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iPad iOS 9.3.x on iPad Air 1?

K

katydid76

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 19, 2015
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Can anyone tell me their experiences running iOS 9.3.x on a 1st generation iPad Air?

Ideally I’d be running 8.4 on mine, but a hardware failure of my original IPA/1 left me with an AppleCare replacement running 8.1.1—and by then, Apple was no longer signing off on 8.4.

For those with 1st gen iPad air 1s using the upgraded iOS 9.3.x, what’s your experience? Posts on 9's earliest releases weren’t too good, but I’m hoping the updates have improved things since then.

Ususally my take is if-it-ain’t-broke-don’t-fix-it, but I’ve got apps that won’t run on 8.1.1. And with the release of iOS 10 imminent, there won’t be a lot of time to decide about upgrading to 9.

Thanks in advance for your feedback!
 
In terms of stability, it is very good as I have never experienced any random crashes or reboots. In terms of the general speed and performance, it tends to have small stutters in some areas including the app switcher and spotlight search, but it's not too bad compared to iOS 8. Battery life is very good, as usual.

Overall, I recommend you update, as iOS 9.3.4 is more stable and reliable at this point of time with regards to security, stability and app compatibility.
 
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iOS 9.3.3 jailbreak runs great for my iPad mini 2. I disabled the blur with the app switcher with "SwitcherSpeedster" tweak so now the app switcher is smooth as hell. No complaints other than the usual nit picking. Like rotating keyboard, control center over keyboard, rotate App Store, quick reply, rotate spotlight... Those have all always been bad though. Not really worth crapping on that when it probably will never be fixed and those scenarios don't show up a whole ton.

I'd recommend you update if you can get on 9.3.3 still to jailbreak and get rid of some translucency.. Not sure if it's being signed or not still...
 
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Thanks to both for your replies, very helpful! Don't know if 9.3.3 is still available--iTunes downloaded 9.3.4. I'm not jailbroken, but might like to reserve the option. . .

Is there anyone out there (and I know 120 of you have looked) who had problems with early iterations of iOS 9 (stutter, lag, crashes etc) that were resolved by the 9.3.3 or 9.4.4 upgrades?
 
katydid76 said:
Thanks to both for your replies, very helpful! Don't know if 9.3.3 is still available--iTunes downloaded 9.3.4. I'm not jailbroken, but might like to reserve the option. . .

Is there anyone out there (and I know 120 of you have looked) who had problems with early iterations of iOS 9 (stutter, lag, crashes etc) that were resolved by the 9.3.3 or 9.4.4 upgrades?
Click to expand...
iOS 9.3.3 is still being signed! Go to online and grab the IPSW before the window closes!

And iOS 9.0.x through iOS 9.2.1 were absolute trash on my iPad mini 2 (same specs as your air 1). Like I couldn't stand using it most of the time because it was so bad. App switcher was like 10FPS, tapping apps was very slow, control center lagged, everything was absolutely horrible.

iOS 9.3 fixed it though and is close to iOS 8 performance, better in some areas. App switcher is still choppy sometimes but not bad at all in comparison to previous versions of iOS 9.
 
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XTheLancerX said:
iOS 9.3.3 is still being signed! Go to online and grab the IPSW before the window closes!

And iOS 9.0.x through iOS 9.2.1 were absolute trash on my iPad mini 2 (same specs as your air 1). Like I couldn't stand using it most of the time because it was so bad. App switcher was like 10FPS, tapping apps was very slow, control center lagged, everything was absolutely horrible.

iOS 9.3 fixed it though and is close to iOS 8 performance, better in some areas. App switcher is still choppy sometimes but not bad at all in comparison to previous versions of iOS 9.
Click to expand...

So what are you seeing for battery life now on 9.3.x, compared to 8.4.x (or 8.3.x)?
 
newellj said:
So what are you seeing for battery life now on 9.3.x, compared to 8.4.x (or 8.3.x)?
Click to expand...
Eh it's hard to say. My iPad mini 2 is having some pretty bad battery degradation now and all I use it for is streaming video which tanks the battery, I get usually 5-7 hours of use. iPad Air 1 has a better battery than the mini 2 though, and yours probably hasn't degraded as much as mine.
M. Gustave said:
I'm running 9.3.4 on my Air 1. It's as smooth and fast as it's ever been. I have no idea what "stutters" some of these posters are referring to.
Click to expand...
App switcher stutters. That's the main thing you'll see. And only if you have 4+ "cards" on the screen (blurred app to the left). Also if you have reduce transparency or reduce motion enabled you won't have the stuttering.
 
So I’ve upgraded to 9.3.3 on both iPad & iPhone and so far, so good!

Question: if I need to restore the devices after Apple stops signing 9.3.3, will it be possible to stay on 9.3.3? I did the upgrade via iTunes using the IPSW file. (Tried getting the SHSH blobs via TinyUmbrella, but that was a no-go--hear it might not be a thing anymore).
 
katydid76 said:
So I’ve upgraded to 9.3.3 on both iPad & iPhone and so far, so good!

Question: if I need to restore the devices after Apple stops signing 9.3.3, will it be possible to stay on 9.3.3? I did the upgrade via iTunes using the IPSW file. (Tried getting the SHSH blobs via TinyUmbrella, but that was a no-go--hear it might not be a thing anymore).
Click to expand...
You'd have to do "Erase all Content and Settings" within Settings > General > Reset.

DO NOT DO THIS IF YOU ARE JAILBROKEN THOUGH!!

If you're jailbroken and do "Erase all Content and Settings" it sends your device into a bootloop and you would then have to restore through iTunes... Which updates you to the latest OS.

When jailbroken there are ways around this, "Cydia Impactor" is one of them, but if I were you I would just make a go to /r/jailbreak on Reddit and ask there, or ask in the "jailbreak" section on this forum. I'm not very experienced with the whole jailbreak scene yet, I've never had to wipe a jailbroken device so I'm not totally sure how it goes.
 
XTheLancerX said:
You'd have to do "Erase all Content and Settings" within Settings > General > Reset.

.... you would then have to restore through iTunes... Which updates you to the latest OS.
Click to expand...

Thanks! So what's the next step after "Erase all Content. . ." it you're not supposed to restore through iTunes? (I'm not jailbroken & don't plan to.)
 
katydid76 said:
Thanks! So what's the next step after "Erase all Content. . ." it you're not supposed to restore through iTunes? (I'm not jailbroken & don't plan to.)
Click to expand...
Well this is just if you want to do in order to wipe your device, but stay on the same version. You go to settings and do the erase all content and settings. It asks for a password for your Apple ID to disable iCloud/Find My iPhone, then you say that you're sure you want to reset...

After that you get a screen with an apple logo and a loading bar (just like you're updating) while it erases everything. When that's done, you're greeted with the "Hello" screen and you go through the setup process again, can put on an iCloud backup, etc. When you're done you have a blank slate, all your stuff is gone.

Again, don't do this if you're jailbroken. Honestly if you have zero plans to jailbreak whatsoever you would be fine updating. But that's up to you. If you want to at least keep the option to jailbreak, then that's up to you lol. Your call.
 
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