Q: My ipad 2 ran great on with IOS 7. Now with IOS 8 it is slow and choppy and full of error messages. Is this Apples way of forcing my IPad2 into obsolesence?

Ok here is the thing. I always stood behind Apple and apple products in any tech discussions and always supported apple's views. NOT this time, the new FN iOS 8 is a disgrace, disaster, dis functional and dis everything. I can't use my iPad without cussing now Thanks to IOS 8

I'm going to have to agree with Majodiac. There was a time where Apple cared about backward compatibility, but now it seems to me, unless you're buying the latest greatest gadget from them, they could care less about your issues. Case in point, I spent good money on iPhoto for both devices and now it's useless with this new update.

See my previous comments here. iPad 2 is fine on iOS 8 if you set it up as a fresh install. It helps to use features like 'reduce motion'. I have 16 iPad 2 models all running fine since being set up this way.

Thanks Walter,

I've turned on 'reduce motion' and it's much speedier. I'll wait on a fresh install if the jerkiness returns.

Peter hi

i seems to be having the same problem with my ipad 2 when i downloaded the ios 8 pls how did you get your solved.  the message i have after  updating is the itune icon and the charger sign with an arrow pointing towards the itunes. can you advise?

Hi Peter
Firstly let me say that what follows below may in some sense be little different than the 'Restoring from a backup' option in iTunes. Nevertheless, I believe there are some fundamental differences that worked for my iPad and may help you also.

My procedure was as follows: -

1. Connect iPad to iTunes and ensure that you have transferred purchases including any Apps that were bought on the iPad but which haven't been backed up to your PC or Mac.

2. If you back up photos to iPhoto or elsewhere also do this now. App purchases will be remembered by the App store. For me music is very important so I have Music Match which I will explain later.

2. Disconnect the iPad and go to Settings>General>Reset>Erase All Content and Settings. Confirm your actions and wait for iPad to restart.

3. Connect to iTunes and choose 'Set up as new iPad' once it is recognised.

4. Wait for iPad to restart and apply any updates such as 8.0.2

5. At this point you will want to restore your iPad but, importantly this is a good time to think about the apps that you really didn't use and decide whether you really want to use them on your fresh new installation I chose to use this opportunity to cull quite a bit. You can always restore them later if you so wish.

6. I use Music Match which means that the iPad will immediately remember which music should be in your albums and playlists. If at some time you had large amounts downloaded to the iPad itself these will now have gone but you can restore them at any time. If music is important to you and you have large quantities then Music Match is almost essential. My music collection amounts to some 25 days so I take great care over backup and the use of Music match which ensures I have everything available everywhere.

7. Restore photos from your computer or iCloud if you had them backed up there. Restore music from Music Match or resync with iTunes collection if you have one.

8. Go to Settings>General>Accessibility and turn 'Reduce Motion' ON.

If you are not happy with the results you can simply restore from your backup.

As you can see I did all this using iTunes on a PC but I've also done it on a Mac. I haven't tried with an iPad that is purely backed up to the Cloud. Call me old-fashioned but I like to be absolutely sure I'm not going to lose anything!

Sorry this is so long winded and that it describes my situation. All I can say is that, apart from websites in Safari that have always been glitchy (usually when adverts and countless objects are being loaded in the background) things are pretty good. I use the iPad 2 for playing music through various Airport Express units as well as with Apple TV. I have experienced no drop outs and can still browse for example whilst music is playing. The fresh installation left my iPad 2 more responsive than when I simply updated it.

Hope some of this may help you!

Hello Peter
I'm sorry that you spent such a long time trying this and it didn't work! I think some of us may be accepting that the iPad 2 will be running more slowly as, in technology terms, it is now quite an old device. I think it was given iOS 8 because there is such an investment in the educational and business fields and presumably institutions would otherwise find some apps not installing or updating. Some will have purchased iPad 2 comparatively recently.

I think it is therefore necessary to expect some glitches but not to the extent of apps not loading. It may be worth checking whether the ones you are using have been updated fully for iOS 8. I have not experienced any apps that will not load but I have always been highly selective about what I have in place. Regarding websites I find that those which have many elements that continue to load in the background tend to be the most temperamental. These elements usually include adverts and features such as comment threads. If I scroll through a Google results list everything is smooth - scrolling through say The Independent's news pages is glitchy and not very pleasant. However, that was very similar for me in iOS7.

