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Why do iPhones start slowing down after two years?

S

saintforlife

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Feb 25, 2011
1,046
329
It is almost like Apple has a magic switch and it flicks it on after about 18-20 months that causes the phone to slow down, so people start thinking about an upgrade even if the don't want to.

My iPhone 4 which was fine until recently suddenly seems to have slowed down for no reason. Maps, Safari, opening apps everything seems to take a second or two more. This happened to me with the 3G and it is now happening again on the 4. I haven't done anything to my phone out of the ordinary. I've just been using it like always do.
 
Well on the 3G it is due to a higher resource demanding OS update. The 3G simply didn't have enough resources to handle everything smoothly.

As per the iPhone 4, try closing all apps (actually closing them via black X's) and rebooting your phone.
 
Its possible who knows what Steve's evil side is.
Or it could be that the new updates make it slower or it's that the iPhone is getting older but many reasons but same happens with many things so it's a conspiracy.
 
I'm sure your brain is cheating on you. You just look for a reason to upgrade. And so do I. Also my home button recently feels less responsive. :D
 
saintforlife said:
It is almost like Apple has a magic switch and it flicks it on after about 18-20 months that causes the phone to slow down, so people start thinking about an upgrade even if the don't want to.

My iPhone 4 which was fine until recently suddenly seems to have slowed down for no reason. Maps, Safari, opening apps everything seems to take a second or two more. This happened to me with the 3G and it is now happening again on the 4. I haven't done anything to my phone out of the ordinary. I've just been using it like always do.
Click to expand...

I feel the same on my 3gs. Was more responsive two years ago. You could try downgrading your OS to to an older version. Backup and restore then DL.

I feel apple makes the OS heavier each year to lock out consumers who like to cling to older hardware. Not a bad strategy, hate it of course but its's thrifty and Google does it as well, but at least you can bypass it by rootin'.
 
Try doing a clean install. I just recently went from an iPhone 4S to an iPhone 4, and I don't notice any slow down.
 
bandofbrothers said:
Its all the gunk we accumulate onto it through its life.
Click to expand...

This is part of it. All the app downloading and deleting, music, videos, etc all leave little files that accumulate over time. As someone else suggested, do a restore and clean install (set up as a new iPhone, don't restore from a backup). That'll wipe everything and bring it back to how it's supposed to run.
 
saintforlife said:
It is almost like Apple has a magic switch and it flicks it on after about 18-20 months that causes the phone to slow down, so people start thinking about an upgrade even if the don't want to.

My iPhone 4 which was fine until recently suddenly seems to have slowed down for no reason. Maps, Safari, opening apps everything seems to take a second or two more. This happened to me with the 3G and it is now happening again on the 4. I haven't done anything to my phone out of the ordinary. I've just been using it like always do.
Click to expand...

Try and restore from a backup first and see if this helps.

If the above doesn't help then try restoring as new. I would be extremely surprised if one or the other didn't solve your problem.

A friend of mine has a iPhone 4 (used to have Android) and he finds that the iPhone runs consistently smooth with no slowdowns after a pro longed period of time compared to the Android phones he used to have.

Like anything else that uses software and gets things installed, there's a chance that after a while things can get bogged down, things can get sluggish.
 
saintforlife said:
It is almost like Apple has a magic switch and it flicks it on after about 18-20 months that causes the phone to slow down, so people start thinking about an upgrade even if the don't want to.

My iPhone 4 which was fine until recently suddenly seems to have slowed down for no reason. Maps, Safari, opening apps everything seems to take a second or two more. This happened to me with the 3G and it is now happening again on the 4. I haven't done anything to my phone out of the ordinary. I've just been using it like always do.
Click to expand...

Well try to eat bad foods for 2 years, then come back and let me now if you feel as good! Samething with an iphone live! Heck try a brand new 3GS on the latest iOS! Its running pretty fine for a 3-4 years old phone.
 
Experienced it chronically with the 3G back in the day, but my launch day 4 is a swift as it ever was, and it's jailbroke too. I learned long ago with jb that if you keep the tweaks to a few minimal essential ones it doesn't impact the speed at all. For a brief period I had it loaded down with tweaks like a Swiss army knife, I swear it took 3 minutes just to boot!
 
yegon said:
Experienced it chronically with the 3G back in the day, but my launch day 4 is a swift as it ever was, and it's jailbroke too. I learned long ago with jb that if you keep the tweaks to a few minimal essential ones it doesn't impact the speed at all. For a brief period I had it loaded down with tweaks like a Swiss army knife, I swear it took 3 minutes just to boot!
Click to expand...

My Grandfather's Commodore 64 boots quicker than that.
 
saintforlife said:
It is almost like Apple has a magic switch and it flicks it on after about 18-20 months that causes the phone to slow down, so people start thinking about an upgrade even if the don't want to.

My iPhone 4 which was fine until recently suddenly seems to have slowed down for no reason. Maps, Safari, opening apps everything seems to take a second or two more. This happened to me with the 3G and it is now happening again on the 4. I haven't done anything to my phone out of the ordinary. I've just been using it like always do.
Click to expand...

iOS updates and apps are larger and heavier to run...
 
Fernandez21 said:
Try doing a clean install. I just recently went from an iPhone 4S to an iPhone 4, and I don't notice any slow down.
Click to expand...

My 4S is way faster than my buddies 4. My friend with a 4 actually was playing with my 4S and he couldn't believe how fast it is.

This thread is funny because my friend with the 4 has been complaining recently that his phone is slowing down too. I told him its two years old. He'll be getting the 5 (I'm not)...then it'll be me wishing I had his phone.
 
I have an over 2 year old 4 and my problem is the Home button is wearing out. Sometimes it takes 4-5 presses to get it to do anything. Will definitely be upgrading when the new iPhone is released.
 
I think you're misunderstanding my point. If you're implying that newer builds of iOS are running slower due to slower CPUs on older devices, then that's valid (of course RAM and GPU play their part).

The post stated:
The 4 has a single core 1 GHz processor and the 3GS has a 600 MHz processor. That's why it runs slower than it use to.
Click to expand...
That doesn't make any sense unless something else changes. The CPU remaining constant can not account for reduced performance.

I was just pointing out the that the statement needs qualifying in order to make sense.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Each software update becomes more and more demanding. Just like an old PC not being able to keep up with new games.
 
wolfpackfan said:
I have an over 2 year old 4 and my problem is the Home button is wearing out. Sometimes it takes 4-5 presses to get it to do anything. Will definitely be upgrading when the new iPhone is released.
Click to expand...

Same here, the home button is useless. It's actually my 3rd 4 under warranty since launch, every one the home button has failed. No exaggeration when I say almost everyone I know with a 4 or a 4S, maybe 20 people, have the same problem. Weird when I hear of people who've never had the problem, it's a very common malfunction ime.

It's the only reason I jailbroke, the combination of Zephyr and Activator means I never have to touch the home button thank god.
 
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