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Why does apple slow down old devices?

I am so upset with apple because i have an iPad 2 that i literally rarely ever used and is pretty much new but yet its so slow. This started after i updated my ipad i hadn't updated my iPad for about 2.5 years and then all of the sudden it just completely slowed down! I am a die hard apple fan i've had everything apple for about a decade because I thought and always believed that they made superior products. But now i am realizing that their products are not made to last! I am not the only one with this problem either my sister has a white apple macbook and same thing has happened to her! Her macbook is horribly slow and just a terribly laptop now she has only had it for about 3 years and it is literally worthless now. i don't get it apple! Why do you do this to your customers! You create nice products that only seemed to be temporary you are ripping us off! Why now i don't even want to buy an iPhone Im trying to look for alternatives! Please answer my question! Does anyone else have this issue with their apple products? This seems so suspicious! I even refuse to update my macbook air because i am afraid apple is going to slow it down!

iPad 2, iOS 9.3.1

Posted on Apr 9, 2016 4:56 PM

Reply
290 replies

Sep 22, 2017 9:51 AM in response to klselfridge

klselfridge wrote:


It has been proven, and apple has been sued for it


https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&v ed=0ahUKEwiZraWPnLnWAhVJImMKHfLIDuoQFggo…

All that "study" shows is that people complain about battery issues on the internet. People also complain about being abducted by aliens. The anonymous poster to whom you linked is also referring to an article from three years ago, so old news.


And, anyone can sue someone. Just because papers are filed doesn't mean 1) a judge won't laugh you out of court and 2) you will win. And, even if you do win, it only means a jury thought you might be right. It doesn't prove you are right.

Sep 22, 2017 9:54 AM in response to klselfridge

FYI,

All of my older and updated Apple devices are working just peachy keen fine dare.


I have an old iPod Touch, new iPod Touch, an iPad 2, an iPad 3 and an iPad Pro and 2 older Macs.

Everything works and runs fine.

My wife never complains about her iPad 3 or her 2010 Mac running crummy.

My iPad 2, with some, arguably features disabled, runs very well too on it's last release over a year, ago!

Nov 1, 2017 3:32 PM in response to gail from maine

Not unlike the pesky red-light on dash of my old truck.


Kept turning on, so I'd check/add oil; & waved magic

money wand to stave-off underhood gremlins awhile.


But that wasn't good enough. Had to go 100 miles yet

road construction held up traffic; had to shut off engine.


Difficult restart and odd noises, I then drove it remaining

miles; where it has refused bribes & petitions to run again.


Given it's unique decades-old model build, I've hope for

a neo-religious invocation to make it rise again, instead of

the routine trail toward recycle for those deemed junkers.


My expectations may be as unrealistic as the next person

when hopeful dreams fail to materialize in an actual cure.


Not unlike my iMacG4s or aluminum PowerBookG4 who've loitered about, in coma. 😎

Nov 2, 2017 12:20 PM in response to Csound1

Csound1 wrote:


Can you tell me where I left my iPad, it was on the bedroom table but alas, has disappeared.


When Apple fails to coerce people into buying new iPads by slowing down older devices, they are teleported back to the Mothership, thereby demonstrating their levitatory capabilities.


iOS's slowdown and levitation parameters are enabled through iCloud and are not user-accessible.

Nov 2, 2017 12:23 PM in response to John Galt

John Galt wrote:


Csound1 wrote:


Can you tell me where I left my iPad, it was on the bedroom table but alas, has disappeared.


When Apple fails to coerce people into buying new iPads by slowing down older devices, they are teleported back to the Mothership, thereby demonstrating their levitatory capabilities.


iOS's slowdown and levitation parameters are enabled through iCloud and are not user-accessible.

And here I've been blaming the Secret Society of Felines all this time.

Dec 21, 2017 9:32 AM in response to edwinpc29

This is not just applicable to iOS devices (iPod, iPad, MacBook etc). I have been using an iMac for 5 or 6 years starting with Mountain Lion and currenly Sierra. After each so called upgrade this machine has ”slowed down”. It takes longer to start, longer to run apps and longer to shut down. It wasn’t fast to start with (compared with the equivalent Windows based machine) but now it’s excrutiately slow. No amount of resetting SMC and PRAM helps.


apple claim that their policy is to help your device with a degrading Lithium battery, but this doesn’t explain why a mains powered unit is slower. It’s called planned obsolescence.


the best advice I can give is don’t upgrade - it’s not worth the effort.


(Why can’t they fix the capitalisation on new paragraphs)

Dec 22, 2017 7:31 AM in response to MichelPM

Well we now know this not to be true. Apple does indeed throttle old devices

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.theverge.com/platform/amp/2017/12/20/16800058/a pple-iphone-slow-fix-battery-life-capacity


Currently the claim is it is iPhones and related to the battery but we’ll see if more if falls out as law suits roll in.


This said, I agree with most of the other explanations for why devices slow with updates BUT the issue is we are kind of forced to update to keep getting security updates, which are crucial to avoiding exploits. Please correct me if I’m wrong and Apple keeps providing parallel security updates to old versions of iOS. The problem isn’t just Apple though...same forced deprecation is in the Android world too.

Dec 23, 2017 12:33 PM in response to gapflow

Where Apple fails ethically in this is that they could have just as easily displayed a pop-up informing the user that the os is reducing performance due to a degrading battery and that the user should consider replacing the battery (and they could even do that and also try to upsell a new device).


I suspect this will be Apple's response, given how this has exploded in the media lately - and by "exploded", I mean it's now fodder for the New York Times, the Washington Post and every other major news outlet.

Dec 23, 2017 2:04 PM in response to edwinpc29

Its too bad that “Devepment” keeps adding “capabilities” to the base OS that continue to put a greater and greater load on the existing h/w that at some point the devices become near unusable !


You either abandoned the platform and move to some other platform or because of the investment in the platform yo7 shell out $$$$ to get a current device !


They should develop an Index of performance for each H/W level where they evaluate the response time of basic functions, and not let you upgrade past that version for you own good !

Yes some would certainly whine about not being able to upgrade, but I would rather have a Functioning IPad 2 vs. brick !

Dec 23, 2017 3:05 PM in response to K Shaffer

If think you've totally missed what the current news cycle has revealed, though your entry into Leonard Pinth Garnell's "Bad Metaphors" Competition is appreciated.


The current power management solution is silent and model specific, not age specific. One doesn't know if the os has decided to implement it on an iPhone 7 bought 1 1/2 years ago or an iPhone 7 purchased yesterday. That's the controversy in a nutshell. It's trivial to inform the user that performance is being degraded by design when the os decides it's necessary. This isn't about the iPhone6S shutdown issue, it is not about Low Power Mode, it isn't about checking what apps are taking up the most juice and it isn't even about tips to extend battery life. It's about a conscious decision to reduce performance on recent older versions of some of Apple's older devices.


Even accepting Apple's contention that it was done to improve the user experience, it was never disclosed to the consumer of the products in question.

Dec 23, 2017 6:19 PM in response to DeadEyeD

DeadEyeD wrote:


Its too bad that “Devepment” keeps adding “capabilities” to the base OS that continue to put a greater and greater load on the existing h/w that at some point the devices become near unusable !


You either abandoned the platform and move to some other platform or because of the investment in the platform yo7 shell out $$$$ to get a current device !

Are you trying to say that product development is a bad thing. I for one prefer technology to advance.

Why does apple slow down old devices?

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