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Level 1

0 points

iPhone 4 on 4.3.1 - Choppy UI animations.

Hi folks, I've seen some comments on this scattered around various forums, but there seem to be more people interested in saying those experiencing this issue are "seeing things".

Since updating my iPhone 4 to iOS 4.3.1, the device has become a vastly poorer user experience. App launch animations often don't even show when you press an app icon, this is most noticeable on games for some reason. Once an app has launched and is loaded into the memory however, the launch animation runs fine when returning to the home screen and relaunching. Also, when in an app like Photos or Camera, when you return to the home screen there is a clear juddering in the animation. There is no set list of apps which trigger the performance, it's utterly random in it's appearance. For example, Messages can load fluidly one moment, but close with a judder the next.

I have taken the following steps:

Restored via "Restore Button" in iTunes.
Restored via iTunes using DFU mode.
Switched off Ping.
Switched off Push in email settings.
Switched off Spotlight search.

Yet this choppy UI experience persists.

I phoned Applecare, who were very helpful, and they said it was not acceptable and set up a replacement at the Apple Store today. Obviously, the issue has to be witnessed by a Genius. It's not a case of "seeing things" or "seeing things you want to", as there is 6GB of free space left on my iPhone 4 and yet I could run this same iPhone 4 on 4.2 with only 800mb left and it displayed all the launch animations perfectly, regardless of the app in question.

The only reason I am taking up the offer of a replacement is because, hopefully, the refurb I receive will have 4.2 on it (or perhaps earlier, but that's a long shot). Suffice to say, if this is what each incremental update to iOS does to a device, and given what happened to the 3G with 4.0, I'll be leaving iOS 5 well alone.

Fluid UI beats new features for me.

iMac 2.4GHz C2D, Mac OS X (10.6.7), iPhone 4 16GB 4.3.1

Posted on Apr 9, 2011 12:21 AM

27 replies

deggie

Level 10

167,183 points

Apr 14, 2011 5:38 PM in response to WM06

What applications are you referring to where the animations lag? Specifically. Because it is not doing it on any that I have seen so apparently it is not a systemic bug.

Apr 14, 2011 5:51 PM in response to deggie

For me, it's all 3rd party apps (google, google voice, facebook, twitter, etc). When I launch those, the app just appears without the little animation of app icons on the home screen flying out. As for 1st party apps (safari, mail, etc) the animations are there, but are sometimes choppy as in skipping frames.
This does not affect the use of the iPhone or the apps, but as you can imagine, it's very annoying.

Apr 14, 2011 7:04 PM in response to deggie

For me it seems to be random. Sometimes when I launch Storm 8 games, I'll get a black screen for a few seconds before it comes up. Sometimes it comes up right away. Does that with some apps that don't require to go online as well. Personally, I don't think it's any particular app, just how the phone handles them. But mostly, which happens more often, is when I'm waking my phone up, I'd slide the bar, and it wouldn't respond. I'd have to do it again. Or when I'm swiping from page to page, I'd have to do it twice for it to move. Or when I click on an app (any app), I'd have to hit it twice sometimes for it to launch. This happened on my 3GS as well, but not as much as it does on my iP4. But compared to other issues I've dealt with the lag was the least. But none the less, can be annoying at times. Especially when you think that this is suppose to be one of the top of the line phones money can buy. Definitely the most expensive. I hope the duo-core processor on the iP5 will help with these iOS issues. I still believe all issues has to do with both the phone and the iOS and how they work with each other. Not one or the other. That's also why I haven't updated from my original 4.1. Since reading through these forums, I'm realizing that under 4.1 I'm dealing with very little issues. My biggest one is intermittent wifi disconnection, when there is no reason why it should be disconnecting.

Apr 14, 2011 7:25 PM in response to deggie

Mainly any 3rd party app. But happens in Apple apps like App Store. No it does not affect the device running, but is VERY annoying. And with someone with OCD, it just bugs the **** out of me.

