I'm just wondering if anyone here maybe has some ideas. My phone is an LG G6 running Android that is like 5 years old. For almost 2 years, the battery has been getting steadily worse to where it's now at the point that I either have to keep the phone plugged into an outlet or on an external battery or it will be dead within 10 minutes. I fucking hate planned obsolescence so I've kept going with this piece of shit phone as much out of spite as due to the fact that I'm broke, unemployed, and can't afford a new one anyway. But the battery isn't even my problem now (I know there are ways of replacing a battery, it's just not easy or "recommended").

My issue now is that all of a sudden it got so laggy that it's essentially useless. Like one minute it was working normally, the next it was so lagged that swiping down to see the menu or whatever takes 5 whole seconds. I can't type a text message because even after the keyboard finally shows up, there is like 4 seconds of delay after I hit a key before it registers. Everything is slow and jerky.

I've of course checked around the web as best as possible but the most common advice is "simply get a new phone!" Yeah, fuck off, I can't afford that. The other advice I've found and tried hasn't helped, such as obvious things like deleting unused apps and old files to free up space. Also going into developer mode so I can see what services are using up RAM or if one of them is hogging it all. None of that works. I tried booting into safe mode, but not only did that not solve the problem, I realized that even the start up animation with the LG logo and then the carrier logo is stuttering and lagging even before it boots into safe mode, so the problem must be pretty fundamental.

I doubt anyone can help because it's no accident that there's nothing to be done but somehow find a way to buy an all new brain-rotting, soul-sucking, attention-sapping, spying, tracking device. I'm still posting here on the off chance that someone might have a solution, but also just because I needed to rant somewhere and this is one of the only places where people get it about this kind of shit. It is yet another one of the countless situations where they have us all over a barrel, making us pay them exorbitant amounts for tech that's made via gross exploitation of humanity while simultaneously helping destroy the habitability of the planet, tech that they've forced into being necessary to even function in this demented ass fucked up hyper capitalist society (same thing with cars and everything involving them too!)

So tldr, does anyone possibly know a way to fix a lagging android phone?

Edit: Thanks for the responses everyone. I guess I'll see if I'm able to buy and install a new battery and hope that really is the root of the problem.

  • NothingButACommodity [it/its]
    ·
    2 years ago

    Thanks for the info. I found a few youtube vids of people replacing the battery on that model and I was considering doing that, but I'm not going to bother if the phone is so slow and laggy I can't even us it. But if I am able to solve that problem somehow, I will definitely check out that guide. I think the battery is a separate issue because I've been dealing with that for a while now, but the lagging thing just cropped up out of nowhere all of a sudden. I could be wrong of course.

    • chickentendrils [any, comrade/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Battery output voltage is essential to the CPU functioning at a normal speed, I'd be surprised if it's otherwise functional despite the lag and a battery replacement wouldn't fix it!

      Apple got heat and in some trouble trying to underclock older phones with defective batteries because they would shutdown if pulling the specified voltage: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batterygate

      • NothingButACommodity [it/its]
        ·
        2 years ago

        That makes sense, but even when it's plugged in and says the battery is at 100%, it makes no difference as far as how lagged everything is. I guess a battery replacement is still worth a try, but it would piss me off to spend the money on a new battery and go through the trouble of installing it for it not to work.

        • chickentendrils [any, comrade/them]
          ·
          2 years ago

          I haven't looked at how difficult it is to replace, some phones are a huge pain in the ass, but I wouldn't expect it to improve while connected, at least not noticeably. All the current is still going into the battery before being used by the electronics. Plus the cells will be running hotter while being charged, too hard to draw many conclusions I think.

          I'm pretty sure there are apps that will give you fairly detailed battery info too. Enabling "Developer" mode on mine lets me pull one up, people online say dialing *#*#4636#*#* also pulls one up (on mine I just get some network/modem menus with that code).

          • NothingButACommodity [it/its]
            ·
            2 years ago

            Ok, maybe that really is the root of the problem then. According the battery replacement vids I watched, it is a pita, but I could probably do it. Most of them say specialized tools are necessary but I think I could do it with regular tools from my toolbox and a heat gun.

            I did go into developer mode and looked at some battery health stats but it didn't really tell me anything I didn't already know. I will try dialing that code though... interesting.