Q: Ipad really slow after update to iOS 9

I Have the iPad mini with Retina display and have noticed apps crashing a lot just by doing a simple task. It doesn't run sluggish (running iOS 9.2). I've hard reset the device and closed and reopened apps many times and still will crash. I've hardly EVER had an issue with an apple product, I'm still not surprised as I understand not everything isn't perfect I sure as **** am not perfect xD, I'm glad I'm not alone though! I will try a system restore. Hopefully an update will come out soon! I have an iPhone 6 Plus and have rarely ever experience an app crash so that narrows it down!

I have iPad mini. It become almost useless paperweght device. It is very slow. It takes the worst ever web browser Safari minutes to open simple webpage.

Will never buy Apple products anymore. Mediocre, overpriced devices with very bed, user problem ignorant support.

Hi McDuff14, Cyber100 and others

IN support of your post ....whilst modern iOS versions will be designed to make best use of newer hardware the user must be protected from Apple crippling older devices with more recent iOS. 

Ideadly this should be via proper testing on older devices, transparency and open communications from Apple, or even preventing update to slug-releases  At worst the user should be able to go back to previous version easily And this is not the case !

in the UK there are commercial best practices (I think may even be law) that demand products are supported and usable for at least 7 years after release.  My first gen iPad mini is my view now "unfit for purpose" as it is slow, flakey and frustrating to use.  I am planning on taking it up with the consumers association!

Note I Have tried many of the suggestions made in this blog but with only very minor (if any) improvements... And in response to some other posts I have 8.5 Gb free!!

SInce OSX 10.1 I have been a very strong "advocate" of Apple products / system but I am now sensing the slide of Apple down the same dirty grubby glutenous path  that Google and Microsoft have taken.  With a turnover greater than GDP of Denmark (I recall reading somewhere) and yet boundless greed and fading line of sight to the customer seems to be the order of the day!

In principle I would love an iPad Pro but I do no  longer feel confident enough to fork out that amount of cash to have the device rendered useless within 3-4 years.  I won't be buying for this reason alone!!

so ... Another future iOS device customer lost due to iOS9.   

SHAME ON YOU APPLE

in fairness I have typed this response on my iPad and it didn't cause a problem/ reload etc  (although was very slow/jerky).... Must be my lucky (?) day! 

Well said excellently put I could not have said it better myself. I have the original IPad around four years old now, absolutely useless piece of equipment, cannot upgrade the iOS above 5 where it sits now, practically nil apps will download nor work, I can virtually do nothing with it other than send emails to it and store photographs, to me this is not acceptable. I do have an original mini iPad which is now three yrs old which I still use but that to is beginning to struggle to cope, slow barely able to cope with ios9 God forbid the next iOS which apple are no doubt actively working on. It appears to me that these products are designed for 2-3 years of use then they are to be cast aside to the scrap heap in the expectancy that we will spend our hard earned cash on yet another Apple product, overly priced as they are. Don't get me wrong I like the concept of the Apple products I have the iphone6 which syncs with my mini iPad and iPad 2 but please do something to make them still useable for a few years nit 2-3 which is not acceptable. its time that Apple started to treat its customers with a bit more respect, if you want us to buy new every three yrs then reduce prices for your products or make them last for longer.

Iphone 4s users angry too

http://www.macrumors.com/2015/12/29/ios9-iphone-4s-lawsuit/

I have had slow-down and performance issues even just upgrading to iOS 8. Most annoying is  that Safari continually crashes.

I have done all the app quitting, restarts, resets, restores, app purging, etc. and still see performance unimproved. (BTW, Apple, erasing content and  all settings does not return it to an 'out of the box condition'. Out of the box, my iPad mini was iOS 6, not 8.xx, thank you.)

I agree with the comment that not everyone who has the slow-down issue writes in.

I strongly agree that as customers we should be given the option to revert back to an os that has worked acceptably for us.

Good (IT co-worker) advice I received one time that I failed to heed this time: don't upgrade to any OS that your hardware was not originally engineered to run on.

Not every iPad user is having issues withthe latest iOS version.

What iPad are you using?

iPad users reporting into troubleshooting forum communities' like these, represent only a growing, but still small minority of iPad 2 users having issues.

My older iPads are running very well on iOS 9.2 and since doing a full erase all contents and restoring as a new device these iPads ARE almost performing  like "new, out of the box."

Zero issues!

If everyone is having issues with Safari, why doesn't everyone try another third party web browser?

Third party web browsets are NOT all the same as Safari and I have pretty good sucess with my third party browser of choice.

What kind of websites do you visit?

How many website tabs do you keep active in a web surfing session?

