How to fix a Samsung Galaxy A3 that is performing very slowly (easy steps)

Is your Samsung Galaxy A3 starting to slow down? Find out why and how to speed it up again. It is normal for mobile devices to slow down after months or years of regular usage. In fact, sluggishness is one of the common indications that a device has aged and/or depreciating. The blame can be on a faulty hardware or bad software. But in many cases, slow performance issues in smartphones like the Galaxy A3 are attributed to memory issues like insufficient memory on the phone. This can be the issue on your end if you are fond of storing complex files or downloading huge apps on your device. Thus even if your device is still new, its performance could still depreciate significantly. While you might have added some extra storage through external storage media, your device memory can still shrink unless it is properly managed. This post demonstrates some helpful ways on how to keep your Galaxy A3 at its best if not better performance despite its latter part of existence.

Before we proceed with our troubleshooting, if you are looking for a solution to a different problem, you may want to visit our A3 troubleshooting page for we have already addressed some of the most common problems with this device. Find issues that are similar with yours and use the solutions we suggested. If they don’t work for you or if you need further assistance, you can always contact us by filling up our questionnaire here.

What to do when your Galaxy A3 gets so sluggish?

For first time instances, a reboot or soft reset will most likely be able to solve the problem. It’s typical for mobile devices to experience random lags, crashes, and freezes due to minor software glitches. Minor issues like these are often addressed by a soft reset. That said, allow your phone to rest for at least 30 seconds and then restart. That should help refresh the system and allows your phone to get back to its usual state.

But if you’ve already done several reboots but only to end up having the same slow Galaxy A3, you should already consider resorting to some other workarounds that can help get your phone back to its ideal performance level.

Potential solutions to fix Galaxy A3 that’s performing so slow

Below is a rundown of applicable workarounds and potential solutions you can try on should you wish to troubleshoot software issues that might have inflicted a sudden performance degradation on your Galaxy A3 smartphone.

Quit all background apps.

When you leave several apps to stay running in the background, there is a tendency that any of these apps will crash and thereby adversely affects the overall performance of your phone. This is also one of the common reasons as to why apps issues occur in mobile devices. While keeping apps running in the background can offer benefits especially when it comes to multitasking, things can likewise go wrong when any of these background apps goes rogue. That said, quitting background apps in at least three times a week is likewise recommended. For starters, here’s how it’s done:

1. Tap the Recent Apps button. Doing so will show up a list of all the apps you have recently used.
2. Scroll through the app until you find Facebook.
3. Tap and drag the Facebook app to either edge of the screen to close it.
4. Alternatively, you can tap on the X in the upper-right corner of the Facebook app to close it. Or you can tap Close All option to quit all open apps at once. This can help fix any issue triggered by the background apps.

See if that helps. If not, then move on to the next workarounds.

Boot into safe mode and diagnose apps.

Booting into safe mode can help you determine if any of your third-party apps or downloaded contents is causing your Galaxy A3 to slow down. If your phone started to slow down after downloading new app or media files, the problem is more likely triggered by the recent download. To confirm, boot your Galaxy A3 into safe mode and diagnose your apps.

Here’s how to enter safe mode on your Galaxy A3:

1. Turn off your phone.
2. Press and hold the Volume Down button.
3. Continue holding the Volume Down button then press the Power button briefly to power up your phone.
4. Wait until your phone powers up in Safe mode and you can stop pressing the Volume Down button by then.

You will know if your device is already in safe mode if you see the Safe Mode label at the bottom left corner of the Home screen. Use your phone as you normally do while in safe mode. If the problem is gone while in safe mode, it denotes that a recent app is causing the issue. Try to remove the problematic app from your device by moving on to these steps:

1. Then tap Apps.
2. Tap Settings.
3. Scroll down to and tap on Application Manager.
4. Navigate to the Downloaded section then tap on a recently downloaded app you suspect may be causing conflict.
5. If you have any recent apps installed on your SD card, you can also scroll across to SD card section and then try to remove any suspected apps.

After uninstalling an app, power off your device and then turn it back on. Verify if the problem has been resolved or not. It it persists, remove other app you suspect the follow the same process.

When you’re done using Safe Mode, simply restart your device to switch back to normal mode.

If the problem persists while running in Safe Mode, then you’ll need to further troubleshoot your device software.

Manager internal memory on your Galaxy A3.

Check the current memory status on your phone and if you see the need to free up some space, remove all unnecessary apps including old messages, photos, and other media files that are no longer useful from your device. Also consider removing some of your downloaded apps that you don’t use. To check the available memory on your Galaxy A3, follow these steps:

1. Tap and drag the Notifications bar down from the Home screen.
2. Tap the Settings icon.
3. Scroll to and tap Storage.
4. View and assess the available memory on your device. To view available SD/Memory card space, scroll down to the SD card section.

