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I reverted mine to 3.1.3 a couple of weeks ago (edit: at some point after the 4.01 release, which appeared to provide only cosmetic fixes). The speed was poor under iOS4, and my Kenwood DNX-7160 radio stopped recognizing my iPhone 3G as an iPod. Reverting makes everything work again, and the only significant features I lose are folders and the unified mailbox. I am inclined to keep it at 3.1.3 until either Apple broadens service to include a new carrier and I upgrade the phone to the current model, or they don't and I bail on AT&T and the iPhone in favor of a competitor.
 
The worse part of this is that there is no official downgrade from iOS 4 back to 3.x. I was able to do a downgrade back to 3.1.2 on my 3G and it is now much faster than it was with iOS 4.0.

The video is no joke, that is actually how it performs. My biggest annoyance was that it took over 15 seconds to start up the iPod -- really annoying when I was trying to put on some music before I start driving.

The fact that there is no official downgrade makes it feel like Apple is trying to coerce 3G owners into buying an iPhone 4. There is really nothing in iOS 4 that is worth it for 3G owners because they didn't include the features that are worth it. They didn't even bother to give 3G users Bluetooth keyboard support. No multitasking of course. What's left? Folders? Unified inbox? Slightly different home screen animation? None of these are worth killing your phone's performance over.

Well, I did end up upgrading to the 3GS. I acquired the 3GS from a friend who had upgraded to an iPhone 4. He had already upgraded to iOS 4.0.1. I don't know what 3.x was like on this device, but even with 4.0.1 it is lightning quick compared to the 3G (even with 3.1.2). I had no idea how much performance made a difference in the usability of the device. Battery life on the 3GS is not as good as I experienced on the 3G, but then again I am actually using it a lot more, and I have turned on push notifications which I didn't use on 3G. Battery life is acceptable enough for me.
 
Connect to iTunes and click "Update".

Perhaps it helps as much as a current firmware reinstall would. Which shouldn't be that much.

But I'm pretty sure the main cause for the lagginess is the Restore from Backup. Atleast when you Restore in DFU mode, you can choose it to be set up as a "new phone".

Exactly that is all that is wrong with them, do a new phone and its all fine. People just don't read to many trolls around.
 
Fixed My 3G Issues Prior To Selling

My 3G was exactly like the video after the iOS4 update and received numerous error messages when trying to sync to my pc. Only after syncing with my macbook did it actually go thru the process with no error messages.

But still it performed like a brick. I tried removing apps, deleting songs and nothing worked. Eventually I backed up and did the iTunes format and even that did little to help.

Upgrading to 4.0.1 helped a little but I was still upset how bad it was compared to previous OS versions.

I had an agreement with a work colleague that when I purchased my iPhone 4 I would sell them my 3G for the same price as I would have sold it to CEX, but I warned them of the current state of performance.

Prior to selling, I wiped the phone completely, not from iTunes, but from within the phone itself and cleaned up and placed in box.

Work colleague took it home, synced it, loaded apps from his Touch, and it works as well as it ever did on prior to iOS4. Watched as he sent texts, did searches, loaded music player, all as fast as day 1.

So a bit long winded, but if you are having major issues (I was), try backing up and doing a full 2 hour reset from the settings on the phone itself. It worked on my old boy.

EDIT: Reading the post above mine seems to tie in with this, as my friend would have set up as a new phone.
 
uh, this is not an option!

Apparently disabling spotlight search helps

Anyone want to try and report back?

There isn't a way to disable spotlight search...I take it you do not have an iPhone 3G with iOS4 on it, so you wouldn't know!! Where did you hear this??
 
my 3G iPhone will no longer find and connect to wifi networks!!!

