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The iPhone RAM issue keeps getting worse..

W

WilliamG

macrumors G4
Original poster
Mar 29, 2008
10,055
3,978
Seattle
iOS 8.0, with the release of iPhone 6/6 Plus, brought about a lot of complaints (from myself included) about the lack of RAM on these new devices. Compared to the iPad Air 2 with 2GB RAM, the difference is obvious.

As the iOS updates have come, the situation has gotten markedly worse. The Spotlight fix in one of the last iOS updates seems to have been due to the search results being flushed when RAM is constrained. While Spotlight now works, it meant that even more RAM is being permanently allocated there.

iOS 8.2 seems again to have made the situation worse again. Whether it's allocation of RAM for Apple Watch integration or something else, the iPhone 6 (Plus in my case) is utterly useless at multitasking now. I can barely keep two tabs in memory in Safari, and running two apps concurrently is like playing the lottery as to whether it will work. Usually not.

I think the iPhones are great. But the RAM issue is a massive, massive deal. And it keeps getting worse.
 
A massive problem for likely a small percentage of users. It has yet to cause me a single issue and I've had it since launch. Asking others I know, none of them have any complaints related to it either.
 
I agree, the iPhone needs more ram
image.jpg
Sorry, I know it's awful
 
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Your'e the only one. I don't even notice the difference but getting worse? I'm gonna have to take out my B.S meter to check it.
 
dojoman said:
Your'e the only one. I don't even notice the difference but getting worse? I'm gonna have to take out my B.S meter to check it.
Click to expand...

Yep, getting worse. Unless you think it's not possible for OS updates to actually consume more RAM...
 
Perhaps a little demonstration would help your case

I used to work in IT. I can't recall how many times a user would complain to me, "it doesn't work."

What if you just show them how the lack of RAM affect you, step by step, reproducible by others? Otherwise you will just waste your time, unless you just want to vent here.
 
Wow. I have 0 problems from ram on my phone.

The only thing that drives me nuts is YouTube it simply doesn't rotate she moving from landscape to portrait.
 
WilliamG said:
iOS 8.0, with the release of iPhone 6/6 Plus, brought about a lot of complaints (from myself included) about the lack of RAM on these new devices. Compared to the iPad Air 2 with 2GB RAM, the difference is obvious.

As the iOS updates have come, the situation has gotten markedly worse. The Spotlight fix in one of the last iOS updates seems to have been due to the search results being flushed when RAM is constrained. While Spotlight now works, it meant that even more RAM is being permanently allocated there.

iOS 8.2 seems again to have made the situation worse again. Whether it's allocation of RAM for Apple Watch integration or something else, the iPhone 6 (Plus in my case) is utterly useless at multitasking now. I can barely keep two tabs in memory in Safari, and running two apps concurrently is like playing the lottery as to whether it will work. Usually not.

I think the iPhones are great. But the RAM issue is a massive, massive deal. And it keeps getting worse.
Click to expand...

Opening 3 tabs in Safari will result in other apps in memory being flushed out.
 
My iPhone 6 on iOS 8.2 (12D508), freshly restarted to clear cache and no apps open. 1GB of RAM is simply not enough these days. Hopefully, the next iPhone has 2GB like my iPad Air 2 (which has no issues with its 2GB of RAM).
 

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Lloydbm41 said:
My iPhone 6 on iOS 8.2 (12D508), freshly restarted to clear cache and no apps open. 1GB of RAM is simply not enough these days. Hopefully, the next iPhone has 2GB like my iPad Air 2 (which has no issues with its 2GB of RAM).
Click to expand...

Do you think the widget is really accurate? I was always skeptical that Apple would allow apps access to that data.
 
26139 said:
No way, we need four. Why? WHY NOT?
Click to expand...

That would be a "feature" enabled for the first time ever on an iPhone.. in 2017. I can almost see Apple execs prancing on stage announcing how they are innovating by creating the first ever iPhone with 4GB RAM.
 
Traverse said:
Do you think the widget is really accurate? I was always skeptical that Apple would allow apps access to that data.
Click to expand...

Access to amount of RAM used is a couple lines of code pulled direct from the OS and displayed in an easy to read layout. It is a direct feed and does nothing to alter code. Nothing nefarious, so why would Apple not allow access? Having a widget that pulls contact information would be considered more nefarious, yet there are plenty of widgets that do that.
 
Lloydbm41 said:
My iPhone 6 on iOS 8.2 (12D508), freshly restarted to clear cache and no apps open. 1GB of RAM is simply not enough these days. Hopefully, the next iPhone has 2GB like my iPad Air 2 (which has no issues with its 2GB of RAM).
Click to expand...

iOS is a descendant of OS X. Of course it's going to use the RAM you give it. If your device has 2GB it will use that too. Your picture provides nothing useful to this discussion.
 
gardiboy said:
Opening 3 tabs in Safari will result in other apps in memory being flushed out.
Click to expand...

I guess I've been really fortunate with my Plus as I haven't had the issue with tabs reloading or memory dropping from other apps. Times without experiencing any issues, I'll notice I have 8+ apps open and many tabs open in Safari with no issues. The main issue I have had is rotation lag in Messages but very intermittently - maybe twice a week on average and that with I would say average texting use.
 
chabig said:
iOS is a descendant of OS X. Of course it's going to use the RAM you give it. If your device has 2GB it will use that too. Your picture provides nothing useful to this discussion.
Click to expand...

You don't understand how RAM works, likely because you've used nothing but iOS devices and the concept of free RAM is foreign to you. ;)

Now let me show you the same set up, but from my iPad Air 2 with 2gb of RAM. See the difference?
 

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I got tired of tabs refreshing on my iPhone and iPad Air so I sacked off Safari and am at the moment using Google Chrome and have used Atomic Browser with no tab refreshing.
 
WilliamG said:
iOS 8.0, with the release of iPhone 6/6 Plus, brought about a lot of complaints (from myself included) about the lack of RAM on these new devices. Compared to the iPad Air 2 with 2GB RAM, the difference is obvious.

As the iOS updates have come, the situation has gotten markedly worse. The Spotlight fix in one of the last iOS updates seems to have been due to the search results being flushed when RAM is constrained. While Spotlight now works, it meant that even more RAM is being permanently allocated there.

iOS 8.2 seems again to have made the situation worse again. Whether it's allocation of RAM for Apple Watch integration or something else, the iPhone 6 (Plus in my case) is utterly useless at multitasking now. I can barely keep two tabs in memory in Safari, and running two apps concurrently is like playing the lottery as to whether it will work. Usually not.

I think the iPhones are great. But the RAM issue is a massive, massive deal. And it keeps getting worse.
Click to expand...

Then stop buying something you're not happy with... seems the jokes on you.
 
Terrible. I thought it was just me. Apps freeze all the time.
Even scrolling through this thread on tapatalk is lagging.

Can we start a class action suit for more ram.
 
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