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iPod touch 4th Generation iPod Touch is very slow

S

Scott549

macrumors regular
Original poster
Aug 24, 2010
162
7
I've been noticing that my 4th generation iPod Touch is very slow. I don't think there's anything wrong with the iPod. I think it's just that the processor is too slow for common apps. I restarted it and then started a bunch of apps and timed how long it took for them to open:

Music 23 seconds, crashed, then started right up the second time.
Spotify 23 seconds.
Facebook crashed, then took 25 seconds.
Twitter 17 seconds.
Google Maps 18 seconds.
Yahoo! Sports 15 seconds.

I don't know how much faster the current version is, but it seems to me that processor speed is something Apple needs to work on.
 
That iPod's hardware is over four years old. Nothing is wrong with your iPod, it just is not very able with iOS 6.
 
It would be interesting if someone could do a similar test with a 5th generation iPod Touch.
 
Music- 5 seconds
Spotify- 10 seconds
Twitter- 4 seconds


On a 5G iPod touch.

The hardware is very old in the 4G iPod, even the 5G is two processors behind now.
 
What firmware is your iPod touch currently running? My iPod touch 4g running 6.1.3 is jailbroken and still faster than your tests lol, not to rub it in or anything.
 
I noticed an improvement in the performance after restoring mine and setting up as new. I suspect it's actually the minimal ram that's the problem, only 256mb. As the apps get updated, the hardware can't keep up. Makes me wonder if iOS 8 will run on my 4s with 512mb ram. We'll see.
 
7thson said:
I noticed an improvement in the performance after restoring mine and setting up as new. I suspect it's actually the minimal ram that's the problem, only 256mb. As the apps get updated, the hardware can't keep up. Makes me wonder if iOS 8 will run on my 4s with 512mb ram. We'll see.
Click to expand...

From what I hear about iOS 8 it should run perfectly fine, I doubt Apple would make the same mistake again when it comes to iPod touch. There are 4 devices with an A5 that are qualified for the update. 5th gen iPod touch, iPhone 4s, iPad mini and Apple TV
 
Do you have assistive touch on? My friend had it on his iPod 4G at one point, and he couldn't figure out why it was so laggy/crashing. If you do have it on, try turning it off for a while. As for the iPod just being old, it is but my friend's iPod is still quite fast- very few lag issues that I know of... Not to mention my old iPod 3G which still loads everything up quickly.

Hope this helped.
 
iOS 5 really slowed the touch down and just went downhill from there, though in my experience iOS 6 is a little faster. But as it's been stated, the reason is that it only has 256 MB RAM and a retina display. The 3GS and 3rd gen touch is faster than the 4th gen simply because the 4th gen has to render 4x the pixels and also has to load larger files for the images with the same amount of RAM and the same GPU. Though it's clocked a little higher.

I just did a speed test with a freshly restored and synced install of 4.2.1 on my 4th gen just to show how fast it used to be when it was new. And still is, if you are able to downgrade. I've since added a few games and apps that run just as well, since they are older versions that support the older firmware.

iPod touch 4th generation speed test

My only suggestion is to restore the iPod as a new device, and only sync what you need to. If you don't use iCloud, leave it off as well as any other features you don't use, like Spotlight. This gets rid of any built up cruft and can help it out quite a bit.
 
someoneumaykno said:
And what sucks that most apps now need ios7 to work. And now I can't go on my Facebook twitch and other apps.
Click to expand...

True, but you should still be able to download the last compatible version.
I recently restored a 4th gen and FaceBook installed just fine.

You have to have previously downloaded the app with the same Apple ID, then install it from the App Store.

Apple's support article
 
If you want a new app that requires iOS 7 or newer, buy it on your PC / Mac using iTunes or via another device. Then go to your iPod and click the "cloud with arrow" icon and it will offer the last compatible version for you.
 
Slow Snapchat

So I downloaded snapchat on my Ipod touch 4th generation. Its slow when trying to load stories and other snaps. Like i open it up, and try to swipe to see all the stories, and it takes at least 10 seconds to comply with me. Any idea why or is it just an old software that can't handle snapchat properly?
 
jkole15 said:
So I downloaded snapchat on my Ipod touch 4th generation. Its slow when trying to load stories and other snaps. Like i open it up, and try to swipe to see all the stories, and it takes at least 10 seconds to comply with me. Any idea why or is it just an old software that can't handle snapchat properly?
Click to expand...

Old hardware, and software not optimized for it. The iPod touch isn't really that slow, but the software running on it just isn't up to par for what it has.

Example, I can play some pretty good graphically intense 3D games on it with zero problems, but Snapchat and Facebook and such is a lag-fest. iOS 4 was really quick on it, but iOS 5 and 6 slowed it down.

So yeah, old hardware, new software. It'll always be a problem as tech advances. The biggest hold back the iPod touch has is it's 256MB of RAM. The iPhone 4 has the same CPU/GPU but 2X the RAM (512MB) so it's a much better experience with that alone. Heck, the Apple Watch has 512MB RAM, haha.
 
Well, the things just is slow. It's old. Downgrading to older iOS versions might give (even more) compatibility issues with apps, emptying the iPod and doing a factory reset might make a minor difference, but the best option here might be to just upgrade to an iPhone... :D
 
chekz0414 said:
From what I hear about iOS 8 it should run perfectly fine, I doubt Apple would make the same mistake again when it comes to iPod touch. There are 4 devices with an A5 that are qualified for the update. 5th gen iPod touch, iPhone 4s, iPad mini and Apple TV
Click to expand...
iOS 8 and 9 are extremely slow with the 4s...
 
sunapple said:
Well, the things just is slow. It's old. Downgrading to older iOS versions might give (even more) compatibility issues with apps, emptying the iPod and doing a factory reset might make a minor difference, but the best option here might be to just upgrade to an iPhone... :D
Click to expand...

I agree. I have an iPod 4th Gen and I was using it to pay for my Starbucks treats, but now Starbucks no longer supports their App under IOS 6.3; so it's almost useless for me now.
 
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