IPAD2 very slow after IOS 8 upgrade

I just blundered in to this thread after weeks of trying to resolve these problems on my iPad 2. iOS 8 left it crawling on Safari. Very slow page loads. I ended up installing the Puffin browser and calling it a day. That solved my main problem. But when 8.1.1 came out, to supposedly improve iPad 2 performance, the Puffin browser crashes. I have been through this with tech support and they had me run a diagnostic that reveled my hardware is fine. Since they were unable at Apple to admit it is an OS issue they suggested it was a corrupted download or an non-Apple app responsible.

After trying all of the settings suggestions to no avail, I ended up wiping the iPad completely. Reinstalling the OS as a new iPad. Lost all of my settings, bookmarks, etc. Did not have one single non-Apple app on the device. When I open Safari and go from one website to another it drags like a wounded animal. I reinstalled Puffin and it crashes. Basically I cannot use it on the internet. Curious thing is my wife has the exact same 1st generation iPad 2 and did not upgrade to 7. It works perfectly.

One thing I suspect is that the current generation of iPad 2s do not run the same chipset as the first version. This accounts for why the new ones are not having the same problems. The IT guys at work say this is the problem. The 1st generation iPad 2 can RUN OS 8, but not well. It is an elephant riding a dog ,was how they explained it to me. Apple tech support suggested that I could jailbreak mine if I want to downgrade to OS7. But they are not going to admit the problem or allow people to go back to 7. I feel strongly that this is mistake on their part.

This does make me less likely to buy another iPad. I feel strongly that Apple should allow people to revert to OS7 and that I should not have to spend hours and hours on the internet trying to get my device to work again, as well as it did two months ago.

FYI- Talked to apple support (it's free for 30 days after any software update) and was escalated to phone support. I was told that it must be a hardware problem and would need to buy a new ipad. Also that they are very active on the community forums and haven't seen any issues/complaints about the upgrade causing problems on the ipad 2. Also the tech support said that "her kids have ipad 2's and they work fine".

So if you're within 30 days, light up the chat and phone support to let them know that there is in fact, an issue.

joanofdark wrote:

Also that they are very active on the community forums and haven't seen any issues/complaints about the upgrade causing problems on the ipad 2.

Well that is a ridiculous statement. How long did it take you to fabricate that? Which leads to the question is ANY of your information correct?

Pete

Well the senior advisor I talked to "Chelsea" said every one of those things, including that her son and daughter both have ipad 2's and they're working fine. She said the engineers are very on top of complaints and if there were any, they would have fixed them. Also that "millions" of people upgraded without issue. The only thing that could be wrong is the hardware on our ipad 2, according to Chelsea.

I am not a liar, but I think apple support was lying to me.

joanofdark wrote:

Well the senior advisor I talked to "Chelsea" said every one of those things, including that her son and daughter both have ipad 2's and they're working fine. She said the engineers are very on top of complaints and if there were any, they would have fixed them. Also that "millions" of people upgraded without issue. The only thing that could be wrong is the hardware on our ipad 2, according to Chelsea.

I am not a liar, but I think apple support was lying to me.

I don't doubt you because I also heard from a tech support person that Apple does indeed read these forums, and they do make notes from them. However, I was told they were "aware that some people were experiencing difficulties" or something along those lines.

You would have to be an idiot to believe that Apple would provide forums, which they did not have personnel checking 8-)

JohnMHoyt wrote:

joanofdark wrote:

Well the senior advisor I talked to "Chelsea" said every one of those things, including that her son and daughter both have ipad 2's and they're working fine. She said the engineers are very on top of complaints and if there were any, they would have fixed them. Also that "millions" of people upgraded without issue. The only thing that could be wrong is the hardware on our ipad 2, according to Chelsea.

I am not a liar, but I think apple support was lying to me.

I don't doubt you because I also heard from a tech support person that Apple does indeed read these forums, and they do make notes from them. However, I was told they were "aware that some people were experiencing difficulties" or something along those lines.

You would have to be an idiot to believe that Apple would provide forums, which they did not have personnel checking 8-)

Well, thats two of you. Must be true. 😉

Pete

There has been a lot of input in this thread. Most of it were questions and complaints, but users also offered help and solutions. One should think that there should be something for everyone. However, going through 70 pages with likely more than 1000 posts may be too much for the average user who is just looking for a solution. I was thinking about doing some kind of systematic review of this thread and the goal would be to present a few solutions that have improved the user experience. But I won't do it all by myself, for the reason I mentioned above. So if anyone wants to join me...

A good point, well made! I am now being offered the opportunity to upgrade to 8.1.2. Surprisingly, I am approaching the upgrade with a trifle more apprehension than previously. Has anyone any experience of the impact of the upgrade?

alan

8.1.2 did nothing to solve my problems with Safari. Loading a web page takes 20-30 seconds. However the folks who make the Puffin browser answered my tech support question with a fix within two days. I told them that 8.1.1 made Puffin crash all of the time and they issued an update. So now When I use Puffin a webpage that takes 30 seconds to load in Safari, takes about 10 seconds In Puffin. That is including starting Puffin from scratch. if that browser is already open the same page takes 2 or 3 seconds.

