If your smart TV is running slow and laggy, acting up, or commands from the remote take forever, you're not alone. Sluggish TV performance while flipping through menus or channels is a common problem, but one with a super easy fix.
When was the last time you fully restarted your smart TV? I'm not talking about turning it off and back on between Netflix binge sessions each night—but a full reboot—cutting power and all. Many smart TVs don't actually turn off but instead go into a low-power sleep state thanks to "quick boot or fast boot" features. No one wants to wait forever for a TV to turn on, so most brands don't fully power down when you hit the power button.
Our fancy modern smart TVs are basically computers with smartphone(ish) specs on the inside. They have plenty of features, menus, apps, and updates that slow them down, especially over time. Like your computer or phone benefits from turning off and back on, a smart TV does, too.
It sounds silly, but the easiest and fastest way to instantly improve the performance of your smart TV is to initiate a reboot. Don't just hit the power button; instead, dig into the settings menu and manually force a full restart.
Depending on the model or operating system, you can usually head into Settings > System > and find an option to restart the device. Doing so will clear the cache, fully power down the TV, and restart everything. It'll take longer to fire up than usual, but that's because it's fully restarting—which is what we want.
Basically, power-cycling your TV is the best way to improve performance in seconds. Unfortunately, it's likely only a temporary fix. Your mileage may vary, but after a few days or weeks, it'll probably start to get sluggish again from all the streaming apps and services you use. When that happens, give it another reboot or unplug the power cable for 10 seconds.
I actually use smart plugs to restart my router and TV every ten days, and I've noticed much better performance with my home Wi-Fi and smart TV. It's also a good idea to uninstall any pre-installed apps from your TV to free up space, or you can try "App Only Mode" on Google TV to get rid of recommendations, which improves performance as well.
You're better off avoiding apps on your smart TV and using a dedicated streaming stick or box with more powerful internal hardware. TVs don't have the best processors, and many owners don't upgrade them every year or two. As a result, they're often running old and outdated hardware that can't keep up with modern streaming services.
So, the next time you notice your smart TV running slow or not responding quickly enough to remote inputs, unplug the power cable for a bit or manually reboot it from the settings menu. Once it fully restarts, you'll notice a difference immediately.