There is nothing more frustrating than trying to make a phone call and having your smartphone freeze. I have owned many makes and models of smartphones over the past five years and am yet to find one that doesn’t freeze occasionally. Here are my top four solutions to solve your freezing woes.

Restart
The first thing any tech person will ask you regarding any piece of frozen technology is “have you turned it off and on?”. Simply hold down the power button with which you normally turn on your phone for around 10 seconds and it should perform a hard reset. You will then need to turn the phone back on and this should complete any software updates which may have caused your phone to freeze.

Charge
As your phone approaches low battery charge, there is a higher chance of it freezing. This is because smartphones go into battery saving mode when a critical power level is reached so that anything currently open won’t be lost. Plug your phone into the power and leave it for five minutes. If the phone is still frozen, give it a restart while it’s plugged in.

Update
Were you busy using your phone when the latest update notification came through? If you pressed the ‘Not Now’ or ‘Deny’ button, then it could be six months since you were asked to update your software. Obsolete software can cause problems with updated apps and new games, causing some smartphones to freeze. Give your phone a restart and then Google ‘how to update my smartphone’, including the brand and model of your phone in your search. Follow the instructions and install the new update.

Space
Depending on your phone, you could have anywhere between eight and 128GB of space. The more free space you have, the better your phone will run. You will find that when your phone only has 1-2GB of free space remaining it starts to slow down and can freeze more frequently. Google ‘how to remove apps from my smartphone’, replacing ‘smartphone’ with the brand and model of your phone. Remove any games you no longer play or apps you no longer use to free up space.