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How to speed up the Nexus 6 for better performance

AndroidPIT Nexus 6 full pic
© nextpit

The Nexus 6 is a powerful beast of a smartphone, but that doesn't mean there aren't ways to boost the performance even further. Over time, you might start to notice your phone to get slow and laggy, but getting your smartphone back on track isn't too arduous a process. How to speed up the Nexus 6 for faster performance.

AndroidPIT Nexus 6 full pic
Is your Nexus 6 slowing down? / © NextPit

You might have to do some detective work along the way to work out exactly what's going wrong — is a particular app the main problem, or are you noticing slowdowns across the device as a whole? If you don't want to tackle things manually, there are various apps that can help too: CCleaner and Clean Master are two of the best options.

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Clear the cache

The cache on your phone, whether it relates to individual apps or the handset as a whole, is designed to store frequently used data temporarily so that it can be quickly called up again. However, over time, this cache can get filled with redundant data that hinders rather than helps your handset.

AndroidPIT Nexus 6 app cache
Clearing the app cache is one trick to try. / © NextPit

Clearing out the cache for individual apps is easy enough: Tap on Settings, then choose Apps and select any of the apps listed. On the subsequent screen you'll see a Clear Cache button — tap on this to give the app a clean slate. From the Storage screen in Settings, you can clear out the cache for all your apps at once by tapping on the Cached data entry.

Emptying the system cache is a little more involved, so we'd recommend double-checking that all your files are backed up first, but it can improve performance and help troubleshoot problems. Turn off your Nexus 6. then press the Power and Volume Down buttons to enter the bootloader.

AndroidPIT Nexus 6 recovery mode
Clearing the device cache takes a little more time. / © NextPit

Use the Volume keys to select Recovery mode, then hit Power. When you see the green Android, hold down Power and Volume Up for three or four seconds, then release the Volume Up button. Choose Wipe Cache Partition from the menu and you can then restart your cleaned up handset.

Shut down and uninstall apps

Is your Nexus 6 slowing down whenever a particular app or website is involved? If so, updating the app in question or your web browser might improve matters. From the Play Store app, tap the My apps entry on the menu to see if any updates are available.

AndroidPIT Nexus 6 my apps
Check for any recent app updates. / © NextPit

If an update makes no difference then see if uninstalling it helps — tap and hold on the icon in the app drawer then drag it up to the Uninstall button. If performance suddenly improves then you might want to contact the developer to support the problems you've having.

It's actually good practice to uninstall any apps you're not regularly using, because it frees up storage space on your device and reduces the strain on the memory at the same time. You can always reinstall them again from the Google Play Store if you need to.

AndroidPIT Nexus 6 apps overview
Closing down apps can also help. / © NextPit

Android Lollipop keeps as many apps in memory as it can, even after you reboot, and shutting down some of them can result in small performance gains. Tap the Overview button (the square one on the right) and you can see the apps in memory — swipe left or right to dismiss them.

Reset your phone

If all else fails then resetting your phone back to its original factory state should do the trick of getting performance levels back to what they were. Having made sure all of your music, photos and other data is safely backed up somewhere, head to Backup & reset in Settings to take the plunge.

AndroidPIT Nexus 6 factory reset
Use a reset if nothing else works. / © NextPit

You should only really use a factory reset as a last resort, though with so much now stored in the cloud — from apps to emails — getting all your stuff back isn't the laborious process it once was. Troubleshoot any problems you're having with individual apps before you take the reset route.

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David Nield

David Nield
Writer

David is a freelance technology journalist who has been writing about Android apps and gadgets since the earliest days of the platform. He spends most of his time experimenting with phones, tablets and most other types of tech, particularly if it's Google-related.

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4 comments
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  • siby koshy 1
    siby koshy Oct 7, 2015 Link to comment

    Agree with all the above comments as I have been researching on ways to speed up my Nexus 6 and the most aggressive step is to deactivate encryption with custom kernal and even that does not give noticeable performance increase under normal usage...


  • 3
    Deactivated Account Apr 27, 2015 Link to comment

    Please stop promoting unneeded placebo applications and useless dangerous system actions. If you need to tell readers to "backup all data" before doing weird things that can not solve the problem, you are doing something very wrong.

    Maybe it makes you *feel* somewhat better, but Android does not need any cleaning tools. Reading some of the apps' reviews also shows that additionally to being no help at all, these apps can even be counter-productive: complaints about accidentally deleted photos and important data make clear that you should stay away from this kind of applications. Don't risk your data for alleged "performance improvements" that just cause harm in the long term.

    Thomas NielsenKyle Lyles


  • 5
    Thomas Nielsen Apr 27, 2015 Link to comment

    Agreed, I think this article is a load of BS. If these apos actually worked then it wouldn't need a phone model specific article to tell us about them.

    Something about installing additional apps to speed up my phone doesn't make any sense....

    Kyle LylesDeactivated Account


  • phatmanXXL 6
    phatmanXXL Apr 27, 2015 Link to comment

    I don't believe apps like this help your device, probably more harm than good.

    Kyle LylesDeactivated Account

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