iPad 2 upgrade to iOS 8 causing performance issues?

I too am having all these problems after upgrading to ios 8. It seems obvious to me that the iPad 2 doesn't have a fast enough processor to deal with ios 8 and so the upgrade shouldn't have been made available. My iPad 2 is now virtually unusable and all because of Apple - it is in perfect condition otherwise.

I have an iPad 2 running iOS 8.0.2 fine. Some minor lag, but I expected and accept that as a fair trade for the added functionality. The forum is loaded with help on what to do to improve your experience on older devices. What have you already done to troubleshoot?

Alfred DeRose wrote:

I too am having all these problems after upgrading to ios 8. It seems obvious to me that the iPad 2 doesn't have a fast enough processor to deal with ios 8 and so the upgrade shouldn't have been made available. My iPad 2 is now virtually unusable and all because of Apple - it is in perfect condition otherwise.

I have an iPad 2 running iOS 8.0.2 fine. Some minor lag, but I expected and accept that as a fair trade for the added functionality. The forum is loaded with help on what to do to improve your experience on older devices. What have you already done to troubleshoot?

Alfred DeRose wrote:

I too am having all these problems after upgrading to ios 8. It seems obvious to me that the iPad 2 doesn't have a fast enough processor to deal with ios 8 and so the upgrade shouldn't have been made available. My iPad 2 is now virtually unusable and all because of Apple - it is in perfect condition otherwise.

I have an iPad 2 running iOS 8.0.2 fine. Some minor lag, but I expected and accept that as a fair trade for the added functionality. The forum is loaded with help on what to do to improve your experience on older devices. What have you already done to troubleshoot?

I assume the reason Apple has discontinued 'signing the certificate' for ios 7.1.2 is to force iPad 2 users to purchase a newer iPad, but I think this is both foolish and unacceptable - it's quite possible that it will force me to purchase an alternative tablet to get away from this disgraceful practice.

Nonsense. Had apple not included the iPad 2 in the upgrade path for iOS 8, you and others would complain about Apple forcing you to upgrade to a new device. Don;t believe me, read through the forum posts after the iOS 7 update. And the iOS 6 update, and oh, the iOS 5 update. People have the same complaints about every update so far. If an "alternate" is for you, go for it.

All could be put right if Apple to re-instated the signing of a 7.1.2 certificate for the iPad 2 so we could revert back to that version of the operating system. Is there any way we could organise ourselves into a pressure group to request this - or does anyone know if it is possible for an Apple shop to override the certificate issue if we took our iPads into a store?

Downgrading has never been an option. Ever. An Apple Store will not override that for you.

APPLE - if you read this can you please listen and have some sympathy, and also recognise the severe damage this is doing to your reputation. PLEASE HELP US BY RESTORING OUR ABILITY TO REVERT TO IOS 7.1.2 ON THE IPAD 2.

Apple does not read these forums. If you want to send them feedback, use the official channel for that purpose: http://www.apple.com/feedback/

I assume the reason Apple has discontinued 'signing the certificate' for ios 7.1.2 is to force iPad 2 users to purchase a newer iPad, but I think this is both foolish and unacceptable - it's quite possible that it will force me to purchase an alternative tablet to get away from this disgraceful practice.

Nonsense. Had apple not included the iPad 2 in the upgrade path for iOS 8, you and others would complain about Apple forcing you to upgrade to a new device. Don;t believe me, read through the forum posts after the iOS 7 update. And the iOS 6 update, and oh, the iOS 5 update. People have the same complaints about every update so far. If an "alternate" is for you, go for it.

All could be put right if Apple to re-instated the signing of a 7.1.2 certificate for the iPad 2 so we could revert back to that version of the operating system. Is there any way we could organise ourselves into a pressure group to request this - or does anyone know if it is possible for an Apple shop to override the certificate issue if we took our iPads into a store?

Downgrading has never been an option. Ever. An Apple Store will not override that for you.

APPLE - if you read this can you please listen and have some sympathy, and also recognise the severe damage this is doing to your reputation. PLEASE HELP US BY RESTORING OUR ABILITY TO REVERT TO IOS 7.1.2 ON THE IPAD 2.

Apple does not read these forums. If you want to send them feedback, use the official channel for that purpose: http://www.apple.com/feedback/

I assume the reason Apple has discontinued 'signing the certificate' for ios 7.1.2 is to force iPad 2 users to purchase a newer iPad, but I think this is both foolish and unacceptable - it's quite possible that it will force me to purchase an alternative tablet to get away from this disgraceful practice.

Nonsense. Had apple not included the iPad 2 in the upgrade path for iOS 8, you and others would complain about Apple forcing you to upgrade to a new device. Don;t believe me, read through the forum posts after the iOS 7 update. And the iOS 6 update, and oh, the iOS 5 update. People have the same complaints about every update so far. If an "alternate" is for you, go for it.

All could be put right if Apple to re-instated the signing of a 7.1.2 certificate for the iPad 2 so we could revert back to that version of the operating system. Is there any way we could organise ourselves into a pressure group to request this - or does anyone know if it is possible for an Apple shop to override the certificate issue if we took our iPads into a store?

