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Samsung Galaxy Note 8 lags when launching an app, started to run so slow [Troubleshooting Guide]

Lags, freezes and sluggish performance are among the issues you may encounter after a few months of using your phone. These performance-related problems may occur depending on your habit, apps you use and the amount of data you have accumulated and saved in your phone. In other words, it’s difficult to pinpoint what the problem really is.

Now, some of our readers who own the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 have been complaining about lags when launching apps and that the phone reportedly started to run slow. The Note 8 packs a really impressive hardware and refined features together with the most updated firmware however, many users are complaining about various issues here and there. So, in this post, I will tackle a couple of issues hoping we could help our readers who reached out to us.

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If you’re one of the owners of this phone and are currently bugged by a similar problem, continue reading this article as you may find it helpful. However, if you are looking for a solution to a different issue, visit our Note 8 troubleshooting page for we have already addressed some of the most common problems with this device. Browse through the page to find issues similar with yours and feel free to use our solutions and workarounds. If you still need our help after that, then fill up our questionnaire and hit submit to contact us.

Troubleshooting Note 8 that lags and runs slow

The purpose of this troubleshooting guide is for us to determine why a premium phone like the Note 8 is still lagging and became sluggish. We will try to consider every possibility and rule them out one by one until we can determine what the problem really is all about. Then, we can try to formulate a solution that may fix the problem for good. With all that being said, here’s what I suggest you do about these issues…

Observe your phone in Safe mode

The first thing that we should do is isolate the problems without doing any complicated procedures. By running your phone in safe mode, you’re temporarily disabling all third-party apps. This procedure is significant because there’s a high probability that the cause of the lags and sluggishness are some of the third-party apps you installed. Logically, if the phone runs normally in this mode, then our suspicion is confirmed. The next course of action would be to find the apps that cause the problem and uninstall them.

Now, this is how you run your phone in safe mode…

  1. Turn the device off.
  2. Press and hold the Power key past the model name screen.
  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. Safe mode will display in the bottom left corner of the screen.
  7. Release the Volume down key when you see Safe Mode.

Assuming that your phone no longer lags when opening apps and that it runs smoothly and fast while in this mode, then find the culprit and uninstall it.

  1. From the Home screen, swipe up on an empty spot to open the Apps tray.
  2. Tap Settings > Apps.
  3. Tap the desired application in the default list or tap 3 dots icon > Show system apps to display pre-installed apps.
  4. Tap the desired application.
  5. Tap Uninstall.
  6. Tap Uninstall again to confirm.

You may have to uninstall more than one app and reboot your phone countless times to test while you’re troubleshooting. But if that’s what it takes to make your device run faster again, it’s all worth it.

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Reset apps that cause the lags and freezes

Let’s assume at this point that the problem also manifests while your phone is running in safe mode or after uninstalling suspected apps, the next thing you should do is reset the apps that directly cause the problem. For instance, if your Note 8 lags when you open Facebook, then reset it by clearing its cache and data. There’s a chance that this is just a minor app problem…

  1. From the Home screen, swipe up on an empty spot to open the Apps tray.
  2. Tap Settings > Apps.
  3. Tap the desired application in the default list or tap 3 dots icon > Show system apps to display preinstalled apps.
  4. Tap Storage.
  5. Tap Clear data and then tap OK.
  6. Tap Clear cache.

I would also suggest you try updating apps that have available updates as it might also be a compatibility issue. It’s best to thorough at this point…

  1. From the Home screen, swipe up on an empty spot to open the Apps tray.
  2. Tap Play Store.
  3. Tap the Menu key and then tap My Apps. To keep your apps automatically updated, tap the Menu > Settings then tap Auto-update apps to select the check box.
  4. 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.

Reset All Settings in your Note 8

After doing the first two procedures and the lags and sluggishness didn’t go away, it’s time to resort to a method that has a great impact on the firmware but won’t delete your apps, files and data. There’s an option in the Settings menu wherein it brings the phone back to its default configuration but won’t delete any of your personal files. Only your preferences for each app and feature will be changed back to default.

It might be just a simple procedure but it’s effective enough to fix lags, freezes and sluggishness…

  1. From a Home screen, swipe up or down from the center of the display to access the apps screen.
  2. Navigate: Settings Settings icon > Backup and reset.
  3. From the Reset section, tap Reset settings.
  4. Review the info then tap RESET SETTINGS.
  5. If presented, enter the current PIN, password, or pattern.
  6. To confirm, review the info then tap RESET SETTINGS.

Beyond this point, if the problems continue to bug you, then we can consider them as an issue with the firmware already. The next method will be for the firmware.

Delete all system caches so they’ll be replaced

Another possibility that we have to rule out is the possibility that these problems are due to some corrupt system caches especially if these issues started to manifest shortly after an update. Caches are created by the system but if you delete them, the system will new files to replace them and that’s what I want you to do now.

  1. Turn off the device.
  2. Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Bixby key, then press and hold the Power key.
  3. When the green Android logo displays, release all keys (‘Installing system update’ will show for about 30 – 60 seconds before showing the Android system recovery menu options).
  4. Press the Volume down key several times to highlight ‘wipe cache partition’.
  5. Press Power button to select.
  6. Press the Volume down key until ‘yes’ is highlighted and press the Power button.
  7. When the wipe cache partition is complete, “Reboot system now” is highlighted.
  8. Press the Power key to restart the device.

Continue observing your phone after this procedure. If its performance didn’t improve, then you have to resort to a full reset.

Backup your files and reset your Note 8

It’s time to reset your phone since every procedure failed to fix the problem. A reset will surely bring your phone back to its out-of-the-box performance however, you will have to go through the hassle of backing up your files, data and other information prior to the reset as they will be deleted during the process.

After you’ve finished backing up your files and data, disable the Factory Reset Protection by removing your Google ID so that you won’t be locked out after the reset.

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

I hope that this troubleshooting guide can help you one way or the other. If you still need our help after this, feel free to contact us.

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