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Amdahl

macrumors 65816
Jul 28, 2004
1,438
1
For someone to have made that, time placed into the production could have gone into gone into something more profitable that could have earned him an iPhone 4. Be happy there was an upgrade!

Yep, the new Apple mantra: Be glad we aren't worse!
 

tarkeybear

macrumors regular
Mar 2, 2006
109
103
Claremont CA
On the Mark!

Love the video, it really does illustrate what life was like on my 3G/iOS4 "world of hurt"!

I love Apple products, but seriously, didn't Apple test the user experience of an iOS4 upgrade on the 3G before releasing to the public at large? This was a problem for me on day one, so its hard to believe the good folks in Cupertino didn't see this for themselves?

Fortunate enough for me, I have gotten an iPhone4 (thankfully no problems with dropped calls, death grip issues, etc).
Until Apple releases iOS4.1, does anyone know how to downgrade a 3G?
My wife (who still has a 3G) insists on a white iPhone 4, and that ain't showing up any time soon, so I would like to make her phone more responsive in the meantime.
The only upside of iOS4 on the 3G that I saw was folders, and that isn't a big deal for her.

Any tips on a downgrade path would be appreciated.
 

DomC

macrumors 6502
Jul 28, 2010
447
169
I really wonder if iOS4 was tested that extensively on 3Gs before it was released, or whether the lab was as far as it got.

"Not fully compatible" is a lot different than "will negatively affect your device".
 

Adgeman

macrumors member
Dec 22, 2005
62
0
For me it was so bad that I sold the phone early in anticipation of the iPhone 4 (canadian) and went back to using a small Nokia for the phone and my company blackberry for emails.
 

csmitty

macrumors regular
Sep 15, 2007
241
0
Its weird that my JB 3G with 4.0 was actually running better than it was on 3.1.2. I also had wall papers and "multi tasking" enabled. I did however delete some of the themes from the springboard plist like the drop shadows. Which made an improvement. Also my battery life was extended. However I didn't have as many JB apps installed since most weren't ready yet. I listened to music through the speaker for 2 hours and only took off 20% of the battery. 3.1.2 would be almost dead by then.

I do know the frustration though. the 3G is about memory management. I would have to free up memory every few hours, and with the multitasking had to delete apps out of the freezer every so often. Then it would do ok.

It is nice they're still supporting 2yr old technology. Samsung has to have a court order to upgrade just one small revision of Android. :rolleyes:
 

openkimono

macrumors newbie
Sep 19, 2008
11
0
+1

Video nailed it.... Apple never should have said the new OS support 3G.

Between disabling spotlight indexing on everything, and doing a hard reboot once or twice a day, i've been limping this phone along ever since upgrading.

I like Apple stuff a lot, and own a ton of Apple equipment, but don't appreciate the strong arming to buy the new phone...
 

dWhisper

macrumors newbie
Feb 11, 2010
3
0
Unuseable is the best word for it. I had it on my 3G before jumping to the 4, and it was just painful. Load timesnfor apps were 20-30 seconds consistently, and crashes were far more frequent.

I understand not fully supporting the new release, but at the same time, it shouldn't break it. Fact is, these weren't ancient gadgets, the 3G was still on sale when the 4 was announced. It is not unreasonable to ask Apple to support their product for more than a year.
 

nagromme

macrumors G5
May 2, 2002
12,546
1,196
I know three people with an iPhone 3G running iOS 4. Two of them are having no problems.

I am the third :eek: My 3G has been so bad that I tell 3G users to skip the update for now.

Anecdotes aren’t stats, but my suspicion is that the problems are widespread enough that iOS 4 should NOT have been released for the 3G and the equivalent iPod Touch. I fear they’re just too old, with too little RAM. I would love to be wrong and see a software fix—maybe most 3G owners are fine and people like me are a vocal minority that will soon see a solution. But I’m not optimistic!

Interestingly, I do NOT see any slowdowns or stuttering with iOS 4 on my 3G. (No worse than 3.x always had—which was never as speedy as 2.x. In fact, typing seems less stuttery on iOS 4 to me.)

But I get total crashes (spontaneous reboots) 1 to 4 times per day of heavy usage. Never in a phone call, never on the home screen, never when locked.... but often when I’m using apps. Even Apple apps like Settings and iPod. Once, the crash killed the phone and I had to do a full restore. (Which didn’t cure future crashes; nor did any form of reset.) And some games are semi-unplayable because you risk losing your recent progress if the phone crashes.

There’s a little bit of hope, since it seems that only SOME people get my crashes, and only SOME people get slowdowns (I don’t). Maybe a fix will come. Sometime...?

Meanwhile I’m glad my iPhone 4 arrived, because the 3G was getting unusable. (And thankfully, restoring the 3G onto the 4 did not result in any crashes of the 4. It’s been solid and speedy and my game progress was preserved.)