Downgrading has never been an option. Ever. An Apple Store will not override that for you.

APPLE - if you read this can you please listen and have some sympathy, and also recognise the severe damage this is doing to your reputation. PLEASE HELP US BY RESTORING OUR ABILITY TO REVERT TO IOS 7.1.2 ON THE IPAD 2.

Apple does not read these forums. If you want to send them feedback, use the official channel for that purpose:http://www.apple.com/feedback/

I too am having all these problems after upgrading to ios 8. It seems obvious to me that the iPad 2 doesn't have a fast enough processor to deal with ios 8 and so the upgrade shouldn't have been made available. My iPad 2 is now virtually unusable and all because of Apple - it is in perfect condition otherwise.

I have an iPad 2 running iOS 8.0.2 fine. Some minor lag, but I expected and accept that as a fair trade for the added functionality. The forum is loaded with help on what to do to improve your experience on older devices. What have you already done to troubleshoot?

OlinOz: I've already done all the main things I can find to speed it up, such as removing notifications, location services, ensuring there's loads of RAM and memory, clearing the browser cache, and turning off indexing. It's still glitchy and very slow compared with the immediate pre 8.0 performance. You might want the added functionality of ios 8, but I'd prefer the functionality of ios 7 with its speed even when notifications etc are all turned on.

I assume the reason Apple has discontinued 'signing the certificate' for ios 7.1.2 is to force iPad 2 users to purchase a newer iPad, but I think this is both foolish and unacceptable - it's quite possible that it will force me to purchase an alternative tablet to get away from this disgraceful practice.

Nonsense. Had apple not included the iPad 2 in the upgrade path for iOS 8, you and others would complain about Apple forcing you to upgrade to a new device. Don;t believe me, read through the forum posts after the iOS 7 update. And the iOS 6 update, and oh, the iOS 5 update. People have the same complaints about every update so far. If an "alternate" is for you, go for it.

OlinOz: Ok, fair enough that iPad 2 users have the option to upgrade to ios 8, I accept that, but it's not fair that I and others don't have the option to revert to ios 7 if we prefer the functionality that gives rather than the new features of ios 8.

All could be put right if Apple to re-instated the signing of a 7.1.2 certificate for the iPad 2 so we could revert back to that version of the operating system. Is there any way we could organise ourselves into a pressure group to request this - or does anyone know if it is possible for an Apple shop to override the certificate issue if we took our iPads into a store?

Downgrading has never been an option. Ever. An Apple Store will not override that for you.

OlinOz: That's not actually correct. All IPSW files for all all version of the ios can be found on the web, and the previous version of an ios after the latest update is always available for a few days, and I believe ios 8.0 is still being signed even though 8.0.2 is here - and that's probably because the problems still haven't been ironed out. And of course for the iPad 1 there's still ios 4 available if you want to do a clean up and restore. Also, if you're a great hack (which I'm not) then I understand you can get around the signing process somehow. None of that is the real point though - downgrading could be an option if Apple chose to support it, and there are obviously alot of people experiencing the slow down problem so I believe it would justify it. To say downgrading isn't an option is just saying that Apple has chosen to make it so, not that it couldn't, and very easily too.

APPLE - if you read this can you please listen and have some sympathy, and also recognise the severe damage this is doing to your reputation. PLEASE HELP US BY RESTORING OUR ABILITY TO REVERT TO IOS 7.1.2 ON THE IPAD 2.

Apple does not read these forums. If you want to send them feedback, use the official channel for that purpose:http://www.apple.com/feedback/

OlinOz: I know they say they don't read these forums and I had already posted the same ideas in feedback. However, I don't actually believe that every Apple employee avoids these forums, and I want to do whatever I can to get them to hear me/us.

Btw: the tone of your reply was strangely aggressive, as if I had somehow upset the great God Apple. I've been a user for many years and this is the first time I've ever written on one of these forums - I'm not a serial moaner about such things nor am I a super expert, though I have worked in the hardware/software business all my life. I think Apple could easily do things better, and right now they're not treating loyal customers wisely or fairly.

Well said OlinOz.

Same issues with my iPad 2. I wish I had not bothered with the upgrade. So slow and a pain in the &*&* to use!

I used to enjoy using it but now I don't.

I hope something is done about these issues but I won't hold my breath. Apple just want more money from us who own older devices.

Have you heard anything from Apple? Do they ever check the forum? Do they even care? I had a funny feeling about this update why why why did i update to lousy ios8.

It doesn't help. This is the FIRST update I've installed for iOS 8, and that was when all my performance problems began! 😟

I am experiencing an odd issue as well on my iPad2 after the 8.0.2 update. While game playing, if I swipe up to go to control center and open it, then swipe down to go back to the game it puts me at the game boot up not at the point where I was playing. Friends don't have this issue. Anyone experience something similar or have suggestions as to how to keep the game open and running while swiping to go elsewhere in the middle of a game?

