This year, iPhone turns 10. During this decade it has become one of the most famous devices in the world. The main characteristics that drive people to have one is its longevity and incomparable iOS support. But, as you keep receiving new iOS updates with new technologies and features, your hardware remains the same. Quite often we start to explore ways to speed up iPhone when the big question "Why is my iPhone so slow?" Comes to mind after encountering a certain situation..
Apart from an old iPhone, a new iPhone can also become sluggish due to various reasons. This can be caused by bloated apps and high memory usage, you may face such issues. So, in this article, I am going to tell you some useful tips to speed up iPhone and make your iOS device faster. To put it in context, before that, let's take a look at some of the main causes of this problem.
Why is my iPhone so slow?
iPhone is running out of memory / RAM
The reasons why online forums are filled with such questions are varied. More often than not, if you use too many applications at once, everything will slow down, just as it happens on your computer. Your device has limited RAM memory and you need to reduce memory usage to make iPhone faster. If you keep too many apps open at the same time, it gets loaded in RAM and makes the device sluggish..
Your iPhone software is not updated
Apple continues to release updates for the applications and the iOS operating system from time to time in order to make iPhone faster and improve overall performance and security. But, often times, users avoid installing these updates to back up their data or just because of their ignorance.
A bad software update
Quite often people complain that a software update slows down their iPhone. And it happens. But, it shouldn't scare you and prevent you from installing new updates. After Apple (or any other company) implements a faulty update, it quickly brings a new system online to resolve this issue..
Background apps are running
By default, a lot of apps run in the background to update themselves regularly and to provide you with the best services by sending notifications and instant results. But, it might cause heavy memory usage and make iPhone slower.
Out of storage space for your iPhone
Another reason could be the limited storage space of your iPhone. The different iPhone variants are available with different storage capacities - 16GB, 32GB, 128GB and 256GB. But, as you keep using different apps on your phone, they keep collecting data and fill up. Added to this, the high quality photos and videos taken by your device make the situation even more terrible.
Bad internet speed
Sometimes out of ignorance people forget to pay attention to their internet connection usage and accuse their iPhones of slowing down their performance. In reality, their internet speed is the main culprit. In such cases, your web browsing, Facebook application, and other internet-requiring tasks will be affected. So, it is better to get acquainted with the real reason why your iPhone is slow.
Other reasons why your iPhone is slow
As mentioned at the beginning of this article, your iPhone's old hardware could be another reason why your iPhone might be slowing down. With each new iOS version, Apple continues to add new features and capabilities. But, it could be that your iPhone model is too old and cannot support all of these features in the best possible way.
How to speed up my iPhone using different tricks?
1. Instantly Make iPhone Faster by Clearing RAM
There are times when you've been using your iOS device for a long time now and feel like you're lagging behind while you complete a task. The longer you use your phone, the more CPU count increases, and they continue to use your phone's memory. An easy method to clear RAM is to restart your phone, which is similar to restarting the PC which helps improve some things.
There is another trick to boost iPhone speed to clear RAM which doesn't involve restarting. Here is what you need to do to clear RAM instantly:
- Hold down the power button for a few seconds. Release the button when the "slide to power off" note appears on the screen.
- Now hold the home button on your iPhone for a few seconds until the home screen appears. This will instantly clear your phone's RAM without requiring a restart.
2. Free up storage space on your iPhone
The price of iPhones is going up sharply as we try to buy one with more storage space. This huge price difference forces a user to go for a device with less storage space. But the lack of expandable storage makes the situation even worse. As a result, little or no storage space makes your iPhone slower. To speed up iPhone, there are a few simple steps you can take.
- You need to go to Settings → General → iPhone Storage . There you will be able to see your phone storage.
- This option also shows the distribution of storage space, that is, how much space is used and by which application. This way you can determine your strategy for clearing the storage.
If you deleted important data by mistake, you can follow this tutorial: How to Recover Lost Data from iPhone?
3. Unload apps in iOS 11
iOS 11 brings a new option to manage your iPhone storage and take care of your things. This option allows you to free up storage while deleting the application but retaining documents and data. After reinstallation, the app will restore all your data.
To use this option, go to Settings → General → iPhone Storage . It will show a recommendation to unload unused apps .
If you choose this option, all unused applications will be unloaded automatically. Instead, you can scroll down and tap on a particular app to unload it.
4. Use iCloud and Google Photos to free up space
You can explore other options to clear data related to cloud storage. This can be done in three ways:
- You need to tap on the Apple ID section located in the top Settings . There, under the iCloud option , you will be able to see how much free space is available in your free iCloud account. You can tap Manage Storage → Change Storage Plan to purchase more storage space and make sure all your high quality photos and videos are uploaded to the cloud.
- In case you don't want to spend the money to buy additional iCloud storage and still want to speed up your iPhone even more, you can simply connect it to a computer using a USB cable. You can transfer the excess data to your computer.
- Another method to free up iPhone storage is by using third party apps like Google Photos. It was also an obvious choice for me as I recently made a leap from Android to iOS. Google Photos offers a lot more free storage compared to iCloud. It also provides a convenient option to free up iPhone space. You need to go to Menu → Free up space . This option automatically tells you which photos and videos are already backed up in Google Photos, and lets you make them faster on your device by securely deleting them.