I like folders and I like that external remotes will now control Pandora (even without multitasking). But those aren’t worth a phone that crashes.
 

Amdahl

macrumors 65816
Jul 28, 2004
1,438
1
This is EXACTLY how my 3G behaves running iOS4!!! I swear it was a cheap ploy to make me upgrade my phone to a 3GS, or iPhone 4. I can't keep using this thing. It's driving me nuts.

I was going to tell you that if you don't like Apple and it's policies, don't buy their products. Meanwhile, I'll be using cutting edge technology and getting stuff done.

But it turns out, you beat me to it in your own signature! How about that.
 

Coukos34

macrumors 6502
Mar 20, 2009
339
0

Wow! I just turned the spotlight search off on all my apps (I never use it....ever) and it's a totally new phone. It was instant as soon as I turned them all off. Everything becomes a lot smoother. Everyone whom is struggling needs to try it. My phone was as bad if not worse than the one on that video.

Now, it's still not running great, but it is worlds different. It actually makes the phone useable again :)
 

nemaslov

macrumors 6502a
Jul 22, 2002
753
9
San Francisco
Once I upgraded to ios4 on my 3GS I can hardly make calls or send texts from inside my home (San Francisco). When I do make calls they frequently are dropped. I have lived in this house for many years and have always had perfect reception using my iPhone (all models) and all other cell phones.

I spoke with ATT had a case number re started and reset it with them and I still have problems. All this started right after I upgraded to ios4. Coincidence?
 

Bevz

macrumors 6502a
Oct 23, 2007
816
137
UK
Yep, that's EXACTLY what my iPhone 3G was like after "upgrading" to iOS4. I suffered for about a week before i got to a cross-roads; either throw the phone against the wall smashing it into a thousand pieces with a massive smile on my face, OR downgrade back to 3.x. Thankfully i chose the latter and am now the proud owner of a perfectly functioning iPhone again... :)

Mind you, i did end up buying an iPhone 4, but at least i managed to give my daughter a perfectly working iPhone rather than an unusable piece of junk, which is exactly what it was for that week...!
 

csmitty

macrumors regular
Sep 15, 2007
241
0
Love the video, it really does illustrate what life was like on my 3G/iOS4 "world of hurt"!

I love Apple products, but seriously, didn't Apple test the user experience of an iOS4 upgrade on the 3G before releasing to the public at large? This was a problem for me on day one, so its hard to believe the good folks in Cupertino didn't see this for themselves?

Fortunate enough for me, I have gotten an iPhone4 (thankfully no problems with dropped calls, death grip issues, etc).
Until Apple releases iOS4.1, does anyone know how to downgrade a 3G?
My wife (who still has a 3G) insists on a white iPhone 4, and that ain't showing up any time soon, so I would like to make her phone more responsive in the meantime.
The only upside of iOS4 on the 3G that I saw was folders, and that isn't a big deal for her.

Any tips on a downgrade path would be appreciated.

Its simple, all you have to do is get the firmware version you want for the 3G (1,2) then you can probably just do a restore, but hold option then click restore, not sure what it is on the PC. Then just point to the FW you want and let it go. Simple. There are also TONS of videos tutorials on the web. A quick google search will find one.
 

jdechko

macrumors 601
Jul 1, 2004
4,230
325
I had originally upgraded my 3G to 4.0, but I experienced a lot of sluggishness. So I went searching and found a (lengthy) process to downgrade to 3.1.3. It worked, but I was unable to restore my phone from the backup, so I lost a lot of game saves.

I think Apple was caught between a rock and a hard place with OS 4, as it is the first iOS update that drops support for legacy hardware. Original owners wouldn't have likely expected support (after 3 years), and most that actually cared that support had been dropped would have upgraded to a newer model. However, the other side of the matter is that the 3G was the exact same hardware (CPU and RAM) with the same performance as the original iPhone.

I'm sure Apple knew OS 4 performance was going to suck on the 3G, even with the limited feature set, but to tell people "2 years of supported upgrades" and then to not deliver may have been worse. Apple was bound to get complaints either way.

Then again, for the die hard fans, they upgrade their phones every (or every other) revision, so there isn't as much of a problem.

Personally, I blame myself for not being able to hold out for 6 more weeks to buy a 3GS instead of the 3G. But I knew that this would happen, and I accepted it at the time. Now I'm ready for the 4, which is much more justifiable given that I'm on a 3G.
 

avn

macrumors newbie
Jul 31, 2007
24
0
That video was of one working well with iOS4

Mine rarely worked even that well after the iOS4 update.

I got so frustrated with mine not answering calls, crashing 50% of the apps, and becoming almost entirely unusable that I took the opportunity to jump ship and buy a Droid X.

I've had it now for 1 week, and couldn't be happier!

