iPhone 5 lagging and group messages.

I'm glad to see that it's not just me stil! Keep me updated! I'm this close to taking my iphone back to apple and having them replace it for a refurbished, but the only thing holding me back is that we bought it brand new unlocked..

I can't believe they still haven't fixed this. I had my phone completely lock up earlier today and had to do a soft reset. I don't think it's a defective iPhone, because I returned and received a new one and still have the problem. I also, restored the phone to factory settings and started all of my apps, etc from scratch. My friends are having the same problem. Why aren't more people complaining about this?

Wow! It's gotten that bad? Maybe a month ago, my 4S would lock up for a quick second and just restart itself... But the lag from text message, mainly group messages, is still going strong. It's really bad! They need to fix this with the next iOS update! I didn't pay 700 dollars for a phone to crap out on me.. What's worse for me is that not many of my friends have this problem, so sometimes It feels like it's just my phone...

I'm glad that I'm not the only one having these issues. My iPhone 5 has also been lagging and freezing. Mine also changes the brightness setting without me doing anything. I hit the sleep button and then wake it up again and my brightness gets turned down. Then hit the sleep button again and wake it back up and the brightness is back to where I have it set. I haven't figured out what triggers this but it seems like it happens when I am doing a lot with the phone at once and then put it to sleep right away after I complete what I was doing. My first experience with this happened with a launch 16gb black iphone 5. I have since went to an apple store and had my phone switched out under the warranty. However, the same issues occur on the new one. Apple needs to fix this. This is ridiculous that an expensive device would have these nagging issues.

Having lots of lag issues too, finally found this forum, I though I was the only one. Issues were not present on ios5 or before group messages. It has gotten so bad I often disable iMessage because the phone simply becomes unusable. I am very upset about this and want apple to address it, because it probably is a software issue which can be fixed.

Phone was great before but now it often lags, usually in connection with iMessage but sometimes for no apparent reason. In addition to fixing the issue there needs to be more advanced controls for iMessage, and an option to receive a notification for only the first unread message in group chat.

I gotta keep this phone for at least three years, due to my contract. It's one year old and already having issues. Lost a lot of faith in apple products after this.

I should mention mine is a 4S, so no it isn't as fast as the 5 but it should still be significantly faster then it is

I'm using an iPhone 5 with the most recent iOS 6.02 update. I am also experiencing the lag issues, especially with messages.

I have plenty of storage left (12/16 GB available), little apps and videos etc., so I figured it has nothing to do with storage.

The problem seems to originate from messages so I figured it must have something to do with it. What could possibly cause lag in the messages? Hmm...

Ok I reasoned it down to 2 possiblities:

One, it might be the telcos fault,

Two, it might be too much messages is jamming up something somewhere.

The former seems unlikely since we assume service standards should have been maintained, and troubles would surface on a large scale affecting users of other phone brands. But since the problem is localised to the phone, hence, I tried to troubleshoot the latter.

One possible non-destructive fix you may try is to clear previous conversations, especially if the message thread gets way too long; like when you have been messaging to the same person for months and months (like your spouse or partner) and the thread like archives on and on and you did not clear it.

If the earlier conversations are insignificant, clear them. I did this and viola! I experienced much less lag and the phone returns to the lag-free state when I first bought it (ok occasionally some lag but much better now).

Give it a try and see if it works for you.

If it does, then it boils down to some basic housekeeping habits to clear earlier conversations and not jam up the message inbox with long threads, especially if the message contents need not be archived for future reference.

I have the exact same issue with my iPhone 5. Running a group chat in a party of 12, and I have to clear the thread every day to prevent the phone from jamming up completely. We moved the chat to a third party messaging app, i.e whatsapp and since then it runs smooth with no lag whatsoever, solved the issue completely.

It's totally unacceptable that the built in messaging function is inferior to a third party app doing the exact same thing. Please fix this apple!

I have the same lag problem while texting on my iPhone 4S . Your right it seems to have happen right after I updated in beginning of Feb. The other interesting thing that I discovered was happening when I did a group text people responded back saying the received it choppy ( with confusing sentences)- were I was sending one whole text they were receiving it as 4-5(sometimes 10 if its a long text) separate text! Why is that happening? That can be very costly to those receiving the text. Again this happen after the update and usually when I experience a lag on my end. Can someone explain that! My incoming text are fine( or so it appears).

I should mention that when I use WHAT'S APP to send the same messages the outgoing chats/texts are fine. People are receiving it as one whole chat/text.

The lag doesn't just happen on "Messages" it also lags when receiving emails sometimes as well.

I've tried all that was suggested on this forum and to no avail. Something needs to be done. It's costly and irritating ! New technology isn't always the best I guess!

I noticed this on my iPhone 4 before I upgraded to iphone 5. Now I notice it even worse. I lag at messages a LOT and I lag in general quite a bit. It's interesting that Apple hasn't responded to this string and/or released a fix. If it is indeed a hardware (vs software) issue, I would expect a recall. Dropping this kind of money for a phone that is bugged isn't exactly my cup of tea.

