Advice: Do not update iPad 3 to iOS 9. Problems! Lag!

Really???...

So, you decided to respond to my replies and comments to you over a year later???

Catatonic wrote:

@MichelPM: I never stated that you claim your procedure will restore a device to a previous iOS.

However, your post heredoes not clarify that this procedure should only be done if you either (a) are already running iOS 9 or (b) are 100% sure you want to upgrade to iOS 9.

You also never state that you run Hearthstone on your device, which was my main issued, as I stated in my initial post. For gamers who play Hearthstone on an iPad 3, I do not recommend upgrading from iOS 8 to iOS 9. It is my belief that Apple sometimes pushes newer iOS versions onto users with older devices when in fact their older devices may not work as well after the upgrade in all instances.

Anyone on the fence about upgrading to iOS 9 and have not yet done should be aware that if they choose to erase their iPad, doing so will automatically upgrade them to the latest iOS that their device supports.

No reset, erase and restore will , automatically, upgrade any iDevice to the current iOS.

I repeat, a reset, erase and restore of an iDevices DOES NOT automatically upgrade/ update iOS.

EVER!!!

It doesn't happen!

It may DOWNLOAD the upgrade/update onto an iDevice ( which there is a way/procedure to remove an iOS upgrade/update download after it has downloaded to an iDevice), but it WILL NOT INSTALL ANYTHING WITHOUT USER INTERACTION, first!

The user has to either AGREE or OK to the actual installation of ANY iOS upgrade/update, first!

Get yer facts straight on this before posting a reply to me over a year later!!!

As far as the latest iOS 9.3.5 update is concerned, I don't play very many games ( straightforward driving-style games and Pinball-style games), but my wife and I stil use ourl iPad 2 and 3, 64 GBs storage models ( 17 GBs and 22 GBs of free data storage space left, respectfully) and both of our iPads are running just fine on the last iOS 9.3.5 update release.

My iPad 2 seems to be running its best on iOS 9.3.5 compared to earlier iOS 9 updates which ran fine, too, but I have a noticeable uptick in the performannce of my iPad 2 since the iOS 9.3.5 update.

The better performance of my older iPads maybe directly due to the fact the I NEVER upgraded any of my older iDevices to iOS 8, which, in and of itself, may have been constantly riddled with bugs and issues over its update cycle.

I hated iOS 8, as it was an entire upgrade cycle that had nothing to offer me or my iDevices for useful features.

Totally skipped iOS 8 completely on 3 iPads!

A lot like iOS 10 is now!

I waited over 4 months to upgrade my new, large screen iPad Pro to iOS 10.1 and still hate many of its "features", but I needed to upgrade to take advantage of really awesome new feature updates of many of my drawing, painting and design apps.

iOS 10.2 is a mess and have totally avoided updating to it until Apple straightens out all of its newly introduced bugs, feature ommisions, bugs in new apps and features introduced in the iOS 10.2 update.

iOS 10.2 is truly another iOS trainwreck, IMSO.

I wished so much, I had read this before updating. It’s so bad, I think I’ll really have to delete Hearthstone 😟

What I did not know is, that making a backup is not enough. Does it only backup the data and apps but not the os itself? When I tried to restore the backup, it looked like auto-updating to iOS 9. Really strange.

Thanks for posting. I have the same issues. I am surprised that it has not been addressed or mentioned more. I have nearly 50 co-workers with similar issues on ipad 3's Wifi + cell. Our IT department is looking to abandon apple due to these issues not being addressed. Apple has no solutions other than to purchase new iPads. Sad support for $35,000 spend on iPads.

Same. I thought if I deleted everything and restored to factory settings.. It helped for about48 hours. All I have is Hearthstone on my ipad3 fully updated iOS and app and the lag is infuriating... Yet I still try to play:/ I've spent weeks trying to fix it... only hearthstone has the issue though. It was more widespread before the restore but now, since I have only 5 total apps Abe no music, books or images saved- it is only HS that just won't work:/ I do think it all began with IOS 9

I upgraded/updated four older iPads (2 iPad 2s, my iPad 3 and a iPad 4...some more than once) and iOS 9.1 has been working well on all these devices.

