Android Phones can cause problems which seem too complex to handle at the time but their solutions are really simple. Here are the solutions to the most common android phone problems that users have encountered:
1. My Android phone has frozen
You just need to restart your phone to kickstart a frozen android phone.
2. My smartphone Wi-Fi does not remain connected
This may solve the problem. Just go to Wi-Fi > Settings > Menu > Advanced and choose to stay connected to Wi-Fi during sleep.
3. Why do I keep running out of memory?
Among other reasons, the most prominent problem can be a full cache which affects the efficient running of apps. You can download apps like Cache Cleaner or Clean Master from Google Play to clean the cache for specific apps. This will free up some memory to resolve the issue. You will also have to either uninstall or move apps to an external SD card to free up more physical memory.
4. My SD card is no longer recognised
SD cards can get corrupted and the most effective solution is to reformat them using a desktop or laptop PC. It works more often than trying to format it on the phone itself.
5. My screen is difficult to see in bright sunlight
You can increase screen brightness to maximum or use ‘anti-glare’ screen protector to see the screen in bright sunlight.
6. How do I remove apps?
Go to Settings > Applications > Manage Applications and then select the app you wish to uninstall. Now tap the Uninstall icon to remove the app.
7. My screen has cracked! Should I buy a new phone?
Cracked screens can be replaced as most phones have parts available from various suppliers both online and offline. Do your research before buying a new phone.
8. Entering my password takes forever!
Go to Settings > Security > Set up screen lock > choose enter a pattern rather than a password. Pattern is quicker and securer than a password.
9. My location is not always accurate in maps
Go to Settings > Location > check ‘Use GPS satellites’ and this will ensure much greater accuracy when navigating.
10. How do I wipe my Android smartphone completely?
Go to Settings > SD & Phone storage > Factory Data Restore. Go through the process twice to be completely sure that everything has been removed.
11. I dropped my phone in water!
Take the battery out as quickly as possible and dry as many parts of the phone as you can then leave it for 72 hours in a dry room. Try it again, it may work.
12. Can I make the text on my Android smartphone bigger?
Go to message settings and use ‘Set text size’ option to increase the size of the displayed text.
13. Can I update my apps automatically?
Go to Google Play > Menu > ‘My Apps’ > select an app and choose auto-update option for trusted apps only. This option can be seen half-way down the screen.
14. I want to hide my search history.
Go to www.google.com/history in your Android browser and login. Here you can choose to remove your previous searches and not to save future searches.
15. How do I take screenshots?
Some smartphones will let you press the back key and the home button twice to take screenshots but the method varies for different android phone models.
16. How do I download music directly to my phone or tablet?
You can install Amazon MP3 from Google Play which lets you purchase and install MP3 files directly to your phone without the need of a PC.
17. Some apps won’t install to my SD card
You may be able to move apps to an SD card using Settings > Manage Applications after installating the app in the phone memory.
18. How can I change the language on my phone?
Go to Settings > Language & keyboard and choose the language you require.
19. Can I remove pre-installed apps on my phone?
You can, but the process will require rooting the device and then downloading an app called Root Uninstaller. This can make your phone unstable and the amount of memory saved will not be worth it.
20. Can I speed up my Android phone?
There are apps available such as SetCPU which will let you speed up your phone through overclocking the processor. It will also let you slow down the processor to save memory. However, you need to be careful because you may end up frying your phone if you push it above the set maximum speed.
21. What’s the best way to backup my phone?
There are multiple solutions available to backup an Android phone and Titanium Backup PRO is considered to be one of the best solutions available. This app has the ability to backup every part of your phone and even export the backups through email or sync them to Dropbox.
22. How can I stop viruses from attacking my phone?
You can download anti-virus applications such as Kaspersky Mobile Security or AVG which offer real-time protection against a host of threats.
23. The volume on my phone is too quiet
If your Android phone suffer from low volume then you can download AudioBoost from the Android market. It can increase the volume up to 30% and is also activated from home screen widget.
24. The Live Wallpaper uses too much battery life
The simple solution is to use a static wall paper instead.
