Last Updated on December 5, 2015 by Dave Farquhar
So I have Cyanogenmod 10.3 running on a Nook Color that I use as a secondary tablet. It’s outmoded, but still useful enough that I want to keep it around. But a week or two ago, it suddenly started to lag really badly. So I looked into it a little bit.
Some other Android tablets have some trouble with TRIM. Android generally handles it decently on its own, but it doesn’t always seem to. I found an app–for rooted tablets only–called Lagfix that lets you force TRIM yourself.
TRIM is basically a form of garbage collection, where free space is wiped, because a fresh wipe takes less time than a rewrite. It’s not analogous to defragmenting a platter hard drive, but the effects on performance are similar.
Running Lagfix on my venerable Nook Color definitely seemed to put a spring back in its step. As a single-core tablet running at 1.1 GHz, it’s never going to win any races, but now it’s usable again for playing media files and checking the news and weather.
So if you have an Android tablet or phone and it seems to have lost a step or two with age, it’s worth giving Lagfix a try to see if it helps.
David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He started his career as a part-time computer technician in 1994, worked his way up to system administrator by 1997, and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He invests in real estate on the side and his hobbies include O gauge trains, baseball cards, and retro computers and video games. A University of Missouri graduate, he holds CISSP and Security+ certifications. He lives in St. Louis with his family.