erratic apps Android 7 on LG Fiesta 2

[ETtrailrunner]

Hi;
I've had this LG Fiesta 2 with Android 7 on TracFone for 2 years.
Recently, I've been having several apps acting erratically.
For example:
Listening to an audiobook on Overdrive. The position in the book will suddenly jump, and sometimes the volume will increase or decrease. Sometimes the audio will stop, then start again, stop, and so on.
This has happened to other apps as well.
Google Assistant will suddenly come on and tell me what I can do, or instruct me to perform some action.
My music player - Poweramp Pro - will stop, change tracks, and/or the volume will increase or decrease.

Thinking it had something to do with Google Assistant - often I would hear the assistant at the time the erratic behaviour began, I shut down assistant completely. First by deselecting my phone in Google, but after that didn't stop the GA from breaking in, I just disabled it completely. Now I don't get GA, and I don't have voice announcements at all. But I still have this erratic behaviour.

I thought maybe it was my Bluetooth audio controller (Chubby Buttons) but I disabled Bluetooth, and still have the problem.

I am getting ready to do a factory reset of the phone - or maybe buying a new phone. I guess I should try factory reset before giving up on it.

I should mention that I have this phone installed into a hard case. Is it possible that one or more of the buttons on the phone are being randomly pressed by the case? I have seen that happen before, but removing the phone from the case, I did not find any dirt or anything that could be interfering with the buttons.
I don't want to use the phone without the case, as it is too easy to drop it.

Oh, and one more thing: I have installed Nova Launcher Pro. Could this be the problem?

Thanks for your advice
ET

 

[Dannydet]

https://www.cnet.com/products/lg-fiesta-2/
A factory reset will help it to a point, but I would opt for a new phone with more under the hood. Storage space is limited at best

 

[ocnbrze]

how much memory do you have? do you run out of room fast? if anything you should try putting the phone in safe mode first before factory resetting it. safe mode prevents 3rd party apps from running. if you are still having issues in safe mode, then it is not from an app and a factory reset might help.

 

[ETtrailrunner]

Thanks guys;
The LG Fiesta 2 has 2GB RAM (of which 1.5GB is available), and 16GB internal storage (of which 9.8GB is available).
I have not run out of memory or storage. I have a 128GB SD card installed, which I use for all storage (so long as the app allows it).

I would try safe mode, except that if it prevents my audiobook and music apps from running, there is no point in my using the phone. Those are pretty much the two main apps I use.
I don't do any social network apps, don't take many photos. I do use the Google mapping app with GPS.

Since I posted last night, I had another thought: I think I moved some apps to the SD card to free up space on internal storage. I have read that some apps don't like that, so I will move everything back to internal. If that doesn't help, I will try safe mode, but I'll have to use the built-in music player if Poweramp doesn't run in safe mode.

I am leaning towards buying a new phone anyway, but I would like to at least try to fix this one, as it is still performing pretty well (aside from the erratic behaviour). Battery life is still very good - considering the phone is 2yrs old.

Edit: I suppose that a bad connection on the headphone plug could effectively confuse the phone's circuitry into 'thinking' it is receiving signals from the buttons on a wired remote. It looks like that circuit is a very simple DC type that is expecting a specific voltage or current for each button.
While I have been using DeOxit to clean the contacts of my headphone plug and jack, it is still possible there is a bad connection.