Why Samsung Galaxy Note is slow, and how to fix it

By on May 28, 2012 in How to, Samsung

Slow Galaxy Note

A few months ago I got the Samsung Galaxy Note international version and I am very happy with this purchase. This is the best phone I have ever had if we don’t put the Nokia 3310 into the contest. It has the largest screen between smartphones and still not too huge to call it tablet, so everyone calls it a phablet.

Like I said, the Galaxy Note is amazing smartphone and can be used for many tasks that no other smartphones on the market are capable of doing. I use it for reading, web browsing, emails and drawing as my work sometimes requires it, but iPads and Galaxy Tabs are too bulky to carry everywhere.  The Galaxy Note has well executed one-size-fits-all approach so it is selling like cupcakes.

White Galaxy Note

 Everything was great till a few weeks ago when my Samsung Galaxy Note become slow. It is very snappy smartphone and one of the best I’ve ever had and I have had a lot of different smartphones for testing and personal use. Still the fact remains, it just became slow.  I tried to uninstall apps I rarely use but still no luck. I tried to disable most services, like GPS, Wi-Fi, 3G, Power Saver, and email but still the Galaxy Note was slow.

I decided to scan my Galaxy Note with Lookout Security & Antivirus and AVG Antivirus Free but they didn’t found anything suspicious. Checked if some applications are not using too much memory or processor’s processing power but everything looked just fine.

I ran out of ideas and decided to start clean with the Galaxy Note. I formatted everything and started from scratch and now my Galaxy Note isn’t slow anymore.

If your Samsung Galaxy Note has become slow then you can fallow these steps to make it fast again:

  1. Backup your music, videos, pictures and everything you find useful. You can use Samsung Kies to backup and restore your Galaxy Note.
  2. Make sure your contacts are synced with Google account so you won’t lose anything
  3. Now format your Memory card and Phone Memory/USB Storage. You can do it by opening Settings->Storage. Don’t be afraid of doing it if your data is backed up from first step.
  4. Turn off your smartphone. Wait till it’s completely turned off.
  5. Now you will have to factory reset your phone. Here is how – simultaneously press and hold Volume up, Home Button and Power Button and wait till the Galaxy Note logos appears on screen and then release the buttons. Wait for a little while till you see the console. Now using Volume up/down buttons and navigate to Factory Reset option and select it by pushing Home button. It will take couple of minutes to complete Factory reset.
  6. Afterward the Galaxy Note will restart and it will ask for your Google account information. Fallow the instruction on screen to setup your smartphone.
  7. Then you can sync your phone with Google account to get back your contacts
  8. Restore your files using Samsung Kies or other software you prefer.

This helped me to solve the slow Galaxy Note issue and I hope it helps you as well. Still not sure what caused its slowness but at least I found the way to fix it.

Let me know if you have better solution for fixing slow Galaxy Note or had any issues during the process described above.

Related news

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  4. Samsung Galaxy S3 launched in Malaysia
  5. Samsung Galaxy S3 Set to Release on Mobile World Congress?

About Richard Wilson

Non-experienced writer but huge technology and gadget geek. He like to cover tech news and gadget reviews as well as future products. Follow
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  • Dapor_22

    I’ll give it a try then i will share my notices.

  • Sebastian

    Dear Richard,

    Please look again at your post title and tell me, honestly, if you are happy with your answers.

    “Why Samsung Galaxy Note is slow, and how to fix it”

    I would split this title in two parts: 1. “Why Samsung Galaxy Note is slow” and 2. “how to fix it”.
    Now lets see if your post answers these questions.

    1. No. “I ran out of ideas and decided to start clean with the Galaxy Note…”, “Still not sure what caused its slowness”.

    2. No. “I formatted everything and started from scratch and now my Galaxy Note isn’t slow anymore.” I’m sorry to tell but This is Not a FIX of a problem. First your should identify the causes in order to know What Caused It, then to FIX those issues. Reformatting then reinstalling and syncing your phone is not a fix. It’s more like a temporary solution, or an improvisation. The problem can occur again the next day or the next hour.

