How to make Samsung Galaxy J5 that’s running slow run faster [Troubleshooting Guide]

The Samsung Galaxy J5 is a mid-range device and while it has received quite a lot of positive reviews because of its specs and performance, it’s still prone to having performance-related issues such as sluggishness, slowing down, freezes, etc. In fact, we’ve already received complaints from our readers who own this device because some of them have already experienced having to use Galaxy J5 that are running slow.

In this post, I will walk you through in making your Galaxy J5 run faster again. We will take into consideration possibilities why your phone started to become sluggish after a few months of use. Then, we will try to rule out each possibility until we can pinpoint what the problem really is and what needs to be done to fix the problem if necessary. So, if you’re one of the owners of this phone and are currently suffering from performance problems, read on as this post may be able to help you.

Before anything else though, if you have other issues with your device, then visit our Galaxy J5 troubleshooting page for we have already addressed several common problems with this phone. Odds are that there are already existing solutions to your problems so just take time finding issues that are similar with yours. If you can’t find one or if you need further assistance, feel free to contact us by completing our Android issues questionnaire. Please provide us with as much information as possible so that it would also be easier for us to troubleshoot the problem. Don’t worry as we offer this service for free, so all you have to do is give us sufficient information about the problem.

How to troubleshoot Samsung Galaxy J5 that’s running slow

This troubleshooting guide is for our readers who are seeking assistance to make their devices run faster. While we don’t suggest things that can potentially damage or mess up your phone even more, things might occur while you’re troubleshooting so please proceed at your own risk. Now before we jump right into our troubleshooting steps, here’s one of the messages we received from our readers about a Galaxy J5 that started to run so slow after months of use:

Problem: Hey guys. How are you doing? I have the Galaxy J5 which has been with me since November last year. I actually don’t have a serious problem with it, it’s just that it’s now running slow unlike when I first got it. I understand the phone may slow down a bit after months of continuous use but mine seems not normal. Before, it would only take a second or two to open the messaging app but now, it may even reach a minute before I can read my messages. I don’t know if this is a sign of a more serious firmware problem or not but if you can help me make my J5 run faster again, that would be appreciated. Thanks a lot!

Troubleshooting: Just like what our reader said, there’s no sign of a serious problem, the phone only runs slow. So, we will have to look into some factors that often lead to this kind of issue and we will try to do something about them. Go through the steps below to see if you can make your phone run faster again…

Step 1: Reboot your phone in safe mode and observe

Booting your phone up in safe mode alone won’t fix the problem, although it may run faster while in that mode since all third-party apps are disabled. That’s what we have to find out because if there’s a big difference between the performance of your phone when it’s in normal mode, then the cause of the issue could be one or some of the apps you installed. In this case, you just have to find the apps that use up more resources than others, backup their data and then uninstall them to find out if the phone would run faster after that. You may have to uninstall more than one app depending on the situations.

So, this is how you start your Galaxy J5 in safe mode…

Turn the device off.
Press and hold the Power key past the screen with the device name.
When ‘SAMSUNG’ appears on the screen, release the Power key.
Immediately after releasing the Power key, press and hold the Volume down key.
Continue to hold the Volume down key until the device finishes restarting.
Safe mode will display in the bottom left corner of the screen.
Release the Volume down key when you see ‘Safe Mode’.

And this is how you uninstall an apps from your J5…

From any Home screen, tap the Apps icon.
Tap Settings.
Tap Applications.
Tap Application manager.
Tap the desired application
Tap Uninstall.
Tap Uninstall again to confirm.

However, if the phone is still very slow while in Safe mode, then it’s a sign that problem isn’t with the third-party apps. Move on to the next step.

Step 2: Clear the cache and data of apps that run slow

This is only applicable if the phone becomes sluggish when you use a specific app. For instance, you mentioned that it will now take almost a minute for the phone to open the messaging app, so you need to reset that app and any other that might be doing the same thing. Follow these steps to clear the cache and data of apps you suspect to be causing the problem…

From any Home screen, tap the Apps icon.
Tap Settings.
Tap Applications.
Tap Application manager.
Tap the desired application in the default list or tap MORE > Show system apps to display preinstalled apps.
Tap Storage.
Tap Clear data and then tap OK.
Tap Clear cache.

You may also try to find out if there are available updates for those apps because if there is, then updating them may fix the problem…

From any Home screen, tap the Apps icon.
Tap Play Store.
Tap the Menu key and then tap My Apps. To keep your apps automatically updated, tap the Menu key, tap Settings, and then tap Auto-update apps to select the check box.
Choose one of the following options:
- Tap Update [xx] to update all applications with updates available.
- Tap an individual application and then tap Update to update a single application.

If the problem still occurs after doing all this, the next step must be done.

Step 3: Try to delete all system caches so they’ll be replaced

Corrupt system caches will also cause the phone to slow down considering the fact that caches are supposed to make the phone run faster, smooth and buttery in its execution of your commands. Since you have no access to individual apps, you have to delete all of them so they’ll be replaced when the phone boots up. Here’s how you do it:

Turn off the device.
Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Home key, then press and hold the Power key.
When the device logo screen displays, release only the Power key
When the Android logo displays, release all keys (‘Installing system update’ will show for about 30 – 60 seconds before showing the Android system recovery menu options).
Press the Volume down key several times key to highlight ‘wipe cache partition.’
Press the Power key to select.
Press the Volume down key to highlight ‘yes’ and press the Power key to select.
When the wipe cache partition is complete, ‘Reboot system now’ is highlighted.
Press the Power key to restart the device.

The phone will take a little more time booting up after you’ve wiped off its cache partition so wait for it to become active. If, however, it’s still sluggish and slow, then you have no other option but to do the next step.

Step 4: Backup your files and data, do the Master reset

That’s right! At this point, you have to backup your files and data and do the reset since all the basic troubleshooting steps you’ve done didn’t yield any favorable results. Backup your files as they will be deleted, sync your phone with your Google account so your contacts and other data will be backed up in the cloud and then disable the Factory Reset Protection (FRP) or anti-theft feature so you won’t be locked out after the reset.

How to disable FRP or anti-theft on Galaxy J5

From the Home screen, tap the Apps icon.
Tap Settings.
Tap Accounts.
Tap Google.
Tap your Google ID email address. If you have multiple accounts setup, you will need to repeat these steps for each account.
Tap More.
Tap Remove account.
Tap REMOVE ACCOUNT.

How to reset your Galaxy J5

Turn off the device.
Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Home key, then press and hold the Power key.
When the device logo screen displays, release only the Power key
When the Android logo displays, release all keys (‘Installing system update’ will show for about 30 – 60 seconds before showing the Android system recovery menu options).
Press the Volume down key several times key to highlight ‘wipe data / factory reset.’
Press Power button to select.
Press the Volume down key until ‘Yes — delete all user data’ is highlighted.
Press Power button to select and start the master reset.
When the master reset is complete, ‘Reboot system now’ is highlighted.
Press the Power key to restart the device.

You may also reset your phone through Settings…

From the Home screen, tap the Apps icon.
Tap Settings.
Tap Backup and reset.
If desired, tap Back up my data to move the slider to ON or OFF.
If desired, tap Restore to move the slider to ON or OFF.
Tap Factory data reset.
Tap Reset device.
If you have screen lock turned on, enter your PIN or password.
Tap Continue.
Tap Delete all.

For sure, your phone will run faster after the reset so you may now restore your files and data back to your device.

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