The most awaited update for iDevice users, iOS 11 is now finally available to the public, making iDevices better than before. It is packed full of new amazing features and enhancements, that combine to dramatically improve the iPhone and iPad experience. However, some users have some complaints about the new iOS version. There are mixed reports that updating to iOS 11 has slowed down their iOS devices, or that performance of tasks like opening and interacting with apps is slower after installing iOS 11.
Has your iPhone or iPad’s performance also taken a hit with the move to iOS 11? Here we have outlined few tricks to speed up your device again. Learn how to speed things back up.
Just Updated to iOS 11? Have Some Patience and Wait
First things first. If you just updated an iPhone or iPad to iOS 11, your phone is going to slow down and your battery life will take a hit for at least a day or two. After that, you will see a marked improvement in speed and battery life, probably.
This happens because, when a major software update arrives on your device, iOS will re-index everything, leading to the feeling the device is slowed because of the increased background activity being performed. So just have some patience. Leave the device plugged overnight, and let it complete whatever system behavior is necessary.
How to Speed Up iOS 11 on iPhone and iPad?
There could be several reasons why your iPhone wouldn’t be running smoothly. For instance, it could be due to tons of junk files, outdated apps, and even unnecessary features. Let’s have a look at few tricks to make your iPhone/iPad run faster on iOS 11.
Many of these tricks can also positively impact battery, so if you’re having iOS 11 battery life problems, then you may find some cross-benefit to this approach as well.
1. Delete apps you no longer use
Apps take up storage space, and freeing up space makes it easier for iOS to operate. Remove any apps that you no longer use.
2. Update iOS and Apps to the Newest Version
Usually, the first thing you will be asked if you have an issue with your device is whether the software is up to date. This is because sometimes there are issues with older versions of software, and it’s usually a safe bet that the newer version will have fixed those issues. So, check for software updates to iOS.
For getting any updates to iOS 11 (such as iOS 11.0.2, iOS 11.1, etc), open the Settings > General > Software Update & choose to download and install any update to iOS 11.
Also, old apps may not run as smoothly or quickly on the new iOS version without an update.
After updating your iPhone to iOS 11, check to see if you have got app updates waiting. Open the App Store, head to Updates tab, and install any available app updates.
3. Disable/Turn off Unnecessary Features
As we all know, every function’s speed and performance depends on CPU and RAM of the device. As much as CPU and RAM remain free from extra features which create load on them, it is better for the device. It is better to disable unnecessary functions like animations, back-up, motion, location services, auto updates and many others. It will also be helpful in improving battery life.
A) Disable Motion Effects: Apple uses a number of effects to give iOS a sense of depth as you tilt your phone or open and close apps. These motion effects generally improve your experience but require more system resources to draw and render properly. Disabling them can improve your device’s performance.
Go to Settings > General > Accessibility > Reduce Motion > Turn it on.
In Reduce Motion settings, you may turn off “Auto-Play Message Effects” too, since those animations in Messages app can also make things feel a bit sluggish sometimes.
B) Reduce Transparency Effects: Transparency and blur effects are scattered throughout iOS, from the Control Center to Notifications panels. They look nice, but rendering those blur effects can use system resources and make things feel sluggish sometimes. Turning them off may help the device feel faster, although it makes things look a bit plain.
Go to Settings > General > Accessibility > Increase Contrast > Reduce Transparency > Turn it on.
C) Turn off Automatic Updates: Apps update themselves in the background, occupying your device’s CPU and battery. Getting rid of automated features will help keep your iPhone running faster, and help extend your battery life as well. You can disable this feature and update your apps manually via the App Store.
Go to Settings > iTunes & App Stores > Turn off Updates in the Automatic Downloads section.
D) Turn off Background App Refresh: In addition to updating when you are otherwise occupied, apps also refresh their content in the background. For example, your Facebook or Twitter feed will update without you manually updating when you open the app. This is nice for multitasking quickness, but it can also lead to a hit in system performance. You’ll see a big boost in battery life as well as a noticeable increase in performance if you stop them.
Go to Settings > General > Background App Refresh > Turn OFF
E) Turn off Location Services: While it can be handy for apps like Maps and Facebook to know your location, continuous GPS tracking not only drains the battery but also puts a lot of pressure on the device, resulting in a decrease in performance. So it is advisable to turn off Location Services for some apps which might not require. iOS 11 gives you more control over how and when apps access your location.
