iOS 10 too slow on iPhone or iPad? Here’s How to Speed Up your iDevices

As soon as iOS 10 became available, most Apple users immediately downloaded and installed the latest iOS on their iPhone 6 and iPad Air. It is indeed overwhelming as the latest iOS 10 is packed with hundreds of new features such as new notification system, better Messages app, easier Music app and smarter Siri. However, there are some issues that become worse such as the life span of the battery and also sluggishness of the devices.

Some people might tell you to just wait as Apple or your device itself will definitely solve these issues. Like the famous saying goes, patience is a virtue. Your device can solve the issue on its own since so you can just wait and be patient with your phone or iPad. If your iPhone or iPad is already running hot, it is because the operating system software is functioning intensively in the background such as Spotlight and Photos. Base on how much work your device should do, it may take few minutes or hours.

Major updates like the latest version iOS 10 usually fixes itself after few hours. It may take a bit longer since iOS 10 has hundreds of new features such as new Photos app with facial recognition. The slow performance and hot device may take longer than usual so you can just let your device do its job. It should fix the issues within few hours.

iOS 10 Too Slow – Speed Up Your iPhone

If you are still experiencing slow performance and your iPhone 6, iPad Air 2 or newer model of apple products there are some tricks that you can do to boost your device’s performance if they’re not running as smooth as it should be.

#1 Reboot Your iDevice

A simple reboot can solve many issues on your device such as slow performance, crashing and freezing apps. This solution can also help to speed up your device so try rebooting your device. iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 plus have a new way to reset or reboot. Unlike before when you had to hold down Sleep/Wake button with Home button to perform reboot, it is different with the latest iPhone model.

1. Press and hold down the Sleep/Wake button on the right side of your iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus.
2. Keep holding the Sleep/Wake button and press and hold the Volume Down button on the left side of your device.
3. Hold both buttons until the Apple logo appears on the screen. Wait for your device to restart and hopefully your iPhone will run faster this time.

#2 Enable Reduce Motion Feature

Enabling Reduce Motion feature can reduce the motion of the user interface as well as the parallax effect of icons. This solution worked for users who were experiencing sluggish performance so you can also give it a try.

1. Launch Settings
2. Tap General
3. Scroll to Accessibility and tap Reduce Motion.
4. Simply tap to toggle on Reduce Motion. This will disable the cool effects of your device but not really that important as long as your device is performing faster.

#3 Enable Reduce Transparency

Another feature that you may not be aware of is transparency. This lets you decrease visual effects that can help in improving your device. To turn it on, follow these steps:

1. Launch Settings app.
2. Tap General tab,
3. Tap Increase Contrast and toggle on Reduce Transparency.

#4 Disable Location Services

Location services run in the background when it is enabled which also reduces the performance of your device. If you do not need this, simply turn it off and enable it again when necessary.

1. Tap Settings
2. Tap Location Services and toggle it off.

#5 Turn off Background App Refresh

Background App Refresh is a feature that allows your device to keep the apps in the background running. This keeps your device busy all the time so turning it off can lead to much better performance.

1. Open Settings app and tap General.
2. Tap Background App Refresh and toggle it off.

#6 Free Up Storage

One of the reasons why your iPhone device has slow performance is because of the storage. If the storage used is over 75%, your device has the tendency to run slower. It is important that you make time to clean your device to keep it running smoothly. Some say that keeping at least 25% of your storage free would do the trick while others say that keeping at least 1GB would be enough. When your device is already sluggish with over 75% used storage, that’s already a hint for you to start cleaning up!

You can check what is consuming your storage by going to Settings, tap General and tap Storage & iCloud usage. There you can see which app is consuming most of your storage.

Move Photos and Videos to Computer

You have probably tons of photos and videos on your iPhone and iPad. If that’s the case, your device will surely run slower. One way to improve your device’s performance is to copy your pictures and videos to your computer and delete them on your iPhone or iPad to make enough space. Apple devices seem to run faster when it is not almost full. To make sure that you can get the best performance of your device, make sure to regularly move your photos and videos to your PC. You can also sign up in iCloud for extra storage.

Delete Unused Apps and Games

If you have a lot of apps especially those with big sizes, your device will definitely run low as the storage get full with so many apps. If you have apps that you do not really need and games that you do not actually play, it is best to just delete them. This solution will give you extra space and your device will thank you by providing you better performance.

Use Standard Definition Videos

Instead of using the highest quality, you can always settle for Standard Definition Videos which does not have much of a difference. It can also let you save more of storage space. You can change the settings in iTunes. Simply connect your device to your PC and launch iTunes. From Options, simply tick the box next to “Prefer Standard Definition Videos”.

#7 Reset all Settings

Reset your iPhone to the factory settings. It can get the job done for you.

If doing all the solutions above did not improve anything, you can jump to your last resort which is to reset all settings. Before doing this, it is best to backup all your files first to avoid any loss of data. To do this, follow the steps below:

1. Open Settings
2. Tap General.
3. Tap Reset and choose Reset All Settings.

Hopefully, this will solve your iOS 10 too slow issue.

If you’ve learned of new ways to improve the performance of iPhone and iPad, share it with us in the comment section below.