Happy

sa7375
Town Hero / Héro de la Ville

Point taken regarding the group. Indeed Phone & Hardware would have been better.

@srlawren 

srlawren
Retired Oracle / Oracle Retraité

@mh1983 wrote:

I'd be weary of apps that close everything and clear memory as they can drain the battery and actually have an adverse effect on Android memory management. 


@mh1983 agreed.  For the majority of apps, you actually use up more battery opening and closing the app repeatedly than to just leave it running in the background.  

 

I'm in the "about once a week" club, as I think preventative restarting is better than waiting for issues to come up and then restarting.  If you look around the community you're going to find a lot of cases where a simple reboot resolved an unexpected sudden change in phone behaviour.  It's just good preventative maintenance, IMHO, but take that for what it's worth. 

 

Having said that, I'm presently sitting at uptime of 327 hours, or about 13 and a half days.  I guess I'm overdue!  BRB, gotta reboot.  😉

 

EDIT: Discussions isn't really the right place for this topic.  You should probably have put it in Phones & Hardware, @sa7375 


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@TheOldVR wrote:

 

@hycm53... yup, actually right now it's an option on the Launcher for Seniors that I have on my Mom and Dad's Phones'. It works well... and I don't see any issues that they are having...

 

@mh1983no issues here dude, it just works.

 

This is the one I have setup for them.... https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.senior_safety_phone&hl=en

 

Clearing the open apps was an option Huawei had in one of their apps as a system clean-out.... it also didn't cause any issues.

 


Thanks!

TheOldVR
Deputy Mayor / Adjoint au Maire

@mh1983 wrote:

@mh1983no issues here dude, it just works.

Great! So long as it's working for you. Just wanted to throw caution to the wind. Also, though I am in fact a male, please don't assume. 🙂 


LOL - isn't "dude" gender neutral now? It is for me at least.... 

 

Apologies,..... updated text below 😛

 

@mh1983no issues here dude or dudette, it just works.

 

 

 

mh1983
Deputy Mayor / Adjoint au Maire

@mh1983no issues here dude, it just works.

Great! So long as it's working for you. Just wanted to throw caution to the wind. Also, though I am in fact a male, please don't assume. 🙂 

TheOldVR
Deputy Mayor / Adjoint au Maire

 

@hycm53... yup, actually right now it's an option on the Launcher for Seniors that I have on my Mom and Dad's Phones'. It works well... and I don't see any issues that they are having...

 

@mh1983no issues here dude, it just works.

 

This is the one I have setup for them.... https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.senior_safety_phone&hl=en

 

Clearing the open apps was an option Huawei had in one of their apps as a system clean-out.... it also didn't cause any issues.

 

mh1983
Deputy Mayor / Adjoint au Maire

I'd be weary of apps that close everything and clear memory as they can drain the battery and actually have an adverse effect on Android memory management. 


@TheOldVR wrote:

 

I think the advice is good... here's how I handle the same...

 

Android phones.... I have an app that closes all open apps and clears memory every night, I think @ 3am. I do this as others are using these phones and I need the phones to take care of themselves. No issues so far and it seems to work well.

 

Iphones... I manually close apps on a regular basis but never reboot. IOS seems to be fine with running forever.....

 

Just my 2 cents 😉


What app that closes all open apps and clears memory every night?

TheOldVR
Deputy Mayor / Adjoint au Maire

 

I think the advice is good... here's how I handle the same...

 

Android phones.... I have an app that closes all open apps and clears memory every night, I think @ 3am. I do this as others are using these phones and I need the phones to take care of themselves. No issues so far and it seems to work well.

 

Iphones... I manually close apps on a regular basis but never reboot. IOS seems to be fine with running forever.....

 

Just my 2 cents 😉

mh1983
Deputy Mayor / Adjoint au Maire

My thought is it depends on the phone! Android devices, I would have to reboot often to clear out cache/free up memory. BlackBerry 10 devices, not so much, but from time to time. Not sure about iPhones.

 

As with most things, you'll get contending opinions. I would suggest to reboot if you suspect something's acting up on your phone or it's slowing down -- a reboot can definitely rule out a lot of things and often clear up the issue. But I can safely say I've never done a "planned" reboot of a phone -- just as-needed. That's my take.

bishamon
Good Citizen / Bon Citoyen

@sa7375 wrote:

Rebooting Phone.jpg

Two distinctly different recommendations on how often to re-boot your phone:

 

  • Reader’s Digest recommends every week. “To help preserve memory and prevent crashes, consider restarting your smartphone at least once a week”. More here
  • Times recommends every year. “So once a year, not once a week, power your phone off all the way. And don’t let anyone else — not even your IT guy — tell you otherwise.”. More here

Any thoughts Smiley Surprised


Hi,

I would say that you should fully restart your phone close to every week.  This helps clear any applications you have running in the background and possibly any runaway processes that may still be running.

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