Go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services > Tap Turn Off.
F) Disable Spotlight: Spotlight powers search on your iDevice, making it quick to find something, but it has to index each item on your device that can occasionally slow things down. As it is active all time, it consumes some battery, storage, and CPU, thus making the device slow.
Go to Settings > General > Spotlight Search > set all the Search Results items to Off.
4. Use a Simple Wallpaper
Using a plain or simple wallpaper originating from a small file size image can help to speed things up sometimes. The idea behind using a simple or plain wallpaper is that it requires less memory and system resources to display, thus it can help to speed up drawing and redrawing of the Home Screen of the iOS device.
GO to Settings > Wallpaper > Select a simple wallpaper, either of a single color or a very small file size.
5. Embrace HEIF
If you are like most iPhone users, photos and videos are biggest occupiers of storage space. iOS 11 introduces file formats for photos and videos that results in smaller file sizes. Photos use the HEIF format and videos use the HEVC format.
Go to Settings > Camera > Formats > choose High Efficiency to use the new HEIF and HEVC formats.
Note: You won’t see the new Formats settings option on older iPhones and iPads. Only devices with at least the A10 Fusion chip can snap photos with the HEIF format and shoot videos with the HEVC format.
6. Free Up Space on Your iDevice
If your iPhone or iPad is full or very low on storage, you won’t be able to install updates to apps or system software. Having sufficient free storage (10% or more) available is ideal for optimal performance of an iPad or iPhone.
Identify which apps are taking the most space by going to Settings > General > Storage & iCloud Usage and then tapping ‘Manage Storage’ under Storage.
You will now see a list of apps and how much space they are taking up on your phone. You can easily offload unused or old apps, delete photos, videos and songs. You can also see which apps are taking up all your storage, and enable a feature that automatically uninstalls apps you never use when you’re running low on space.
Once you have got free space, try to keep as much free storage as possible. Offload your photos and videos to a backup service like Google Photos as often as you can. Delete large attachments in Messages, which is often a big culprit when it comes to wasted space.
If you want to check and delete junk files and useless caches from iPhone/iPad, you can try cleaning tools that can help reclaim free space on your iPhone/iPad.
7. Restart/ Force Reboot your device
Once you have removed unnecessary apps, you should restart it. The restart refreshes the memory and enables it to start from scratch.
Press and hold down the Home button and Power button concurrently until the Apple logo appears on the screen. For iPhone 7/7 Plus, iPhone 8 users, please press the Power button and Volume down button to make it. Then just wait for the device to boot back up again.
You shouldn’t have to do this very often, but when you do, it will clear out the memory and can often fix unruly apps. The occasional power cycle helps keep iOS ticking over.
8. Reset iOS System Settings
Resetting your iOS device settings may also speed up performance. It will reset your iPhone/iPad to factory settings, but will not erase any existed data.
Go to Setttings > General > Reset > Reset All Settings > Enter your passcode > Confirm on the pop-up window.
Be aware if you reset device settings, you will need to make configurations to all of your custom settings changes again.
9. Reset your iPhone
A more drastic step than restarting the iPhone, a full reset takes longer but is a more effective way of solving problems with the way an iPhone is running.
Press and hold the Home and Sleep buttons at the same time. Keep holding them while the screen goes black (the red power-off slider may appear – if it does, just carry on holding the buttons), right up until the Apple logo appears. When that appears you can let go.
Resetting the device will result in complete data loss if you didn’t take a backup before performing this action. After resetting, you have to set up like before for the first time you have done it.
10. Backup & Restore iOS
If all the above methods cannot help to speed up iOS 11 on iPhone/iPad, then try restoring your device as new. This can sometimes fix obscure performance issues. Make sure to backup your device to iTunes or iCloud before going for it.
Connect the iPhone to computer/Mac, launch iTunes, then choose to “Restore” the device. Or you can choose to Restore directly on the device itself and select either iCloud or iTunes backup to restore from.
Downgrade from iOS 11 to iOS 10
Totally not satisfied with the new iOS 11? Maybe you can choose to downgrade iOS 11 to iOS 10.
Conclusion:
Hope these tricks help your iOS device run smoother & fast. Which one of these solutions has worked for you? Let us know in the comments section below.