Whenever you face trouble with Android apps, people suggest you clear App data through the App Settings Menu.
There are mainly two options available in each app setting named “Clear the app cache” and “Clear the app data”. Novice users are confused about which option to use in these two.
What is App Cache?
Have you noticed that first time when you rebooted your phone applications like Facebook, Whatsapp loads slowly? On each subsequent launch, they become more responsive. Why is like that? Can you imagine the reason behind this?
App Cache is the main factor in this matter. Android operating system loads key app data onto the memory, to avoid slowdown of the application loading. That is why applications load faster on each subsequent launch.
What happens by clearing app cache?
When you cleared app cache to gain few MB of storage data from the phone memory, next time whenever you tries to load the app, it again becomes slow. So here is, the choice is yours, either to keep the app cache or to regain valuable storage space.
If you are using an old smartphone with limited internal storage like 8 or 16 GB, then it is good to clear app cache frequently. Otherwise, don’t touch App Cache Setting.
What is App data?
Application data is slightly different concept compared to app cache. Every app store crucial information on the phone, in the form of SQLite database.
For example, if we took Facebook as an example, username, passwords we entered into the app while signing in are stored in this database. Also, you can notice App Settings option in the Facebook Settings Menu. When you configured those settings, your personal preferences are also stored in this database. This data will consider as app data.
You can erase any installed app’s “App data” by heading down to your phone settings>Applications Menu and select the appropriate application. But immediately, you have to enter account details or configure other settings to get that app works perfectly again.
So now I hope you got a clear picture of these two settings, use them as per your requirements.