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All iPads Should I upgrade my iPad 2 to IOS7?

D

Denis54

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 24, 2011
101
0
I have an iPad Air and an old iPad 2. I never updated the iPad 2 to IOS 7. When IOS 7 was released I read several posts where people said they had a lot of problems

I did not check since. Should I upgrade? It would be nice if my 2 iPads had the same OS but on the other hand I do not want to have problems with my iPad 2.
 
If you want to use new stuff yes. Apple is going to rapidly push all the developers to only support iOS 7.
 
I've been running iOS7 on my iPad 2 since pretty much the release of iOS7. I can't say that I've really seen all that much of a difference in performance, and certainly nothing that I've ever experienced as a real problem.
 
My advice is to keep your ipad 2 on iOS 6 unless you need apps that are only supported on 7, like MS Office for iPad. Some will claim that performance is no different, but that's not true. There is more going on in 7 than in 6, not all of which can be disabled.
 
sracer said:
My advice is to keep your ipad 2 on iOS 6 unless you need apps that are only supported on 7, like MS Office for iPad. Some will claim that performance is no different, but that's not true. There is more going on in 7 than in 6, not all of which can be disabled.
Click to expand...

I agree. It's just not worth the slow down if you are fine with your "older" apps. I mean, "older" just means two years old. My iPad 2 is still on iOS 5 and it runs just as fast as when I first got it. I suspected that the iOS updates would slow down the machine, so I didn't update. The talk of all these crashes on even the iPad Air just makes updating not worth it at all.

I rather have a useable iPad running on older apps, than to have an iPad I can't use at all.
 
babens said:
I've been running iOS7 on my iPad 2 since pretty much the release of iOS7. I can't say that I've really seen all that much of a difference in performance, and certainly nothing that I've ever experienced as a real problem.
Click to expand...

This. I did the same thing with my wifes ipad 2 and didn't notice a slowdown.

Unlike her iphone 4, which was killed by ios 7.
 
My iPad 2 has faired MUCH better with ios7 than the iPhone 4s. I wish I could roll back the 4s and it's 1/3 -1/2 batter life under ios7(yes, I turned off all battery draining "features")

You should be fine with ios7 on the ipad2.
 
iOS 7.1 runs pretty good on my iPad 2. It's not as smooth as it was with iOS 6 but it's a lot better than I expected.
 
My iPad 3 is still is on iOS 5.1.1. It does everything I want it to. Very rarely I run into an app that won't work, I just find workarounds.
 
Denis54 said:
I have an iPad Air and an old iPad 2. I never updated the iPad 2 to IOS 7. When IOS 7 was released I read several posts where people said they had a lot of problems

I did not check since. Should I upgrade? It would be nice if my 2 iPads had the same OS but on the other hand I do not want to have problems with my iPad 2.
Click to expand...

Been running my iPad 2 on 7 since the first beta. It runs without any issues for me now. iOS 7.1 is solid. Def give it the upgrade if you don't hate ios 7.

----------
mtneer said:
My iPad 3 is still is on iOS 5.1.1. It does everything I want it to. Very rarely I run into an app that won't work, I just find workarounds.
Click to expand...

Is there a reason you haven't upgraded it from ios5?
 
brendu said:
Been running my iPad 2 on 7 since the first beta. It runs without any issues for me now. iOS 7.1 is solid. Def give it the upgrade if you don't hate ios 7.

----------



Is there a reason you haven't upgraded it from ios5?
Click to expand...

I have a family member who upgraded iPad 3 to iOS 7. While everything works on that machine, there is a slight lag in opening apps, the graphical transitions and motions. Someone did a comparison of iPhone 4 using iOS 6 and iOS 7; the difference was upto a second slower. While the numbers may not look like much, they are perceptible on every click, every scroll, every app, every use, all the time. My choice was to have a speedy system, and find workarounds for the odd app that I cannot use without upgrading. Now, I expect things may change for the worse for me after ios 8; but by that time I would consider my iPad 3 amortized and would pickup something newer. But if things don't change much, I'll keep going until something gives.
 
My iPad 2 is kicking along just fine on iOS 7.

I do think I'll upgrade to the next iPad model released though, I doubt that the iPad 2 get iOS 8.
 
mtneer said:
I have a family member who upgraded iPad 3 to iOS 7. While everything works on that machine, there is a slight lag in opening apps, the graphical transitions and motions. Someone did a comparison of iPhone 4 using iOS 6 and iOS 7; the difference was upto a second slower. While the numbers may not look like much, they are perceptible on every click, every scroll, every app, every use, all the time. My choice was to have a speedy system, and find workarounds for the odd app that I cannot use without upgrading. Now, I expect things may change for the worse for me after ios 8; but by that time I would consider my iPad 3 amortized and would pickup something newer. But if things don't change much, I'll keep going until something gives.
Click to expand...

