Making my iPhone 4 faster

[Silly John Fatty]

I've noticed that since I've had an iPad, I barely use my iPhone for apps and such things anymore. I love it for iMessage and the syncing notes, reminders and calendars. I use it to take snapshots also, sometimes to look up something on the Safari or Mail, but rarely for something else.

Now I'm thinking of removing all those app I have on it. Haha I've actually just looked up how much space I have left and that would be 155 MB. So I guess I'll have to remove some stuff either way.

But basically, I'm thinking of removing almost all of my apps, that would be stuff like games and such - where, when you delete them, everything gets lost - and I'm not sure if it's worth it in this case.

Will it be faster, when there's less on it? Thanks

 

[braddick]

Although there are better alternatives to "speeding up" an iPhone 4, certainly removing unused applications is a single step in that direction.

 

[Silly John Fatty]

What would those be? Don't say buying a new one.

I like your avatar by the way. Simple and beautiful!

 

[BrettApple]

Really depends what version of iOS you are on. If you're on 4-5-6 it should be plenty fast. If you're on iOS 7, well. It's going to be pretty slow compared to anything new. It took a big performance hit when iOS 7 came out. 7.1 helped, but it's still slower than iOS 6 and below.

If you are on iOS 7, your best bet would be to completely restore it and set it up as a new phone. Backup what you need. Restore it in iTunes, then only put what you need back on it. Should help a little.

Other than that, it's a phone from 2010 running on a single core CPU with 512MB of RAM and a PowerVR SGX535 that has a hard time coping with the high res display and iOS 7 UI. For example, the iPhone 3Gs is faster than the iPhone 4 in various circumstances because it has half the pixels to push with the same GPU, and it's locked to iOS 6.

So, restore it and set up as new, that's your best option if you're on iOS 7.

If you are on iOS 6 or below, backup your SHSH blobs and use iFaith to make sure you can always get it back! Then you can use those blobs to restore it, or do an erase content and settings from the settings app on the phone.

Edit, just saw your sig, I'd do a restore and call it a day. Good as it'll get with the hardware it has.

 

[Silly John Fatty]

Yes sadly I'm on iOS 7 - big regrets. Not as slow as when it first came out, but still ugly as f* sadly. I was actually even thinking of buying a 4 or 4s with a iOS 6 installed. I hope Apple some day releases an iPhone that has the same size as the 4, all others are too big for me sadly.

Thanks for your tips then, I'll restore it then, when I get some time!

 

[braddick]

The little things, yet they add up on an iPhone4.

For example, I uncheck everything from, Spotlight Search.
Second, if you're on iOS7 toggle on, Reduce Transparency.
Third, unless you're using it, Background App Refresh can also be toggled off (or, at least some of the apps listed below it.
Other ideas:
Turn off bluetooth unless you need it.
Reset all settings and keyboard dictionaries.

I also run, PhoneClean for the iP4.
Helps in tweaking your iPhone for better performance.
(An alternative download instead of PhoneClean is, "Macgo iPhone Cleaner")

All this should benefit you and your legacy iDevice.

 

[0dev]

I still have an old iPhone 4 kicking around, it has been freshly restored and only has two apps installed yet it's still slow. There's not much that can be done to be honest. Old hardware is old.

 

[Silly John Fatty]

The little things, yet they add up on an iPhone4.

For example, I uncheck everything from, Spotlight Search.
Second, if you're on iOS7 toggle on, Reduce Transparency.
Third, unless you're using it, Background App Refresh can also be toggled off (or, at least some of the apps listed below it.
Other ideas:
Turn off bluetooth unless you need it.
Reset all settings and keyboard dictionaries.

I also run, PhoneClean for the iP4.
Helps in tweaking your iPhone for better performance.
(An alternative download instead of PhoneClean is, "Macgo iPhone Cleaner")

All this should benefit you and your legacy iDevice.

Thanks!

I still have an old iPhone 4 kicking around, it has been freshly restored and only has two apps installed yet it's still slow. There's not much that can be done to be honest. Old hardware is old.