25. My clock keeps losing time.
This problem can occur if your phone’s clock updates time automatically from your network. If the network clock is slow, so will be your phone clock. Go to Settings > Date & time > untick the ‘Automatic’ box at the top.
26. Can I block unwanted callers?
If your network provider does not offer this facility then you can download Extreme Call Blocker Droid. This app can block incoming calls but it is not the cheapest Android app available. You can explore other apps on the market too.
27. My phone is slow at times. Are there any tools to help?
You can make your phone fast if you remove all unnecessary apps and data you do not need. An app like System Tuner Pro can tune many parts of your phone automatically to ensure the best possible performance.
28. My phone has been stolen. Can I track it?
You can install a third party app to help track your phone if it gets stolen. PhoneLocator Pro can remotely track a phone using GPS as well as let you wipe or lock the phone.
29. Why can’t I use iTunes with my Android device?
You can use iTunes with doubleTwist AirSync which lets you synchronise media between iTunes and an Android phone or tablet without a physical connection. However, you won’t be able to access DRM protected media.
30. How do I close an app that keeps freezing my phone?
Go to Settings > Applications > ‘Manage applications’. Now choose the app that is misbehaving from the list and tap ‘Force stop’. If the app continues to misbehave try to uninstall and then reinstall it.
31. Can I close running apps quickly?
You can use the default task manager in Android to deal with running apps. It also lets you manage all of your running apps with a couple of taps.
32. Why does auto-correct not know all the words I need to use?
Auto-correct cannot possibly know all the words but you can add new ones quickly and easily. When you type a word, look for the ‘+’ sign below the text field, tap it and the word will be added to your dictionary for future use. The more words you add, the more accurate your typing will become.
33. Switching between keyboards takes forever!
Simply press and hold the ‘123’ button on the keyboard. You will be given the list of all the keyboards installed from where you can choose the desired one in just about a second.
34. Why does my screen turn off when charging?
Go to Settings > Applications > Development and check the ‘Stay awake’ option to keep the screen on during charging.
35. Can I reinstall a paid app?
You can reinstall a paid app from the Android Market. Go to ‘My Market Account’ > orders tab which include a list of the purchased apps. You can choose an app and then tap ‘Install’ to complete the process. Google Play does not charge you for reinstalling an app.
36. How do I know if I have the latest version of Android on my phone?
Go to Settings > About phone > ‘System software updates’ > click ‘Check now’. You will be notified if any new updates are available or all the updates have already been installed on your phone.
SubwaySurfers is a platformer/action game with a mechanic very similar to Temple Run, where you have to flee the police in a dangerous and apparently abandoned train station, with trains passing by at full speed. You had better be careful!
Unlike Temple Run, in SubwaySurfers you do not control your character with the accelerometer. Instead, you have to move your character between three 'lanes' by swiping your finger across the screen. Of course, you can jump over obstacles and roll on the ground to dodge some others. You can also use different gadgets like jetpacks or skateboards to help you in your unending race.
Like you'd expect in this sort of game, you have to complete various missions where you can get coins to buy upgrades. This is nothing new, but it is still fun.
The graphics of SubwaySurfers are impressive. So much that at times it will lag in terminals that are not very powerful. It's true, the character models and textures are a real treat.
SubwaySurfers is a very entertaining game with a simple and addictive mechanic. It keeps you glued to the screen for hours while trying to beat our friends records, which you can check over the internet.
Can you guide Ida through a series of impossible architectural wonders in this Escher-inspired puzzler? It’s a relaxing, gorgeous, accessible game that never gets too challenging.
This is a mysterious journey into the dark as you attempt to unravel the creepy truth by solving a series of elegant, multi-layered puzzles in a highly-polished environment full of curiosities.
Like Tetris for grocery store workers, Bag It! tasks players with efficiently stacking loads of groceries into a single bag. Just remember light, fragile items on bottom, and heavy items on top; or is it the other way around?
The aim is to swipe combining matching number tiles and building the biggest number that you can manage. It may be aesthetically and tactically simple, but it’s also instantly addictive.