I think I would feel as you do if apps and web pages did not load. I'm not seeing that and can't reproduce the issue. Nevertheless, I do sense that when the new iPads are released shortly I will need to replace my iPad 2.

I hope other users may offer you some more suggestions and meanwhile the first major update may improve things as happened with iOS 7.

Best wishes

Nice to see this isn't just me. I've got an original iPad Mini - was absolutely fine on 7. Installed 8 and browsing the web is painfully slow, there's key lag now making typing messages a chore and the battery appears to randomly empty itself overnight for no good reason. I've posted about this on my Facebook and I'm hearing lots of people with the same problems with devices ranging from Minis to Retinas to Airs.

Is anyone even bothering to test these updates before they're released? Absolutely ridiculous. I've already invested too much money into various music and productivity apps to ever jump ship but at this point I just don't know what to do. Even throwing money at the problem and getting a newer iPad is no guarantee it'd work.

Add to this the poor build quality of my 5s, iOS 7.01 destroying my girlfriend's WiFi on a 4s...I've never seen a company so good and so terrible at something at the same time. It's frustrating.

I Just wanted to thank you for your clear and and thorough instructions about how to get our iPad 2's working again.  I also found the initial updates to ios8 a disaster.  I was planning to wipe out my data and ship my ipad2 16Gb to Tim Cooke and ask him to use it for a day and then let me know iif he had a solution to what I understand is the 20%+ of the iPad userbase who are using ipad2. 

Clearly, they need to issue an update, which will clear out these devices and install a clean version of ios8, or they should be issuing an advisory, explaining how to do it as you have done. 

IN my case, I followed procedures to try to downgrade back to ios7.12, but Apple is not apparently allowing us to do that as of 9/29 so my attempt to install the old ios7 resulted in requiring me to start over with a fresh install/restore of ios8.

Once I restored ios8, I was able to sync with my iTunes and put all apps, music, photos, etc. back on the  iPad. I also, as you suggested, did  a little housecleaning with apps, music and photos which were taking up space, so I currently have 5GB free.

It is working quite normally now, certainly massively better than what I found after the initial update proces, which had me questioning whether I just needed to put this iPad away in my computer museum, with my old IMac, Macintosh and other machines.

THanks again.

I Have the same problem. Since upgrading to iOS 8.0.2 from the previous version I have seen a distinct deterioration in speed for everything. It's not smooth and quick anymore , the response is delayed and chunky.

THis is is VERY irritating. 

I Feel betrayed by Apple that they would allow this to happen And I have been a devotee for years.

WHy not just tell me beforehand that my iPad version has insufficient active memory to run ios 8 smoothly and I wouldn't have bothered Upgrading.

NOw I'm stuck. 

IRritated and and frustrated by pants performance.

HAve tried reboots and dumped apps to free up memory ( have 13gb available on a 64gb iPad ) all to no avail

And the silence from Apple is deafening.

PLease will ill they acknowledge the issue and tell us this will be sorted out !,,!

DAvid

Yeh all this is similar to an android fix after an update which I have been through several times. And time consuming. I thought apple was better and was thinking of switching to an iphone from my Razr Max as it is time to upgrade that. I have grown fond of ios over the last two years on my ipad 2 because updates typically went smooth. Not now.

I am a busy small business owner and don't have time for this crap. Why couldn't these high paid brilliant silicon valley engineers test this update on older models,  not just the air. I can't afford to update my device every year.

Are you reading this Apple? Are you going to put a fix out in the next few days? Or am I going to throw my ipad against the wall and stick with android. At least I know what to expect.

Hello Kevin

Please see my post earlier regarding some solutions to improving the performance of the iPad 2 running iOS 8.

It's a common belief that Apple read and react to these threads - they don't. Please see this page or check your local Apple page for making contact https://www.apple.com/uk/contact/

The iPad 2 is now 4 and a half years old and so it's not surprising that it's slowing up on the most recent versions of iOS. I would estimate that all devices, including Android, Windows, whatever, are going to show similar behaviour. Apple have eliminated those functions that would definitely not run on iPad 2 but equally they lay themselves open to criticism if they don't offer a software upgrade.

I suspect that the first major update may improve things but I would say it's time to consider the purchase of another device when the next iPads are released.

Sorry not to be of more help

Walter