By analogy with a hard drive on a PC (HDD), many users believe that defragmenting the internal memory is possible on Android-based devices (smartphones and tablets). Is it so? Let's figure it out in this article.
In general, the defragmentation process gathers together the pieces of one file that are scattered chaotically on the hard disk. And thus the speed of access and execution of this file increases. As a result, this affects the performance and speed of the computer.
Defragmenting a hard disk on a PC is simple: go to “My Computer”, select the desired disk and right-click on “Properties”. Service tab – Run defragmentation.
If the disk is highly fragmented (many files are split into small parts), the defragmentation process can take several hours, so I recommend turning it on overnight.
But this is on a PC, but how to defragment it on a phone or tablet?
On mobile devices, there is a different type of storage than on PCs – flash memory, which is not subject to fragmentation. This means that the defragmentation process will slowly “kill” our drive. It's the same with computer SSDs.
Conclusion: defragmenting Android does not make sense, and it will even harm your smartphone.
But how do you speed up your phone? There are other ways:
- Remove defragmentation programs from your phone, if you are using them. Like Defragger, Disk Analyzer and other disk defragmenter guides. This is how you “kill” your smartphone.
- Uninstall apps you are not using. Go to Settings, All Apps. And delete unnecessary ones. Before uninstalling a program, it is better to first remove all updates and cache, and then the program itself.
- Remove unnecessary application icons and widgets from the desktop. The phone can slow down when there are too many desktops and application icons. Alternatively, you can group the icons into groups. Create a folder on your desktop and drop icons of similar applications there. For example, the folder “Games”, “Study”, “Bank”, “Cards”, “Communication, dating”, “Food delivery”, etc.
- Clean the browser you are using or install a new version from the Play Market. For many, this is Chrome, Yandex, FireFox. Just uninstall your old browser (via settings – all apps) and install a new one.
- Disable or remove live wallpapers from your desktop. Remove animated screensaver from your phone Go to Settings, Screen Settings, Wallpaper. It is better to set a static image than a nice animation.
- Always close open applications on your phone. The more programs are running, the more RAM is used to keep them running. Click on the “Current” or “All applications” button on the phone at the bottom left / right – near the “Home” button. And click on the cross to close all open applications.
If you need the program to be running all the time, pin it (for example, whatsApp), a long press on the application will open an additional menu – click on the lock icon to pin the program forever in open ones. 
- Clean the device memory. All smartphones have a built-in cleaning function. For most users, this is sufficient. We go to Tools – Cleaning. You may have this function in the settings. The system analyzes which files can be deleted: application databases (especially games and the browser download a lot), useless files, data leftovers (after uninstalling the program, some of its files may remain in the phone), memory and cache of installed applications (this is more accurate, otherwise when When the application is launched, it will again download the necessary data necessary for its operation).
Additionally, go to the “Downloads” folder (through the explorer) and manually delete unnecessary files. - Delete or transfer photos, music and videos on your phone to your PC or memory card. For photos I use Google Photos, and for large files I use Google Drive.
Many people install third-party applications to clean and speed up the smartphone, there are many in the Play Store, but not all speed up the phone. Remember, the more programs are installed and work in the phone, the more RAM they take up – the more the phone slows down.
Of the popular programs, I recommend using only one – CCleaner, available in the Play Store. The program cleans the phone automatically and does its job perfectly.
And in the comments, ask questions and write the methods that you use to speed up your Android smartphone.