Q: iPad Safari crashing regularly

***Update*** I made a tech support appointment at the local Apple Store, and they ran a diagnostic, and identified the problem I was having with crashes. They fixed it, and I am a happy Apple user once again! My advice is, Take the stress off yourself, and let a pro at the Apple store take care of it, and by all means, PURCHASE $99 2 year warranty!!!

Justochick,

Please clarify ...

"... I'm writing this is because I'm not only crashing more since IOS 7 ..."

"... I was looking into upgrading to the iPad Air from my iPad 1 ..."

iPad 1 can not go beyond iOS 5.1.1

(?????)

Don't understand what you want me to clairify but here goes.   Although, being an iPad 1 owner and not able to upgrade past iOS 5.1.1, for some reason somehow every time IOS has been upgraded my iPad crashes have gotten more frequently.  Sounds stupid I know because my iPad does not utilize any of the iOS upgrades after 5.1.1 but it's true.  Maybe because everything else that is running on the iPad has been upgraded to INCLUDED iOS 7?  Not a techie so I don't know.

Statement (2) is just what it says.  I was going to buy an iPad Air but decided to wait because of all the complaints I've been reading in other discussion groups.

Statement (3) is also just what it says.  Like I stated in the beginning, Apple will NOT let original iPad 1 owners upgrade past iOS 5.1.1.  NICE OF THEM ISN'T IT?!!!!!

One more clarification - it's "NUTSOCHICK"!  Decided on this name AFTER dealing with Apple when they replaced my first iPad and wouldn't let me purchase a new warrantee even though technically it was considered a "NEW" iPad by me, them and everyone else!!!!!  I kind of went 'NUTS" on them (so to speak)!

Apologies to Nutsochick

Keyboard on my iPhone is too small for my fat fingers. I didn't realize that I had misspelled your name until after I submitted the post. Don't know how to edit a post once I've submitted.

iOS 7 is a big upgrade in terms of user-interface. I upgraded my wife's iPad 3 and she seems happy with it.

With the iOS 7.0.3 patch my iPhone 5s is behaving well.

"Statement (3) is also just what it says.  Like I stated in the beginning, Apple will NOT let original iPad 1 owners upgrade past iOS 5.1.1.  NICE OF THEM ISN'T IT?!!!!!"

iPad 1 "barely" runs iOS 5.1.1 many wish they could downgrade to iOS 4. iPad 1 barely has enough RAM for iOS 5 it could not possibly handle iOS 7. Even if Apple "let" you upgrade to iOS 7 just wouldn't work on iPad 1.

Based on the performance of my iPhone 5s with the new A7 CPU and iOS 7.0.3, I would not hesitate to buy an iPad Air or the new Mini retina. They are all essentially the same system in different form factors. I am EXTREMELY pleased with the iPhone 5s.

@Nutsochick - when you take your car in for repair they don't allow you to take out a new extended warranty.  In order to make the iPad as light as possible they use construction methods - such as the use of glue instead of screws - which make it difficult to open up, so iPads are replaced at the store rather than repaired.  In any case would you rather get a replacement one right away or have to wait a day or so to get your repaired one back?  You have to think of your replacement as a repair to understand why you can't buy a new extended warranty, which has to be purchased within 30 days of BUYING a new device.  You also get a 90 day warranty with your replacement, which may, or may not, have any value depending on how close to the end of your existing warranty you are when the replacement happens.

@Everyone - I, and others, have come into this thread from time to time to give a technical explanation of WHY iPads crash and why this is more likely to happen with older generations of iPad. There are some people who seem to not like this approach so I am going to try and continue the car analogy that I used above to explain it another way.  Even though they look very similar, the first generation iPad and the current iPad are as different as a Ford Fiesta and a Ford Mustang or, maybe a better analogy, a 1913 racing car and a 2013 racing car.  The people who organise car racing change the rules over time to reflect the ever greater capabilities of the race cars.  In the same way the programmers of software - both applications and operating systems - and the designers of websites, are constantly making changes to utilize the the current capabilities of the latest devices.  Quite often the designers of websites don't care if their heavy use of animated adverts crash your older devices - they know you're more likely to blame the browser and/or the hardware.  Given the speed of change in computer technology today, the comparison between a 1913 racing car and a 2013 racing car isn't as far fetched as it, at first, seems.  If you own a 1913 racing car you wouldn't dream of entering it in a current day race.  You may even hesitate to drive it on a motorway or freeway.

I accept your explanation, but it surely only applies if you are comparing an early model with a recent model. I bought my iPad mini less than one year ago and, as I have already posted in this thread, Safari ran fine in IOS 6 but has been a crashing case since I "upgraded" to IOS 7,  I hoped that when I upgraded again (now at 7.0.3), the crashing would cease, but it has not. Can you explain why?

All these explanations are fine which is why I stopped posting.  It didn't help to complain.  It was just a statement that, I guess, was to satisfy my thinking that if Apple comes out with new iPads every year how are we to know which ones to buy with our hard earned money and hope that it's still able to utilize the tools it was original bought for?

And as far as the warrantee on my NEW refurbished replacement iPad (instead of a NEW refurbished BOUGHT iPad) it's a long story that doesn't belong on this thread so I'll leave it at that.

Thanks for letting me vent.  By the way, they're already talking about the iPad 6 coming out at the end of 2014!!!!!!

It's possible that your firmware got messed up when you installed iOS 7 - installing later patches won't fix that.  Try reinstalling iOS 7.  Backup your iPad using iTunes then do a Restore (this is from memory as I'm in a car at the moment - NOT driving - and using my iPhone).  To be on the safe side you may want to look up the instructions on how to reinstall your operating system (iOS 7).

