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iPad iPad 3 and earlier: recommend factory reset and CLEAN install of iOS7, do not restore

Velin

Velin

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Jul 23, 2008
2,190
2,421
Hearst Castle
I recently installed iOS 7 on iPad third generation, model no. MC707LL/A, 64 GB black/wifi only. The iOS7 install was done using OTA update via Settings -> General -> Software Update. This 3rd gen iPad has never been reset. All software updates were done via Software Update. iPad 3rd gen shipped with iOS 5.1, meaning at least two major software updates/revisions for 3rd gen with iOS7's release.

After install and reboot, iOS7 performance was very poor. Stuttering apps and screens. Sleep/wake failures. Very long, and occasionally failed, wallpaper change. Slow Mail and Dropbox performance, and occasional app and data errors. Whereas iOS6+ was smooth and error free on iPad 3rd Gen, the initial iOS7 install resulted in the worst iPad 3 performance I have seen on the device.

Dissatisfied, I undertook a factory reset/wipe and clean install of iOS7. This can be accomplished via iTunes. Refuse option to restore/import prior apps and settings and/or backups; after iOS7 is reloaded, select the option for setting up a new iPad. After this install, yes, you will need to set up your iPad as if new. Total time, between 30 minutes to an hour depending on download speeds.

Result of reset and re-install: markedly improved iOS7 performance. No wake/sleep or access errors thus far, sleep button, home button and access code working as intended. Display window scrolling and closing apps, noticeable improvement. Although accepting a screen/wallpaper change still takes too long, performance was noticeably improved, and the iPad has yet to lock up or lock me out while accepting wallpaper change. Mail and Safari performance improved. No Dropbox errors thus far.

Anecdotal conclusion: doing two major iOS updates on a 3rd Gen or earlier iPad device may result in sub-optimal iOS7 performance. Initial results from factory reset, app and data wipe, and clean iOS7 install via iTunes with no data restore yielded appreciable reduction of input and response errors; depending on task, iOS7 performance was improved, from minor to noticeable improvement.

Good luck fellow Apple users. (Note: it still is plain to experienced OSX and iOS users iOS7 needs optimization for iPad, even with a clean install.)
 
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I just installed it and mine seems fine. The interface is smooth and I don't see the lag people are complaining about. The photo app is very slow though. It took forever to reposition a photo to set it as a background.
 
thanks for this info. i´ve done this and performance is the same, laggy wallpaper settings, framed rotation landscape, some lag on keyboard.
 
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Whats the best way to perform this? Do I simply plug my ipad into my computer and click 'Restore iPad'?
 
Velin said:
Did you do a clean install?
Click to expand...

Yep, tried restoring multiple times and tried restoring from backups and tried to start clean. Same small animation hiccups occur no matter what. I see the same in Android and people still claim Android is lag free these days, I suspect different people have a harder time noticing it.
 
Davidkoh said:
Yep, tried restoring multiple times and tried restoring from backups and tried to start clean. Same small animation hiccups occur no matter what. I see the same in Android and people still claim Android is lag free these days, I suspect different people have a harder time noticing it.
Click to expand...

Well iPad 4 should be running it better than iPad 3. So what that means is, you need 7.0.1, hopefully optimized a bit better for iPad.
 
Velin said:
Well iPad 4 should be running it better than iPad 3. So what that means is, you need 7.0.1, hopefully optimized a bit better for iPad.
Click to expand...

If I haven't used my iPad for a while and I say go to download an app and have to input my password and switch from letters to numbers I have the time to press the key where the number is supposed to be before the iPad actually had the time to load the layout of the numbers page of the keyboard. It still types the number, but visually it looks as if I pressed a letter. This did not use to be a problem before the update.

Once I am using the iPad this problem is gone, almost like it cached the keyboard.

Also I get small stutters when going into a heavy app, using the 4 finger up gesture to bring up multitasking and then switching to the home screen (especially while not having home screen "selected" in the center).

I also hope they will release an update to fix this.
 
Came here looking for this thread after using my iPad3 for about an hour on iOS7. I'm very disappointed in the performance so far. Fresh restore, coming up!
 
Upgraded mine the typical way yesterday and watched it very carefully after reading all of the mixed performance reviews for the iPad 3. So far so good. Have not experienced the lag referred to.
 
Where are people experience the lag? I have iPad 2 and haven't seen it yet (that I know about).
 
I have data I want to keep. A clean restore shouldn't always be the answer to iOS issues.
 
Jigga said:
I have data I want to keep. A clean restore shouldn't always be the answer to iOS issues.
Click to expand...

There's also the option for 'less clean install'. Before wiping everything, backup into iTunes. Then after, restore. It will be much of the same data, just arranged better.
 