I do not have time to read all 15 PAGES of response to this, but I updated to 4.0 fine, then 4.0.1 and almost immediately lost wifi! I have done everything, including going back to 3.1.3 and still, my phone acts totally normal except that it will not find (and so will not connect) to any wifi network anywhere. I have noticed that my phone is faster back on 3.1.3, so I guess it was slower with 4.0.1. I have decided to go to Apple on Sat and tell them they broke my phone and to fix it, even though warranty is out. My biggest complaint is: I make the appointment for Genius Bar and one of the "hints" to make things better before coming in is to UPDATE your device!! OMG APPLE, GET A *********G CLUE! REMOVE THAT ADVISE FROM YOUR GENIUS BAR!! I would hate for more people with iPhone 3G phones (not 3Gs) to update to iOS 4 when it is actually a downgrade, and could cause worse problems for your phone!


AND my biggest beef is this: APPLE WAS SELLING 3G IPHONES THE DAY BEFORE THE IPHONE 4 CAME OUT AND SHOULD BE SUPPORTING THIS PHONE FULLY!! ...they did not drop the iPhone 3G from the iPhone line until the iPhone 4 started to sell, they need someone with common sense in there making sure they keep backward compatibility at least a few days, COME ON!
 
I KNOW that millions of others with 3G's are affected like I am. It takes minutes to load some apps. It takes way too long to send texts. Apple knew what it was doing.

I remember Steve saying something about how we should upgrade every 2 years or so. This is the way to get us to do that.
 
I KNOW that millions of others with 3G's are affected like I am. It takes minutes to load some apps. It takes way too long to send texts. Apple knew what it was doing.

I remember Steve saying something about how we should upgrade every 2 years or so. This is the way to get us to do that.

I'm staying at 3.1.3 thank you.
 
What did you expect buying a phone from Willie Wonka? I mean, really?

I still love my Macs, but the past few months of iPhone have been sheer disappointment.
  1. Apple tells me as a developer, that I can no longer choose what programming languages and toolsets I can use to develop iPhone apps.
  2. Apple releases iOS 4 which drags my iPhone 3G to a halt
  3. Apple tells me they've been lying to me about my signal strength for the past 2 years, and releases a software update whose sole purpose is to "fix" that

And that's never-minding their pettiness and kludge fix for the iPhone 4 debacle. I mean seriously, my phone has been telling me the wrong signal strength for the past 2 years, and nobody from Apple noticed???

I'd love to switch to an Android phone, but I'm going to get kicked yet one more time by Apple. Apple hides their OS X sync-related APIs from developers, and intentionally breaks attempts by developers to provide easy to use sync solutions.

In 3 years, Apple has figured out how to treat their customers just as crappy as the rest of the mobile phone companies do.

Hi! Welcome to the Apple Experience!!

Try talking to Apple computer owners of the past 10 years to get a real earful of how Apple treats its consumers. ESPECIALLY those who've spent the most money on the high end to create content.

But good news! It gets even worse, until you're forced to leave Apple. But leaving Apple is a good thing.

Good news is, you're not into Apple for a hardware and software outlay of $50,000+ like most content creators.

Further good news is Apple COMPUTER hardware now runs Windows, for a seamless escape.

For you phone guys, not so lucky there. But like I said, you're into Apple for a smaller outlay.

Welcome to the Apple Experience! Have a nice day! :)

:apple:

P.S. The iPod, iPhone, iPad, and upcoming iTV are NOT, nor will they ever be, MACS. The only MAC with an i in front of it is the iMac.

Macs are computers. Not fad crap overpriced portable chuckable toys. Although the portable macs come close. And gave Mr. Jobs the bright idea for iCrap in the first place when he discovered, through droppage, he was selling five of them for every desktop.
 
Me too.. Tried it. Horrific..

:mad:

After downloading the update onto my 3G (o2 in the UK), I then updated the apps.
Although some of the applications seem to add 'value' which I liked, and would like to use, the result was an initial slowness, which actually got worse.

It felt like a dead stop at times, and I was stuck what to do. It was not really useable - or just about.

It may be that this happens if you have a lot off apps. I'd filled all but one of the pages.

Fortunately (or unfortunately) the plastic near the connecting socket broke, and I returned the phone under my insurance. (Really. Not a false claim.)
They sent a nice new 3GS rather than a 3G which made me happy. I was happier still to see everything 'worked again as it should'.

