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How often do you restart your phone? If you’re anything like me, you’re able to go weeks without giving your phone a reboot. However, we collectively need to change this habit, as a new report claims that restarting your phone is actually a good way to get rid of malware on your system.
How Can Restarting Your Phone Protect You?
It may sound weird on paper—after all, viruses don’t typically vanish by restarting your system. And you’d be right if we were discussing desktop malware. However, with some phone malware, things are a little different.
Some strains of phone malware will run entirely on your device’s RAM. This is handy for evading antivirus scans, as these will typically only search your storage for malicious files. However, if you know your different types of computer memory, you’ll know that the RAM loses all data stored on it when it loses power.
As such, the best way to clean out malware on your phone is to turn it off periodically. This wipes the RAM and removes any malware within it.
What Can’t Be Fixed By Restarting Your Phone?
Before you cancel your antivirus plan, it’s worth noting that restarting your phone only kicks out any malware living within your RAM. If something has managed to download itself onto your system, it won’t go away after a restart.
If you suspect that your phone has been infected by a virus and restarting it doesn’t help, it’s best to grab one of thebest antivirus apps for Androidand give it a run. Once your antivirus gives your phone the all-clear, you’re able to alternate between scanning and restarting your phone to ensure it stays malware-free.
How Often Should You Restart Your Phone?
So, here’s the good news: restarting your phone doesn’t just help clear out malware. It’s also afantastic way to solve (most) problems with your phone. As such, restarting your phone every day is a good way to ensure your device is in tip-top shape, both performance and security-wise.
Of course, if you forget to restart your phone on a day, there’s no need to wake up in a cold sweat about it. In fact, there’s a case to be made that restarting at least once a week should do the trick. However, if you make it part of your daily routine, you’ll remember to do it more often and keep your phone working at its best.
Restarting your phone is a good way to flush out memory-based malware, but it’s not a silver bullet for protecting your phone from any threats. However, given how restarting your phone can help its performance, it’s a good idea to make a daily habit out of it to keep everything running smoothly.
