How to fix Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 that’s running so slow or has poor performance

With its impressive hardware specs, you can always expect the Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 to be fast and unresponsive in every aspect. It must perform better than mid-range laptops released a couple of years ago. However, if it starts to run slow or shows poor performance, it could be due to apps or some firmware issues.

Software problems are seldom attributed to hardware issues provided the device hasn’t suffered either physical or liquid damage. So, if this is not the case with your Tab S4, then there’s really something you can do to make it run faster again. In this post, I will walk you through in doing some troubleshooting procedures that could regain the tablet’s performance so continue reading as this may help you one way or another.

But before we actually move on to our troubleshooting, if you have other issues with your phone, then visit our troubleshooting page as we’ve already addressed some of the most common problems with this device. In case you need more help with your problem, fill up our Android issues questionnaire and hit submit to contact us.

What you should do to make Galaxy Tab S4 run fast again?

We just need to find out if there are apps, third-party or pre-installed, that cause the problem. If there are, then the problem will be a lot easier to fix. If it’s also just a problem with the firmware, there are still a couple of procedures you can do to fix it.

Force restart your Tab S4 – before doing any complicated troubleshooting procedures, try to soft reset your tablet to refresh its memory and load all its apps and services. Some glitches may have been causing inconsistencies in the normal operation of the system and the forced restart can fix them. To do this, press and hold the Power and Volume down key for up to 45 seconds. Your device will reboot and observe its performance once it becomes active again. If the problem remained, then move on to the next procedure.

Reboot your phone in safe mode – we will now try to find out if the cause of the problem are some third-party applications. There are apps that can make your device, no matter how fast it is, slow like heavy apps and CPU-intensive games. By running your device in safe mode, you’re only allowing pre-installed applications to run and if the problem is indeed caused by a third-party, then your tablet shouldn’t have any issues while in this mode. In such case, the next thing you should do is find the culprit and uninstall it. Here’s how to reboot your Tab S4 in safe mode:

1. Turn the device off.
2. Press and hold the Power key.
3. When Samsung appears on the screen, release the Power key.
4. Immediately after releasing the Power key, press and hold the Volume down key.
5. Continue to hold the Volume down key until the device finishes restarting.
6. Release the Volume down key when you see Safe Mode on the device.

Reset all settings – you would only need to do this if your tablet still runs so poorly even while in safe mode because if that’s the case, then the problem could be with the firmware. The first thing you must do is to see if it has something to do with the tablet’s settings or configuration that’s why you need to do this procedure to bring it back to its default settings.

1. From the Home screen, swipe up on an empty spot to open the Apps tray.
2. Tap Settings > General Management > Reset > Reset settings.
3. Tap RESET SETTINGS.
4. If you have set up a PIN, enter it.
5. Tap RESET SETTINGS.
6. The device will restart to perform the reset of settings.

If the performance didn’t improve after doing the procedure above, then you will have to do the next couple of procedures to fix a possible firmware problems.

Delete the system cache – if the system cache gets corrupted or becomes obsolete, the first to suffer is the device’s performance and this could be the case here especially if the problem started without apparent reason. You need to wipe the cache partition to delete and replace the system cache with a new one. Here’s how it’s done…

1. Turn off the device.
2. Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Home key, then press and hold the Power key.
3. When the Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 logo screen displays, release all three keys, then press and quickly release the Power key
4. ‘Installing system update’ will show for about 30 – 60 seconds, then a ‘No command’ Android will appear before showing the Android system recovery menu options.
5. Press the Volume down key several times key to highlight ‘wipe cache partition.’
6. Press Power button to select.
7. When the wipe is complete, ‘Reboot system now’ is highlighted.
8. Press the Power key to restart the device.

Perform the master reset – a reset can always fix performance issues provided that they’re firmware-related problems and not caused by hardware issues. I am confident that a reset will make your Tab S4 run faster again. However, make sure that all your important files and data are backed up because they will be deleted from your tablet’s internal storage. You may save them in the cloud or move them to your SD card or computer. After that, follow these steps to reset your tablet:

1. Turn off the device.
2. Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Home key, then press and hold the Power key.
3. When the Samsung Galaxy logo screen displays, release all of the keys, the press and quickly release the Power key
4. ‘Installing system update’ will show for about 30 – 60 seconds, then a ‘No command’ Android will appear before showing the Android system recovery menu options.
5. Press the Volume down key several times key to highlight ‘wipe data / factory reset.’
6. Press the Power key to select.
7. Press the Volume down key until ‘Yes — delete all user data’ is highlighted.
8. Press the Power key to select and start the master reset.
9. When the master reset is complete, ‘Reboot system now’ is highlighted.
10. Press the Power key to restart the device.

I hope that this how-to post has helped you one way or another. Please help us spread the word by sharing this post to your friends or people who may also have similar problems. Thanks for reading!

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