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IOS 5 on iPhone 4 - Problems

I've started this thread to collect information and experiences from those that have the original iPhone 4 and have upgraded to IOS 5.


Background


This thread was prompted by a very frustrating call yesterday to AppleCare. I own an iPhone 4, and asked the simple question: "If I upgrade to IOS 5, will my phone operate at least as well as it did with IOS 4, or will there be speed and compatibility issues?" Apple did a very flashy tap-dance all around the answer, never giving me a "yes it will be fine" "it will be better" or "it won't be as fast". Nothing of the kind! Their answer got down to a dodge: "if you have problems, we will work with you", and "check Google to find out if there are problems". The first answer is exactly the situation I had with my old iPhone 3 (see below)! "We will work with you" means "upgrade at your own risk, if the phone performance is poor, but there are no hardware issues, you're stuck with it". And the second "check Google" answer was the creator and manufacturer directing me to an unknown third party, without accountability, for information. As if Apple doesn't know, or hasn't tested for full iPhone 4 compatibility. Right.


Previous experiences by owners of less-than-current iPhones that upgrade to a new and flashy OS haven't been great. My example is I had an iPhone 3 running OS 2. When OS 3 showed up, I upgraded almost immediately, not realizing how bad an idea that was. The phone did operate, but became very sluggish and unresponsive, basically, a real frustration. Of course, no way to back up to OS 2, it was a one-way street. No, a full restore or reset did NOT revert the OS. Apple's position on support was that there was nothing wrong with the hardware, so they offered no fix. It took almost a year of updates before the phone's speed improved, but never returned to what it was with it's original OS.


Why Upgrade to IOS 5?


Owners of previous generation products have always had this problem: do I upgrade or not? Will I get better performance, or will this be a side-grade, or back-grade? The reality is, as much as we'd all like the latest and greatest features (as many of them as we can get with our hardware, at least), we shouldn't have to pay an unknown performance penalty. Apple always presents the latest software upgrades to us when we sync, but taking it immediately, though logical, hasn't always worked out well.


So, until Apple presents consistently fully working and bug free upgrades, gives us a means to revert to a previous, working OS environment, or provides a support option for "permanent software damage" caused by an OS upgrade, alll we can do is share information.


So, does OS 5 work on an origina iPhone 4? What issues have you had, and have they been resolved?



Posted on Oct 27, 2011 6:11 AM

Reply
56 replies

Oct 27, 2011 6:21 AM in response to bit-mover

I have upgraded to IOS5 on iPhone 4


  • No issues with performance. I do not notice if it is faster or slower, I suspect it is the same.
  • All my apps work. no failures, no issues.
  • new apps work, no issues.
  • new IOS 5 functions are working and improve my user experience with the iPhone
  • iCloud works. I can sync my calendars and contacts with my mac via iCloud.
  • wifi sync works. the only time I plug my iPhone in is to charge it.
  • Battery charge seems to me the same as it was with IOS4. no issues.


I do not see any reason not to upgrade to IOS5.

Oct 27, 2011 6:34 AM in response to bit-mover

No issues for me - upgrade went as advertised and my iPhone 4 works fine (as it did before, and after all the previous upgrades). I kid you not - even with my iPhone 3G, then 3Gs, now iPhone 4, I have never had any issues with iOS updates. The only issues I've ever had with an iPhone have been with 3rd party apps, and with service provider network issues.


<edit> I'll add issues with my own ignorance of changes sometimes. Right after the iOS 5 update, I wondered what all the data traffic on my iPhone was. It was the "auto send" of the diagnostics&usage" data setting. I simply disabled that, and all was well. </edit>


And I know (at least some of) those experiencing problems will get their hackles up over this comment, but often the problems are of the "human error" kind, not something intrinsic to the device or the software. I have been working in IT for nearly 2 decades now. I could not begin to count the number of times someone has come to me complaining of a problem, assuring me endlessly that they did not do do anything whatsoever to cause the problem, only to ultimately nail a diagnosis down to, indeed, something they either did do, or failed to do.


Obviously not everyone falls into that group and there are legitimate problems that people encounter, but short of requiring you to take your iPhone to an Apple store and let the techs do all upgrades and settings customization for you, there will always be some glitches, errors and failures with software upgrades/installations. And short of "hello world" scripts, I doubt there has ever been a perfect piece of software code more than 1000 lines ever written, by anyone, ever.

Oct 27, 2011 6:49 AM in response to bit-mover

Trouble is, you're asking an even-handed question (for and against) in a community that exists to help people with problems. It follows there will be far fewer happy customers who had a trouble free upgrade here than there will be people with problems, though the real-world ratio will be exactly the opposite.


In the end, the only way to look at this is statistically, since given the myriad apps and set-ups people can have, there will always be bad interactions and extreme cases. The vast majority of customers have a trouble-free upgrade.

Oct 27, 2011 10:56 AM in response to UK-Max

I would hope that the majority have smooth upgrades. However, if you look through this forum, you'll find that the iPhone 3 OS upgrade issue was very wide spread, in fact, probably affected all phones of that generation to some degree. It wasn't operator error, and eventually Apple admitted that the iPhone 3 couldn't really handle that OS, that the 3GS and 4G phone's processors were so much faster, that they could handle the overhead of the new OS, but the 3G could not.


