Advertisement: invisibleSHIELD for Apple iPhone 4
“Since the iOS 4 software became available in late June, user concerns have surfaced on Apple forums,” Valentino-DeVries reports. “The most common criticism is that the phone is slow after an upgrade. There are also many complaints that the phone drains the battery quickly and becomes excessively hot.”
Valentino-DeVries reports, “Apple’s latest iPhone operating system is powerful, and the iPhone 3G is two years old at this point. The new operating system isn’t compatible at all with the earliest version of the iPhone — but it is supposed to be compatible with the 3G and 3GS, although some features, like multitasking, won’t work on the 3G.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “JES42” for the heads up.]
Apple needs to fix this ASAP.
It’s almost unusable for me. If I wasn’t a Mac-fanboy and an Apple shareholder, I would have been marching in the streets already (and I still have one year left on my contract).
Look, I’m a big Apple fan, but since iPhone 04 was installed on my 3G, it has become super-laggy. Anti-snappy, if you will…
Fortunately, I just got my iPhone 4 today, so the 3G, if not fixed, will be a dust collector…
I have definitely noticed my iPhone is much slower than it use to be. I just figured I am running to many apps in background. I especially notice a vast slowdown when checking e-mail.
I haven’t noticed a slowdown, but then again I don’t keep any media on my 3G, it’s pretty much empty. I does feel a little like 2.0 though, sometimes with hangs and stutters, but the device doesn’t seem all that bad. Could definitely see how it could be causing issues for people though.
My son’s 2nd iPod touch, however, is having some issues with 4.0. Then again it has lots of media and games on it. I hope some optimizations creep in, could just be a memory buffer problem with the devices that have 128mb on board. Who knows though.
Mine too was very slow, but I restored with clean install and it became normal. After two weeks it’s gettting a bit slow again.
Jup, the 3G is terrible with ios4, but it was already terrible with the software before. But iPhone 4 sure rocks!
if you are affected, I suggest to try this:
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2010/07/07/how-to-speed-up-your-iphone-3g-running-ios4/
I meant iOS4. It’d be neat to actually install the iPhone 4 onto an iPhone 3G.
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My iPhone 3G was DAWG slow after upgrading to iOS 4. Just navigating through text messages was so slow it was incredibly painful.
Then I bought the iPhone 4 on opening day and sold my iPhone 3G for $200. iOS is BEAUTIFUL on the iPhone 4.
I love apple products. They keep their value so well, I was able to upgrade to the iPhone 4 for free. =D
@Dpr1961
Correct me if I’m wrong, but iOS 4’s “multitasking” isn’t multitasking as such, it’s just saving apps in the state they were in when they were closed. Hence you don’t necessarily have lots of apps “running” in the background.
So everyone complaining about this weren’t FUD-sters, and actually caused Apple to take notice? Amazing! Take note, breezie-boy
About friggin’ time! I think the forum at Apple support is over 30 pages by now. Without a legitimate downgrade path, there a lot of very upset users. People went from having a great phone to one that barely works.
I agree. My 3G was super laggy after I installed iOS4. the only thing I like about iOS4 is categories/folders.
The latest iOS4 update seems to have improved things a little, but I am still not happy with it, and very disappointed with Apple. If it was going to be this bad on the 3G, they should have not allowed 3G upgrading.
I can personally attest to this. My work has issued an iPhone 3Gs. That works perfectly after upgrading to iOS 4. My personal iPhone, a 3G, is another issue altogether. The phone has become virtually useless. It is non responsive most of the time. I often miss calls because as I touch the screen to answer, it takes some time to respond. By that time, the caller is taken to voicemail. I can hardly access email since it often takes several minutes to even get into the Mail app. So I have a virtual brick now and I’m still paying AT&T for service.
Apple should have waited to recommend 3G users update to iOs4 until they had this worked out. They had to know how much slower it ran on these phones.
And if they can’t get it to work better then they need to come up with a fix to revert back.
@ SamLowry, tried it : (
@ Bongo, funny, isn’t it. Apple isn’t a normal company. They genuinely try to make all of us customers happy. The antenna thing was caused by critics, not customers.
Apple once shipped me a new power supply for my G4 tower (since apparently the one it shipped with was too loud). No media firestorm. A few customers told them it was too loud, Apple agreed, Apple shipped us all new power supplies to replace the perfectly good ones we already had.
