Q: IPad 2 Crashing after IOS 9.0.2 Update, Useless

It's been great to see a few folks chiming in that a full wipe and set up as new seems to make the iPad 2 run stable (good info about Facebook - which has a history of being a resource hog and battery drain which I should probably delete it an reinstall it as it's getting sluggish on the iPad right now). Would those of you who got it to work say it is faster than with iOS 8 or is it more sluggish or about the same (what I've seen on review sites, though the number of folks reviewing the iPad 2 is really small). I'm just trying to decide if I want to take the plunge as I know that iOS 9 is more secure and I would like access to the new keyboard feature that lets you know when caps lock is on. I'll likely look at getting a new iPad this year sometime after the new ones come out, but I'd rather not brick this one as it could still get use around the house or a video player in the car.

Total time for me was between 1-1/2 and 2 hours.

Yes, it takes up some time to do, but for me was completely worth it.

My iPad 2 and 3 have never had a full clean reset and restore from backup for nearly 4 years.

So, I can only imagine that the Other category had a lot of data detritus that was just NOT clearing itself out from over that time.

I plan to do this full iDevice reset and restore on all of my iDevices, at least once a year, now.

For the Safari crash issue, there is a known, reported bug in iOS 9.2.1.

In Settings App, under the Safari settings panel, turn off/disable Safari Suggestions.

Glad you decided to "bite the bullet", as it were, and give the reset a fair shot.

Best way to upgrade/update an iOS iDevice, IMSO,

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, if this is possible.

Doing a major or critical OS upgrade/update can be risky to do over Wifi or cellular due to the potential of data interruption or data drop outs causing issues with the download of the OS data and the subsequent install to the device.

If you have no other choice than to use Wifi, then make sure you have a strong and stable connection signal the will not induce the potential for data drop outs.

Also, it is better to do the upgrade/update through iTunes as you'll get the entire upgrade/update and not just a smaller sized WiFi download version/portion that is based on your model iDevice that may or may not download everything your particular iDevice needs.

I prefer the iTunes method as there is minimal risk and I have never had ANY issues with ANY OS updates using this method.

Good Luck!

Since the reset, My iPad 2 and 3 models running iOS 9.2.1 are working nearly as fast as they did the day I took them out of their boxes and activated them.

I agree. What can be said is that iOS 9 works just fine on the ipad2 as Michael says.

what should be emphasised too is to switch off all the fancy stuff as in previous posts And advice elsewhere. You have to remember that the iPad 2 has a much less powerful processor so all the extra resource hungry gismos added along the way need switching off where possible to maintain performance.

After a day of using my restored iPad it really is the joy to use it was when I first bought it. Recently I had been thinking to bite the bullet and buy a new iPad. No more!

what would be really good would be if Apple gave this advice themselves since it impacts folks view on the product as can be seen by the large number of desperate people out there.

I disagree.  iOS 9+ doesn't work fine on the iPad 2 unless you wipe it and don't restore anything.  That's crap.  I have an iPad 2 and an iPhone 5 and both of them have been having HUGE problems with apps crashing since the iOS 9 update.  Safari crashes constantly.  Both devices are pretty much unusable.  I've been in IT for over 20 years so I'm very familiar with technology.  As a test I backed up my 64gb iPad 2, erased all content and settings, restored my iPad and same problems.  So I erased all content and settings again.  This time I didn't do a restore.  It worked alright for awhile and I started some of my favorite games back up from scratch and after a few days it started crashing again.  Safari is the biggest culprit!  Try going to radaronline.com or tmz.com and see if your iPad 2 crashes.  I have over 40gb available.  My battery is at 98%.  It shouldn't be crashing period.  This update renders the older devices useless.  I'm done with Apple products.  Prior to this I was really pushing them and got my entire company to go with the iPhone as our standard and got rid of the BES.  At this point I'd rather have the BES back.  Apple really needs to spend some time on this and resolve this issue or they're going to lose a lot of business.  I don't think Microsoft will be there to bail them out this time like they did in the 90's.

scratch and after a few days it started crashing again.  Safari is the biggest culprit!  Try going to radaronline.com or tmz.com and see if your iPad 2 crashes.  I have over 40gb available.  My battery is at 98%.  It shouldn't be crashing period.  This update renders

fyi... my iPad 2 with iOS 9.21 runs fine... until I try tmz.com or radaronline.com

It's likely the websites my friend.

I have never had a website lock me up before. I'm talking hard restart locked up.

radaronoine is verrrrry slow, but doesn't lock up.

If you are having issues with Safari, there is a, recently, discovered bug in iOS 9.2.1

In the Settings app, under the Safari settings panel tap the panel, in the right window, turn off/disable Safari Suggestions.

As far as my procedures are concerned, they are very well documented and detailed and are still working well for me and as of this past weekend, my detailed procedures and modified backup/restore procedure has work well, so far, for over two dozen users who have posted here with issues specific to their iPad 2.

And some time earlier, in order for users like you, who claim that what I am posting for possible solutions and fixes is pure bunk and doesn't work AT ALL, I have since added a disclaimer to all of my own possible fixes/solutions/procedures for helping users with older iPad performance issues, every time I post these, now.

This is to keep users, like yourself, from, basically, calling me liar.

