Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT

Tech Tip

Reviving a Sluggish iPhone

To close a single app, double-click the iPhone’s Home button and swipe upwards on the preview window of the misbehaving program.Credit...The New York Times

Q. I notice sometimes that apps just stop or my iPhone runs really slow, and the only thing that seems to fix it again is turning the phone all the way off and letting it start back up again. Is there anything else I can do?

A. While Apple’s iOS operating system generally manages the device’s memory for you as you open apps and switch between them, you do have a few tricks to try if the iPhone begins to act sluggish. If just one app seems to be acting balky or freezing up, try forcibly closing it.

To force-quit an iOS app, double-click (quickly press twice) the iPhone’s Home button to see smaller preview windows of all your open programs. Swipe through the carousel of windows until you get to the preview screen for the app that seems to be having a problem. Put your finger on the app’s preview and swipe up toward the top of the iPhone screen until the preview window disappears. The app should now be fully closed.

If you are not sure which app is causing the slowness — or if the whole iPhone seems to be crawling — you can try clearing out the device’s random access memory. This does not delete apps, but frees up the place they were temporarily occupying in the iPhone’s RAM.

To clear the memory, unlock the iPhone so you see the home screen or another app, then hold down the power button on the top or side of the device. When you see the “Slide to Power Off” screen appear, let go of the power button and press the Home button on the bottom edge of the screen for a few seconds. Stop pressing the button when the iPhone’s home screen reappears. Its memory should now be refreshed and any open apps will reload themselves.

Personal Tech invites questions about computer-based technology to techtip@nytimes.com. This column will answer questions of general interest, but letters cannot be answered individually.

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT