How can I downgrade a sluggish iPad 2 back to iOS 7?

YES, I agree with peanutismint and efadrian,

I have also an iPad2 (64 GB) and since the iOS 9.3.5 upgrade

many Apps keep on crashing regularly.

Even 'simple' Apps like internet browsing.

I have tried everything (several times), completeley new install of the device (iOS and Apps),

resetting, clearing all caches and changing several settings (which could consume too

much resources), but nothing helped yet.

Therefore I would like to downgrade the software, as I didn't have as massive

problems earlier like now with iOS 9.3.5.

But this is of course not possible with un-signed old iOS-es.

I am really not happy with this, it's very frustrating.😠😠😠😟➖

And Apple won't write a new iOS for older devices anymore, as it seems. 😠😠😠😟➖

efadrian wrote:

No, Apple should improve the last version 9.3.5 version on allow to downgrade.

This is a very moot point, now.

Apple is never going to go back and "fix"iOS 9.3.5.

iOS 11 is going to render all old 32 bit iDevices obsolete in a couple of months.

So,,if you own an iPad 2, you only have a couple of more months of app updates and then no more app updates.

An iPad 2 has had 5 years of iOS upgrades/updates and nearly 6 years of app updates.

Apple released the new 2017 iPad 5 model to replace the old aging iPad 2, 3, 4 models at a price that makes it a lot easier to upgrade from a 5-6 year old iDevice.

So, if you are tired of dealing with whatever issues iOS 9.3.5 is causing on your iPad 2, if you actually have one, then purchase much more powerful and new iPad model.

Don't sign up for and come into a Apple product troubleshooting community spewing one-line complaints or rants to a very old and dormant posting with nothing of value to say or offer as help.

Complaints and rants are against the Terms of Use (ToU) that you had to agreed to when you signed up here to post your two years, too late short, one-line rant/complaint reply.

Good Luck to you in the future!

I have the same model and storage capacity as you and my iPad 2 is STILL working pretty well on iOS 9.3.5.

The only thing that is slower is the startup/reboot cycle.

How do you do your iOS upgrades/updates?

How much free data storage space is left on your iPad 2?

My iPad 2 has approx. 17 GBs of free data storage space left.

Did you do everything in my link 2 replies above your reply to try and speed up your iPad 2?

Don’t forget getting rid of apps that are not yet upgraded for the new iOS.

I had a similar problem with an older iPad and solved the problem by following many of the good suggestions here, especially:

- reducing memory by deleting data. All operating systems perform better if they have room to move. Never run at 90+% of capacity.

- turning off background app refresh, shutting off transparency and turning on reduce motion so the iOS doesn’t have to do a lot of graphics calculations just to make things look cool.

- keep installing minor upgrades, which often have bug fixes and speed improvements in the first few upgrades.

And then, as Steve Jobs used to say, there’s one more thing: uninstall all apps that have not been upgraded for the new os—especially apps that run in the background or things that enhance multiple other apps—things such as ad-blockers and keyboard modifiers; Also screensharing apps like duet and apps that download data in the background.

If speed improves, add them back one at a time and see if performance degrades again. Start adding back only the essentials. If you’ve had your iPad for a long time you probably have a lot of apps working in the background that you rarely even use anymore. These all add to the load.

When I did this, I found an adblocker app that definitely was causing me problems. I only added it back in after they upgraded for the new iOS. It solved all my problems.

Good luck!

Thanks MichelPM for the replies,
There is 35,85 GB free space on my iPad so that should not be the issue (I have indeed removed many
apps and fotos already a long time ago before the latest iOS update..).
But the iPad still keeps on crashing.

I have tried the tipps which you wrote within the first part of the "Slow iPad 2 on iOS 9" article.
Those didn't helped yet.

Now I would like to try the second part "your own modified backup/restore procedure".
There is one sentence I don't understand. You write:

"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.

What do you mean with: "set it up as a new iPad setup to factory "out of the box" operation." ?
How do I do that from the iPad menus?

Thanks

(This will be my last try to fix my iPad, which has worked perfect till the iOS 9.3.5 has been installed on it. Beside of that I am going for the iPad 2017, as I would like to be able to use iOS 11 supported apps in the future.)

Thanks cpj357,

There is 35,85 GB free space on my iPad so that should not be the issue.

(I have indeed removed many apps and fotos already a long time ago before the latest iOS update..).

The following tipps I have already tried:
- turning off background app refresh, shutting off transparency and turning on reduce motion

But this didn't helped yet.

Beside of this I am not aware of having any ad-blockers and keyboard modifier apps.

The last thing I will try is MichelPM's "own modified backup/restore procedure".
If that doesn't work then I leave it. I go for a new iPad, and if I have the new iPad,
I will remove much more apps from the old one, and see if that helps.

Thanks

Once you backed up your iPad to iTunes, disconnect the iPad.

From the Settings App Under the General Settings under Reset select Erase and Reset ALL contents.

The act of doing this should return your iPad back to its factory "out of the box" state and you should see the iPad welcome screen.

Proceeed to set up the iPad as new, from the iPad, the way you would if the iPad just came out of the box.

Test its performance for a little while on your network with nothing else on this iPad!

See if it is running better from a reset factory state.

Setup of your Mail app. Do some web browsing on Safari. See if online videos run, etc..

Basically, use the iPad in its basic state.

Then, after some time, reconnect your iPad 2 to your computer running iTunes (it DOES NOT have to be an up to date version, but at least an iTunes vers. 12.6.x version) and do restore of your iPad's data.

If your iPad 2 returns to a slow state then, some data in the backup maybe corrupt.

You will have to repeat the reset of the iPad once, again.

You may have to re-sync your data in small groups of apps and small groups of images/music and videos until you can isolate the cause of the iPad 2 slowndowns.

You may just have to redownload apps and depending on the data thst you might have stored in your downloaded apps, if the data stored is minimal OR not that important to you any longer, forget the data and redownload those apps as fresh versions and test on your iPad.

Good Luck to You!

One additional thought to those of you who have this problem. If all else fails, why not try to upgrade to iOS 11, as a last ditch effort (assuming, of course that your model will run it.) We generally tend to think that older machines get worse the more we upgrade. That is not always the case, though. iOS 11 is supposed to have new efficiencies that may make it run better than iOS 9. If you plan to buy a new iPad anyway, you have nothing to lose. I find that my iPhone 6s runs better under iOS 11.0.2 than it did under iOS 10.

Just a thought...

Thanks cpj357,
unfortunately the iPad 2 is not supported by iOS 11.
If you try a Software/OS update via iTunes or the iPad (Settings/Software Update)
then both tell you that iOS 9.3.5 is the latest version.
Apple also won't write new OS for the iPad 2 anymore

I don't mind if there are no future iOS updates for the iPad2 anymore,
I am just not happy about the fact the iPad2 crashes all the time since
the iOS 9.3.5 has been installed on it.

I will try now MichelPM's "own modified backup/restore procedure".
Let's see if that helps.

Thanks MichelPM once more,
I have tried now everything regarding my iPad2:

- Complete reset, starting up clean without any Apps
- Turned OFF: Messages (for all apps), Spotlight-search (for all apps), iCloud, Mail push
- Turned ON: Motion reduction
but the iPad2 keeps on crashing (with crashing I mean, the app stops and the iPad2 returns to the Home screen).
Last time it even crashed just by playing a YouTube video.
I've got the impression it crashes especially at apps which use an internet connection (or which synchronize in the background). I don't believe though that the issue is because of the internet connection. I am using 802.11n standard and the Wifi Analyzer shows around 150 MBit/s bandwidth, which is fine.

Anyway, I am now a happy owner of an iPad 2017 and it's an excellent product.
I will be little bit more careful with iOS UPGRADES in the future.

I'll keep and use the iPad2 further, but not for the high resources taking apps.
It works still, it just crashes sometimes.

cheers

If you have an iPad 2, you can try all of these iPad performance improving tips that i have amassed since the time of this post.

Slow iPad on iOS 9, 10 or 11!

Downgrading iOS is never supported.

peanutismint wrote:

I would therefore like to downgrade my iPad back to iOS 7.1.2 but I can't seem to work out how to do this.

Apple doesn't support the downgrading of iOS.

No. within a few weeks of a new version of iOS, the previous version is no longer signed.

My experience with iOS upgrades on older devices is that the sluggishness will fade after a little while.