Iphone 3G slow after update to IOS4

What are you on about?

If you do the new update by doing a restore so it does a fresh copy on your phone it fixes it, mine and majority of others are running a lot better now.

Its like installing vista straight over the top of windows 2000 it just wont do it!

After having had a crippling IOS 4.0 on my 3G for such a long time I installed 4.1

Version 4.1 is much better than 4.0 but NOT as fast as 3.1.
Most importantly the clock/calendar/messages/contacts and settings work reasonably well and the OS feels more refined.
In general the Iphone 3G is usable once again (even if it does stutter a bit) so if you have IOS4.0 on your Iphone 3G I would definitely update it.

I just bought an Android phone because I was P ** at Apple but I might keep the Iphone 3G as a second/backup phone.

I just came to report what looks like hundreds of other are reporting. The extreme lack of quick response from my iPhone when it is loaded with the 4.0 + software... Everything is slow. Battery life is dramatically shorter, apps are slow to open and start, the phone will ring but will be delayed in bringing up the who is calling screen, apps will not start at all. Overall the reduction of speed is a major issue. The new 4.0.2 update has changed nothing. Quick at first, but 2 hours later my battery was @ half and programs were slow in responding.

I have restored my phone back to 3.1.2 and it performs as it did the day I get my first one. I see some are reporting that their phones are at 90% of what they were speed wise. For me and the amount of money I spent on iPhones over the last few years, this is just plain unacceptable. This phone is amazing and it is a great device, but the speed issue is unacceptable.

Based on the experience of those who have updated to 4.1, I can see no basis for you stating that I should do the same.

Many people have posted saying that they have updated to 4.1 but they continue to have the same problems. I see no evidence for any confidence that updating to 4.1 will cure the problems.

However every person who has posted that they have gone back to 3.1.3 has reported that there problems have been solved.

It appears that 3.1.3 is a certain solution; 4.1 is rarely a solution. I cannot understand why you would recommend a solution which rarely works over one which is certain to work.

I've tried multiple times to upgrade to all renditions of 4.x all with the same results (either bugs like a blank calendar or my battery being drained after a few hours of use). The answer is downgrade or stay on 3.1.3 period.

It's time to face facts that Apple has left many of us high and dry that use the 3G. When I finally came to grips with the fact that I have a 5 month old 3G that will ONLY work properly on 3.1.3 I stopped stressing out.

As long as apps continue to be released and work with 3.1.3 I'll be ok. Once we get to the point where apps no longer work and are only being released for 4.x, it will be time to drop this phone and head to an Android.

I'm trying to convert my friends and family over from a PC based platform to Apple products over the past year. Makes it really difficult to have an embarrassment in customer support like this looming. No excuses and no BS here, Apple left us out in the cold. I love my iPhone 3G still, but Apple, this will be the last product I purchase from you!

Overall slow stuttered performance indicative of a device that’s fast becoming underpowered to support most every function from looking up contacts to using apps.

It’s completely reasonable when one considers the numerous app updates that provide more functionality. The issue in my view is that Apple should had either called it quits on updates past 3.1 or provided 3G specific updates. The bundled one-size-fits-all simply isn’t the best approach. I spent the good part of a Saturday removing the 4.0 update and re-installing the 3.1 OS back on my phone. I know folks with a 3G who are using the 4.1 update and it performs slower than my resurrected 3.1 OS.

There is simply no way I’ll trust Apple again with this issue. I’ve been a loyal Apple user since 1984 but this whole iPhone-4 & 3G update conundrum has really turned me off.

As I suggested, it’s not unreasonable to expect slower performance on the ageing 3G rather, it was Apple’s approach to the update stradagy and overall performance expectation. When one considers the problems with the rollout of iPhone-4, the last thing I expected was a follow-on debacle with hosing of the 3G’s. There was a time when Apple made things that ‘just work’.

Regards,
Dan

Message was edited by: Digital Dude

Christopher John Hunter wrote:
BTW, since 4.1, we've noticed there's usually (not always) more free & inactive memory than we used to see before ... that is, when occasionally we check (we use an app that calls itself "Scan lite" to do this) ...

That's interesting because I've found since 4.0 and even with 4.1 that if my phone starts to act squirrelly I can open FreeMemory and it shows my available RAM down to low single figures. The app then frees the memory and the phone acts normal. Force quitting Safari and iPhone apps makes a difference in performance. I can't understand why those apps (or any apps) remain open when not being used on a device that does not support multi tasking.

There is track of my positive experience on this thread, but I'll summarize.