But, iPhone 3 owners were "offered" that software upgrade without any warnings of possible performance issues. And once we were stuck with a sluggish iPhone, well, no solution other than buying a new phone. Which I'd have no objection to, had it not been for the fact that my phone was only 6 months old when all this happened!


It's exactly that kind of thing I'm trying to avoid this time, or at least bring to light while the new OS is still young. So far, it looks like there are no similar issues. But hey, if you don't ask, you'll never find out.


Don't forget that when I asked Apple, they gave me a decidedly non-answer. They simply declined to say anything whatsoever about the performance of my phone with their new OS, and further agreed to "work with me" if there were hardware issues. That's a non-answer, if ever there was one. We're not talking hardware issues, it's software...their software. Hence, my concern, caution and quest for user experence.


If Apple wouldn't even give me a "thumbs up", what am I supposed to do?


Thanks for all the replies so far.

Oct 27, 2011 2:11 PM in response to bit-mover

The performance of my iPhone 4 was fine for a few days after upgrading to ios5, then it became pure crap. I turned off all but the most essential location services, with marginal improvement. Applications hang, slow to launch, and terrible battery life. Then I discovered that everytime I restart the phone, it defaults to Wi-Fi on. Once I turned Wi-Fi off the phone didn't spend all of its resources looking for a network. Much better. Best advice I can give is don't update. The only reason I did update was to take advantage of all the groovy cloud/sync/location features, which I've now had to turn off so that the phone will function.

Oct 28, 2011 12:42 AM in response to bit-mover

So, the message/app notification while on a call is a big problem. So, aparently, is battery life (see this thread):

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3392993


At least one user so far in this thread reported a bricked phone after upgrade.


And we have some people, including an IT expert, with no issues. So clearly, it's not every upgrade that goes wrong, at least some if not most go right.


The next logical step is for the people with issues to ask Apple for help, then if you would, report back here. Having problems with an upgrade is not uncommon but the real question is, if Apple suggests you upgrade when you plug in to sync, you take their suggestion then things go wrong, what are they doing to help?


I suspect not much, but go ahead, Apple, prove me wrong.


And while there may be no perfect code in the world anymore, a bricked phone is clearly unacceptable, and so are the other less severe issues reported so far.

Oct 28, 2011 3:28 AM in response to bit-mover

I too suffered the frustration of the 3G downgrade to 4! I use the word "pathetic" to describe apples care on such matters. I also have suffered the "pathetic" situation whereby I now can't even get my iPhone to be recognised by any of my 4 macs at home all down to the fact they are not intel based but the older power Pcs. Thanks to apple deciding to not support this situation at all is pushing me to dump apple which is upsetting as I've been a great apple salesman over 15 years but I'm struggling to support their "turning backs on certain situations" support philosophy.

Come on apple, do the right thing, be more supportive to your own fans, your foundations are starting to crumble and Steve will be turning in his grave soon if this attitude towards older technology within your own company doesn't do a u turn and soon!

It won't be Long before I start choosing less good looking products over more stable products

Oct 29, 2011 10:57 PM in response to bit-mover

....and the Bad and the Ugly...

http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/29/poll-whats-broken-or-working-for-you-in-ios-5 /


Keep in mind their survey is sort of weighted towards reporting problems. But look over how many reports of problems, and what kind they are.


It's official. I'm not upgrading until I hear some of this has been fixed. Particularly the battery and speed issues.

Oct 30, 2011 3:07 AM in response to bit-mover

I've had every iPhone release since the original first launched in 2007 (launch day every time for me - sad but true 😝 ).


I have updated every time a new OS revision has come out with varying degrees of success, but have never had an emergency "oh (insert expletive here) what's happened to my (insert expletive here) iPhone!" moment.


Some have gone effortlessly, others, like iOS 5 were a bit more time consuming, not because of the software, but because the demand on the servers was huge, so it took an absolute age to download, verify and complete the installation. The iPhone 4 did seem a bit hesitant at times after the upgrade, so I restored it 24hrs later, once the demand on the servers had been reduced and it worked absolutely fine after that. (I still bought the 4S 64GB on launch day 🙂).


On the couple of occasions my iPhone seemed a little slower after the upgrade, I would restore my iPhone and install the upgrade again. This solved the issues I was experiencing of slowness on these occasions and the iPhones worked fine afterwards.


There were a couple of times battery % was being somewhat random, showing 98% one minute then 74% the next. Hard reset returned it to 98%. I found that if I totally exhausted the battery, used the iPhone until it shut itself down, then charged uninterrupted to 100%, the battery % was accurate from then on.


I can't say what caused this, was it a bug in the iOS? Probably not since Restoring or depleting and fully charging rectified the issues. It could have been a corrupt back up file causing some issues, which was rectified when I restored and set up as a new iPhone.


Upgrading your iPhone software is no different to upgrading your Mac or PC OS. It is a completely new OS, some of the Apps (or Programs) you have installed prior to upgrade, may not be fully compatible (yet) as a result some bugs may appear or manifest in a variety of ways.


You can help troubleshoot issues by Restoring your iPhone and setting it up as a new iPhone (you can always restore it from a previous back up again later). If the issues you are experiencing are no longer present, the cause is more likely a third party App conflicting somewhere.

IOS 5 on iPhone 4 - Problems

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