Iphone 3GS slow after update to iOS 5

What I'm seeing is sporadic. Sometimes it's fine but other times it gets sluggish to the point it almost seems to hang. My theory is that some apps are misbehaving when they're in background, which is why the symptoms are intermittent.

Yes it's really stupid.. Can't you just restore your iPhone back to a earlier version? Hope it's not difficult... Really don't want to jailbreak this iPhone =\ I guess it's time to look into a droid phone =\

A Couple of questions:

1. Are you using spotlight for more than contact searches? If you are, your phone will be sluggish.

2. Have you turned off notifications for apps that you don't really care about? This will help to speed things up.

3. Have you fine tuned location services so that only those apps that need it, use this feature? Turning off location services you don't need for apps you rarely use will help.

4. Have you tried turning off iCloud? I have no need to store my data on an external server. Do you?

I have a 3GS and it runs very fast. It does not hang, but I had to fine tune the phone.

Just a note: No other manufacturer I am aware of updates phones that are two years old like Apple. You get updates, but there are trade offs.

I had the original Motorola DROID. Updates were promised but never delivered while I had the phone. Apple keeps their phones updated, but you need to do some work to get them to run well. Once tweaked, they will run just fine. FYI, the 5.01 update helped to keep the battery from draining. The phone now lasts longer than it ever did on a charge.

If you want to use everything without much fine tuning, get a 4S. Of course, the 4S has issues too becuase it is bleeding edge technology and that means that bugs must be lived with until Apple fixes them, but they do fix them.

"If you want to use everything without much fine tuning, get a 4S. Of course..."

The above is a Window's answer, not Apple's, this update may not have been exclusively tested on a 3GS my feeling was if it was tested Apple would wait for release or not make the 3GS compatible for ios 5....

I am hoping for a fix for 5.0.1 or instrucstions on how to downgrade,

I had to resort in finding a used iphone 3gs 32gb in like new condition at cowboom for $149.99 luckily it has 4.3.3 installed...

jc01108 wrote:

Just a note: No other manufacturer I am aware of updates phones that are two years old like Apple. You get updates, but there are trade offs. <snip>

If you want to use everything without much fine tuning, get a 4S.

Normally I would agree, however Apple are selling new 3GS models (not cheaply either) on the Apple Store, and advertising all of the new iOS 5 features with it. If I had just bought my 3GS and found it ran this slow, I would be demanding my money back, and I would be well within my consumer rights to do so.

Just a note: No other manufacturer I am aware of updates phones that are two years old like Apple. You get updates, but there are trade offs.

hello

i have recently had 3 iphone 3gs any everyone did the same with ios 5

i now have a new samsung galaxy s2 and find them more easyer to use

i have lost my trust in apple now they have realli gone down hill!

i would get it swapped for a new fone

....and Ice Cream Sandwich coming to the Galaxy S2 soon too! You've made the best choice.

@Jim,

No, I've ultimately seen a couple different genius bar reps and they didn't seem to know. Forgot to mention earlier: one known problem with calendars apparently had something to do with using the "time zone" feature. Turning off multiple time zones did seem to help get calendars syncing, but still no luck with contacts. Of course, I've been away from electricity for 10 days so I'm just checking back in to any news...

I have the same slow lagging problems!

My particular problem centers around Contacts synch'ing with iCloud. If I turn on contact sync, then it churns away endlessly, the phone gets hot and it drains the battery at an amazing rate. Looking at my contacts in the Address Book on my laptop, I notice that a lot of records had info in them duplicated - the notes had been duplicated 3 or four times, some addresses, any phone numbers with custom labels were duplicated with the label "other". So, I went through and cleaned up all the contacts, which took hours, and tried enabling contact sync on my iPhone again. Alas, still the same brokeness.

I just read an article on LinkedIn that "Apple's Huge New Data Center In North Carolina Created Only 50 Jobs". I can't help a bit of sarcasm wondering if this iCloud sync mess was also created by such a lean staff. Maybe if they peeled off a few bucks to hire some testers.....

What sort of stupid *** comment is that!

If the 3GS hardware cant handle IOS5 then Apple shoudn't have made it available for it, they have so we have a right to expect that the phone will remain functional!!

😠

Agree, through testing on the 3GS should have been shown

I don't think it's anything to do with processing power. I say that because normally my 3GS behaves just fine running iOS5. It's just that every now and then something gets snagged and snarled. If it were processing power it'd be slow all the time. I'm betting it's some pesky residual bugs and that they'll get zapped with an update.

Hi there. I wanted to add my voice to confirm the slow down issue. I'm typing this on my 3GS and the lag between hitting keys and text appearing is up to several seconds but vairiable so clearly a function of background processes.

My wish is that Apple would, in these fora, confirm issues and make a statement about whether it intends to fix the issue. This would help to change a growing perception that Apple is aloof and cares only about sales and it's financial bottom line.

Well done to everyone who has taken the trouble to report their 3GS slow down issues.

If you turn off apple notifications, deactivate the icloud, close down all background apps then the phone works quicker. but that defeats the object.