The upgrade has also messed up my music library. If now has a mind of its own and plays music randomly. I can select a track to play and I may be lucky but most times it will play a totally different track. Often it will then grey out the track and if I try and select it it won't play at all. On some albums if I try and play a particular track it will rapidly grey out all of the tracks on that album and render that album unplayable. I have therefore reverted to my old iPod for music and am mainly using a desktop for other functions. My iPad is a piece of ****.

Well..just checked my songs, all my playlists have been deleted from my iPad, that was over 30 songs, and stupidly gave me a U2 album...I do not want it! I do not listen to U2..granted lead singer does great work...but it's not my type of music! Why is apple invading my privacy! On top of deleting my songs that I purchased, and painstakingly made playlists, they are forcing me to have something I do not want! i am soooo ready for a windows tablet. I still want them to fix the issues they have created, so that I can still use the iPad I do have, but the next upgrade of my device is going to be to a windows tablet. Sorry Apple. You made up my mind. Was real loyal till this debacle of issues. 😟

Forgot to add that my U2 free gift works fine, that seems to be the only thing working in my music library.

Just backed the iPad up on my Mac. Did a complete factory reset and things seem much better.

Safari is quicker and I can play Angry birds again without it crashing. Let's see how long it lasts!!!

I Am experiencing all the performance issues related to this update. My iPad 2 is now essentially useless.

Apple....you need to address this. I would even be satisfied with a rollback to iOS 7.

Alfred, I have to wonder how you use your iPad 2. After the initial load of iOS 8.x my iPad 2 had become unusable. After erasing the ipad and restoring to factory settings, the iPad is not any better. I have set up the iPad as new rather than restoring from backup and when launching apps after a fresh load of the application I can go grab a cup of coffee while I wait for Plants vs Zombies 2 to load. The Pages application is no better, and I won't even bother loading my email accounts on the device. Any application that has processing and/or video requirements, has effectively been ground to a halt.

I do have some evidence of things that I can call "minor lag" but that's how I explain typing on the keyboard. It's just minor lag. However to not be frustrated by this I would either need to be a sloth or on a large quantity of valium.

Apple botched this release for older devices. The iPad 2, while technically capable of running iOS 8, should never have been allowed. Apple failed it's customer base, not from malice, but from good intentions gone awry.

Honestly I've contacted Apple but heard nothing in return. I agree, if Apple could at least allow us to reinstall ios 7 most of us would probably be happy with that.

You need to follow through like this guy ... :-) ...

iPad 2 and iOS 8.0.2 Problems

Take a look at this successful solution!

keithfrommariettaOct 12, 2014 3:25 PM Re: IPAD2 very slow after IOS 8 upgrade
Re: IPAD2 very slow after IOS 8 upgradein response to pacoKAS

SOLVED: IOS 8 Issues on iPad 2:

I just returned home from a visit to the Genius Bar. Like you and many others, when I upgraded my iPad 2 to IOS 8, it became practically unusable. It was VERY slow, lagged whenever trying to to do anything. Lots of screen freezes and apps spontaneously crashing. I was convinced that the processor on the iPad 2 just couldn't handle the new IOS and I went in to see about restoring to IOS 7.

Thankfully, I was hooked up with a very sharp guy at the bar. The problem is not with the OS, it is with it being an *upgraded* OS. He used the analogy of when you had an older Windows computer and how over time (and over upgrades), they just tended to get slower and slower because of all of the garbage that was carried forward in the upgrades. At those times (and if you've ever had a Windows computer, you get this), the only thing that would speed it up would be to wipe the machine and do a fresh install of the current OS and then reload your apps, and the viola, everything would be fast again. Well, it turns out that IOS can suffer the same problems.

THE FIX: FIRST, be sure you have a current iCloud backup of your device. Connect your iPad to a computer that has a clean fresh copy of IOS 8 on iTunes (this is best done with a computer other than the one that you sync your device to because you DO NOT want to restore it from a back up just yet). Ideally, if you do this at an Apple store you'll be assured of the right version there and someone to answer any questions you might have along the way. You then hold the power and home button down to hard-reset the device and continue to hold them down until it reboots into recovery mode. You then follow the instructions on the computer to reinstall the OS on the device (which wipes everything from it and then reinstalls a clean copy of it). Once this is done (which only takes about 15 minutes), your device will reboot and ask you to set it up. Answer the questions about language, location, etc. and continue until it asks you to log into your iTunes account. Once you do that, it will ask if you want to either 1) Set it up as a new device, 2) Restore from iCloud, or 3) Restore from iTunes. Choose (2), restore from iCloud. This will ensure that it brings down "clean" copies of all of your apps and preferences rather than the potentially corrupted ones that might reside in your iTunes backup. That's it! It will take a few hours depending on how much data and apps you have, but I am happy to report that my iPad 2 is now running IOS 8 and it's running as fast as it ever did when it was brand new!

To sum it up, this process 1) Wipes your device and the garbage causing your problems, 2) Loads a clean and bug-free version of IOS 8 to your device, and 3) restores your apps and data so that it looks just like it did before the wipe, with the exception that it works now! :-)

Note also that by following this process you don't have to go through the painful and laborious process of reloading all of your apps, data and/or settings. iCloud takes care of all of that for you.