- Welcome to Quick Fix, the show where I answer
your most commonly asked tech questions
in 90 seconds or less.
Today, we're turning it on and off again.
Start the clock.
(upbeat music)
We've all heard this advice before, right?
"Restart your phone on a regular basis."
But, does that actually do anything?
Well, sort of, it depends.
The number one reason to restart your phone
is to fix a glitch.
Maybe an app won't open up,
or it froze up on you.
Maybe your GPS is acting all wonky.
All very good reasons to restart your phone,
which will close down any processes
or apps that might be acting buggy.
But, why restart your phone if everything
seems to be working fine?
The answer is RAM, or random access memory.
Think of RAM like a storage room.
Every time you do something on your phone,
some amount of data is stored in this room.
Modern phones are very good at managing this room
and moving things around when necessary.
Every time you restart your phone,
this room gets emptied out,
and that's why restarting your phone can be helpful.
It helps clear out that room every now and then,
so random bits of data don't start piling up in there,
as if you're some sort of RAM hoarder.
So, to answer the question, the most common advice
around restarting your phone
says to do it about once a week.
To me, that seems like overkill,
especially considering how good modern phones are
at managing RAM.
It's definitely the first troubleshooting step
you should take if something feels buggy or sluggish,
but you don't need to set a weekly reminder.
(upbeat music)
Hey, thanks for watching this video.
If you have other tech questions
that you want me to try and tackle in 90 seconds or less,
leave a comment below or email me.
And, as always, subscribe to Lifehacker on YouTube.