I have an iPhone 3G with os4 which is now extremely slow and sluggish and crashes a lot.
Worked perfectly before I upgraded to os4.
My 3G’s performance SUCKED after I installed iOS4. Slow, glitchy…just bad. Luckily, I got the iPhone4 and it runs GREAT. Sold my 3G for $200 and even felt a little guilty!
When I picked up my iP4, I handed my iP3G to my wife. After a few days, she asked: “Why does everybody think the iPhone is so great. It’s slow, my email is not arriving, can’t get Safari to load, etc.”
“Is your new one any better?” My answer: well, yes it is as long as I don’t touch it in the wrong place.
So, Apple commits another blunder – this time in upgrading software that the hardware can’t run reliably.
These problems all have one thing in common: arrogance. Steve Jobs believes he has us, that he owns us, and that he controls us and he can deliver shit for quality and we’ll just pay big bucks for it and thank him very much. What fools we are.
yeah… ios4 on my 3g suuucks.. After doing a full firmware restore it’s definitely better, but not as good as when it had 3.2 on it.
If possible I’d roll it back to 3.2. In fact I’m paying my 99 bucks so I can do just that.
They clearly didn’t have any 3G phones around to test it on. It’s really amazingly bad. They really shouldn’t have released it.
@ Paul McGiven
Mine worked perfectly prior to the upgrade to iOS 4 too. I did the upgrade to get folder management and the like. Now I have a phone that is essentially useless.
My wife, who is new to Apple products, said to me, “This is so unlike the Apple you speak of…” My faith in Apple products hasn’t wavered though. I expect a fix soon. I hope…
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My iPhone 3G runs very noticeably faster since ios4??
I must admit that my daughter’s iPhone 3G because noticeably slower to the point of complaints from her with the installation of iOS 4.0. In the case of my 3GS, the main problem that I noted was the device becoming quite hot during use. Hot to the point I could not let it touch my ear. Problem was reported.
Other probs- not so much.
I had the same problem. I solved it with these steps:
1. Attach to iTunes via USB.
2. Sync everything. Apps, Notes, Contacts, Music, etc. Sync it to your Mac/PC, or to MobileMe. Make sure it’s right before proceeding.
3. Click “Restore” button to restore phone to factory settings.
4. When prompted, choose “Setup New Phone” (or something to that effect).
iTunes should download the latest version of iOS, and install a fresh copy on your phone. Chillax – it’ll take a while.
5. When done, sync your phone to get your apps and data back. Suggest you use iTunes to arrange your apps into folders, etc. Too tedious on phone if you have lots.
*** I’ve done this on three separate phones that were exhibiting stultifying slowness, UI latency, crashing, etc. after being updated to iOS 4.x. This process resolved it every single time.
******* You’re going to lose any “unsyncable” data stored within your apps themselves (like settings, app-specific data, etc.). But believe me, it’s worth it.
When you’re done, pure, snappy joy with 3G/3GS on iOS4.x !!!
I’ve been bit by the battery draining issue. It seems that some of the games my son plays on my phone don’t really stop when going to the background.
Sorry here’s the link:
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2010/07/07/how-to-speed-up-your-iphone-3g-running-ios4/
I noticed my 2nd gen’ iPod touch is also draining faster than it used to. And every so often (like earlier today) it seems to freeze, with neither the Home button nor the off/sleep button do anything.
Pleaseeeeeeee. You can’t expect Apple to bring out a totally new rev of iOS and support 2 versions back on the hardware. Just compare specs. I can see and expect 1 version back would be livable. I have a 3G and will wait till Oct. or so to see if reports come out of an internal fix for antenna issues……(Apple better tweak notification “look” – how it works or I may go to Droid X.
Mac user since’84
I thought I was the only one with this problem. Now I don’t feel so bad.
Like everyone else, both our iPhones 3G slowed down after installing iOS 4.01. Settings is very slow. The phone is not unusable, but much slower. Tried the recommendations on DaringFireball – no significant difference. Looks like Apple is doing the right thing. Not surprising.
Peace.
an old phone or not, they should have just told us laggards that it would turn our phone into a big turd.
love apple most of the time, they just f’d up on this. hope they can fix it soon because what was a normally great experience has turned into a real nightmare.
