87% of phone problems: 3 fixes

‘Turn it off and on again’ may have become something of a cliché - the obvious first thing to try when technology misbehaves. But like most clichés, it comes from somewhere truthful. Phones are like people, if they juggle too many tasks without a break, they can start to burn out.

Chatsie affiliate Luke Vincent runs clinics for people struggling with technology. He’s helped hundreds of older people with phone problems and, from his own experience, estimates that nearly 90% of the everyday issues he sees can be fixed in one of three ways. But Luke says fixing the problem is only half the job: ‘People want their device fixed. What they really need is to understand what happened, so the same small thing doesn’t become next week’s emergency’

Technology is moving at a frantic pace, and it’s easy to feel left behind. People often tell us they were afraid to press a button in case everything goes wrong or gets lost. If you haven’t grown up with smartphones or the internet, the learning curve can be steep. With instruction manuals apparently a thing of the past, you’re just expected to ‘figure it out’ - time consuming and often frustrating.

So here are Luke’s top three fixes, and why these problems crop up in the first place.

1. Restart it properly

Today’s phones are essentially palm-sized computers. At any one time, they are running multiple programmes, apps and updates in the background. And like the human brain, If you leave it running for too long without a break, it can slow down, freeze or stop responding altogether.

• Hold the power button (bottom right button on the Chatsie phone).

• Tap ‘power off’. Leave it for 30 seconds, then turn back on again.

• Nothing gets deleted, you’re just giving your phone a clean start.

2. Is your storage full?

Photos, videos and apps can hog the storage on your phone, without you realising. And, like the suitcase you’ve over-packed to avoid paying to check it in, eventually nothing fits properly and the whole thing becomes harder to manage.

• Open Settings (in Android Settings on the Chatsie phone) and check how much Storage you’re using. Review large photos, videos and attachments, and delete anything you no longer need.

• Back up important photos and videos to a cloud service such as Google Photos or iCloud before deleting them from the phone.

• Delete apps you haven’t used for a while. You can always re-install them later.

• Turn it off and on again for good measure.

3. Check your connection

Almost everything requires an internet connection nowadays. If messages aren’t sending and apps won’t load, the problem may simply be that your Wi-Fi has disconnected.

• Check your wifi router is turned on and your phone is actually connected to the internet. If it is, you will see the wifi symbol at the top of the screen.

• If the connection has been lost, turn your wifi router off, wait 30 seconds, and turn it back on again. This can often solve the problem.

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Older people often assume that they are the problem when it comes to technology. ‘I’m a technophobe’ is often heard by the Chatsie customer service team. But the truth is, most new tech wasn’t designed with older users in mind. It was designed for people who grew up with icons and system updates. It talks in a different language. It moves at a faster pace.

That’s why Chatsie was created: to make smartphones simpler, without losing the things that make them useful.