Help Phone Crashing and VERY laggy

[CcPunk28]

Hey guys! Thanks for your time and help. I have the note 2 through AT&T and it's been great until recently.. I read some other posts on here but their problems differed in various ways. Anyway, here is the problem:
When I first take out my phone and press a button to activate it, it actually takes 31 seconds to even show the screen! It's normally instantly! And after is shows the screen it takes quite a while to even accept the swipe to actually use the phone. To make a long story short, most of my problems are related in a similar slow reaction way. Sometimes it just goes black on it's own for a while and I have to do the 30 second wait again.
I know someone is going to say to reset the phone, but I really REALLY don't want to do that unless it's the only way.
Also, it may help to know that I'm 90% sure it's not a RAM issue because I freed up tuns of it and my phone also has plenty of storage space left. ALSO I haven't downloaded anything new in a looong time, BUT the phone is always updating programs by itself.
I guess what I was hoping for is some ideas of possibly a free scanning device or something similar that might know of and may help fix my phone. Any help or advice is VERY much appreciated.
Thanks in advance guys
Colin

P.S. If it comes down to having to reset the whole phone could someone please tell me how to backup my contacts please as well as how to reset the phone? Thanks again!

 

[Deleted User]

Reset the phone

Seriously, the last time I did it, it took me 2 hours to be up and running again.

There are some things to be aware of:

I sync my contacts and calendar with Google so I don't need to back up contacts or calendar before resetting. If you store your contacts locally on the phone it would be worth considering if you should just move them to your Google account.

Call log and SMS log are both gone after the reset. There are free backup options on Google play store if you need them.

Make sure to backup photos and movies stored on the phones memory if you have any. I always save to sd card and that survives a reset.

Assuming you use gmail your emails are safe in the cloud.

Using Chrome you can sync your bookmarks with your Google account and they'll be safe.

Google play and samsung both have features that get you up and running very quickly again. I was surprised at how easy it was.

Did I forget anything?

 

[CcPunk28]

WoW ok thanks for your response! I think you pretty much covered it. I'm glad you mentioned the sms logs.. I would have forgotten that. I'll check out some backup apps offered in Google Play. The only question I have is how I sync my contacts with Google. Through google+ or somewhere else? I notice that Google automantically backs up all my photos without asking me, but I'll probably put them on my computer to be safe! Alrighty, well thanks again. I appreciate your help. Oh wait one more thing. I'm sure to reset the phone there will be some sort of "reset to factory settings" under settings or something similar? Ok that about covers it