If you fancy yourself a trivia buff or quiz master then this is the game for you. Choose from more than 500 topics and take on millions of other players around the world in a race to answer questions.
Match like-numbered discs and string together massive chain reactions in Zynga’s wildly addictive puzzle game, Drop7. You’ll have an incredibly hard time putting this gem down.
Help Odd, the purple robot, escape from the defective robot complex by solving a series of puzzles that get progressively more difficult. It’s a classic escape game with a nice geometric aesthetic.
Fiendishly addictive and fast-paced gameplay makes this candy-themed world difficult to leave until you have conquered every level or run out of lives, whereupon you can take a break or pay to play on.
This Frozen-themed match-3 game features all your favorite characters from the Disney classic, it’s beautifully animated, and the gameplay is terribly addictive. There’s limited free play with optional IAP.
Incredibly popular puzzle franchise Bejeweled offers some jewel matching fun against the clock with a competitive element that kicks things up a notch as you try to best your friend’s scores.
Try social gaming Scrabble-style, as you compete against friends or strangers to create the best words from your available letters. This cross platform game is easy to get into and works well accompanied by chat.
Can you pick high-scoring words out of the grid before you run out of space or time? There’s a Tetris inspired twist to this word game that adds to the addictive tension.
Use the seven clues to pick the right seven words out of the 20 letter group tiles on offer and you’ve cracked that puzzle. Take as long as you like and guess as often as you like.
A super chilled soundtrack accompanies this visually stunning platform adventure as you guide a jellyfish through a series of levels using basic boost, swing, and roll maneuvers.
Use your magic rod to form your followers into human bridges and guide the rest of your clan to the promised land, or at least the next level, in this delightfully imaginative puzzler.
Using balls of goo with different properties you have to construct solutions that will guide your left over goo through the escape pipe to beat each level. It’s beautifully made, clever, and unmissable.
Platformers are one of gaming’s classic genres. It all began way back before the days of Super Mario, but great new platformers come out every year. Here are some we love to play.
Sidescrolling Games
Badland
This is a compelling fusion of gorgeous artwork, accessible gameplay, and clever design. You have to guide your hedgehog-like creatures through a deadly forest teeming with life and machines.
Smart, retro, sci-fi platformer with an old-school difficulty curve and a charming sense of wit. The twist is, instead of jumping, you tap to flip gravity, as you search for the missing members of your crew.
You’ll have to whip your undead army of weird zombie minions into shape to beat this puzzle-platformer that gets steadily tougher as the levels progress. There are more than 100 to beat.
Short and strangely sweet, this puzzle-platformer is elevated to a higher plain by the narration of Danny Wallace and the awesome soundtrack. Get ready to emote over blocks.
The 2D side-scrolling gameplay will remind you of Mario, but it’s wrapped in a super cute and colorful 3D art style. Highly polished, instantly fun, and suitable for the whole family.
The phenomenon known as Minecraft made an incredibly successful jump to smartphones, giving fans of the franchise the ability to mine, explore, and build their way to 8-bit glory anywhere.
Leo, an adorable fuzzball that’s one half mustache, is on a quest to recover his fortune. It’s a well-executed platformer that has you floating and hopping your way through the 24 levels game.
This one whips up plenty of anxiety in a matter of seconds. You play as a boy who navigate through a haunting industrial world. This puzzle-platformer is harder– oh yea– you’ll end up dying a lot.
You’re a cluster of bugs who embark on an adventure to save a tree from an evil parasite. But that’s only half the draw of this richly textured world from the creators of Machinarium.
Can you evade capture and certain death at the hands of a rabid monkey? Duck, jump, slide, and spin to safety as you sprint through a ruined temple environment clutching the stolen idol.
Watch out for oncoming trains and other obstacles as you run along the tracks collecting coins. This endless runner offers some power-up twists, like a hoverboard and jetpack, to refresh the gameplay.
Flying through a futuristic, geometric environment full of glass obstacles you can smash by firing metallic spheres is strangely stress-relieving. The synced music and gentle difficulty curve help draw you in.