It's not old hardware, the problem is the new software. It is simply bad. I have all effects etc. turned off on iOS 7 - so that means it is not really different from iOS 6 in any way, then why should it be slower? It makes no sense. It is poorly made, on purpose, so people buy a new iPhone. Think a bit!

 

[0dev]

Yeah old hardware running new software. That's why it's slow. New software uses more resources which the old hardware simply doesn't have.

 

[Silly John Fatty]

Yes, and why does it need more resources, when it doesn't bring anything new? Try to explain that please.

 

[merc-tt]

I use an iPhone 4. I bought an iPhone 6 Plus but it is too big so I use it on wifi at home. I don't do much on my phones so I only have a few apps installed like Pandora and Bejeweled. It's running iOS 6 so it doesn't lag too bad except for Safari. I'm using Mercury Browser and it's a lot faster.

 

[0dev]

It is more complex "under the hood" than the outwardly facing features portray. For example iOS 7 has more advanced security in the background than iOS 6 and below.

 

[2IS]

Thanks!



It's not old hardware, the problem is the new software. It is simply bad. I have all effects etc. turned off on iOS 7 - so that means it is not really different from iOS 6 in any way, then why should it be slower? It makes no sense. It is poorly made, on purpose, so people buy a new iPhone. Think a bit!

It is old hardware. The differences in IOS versions is more than simply graphical upgrades. If that was all, then you'd have a point. Just look at the new features with every new IOS update, I assure you it doesn't stop with "prettier graphics" which is all you've disabled and expect the speed to be what it was with older, less capable versions of iOS.

Besides all that, there are optimizations to consider. Apple is going to optimize a new OS for their most recent hardware. That's how they're going to get the best user experience on their most important devices. Every once in a while, they release an incremental update that improves performance for older devices, but this isn't their priority when developing a new version of iOS, particularly on a phone that's several generations old. It's not that the new software is "bad" it's that it simply does more and making it run as best as it can on several year old hardware isn't Apple's priority.

 

[yjchua95]

It's not old hardware, the problem is the new software. It is simply bad. I have all effects etc. turned off on iOS 7 - so that means it is not really different from iOS 6 in any way, then why should it be slower? It makes no sense. It is poorly made, on purpose, so people buy a new iPhone. Think a bit!

You don't know what you're talking about.

As more and more features and UI effects are added to iOS, they become more resource intensive (duh) and hence, older hardware will have a hard time trying to keep up.

Anything older than 2 years in the tech world is generally considered as old and outdated.

Yours is going to be 5 years old by fall this year. It's ancient.

It's still different from iOS 6 by one hell of a lot under the hood. There's a lot of things going on out of your sight.

For instance, you can't expect a computer that was designed to run XP from 2001 to run Windows 8 smoothly today.

 

[Silly John Fatty]

Then you guys please explain to me what other resources it uses so much that it's slow on the iPhone 4. I'm very curious.

If you really believe Apple is not trying to sell new iPhones, you are naive. It was obvious how the iPhone 4 would run on iOS 7.
Everyone updated, and shortly after, it was not possible to get the previous version of iOS anymore. Why would it be in Apple's interest to have people keep iOS 6 on their devices and use a perfectly good phone (with 3 features less) instead of spending money on a new one? Simple, it wouldn't be. Because that's the whole point of having a business.

It is just simply the result of a consumer's society. At 20 years you are too young and have a lack of experience to understand this I guess. But the days will come.

Saying that something that's 5 years old is ancient made me chuckle as well. My Mac Pro 12 core will be 5 years old next January, it's still the 3rd most powerful Mac ever built. Now a kid is trying to explain me what's old and what's ancient after so and so many years. You, my dear, are everything that's wrong with this world today, and the companies are smart enough to take that to their advantage.

 

[iOS909]

It is ancient. The standards of mobile phones have advanced much faster in the last 5 years then desktop computers, both in hatdware & software. The truth is simply that iOS has long surpassed what the iPhone 4 is capable of. Just because you don't see it, doesn't mean it hasn't.