I can't believe Apple's push to have us on a new OS that doesn't work on a machine that they were selling just one year ago! Planned obsolescence is BS.
 

jdechko

macrumors 601
Jul 1, 2004
4,230
325
Can you please tell me how to downgrade the iOS? Can we demand that in a apple retail store?

Its simple, all you have to do is get the firmware version you want for the 3G (1,2) then you can probably just do a restore, but hold option then click restore, not sure what it is on the PC. Then just point to the FW you want and let it go. Simple. There are also TONS of videos tutorials on the web. A quick google search will find one.

It's a little more complicated than a simple restore, but there are instructions on the google that will help you out. I followed them step-by-step and it worked out just fine for me.

However, what they don't tell you (or at least the instructions I read) is that you cannot restore a 4.0 backup to a 3.1.x device. So you're going to have to decide how valuable your data is to you.
 

Mac-Michael

macrumors regular
Jan 13, 2010
186
0
Wow! I just turned the spotlight search off on all my apps (I never use it....ever) and it's a totally new phone. It was instant as soon as I turned them all off. Everything becomes a lot smoother. Everyone whom is struggling needs to try it. My phone was as bad if not worse than the one on that video.

Now, it's still not running great, but it is worlds different. It actually makes the phone useable again :)

Wow, this improves things! Thanks
 

Zwhaler

macrumors 604
Jun 10, 2006
7,102
1,576
My iPhone 3G takes a full minute to boot with iOS4, used to be much quicker. Also the iPod is glitchy as hell - it refuses to play numerous songs loaded on the device, it just skips them every time I select them. iPhone 4 is great, figures.
 

capoeirista

macrumors 6502
Jan 21, 2007
448
0
Yup my 3G is lag central after updating to iOS4. In hindsight I should have waited till 4.1. Hope that fixes it. The phone is frustratingly slow now.
 

tatonka

macrumors 6502
Aug 25, 2009
495
40
My 3GS is running incredibly slow and seems to have lost some responsiveness when typing and entering URL's. It's very frustrating.

My 3GS is doing mostly ok .. but I can see some lags in games that I haven't see before. Actually it was only after the 4.0.1 update that that BS started. 4.0 ran great performance wise. There was an annoying bug in the mail app that wouldn't let it load new mails when coming up from sleep. The only reason why I updated .. well and the fancy new bars of course.

T.
 

userexec

macrumors member
Apr 24, 2010
33
0
I read about these issues for weeks before I finally bit the bullet and put iOS4 on my 2G Touch. I was set up to roll it back immediately if there were problems.

Oddly enough, I seem to be in the group not having any issues with this. I saw no slow-down at all with iOS4 (and I use it to play resource-intensive stuff like Sandstorm and Eliminate constantly). Overall, I'm very happy with it.

Glad to hear they're looking at it, though. From the articles I've read and videos I've seen, this really is an issue for some people, and that sucks :(
 

pechspilz

macrumors newbie
Oct 30, 2007
26
0
trick77.com reports that the 3G sluggishness has been fixed in IOS 4.1 beta. They're even offering UDIDS if you can't wait for the official release.
 

Moomba

macrumors regular
Jun 7, 2008
129
4
Charlotte, NC
Amusingly, my phone is even less responsive than the one in the video. However, I don't have any noticeably worse battery wear or heat generation.

I've been using 4.0 since Beta2 and I logged bug reports of this through EVERY beta and the GM as well, but it fell on deaf ears. I have noticed that it is much better if I reboot the device in morning just after unplugging it. Also, FreeMemory helps clear up many of the small lag spikes.

It seems that the source of the issues with the 3G & 4.0 at its core is a big memory issue. There simply isn't enough of it. My guess is the engineers were wanting to not support 4.0 at all on the 3G (since its the same basic hardware as the initial EDGE iPhone.) Without rebooting or forcing apps to crash via FreeMemory free RAM tends to hover around 2MB or less.

Honestly, unless you jailbreak your 3G to enable multitasking the folders don't offer enough of an incentive for someone to upgrade. Now if you have a 3GS or iPhone 4 then it's another matter entirely, but on the 3G it's worthless.
 

inkswamp

macrumors 68030
Jan 26, 2003
2,953
1,278
I had extreme slowdowns with my iPhone 3G after upgrading to iOS 4.0. A couple of hard resets (holding down the power and home buttons until it reboots and you see the Apple logo) seemed to fix the problem. I also turned off all Spotlight indexing as I never use phone-wide searches anyway so it didn't matter to me. 4.0.1 also seemed to kick the speed back up a bit.

I'm always surprised when people gripe about these things though. I didn't once think to complain. It's the first rev of a major new OS. Isn't that part of the territory? If you're an early adopter, expect some bumps. If you're not keen on that, hold off until the first or second point update. That's true for all software.
 
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