Yeah, I noticed my 3G iPhone was really slow after the upgrade and got a might warm, battery life was so-so.
I knew it was time for me to upgrade my 2 year old phone to something more snappy—the new iPhone.
That’s just the way it is.
Upgrade.
If you want a company that builds for the lowest common denominator instead of pushing the envelope of technology, go buy windows mobile.
I would have rather been locked out of the iOS4 update completely on my 3G than be subjected to the nearly unusable mess that my precious iPhone has become. Springboard folders and a unified inbox were not worth the performance tradeoff. Period.
It’s embarrassing. Apple REALLY needs to provide a sanctioned roll-back option, instead of leaving previous generation owners stranded. I realize the 3G is “old hardware” now, but not all of us can afford to break contract to get the latest and greatest.
While I’m glad iPhone 4 is now available in a million other places around the globe, why the hell can I still not get one in the US? Total frustration!
My iPhone 3GS never had an issue, since I installed new iOS, the phone crashes and restarts in the middle of phone calls. Only in phone calls and sometimes twice in a 20 minute convo. Am convinced it is due to iOS 4…
Hating it right now…. I want the old iOS
We have an old iP/G3 that was upgraded and was sluggish, it was under apple care and one call to Apple recommended
1) Restore
2) -reset all settings- (in reset at the bottom of general in settings)
3) a hard reboot (hold Down both case buttons for 10 sec to force a “hard” shutdown then restart)
Runs extremely well now (barely slower -if at all- than 3.x)
I wonder how many of the people with problems have called apple tech support or visited a genius bar. (unless they had applecare a 3g would be a for charge support call now, but hey, Apple is giving you the software upgrade)
Sorry, I must have missed something along the way. Reboot, restore, yada, yada… Is iPhone an Apple product? Or a Microsoft product?
I love all of my Apple products and have forever eschewed anything MS or PC except where absolutely necessary (work, no choice).
Face it, kids. Apple totally screwed the pooch with iOS4.
Gang –
If you’re experiencing these problems, see my post above. Really, it fixes the issue for good.
I think there’s some problem with the simplified “Update” process that iTunes provides when going from iOS 3.x to 4.x. Doing a clean-install of iOS4.x (as I described above) seems to solve it for me when nothing else (hard-restarts, disabling spotlight, etc.) would.
The trick during the “restore” process is to select “Setup a new phone” instead of “Restore from backup”. You’ll need to re-sync your apps and data, but it really solves the issue, and your 3G or 3GS will run as snappy as you expected.
As I mentioned above, I’ve done this process three times on separate phones (3G’s) and it worked on all of them.
No problems with my iPhone 4 at all. It backs up and syncs
in minutes. The 64 Gb iPad is another matter entirely. Mine
has 24Gb free and takes 3 hours to back up and then syncs
normally. What the hell is it doing while backing up. I hope
iOS4 solves this issue. In the meantime, I’m using ‘BackOff’
and the freeware works perfectly.
http://www.digidna.net/products/backoff
iKyle
Oh puh-lease, it was simple relatively quick to do and this is a 2 year old mobile device
compare that to winmo or ‘roid, where devices even a few months old can’t even load the newest version of the OS.
A two year old smart phone being able to load and run the latest and greatest (even if some require “clean” installs) is an amazing software engineering triumph.
My 3G runs a little bit slower, like the camera takes a few extra seconds to open etc, but otherwise it works fine. Battery life seems the same as it was before the upgrade.
I figured it was just one of the downsides of an older device running a newer OS, but I think I will try that restore method some suggested to hopefully gain some speed back.
The ability to make folders has been so worth the upgrade.
The update really slowed down my 3G, but a hard reset (hold down the home button and the power button at same time) solved it completely. Now the phone works better than before!
@Uncle Fester’s cousin
I don’t want to restore. I don’t want to wipe my device and lose my application data and settings. I shouldn’t have to. That’s my whole point.
I didn’t do that with any of my previous Apple devices. Not my G3 B/W, not my mini, my iMac or my Macbook Pro. I’m not doing it with my iPhone either.
If I wanted to go through any of that BS, I’d have a Windows PC and an Android, dontcha think?
I get that my 3G is two years old, but Apple definitely screwed something up this time around. I hardly believe I’m the only one who thinks so. This is *NOT* the Apple experience.