As has already been said, the iPhone 4 wasn't even particularly powerful at release. And I seriously hope you don't believe your analogy of comparing a 12 core desktop CPU to a single core mobile processor. Of course that kind of machine will have staying power.

 

[Silly John Fatty]

What if I told you that no iPhone is powerful at release, and that if that was the case, Apple wouldn't be able to release a new iPhone every year?

I love how people tell me that iOS is now too advanced for the iPhone 4, and everyone is repeating this, but nobody can answer me what exactly it is.
Okay so transparency is turned off, I don't have any moving backgrounds, movements are reduced as well… (I actually even turned off all of that **** on my iPad, which has iOS 8) so what exactly is it that takes so much resources? Honestly, I would like to know. Because I'm not using my iPhone 4 in any different way than I did back in 2010. I see absolutely no difference except that it's slower.

 

[0dev]

It doesn't matter how deep you bury your head in the sand, your crappy five year old iPhone is not going to be fast. Period. You are not going to magically make it fast by changing some settings.

As I already told you, I have an iPhone 4 with only two apps on it, and no data stored at all, and it is still slow. You are never going to make that phone fast again.

If you want a faster phone, get a new phone. If you want a newer iPhone without paying too much money an iPhone 5 from eBay would be a massive improvement over an iPhone 4.

 

[iOS909]

I am quite aware Apple doesn't particularly push the boundaries with hardware as far as they could, that's why I won't be using any current iPhone in 5 years time. A time will come when these things are powerful enough to use that long, but we're not there yet.

The best option to speed up your phone is probably to restore as new, disable background app refresh, transparency, spotlight and reduce motion.

 

[Silly John Fatty]

It doesn't matter how deep you bury your head in the sand, your crappy five year old iPhone is not going to be fast. Period. You are not going to magically make it fast by changing some settings.

As I already told you, I have an iPhone 4 with only two apps on it, and no data stored at all, and it is still slow. You are never going to make that phone fast again.

If you want a faster phone, get a new phone. If you want a newer iPhone without paying too much money an iPhone 5 from eBay would be a massive improvement over an iPhone 4.

It's been quite a while that we're not discussing how to speed up my phone anymore. I'm aware of the fact it won't be much faster, iOS 7 was the problem. An iPhone 6 with iOS 8 isn't faster than an iPhone 4 or 4S with a pre-iOS 7 system installed.

I am quite aware Apple doesn't particularly push the boundaries with hardware as far as they could, that's why I won't be using any current iPhone in 5 years time. A time will come when these things are powerful enough to use that long, but we're not there yet.

That won't happen because that's the whole point of the business. When we're there like you say, there will be other unnecessary cosmetic stuff that Apple and other companies will come up, how it was translucency, moving backgrounds and so on, later it will 3D menus and I don't know what. So basically the more powerful phones in the future will be for that and for playing games. I'm wondering how iOS 6 or 5 would run on the iPhone 6S or iPad Air 2, now that would surely be interesting. Not possible of course, but I guess this is where you could feel an improvement. Like I said, when I compared iPhone 4's and 4s' with pre iOS 7 installed with the iPhone 6 and other devices with iOS 8, the new ones aren't faster in any way!

 

[iOS909]

It's been quite a while that we're not discussing how to speed up my phone anymore. I'm aware of the fact it won't be much faster, iOS 7 was the problem. An iPhone 6 with iOS 8 isn't faster than an iPhone 4 or 4S with a pre-iOS 7 system installed.



That won't happen because that's the whole point of the business. When we're there like you say, there will be other unnecessary cosmetic stuff that Apple and other companies will come up, how it was translucency, moving backgrounds and so on, later it will 3D menus and I don't know what. So basically the more powerful phones in the future will be for that and for playing games. I'm wondering how iOS 6 or 5 would run on the iPhone 6S or iPad Air 2, now that would surely be interesting. Not possible of course, but I guess this is where you could feel an improvement. Like I said, when I compared iPhone 4's and 4s' with pre iOS 7 installed with the iPhone 6 and other devices with iOS 8, the new ones aren't faster in any way!

