Native Photos App, Slow... No, I mean really slow.

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Native Photos App, Slow... No, I mean really slow.

I am a working photographer and bought the iPad 3 (Retina Display) nearly two years ago and use it only for culling/sorting my photos taken with my digital cameras (Nikon D700 and Nikon D4) by connecting the camera to the iPad with the camera connection kit, transferring the RAW photos to the iPad, then swipe - next, swipe - delete etc... it worked flawlessly, intuitively and so smoothly on every single iOS update prior to iOS 8. I could go through hundreds of photos in less than 20 minutes getting rid of the ones I did not want. After updating to iOS 8, then 8.0.1, then 8.0.2 then finally 8.1 today, the problem keeps getting worse and worse! Now the experience is this: Open Photos App (fast), find my collection (fast), touch the first (or any) photo in the collection (wait about 3-4 seconds before it will open), swipe to next photo (wait 3-4 seconds) and choppy the entire transition. Very frustrating! I cannot get any work done this way. Now, because the sole purpose of me buying this device was for culling photos, it's pretty much useless to me because of a very poorly designed and tested update. Please fix this, or at least let users go back to iOS 7!

Thanks,

Very unhappy customer.

iPad 2, iOS 8.1, I believe this is actually iPad 3.

Posted on Oct 20, 2014 2:55 PM

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Answer 1

Oct 20, 2014 3:10 PM in response to Korado

one suggestion:

update iTunes to current

backup iPad to iTunes

Restore to Factory

then reapply Backup

had several problems going from 7 to 8 and the Restore fixed all of those issues

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Answer 2

Oct 20, 2014 3:33 PM in response to Korado

I would initially suspect RAM. I would quit all other apps, well ... just quit them all ... and the power down (the power button). Start back up again and then go right to the Photos app and try it out. If that doesn't do it, then it's probably not the RAM.

If that doesn't do it, then I would go for a reinstall of the Photos app, though a reset to factory default by iTunes.

Back up and Restore your iOS Device with iCloud or iTunes

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1766

iTunes: About iOS Backups

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4946

Use iTunes to Restore your iOS Device to Factory Settings

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1414

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Answer 3

Korado Author

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Oct 20, 2014 4:34 PM in response to Korado

Thanks for the suggestions efrombenicia and Star Traveler. I tried reseting to factory defaults 3 times... once after 8.0.1, once again after 8.0.2 and now after 8.1 and sadly still no difference. I surely cannot be the only one having this issue...

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Answer 4

Oct 20, 2014 4:42 PM in response to Korado

That's about the time I would be heading over to the Apple Store with the iPad and get them to work it out. If that iPad is doing that while still in the factory default mode, without your backup being reloaded ... then that's clearly an Apple problem. If your data is on there, then it's not "clearly" an Apple problem.

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Answer 5

Korado Author

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Oct 20, 2014 4:46 PM in response to Korado

Yep. It only has the default Apple software/apps on there... it always has. The only other data on there was my photos, Email, Facebook and LinkedIn. I only used the iPad for sifting through photos when on the road. It "was" a huge time saver. Now I cannot use it at all for what I purchased it for and was actually quite good at pre-iOS 8.

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Answer 6

Oct 20, 2014 5:01 PM in response to Korado

How does the Photo app work and function without your photos being reloaded on there from your backup? Let's say you put on no photos at all. It would be instructive (informative) to first just run through the app without any photos. Then take about five screen shots and see if anything different happens. Then take about 10 regular photos with the iPad itself and see if the operation is changed or the same (screen shots will be different than photos from the iPad itself). Then try loading just ten of your camere photos (of the type you usually do). Then load 50, try it, then 100 and try it.

if something starts happening along the way on that process, that should help Apple narrow down where it's coming from. If nothing happens at that point and you can load about 400 or 500 photos with no problems, then something else was going on with your prior photos.

Anyway, that a methodology I would use and present the results to Apple, along with describing precisely what you've done. It very well could be a bug that Apple has to fix and the software engineers can use that information.

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Answer 7

Korado Author

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Oct 20, 2014 5:14 PM in response to Korado

I've tried your suggestion: I removed all my photos from the iPad and took about a dozen or so screenshots and took a dozen or so photos with the iPad camera. Sifting through the photos was smooth and expected behaviour. No issues, no stuttering. I then connected my camera using the camera connection kit (as I normally have done for the past two years worth of updates) and transferred only 10 RAW photos, 12 megapixel NEF files. Trying to open any one of those photos takes about 4 seconds, then swiping is another 4 seconds with a very jerky transition. This issue started happening as soon as I applied the iOS 8 update and has not gotten any better with any subsequent update. It's an iOS update issue without a doubt. With iOS 6, and 7 I loaded over 2,400 RAW files, 12 megapixel and 16 megapixel NEF raw photos. Opening them and sifting was responsive, smooth and very fast. So it's not the hardware.

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Answer 8

Oct 20, 2014 5:25 PM in response to Korado

That's very instructive to have it happen right at that point with just 10 of your photos. I think that's something Apple needs to know and you need to have it escalated to an engineer, and have him keep in touch with you in working this out. This might be exactly what Apple needs to hear and have presented to an engineering team! AND keep their feet to the fire on this particular issue. Don't let it fall through the cracks.

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Answer 9

Korado Author

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Oct 20, 2014 5:23 PM in response to Korado

Thanks Star Traveller!

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Answer 10

Oct 20, 2014 7:45 PM in response to Korado

Hi Korado,

I've already updated my iPad3 to iOS 8.1 and found same problem as you. [In Camera Roll folder, I have more than 5,000 photos (some photos were imported from SD Card).] 😢

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Answer 11

Korado Author

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Nov 12, 2014 12:59 PM in response to Korado

Trip to Apple Store with an appointment at the Genius bar. They did another wipe/DFU/Re-install of iOS8.1. No luck... genius. They suggested their Apple trade-in program for a new iPad at which point they offered me $170 for my 2 year old 64GB retina display iPad. Ummm... no thanks. How about you fix your broken software update?

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Answer 12

Aegir

Level 1

8 points

Nov 23, 2014 2:46 AM in response to Korado

I've had exactly the same problems on a Retina iPad Mini and an iPhone 6+. It affects all apps accessing photos too. Definitely an issue with iOS 8 - I've had loads more photos on devices with previous OSs with no problems.

What I think it might be is the iCloud photos beta and/or Photostream. Are you running that? Anyone running it without problems?

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Answer 13

Feb 2, 2015 2:39 PM in response to Korado

I also have an iPad 3 and it is very balky in the native photos app in iOS 8. As you describe it is totally frustrating and basically unusable. I've tried the same things you have to no avail. Have you ever come up with a solution? Or is it operating the same?

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