How did you all upgrade?

How much free storage space is left on your iPads?

Ideally, your iDevice should maintain a minimum free storage amount of 4- 6 GBs or greater on any iDevice (the more free space, the better) , plus, more than 50%-60% battery status to ensure proper operation, as well as, to ensure the possibility of a successful iOS upgrade/update installation.

In addition it is best to upgrade an iDevice connected up to a computer running iTunes with you iDevice sync'd and backed up through iTunes rather than Over The Air (OTA) using a wireless WiFi connection.

I update ALL my iDevices connected up to my iMac and sync'd over USB through iTunes.

I have NEVER, EVER had an issue with any iOS updates.

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 l in the Settings App under Safari.

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

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 holdings 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!

I Have more than 9gb of storage free. I restored to factory settings and only installed Netflix, Amazon mint and hearthstone. The only app that have used in two weeks is hearthstone. Even safari gets choppy at times. I did not use a back up and I have no extra content - pic, video, music etc on here. I used to have tons of all of these including books, podcasts, lots of games for kids and adults- no damage and only owner. Just doesn't work any longer.

Try the reduced settings advice

Try the background app refresh advice.

AND try another hard reset just to cover the bases.

I own and use a 64 GB iPad 3 and iOS 9.1 runs great on it with all of the iOS eye candy turned off and Background App Refresh turned off.

Worth to give it another Ho and double check, I'll try:) thanks

I Have had this problem since first updating my iPad 3 to iOS 9.

It is slow, the screen freezes multiple times a day and it crashes for no reason in the middle of using Safari, Pages, email etc... The most I have been able to go for without any of these things happening is about an hour or so.

I have looked through numerous help pages and blogs and followed every bit of advice I could find. All to no avail.

About 5 days ago i decided to go the way of downgrading back to iOS 8.4.1

Tthe first thing I did was to turn off "Find my iPad " in Settings.

At that point I was called away to deal with a family matter and never got round to reinstalling iOS 8 .

But when I continued using my iPad from this moment on it behaved completely differently, it was faster, no lag, it didn't freeze or crash.

ive been using it like this now for 5 days and it s like new. Last night I turned Find My iPad on again to check and it immediately played up again li before.

So my advice is.... TURN OFF. "FIND MY IPAD". It might be a fluke and only work for me but there is nothing lost by trying it.

I don't take my iPad out of the house so I don't use that feature.

iPad 3 - 32gb

Here is my updated list of suggested fixes for a slow iPad 2, 3 or 4 model.

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.
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!

Also, I have since found that my iPad 2 has become "like new out of the box" fast performance-wise by doing a variation on a normal erase-reset/restore procedure.

On both my iPad 2 and iPad 3, I did a backup to iTunes, then did and erase-reset restore as new iPad, first. Then, reconnected my iPads to iTunes on my Macs and then, I did a restore from backups.

The performance increase from this were noticeable and apreciable and both iPads are operating with a like new performance speed and, in addition, both iPad models have gotten an appreciable amount of free storage space returned to them.

Here is the procedure for this restore procedure and this has already worked, sucessfully, for one other iPad 2 user so far!

First, connect your iPad to USB and sync and backup your iPad to iTunes (make sure your iTunes is up to date).

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 and ask if you want to update to the latest iOS version.

Select OK. If iTunes begins to try and sync, again, cancel the sync. Let the update continue until it loads into the iPad.

May take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour to update the iPad.

DO NOT WALK AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER DURING THE UPGRADING PROCESS!!!!

Once your iPad is updated and your iPad appears in iTunes, again, CANCEL the sync, once more.

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.

I update ALL my iDevices connected up to my iMac and sync'd over USB through iTunes.