First, 3.1.3 is better than 4.1, at least from a performance point of view. When I first upgraded to 4.0x I was really upset, but 4.1 fixed almost all issues, so now my 3G is usable again.

According to my experience reinstalling from scratch is the best thing to do in this case. 4.1 is a little bit slower and sluggish than 3.1.3, so expect some delays. Disabling spotlight search can help a lot, disabling push notifications, too.

Good luck!

After following this thread for so many weeks, yesterday I decided to try to go back to 3.1.3, in order to really touch with my hands the difference in performance/functionalities with 4.1.

It's early to give a result, but at first glance I've lost a couple of apps that don't work on 3.1.3 (but I can live without). Obviously no folders and many graphical details, Mail is two steps back.

But - that's true - the iPhone now is snappier than ever. I'll evaluate and decide later.

I did have 4.1 installed on my 3G phone but over the past few weeks I found it was getting slower. So today I did a fresh install of 3.1.3. It's much snappier. Only two of my apps were no longer compatible with 3.1.3, and I was able to find a free replacement for one of those, and the other isn't a big deal, as I can look at its content on a website.

vgking96 wrote:
you can't expect much
ios4 and beyond are meant for iphone 3GS and iphone 4
iphone 2G and 3G both have 128MB of RAM and 400mhz cpus but the 3GS has double the RAM at 256MB and has a faster cpu at 600mhz and the iphone 4 is even higher at 512MB of RAM and a 1Ghz cpu
its all those differences that cause ios4 to run slowly on iphone 2G/3GS
so theres no firmware update that can make it run better, your only choice is to deal with the slowness or update to a 3GS/4

Wow 3G users had never heard any of that. That's so enlightening. Thanks so much for sharing.

Hi Christopher,

Flogging and dead horse spring to mind.

Not that Apple isn't interested, it's pretty clear they know about the problem. But if it is indeed the case that iOS4 and its apps are more resource hungry, which is likely, and that the limited amount of RAM available to i3G is responsible for the decrease in its performance, which is probable, then you've got a square peg and a round hole, right there.

Have you tried hard-booting and then making sure no Safari pages are open? My 3G was unacceptably slow before, it's quite zippy now. There's still a delay, when Calendar is opened for example, but it's now only fleeting compared to previously, the whole device feels more responsive. Still, even a slight delay is going to be an issue for some people, I can't argue with that, but for me the trade-off is worth it for the enhanced features in iOS4 such as folders, search, camera zoom.

My guess is that if iOS4.2 improves 3G performance it will be because it's been modified to handle RAM more efficiently.

K

bk74, I sympathise and yes, it's a work-around which more efficient code or a 3G specific iOS would resolve, but have you tried closing all open pages in Safari and leaving only a single blank page?

It's got to be worth a shot. If you are able to hard boot as well that probably wouldn't be a bad thing but I think we have a RAM issue here and so finding a work-around that frees up RAM seems the logical thing to me.

Come to think of it I wonder if there might already be an Activity Monitor app that displays RAM usage, like on OSX? That way we could test this theory more methodically.

As I mentioned in an earlier post my iPhone 3G was unacceptably slow before, opening apps, launching the keyboard, and unresponsive typing when texting or emailing and with lots of typos. I'm back to being able to type quickly and fairly accurately again.

Using my 3G, even with the work-around, has become a pleasurable experience again, albeit not quite as fast as with iOS3.

K

Audiodrome wrote:
Come to think of it I wonder if there might already be an Activity Monitor app that displays RAM usage, like on OSX? That way we could test this theory more methodically.

I use an app call FeeMemory that I open on a regular basis when my phone gets real sluggish. It immediately shows the amount of available RAM which is usually pretty low (single digits) at these sluggish moments. Then the app frees any unused memory which brings the level up into the 30-35 meg area. It seems to me that somehow this unused memory is not being released. If the OS could somehow manage to do this, maybe performance would be helped.

OK !!! Just updated to 4.2 (actually 4.2.1) ......first impression : seems faster , a lot faster..... Camera almost instantly initiated, my photo library is now all visible (had some pics completely black ) , ipod started faster, calculator too and weather app as well. Spotlight took no more than 2 seconds to present the keyboard to be able to write my query. All my apps seems to work faster now ! Safari is almost the same , but keyboard is much more responsive to my fingers now.....seems that the lag is gone !!
In general : cannot really compare to 3.1.3 because I've been in iOS 4 darkness for toooooo long and cant remember what is was like before BUT it does seems a lot better now......
Hope it stays that way !
give it a try , you've nothing to loose anyway !!