Apple Support - Any input on this?

This issue still hasn't been addressed, yet I know of so many people with this exact same issue.

As a long-term iPhone user (I have had iPhones since they came to Australia with the iPhone 3G) I have to say that overall, iOS6 is by far the most buggy operating system to appear on the iPhone so far. I update my iPhones as soon as they come out, and so I get a fair taste of what changes with each generation of both hardware and software. And from my experience, I can strongly say that iOS 6 has many bugs that other iOSs did not have, which is a real shame. Most of my problems come from the Messaging on my iPhone 5. It ALWAYS lags in group messages, even with small groups, like 3 people. It even lags in the Notification Centre. I get the message, and it is displayed at the top of my screen, yet when I drag my Notification Centre down, it takes 5-7 seconds for the message/s to appear. It's just not good enough when the iPhone is primarily a phone, so it should be able to message seamlessly, just like other phones.

I love my iPhone 5, just like I loved my iPhone 3G, 3G S, 4 and 4 S, but it is becoming increasingly more like a chore to use it to do daily tasks. And the bigger issue is that so many people I know are experiencing the same issues. There needs to be an update released as soon as possible. There is far too much competition out these days for small bugs like this to be existing in a device of this calibre.

LAST IPHONE EVER!!

Firstly, reading through this discussion. Many many people with the same problem, reporting it for months. Response from apple = zero.

Secondly, I pay a lot of money to have the "best" phone available. I shouldn't have to deal with lag, crashing, and screen brightness issues. Especially when they have been reported on here for months, and have no response. If you charge a premium for your product, then you should provide a premium product, and respond to issues in a timely manner.

Thirdly, I never never sign up to forums, or discussions, but on this occasion I have decided to, in order to announce my new found distaste for everything "i".

Something pretty miraculous would have to happen for me to become a happy customer.

I am running iOS 6.1.3 on an iPhone 5, and I am still having the same Messages-related lag as described above. The banner notification is always delayed (anywhere from the scale of seconds to the scale of minutes), and the majority of time an incoming group message will cause the phone to freeze for anywhere from 1 to 20 seconds. The main culprit of this was a 9-person ongoing group message, which causes the biggest lags and freezes. However, I find that any group message will cause a lag or freeze.

I cleared the conversation for the 9-person group message (a process which created 30 seconds of lag in itself), and this at first eliminated any lag born of that group message. However, by the end of the day the lag had returned, and now just a few days later it is a bad as it ever was. I understand that archive management is expected of any user of any device, but owning the 32GB model I have tons of free space. A day's worth of sporadic group messages should not require daily deletions. The point of the iPhone is "it just works," and in this case it surely does not.

Prior to this January, I had an iPhone 4 and never experienced any issues with this same group message (which has existed since prior to my upgrade) or any other smaller group messages. I have used Apple computers for sometimes for audio engineering purposes, and have always been very happy with the performance. In January of 2011, I got an iPhone 4 and was thrilled with 2 years of problem-free enjoyment. Ever since I upgraded to the iPhone 5 in January 2013, I have experienced nothing but problems with this Messages-related lag and freezing. I use my iPhone to multitask and make the most of my very valuable time, and ever since I upgraded to the iPhone 5, my workflow has been extremely disrupted.

While I am forgiving and understanding of bugs that often plague new devices, I find it unnacceptable that this widespread issue has not even been acknowledged by Apple, let alone fixed. This is especially unacceptable two-thirds of a year into the product's life cycle. I have never been dissapointed in this company's products before, but the iPhone 5 has gravely damaged my confidence in this new era of Apple.

I am having the exact same experience as you, Chas.

I got my iPhone 5 at the end of December through my company. It is on the company server for email, so I attributed my lag to that. But then my wife and one of my friends started to experience the same problems with their iPhone 5s.

I am in a group message of 10 people and we send anywhere from 20-200 messages a day. I have been a part of this same group message for a year or two, starting when I had my iPhone 4. I never had one problem with any lag with my iPhone 4, it worked like a charm. I am very good about keeping my messages cleaned out, not running too many apps in the background, and keeping memory available on my phone. Even still, just like everyone else on this thread has stated, every time I get a text message (both group or individual), my phone will lock up for anywhere from 5-30 seconds. Sometimes it even prevents me from answering a phone call. These are basic functions for a phone, calling and texting, so there should be absolutely no excuse.

I was amazed when I found this thread and dozens of others had the exact same problem as me, 6 months ago, and nothing has been done about it. I will be getting on the phone with someone at Apple this week and I will let y'all know if anything gets resolved. I'm not getting my hopes up.

This might work:

I try to restore my iPhone 5 once every few months, or whenever it feels unresponsive. Back up all of your data to iTunes or iCloud and restore. In my experience, posterior to a restore, the phone is faster and performs better in terms of battery life.

Make sure you back up all of your things, such as contacts, calendars, music settings info etc., as it is annoying to lose it.

Good Luck!