Fans of twitchy gameplay are going to love this fresh endless runner that places you in a capsule hurtling through space at near light speed trying desperately to avoid colliding with anything.
Tap to jump is all you need to know to guide your man in a hurry across the roof tops and through buildings. This is where the endless runner genre began and it’s still one of the best.
Just like the movie, this game is fun for adults and kids. You have to guide your minion safely through various colorful environments, mini-games, and even boss battles.
As OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) go HTC is one of the most influential names in story of Android: not only producing the first ever handset to run Google’s mobile OS, but also the first company to lend its talents to creating the Nexus One, the first device to ever bare the Nexus name.
Its track record in the tablet space is far less proven however, with only two notable devices in its back catalogue to speak of: one of which (the Mozart) was an exclusive slate for AT&T in the US and the other being the over-priced and under-powered HTC Flyer. It’s interesting then, that Google and HTC teamed up, not to make the new Nexus 6 smartphone (that task fell to Motorola), but Mountain View’s long-awaited next tablet – the Google Nexus 9.
Design: Retro rectangle
One of the big differences between HTC’s take on the Nexus brand and previous offerings is price. The value aspect was a big draw for potential customers looking to pick up the Asus-made Nexus 7 or the LG-made Nexus 5, but with the Nexus 9’s pricing molding to more conventional trends it affords you something a little fancier. The soft touch back plate, like the Nexus 5, feels nice in the hand and as seen on HTC’s own devices, an abundance of metal goes a long ways to giving a sense of superior build quality. We wouldn’t go so far as to shove the mighty iPad Air 2 out of the way in this department, but the brushed, tapered edging and the metallic camera surround both suggest that this is a powerful, premium slate you’re holding. Speaking of holding, despite a sizable 8.9-inch screen, the Nexus 9 is narrow enough and light enough to wield in one hand. It’s not the thinnest thing around (7.95mm), nor is it the lightest (425 grams), but in this instance both traits reinforce the notion of a high quality threshold and some powerful hardware on the inside, rather than lazy or dated design and engineering work. The interplay of the glossy black front, dark brushed metal frame and lightly coloured soft-touch plastic back feel reminiscent some sort of premium home electronics from the 90’s, like a Sony VHS player or a JVC amp. Whether you like that look is entirely down to personal preference.
Screen: Old school, new tech
Whilst the last Nexus tablet, the 7, adopted a 16:9 aspect ratio – perfect for watching movies and videos, the larger Nexus 9 goes 4:3 that instead suggests a focus on productivity. Google describes the 8.9-inch IPS LCD as ‘perfectly sized’ and we’d have to agree. The Nexus 9’s dimensions hit a sweet spot, with enough bezel to offer solid amounts of grip without obscuring the screen, a width that despite the broader screen still allows for comfortable one-handed use, and a panel that’s big, bright and clear. With its QXGA (2048x1536) display, the Nexus 9 boasts one of the highest resolution screens HTC’s ever put into a device. You can’t discern individual pixels at any normal viewing distance and colours appear accurate too, not to mention it outpaces the iPad Air and Air 2 for pixel density. Colours do distort a little at more extreme angles and the Gorilla Glass 3 has a tendency to hold onto smeary fingerprints and grime, but on the whole it’s a joy to use and you’ll take great pleasure swiping through photos or watching movies with it.
Android 5.0 Lollipop is undoubtedly one of the biggest selling points for the Nexus 9. In what is easily the most significant redesign of Android since Ice Cream Sandwich, this latest build of Google’s mobile OS features one obvious change – animations, and they're everywhere. As part of the new Material Design language featured in Lollipop, playful new animations have been introduced to give context to practically everything you do. From opening the apps drawer to the desaturated fade out when you tap the power button, it's all designed to better explain to the user where they've been and what each action does.