If the available memory is below 1GB, free up some space by deleting unwanted apps and contents from your device. To delete unwanted apps from your Galaxy A3, follow these steps:

1. Tap and drag the Notifications bar down from the Home screen.
2. Tap the Settings icon.
3. Scroll to and tap Application Manager.
4. Scroll to and tap the suspected app to remove.
5. Tap Uninstall twice to confirm action.

Reboot your device after deleting some apps then see if that fixes the problem.

Clear app cache and data.

If the problem only occurs while using certain apps like Chrome or other browser app on your phone, then it’s likely an isolated issue on an app. In this case, clearing the app’s cache and data can help. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Tap Apps on the Home screen.
2. Tap to open Settings.
3. Scroll to the Application section then tap Application manager.
4. Navigate to the Downloaded section or All.
5. Select the app and tap Clear cache or Clear data.
6. Then tap OK to confirm.
7. Wait until the cache clearing is complete then press the Home key to go back to the Home screen.

Reboot your phone when you’re done clearing cache and data on the troubled app and see if that yields positive output.

Wipe cache partition on your Galaxy A3.

Wiping the cache partition is also helpful especially if the sluggish performance issue on your device is attributed to some corrupt cache and temporary files in the system partition. Should you wish to give it a try, here’s how:

1. Power off your phone.
2. Then press and hold the Power, Volume Up and Home buttons simultaneously.
3. Release the Power button when the Samsung logo appears but keep holding the Volume Up and Home buttons for a few more seconds.
4. When the Android logo appears, release the remaining buttons. This will prompt you with the Android system recovery menu.
5. Press the Volume Down button repeatedly to highlight or select Wipe cache partition from the given options.
6. Then press the Power button to confirm selection. Your phone will then instigate wiping the cache partition. When it’s finished, the Reboot system now option is highlighted.
7. Press the Power button to confirm restart on your phone.

See if that fixed the problem and get your device back up and running faster again.

Update apps or device software.

Software updates are also necessary to maintain stability, optimization, and performance on your phone. Updates also contain bug fixes that can help eliminate bugs and malware from your device that might have inflicted performance degradation. To check for available operating system update on your Galaxy A3, follow these steps:

1. Tap Apps from the Home screen.
2. Tap Settings.
3. Navigate to System then tap About device.
4. Tap Software update.
5. Tap Update now to continue.
6. Wait for your phone to complete checking for available software updates.

If an update is available, back up your data and then follow the onscreen instructions to download and install the update. Make sure your device has ample of memory left to allocate the update file. Check how your device works after updating the software.

Backup and restore/reset your Galaxy A3.

The problem you’re dealing with might be regarded as an intricate system issue if it persists after performing all prior procedures. If you’ve reached this point with no luck, then you may consider resorting to a full system reset already. This however will wipe every information stored on your phone including your customized settings and personal information. Should you wish to proceed, be sure to back up all your critical data beforehand hand. Then follow these steps to reset and restore your Galaxy A3 to its original settings. Here’s how:

1. Tap Apps.
2. Tap Settings.
3. Scroll to and tap Backup and reset.
4. Tap Factory data reset.
5. Tap Reset device to continue.
6. Then tap Erase everything.

Wait until the system reset is complete. Reboot your phone when the reset is finished then proceed with the initial setup. See if that fixed the problem. If not, then consider other options.

Other options to consider if nothing else works

Contact your device carrier or Samsung Support if the slow performance issue on your Galaxy A3 instigated after installing a new firmware update and that it persisted after performing all prior procedures. It is possible that the update had caused your device to act this way and that needs to be addressed immediately. Usually a follow-up update containing  the required fix patch will be rolled out in this case.

Meanwhile if you suspect that a damaged component is to blame especially when you previously dropped or got your phone wet, then opting for service would be a better idea. Most probably, your device has obtain some sort of physical or liquid damage from any of these prior instances and therefore needs physical repair. In this case, take your phone to a service center nearby instead.

Posts you may also like:

• What to do when your Samsung Galaxy A3 shows “moisture detected” error [Troubleshooting Guide]
• Samsung Galaxy A3 won’t charge due to ‘moisture has been detected’ warning [Troubleshooting Guide]
• How to fix your Samsung Galaxy A3 (2017) that keeps restarting on its own [Troubleshooting Guide]
• How to fix a Samsung Galaxy A3 that gets stuck in boot loop, won’t continue booting up [Troubleshooting Guide]
• “Unfortunately, Google Play Services has stopped” keeps popping up on Samsung Galaxy A3 [Troubleshooting Guide]