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Updating Old IPhone SE to IOS 15?

E

ericainge6

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 3, 2022
3
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I have the old iphone SE and use it as a backup iphone and not my primary device. I remember a while back I heard people say do not upgrade to IOS 15 due to issues with it. Is it still the case right now?


I see that I'm currently using IOS 14.8.1 on it. When I click software update, it shows IOS 15.3.1. Should I do the update or not?


This old iphone SE definitely is lagging and has issue with the current IOS. So should I upgrade to the new IOS update or not?
 
Don’t do it.
I have a guinea pig iPhone 7 I installed iOS 15 on and it wrecked it.
Stuff is slower and battery life went out the window. Such a bad update for that phone.

I’ll never install iOS 15 on anything again. Definitely not my primary phone. Theres NOTHING better about it compared to iOS 14. Only worse.

You may ignore my advice and install it anyway- but you’ll soon see for yourself that there’s nothing in it of any interest. It’s just a downgrade from iOS 14.
 
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I wouldn't unless you absolutely are dead set on updating. Remember, once you update you can't go back. My 6S is on 12.4 (although it's my backup phone) and it performs exceptionally well. I have no interest in updating it to iOS15 and considering you mentioned it's laggy it will only get worse on iOS15
 
now i see it said:
Theres NOTHING better about it compared to iOS 14.
Click to expand...
That's a bit of an exaggeration.

If it's a secondary device it's probably not a big deal either way. I still have mine on iOS 14 so I can't offer personal experience for 15. I find my SE performs decently on iOS 14 but it does have a fresh battery.
 
The thing is this old SE is very old as I got it a long time ago. I got it about 5 years ago or so. I did get a battery change once and that was it and that was few years ago. The battery health is 85% and has stayed that way for over a year or longer. Thus the battery isn't great.


My primary phone is the iphone 13 mini. It is using the current IOS. That is obviously recommended for the newer iphones right and always update?


Now with the old iphone running IOS 14.8.1, it lags quite a bit. Youtube freezes and all of that but it is still usable. I still used it as my primary phone for a while even though I shouldn't have. But for a backup phone it is fine. I had thought upgrading to the latest IOS is always recommended but I heard people said don't do it with the old iphone SE. So you all are in agreement to not update it to IOS 15? I had thought if i updated it, the lag would stop and maybe the battery would be better but neither of that would be true? Again the battery is pretty bad. What I do notice is this old iphone se is pretty good in terms of battery standby overnight? Example when it goes to standby, then next day you check it, not much battery goes out? The new iphone always seem to at least have 5% go down overnight?
 
There’s never going to consensus as to whether it’s a good idea to install a current operating system on a 7 year old phone.
There’s -nothing- in iOS 15 that warrants its install except that it’s current. There’s nothing in it that’s better than iOS 14.
It’s not an UPgrade, just an upDATE (and downgrade).
It is slower than iOS 14 (on my iPhone 7) and it has quirky problems that iOS 14 doesn’t have.
In my experience at least, it’s a disappointment.
But you’re already familiar with iOS 15 on your iPhone 13. You can compare them yourself.
But there’s no way your SE will get faster running iOS 15.
 
I have the original iPhone SE (from work) on iOS 15.3.1, it's actually not bad for basic workload. The Apple A9, 2GB memory, and less pixels to push may be the reason. On the other hand, iPadOS 15.3.1 is horrible on the iPad mini 4 (Apple A8, 2GB memory).
 
My wife has the SE1, loves the form factor. We upgraded 14.8.1 -> 15.3, it was a disaster, could not keep the battery charged, unexplained large drops in percentage. Later upgraded to 15.3.1 better but not a solid as 14.8.1, still battery problems. Battery health is 94%. Took it to the genius bar, all diagnostics passed, they explained that IOS 15 was "too much" for the SE1 and pointed us to the iPhone Mini. Don't do it.
 
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dono42 said:
My wife has the SE1, loves the form factor. We upgraded 14.8.1 -> 15.3, it was a disaster, could not keep the battery charged, unexplained large drops in percentage. Later upgraded to 15.3.1 better but not a solid as 14.8.1, still battery problems. Battery health is 94%. Took it to the genius bar, all diagnostics passed, they explained that IOS 15 was "too much" for the SE1 and pointed us to the iPhone Mini. Don't do it.
Click to expand...

I think 15.4 is better in that regard

15.3 was dropping like a rock could see it
Go down by the half
Minute
 
Similar to a previous poster, I’ve been testing on an old iPhone 7. iOS 15 has not been great on it, BUT the 15.4 RC recently released is so much smoother than any previous iOS 15 version. It made a world of difference. Is it worth it to move from iOS 14 on that device? Meh.
 
For what it's worth, this 9to5mac writer says that iOS 15 runs fine on his iPhone SE (2016).

I still use an iPhone SE (2016) as my main phone, running iOS 14, and I have no complaints about performance or battery life. I was initially cautious about upgrading from iOS 13 → iOS 14, and put it off for several point-releases, but once I made the leap I was glad I did.

