Three essential tips to instantly boost your phone's signal, including a forgotten button that refreshes the connection

SIGNAL dropouts are annoying and can strike at any time – and fixing them is a bit of a mysterious dark art.

The obvious source of blame is a poorly connected area, which basically means your network doesn't have enough masts.

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It could also be that there are too many people trying to access the network at the same time – this can be a common problem at festivals where many users congregate in a certain area.

But there may be some signal problems on your phone itself.

And there are some simple ways to fix or improve this immediately.

Try these three to see if your connection improves.

Turn airplane mode on and off

Airplane mode is there to cut off your signal while flying, but is also useful if your connection hangs.

When you turn Airplane Mode on and off, your phone's cellular network modems are forced to find the best signal around you.

On iPhone or Androidswipe down from the top of your screen and look for the plane icon.

Tap it and wait a few seconds until the signal bar clears. Then tap it again to restart the connection.

Remove the case from your phone

Your phone's case may protect it from damage, but it can also cause connection issues.

Any metal materials in the housing can be a particular problem.

This is because it may be blocking the antenna in your device.

So take it off and see if you notice a difference.

Charge your phone

Low battery can also cause signal problems.

That's because looking for a signal and connecting to a stronger signal takes energy, the researchers said CNET.

So the more battery you have, the better.