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Is Your Old Tablet Slow? 7 Ways to Make It Faster in 2025

6.10.25

Image: Freepik

Do you remember the day you first unboxed it? That old tablet felt like a slice of the future. The screen was bright, apps opened in a flash, and swiping through photos was a buttery-smooth delight. It was your go-to device for browsing on the couch, watching movies in bed, and catching up on the news. But now, a few years later, things have changed. "Buttery-smooth" has been replaced by "painfully slow." Apps take an eternity to launch, the keyboard lags behind your typing, and even simple web pages seem to send it into a coughing fit.

We’ve all been there. It’s incredibly frustrating when a once-loved piece of technology becomes a source of daily friction. The immediate temptation is to sigh, browse for new models, and resign yourself to spending hundreds of dollars on a replacement. But what if you didn't have to? More often than not, the hardware inside your tablet is still perfectly capable. It hasn’t gotten slower; the software and data piled on top of it have just gotten heavier.

Before you relegate your old friend to a dusty drawer, you need to ask, “Is Your Old Tablet Slow? 7 Ways to Make It Faster in 2025” is the question this guide is here to answer with a resounding "Yes, you can fix it!" We’ll walk you through seven practical, effective steps—from simple housekeeping to slightly more advanced tweaks—that can breathe new life into your aging iPad or Android tablet, saving you money and reducing e-waste in the process.

The Real Reason Your Once-Speedy Tablet Now Crawls

Before we jump into the fixes, it helps to understand why your tablet has lost its step. It’s not a single issue, but a combination of factors that build up over time, like digital rust.

  • Software Bloat and Data Clutter: Over the years, your tablet has accumulated a mountain of digital baggage. Every app you've installed, every photo you’ve taken, every file you’ve downloaded, and every bit of cached data from websites contributes to this. Think of it like a home that has never been tidied; eventually, it becomes difficult to move around.
  • Full Storage Suffocation: Operating systems need empty space to breathe. They use your tablet's storage for temporary files, swapping data, and performing routine tasks. When your storage is nearly full (less than 10-15% free), the OS has no working room, and everything grinds to a halt.
  • Aging Hardware vs. Modern Software: App developers and OS creators (like Apple and Google) are constantly releasing updates with new features. These updates are optimized for the latest, most powerful processors. Your older tablet has to work significantly harder to run the same software, which can lead to lag and stuttering.
  • Resource-Hungry Background Processes: Many apps are constantly running in the background, even when you're not using them. They're checking for notifications, refreshing their content, syncing your data, and tracking your location. Each one of these processes sips a little bit of your tablet’s limited RAM and CPU power, leaving less available for the task you’re actually trying to do.

Now, let's fight back. Here are seven ways to address these issues and reclaim your tablet's performance.

The Ultimate Tune-Up: 7 Ways to Make It Faster in 2025

1. The Great App & Storage Purge (The Biggest and Easiest Win)

This is the most impactful thing you can do, and it costs nothing but a little bit of your time. Your goal is to free up as much storage space as possible.

Why it works: Freeing up storage gives your operating system the elbow room it needs to function efficiently. Furthermore, deleting unused apps eliminates them from running background processes and consuming precious resources.

How to do it on an iPad:

  1. Navigate to Settings > General > iPad Storage.

  2. Wait a moment for your iPad to calculate your storage usage. You’ll see a color-coded bar showing what’s taking up the most space.

  3. Apple will provide helpful Recommendations, such as "Offload Unused Apps" or "Review Large Attachments." These are excellent starting points. "Offloading" an app deletes the application but keeps its data, which is useful if you think you might use it again.

  4. Scroll down to the list of all your apps, sorted by size. Be ruthless. If you haven't opened an app in six months, do you really need it? Tap on the app and choose either "Offload App" or "Delete App."

How to do it on an Android Tablet:

  1. Navigate to Settings > Storage.

  2. Most Android versions have a "Free up space" or "Manage storage" button. This tool will intelligently identify junk files, large files, and unused apps for you to delete.

  3. To manually delete apps, go to Settings > Apps > See all apps. Scroll through the list and uninstall anything you no longer need.

  4. Don't forget to clean out your Downloads folder and transfer old photos and videos to a computer or cloud storage.

2. Clear Your Cache (The Digital Dusting)

Every app and browser on your tablet keeps a "cache"—a collection of temporary files used to speed up loading times. Over time, this cache can become bloated and corrupted, ironically slowing your device down.

Why it works: Clearing out old, unnecessary cached data frees up space and can resolve glitches and slowdowns caused by corrupted files.

How to do it on an iPad:

  • Safari: Go to Settings > Safari > Clear History and Website Data. This will log you out of websites but is very effective.
  • Other Apps: iPadOS doesn't have a system-wide "clear cache" button. The best way is often to delete and reinstall a particularly troublesome app (like Facebook or Instagram), which will clear its cache and documents in the process.

How to do it on an Android Tablet:

  1. Navigate to Settings > Apps > See all apps.

  2. Tap on an app that you use frequently, like Chrome.

  3. Tap on "Storage & cache."

  4. You'll see two options: "Clear cache" and "Clear storage." Always start by tapping "Clear cache." This is safe and won't delete any of your data or log you out. ("Clear storage" will reset the app to its factory state).

3. Tame Background App Refresh & Processes

This is one of the biggest drains on an older tablet's resources. Do you really need all 50 of your apps to be checking for new content in the background all day long?

Why it works: By stopping apps from running when you're not actively using them, you free up both RAM and CPU cycles, making your tablet feel much more responsive. It also has the huge side benefit of improving battery life.