    Maybe next time…

    • http://ubuntulife.net/ Richard

       Sebastian,

      Thanks for your comment! I did a research and testing but I couldn’t determine what cased slowness. There were no background tasks running and no load on processor, because the battery life were not affected at all. My Note was not filled with apps, so nothing else than hardware failure or problem with OS.
      I didn’t mention that I did a simple re-install which didn’t fix the thing so I did the steps mentioned above.

      I am not saying you must do it and that it’s the best possible solution but it worked for me and probably for others as I have not received any complaints.

      • superlaser

        Is the freaking cache thart cause this la

    • Steve

      Slightly rude comment Sebastian. Why don’t YOU give a solution as to what should be done if The Galaxy Note becomes slow….? I’m sure you don’t know considering your also looking on here too.

      • Sebastian

        Dear Steve,

        I consider I posted a well-written comment, while showing the article DOES NOT answer the two questions addressed in it’s title. That is the TRUTH.

        I (still) consider the method “format-reinstall-sync” device is not an answer to WHY your device is slow, not the best method of fixing that. It might be considered a “workaround” at most! 

        I am looking for a solution myself as I spent a little fortune on my GNote and I’m not very happy with this state of facts.

        However I cant explain why would you consider yourself my post being “rude”, if not even the author did not express that.

        P.S. In case I will find out WHY the GNote is SLOW and HOW to fix it, I will definitely post that online, you can bet on that!

    • Sebastian’s Gay Father

      What a dick!!

      • Sebastian

        Up your @$$!

  • Eparada79

    Up up down down left right left right a b select start should fix it :-D

  • ilovesards

    i read last march2012 from tech republic that android fragmentation
    is real. that means=the longer you use your android=it will
    fragment more. just like how you defrag your windows pc .

    i think ,any system will become fragmented over as time of use
    increases, then you have to defrag it(arrange the files again).

    one way of defragmienting an sd card=is to copy all its content
    to a computer or any media. then format that sd card(erase all
    data) ,then copy back those data.

    i dont know of any effective defrag for androids. as per
    techrepublic= defragmentation on android is more. bits are so
    scattered that the processor has to collect sooooo many of it
    elsewhere.

    this is i guess, why backing up androids and then FORMAT it ,and copy back data= works.

    i also found out that unlike my xp/vista pc, my galaxy note O/S
    creates so many .tec files=like a mirror of other files.

    ANDROID IS NEW and have not gone scrubs a lot by viruses and
    geeks as ios and macs and windows. lot more to progress.

    note: windows has set its byte distance to some 32kb (? im not much
    sure). but this allocates a space whenever you want to add
    something on that same file. if android sticks to 6kb or less
    to save writing space= fragmentation will surely increase=as you
    edit always files, even view files.

    • nicky

      i’m not sure fragmentation is problem because my note was slow since I buy it.

  • sgn-user

    tks a lot. Your idea solved my note slowingness issue.

  • TiagoTiago

    Be carefull if you’re running stock ICS, it got a bug that can permanently fry the memory chip when you delete or otherwise erase lots of data/big files (it doesn’t always happen, but it is a russian roulete, don’t keep pressing the trigger if you survived the first time, eventually it will fire)

  • phalla

    Good idea. I should try once.. Thx. ..

  • sgnuser

    After 7 months of using daily sgnote I observed a pattern concerning device instability. After 100 hours of continous if I swich 3g data on system become instable(isn’t able to refresh display and icons) or after 5,6 recharging cycles the same behaviour but only after enabling 3g data on. After reset is ok. I supposed there is a relationship between no. of charging cycles and 3g data which can cause instability problems.

    • http://cobases.com/ James

      Probably it is some sort of hardware issues. I used Galaxy Note since it become available last year and recently I upgraded to Galaxy Note II. Haven’t had any issues.

      Did complete restore once as I described on this article but that’s about it. I am using 3G a lot and didn’t notice any problems.

  • Magnus100

    Wow! This article is stupid beyond belief. First the author doesn’t tell you why the phone is slow and secondly he suggests you should wipe your phone pretty much. Oh, what a great idea, I have roaches in the house so I’ll just set the whole house on fire. Thanks, but no thanks.