iPad keeps crashing on all apps...safari, games, weather

Restart the iPad (hold Home and Sleep together until the Apple logo appears - about 10 seconds).

If that fails, do a Restore via iTunes. One of those should fix it

Well, what Nick wrote won't solve the issue. In fact, nowhere in the Apple discussion forums would you find the right answer; and I can guarantee, no Apple rep will be able to tell you what the issue is. Except me of course. Now that the self-boast is over, here's how to solve the problem once and for all (guaranteed zero crashes post this).

The basic crashing problem occurs because iPad 2 has an operating system that unfortunately opens up all apps automatically (unless instructed not to) and keeps them on the standby mode. This, combined with the fact that the iPad 2 does not have unlimited RAM (and neither does it have an intelligent process to use the hard disk when the RAM runs out), would lead to almost all iPad 2 units to crash, but only when users have loaded more number of apps than the RAM can handle.

There are three methods to resolve this issue for users (for developers and Apple tech personnel, the solutions are given later; you can contact me for the ex gratia OS source code updation to resolve this issue in case you wish):

SOLUTIONS FOR NEW USERS (warning: experienced users may find these instructions drawling out):

1. The first method involves five concurrent steps, which I'll describe as 1a to 1e. Of course, this can be done in a shorter way, but I guess for people not conversant with shortcuts, this is better.

1a: Go to Settings > General > and switch on the "Multi tasking gestures" tab.

1b. Go to the home screen (by clicking on the Home Screen button on the iPad screen) and swipe four fingers from the bottom of the screen upwards. Do this once or twice and you'll suddenly see a new bench pop up below that contains many applications. These are the applications that are running on a stand by mode and eating up your RAM. Optimally, all of these should have been shut and only those which are being used by you should have been open. Anyway, move to 1c.

1c. On any of the app icons that you see on this new bench, keep a finger for a few seconds. Now lift your finger. You'll see all icons on the new bench start shaking - and they will additionally have a "-" sign too on their left. Click on this "-" sign and close all applications on the new bottom bench. Return to the Home Screen (click on the button on the iPad screen).

1d. The apps on the Home Screen are allocated the maximum RAM by the new OS. So, shift all downloaded apps away from the home screen into the subsequent pages. In other words, leave only the original Apple supplied apps (like Settings, Safari etc) on the main first page of the Home Screen. How does one shift other apps to subseqent pages? On any of the apps on the main Home Screen, keep a finger for a few seconds. Lift it the finger for god's sake :) Again, all icons will start shaking and will get a "x" sign on their top. DO NOT touch that "x" sign, which of course, is for deleting the app altogether. Rather, on any one of the non-original Apple apps that are present on the Home Screen, just place your finger and without lifting the finger, slide the app to the top right corner of the screen and keep it there. You'll notice that the app suddenly gets shifted into the next page. Return to the Home Screen; repeat the process till "all" non original apps are shifted out.

1e. You can starrt working in peace right from this moment onwards without the ipad crashing. Just keep checking from time to time, how many apps are on standby (swipe four fingers upwards at any time on the iPad) and ensure that those that you are not using are closed.

1e rejoinder: Impotant instruction: NEVER work on your iPad2 while it is being recharged. The RAM gets screwed as in some iPads, there is no protective interface provided to insulate the CPU from the electrical currents. In fact, switch off your iPad while it is being recharged.

SOLUTIONS FOR APPLE STAFF:

1. Diret users to this thread.

2. Offer users an upgraded RAM.

3. Provide a protective interface to the CPU and RAM boxes from the electric charge.

4. Recode the new OS (no need to copy what Vista does; just advise the OS to use the hard disk intelligently when app uage exceeds RAM; or do what Blackberry does - advice the users through a warning message to close down extra apps)

There you all go. (pardon the spelling mistakes; this was entered through a speech recognition sw)

iPad 3 expert wrote:

The basic crashing problem occurs because iPad 2 has an operating system that unfortunately opens up all apps automatically (unless instructed not to) and keeps them on the standby mode. This, combined with the fact that the iPad 2 does not have unlimited RAM (and neither does it have an intelligent process to use the hard disk when the RAM runs out), would lead to almost all iPad 2 units to crash, but only when users have loaded more number of apps than the RAM can handle.

This is incorrect. I have an iPad 1, which has less memory than the iPad 2, and I do not see this problem, nor do I have to go through this routine to keep it running. There is nothing per so wrong in using this method to reduce memory load, and you can try it to see whether it helps. But the reasoning behind it is a mix of incorrect and speculative. A Restore will achive the same result, since the basic premise that IOS automatically starts every app you have is wrong. A Restore will also reinstall all apps and data, so if you have a corrupted file, it will be replace.

