How to Stop Apps Running in the Background on your Android Smartphone?

Our Android Smartphone is a very powerful device that has acted as a disruptive technology for many devices like digital cameras, eBook reader, MP3 players, calculators, torches, photo viewers, radios and the list goes on. However, to eliminate each device, Android needs a corresponding app, and this has resulted in a lot of apps overcrowding our phone.

But, the issue of having a lot of apps installed can be solved with increased disk space on Android device. The real problem occurs when many of these apps run in the background and consume our limited resources. It is then when the phone lags or freezes and drains its battery faster than usual, due to a large number of apps running simultaneously. And to resolve this, we must know how to stop apps running in the background.

Also Read: How To View Your Android Notification History Log?

Steps on How to Stop Apps Running in the Background on your Android Smartphone

It is easy to stop apps running in the background on your Android device and thus free up your phone’s internal memory and increase battery life cycle. The following methods will help you in doing just that:

Method 1. Find Out the List of Apps that Actually Run in the Background.

Step 1. To find out the names of the app that are currently running in your system, go to settings and then developer options.

Note: If you haven’t enabled the Developer Options, then you can enable them by going to Settings > About Phone. Just locate the Build Number, and tap on it for an approx. of 10 times depending on your mobile OS version. The developer options will appear in the 7^th or 8^th tap, and you will see a notification informing that you are now a developer.

Step 2. Once you tap Developer Options, search for Running Services, and tap on it once. The list of apps currently running in the background on your device will appear along with the amount of RAM they use.

Step 3. After you have made a note of apps, which consume high resources, it is evident that the next step is to stop them. Navigate to settings and then to Apps section.

Step 4. Search for the apps, which you had noted in Step 2, the ones that were consuming a large amount of resources, and tap on them one by one. Next tap on Force Stop to stop the running application.

Note: This action is temporary and the next time you restart your phone, those apps will automatically restart, and you will have to stop the processes once again.

Step 5. If there are apps that you haven’t heard of or don’t use, then you can tap the Uninstall button, instead of Force Stop to remove them permanently from your Mobile device. Don’t worry, you cannot uninstall any Android system app as the uninstall option only appears only for third-party apps.

Also Read: Cannot Update To Android 10? Here’s why

Method 2. Enabling Adaptive Battery can Stop Apps Running in Background.

A new feature introduced in Android 10 is Adaptive Battery. This feature uses machine learning techniques to determine, which apps you use frequently and distinguishes between those that you rarely use or don’t use at all. Adaptive Battery feature currently classifies all apps into four buckets, namely, Active, Frequent, Working Set and Rare. Turn on this feature to keep your phone optimized and stop rarely used apps in the background.

You can manually close all apps by navigating to Battery options in the settings and tapping each one choosing to optimize and restrict background activity to improve battery life.

Also Read: Steps to Customize Android’s lock Screen.

Method 3. Updating Your Android Device can stop apps running in background.

Like any operating system, Android also receives frequent updates, some of them are related to stop apps running in the background or limit their usage. It is recommended to check for system updates and apps updates via Google Play Store and keep your phone updated. This is relatively an easy step among others in how to turn off background apps.

Also Read: How To Install Android on Windows Tablet or Vice Versa?

Method 4. Third-party Apps Can Stop Apps Running in Background.

If you don’t find the above-described options in your Android smartphone, then probably it is either not updated or these options are hidden by the custom OS in your phone. Also, if you find the above-mentioned steps would consume too much time and effort, then you can use a third-party app to do all that for with just a few taps here and there. The task of how to turn off background apps comes under Mobile Optimization and the best application to optimize your phone is Smart Phone Cleaner.

Smart Phone Cleaner

Smart Phone Cleaner is an all-in-one Android optimization software that boosts the performance of your mobile device by removing unwanted junk files and never used apps. It also gets rid of the hidden cache files and recovers unnecessary occupied space. The most important features include:

It frees up space and RAM, which enables your phone to run faster.

The battery saver mode, which allows the users to shut down apps that you rarely use.

It also includes a game booster, which improves your gaming experience, especially for PUBG.

A duplicate file remover included helps to identify and delete duplicate files.

Placing the apps in hibernating mode, especially the ones that have been inactive for a long time.

The final update of Smart Phone Cleaner included a module of Antimalware, which keeps your phone safe and secure form various types of malicious files available on the internet.

Also Read: How To Install The Tor Browser For Android?

Method 5. Close Recent Apps.

Despite closing an app or multiple apps, the fact of the matter is that they are still running in the background. But, here is a quick way using which you can close all your apps. To demonstrate the steps here, a Samsung Galaxy device is used –

1. Tap on the three vertical lines at the bottom-left corner. Some models have three horizontal linesor square buttons.

2. Tap on Close all or swipe up the app that you want to close.

3. Now, when you will again tap back on the three vertical lines, you’ll find that there are no apps.

Which method did you try and like?

Those were the four methods on how to stop apps running in the background on your Android smartphone. You can first try out the first three methods but if you don’t find a difference in Android device’s performance then probably it could be due to a bug or a malware present in your phone, which means you should opt for Smart Phone Cleaner.

Do share your thoughts and suggestions on how to turn off background apps on your Android smartphone in the comments section below, and subscribe to our Systweak blogs so that you can receive our latest blogs related to technology. Also do not forget to subscribe to Systweak Blogs and our Facebook Channel and Youtube Channel for interesting tech-related articles.