My iPad is slow and laggy after iPadOS 26 update

There are few, if any, bugs that affect absolutely all users and configurations. When a problem is reported widely, it is a safe bet that there is some general issue, and the universal common factor is the OS. One of the reasons that tech support often asks for system logs is to search for other common factors.

But the fact that not everyone is affected or affected the same way, doesn't rule out OS issues.

Dear Apple Support Team,

I hope this message finds you well.

I am writing to request the re-enablement of iOS 18 signing for my device. My iPad model is iPad13,18 (10th generation Wi-Fi). After updating to iPadOS 26.1, my device has become significantly slower. Despite several days passing, the performance has not improved. Additionally, my iPad has 4GB of RAM, which is not sufficient for the smooth operation of iOS 26.1.

Therefore, I would like to request the possibility to downgrade back to iOS 18, as it was previously signed and is still available via OTA. I kindly ask for your assistance in re-enabling the signing for iOS 18 for my device.

Thank you very much for your support and understanding.

Best regards,

[reza]

[rez*****hi@gmail.com]

[L7N***65]

[Edited by Moderator]

Same problem here as others seem to be experiencing … iPadOS 26 has made Safari on my M1 iPad Pro completely ususable. Has been weeks since I installed it, numerous restarts, turned of the animations a long time ago, turned off private relay, etc.

On the plus side, I do get a bit of nostalgia from my web browsing experience now being more or less what it was in 1997 on a 4800 baud dial-up modem.

Truly bizarre that Apple thought this was ok to release.

Honest question; what exactly could an average kid do to drastically screw up an iOS device's performance?

Just a kid, under 10, and no access to PC to try to wipe & reinstall or anything......

Just curious.

DrJonesUSA wrote:

Honest question; what exactly could an average kid do to drastically screw up an iOS device's performance?

Just a kid, under 10, and no access to PC to try to wipe & reinstall or anything......

Just curious.

Hello~ Are you a 10 year old kid?? Just curious…

~Katana-San~

#Apple why do you keep changing the sound of the iPad? I'm using the iPad Pro 13 mini led to listen to music as a transport with Hegel. The sound quality is terrible with the new firmware. Listen to how it sounds on iOS 17. Decide on your sound signature.

Yeah I didn’t like windowed feature anyway on my 11 inch iPad Air m3. Full screen is best and maybe does help with battery life? I have only owned my iPad Air for a few weeks and it came with iPad Os 18.7. Still have mixed feelings on 26 so far. Feels a bit more sluggish then 18 and iPad gets warmer then I am used to with 18.

Can you give any further thoughts / feedback? I have an M4 11" iPad Pro & iOS 26 drastically reduced the performance of my ipad... definitely taken away any joy I got from using it. Curious how an M3 would fare.

A friend of mine said his iPhone 16 Pro took a dive after upgrading to iOS26 too..... :-(

No but I have a couple - kids under 10 and iPads. They've not been able to do much worse than generate a bunch of bad (sometimes cute goofy) photos, screenshots, delete or rearrange apps & that's about it.

We're talking an iPad here, not a Windows PC! :-P

This. 100% this.

Guessing it’s so futile it might as well be rhetorical to ask if you’ve had any improvement? This whole thing’s nuts; it’s affected so many people. Apple’s far from cheap and this update’s rendered so much unusable.

DrJonesUSA wrote:

No but I have a couple - kids under 10 and iPads. They've not been able to do much worse than generate a bunch of bad (sometimes cute goofy) photos, screenshots, delete or rearrange apps & that's about it.

We're talking an iPad here, not a Windows PC! :-P

Hello again ~ So… what’s your technical question?

~Katana-San~

I have the same problem after updating to OSI 26.01 and then 26.1 I feel like my IPad Pro that I’m using 1990’s dial up some take eons to open some won’t open at all after waiting 2 minutes. Never had this problem before and my IPad Pro has only 256GB. I tried restarting the IPad didn’t make a difference. Update 26.01still had the same issues as previous guy and when I updated to 26.1 the problem only got worse. Apple when are you going to fix the problem?

im not updating my Mac Book Pro which has no problems w the web and opening sites and until Apple fixes the problem I’m not updating it at all. My second IPad only has update 26.01. I’ve changed to manual updating b/c I don’t want the problem to get any worse.

Yes Apple why is this happening w web searches that take forever to open or don’t open at all and WHEN are you going to fix this problem we are all having??????

Reboot doesn’t work makes no difference so pls don’t suggest what everyone has already doing. And I don’t have any rug rats I’m the only user of my IPAD’s

Please modify your post to emphasize that people must be sure to BACK UP their iPhone / iPad BEFORE doing any sort of restore process, as obviously all data will be deleted when you do a factory reset.

DrJonesUSA wrote:

Please modify your post to emphasize that people must be sure to BACK UP their iPhone / iPad BEFORE doing any sort of restore process, as obviously all data will be deleted when you do a factory reset.

Hello~ I believe that LotusPilot clearly posted this is their post “ it is always wise to ensure that you have a current iCloud or iTunes backup before performing the reset:

How to back up your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch - Apple Support”

~Katana-San~