Tune up your Samsung phone and increase speed, space, security
Increase speed, space, security on Samsung phones with this tune-up. How to carry out essential maintenance tasks to keep your phone running at peak performance. Your phone will love it!
If you have a Samsung Galaxy S8 or S7 you will have Android 7 on your phone, plus a few extras bundled with it. If you have an old Samsung Galaxy S6 then sooner or later you will received the Android 7 update. I have mine already and it is very different to Android 6.
In past times, the extras that Samsung bundled with the phone were not always welcome, but these days some of them are quite good. Have you explored the new Device maintenance section in Android 7 Settings? It has some useful features, but not all of them are enabled by default. Let’s take a look at what you can do with it and why it is so good.
Related: Android tune-up – optimise memory and storage on your phoneRelated: Give your Android phone a boost with these 3 free optimizers
Device maintenance on your Samsung phone
Pull down from the top of the screen and press the gear icon to open Settings. Press Device maintenance.
The Device maintenance screen looks slightly different depending on the health of your phone. The screenshot below was taken the first time this feature was used. My phone had a score of 68/100 and there is a problem – in the bottom right corner under Device security it says Deactivated. Tap the FIX NOW button. (The button says OPTIMISE NOW if the phone is currently in fairly good shape.)
Tap the FIX NOW button and the device is optimised. In my case two background apps were closed and some storage space was cleared and 240MB was recovered.
Set up security on Samsung phones
There is a recommendation to turn on virus scanning and if you have not yet done so and don’t have another security app, press the TURN ON button.
Bundled with Samsung’s version of Android 7 is Intel Security Anti-Malware solution. This is basically a stripped to the bone version of McAfee security (Intel owns McAfee). There are none of the extras or the branding and if you tap the AGREE button, the phone is protected by anti-malware that works silently in the background.
Once enabled, you can visit Device maintenance in Settings and press the Device security button in the bottom right corner of the screen to go directly to the scanner. Press SCAN PHONE and it is checked for malware. It is a good idea to do this every time a new app is installed.
Below the scanning button are optional extras. They aren’t necessary, so feel free to ignore them.
Clean up the storage
After scanning for malware, return to the Device maintenance home screen and press the Storage button at the bottom of the screen. There is a large CLEAN NOW button that removes unnecessary junk files and empties caches.
This does not remove the items listed below – that is just a breakdown of how your storage is being used.
The clean-up function is provided by Clean Master and for users of other phones, you can install it for free from the Google Play Store. This version is stripped back to basics and it doesn’t have the branding, ads or any other irritating items of the store app. It simply cleans.
Clean the phone memory
Return to the Device maintenance home screen and press the Memory button at the bottom. The CLEAN NOW button clears unused apps and services that are running in the background. This recovers used memory, which can be useful if you want to run an app that needs a lot, such as a game.
The one remaining item on the Device maintenance screen we have yet to look at is Battery. Press the button to switch to one of the power saving modes or to turn it off. Underneath the MID and MAX buttons is the estimated time left on the battery.
I will take a closer look at the battery features in a future article because it deserves more space. Lots of people have battery issues and it is a hot topic.