The way I see it, we will reach a point where the advancements will become fairly minor, like computers today, and there just won't be a reason to upgrade so frequently. carriers will probably have to work harder to convince people to sign up for new devices and such.

Smartphones and tablets will be looked at the same way people view computers and the industry will move on to something new, like wearables for example. 5 years ago the smartphone was a luxury to most, now it's more of a necessity. You can already see this happening with the decline in iPad sales. Once the balance between solid hardware and a mature OS is found, like on computers, there won't be anymore reason for people to keep updating so fast. There are only so many gimmicks that they may be able to throw in before people start to realise their old device is just fine.

 

[2IS]

No one is saying Apple doesn't want to sell new phones. Of course they do. That said, if you think the only difference is visual appearance then this conversation should end here since you make it clear that the ignorance factor on your part is too high to have an intelligent conversation with. I don't know if it's intentional or not, but it is what it is.

If you really wanted to know what the differences are, you'd have simply done a google search, as it is, it just sounds like you want to start an argument.

Bottom line, your phone is old and it's going to be slower running iOS 7 than iOS 6. The reasons we tell you and/or the reasons you personally believe are not relevant. It is what it is. You have options, making your iPhone 4 run iOS 7 as fast as it did iOS 6 isn't one of them, so you're barking up the wrong tree.

 

[yjchua95]

The way I see it, the OP is trolling us.

 

[IpadSC400]

You want fast..but have an iPhone 4...sounds like beggars can't be choosers. Not willing to spend 800 on a new phone? Keep the iPhone 4, and use it accordingly.

 

[Silly John Fatty]

The way I see it, we will reach a point where the advancements will become fairly minor, like computers today, and there just won't be a reason to upgrade so frequently. carriers will probably have to work harder to convince people to sign up for new devices and such.

Smartphones and tablets will be looked at the same way people view computers and the industry will move on to something new, like wearables for example. 5 years ago the smartphone was a luxury to most, now it's more of a necessity. You can already see this happening with the decline in iPad sales. Once the balance between solid hardware and a mature OS is found, like on computers, there won't be anymore reason for people to keep updating so fast. There are only so many gimmicks that they may be able to throw in before people start to realise their old device is just fine.

In 2010 smartphones were a luxury? Hmm I don't know where you live, but long before 2010 most people I knew already had smartphones. I'm not talking about phones with touch screens - those very rare(r) indeed, but for example I had a Nokia E61i and many others were using such phones. But whatever.

I don't think there will be a decline in updates, simply because it brings money. If they wanted they could make the perfect phones, but they don't because everyone would buy it and then nobody would buy any other phone for the next 10 years anymore. That's quite common as far as I know. Didn't Good Year produce the perfect tire, that could hold forever? They got a patent on it, but simply don't sell it. Else the tire industry would collapse.

Also, phones are automatically linked to carrier plans etc. very often. Computers are not, so most people pay the computer instantly, whereas for iPhones people often get a plan. Even if they don't cost much less. But it subjectively appears much less for the consumer.

No one is saying Apple doesn't want to sell new phones. Of course they do. That said, if you think the only difference is visual appearance then this conversation should end here since you make it clear that the ignorance factor on your part is too high to have an intelligent conversation with. I don't know if it's intentional or not, but it is what it is.

I tried to search on Google and couldn't find anything. Will you finally tell me now what it is? Please? After asking 5 times. This is becoming ridiculous. I want to know which are the things that take up resources. Please show me the Google link where you found this also.

The way I see it, the OP is trolling us.

Please, do us a favor, and just go to bed.

You want fast..but have an iPhone 4...sounds like beggars can't be choosers. Not willing to spend 800 on a new phone? Keep the iPhone 4, and use it accordingly.

I don't have degenerated Hulk-hands, so newer iPhones and their XXXL size are not a solution for me. Neither are devices without iOS.

PS: My Mac cost probably more than your car.
But I love how you measure yourself with materialistic things. Buying a used iPhone 6+ on eBay as "broken item" to then be able to hate on other people's (older) iPhones. Haha! Women must jump on you.