To put this another way, Puffin now works as well as Safari worked on my iPad 2 before iOS 8. I was glad that Apple tech support had me run that diagnostic and confirmed that there is nothing wrong with my hardware. That can only mean it is OS8 that is responsible for the dismal internet over WiFi performance and the apps that are now crashing that never crashed before.

What I have learned is that Apple know they have caused a problem for people with certain, older versions of iPad 2. The newer ones that are still on sale use a different chipset than my first generation model. This is why people report no problems with new ones. Apple had to know that this was going to happen. So they can claim that OS runs on the iPad 2, but it does not run well. Telling me to jail break mine if I want to run 7 is not a solution. Their other alternative?

Get a new iPad.

Not bloody likely under the circumstances. I really don't understand the point of not allowing the people who were perfectly happy with 7 to just go back to the last stable OS on their machine? If they would have simply allowed that I would have been quite happy and understood that my iPad is a whopping 3 years old. Technology marches on. I do understand that. Saying that there is no way to go back to OS7 is an outright falsehood. They just have to let me do it.

But they won't. So I guess I am just out of luck.

http://www.iphonetopics.com/ipad-2-vey-slow-issue-ios-8/

This link was posted earlier. I tried it step by step (except for 6 as going back to IOS 7 has been shut down). My Ipad 2 showed great improvement for about a day and then slows down again. I only run 2 apps on it so memory and space are not a problem.

The only permanent fix at this point would be to downgrade to 7.1.2. Not sure if there is a jailbreak way to go back to that operating system.

I think people are ******** in this forum so that apple will notice and except that the update caused an issue.

petermac87 , if you are actually an Apple employee (which i doubt) you should stop being so defensive of Apple and do your job. I am sure your job description didn't say " troll Apple forums and berate anyone that has an issue." This problem is real and not just "stories" people are making up.

Agreed. In this house: one iMac 27 inch, two iPhone 4s, one iPhone 5s, one iPhone 5c, three iPad 2, one (obsolete) iPad 1, one iPad Air to replace iPad 1 (yeah, got me there), two iPod Touch 2nd gen. But no more. Because I also have a Windows-based Toshiba laptop that is over 6 years old and gives me less problems than the newer iPad 2 with 8.1.2. Now the email app crashes on the iPad 2 with 8.1.1 and 8.1.2. This device was primarily used to check email out of the office. We don't care about the iOS 8-only apps. iPad resets are no help. I'm afraid to do a factory reset for fear of uncovering a new problem with the restore. I continue to search Apple-user forums in hopes of finding a solution. Apple products were attractive because they were supposed to be more consumer-friendly, but that is no longer the case.

Apple - Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. We are DONE buying Apple products in this house. Fortunately, we had only updated one of the iPad 2s to IOS 8 before we realized that was a mistake. Now we don't have the option of going back to IOS 7. Thankfully, there are better alternatives when we go to replace our phones, tablets, and computers. By selling us a 3-year iPad 2, that's just a shorter window for you to have me as an Apple customer. No iTunes cards will be gifted this Christmas. We won't dig ourselves into a deeper hole with Apple products.

(This is the same information I provided in the Apple Feedback link.)

I upgraded my iPad 2 from iOS 7.x to 8.1.2 yesterday. Big mistake. Pages load at a snails pace, pages reload due to a "problem", videos stop, email takes forever to load. Generally way worse than iOS 7 which was worse than 6.x. The endless safari page reloads started in iOS 7. I was hoping iOS 8 would address this but it has caused many other problems. I've tried many of the suggested solution on this board but I don't think they are helping much.

It is time for Apple to fix iOS 8 for iPad2 or give us a very sweet deal to trade in our iPad 2 for a device that works. Might be time to sell your Apple stock if you have it.

Seems kind of odd that people who go to the genius bar with was WAS a perfectly good iPad2 before 8.x are told to buy new hardware. This upgrade was supposed to solve performance issues, not make them worse. My iPad is almost a brick with comically slow loads. I followed the advice of another poster and installed while on my MacPro iTunes since they claimed that installed a full version on 8.1.2 rather than just an upgrade package via wifi.

Totally agree on Mercury browser. This is the one I am using in preference to Safari on the Ipad and it works much better. However, I am still waiting for Firefox for the IPad which hopefully won't be too long.

I am afraid Safari has become the Trabant of web browsers on IOS versions as well as on a Mac. I have ceased to use it as it is so slow.

TT

I've had Macs since 1987, this is by far the worst experience.

My iPad 2 is now de facto non functional and the only option for a perfectly functional piece of hardware is to replace it after the ios8 upgrade killed it.

Pains me to say it, but I'm taking a long hard look at a Samsung Tab.