Thank you for your thoughtful & prompt response.

I had googled for the possibility of (1) being able to go back to IOS 6; (2) reinstalling IOS 7; (3) have I got a firmware problem? However, I realised quickly that the first has been blocked by Apple (tho' there are many out-of-date google entries and dubious "experts", advising how to "do" that!); I could find no advice on exactly how to do the 2nd; and comments re firmware were imprecise and useless. Incidentally, I am very much an appreciator of macs & Mac OS, with experience of them stretching back to 1980 and I have installed operating systems, from 7 to X 10.5.8 many times. Further back still, I used a valved/mechanical computer (almost as tall as me!) in the 1950s when doing National Service in the RAF - which comes down to the fact that I am not a mac novice, but in terms of  iPads & IOS, my knowledge is shallow/non-existent!

You will understand that my admission that I wish that I had not upgraded (sic) to IOS 7 indicates that I am very loth to "dig deeper, having dug myself into a hole". I would surely have remembered advice "not to early-install a new operating system" from the apple-of-me-eye daughter, but I had forgotten that advice from my son-in-law, whose university research works involves massive usage of software! Woe is me!

I asked my daughter (she is an extremely-experienced mac-user & both she & her husband are computer science graduates) if "Stormfront" (where I bought the iPad mini) might be able to help, but she said "No") .

In an attempt to circumvent the crashing-Safari problem, I installed a Chrome browser (it crashed too) and the following browsers which I am crash-testing - Terra, Dolphin, Mercury, Puffin Free - so far, they have not crashed, but I have not yet tested them as much as I must.

I have found a possible download for firmware for IOS 7.0.3 - do you recommend that I download that? Would it do what you suggest might well be my problem?

This is really interesting...If you look back I was very vocal on the reasons for crashes etc post IOS 7 - I could be doing anything (or nothing sometimes) and it would crash. Short story - Apple repalced my machine THREE times with same result (only when latest IOS was installed I might add - that was 6).

Since installing 7.0.3 all has been fine with not one instance of a crash (software was updated the day v7 came out). This seems very simple to me - IT IS A SOFTWARE ISSUE !!!

My overall complaint remains - Apple's customer service remains non-existent despite large numbers experiencing problems.

I'm a software developer and have posted here before.

Admittedly iOS7.0.3 fixes some of the crashes but the problem STILL EXISTS.

It's stopped my webapp projects dead in its tracks... Coincidence?

Apple.. Developers TOLD YOU there was a problem in the beta stages, yet the OS was still released.

And no one can downgrade on A7 chips? Apple products have caused us so much pain over the last few months, and I am beginning to doubt it's coincidental. Webapps don't make Apple any money.

My 2c.

You are correct - Apple disabled the ability to go back to an earlier version of iOS quite a while ago - I suspect that had something to do with their ongoing battle with jailbreakers.

The update to iOS 7 was a pretty large file and it only needs a tiny amount of corruption to have happened during the download and install for that to have resulted in a firmware corruption.  If you can take the iPad to an apple store and tell them you've been having crashing issues since you went to iOS 7 then they should do a DFU (Device Firmware Update).  If it's only Safari crashing then they may want to check out other things first.  Before a DFU you must, must, must do a complete backup.  I back up to iCloud but I also backup to iTunes before doing any type of restore.

If you can't get to an Apple Store - there are lots of YouTube videos on how to do a DFU.  I couldn't find one I would actually recommend - you seem to require to have your IQ lowered before doing one ;-) - but if you watch a dozen or so you should get a good overview.  Basically - put iPad into DFU mode, click restore on iTunes and Bob's your uncle.  It's worth making sure you know how to take your iPad out of DFU mode to cover the remote chance that something goes wrong with the restore - I'm a belt and braces man.

If a DFU doesn't fix it then I'm all out of ideas.

Good luck.

If it were a software issue there would have been millions of complaints - as there were with the mapping application.  iOS 7 is a complete rewrite of the operating system and of Safari, making Safari more efficient and yes, less prone to crash.  Can badly designed websites or web pages still make Safari crash? Yes.  Is that Apple's responsibility?  Not in my view but some people seem to think so.

I HAVE noticed that you have a very poor view of Apple customer service.  Which other computer / mobile device company provides a network of locations where you can take in your device and you get seen by a human being who has been trained to resolve whatever issue you have with that device, and which has replaced your device THREE times?

I am not claiming that Apple is perfect but I DO try to be fair and give credit where credit is due.

I agree, Safari worked great on the iPad one until the iOS 4 update with iAds, I'm convinced that iAds are causing Safari to crash and Apple has no desire to acknowledged their Ad network is causing the browser to crash.

Thank you for your advice concerning DFU. Tho’ I would be loth to do that (I was happy to do anything similar with my earlier macs, as I knew that if things went wrong, I could always solve such problems, but iPads do not allow that), I would be unable to anyway, as my most modern computer is a 1.25 GHz PowerPC G4 eMac, whose Mac OS X 10.5.8 does not allow the backing-up of an iPad using iTunes.

I am maybe 55/60  miles from the nearest Apple Stores at Aberdeen/Edinburgh, but if I feel that I do have to go the DFU route, I shall try Stormfront, some 6 miles away in Dundee (where I bought the iPad mini) (if you are not in the UK, you may be unaware of Stormfront - pretty well the same as an Apple store). Before that, I shall continue to try to decide if the downloaded  non-Safari browsers (Terra, Dolphin, Mercury, Puffin Free) are free from crash problems; so far none have crashed but, of course, it will take me some considerable time to be able to feel confidently that they are crash-proof.