How to Diagnose Causes of Glitches on Android Devices

Android devices have this habit of freezing up at the worst possible moments or they’ll just crash without any warning. The screen takes forever to respond when you need to type a quick message or just scroll through your usual menus. These glitches can derail your whole day and then you’re stuck as you try to tell if that last update caused the problem or if your phone’s hardware has started to fail.

Android’s open ecosystem lets thousands of different app combinations run on literally hundreds of different device models from different manufacturers. While this flexibility is great for choice and customization, it also creates tons of possible conflict points between all these different software parts. A memory leak in just one poorly coded app can drag down your entire system’s performance and a corrupted cache file can make specific features crash over and over again.

A factory reset is the standard answer when your Android starts acting up. But wiping all your data and settings should be your last resort – not your first move. The diagnostic process is actually pretty simple once you learn what patterns to watch for and from there you can tell if third-party apps or low system resources are the culprits. The odds are in your favor since hardware failures are responsible for less than 20% of Android glitches based on recent diagnostic data. Most problems trace back to either software conflicts or low storage space on your phone and the great news is that you can fix either one yourself without paying a repair shop.

Let’s find out what’s causing those glitches on your Android device!

Types of Android Problems You See

Android phones run into lots of different problems and each problem acts a bit differently from the next. One app might crash every time you open it and that’s annoying enough by itself. Other times your whole phone just locks up and you have no choice but to force a restart. Most of us just call all these issues “glitches” and leave it at that – except that they’re actually different problems that happen for different reasons.

Patterns really matter when you’re troubleshooting and the quicker you can recognize them, the less time you’ll waste trying to fix the problem. Your phone might’ve started to feel sluggish on the same day you downloaded that trendy new social media app everyone won’t stop raving about. Or maybe the problems started right after Android rolled out their latest update to your device. Small details like these might not feel like they matter at the time. But they’re actually the best clues you have.

Android 14 introduced some pretty big changes under the hood and the problem is that lots of older apps just weren’t built to work with them. So if the app you use everyday suddenly started crashing after your phone updated itself overnight, the connection is probably not a coincidence. The app developers need to release an update that plays nicely with the new Android architecture. This type of compatibility issue pops up with almost every big Android release and while it’s annoying, at least it’s temporary until the developers catch up.

Battery problems and memory problems might each cause apps to close unexpectedly. But they manifest in their own particular ways. A failing battery tends to cause more dramatic failures – apps will shut down without warning or your phone might even power off while it still shows 20% or 30% charge left. Memory problems are different – they usually give you some warning signs first. Everything slowly gets more sluggish and unresponsive as your phone struggles to handle all the apps and processes that are running simultaneously. Eventually it just can’t manage anymore and something has to give.

The timing and frequency of glitches can tell you almost as much as the glitches themselves. A problem that happens every day right at 3 PM is telling you something very particular – there’s likely a scheduled process running at that time. Could be an automatic backup, could be your work email syncing or maybe all your apps are trying to update at once. Random glitches that pop up unpredictably point to different culprits. The more specific you can be about when and how these problems usually happen, the easier it gets to find out what’s actually going wrong instead of just throwing random fixes at the wall and hoping something sticks!

Use Safe Mode to Find App Problems

Safe Mode is one of the most helpful diagnostic tools that comes built into your Android phone and hardly anyone even realizes it exists. When activated, your phone temporarily disables all the apps you’ve downloaded but leaves the core Android system up and running. The best part here is that you can tell immediately if your phone’s problems are caused by an app you installed or if Android itself is the culprit.

Safe Mode access changes from phone to phone and it gets frustrating if you actually need it. Most devices make you hold the volume button down as the phone boots up though some manufacturers bury the option in the power menu instead. Samsung went differently with diagnostic codes (like #0#) and other brands each have their own approach. Every manufacturer wants their phones to work differently from the competition.

Once your phone boots into Safe Mode, the change is pretty dramatic. Every app you’ve downloaded gets disabled and only the core Android system and whatever came pre-installed on your phone will actually work. The value becomes obvious pretty fast – if those glitches and crashes vanish in Safe Mode then you can tell that one of your downloaded apps is causing the chaos.

The next step is to narrow down which app is actually causing the problems. The most reliable way to figure this out is to remember when your phone started acting up. Did the freezing start right after you installed that new photo editor? Or did the crashes start happening around the same time you downloaded that free game that everyone was recommending last week?

Lots of users are reluctant to use Safe Mode because they don’t want to lose access to their apps even if it’s just for a few minutes. It’s not that big of a deal and you can always restart your phone normally whenever you want to leave Safe Mode. It’s way better than having your phone crash all the time or having to do a factory reset. Once you find the app that’s causing problems and delete it, your phone will work just fine again.

How Storage and Memory Affect Your Phone

Safe Mode can help you find out if a third-party app is the culprit behind your phone’s problems and it’s usually recommended as a first step. The frustrating part is when your phone continues to struggle even after you’ve uninstalled all the apps you downloaded yourself. What’s actually going wrong is that your device doesn’t have enough storage space or memory left to work the way it should. Head into Settings and then tap on Storage to see how much space you have available. On most modern phones, you need to have at least a few gigabytes of free space at all times. Any less than that and you’re going to run into all sorts of performance problems.

Every time you use your phone, it generates temporary files in the background and these files build up fast as the days and weeks go by. Eventually they start to slow down the entire system. Most Android phones have an option that lets you wipe the cache partition and it just removes these temporary files all at once. It’s a quick fix that reveals if those old temporary files were actually responsible for the weird glitches and slowdowns you’ve been experiencing.

