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My Android device is a few years old, and like any computer it's slowed down over the years. It takes forever to boot up, the interface lags, and launching apps takes forever.

When the same thing happened to my Windows 7 computer, I reinstalled the OS and that fixed it right up. Can I do the same with my Android device? I'd like to squeeze a few more months out of it before I upgrade.

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Sure you can! Just look for the Backup menu on your phone's settings, and there select Factory Reset.

This will leave your phone clean as you bought it (remember to save all important data in a safe place before!).

"Re-installing" your phone might work, or might not, as it happens with computers. When you re-install, it could improve a lot its performance, or leave it without noticeable improvement.

There's only a way to know ;)

There are also some apps which improve (just a little) the performance, by removing unnecesary files (like thumbnails or caches) and closing background processes. I personally use All-In-One Toolbox, which is free and works great, but there are many other.

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  • LIke any backup, remember to save all your important stuff first! You may have to dig for photos and media, but for app, contacts and SMS, you may want also try a third party backup tool like Super BackUp -- play.google.com/store/apps/… -- That particular program is nice because it does both backup and restore of contacts and SMS in (easily) human-readable formats. Oct 25, 2015 at 8:06
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Yes you can. Although a factory reset can do the trick. But if you feel something is not right or if you have some issues which you think may be related to corrupt installation, you can reinstall android.

  • For Nexus devices, you can visit google Factory images page and download and reflash the device. The proper instruction for each device is given on the page.
  • For Moto and xiaomi Devices, the method is similar to nexus devices but require factory images from motorola/Xiaomi.
  • For SAMSUNG devices you need odin and the correct image for your device.
  • For Sony, You need flashtool and ftf file.

Factory images for each device is either available at OEM's official device developer site or via a third party.

Method for each OEM is different and keeps on changing generation to generation or device to device. Therefore, I cannot explain method for each one here. But, the method for most of the devices are very simple and you can get one click tool for most of them

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