How to stop a download on android phone

Create an account. Edit this Article. We use cookies to make wikiHow great. By using our site, you agree to our cookie policy. Cookie Settings. Learn why people trust wikiHow. Download Article Explore this Article methods. Related Articles. Article Summary. Method 1. Open your mobile internet browser. You can use any mobile browser available on Android, such as Chrome, Firefox, or Opera. Find the file you want to download on your Android. It could be a document, link, or any type of file.

Start your file download. Tap the download button on a web page, or tap and hold a link and select Download link on the pop-up menu. You will see a download icon on the status bar in the upper-left corner of your screen. Swipe down from the top of your screen. This will open your Notification Center in a drop-down panel. Your file download will appear at the top of your notifications. Tap the Pause button. This button is located below the name of the file you're downloading. When you open Files by Google, the app will recommend various options like clearing out app caches, removing junk files or deleting backed-up photos from your device.

There's even an AirDrop-like file-sharing feature baked into the app that makes it really easy to share files with someone who is nearby. Once you've installed the app, you can find your downloaded files by selecting the Browse tab at the bottom of the app, then tapping Downloads. Tap a file to open it, or long-press on it to select the file and delete, share or rename it.

Turn a photo into an Excel spreadsheet: Microsoft's new tool for Android phones saves you endless time. Brand new phones are a wondrous thing, but over time your shiny new device slows down and becomes sluggish.

Switching between apps becomes a frustrating experience and your battery won't get you through a day. If this sounds familiar, there are a few things you can do to take back control of your smartphone and improve the situation, and one of the easiest things to do is get control of your apps running in the background.

The best way to gain control of your processes is to have a dig around under the hood using the monitoring tools built into Android. Exactly how this process screen looks, how you access it and what it's called will vary depending on which company made the device and what version of Android you're using.

Some phones, like a Meizu M3 Max we tested with, won't allow you to access the developer options by tapping the build number and have their own specific method. The best thing to do in that case is Google the model of your phone and the words ' unlock developer options '.

The app marked ' Google Services ', or pretty much any app that starts with 'Google' shouldn't be manually stopped. On the other hand, if you look through the list and see messengers and music players idly draining your battery in the background, then you can go ahead and stop them in relative safety.

Truly crucial apps usually won't allow you to force stop them anyway. So, in the above example, we had no use for Kik, Facebook Pages Manager or a few other running services, so stopped them without error. Usually if you long press on the downloading item in download manager there's an option to delete it, thus stopping the download.

Apologies for resurrecting an old thread but I just had the same problem of needing to stop a download and solved the problem by activating Aeroplane Mode. A less invasive solution and more easily reached in the UI - for anyone else ending up here from Google like I did Long press the notification and select "App Info". This will take you to the application which is responsible for the download, which you can then force stop. In Android 4. Look for Download manager. Force stop, Clear data, and Clear cache.

The simple way to cancel a download in Android Lollipop is to disconnect from any internet connection, ie turn off WiFi or mobile data. Another method would be to enable airplane mode; either methods would cause the files to timeout. Then you could delete the partially downloaded file.. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. This will let you prevent your child from downloading unwanted apps on your device, as well as their own.

The majority of apps have an age rating that helps determine which apps are most appropriate. You can block the downloads of apps that surpass a certain age by using parental controls within the Google Play Store.

Note: Apps on your phone that were downloaded before you set any parental controls are accessible, despite their age rating. You can set certain restrictions on their mobile phone or tablet usage, like app downloads, in-app purchases, and screen time.

The solution is to hide the app. Certain smartphone brands have a built-in option to hide apps. When you are in PrivateSpace mode, you can download apps that will automatically be hidden once you return to MainSpace.