iPhone users across the globe must have faced this issue of sluggish iPhone; they keep asking how to speed up their slow iPhone. Normally, the slow iPhone issue is seen in iPhone that is two or more generations old. Moreover, you may find your iPhone running slow if you load many contents (pictures, videos, songs and more) on it. This means even your iPhone X becomes slow if you pile up unnecessary stuff on it. This entire issue revolves around the memory; if your iPhone has got less space, it will run slow. And you have to take some quick actions to speed up slow iPhone 5, 5S, 5E, 6, 6s, 6s, 6s Plus, 7, 7 Plus, 8, 8 Plus and iPhone X in iOS 11.
What is a slow iPhone? Before we go ahead and fix this issue, we must know the status. Basically, your iPhone takes a long time to open any app or any media on it. Your iPhone is not moving or acting quickly as it used to be when you first buy it. You miss the fast speed it used to offer earlier. In short, your iPhone interface becomes unresponsive and you are pretty much annoyed with this slow life. Perhaps, you need to follow some quick solutions to fix this sluggish iPhone.
iPhone Slow? How to Speed Up Slow iPhone 5, 5S, 5E, 6, 6s, 6s, 6s Plus, 7, 7 Plus, 8, 8 Plus and iPhone X in iOS 11
Our solutions will work on all iPhones, including iPhone X, iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus. We know that these are recently launched devices and there shouldn’t be any such issue. But remember that you are using a computing device, and all computing devices are likely to slow down sooner or later. If you have saved data beyond the limit of your iPhone 8, it may become slow even as you have purchased it a week ago.
Update iOS on iPhone
Every year, Apple releases iOS update to fix bugs and other issues. It is good to stay up-to-date with everything, and your iPhone’s operating system is one of the things you need to update as soon as possible. If you are using a latest iPhone, you must download the latest update; in case your iPhone is two or more generations old, you should check the size of the iOS update. On older iPhones, updating may actually result into a slow device.
Settings → General → Software Update → Download and Install.
Force Close Apps
Multitasking may bring you rewards in your office if you are using your company’s computer, but not on your personal iPhone. Users tend to open many applications on their iPhones, and this makes your iPhone slow. After launching apps, we may forget to shut down some; these apps are running in the background. The background running apps not only slow down your iPhone, they also consume your iPhone battery.
On your iPhone, double-tap on Home button (or virtual home button if you are using AssistiveTouch feature). When app switcher appears, swipe each app up to force close them one by one.
Note that iPhone X takes a different method to force close apps without Home button. Sometimes, force closing apps can also fix iPhone apps crashing issues.
Also read: How to Switch Apps on iPhone X
Restart iPhone
When you restart your iPhone, you refresh your device. And your fresh device may perform better and faster than earlier. But wait! The process to restart your iPhones is different from device to device.
- Force Restart iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus
- Restart iPhone without Home and Power Button
- Reboot iPhone 8, iPhone 8, and iPhone X
- Reboot iPhone 7
Delete Apps
You might have downloaded many apps to use them temporarily, but once your purpose is served, you forget to delete those unnecessary apps. Now these apps occupy space on your iPhone and this obviously slows down your device. A quick solution to free up some space is to delete such apps.
iOS 11: Settings→ General → iPhone Storage.
iOS 10: Settings → General → Storage & iCloud Usage → Manage Storage under Storage.
Here, you can check all the apps and space each one occupies on your iPhone. Scroll up and down to find which app takes more space. Tap on that app and you can delete that from your device.
Offload Apps
In iOS 11, Apple introduced this new feature to offload apps. Unlike deleting apps, this feature makes apps disable on your iPhone. So while the apps are hibernating on your device, you get some more space to speed up your iPhone performance.
Clear Documents & Data
Your phone’s built-in apps and third-party apps create cache on your device. Safari and YouTube are notorious to pile up cache when you search and browse contents on these two apps. This cache is nothing but your search queries and websites’ list; moreover, Google is also known to amass cache in the background. Remember, the purpose of compiling cache is to serve you quick results when you use the apps next day. But on the other hand, this gathers cache and slows down your device. To get rid of this, you need to clear Documents & Data.
Restore iPhone from Backup
When you clear Documents & Data on your iPhone, you also remove some photos, messages, music and movies. If you take backup of your data regularly, you can restore your iPhone from iCloud or iTunes backup easily.
Stop Automatic Background Processes
Your iPhone does some automatic processes in the background without your knowledge. Apps like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube keep refreshing as they deal with a lot of data like pictures, texts, videos, audios and more. Apart from consuming your device battery, background app refresh also affects the performance of your iPhone. To get rid of this situation, follow the steps below:
Settings → General → Background App Refresh → again tap on Background App Refresh.
There are three options: Off / Wi-Fi / Wi-Fi & Cellular Data.
Your best option is Wi-Fi.
Come back to the Background App Refresh screen and disable the apps for which you don’t need fresh data. You can disable Background App Refresh for apps you are not using in months.
Similarly, you can turn off Automatic Downloads on your iPhone. This feature was introduced first in iOS 7, and has retained its position in subsequent releases of iOS.
Settings → iTunes & App Store → AUTOMATIC DOWNLOADS.
Turn off Music, Apps, Books & Audiobooks, and Updates from under AUTOMATIC DOWNLOADS section.
Turn On Reduce Motion
With iOS 7, Apple launched some visual effects to impress our eyes; but this clearly affected the performance of iPhone. You can reduce this noise by using Reduce Motion feature.
Settings → General → Accessibility → Reduce Motion → toggle Reduce Motion ON.
This also disables parallax effect of icons and alerts on your iPhone.
In the same manner, you can also Reduce Transparency to minimize the see-through background effects.
Settings → General → Accessibility → Increase Contrast → turn on Reduce Transparency.
Now see the results below.
Restore iPhone to Factory Settings
A full restore means you need to delete all the data stored on your iPhone, and it becomes a piece you brought from the store. Since this action removes all the data, you are recommended to backup your iPhone first.
Once you take backup, follow the steps to Erase All Contents and Settings.
Settings → General → Reset → Erase All Contents and Settings → enter your passcode and go ahead.
Note that if you haven’t taken iCloud Backup before erasing, a pop-up may ask you to update iCloud Backup before you erase your iPhone.
Don’t want to take iCloud Backup? Simply tap on Erase Now.
Also Read: How to Delete Old iPhone Backup on iCloud
Wait for the next iOS Update
Apple normally brings major changes in its new OS update. If your iPhone goes slow, and there is no solution, you can wait for the next iOS update from Apple. Though the new operating system requires more space as Apple introduces more powerful features in its latest iOS. Perhaps this is the reason why Apple offers faster processor in its new iPhone (so that the new operating system works smoothly).
Contact Apple Support
If above solutions fail to give you any good results, you should contact Apple Support. Usually, speed is not such a serious issue that users take their device to Apple Support. But technicians there will find out the reason why the speed of your device is slowed down. And they will fix the issue there and then.
When all ways out don’t work to improve your iPhone’s performance, you should go for the new iPhone. This may not be an easy task for you as you have to invest your money in a completely new device. Wait for some festival offer and then buy a new piece. For your old piece, you can sell it here.
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