It reads like this and is visible in BOLD lettering in these particular response postings:

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

I Have tried responding to this message 5 times and it freezes. Let's hope this time works! I too have recently updated and have big problems. The lady in the Apple Store told me it would help make my IPad 2 faster. Not even close. I updated via wifi. I have lots of space left. I googled after I updated and followed some steps to help make the iPad faster. I even restored the iPad and deleted apps. It's slow, takes for ever to load. Sometimes the typing goes funny. The wifi cuts in and out and has never done that before and it does it numerous places. I don't always  alerts and now I have to re boot each day for it to work a little better. I am very disappointed in what's happening and at a loss to what I can do. I paid a $1000 for this one and I would

iinked to have had this a little longer. I haven't fixed any grammar mistakes here because when I do it the screen freezes and I can't type and have to restart each time.

I have stripped my iPad 2 down to the bare bones, shut off everything that is supposed to cause problems, reinstalled the OS multiple times from iTunes, gotten rid of supposed bad apps and still I can't browse a simple web page any longer, or click on anything off of facebook without a crash. Just opening mail crashes from time to time and the lagginess of everything now makes this ipad2 unusable to the point I may never buy another Apple device. If this is a marketing plan to get users to upgrade to the next version of an Apple product, it's having the opposite effect. I have owned every Apple device dating back to the 80's but this crippling of a device that used to work flawlessly might be the last straw.

Apple doesn't release iOS upgrades/updates that cripple their own devices.

Clearly, you have an issue with your iPad 2.

All of my older iPad models are running very well on iOS 9.2.1.

Have you tried any of my suggested fixes, solutions and my own modified backup/restore procedures that have been listed multiple times in this posting?

Once, AGAIN, Here is my modified backup/ restore procedures complete with a disclaimer.

Follow this procedure verbatim and to the letter.

THIS PROCEDURE DOES NOT RETURN YOUR iPAD TO ITS PREVIOUS iOS VERSION.

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.

In Settings app, under the Safari settings panel, tap the panel and in the right hand window, turn off/disable Safari Suggestions.

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.

If you have the iOS Mail app set to automatically fetch mail at one of the default fetch time intervals, in the Settings App, under the Mail, Contacts, Calendar settings panel, tap this panel, in the righthand window, turn off/disable Push Mail and set fetching mail for either every hour or set for manual fetch only for all of your mail accounts.

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!

I appreciate your persistence in trying to help people with this issue. I will try all of your steps tomorrow and see if it helps. I just find it frustrating that Apple doesn't address these problems with a patch instead of making users seek advice from discussion boards and spend months trouble shooting a problem that didn't exist when the product was initially sold to the consumer. The feeling that it was purposely crippled, comes from comments made by support staff at Apple stores. Maybe they were not told to say things about the lack of power that older models have, but they do say it and its perceived as a sales tool for upgrading.

If you are getting comnemts like that from Apple Store employess, you should be reporting the store and relavent employess to Apple as this info is not true across the entire, worldwide older iPad user base.

I have upgraded/updated about a half dozen older iPads without issue/s.

The employees are telling customers false info and should be duly reported.

If I were you, I would contact Apple directly at 1-800-MYAPLE and ask calmly ask where you can post a formal complaint and give them your Apple Store location and if you remember the employee/s name/s, give them this info. also.

That store location is disseminating false, erroneous and/or inaccurate information.

I wasn't expecting this to happen. I have some time on my hands and wasn't envisioning needing the iPad 2 much today, so I decided to go ahead and try the latest version of iOS 9 since I have seen that others who have erased and set it up have had success. That and I am having a lot of problems with Safari reloading pages - sometimes to the point where I have to give up on reading something because it constantly refreshes.

I erased a bunch of the apps that don't have stored data (like kids story books) and all the video to speed up the restore from backup feature. I then went and erased my iPad to set it up as 'factory'. Well, when it turned back on, it came up running iOS 8.4.1 (the last version I installed). To me this was pleasant surprise and I think I'll give it a few days to see just clearing out the crud on the iPad that had accumulated over the last almost a year will improve stability of Safari.

So it looks like if you have an older version of iOS, you can still clean off your iPad and not lose that older version of iOS.

I did run into 3 hiccups:

1. It wouldn't fully restore from backup in the first option page you get in iTunes. After trying and failing twice to get non Apple Apps to show up, I seletected 'Restore as New'. This launched the iPad display panel in iTunes and it began restoring.

2. I noticed it was trying to restore from Oct 2015. I killed that operation and manually selected 'Restore from Backup' on the Summary page and saw my Feb 29 2016 backup was an option and manually selected that.

3. Apparently iOS or iTunes cannot handle leap day and it appears that I am stuck restoring back to Oct 2015. I think that most of the games I play on the iPad are linked online somehow, so I don't know that I really lost anything. If I did, it's a game that I probably haven't really played much this year as a few of them just hit the tedious point as all the main missions were finished, so no great loss. The downside is that the 50 or more apps I cleared off are now all back, so it's taking forever to restore the iPad. Then I'll have to update apps again, which I also did before backing up. On the upside, it seems I did not have any video loaded when that backup was made, so that will cut down on the restore time.

I'll update after a couple of days if iOS 8.4.1 Safari is behaving better or not. If it still seems prone to reloading (with all the bells and whistles turned off)

I Had the same and despite all suggested fixes always the same.

I did get a clue with a Chrome crash which listed the error and mentioned memory.

I then remembered that with Mac OS9 the ram memory protection was pretty dire causing these sort of crashes.

The iPad 2 has only 500mb of memory.

i Have since bought an Air2 and with the much increased ram no crashes at all. If Apple would only explain or fix their memory protection that would be good as not everyone is able to pay into the Apple coffers.