1. iOS ensures certain apps are always running, whether you explicitly start them or not: Phone, Mail, Messages, Notification, maybe one or two others. These are apps that need to be running for you tp be able to receive calls, messages etc.

2. iOS will run apps you start. If you Restore (or kill off all apps as suggested) then restart, none of the killed off apps will be running.

3. iOS maintains started app in one of two states: the last 4 you started are active; any others are suspended. If you go to an app that was suspended, it becomes active and another app is suspended.

4. iOS does not give priority to apps on the home screen. The home screen and the app bar at the bottom contain by default those apps I listed that have to be running in the background. Moving them elsewhere will make no difference, except to your convenience.

2. Some apps can (and have) caused memory leaks which have an effect. One of these might be inviolved.

My iPad 1 continues to crash when I am in safari. It has become quite annoying! It doesn't happen on my iPhone so it has to be something with the iPad. A few things I have notices...keyboard is slow when I am typing on safari or in Facebook, tunein radio app messes up by repeating or skipping. while I am in safari looking at a video takes a couple of times to view because the initial click will just play the sound of the video so I have to refresh page in order to view it. And I can be just reading something and then the screen goes blank back to home screen. Seems like enough people have complained about this and that there needs to be a fix! Ugh! Doesn't look like we can do anything to stop the crashing.

Restore. Restoring works as a way to fix many issues. Let us know the result

I had the same issue on my ipad2 after the latest OS update. I tried all the recommended fixes (clear cookies, clear data and cache, close all apps in multitask bar, reboot, reset, restore to factory settings and not installing any other apps). Nothing worked.

I looked at Settings>General>About> Diagnostics & Usage. I found many low memory crashes. I could literally see the crashs and where Safari was 'jettisoned'.

I found a thread on MacRumors about memory optimization for the ipad1 and one suggestion was to disable Spotlight Search helpers. I don't use Spotlight so I disabled all of them. That was about 3 weeks ago and until yesterday I hadn't had any more crashes. I had one yesterday.

I posted this a few times and a couple of folks stated that it didn't help them but from everything I did (which I did step by step) I know it made a difference for me. You might try it. It's really easy to do and to reverse if it doesn't help.

Good luck.

iPad 3 expert, so far your suggestions helped, especially point 1d. My iPad 1 was starting to crash apps more and more frequently. I had a huge number of apps running in background. Prior to most recent OS 5 update, I did not have this problem. I want to upgrade to an iPad2 but won't until these types of bugs are worked out. Thank you.

Keep a few additional things in mind:

1. Ensure that if you are downloading emails, never set the view limit greater than 50 emails (this can be managed in the Settings tab).

2. Most importantly, never create folders within an iPad. How does one create a folder in the first place? If you keep your finger on an application for a few moments, it'll start shaking. Now you can pick that app with your finger and slide it over to either another free space available on the screen or right on top of another app. The moment you place this app on top of another app, a folder is automatically creates. Looks good, works bad. Don't do it.

3. Whenever you open an app, minimize it, come to the home page instead of being on the page where you had opened the app (in case the app you've opened is not in the first page), then reopen the app using the standby app bench provided hidden at the bottom of the screen (swipe four fingers from the bottom to up and the bench would come up).

All this, combined with my instructions above, should help... Zero crashes is what I've reached in the past months. Best of luck.

iPad 3 Expert

I appreciate your suggestions but if we must use our devices in this manner just to be able to perform simple tasks something is wrong. Especially since the issues didn't start until the last OS upgrade. Apple needs to acknowledge the issue and fix it. I found one work-around that helped but I refuse to hobble my use any more. If it's not resolved in the next upgrade I fear I will have to rethink my iPad ownership. While I like and use it daily if I had the number of issues others are experiencing I would certainly be angry.

I understand. I am not from apple and have had to break in the code faults myself. Apple is getting such issues but I guess they will work it out. Have hope. They are noting down this post too. So what you write gets to tim.

Well, that's good to know. Hopefully they will do something in the next update.

Thanks for your help.

Happy Holidays!

Really the best way for Apple to know what your issues are with the iPad is to use the iPad feedback web site. You can let them know exactly what is going on and report any problems there. Apple moderates this site for content only - Apple does not read these discussions for user problems.

Talk to them here.

Apple iPad Feedback

To you too :)

That has been done already. Thx, happy hols

1.a to 1.c are done automatically by the os whenever needed.

1.d is total BS of course.

1.e gave me the biggest laugh i've had in a while.

Folks, there's NOTHING you can do to prevent safari on your ipad from crashing.

The reason for that is that there's NO configuration whatsoever on your ipad. Safari runs, or doesn't, but it's not a mac where you can dig and change something. The kind of black magic described by so called ipad3 expert is not going to do jack.

The only person that can do something is apple. They can fix the software. I sure hope they will.

File a bug report, should put more pressure on them.

And then, just live with it until apple fixes it.