How often should you turn off your phone? Here’s the NSA’s advice

Many people need to learn how to use a smartphone properly. After all, these all-rounder devices require regular maintenance and important updates in order to stay protected against wear and tear as well as attacks.

Turning your phone off completely protects it

Surprisingly, this includes a very basic function that not many people do: switching off the smartphone completely. According to security experts at the NSA, this alone helps to protect the device from some hacking attacks. It is now not only common to gain access to smartphones via malicious links, but also via so-called zero-click exploits.

This involves bypassing the smartphone’s security features step-by-step. Starting with a missed call, then the first installed files, which gradually allow access to the system and tap into information. This usually goes unnoticed, but can fortunately be prevented by completely rebooting the device.

So how often should I turn off my phone?

The simple answer from security experts as to how often a phone should be turned off completely is: at least once a week. In the best case scenario, however, you should remember to reset our phone even more often. This is because, in addition to eliminating the security risk, it also allows the smartphone’s operating system to run all functions smoothly.

By the way: To see how long your device has had to go without switching off, you can easily check the system settings. On Android devices, this can usually be found under “Device” and then “Status.” The uptime is displayed there in hours.

Further reading: Does fast charging hurt your phone battery?

Editor’s note: This article originally published on May 17 but was updated with additional links and context.