How many applications are you leaving running in the background? Check the App Switcher.

What exactly have you tried a have you tried any of my own suggestions here which I will rehash once, again.

How many of these have you tried in this list?

Try resetting All Settings found in the Settings App under General and in the right column under Reset.

Try resetting histories and deleting/resetting caches in all of the web browsers you use.

If you use Safari, these functions maybe in the Settings App under Safari.

Other web browsers have their settings inside of the running app, itself.

Check iCloud Settings.

If your iPad has been activated for iCloud, in the Settings App under iCloud, to the right, under iCloud Drive, tap iCloud Drive and make sure Safari is turned off for saving Safari data to iCloud Drive.

Also, under iCloud in the Settings App, in iCloud Drive, disable the saving feature for any other apps that you DO NOT want data being saved automatically to iCloud Drive.

If using Safari is still causing issues,

Try changing/using another, different third party web browser.

I don't use iOS Safari too much any longer because I found it causing me some headaches on certain websites I, regularly, visit.

I commonly use another third party web browser, Perfect Web Browser (there are others that may suit your web browsing style better, so look at all of them first to see which third party browser may work better for you) and I never experience a lot of the issues that Safari was causing.

In the Settings App under the General tab, to the right under Spotlight sesrch, try disabling the search under apps that really do not need a search, like some games, remotes, apps that really do not need to be searched, etc., to reduce the list for Spotlight to search.

Try turning on Reduced Motion.

This is found in the Settings App in the General tab the left panel.

In the right panel look under Accessibility, the look for Reduce Motion and turn this feature "On".

You should see an appreciable performance increase on all iPad 2, 3 and 4 models.

In the Settings App under the General Tab, in the right column, look for Background App Refresh and turn this setting to "off".

Try a reset of your iPad by holding down both the Home and sleep/wake buttons simultaneously until your iPad goes to black and restarts with Apple logo, then release the buttons.

Good Luck!

Thanks - worked a treat - as you said, instantly faster !!

I have the iPad mini, originally iOS 6, now 8.4.1 I have about 21 of 27 GB of storage available.

I have tried Mercury browser (worthless) and currently have Opera installed as an alternative to Safari. Opera is slow but does not crash as much. Websites visited regularly include social advice columns, weather forecasts, MacWorld. Otherwise, anything that may come up in a search that looks like a credible source of information. I usually close tabs of pages after I read them. Usually, no more than 3-4 up at any one time.

I do close apps that are running in the background; sometimes preventatively, sometimes when I sense they may be slowing things up. I just changed the setting for refreshing apps in the background to OFF.

I have occasionally cleared browser history and cache. Have disabled java script at times.

Want to reiterate that the sluggishness is not only in relation to using Safari but also in general use.

I do not use iCloud for backup or file transfer and do not use iCloud Drive at all. Only turned iCloud on and logged in when I found out it was required in order to try AirDrop. And I also had Bluetooth enabled for that reason only.

I have done restarts, "reset all settings", "erase all content and settings", (with and without restoring from an iTunes B/U). I did read that restoring from iTunes would 'install the latest iOS', which I would rather it did not, even though I I had already jumped from  6 to 8.

What I found MOST FRUSTRATING was, as a last resort, doing the 'erase all content and settings' in order to have it in 'out-of-box condition' and then find out it did not have the original OS (6.x?) it had when I took it out of the box.

So after having removed all my files off to preserve them, I found it was a waste of time and effort. Plus I also had to redo  all the changes in settings I'd made along the way. REALLY FRUSTRATING

I do not have any bench test type data to base a comparison on when evaluating the results any of the steps I have made to try and help this. But I still believe I have a reduction in performance of the product with the newer OS that I am now stuck with.

Thank you for taking the time to write your response and providing your suggestions. I may try Perfect Web Browser.

I don't agree with you. When you have more than 40 000 people who get sick suddenly it's not nothing.

My IPad 2 had slowed for some times and I takes time this morning. Most of the times when I look after solution I look in the English world.

Have been frustrated by the answer

Here is a link have find in French as l am. There are simple tips Witch helps me.

There are image that can help others

http://macaficionados.com/2015/09/20/ios-9-astuce-comment-ameliorer-les-performa nces-37282/

I have always had static/still wallpaper on my iPad 2. Done the hard restart and removed apps and files... still slow as molasses in January.

Hi

Try a reboot press & hold power button & menu button until you see apple logo .

If this doesn't help go to settings - iCloud back up now .

Then restore back to factory settings this can help get rid of any bugs .

Do restore over your WiFi .

I do this about every 2 months on iphone/ iPad

Cheers

Brian

A restore NEVER, EVER restores the original OR previous iOS. The restore process never, EVER did this.