Leaning towards jumping to iOS 15; though I am concerned that the small screen will be more cramped... iOS 15 seems to add more white space and interface doo-dads.
 
Yep, the OS is huge. Have my daily 2016 SE on 15.4.1 and all seems smoother then on 15.3. The recent .1 update addresses a battery leak but I hadn't noticed as I've recently replaced the battery.
 
With iOS 15.4.1 the SE1 feels faster/smoother, BUT the battery life is even worse (another 25% loss) compared to 15.3.1 (also lost 25% with this update). When opening apps, even the settings app, you can see how the percentage going down, the phone getting hot and the iOS and system data taking more space/storage.

That was since i upgrade day after it came out. Now the first 15% disappeared in 2h standby after full charge over night and in 20min usage the battery went down from 85% to 3% .
The strange thing, once its 1% i can use the phone another couple of hours…

Apple claimed the fixed the battery draining issue, but looks like its even worse then before.
 
geta said:
With iOS 15.4.1 the SE1 feels faster/smoother, BUT the battery life is even worse (another 25% loss) compared to 15.3.1 (also lost 25% with this update). When opening apps, even the settings app, you can see how the percentage going down, the phone getting hot and the iOS and system data taking more space/storage.

That was since i upgrade day after it came out. Now the first 15% disappeared in 2h standby after full charge over night and in 20min usage the battery went down from 85% to 3% .
The strange thing, once its 1% i can use the phone another couple of hours…

Apple claimed the fixed the battery draining issue, but looks like its even worse then before.
Click to expand...

There may be a problem with your controller chip. You will have to have your phone taken to a phone repair shop for diagnostics. My SE has a fresh battery and runs as long as it did when new on 15.4.1.

I had the problem you were stating when I brought my phone to the repair shop. I had the OEM battery removed and an aftermarket battery placed into it and the device is working well.
 
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geta said:
With iOS 15.4.1 the SE1 feels faster/smoother, BUT the battery life is even worse (another 25% loss) compared to 15.3.1 (also lost 25% with this update). When opening apps, even the settings app, you can see how the percentage going down, the phone getting hot and the iOS and system data taking more space/storage.

That was since i upgrade day after it came out. Now the first 15% disappeared in 2h standby after full charge over night and in 20min usage the battery went down from 85% to 3% .
The strange thing, once its 1% i can use the phone another couple of hours…

Apple claimed the fixed the battery draining issue, but looks like its even worse then before.
Click to expand...
Those percentages are exactly what I was getting with the original 2016 SE battery that I've recently replaced. Are you still on the original battery? All I can say is that since replacement I've got the same usage time back that I had on day one. 15.4 was a good transition for this old phone, can't really tell the difference with 15.4.1
 
Alpha Centauri said:
Those percentages are exactly what I was getting with the original 2016 SE battery that I've recently replaced. Are you still on the original battery? All I can say is that since replacement I've got the same usage time back that I had on day one. 15.4 was a good transition for this old phone, can't really tell the difference with 15.4.1
Click to expand...
Still using the original battery (81%), and till i upgrade the iOS from 10.3.3 to 15.3.1 i finished the day between 50%-70%…

thadoggfather said:
You gonna try 15.5 beta? ^
Click to expand...
The beta no, but once it will come out i guess so… i doubt it can be worse then this.

Andeddu said:
There may be a problem with your controller chip. You will have to have your phone taken to a phone repair shop for diagnostics. My SE has a fresh battery and runs as long as it did when new on 15.4.1.

I had the problem you were stating when I brought my phone to the repair shop. I had the OEM battery removed and an aftermarket battery placed into it and the device is working well.
Click to expand...
Was thinking to change the battery, need to check how much it will cost. As for the controller chip, its a bit strange that suddenly after these updates its having probelm.
 
geta said:
Still using the original battery (81%), and till i upgrade the iOS from 10.3.3 to 15.3.1 i finished the day between 50%-70%…


The beta no, but once it will come out i guess so… i doubt it can be worse then this.


Was thinking to change the battery, need to check how much it will cost. As for the controller chip, its a bit strange that suddenly after these updates its having probelm.
Click to expand...

Apologies. Your battery is shot. I didn’t know you had not changed your battery and misread. I had a problem with an OEM 100% health battery from 2017 which had become faulty over time and behaved exactly like your current battery.

The only thing you need is a battery replacement. I had the issue with my 6S at 79% which began exhibiting abnormal behaviour. Now with the new aftermarket battery, it performs as good as new.
 
If I had the original SE running on iOS 15 and I was finding it not working as well it should, I would do an encrypted backup to the computer, do a Recovery Mode Restore followed by a restore from backup. Sometimes it is good to do a clean install. I have done this when my battery life was not great. I use a 13 Pro Max. Just a thought to try.

About encrypted backups on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support

You can use password protection and encryption to protect backups of your device.
support.apple.com support.apple.com

If you can't update or restore your iPhone or iPod touch - Apple Support

You can put your iOS device in recovery mode, then restore it using your computer.
support.apple.com support.apple.com
 
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