So, I am resisting the upgrade to 4.0.1 until I really need to.

I'd certainly advise anyone not to upgrade if they have a 3G.
 
If it is slow already - which it is, please put wallpapers. Can be much slower. At least it will look nicer. :)
 
To those suggesting a completely fresh install of iOS4 on a 3G, since I had upgraded to an iPhone 4, I did exactly that on my 3G - complete wipe and then set up as a new phone. I couldn't even use the countdown timer with the iPod running without it taking forever to load and stuttering the podcast playback. Trying to open the iPod with a podcast selected (admittedly - a three hour podcast - but not one that ever caused me problems before) usually crashed iPod back to desktop at least two or three times before it would finally load fully.

After disabling the Spotlight Search options yesterday, it's performing reasonably well. Loads the podcast pretty quickly, can use the countdown timer while listening to the 'cast... Definitely a lot quicker than it was before. It's back to usable.
 
Tokyo - could you please disable the spotlight search items in General Options and report back the results?
 
The iPhone 3G is two years old. Time to upgrade folks (or switch to android). There are plenty of bones to pick with Apple, but this is not one of them IMHO.

Just to put things into perspective, the venerable (and now retired) G1 is newer than the iPhone 3G.
 
Reverted To 3.1.3

I reverted to version 3.1.3 of iOS last night, and my iPhone 3G is back to normal. For the most part, the missing features I liked about iOS 4 (threaded email, more than one exchange account) are not that big of a deal. I needed snappy response from my phone. Hopefully Apple takes this issue seriously and fixes iOS for 3G users, or makes reverting to version 3.1.3 an apple sanctioned and provided option.
 
The iPhone 3G is two years old. Time to upgrade folks (or switch to android). There are plenty of bones to pick with Apple, but this is not one of them IMHO.

Couple of observations on that:

1) http://www.apple.com/iphone/softwareupdate/ Apple says it works. I guess their definition of 'works' is a bit less rigorous than mine.
2) Apple would have been willing to sell me a 3 year warranty on the phone if I'd purchased it within a year of buying the phone, which blows a bit of a hole in your 2 year lifecycle argument.

As far as upgrades go, I will not commit to another 2 year contract with AT&T. Simple as that. I can live without the latest gadget, so I am in wait and see mode with respect to phones.
 
Hearing the issues early on, I never upgraded to iOS4 and have remained at 3.1.3 waiting for 4.1. Sounds like the 3G shouldn't be upgraded at all. Apple just didn't want to give the appearance of abandoning phones they were selling the day before the iPhone4 came out.

The frustrating thing is, I've had to give up on the hope of getting a white iPhone4 and I now have someone that want's my iPhone3G for a decent price but at apple.com it shows the shipping time for a black iPhone4 is 3 weeks! and the local store ONLY has 32Gb versions and no info on if and when they will have the 16Gb versions. :rolleyes:
 
I don't think anyone should be able to sue apple over a 3g being slow when upgraded to ios4 but I DO think we should be allowed to downgrade without any hassle through iTunes and be able to download the ios3.1.3 anytime we want. I did upgrade my wifes phone and the result is almost exactly like the video. I should make one of my own. If Apple doesn't have the ploy to make me upgrade then why isn't it readily available to downgrade?
 
3G and iOS4 is crap

had same problems on my3G, sluggishness drove me nuts so reverted back to 3x.
Friend of mine then thought 4.0.1 would be ok and upgraded his 3G with same results and reverted back to 3x.

Apple should clearly not have the 3g as a supported phone and tell me to update via iTunes.
 
is anyone having similar problems on a 3GS ?

Since updating to iOS 4 mines been randomly restarting, and system apps like safari, etc have been crashing repeatedly and sometimes freezing up. I have tried hard resets and restoring the device. Do you guys think this is an iOS4 problem, or should I talk to Apple?

Many Thanks
Sam
 
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