Once you upgrade a previous iOS to a newer one, you can never downgrade back.

I have updated 5 older iPads to various versions of iOS 9, including my own and all of these iPad models are running great!

I have had, as of now, over 2 dozen users who have come to forums with very similar issues and all have benefitted well from my own procedures that I use with my own iPads.

Also, I never, EVER upgrade/update any of my iDevices OR Apple computers over WifI, I upgrade/update all of my iDevices connected to a computer backed up and sync'd to iTunes and perform the upgrades/updates over iTunes.

If not all of my suggested fixes or possible solutions have completely returned your iPad to acceptable, normal or improved performance,.

Here is my own modified backup/restore procedure that has already worked, successfully, for several iPad 2/3 users, so far!

I have done this and my iPad 2 and 3 are working like new, " out of the box" units!

THIS PROCEDURE DOES NOT RETURN YOUR iPAD TO ITS PREVIOUS iOS VERSION (FYI, Nothing does!!!).

Also, as a disclaimer.

I make no guarantees, expressed or implied, that any of my own procedures will return EVERY older iPad to a usable, running condition.

First, connect your iPad to USB and sync and backup your iPad to iTunes (make sure,FIRST,  your iTunes is up to the most latest version).

Then disconnect/eject your iPad from the computer.

From just the iPad, in the Settings App under the General setting, look in the right column for Reset option, then erase and reset your iPad to completely erase your iPad and then, again, from the iPad, set it up as a new iPad setup to factory "out of the box" operation.

Then reconnect your iPad to the computer and make sure to cancel the syncing, by tapping the small X to the left in the top  center iTunes display box.

iTunes should detect your iPad. If iTunes begins to try and sync, again, cancel the sync.

Select Restore from Backup instead and pick your last backup to restore back to your iPad.

Once the restore is complete, finish setting up the iPad and let it sync back to iTunes you can either cancel the sync, again or let it backup, again.

Then disconnect the iPad.

Do one hard reset of your iPad by holding down both the Home and sleep/wake buttons simultaneously until your iPad goes to black and restarts with Apple logo, then release the buttons.

Once your iPad is back to the Home screen,

In the Settings App under the General tab, to the right under Spotlight sesrch, try disabling the search under apps that really do not need a search, like some games, remotes, apps that really do not need to be searched, etc., to reduce the list for Spotlight to search.

Try turning on Reduced Motion.

This is found in the Settings App in the General tab the left panel.

In the right panel look under Accessibility, the look for Reduce Motion and turn this feature "On".

You should see an appreciable performance increase on all iPad 2, 3 and 4 models.

In the Settings App under the General Tab, in the right column, look for Background App Refresh and turn this setting to "off".

If you purchased any music from iTunes, you will need to redownload that content back to your iPad for playing directly from your iPad and not from Apple Music servers.

Also, if your iPad contained a lot of images in the Photos app, these will take time to regenerate the original AND thumbnail images themselves inside of the Photos app when you first launch it.

Good Luck!

charles-harry wrote:

 

I don't agree with you. When you have more than 40 000 people who get sick suddenly it's not nothing.

My IPad 2 had slowed for some times and I takes time this morning. Most of the times when I look after solution I look in the English world.

Have been frustrated by the answer

 

Here is a link have find in French as l am. There are simple tips Witch helps me.

There are image that can help others

http://macaficionados.com/2015/09/20/ios-9-astuce-comment-ameliorer-les-performa nces-37282/

Whether you agree or not, the fact is, users having issues with their older iPad models represents maybe 1-3 percent and perhaps even less than that!

Apple sold iPad 2 models for much longer than any other iPad model worldwide.

If Apple sold, say, 40 million iPad 2 models and 40,000 are having issues, that is 1%. A small minorityof users.

Instead of trying to discredting my own comments, have you even tried any of my possible fixes and solutions instead of whining about how poorly your iPad 2 is running?

I have even posted my own modified backup/restore procedure that has not just worked for me, but has worked for over 2 dozen users who came here complaining of similar issues and some users who finally tried both of my posts after fighting and bucking my advice, came back and responded back to me how much better there iPad 2,3 and 4 models are running now since trying my own modified backup/restore procedures.

Instead of fighting with an experienced user who seems to know more about dealing with iOS upgrades/updates better than the avaerage user, you should be, at the very least, try that advice first before coming back with comments that do nothing to solve your own iPad issues.

Yes, exactly that  what we all know!

BUt prefer to use my Samsung Tab  until they decide to fix the issue and keep their mini ipad for my kids to use it for games nothing else(; useless(((((: