If you’re like the many other millions of iPhone owners out there, you’ve probably had some experience with slowdown on your device at some point or another. While this is completely normal and should not be cause for alarm, there are a number of things you can do that will make this slow performance less frequent and get your phone running quickly again. Here are some of the steps you can take to boost your iPhone’s speed.

Close unused running apps and games

First let’s get the obvious one out of the way. Games and apps that are running in the background on your iPhone are usually one of the prime suspects when it comes to slowdown, so it’s a good idea to make closing these the first step in speeding things up. Though it may be tempting to keep them open and have them right at your fingertips throughout the entire day, it’s better to simply close them and only open them when you need them.

Delete games and apps you never play or use

On the opposite end of the spectrum, if there are apps or games that are all the way in the dusty recesses of your iPhone and never being used, they are simply taking up valuable space. Delete these from your phone and you’ll be making your phone faster just like that.  Unused apps and games not only take up storage, but also the CPU resource of your iOS device.

Delete non-important files

Just as apps and games take up storage space, so do media files including songs, videos, and pictures. It’s easy to get trigger happy on a vacation and snap countless pictures and record all kinds of videos, or to amass a large collection of songs for your workout playlist, but these things take up precious storage space, and will cause your phone to slow down.

Disable transparency and motion

The transparency and motion features on your iPhone are great for giving you cool effects, but they also take up battery power and can cause your phone to run more slowly. Doing this is going to be especially useful if you’re looking to speed up a particularly old iPhone.

Restart

When it comes to your desktop or laptop computer, turning it off and on again is the be-all-and-cure-all for most minor problems, so why would your iPhone be any different? It’s basically a pocket-sized computer. When your iPhone restarts, all temporary processes created by iOS apps will be automatically removed, which will work wonders for a slow iPhone.

Reset your iPhone to default settings

This is your last resort should all other efforts to speed up your iPhone fail. Doing this will cause all settings to go back to the factory default conditions and all of the data on your iPhone, including contacts, messages, music, and photos will be erased. If you have to resort to resetting your iPhone to factory setting in order to increase its speed, it’s a good idea to back up any important files you may have first, so you don’t permanently lose them.