WM06

Level 1

15 points

Apr 14, 2011 8:59 PM in response to WeegieMac

The problem occurs at random, it occurs sometimes when unlocking the home screen, when loading the messages app, when sending text messages, when checking the emails on the Mail app, when making a phone call, the list goes on and on. It doesn't just happen in 3rd party apps. I was on iOS 4.1 initially and I never had these problems on my phone, but because I felt pressured by iTunes to update, and also some of the new features that iOS 4.3.1 contained, I decided to upgrade and now I extremely regret it. I am scared to update to 4.3.2 because I don't know if the problem has been fixed or if it will get worse. And since we can never go back to older iOS versions... (WHICH IS RIDICULOUS BECAUSE I DO NOT JAILBREAK MY PHONE SO NOW I MUST BE PUNISHED BY NOT BEING ABLE TO GO BACK TO A STABLE iOS) I just don't know what to do, if apple thinks that I will buy the next iPhone just because my current one is slow because of their iOS update they're completely wrong. In fact this just makes me NOT want anymore future iPhones given the bad experience I am having, and the same thing happened to the iPhone 3G, once updated to 4.2.1 it was slow and just useless, fortunately for apple I already have brought the iPhone 4 and I didn't care about the iPhone 3G.. so I hope they read this and understand that sooner or later consumers will get tired of their shenanigans...

Nisei

Level 1

0 points

Apr 21, 2011 5:00 PM in response to WM06

Apple doesn't care about what you think. Remember they think different ;)

Apr 23, 2011 3:08 AM in response to WeegieMac

I totally agree! I am a fustrated 4.3.1 user too!

jammol

Level 1

0 points

May 18, 2011 7:01 AM in response to WeegieMac

First off, it's not the phone itself, and it's not the OS either. It's the applications. Some applications come with 'splash screens' that pop up before the app itself launches. Depending on what you were doing the last time the app was ran, there might not be a 'splash screen' for the app to display because it's trying to go right back to where you left off. A jailbroken iPhone would show you many examples of what I'm talking about. Did you know that there are 4 different 'splash screens' for the Phone app itself that apple made? Each app has it's own splash screen, and depending on what part of the app is trying to load directly, you may or may not see the icons effects. Also the **** phone is just way too fast.

As for the person with the waking the phone issue. You just woke it up, it has to catch back up to itself. No phone will ever respond right that split second and be able to actually sleep. Also, do you have a screen protector on the face of the phone. That can also be a problem when it comes to the screens response to your finger touching it.

May 26, 2011 1:48 PM in response to jammol

Give them feedback. http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html

Nisei

Level 1

0 points

May 27, 2011 12:20 AM in response to jammol

@jammol First off, it's not the phone itself, and it's not the OS either. It's the applications.

No, it's the OS. I randomly even have a jerky animation after I type my passcode. You know, the icons floating from the sides to the center. Now that's 100% OS and has nothing to do with 3rd party apps. And how do you explain it's not the OS when no-one had any problems before 4.3? My 3GS worked perfectly smooth on 4.2.1.

jammol

Level 1

0 points

May 27, 2011 7:34 AM in response to Nisei

That was dealing with the splash screens issue. And people did have problems before 4.3. They just didn't say anything cause it doesn't do any good.

How often does it jerk when you want to type in your passcode. And Finally, Is your iphone jailbroken and are you running themes from cydia? Also does the problem happen only during certain situations?

Because that sounds like a problem a themed iphone would have. I have an iPhone 4 32Gb, iPhone 3GS 32Gb, and 2 iPhone 3G's, all up to date with the exception of the 3G's being only on 4.2.1. Only the iPhone 4 is themed and that's the only one whose passcode gives the jerky movement when a theme is on.

m8r8j

Level 1

0 points

Jul 12, 2011 12:42 PM in response to jammol

i am also experiencing this... im on verizon 4.2.8 and im dealing with the choppy animations too. i have all my icons in folders and ive found that opening an app from a folder yields choppier animations than opening apps from the homescreen... anyway it is random like everyone else has said, my phone will be smooth as butter one second and then choppy the next. the fly out animations bother me, but not as bad as the text message bubble transition. when you type out a text and press send, the text turns into a green bubble and it will "chop" up into the conversation. i get these all the time, but sometimes they will be smooth.

ive tried doing a hard reset, restoring from backup, restoring as a new phone, deleting the software off of my computer and re downloading it, with no results.

i dont know what else to try, i am waiting for 4.2.9 but i doubt that it will fix it because i was also waiting for it to be fixed from 4.2.7 to 4.2.8 and it was not.

anyways lets keep this topic going and maybe once it gets big enough we can submit it to apple.

iPhone 4 on 4.3.1 - Choppy UI animations.