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A flat, colourful aesthetic informs every element of the native Google applications too, ensuring the whole experience feels consistent. The notifications and quick settings have been amalgamated into a single swipe down pane, which reveals the notifications on the first swipe and the settings on a second (a two finger swipe will bring both panes down together immediately). As well as a refreshed aesthetic, new and improved features go a long way to enriching the user experience too. The Gmail app now supports email addresses outside of Google’s own Gmail accounts, including Microsoft Exchange, meaning you no longer need to double up on applications when checking your mail. The introduction of trusted devices lets you pair any smartwatch, Bluetooth speaker or NFC tag to the tablet’s security, so when they’re in range you won’t be asked to input a password or a lockscreen pattern (taking them out of range establishes whatever lockscreen security you have set up). You can also have guest or restricted access accounts so that others can use your Nexus 9 without being able to get at your unmentionables. There’s a ton more stuff that Android 5.0 Lollipop brings to the table and you can find out more, including few handy tips and tricks, here.
Performance: ‘K’ is for Kepler
Unless you’re one of a small group of hardcore mobile gamers out there who has already picked up Nvidia’s Shield Tablet, chances are the Nexus 9 will be the next best thing. Why? Because right now it’s the only other Android device on the market with the company’s latest Tegra K1 processor: a chip built with Nvidia’s own Kepler graphics technology – something more commonly seen on desktop-class graphics cards. In general use it ensures a fast, responsive swiping experience around that fresh Android interface, in a gaming scenario it means you’ve got an impressive level of visual fidelity to play with in AAA games. We just wish more titles played nice with the 64-bit, 2.3GHz Tegra K1 inside the Nexus 9. One of the only titles designed with the K1 in mind – Trine 2, is still locked down as a Shield Tablet exclusive for the time being, whilst other quality titles like Asphalt 8 aren’t optimised and therefore strip back a lot of the graphical goodness enjoyed by less powerful tablets. It should be noted that gaming or intensive actions for any extended period do cause noticeable levels of heat build-up on the Nexus 9, something we haven’t seen so readily on the latest rival processors under the same levels of duress. Elsewhere you’re graced with a sizeable 6700mAh battery that’ll offer up a day’s worth of respectably heavy use and could be pushed to two days if you plan on using your Nexus 9 conservatively, not the best around, but it should suit most users.
Camera: Don’t take pictures with your tablet!
As is often the case, tablet cameras never get the same amount of care and attention that smartphone cameras do. The Nexus 9 boasts a 1.6-megapixel front-facer and an 8-megapixel rear camera, complete with LED flash. Whilst we, as ever, would like to dissuade you from using a tablet as a camera, the flash is a nice inclusion to help in low light scenarios, although the image quality in most environments isn’t dramatically exciting. Although there’s some notable shutter lag (like the Nexus 5 Google will likely improve this in future updates), the camera interface is clean, clear and packs some nice specialised modes like Photosphere and Panorama.
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Despite the powerful processor, there’s no 4K video recording, but Full HD shooting is available on the rear camera and 720p HD recording on the front-facer.
Verdict: A new age of Nexus
The Nexus 9 represents two big milestones in its own right; the long-awaited return of a Nexus tablet and proof that HTC can make a solid slate with the potential to make serious waves in the market. The user experience is the star of the show and continues to strengthen the idea that Android is best left untouched by manufacturers. On the hardware front you’ve got a mixed bag of goodies, with an average camera and solid battery performance being overshadowed by an excellent display, processor and clean industrial design. The Nexus 9 will likely grow into the world of Lollipop as other manufacturers join the fray and Google, along with thousands of app developers, issue updates to better leverage Android 5.0’s talents and the Tegra K1’s computing grunt. For the price there are certainly other options out there (like the Samsung Galaxy Tab S), but we have a sneaking suspicion the Nexus 9 would make for one of the smartest tablet purchases this side of Christmas, even over the mighty iPads.
Like Tetris for grocery store workers, Bag It! tasks players with efficiently stacking loads of groceries into a single bag. Just remember light, fragile items on bottom, and heavy items on top; or is it the other way around?
Match like-numbered discs and string together massive chain reactions in Zynga’s wildly addictive puzzle game, Drop7. You’ll have an incredibly hard time putting this gem down.
The phenomenon known as Minecraft made an incredibly successful jump to smartphones, giving fans of the franchise the ability to mine, explore, and build their way to 8-bit glory anywhere.
