10 ways to speed up an old iphone or ipad

Recover lost performance on your iphone or ipad with these top tips

Old iphones and ipads slow down over time and there are several reasons why, but the number one has to be a weak battery. Go to Settings>battery>battery Health (beta) and make sure IOS is not limiting the performance of the device – if it is, replace the battery to speed it up.

Assuming the battery is okay, what else might cause the iphone or ipad to run slowly? Running short of space, constantly checking the location, poor Wi-fi, too many apps running in the background, and so on. Here we take a look at some of the many tweaks that help to keep older iphones and ipads running smoothly. Each one in itself does little, but the combined effect of all of them can make the device noticeably better. Get tweaking!

1 Delete unused apps

Old iphones and ipads struggle for storage space and may run more slowly when it is nearly full. Free up some storage space by going to Settings>general>iphone Storage. Tap apps and then either offload them or delete them to free up space.

2 Swipe away apps

Double-tap Home to show the task switcher and see how many apps are suspended in the background. Swipe up to dismiss them. Some people say you don’t need to do this but we find it helps on very old iphones and ipads with limited memory.

3 Restart

After freeing up space and closing suspended apps, restart the iphone or ipad. Press and hold the sleep/wake button until ‘Slide to power off’ appears and then slide and shut down. Wait a few seconds and then press and hold sleep/wake to restart the device. 4 Remove widgets If there are a lot of widgets on the Today screen (pull down and swipe right), they could contribute to the device’s workload. Scroll down to the bottom and press ‘Edit’, then remove any widgets you do not use. 5 Background activity Some apps refresh in the background which can affect the performance. Go to Settings> General>background App Refresh and only allow apps that are essential like Mail, Calendar, Maps and so on.

6 Faster internet

When the Wi-fi network has a poor signal or when you are using public Wi-fi and there are too many people on it, it may be faster to use mobile data. Go to Settings>mobile Data and turn on Wi-fi Assist. Take care not to exceed your data limit if it is low. 7 Disable location services The iphone can constantly monitor its location using GPS, Bluetooth and Wi-fi and, while a few apps need to know your exact location, many do not. Turn off Location Services in the Privacy section of Settings. 8 Reduce motion Graphic effects and animations may look nice, but the extra time they take and the increased workload for the iphone or ipad makes it a bit slower. Go to Settings>general>accessibility> Reduce Motion and turn off.

9 Factory reset

Resetting an iphone or ipad erases everything which can breathe new life into an old device. Only do this if you have backed up everything to your Mac or icloud. Go to Settings>reset>erase All Content and Settings. Log into your Apple account afterwards.

10 Get IOS 12

IOS 12 is only available as a beta right now but it will soon be available and those testing it say it noticeably boosts the speed of old devices. Go to Settings>general>software Update and install IOS 12 as soon as it becomes available.