How to do it on an iPad:

  1. Go to Settings > General > Background App Refresh.

  2. You can either turn the feature off entirely at the top (the most effective option for an old device) or go through the list and disable it for individual apps that don't need to be constantly updated (like games, social media, or utility apps).

How to do it on an Android Tablet:

  1. Many modern Android versions have an "Adaptive Battery" setting that automatically limits background usage for apps you don't use often. Ensure this is turned on in your Battery settings.

  2. For more manual control, you can restrict apps individually. Go to Settings > Apps > [App Name] > Battery and select "Restricted."

4. Reduce Animations & Visual Effects

The smooth fades, zooms, and swooshing animations in modern operating systems look beautiful, but they require graphical processing power (GPU). On older hardware, these visual effects can cause stuttering and lag.

Why it works: By disabling these cosmetic effects, you reduce the strain on your tablet's GPU. The user interface will feel dramatically snappier and more instantaneous, even though the underlying processing speed hasn't changed.

How to do it on an iPad:

  1. Go to Settings > Accessibility > Motion.

  2. Toggle on the "Reduce Motion" switch. This will replace the zoom animations with a simple fade, which is much less demanding.

How to do it on an Android Tablet:

  1. First, you must enable Developer Options. Go to Settings > About tablet, scroll down to the "Build number" and tap on it seven times in a row. You’ll see a message confirming you are now a developer.

  2. Now, go back to the main Settings menu, tap on "System," and find the new "Developer options" menu.

  3. Scroll down to the "Drawing" section and find these three settings: "Window animation scale," "Transition animation scale," and "Animator duration scale."

  4. Tap on each one and change the setting from 1x to 0.5x or even "Animation off." This is one of the most effective "speed hacks" for any Android device.

5. Tame Your Widgets and Notifications

Every widget on your home screen and every notification that pops up is a tiny demand on your tablet's resources.

Why it works: Widgets need to constantly refresh their data (weather, news, calendar), and push notifications wake your device from a low-power state. Reducing these minimizes the constant background chatter, freeing up the processor.

How to do it:

  • Widgets: Press and hold on any widget on your home screen and remove the ones you don't truly need to see at a glance.
  • Notifications: Go into your Settings > Notifications. Go through the app list and be merciless. Turn off notifications for any app that isn't essential for you to hear from immediately.

6. Update Your Operating System (Wisely)

This is a nuanced tip. While updates provide crucial security patches, they can also be the final nail in the coffin for an old device's performance.

What to do: Before you install a major new OS update (e.g., a new version of iPadOS or Android), do some research. Search online forums like Reddit for your specific tablet model and the new OS version (e.g., "iPad Air 2 on iPadOS 16 performance"). See if other users are reporting significant slowdowns. If they are, it might be better to skip that update and stay on the version that works.

7. The Last Resort: The Factory Reset

If you've tried everything else and your tablet is still unbearably slow, it's time for the nuclear option: a full factory reset.

Why it works: A factory reset wipes your device clean, removing every app, file, setting, and piece of corrupted data that has built up over the years. It returns the software to the exact state it was in when you first took it out of the box.

How to do it (CRITICAL: BACK UP FIRST!):

  1. BACK UP YOUR DATA! Before you do anything, make sure all your photos, files, and important data are backed up to a computer or a cloud service like iCloud or Google Drive. This process will erase everything.

  2. On an iPad: Go to Settings > General > Transfer or Reset iPad > Erase All Content and Settings.

  3. On an Android Tablet: Go to Settings > System > Reset options > Erase all data (factory reset).

  4. After the reset, you'll be given the option to restore from a backup. For the best performance, it's highly recommended that you set it up as a new device and manually reinstall only the essential apps you need. This prevents you from bringing back the same digital clutter that was slowing it down.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q1: Will replacing the battery make my old tablet faster?

A: Mostly, no. While a failing battery will give you terrible battery life, it doesn't usually impact the raw processing speed of a tablet in the way it could on some older iPhones. The main reason to replace a battery is to regain portability, not to boost performance.

Q2: Should I install one of those "RAM Booster" or "Cleaner" apps?

A: It's best to avoid them. On iPadOS, they are completely unnecessary as the operating system manages memory very efficiently. On Android, these apps are often filled with ads and can actually harm performance by constantly killing background processes that the OS then has to work to restart, creating a vicious cycle. The built-in storage management tools are far safer and more effective.

Q3: How much free storage should I aim for to keep my tablet fast?

A: A good rule of thumb is to always keep at least 15-20% of your tablet's total storage capacity free. For a 64GB device, that means having at least 10-12GB of empty space at all times.

Q4: My web browser is the slowest part of my tablet. What else can I do?

A: First, get in the habit of closing tabs you're not using. Having 50 tabs open will slow down any device. Second, try a lighter browser. On an older Android tablet, browsers like Firefox Focus or Opera may feel much faster than the resource-heavy Google Chrome.

Conclusion: Give Your Old Tablet a Second Chance

A slow tablet can feel like a lost cause, destined for the e-waste bin. But in many cases, it’s not dead—it’s just cluttered. The hardware you paid for is still in there, waiting to be unleashed from the years of digital baggage that are holding it back.

By taking a few hours to work through these 7 Ways to Make It Faster in 2025, you can perform a digital deep clean that makes a real, tangible difference. You can go from frustrating lag to a responsive, usable device that’s perfect for the everyday tasks you loved it for in the first place. It’s a sustainable choice that saves you money and empowers you to get the most value out of the technology you already own.

So, before you browse for a new tablet, browse your old one. Pick a tip from this list—start by deleting some old apps—and see how it feels. You might be surprised to find that the speedy, delightful device you remember is still in there, waiting for a fresh start.

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