Slow iPhone 3G after iOS 4

I will chime in here just to confirm some other's observations. The upgrade to 4 on a 3G did take hours, but did complete. The phone had many of the symptoms listed in this thread: long delays during context switches, keyboard and touchscreen slowness and unresponsiveness, the phone would even vibrate a couple times before ringing. A reboot has sped things up.
It seems clear that it is a memory management problem. The 3G might not do multi-tasking but it sure does SOMEthing different during context changes. I only use about 4 or 5 apps on my 16MB system - it's used constantly but not with a large number of apps.
If the phone slows down over time I might try a restore. Otherwise, if I just need to reboot every few days I'll be more patient as I wait for 4.1. No worse than my Vista system.

Well that lasted almost two hours. Actually did not use the phone that much, but the slowness is back. For example, wait time for sms app and sends within that are between 5 and 20 seconds.
Back to thinking about downgrading back to 3.1.3. Unfortunately the links to descriptions for that either mention a need for a Mac or go to some place we're not allowed.
Will keep trying.

Same issues here. If Apple can not fix it they should think about to offer an interesting upgrade program from 3G to 3GS. When my contract is up I will go to iPhone 4 but my son is looking forward to get the old iPhone.

it took between 2-3 hrs for my 3G to update to iOS4, and although some of the features were basic features I have wanted to see for a while, the sluggishness of it was unbearable. i just rolled mine back 3.1.3

okay, so I did a total Restore of my 3G. Set it up as a New Phone and it's running a LOT better so far.
Back up your stuff and try that out. But make sure you don't restore it from back up. As New Phone.

I hope this helps.

Cheers!

I can't see the link. Can you tell me the steps?. My 3G is slow and crashing with almost all the APPs

Thanks!!

Please Apple, gives us an easy downgrade path! My iPhone is so sluggish now. Even the phone app freezes. I knew I should have waited a few days before installing ios4 but I was so excited for the new features... big mistake.

My iPhone was working perfectly with a previous version but on this version reboot doesn't change anything and it is working so slowly also right after the restart ... I know and understand it can happen and I also have propably too old phone from Apple's point of view but if there is written it is compatible with 3G I would wait it will really work on 3G too. Could be better to release it maybe only for 3GS ... But it is always hard - I spoke with some people who are telling me it is working great on their 3G...Oh my god... I tried to delete the iOS4 from iTunes, downloaded again and restored it by the new downloaded firmware but nothing changed...I don't believe trash the iTunes can change something...I have new Mac Book Pro with fresh installation and completelly updated so I don't think this is the way to solve my problem ...

Alright, iPhone 3G people out there. If you want to see your loved iPhone working totally fine running iOS 4, in fact even doing some things smoother than when running OS 3, here is what you need to do:

First, do a backup of your information. (your iPhone's data is going to be deleted)

- RESTORE YOUR iPHONE 3G - and when it asks you to restore from backup, don't select that option.

Instead, select - RESTORE AS NEW PHONE -

Don't worry, he's going to do everything by himself and then you'll just set up all the sync options (apps, music, contacts, movies, calendar, etc... ) and then, enjoy your loved iPhone 3G iOS4 back!

I did this, and my iPhone 3G is running smoother (yes, you can sometimes tell he's doing a big effort), but it really runs "smoother" than OS 3.

Cheers!!

P.S. This doesn't mean I'm not getting my iPhone 4. It will be a birthday present: From me, To me 😉

I had the same problem. My iphone 3G gotten slow and sluggish after I upgraded the iOS4. Apps took long to load and some in the Apps it responded slow.

SOLUTION:

I Think I Know Why and How To Get iphone 3G To Work Smoothly Again With iOS4.

-I restore my iphone 3G from iTunes.

-After it Restored, I did 1 thing different from my 1st initial upgrade. I did NOT try to retrieve my contacts and other info from the "RESTORE FROM BACKUP". That was the difference.

-After you're done, Back in iTunes, be sure to select "Setup As New Phone" to avoid Retore from Backup prompt.

-In order to get my iphone 3G to work smoothly again. That was my sacrifice.

Hope this Helps

I did a very unofficial side by side comparison between my 3g with the 4IOS and my wife's 3g which I haven't upgraded yet. And frankly, there's only milliseconds difference in slowness, if that (and considering that my phone is way more packed with apps and media than hers, perhaps there would be no difference at all)

I was one of those who got impatient with the upgrade and did a restore to get the IOS 4 on the phone so maybe that helped?

A friend of mine did a similar test with his jailbroken 3g that also multitasks and has custom wallpaper vs. his girlfriend's 3.13 OS 3g and saw little difference (although at first he saw a huge slowness until he realized he had 10 open apps)

I'm wondering in the way Apple should have told everyone to upgrade is the full restore -- does this "cleansing" perhaps bring the 3G back up to speed? Don't know.

Or maybe I'm just lucky in this case.

Either way still debating whether to get the new iphone. At least mine doesn't have big yellow splotches on the screen :-P (can you tell I'm maybe a little jealous?)

Hi,

I'm writing from São Paulo, Brasil.
My access to internet ceased completely after I updated my iPhone 3G to 4 ios. After about 16 hours it suddenly came back - just to disappear about 9 hours later. It is driving me crazy. Let me give an advice to all who have not updated yet: just DON'T do it. I deeply regret I did it. Wait longer until - hopefully - apple fixes it up.

I called my mobile provider, and they tried to reconfigure everything remotly over and over many times, with no results at all. I am a heavy user, and need my iPhone as a modem to work online during my consultancy meetings.

What's my best choice?
Can I go back to 3.1.3?
Should I try to restore my iPhone with ios 4? If I do it, will I have to worry about firmware issues? Will I also have to contact my cell phone provider (Brazilian version of Att) to ask it to reconfigure my phone?

Thanks in advance

Rick

So as they say in civil court, a preponderance of the evidence is for a Restore As New and resynch. I will try it with mine tomorrow night and report my results - even though it has been behaving itself fairly well for a day.

I have upgraded also to iOS4 both mine and my girlfriends iPhones.
Yesterday, I was playing with the iPhone of my girlfriend and it seems I found the way to make the phone faster again. At least that is what my GF claimed today.
I restored the iPhone about a milion times and then I decided to remove the apps from folders. It looks it did the trick. The phone is faster again. Unfortunatelly this means that the greatest allowed for 3G is gone with this. But at least the phone is faster.
I will try to do this with my iPhone and will see.

Thanks for the restore tips! Restoring as a new phone does the trick. My 3G is MUCH BETTER now. It's a PITA to have to reenter all your passwords and preferences but worth it. Unfortunately all game states are wiped so your levels will be lost.

Apple take note: maybe you should recommend to all 3G owners that they restore and not just upgrade.