5. Remove unused applications
You can fix the problem of little RAM available on your iPhone by erasing unused and unnecessary apps. If you know which app you no longer need, you can delete it right from your iPhone's home screen to speed things up. To do this, just tap on the app icon and wait a few seconds until little crosses appear on the corner of each app. You can press the cross to delete the application and its data.
In case you are wondering why your iPhone is always slow and you don't know which apps to remove, you can install third party apps to know the specific RAM usage of each app. However, I don't recommend that you do this because iOS handles RAM allocation quite well. You just need to uninstall unnecessary apps and your iPhone slow problem will be solved.
6. Close all unused and open applications
Very often we do not take into account the number of running apps, they can end up hogging all your RAM and slowing down your iPhone. So, in order to make your iPhone run faster and smoother, you need to make sure that the number of open apps is not too many.
Unfortunately, there is no way to close all the apps at once. So you have to close them one by one. To do this, you need to double tap the home button on your iPhone. This will show you all the active apps, which you can close by swiping up.
7. Delete cookies and data from Safari
Quite often, instead of looking for steps to speed up your iPhone, you just need to take care of your web browsing. Since most of our tasks are internet related, it would be a great idea to take care of all of the site's data. Before going ahead with this option, keep in mind that browsing the web can become inconvenient for a while. After clearing the saved data, Safari will not be able to display URL suggestions and will use your preferences to provide you with better service.
After warning you about the side effects, see what to do. You need to navigate to Settings → Safari. Tap Safari to view different settings. Scrolling below you can spot the option to Clear History and Website Data. You need to tap in the same way to complete the removal process.
8. Turn off location services
It is possible that your iPhone is struggling to manage its limited RAM memory and it is difficult to run all the apps efficiently. In this case, you need to take care of all the little factors that could be responsible for slowing down your iPhone.
On a related note, it would be a good idea to pay attention to apps that use location services in the background. You can access this setting by going to Settings → Privacy → Location Services . There at the top you'll notice a toggle to completely turn off location services for iPhone and all apps, but that won't be a good idea. As you scroll below, you will see all the listed apps and their location sharing status. You can see which apps are constantly using location and which are only using location when you open the app in question. Depending on your preferences and usage, you can restrict your apps usage and speed up your iPhone. You should use this option with caution as it may affect the operation of some applications.
9. Turn off automatic downloads on iPhone
Outside of the procession of an iPhone or iPad, if you also have a Mac, things would be pretty straightforward. All Apple devices can use a common Apple ID, and anything you buy on one device can be automatically downloaded to another device. You can also intelligently use iCloud to access other common documents and data on both devices.
However, if you don't use your iPhone to download and purchase content and do the same on your Mac, things might get a little tricky for you. Chances are all music, apps, books, etc. purchased on your Mac are automatically downloaded to your iPhone. To change this setting and make iPhone run faster, you need to go to Settings → iTunes and App Store .
There, under the Automatic Downloads option, you will see options for Music, Apps, Books and Audiobooks, and Updates. You can make the changes you want. You can also turn off automatic updates, but this is not recommended for security reasons.
10. Turn off background refresh
Your iPhone works assuming you have unlimited high speed data with tons of spare memory. So, by enabling background data refresh, your iPhone ensures that apps are able to refresh their content over Wi-Fi or cellular. This activity takes place in the background and consumes more battery.
You can also turn off background refresh for all apps all at once or choose to turn it off for specific apps to speed up your iPhone. I will recommend the latter option because it will allow you to allow certain apps to have access to data in the background. To access this setting, go to Settings → General → Background App Refresh .
11. Reduce motion and transparency
All modern mobile and desktop operating systems use animations and special effects to bring more visual experience to its users; iOS is no exception in this regard. In cases where you are trying to make your iPhone run faster, these options can come in handy.
There are two specific settings that you need to change in your iPhone to speed it up. To do this, go to Settings → General → Accessibility .
To make the first change, in the Accessibility menu, find the Increase Contrast option and tap it. There you have to press the toggle to reduce the transparency .
From the Accessibility menu itself, you need to go to the Reduce Animations option and then tap the toggle to reduce UI animations.
12. Reset your iPhone
Suppose you have already taken these steps, but are still wondering "Why is my iPhone so slow?" In that case, you can take the ultimate step of resetting your device. After performing a complete cleaning process, all the data stored on your iPhone is erased and there are chances that it will work better. However, before that, make sure to back up all your important data so that you can restore it later.
To perform a factory restore, go to Settings → General → Reset . Here, tap on the Erase Content and Settings option and you will be asked to make a backup before erasing everything. It is advisable to choose the backup option for an additional layer of security.
13. Get a new iPhone
If you have done all the steps mentioned above to make iPhone faster, then visit the Apple service center. You will always be faced with the problem of not being up to date with new models, you will probably have to ditch the old device to get a new one.
Did you find these helpful tips and tricks to make your iPhone run faster? Don't forget to share your point of view with us.