Although you are likely to get better results doing a clean install and setting up the iPad as new--it is a HUGE time wasting pain. Reconstructing all my folders, signing into all my apps and adjusting my settings is not the way I want to spend an afternoon. I'll stick with iOS6 until I hit a wall I guess.
 
My step sisters iPad 3 isn't showing a software update, so I was thinking of just doing a restore through iTunes do you think that'll work fine?
 
I have a 2 week old iPad 4 (was a late b'day gift but I'm happy with it, I don't like the rumours of the smaller bevel on the iPad5 anyway so won't be worried about the new one coming!).

Anyways... so..... I activated on Sept 6*** (I think) and then OTA restored from my iPad 1!!! settings.. then did an OTA ios7 install on the 19th (same day America release, NZ is a day ahead!).

My performance is okay with ios7, the only real lag I've noticed is the wallpaper thing, but that seems to be normal from reading the forums (I thought it was because it was turning the wallpaper into parallax myself so expected it).... but then.. everything SHOULD be so much faster than an iPad 1 right?!! (And I'm actually someone who LIKES ios7!!!)

The only bad thing I don't like... is... my battery life is comparable to what I was getting with the 3yo iPad 1... which I thought was weird. I thought it was going to be HEAPS better... I remember when I got the iPad 1... i WAS getting 10+ hours battery life which obviously tapers off after 3 years... but my new ipad is EXACTLY the same! (BTW... I am very computer and forum literate.. and HAVE turned off most of the blah blahs, etc from reading threads and stuff, but not everything... I want some of the pretty stuff)... but still, 4-5 hours before having to plug in? Really?

I really, really, don't want to do a complete set up as new as I have so much game data I want to keep, and the stupid games I play all don't do server backups (Subway Surfers, I'm looking at YOU!)... but I'm really sure that a backup from an iPad 1 to a new iPad 4 is not a great idea (being so out of date and/or corrupted data). Reading threads also has so many clean install worked/didn't work answers it's hard to know what I should do.....

Sorry... I don't even know what I'm asking, lol... I do tend to ramble... just wanted to say... performance is ok, pretty and nice, but yeah, battery life is comparable to an old iPad 1! Just wondering if anyone else has been in a similar boat and can tell me whether I really have to bite the bullet or if this is normal....


*** Oh.. and my Sept 6 activation DID give me the free iWork suite message after I loaded ios7, thank you for the freebies, Apple! Lucky me, lol.
 
I phoned Apple and talked to them. After ios 7 update on Ipad 3 I had jaggies, flickering changes in screen when changing orientation of iPad, keyboard lag, and wallpaper not changing for 10 or more seconds.

Ipad absolutely fine beforehand.

They talked me through a reset, no change, then a clean install, no change then the creation of a new user account as they said this would see the ios 7 package downloaded into my regular itunes on regular user account copied into iTunes on new user account (!!!???).

Then did nuke and pave with new user account.

iPad not nearly as bad now but still jumpy and some keyboard lag. They said it was obviously the iPad that was at fault and not IOS 7 so they arranged an appointment for me to take it into shop to be diagnosed.

The bloke on the phone had an iPad. He did the wallpaper thing too. It took him ten seconds to refresh wallpaper also. he said it was obviously meant to be and that it coud be something that would be fixed in a future update.

I also have the thing where Siri sounds like a robot now but he said he had no record of anyone else complaining about this.
 
I did that to my iPad mini because I wanted a clean slate to work with and some other reason not due to iOS 7
 
This absolutely did not do a thing for me. I still get lag on ios 7 with my iPad 3, and now I have to spend a bunch of time re-downloading my apps. I followed the instructions to a T: I disabled all automatic updates on iTunes, I deleted all history of updates and anything to do with my iPad off of my computer, and I disabled all iCloud features. I then reset my iPad, and upon the reset I chose not to restore anything. I proceeded to see how much smoother things would be. Completely no change at all.

Here's some of my problems:

- The keyboard still lags like MAD on safari (especially when using the google search bar). This is so bad that if I type fast, it jarbles everything up. This doesn't happen in other programs which use the keyboard (which I reinstalled), and didn't occur prior to ios7. Other internet features on safari also lag like mad.
- The whole interface lags occasionally and blips around a little bit (just like my Galaxy S4 phone -- I've come to dislike the Android OS, and now ios 7 is starting to feel like it but with less freedom and a little bit more glamour).
- Clicking through everything is laggier in general. Setting the wallpaper takes forever, the App Store bugs up now occasionally so that I can't flip through things, etc.
- There's a grab-bag of other issues I've had, and issues I'm sure to encounter...
 
Velin said:
Yes, and do the reset, and don't restore from a backup, and when process is complete select it so you set up a new iPad.
Click to expand...

I am prepping mine to eBay it have already simply plugged it into iTunes and selected Restore. I then go Settings > Reset All Settings or Erase All Content And Settings?
 
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