Memory behaves quite differently from storage space but both can slow your phone down to a crawl when they run low. Most Android phones let you check the RAM usage in the Settings menu under Device Care or Memory and the exact location depends on the phone model you have. Android tries to take care of memory management automatically and will close background apps to free up space. The problem is that the system sometimes gets too quick and shuts down apps that you actually need to stay open. Other times it’s not nearly aggressive enough and it leaves you with barely any available memory and everything on your phone moves like molasses.

Once your storage space gets very low, all sorts of strange problems start appearing. Your camera app might suddenly stop allowing you to take pictures. Apps will refuse to install or update no matter how many times you try. The whole phone might freeze up for no reason or restart itself out of the blue. These problems are all symptoms of the exact same issue. The phone just doesn’t have enough working space to handle what you’re trying to get done and I see this happen with customers all the time who have no idea how much their storage situation can affect performance.

How to Fix Apps That Act Up

Android phones and tablets can drive you crazy when something goes wrong with them. Usually the culprit is actually just a single misbehaving app that’s causing all your problems – your operating system itself is probably fine. Fortunately app-related problems are usually some of the easiest fixes you can do yourself and there are a handful of methods that usually work.

The cache is actually where you should begin with most app problems. Apps are always creating and storing temporary files in the background as they run and over time these files can get corrupted or just become too old to work the way they’re supposed to. Fortunately the fix is pretty simple – just go into your Settings menu and find the Apps section then find whichever app is giving you problems and hit the Clear Cache button. If that doesn’t solve the problem and the app is still acting up then you’ll need to take it a step farther and wipe all the app’s data completely. Just know that this actually resets the app back to square one and any custom preferences or saved logins or personal settings you had are going to be gone.

Apps can sometimes get stuck in these weird error loops where nothing you try seems to fix them. A force stop is usually the quickest way to snap them out of it and get everything working again. All you need is to press and hold the app’s icon on your home screen and tap App Info when the menu comes up then hit Force Stop. The app shuts down immediately and then the next time you open it it loads fresh like nothing ever went wrong.

Developer Options has a whole bunch of diagnostic tools that can show you performance problems. There’s a feature called Show GPU Overdraw that’s worth checking out – it lights up any areas where an app is rendering graphics inefficiently. What you’re seeing is wasted processing power – the places where the app draws the same pixels over and over again. Once you turn this on you can tell right away if an app just has terrible optimization or if maybe your device can’t quite handle what the app needs anymore. This has saved lots of time troubleshooting why some games or photo editing apps crawl on older devices!

Test the Hardware in Your Phone

Android devices can have all kinds of problems, and once you’ve gone through every software fix out there, the issue might actually be hardware-related. Most Android phones have built-in diagnostic tools that are very hidden from normal use. You access them through certain codes that you type into your phone app – just enter them like you’re dialing a number. Every manufacturer uses their own set of codes, and once you enter the right one, you’ll unlock the tests for your screen, speakers, sensors and every other component.

Hardware failures in phones actually follow some pretty predictable patterns once you know what to watch for. Random restarts are usually a dead giveaway that your battery has worn out and needs replacement. When the screen starts flickering or showing weird colors, the display cable has probably become loose or damaged over time. Phones that get hot during basic tasks like browsing or texting most likely have a processor with some sort of internal defect that’s causing it to work harder than it should.

Phone diagnostics don’t have to be hard – you can test most parts yourself to find out what’s broken. A basic swipe test does the job – just run your finger across every part of the screen and make sure the touch sensor picks up your movements everywhere. During a call you can check the proximity sensor by covering the top of your phone with your hand to see if the screen turns off like it should. The charging port is another common failure point, so try plugging your charger in from different angles to check if the connection has become loose. Apps like Phone Doctor Plus can make the whole process even easier because they run all these tests automatically and will then give you a full diagnostic report at the end.

Physical hardware problems act different from software glitches. Heat usually makes them worse and the same issue happens after drops or bumps. A factory reset won’t help because the problem is mechanical – not software-related. Patterns will tell you everything you need to know – a phone that only freezes after it warms up usually has a hardware component about to fail. Tracking when problems happen and what you were doing at the time gives repair technicians what they need, and you’ll have the documentation for any warranty claims.

Trade Your Old Phone for Cash Today

Phone problems usually snowball if you ignore them, and the longer you wait to handle them, the worse they get. Lots of users lose years of photos and messages because they go straight to a factory reset instead of spending a few minutes on basic troubleshooting. Most of these phone problems come from something minor – an app that needs an update, cache files that have spun out of control or storage that’s just maxed out. These are all quick fixes that take minutes to resolve. But most of us believe that our phones need expensive repairs or replacement.

Once you get familiar with the basic diagnostic steps for your phone, you start to see patterns in how it behaves when there’s a problem. One helpful habit is to create a document on your computer to track phone problems alongside their fixes. Every time the phone develops a glitch or starts to act strangely, write down what went wrong and the steps taken to resolve it. It saves a lot of time when the same problem resurfaces months later and also provides helpful documentation if you ever need to file a warranty claim for a persistent issue.

Every couple of weeks, take 10 minutes to delete cached files, update apps and remove the photos you’ve already backed up somewhere else. Your phone will run faster, last longer and won’t freeze up at the worst moment – like when you’re trying to pay for something or pull up directions.

At some point, even the most well-maintained phones just become more trouble than they’re worth to hold onto. At ecoATM, we run a massive network with more than 6,000 kiosks across the country, and each one can check out your old phone right there as you wait and pay you quickly through cash or electronic payment. The kiosk runs all the tests itself and tells you straight up what your device is actually worth in today’s market, and it prevents those old electronics from ending up in a landfill somewhere.

Find a kiosk in your area today and convert that headache of a phone into money you can put toward your next upgrade – great for your bank account and great for the planet at the same time.