My Mom"s and Wife's iPad 2s were still both on iOS 7 and my own iPad 3 this way.

I have NEVER, EVER had an issue with any iOS updates.

Good Luck!

I never. EVER, stated, OR IMPLIED, that my modified backup/restore procedures would restore ANY iDevice to ANY PREVIOUS iOS versions.

I have since added this fact as a disclaimer for those that would, erroneously, believe that would happen.

What I stated was that my procedure would return your iPad's performance to nearly like new "out of the box" condition.

My procedure HAS alredy worked for several (over a dozen, now) older, iPad users.

And my procedure is ONLY for those reporting performance issues with their older iDevices running iOS 9, ALREADY, and not for those running a previous iOS version.

My older iPads ARE running the latest iOS 9.2 with virually NO issues worth reporting and ARE running nearly as fast as they were when I first purchased these out of the box!

In fact my wife and I have switched using older iPads and she is using my 64 GB Pad 3 with less apps and more free storage (nearly 34 GBs left out of nearly 58 GB) and the iPad 3 is very fast.

I am using her iPad 2 with 64 GBs (about 20 GBs of free space out of 58 GBs) and it is as speedy as ever.

Before my complete backup/restore procedure, my iPad 3 had only about 10 GBs of free space left and my Wife's iPad 2 had about 25 GBs of free space left.

So, the backup/restore procedure brought better performance AND removed a LOT of data detritus that must of been filling up on these iPads over the years.

I have decided that doing these backup/restore procedures should be done maybe once or twice a year to, basically, give these devices a clean slate and clean reboot to clear out any build up of extraneous and useless data.

I keep backgound running apps to a minimum (6 or less background running apps) and I only ever have 3-4 active website tabs running at one time within a web browser.

The iPad 2 has less RAM installed than the iPad 3 which has 1 GBs of RAM, so I make some usablity adjustments accordingly in compensation for the lesser amount of RAM.

The amount of users reporting into these forums with iOS issues with their iDevices represents a very small, but growing minority.

There are tens of millions (or more) of iDevice users who aren't having issues with their devices and who don't post in user troubleshooting forums, like those provided by Apple.

Just because the small minority of users having issues, that post here, doesn't mean that Apple is at fault or that Apple is forcing users of older hardware to upgrade to newer hardware or Apple is "out to get your money" for a new device!

It just means that some older hardware has had some arbitrary issue that has caused problems with upgrading to new versions of iOS.

OR there was some unforeseen iOS bug or software glitch or anomaly that has affected a small minority of users devices.

This has always been a common issue across all major iOS AND OS X upgrades/updates.

It a pervasive issue when dealing with OS upgrades/updates with so many users with so many different configurations.

WIth an ever growing iDevice user base, there will be users that will, invariably and inevitably, run into problems.

Yes, it is a small consolation for those who have iDevices that either aren't working properly or not at all, but the issues ARE NOT RAMPANT across the entire user base of iOS devices!

Apple can't test for every device configuration contingency.

Everyone uses these devices differently and have different apps and data on them and older devices cannot use some features of a new iOS upgrade due to older hardware limitations.

There are just too many variables that are out of Apple's control and can't be tested or accounted for.

The retort from those having these issues is that " Apple controls the hardware and software".

That is true for their hardware and their own software, but they do not fully control third party developed software and how those apps interact with the iPad hardware and iOS and if those apps could have any effect on iOS upgrades/updates.

For those iDevice users who have devices that are, basically, non-functional or dead, my recommendation is to bring your iDevice into an Apple Store and see if they can diagnose the issues and perform the upgrade in the store for you.

If you have never backed up the data that is on your iDevice, be prepared for Apple to do a restore as new device and try to install the iOS 9 upgrade on an empty iDevice.

If you want Apple to REALLY hear all of your issues and complaints the only way to do this is to post your feedback here.

http://www.apple.com/feedback/ipad.html

Apple DOES read the feedback, but they still do not respond with any personal replies.

Good Luck!