I have an iPad 3 running on 5.1.1 and iOS 7 won't ever sniff that iPad. The iPad 3 was an under performer even with iOS 5. At least it runs smooth for the most part. I know iOS 7.1.1 won't make it any snappier than it already is. If anything it will take away from the performance.
 
Rodster said:
I have an iPad 3 running on 5.1.1 and iOS 7 won't ever sniff that iPad. The iPad 3 was an under performer even with iOS 5. At least it runs smooth for the most part. I know iOS 7.1.1 won't make it any snappier than it already is. If anything it will take away from the performance.
Click to expand...

I used an iPad 3 on 5.1.1 also, and I agree it was an underperformer when released. I ended up not using it much because the A5 chip wasn't quite fast enough for me. iOS 7.1.1 does improve web browsing speed on the A5 chip though. But overall, 5.1.1 performs better.
 
I've had iOS 7 on my iPad 2 since the developer betas and it was definitely slower, but it seems to be back to normal speed with 7.1.
 
Mine runs horrifically slow that I don't even try to use it anymore. Granted I do have an iPad Air, but I did have the iPad at home.
 
mtneer said:
I have a family member who upgraded iPad 3 to iOS 7. While everything works on that machine, there is a slight lag in opening apps, the graphical transitions and motions. Someone did a comparison of iPhone 4 using iOS 6 and iOS 7; the difference was upto a second slower. While the numbers may not look like much, they are perceptible on every click, every scroll, every app, every use, all the time. My choice was to have a speedy system, and find workarounds for the odd app that I cannot use without upgrading. Now, I expect things may change for the worse for me after ios 8; but by that time I would consider my iPad 3 amortized and would pickup something newer. But if things don't change much, I'll keep going until something gives.
Click to expand...

That's cool. I think most of those lag issues have improved but there is no way 7 will ever be as smooth as 5 was. It's simply not possible on the older hardware. Also curious though, why didn't you upgrade to 6?
 
Personally my Ipad 2 which I use for work on a daily basis remains on iOS6, while my Ipad Air came with iOS7 so I didn't have much of a choice in that regard.

Since the ipad 2 is work product, and is owned by the company (and not by me) I don't have the option to upgrade it (nor am I allowed, it's a fireable offence, states in the terms and conditions of the Technology Devices Agreement they have) Anything technology related must be dealt with by the IT department through their support ticketing system (yes, including upgrades).

Using both ios6 and 7 on a daily basis, the difference between the two operating systems is minimal to me. I don't notice anything really because I'm using ios7 on newer hardware and the company I work for has chosen to stick with iOS6 on their iPads for work. (Which is their right).
 
sracer said:
My advice is to keep your ipad 2 on iOS 6 unless you need apps that are only supported on 7, like MS Office for iPad. Some will claim that performance is no different, but that's not true. There is more going on in 7 than in 6, not all of which can be disabled.
Click to expand...

Raw speed wasn't lowered that much, but general smoothness did. I don't feel that my iPad 3 loads most apps slower than before but swiping, opening animations, scrolling, and multitasking are far less fluid.
 
Denis54 said:
I have an iPad Air and an old iPad 2. I never updated the iPad 2 to IOS 7. When IOS 7 was released I read several posts where people said they had a lot of problems

I did not check since. Should I upgrade? It would be nice if my 2 iPads had the same OS but on the other hand I do not want to have problems with my iPad 2.
Click to expand...

If you are clinging to iOS 6 or if you are doing what I'm doing by keeping some devices at 6 while the rest go to 7 and (either way) the iPad 2 is the one you want to keep at 6, then by all means, keep it at 6.

Otherwise, if you are reluctant to upgrade due to problems, but are otherwise okay with iOS 7 running on your iPad 2, here's what I recommend:

Back up your iPad 2. Do a DFU restore (connect the iPad to iTunes, press and hold sleep/wake and home buttons for ten seconds before releasing the sleep/wake; hold home for another five seconds before releasing that, if you did it all correctly, your iPad's screen should be off, but iTunes should report an iPad in recovery mode) and load the newest version of iOS 7. Then if you feel so inclined, restore from the back-up or set up as a new iPad. Your iPad 2 should then be running iOS 7 as smoothly as an iPad 2 can run iOS 7.

I'm currently rocking a cellular iPad Air as my main, with a cellular first generation iPad mini that I'm keeping at iOS 6, and an iPad 2 on 7, decent ensemble right there.
 
brendu said:
That's cool. I think most of those lag issues have improved but there is no way 7 will ever be as smooth as 5 was. It's simply not possible on the older hardware. Also curious though, why didn't you upgrade to 6?
Click to expand...

I never found the need/ urge to. Everything I cared about on the iPad worked (99% still works even today) on iOS 5; so why change? Then iOS 7 came along, so the window to move to iOS 6 was shut. So, now there is no question of upgrading.
 
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