Sheesh! And I thought I was a fanboy and an evangelist!
Yes, after the hard reset, my phone is faster. Very easy.
I am using a 2nd gen iPod touch and it is like a nightmare. I wish I could just go back to 3.1.3. The most frustrating part is that my favorite pandora is all messed up. They need yo go back tongue drawing board with this OS. I’m apple for life but soon as I get my android phone I may never use my touch again.
Kyle
Dude…. you don’t loose anything (we didn’t) did you read my post?
We restored (from backup) the tech said if you want to use the backup (rather than a new device like Deus-ex did) you need to reset settings (which is system settings not any application data) and then do a hard reboot to force a file system check and rebuild.
The only thing that I had to do was put the password for our wifi router back in. All apps and app data were exactly as they were before.
Have you called apple or taken it to a genius bar?
It is true that the 3G battery drains down excessively with IOS4. For example, I fully charged my phone last night before going to bed and it was almost dead by 3:00 PM despite not even using it!
I also enjoy my old iphone, it can do many things.
and now iOS 4.0 have already Jailbreak on iPhone 3G..
You can see this article:
“Jailbreak and unlock iPhone 3GS for iOS 4 on Mac “
Learn how to jailbreak iOS 4 iPhone 3GS with PwnageTool and unlock iOS 4 iPhone 3GS with UltraSn0w on Mac.
http://www.ifunia.com/iphone-column/jailbreak-and-unlock-iphone-3gs.html
And more iphone3G/4 detials are in this iphone spot .
The BS trolls are out in force again. I have upgraded my 3GS without any problems.
Anyone who thinks their 3G is going to rock on 4 is an idiot.
@ Ubermac
Agreed. My 3G rocks on iOS4 like my G3 blue and white rocks on Leopard. Not gonna happen. The 3Gs performance may be acceptable. 3G is not.
In the meantime, I’ll patiently wait and see what the 4.1 update brings but I’ll dump my 3G in a heartbeat and upgrade to iPhone4 as soon as it’s available.
Until then, iOS4 on 3G sucks! Those of us dealing with this pathetic mess on a daily basis aren’t likely to believe claims to the contrary.
Bluetooth connectivity issues, anyone?
@iKyle
You’re absolutely right. Upgrading iPhone 3G & 3GS phones to iOS4 hasn’t been a very “Apple” experience. And, no you shouldn’t have to loose you application data. It does suck, and Apple most certainly should do better.
Leaving that aside, you can still get a great experience with your phone. Try the process that @Uncle Fester’s cousin posted (I didn’t know about that process when I was solving my probs). According to him, you’ll be able to retain your app data. Or take it to the Genius Bar. We know now Apple is at least investigating the issue, and that the Genius Bar guys will probably recognize the problem and mitigate for you.
Yes, it sucks. But you can get it fixed and move on. Hooray!
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@ Ubermac, I’m no troll. Read my posts going back years on thus site and others. I’ve been a happy Mac user for almost 20 years, a shareholder for 10, ecstatic iPhone user for 2, and a mucho-happy iPad user for 3 solid months.
iPhone 3Gs? I’m sure you’re fine. I have a 3, with another 2 years on my contract, and it’s not running in a ‘snappy’ way right now. It’s so bad that people would have a hard time believing the iPhone has overturned the entire industry. IRS very un-Apple like right now. I have every faith they’ll fix it, but frustrated it hasn’t happened yet.
As for supporting old hardware, Apple has a good track record. I have a G3 PowerMac that’s been running as a server 24/7 for a decade now — it got snappier with every OS upgrade, without exception.
I think you guys are both either trolling or have been sharing a left handed cigarette. ;;-)
iOS4 works fine (again it is barely slower than 3.X was) on the iPhone 3G.
My G3 now has no cell service but it still used daily as an iPod with a camera/webcam quality movie camera, and also as a GPS (using the $5 copilot live) and the performance is FINE it is not terribly sluggish nor does it consume the battery charge any faster than it did.
Is it iPhone4 snappy, well no, that silly, but it wasn’t stellar fast with iPhone OS 3 either (v3. was a tad sluggish on the 3G’s). Actually truth be told there was a much more noticeable performance degradation going from 2 to 3 than from 3 to 4 (which was a BARELY noticeable difference on my 3G).
And no bluetooth works fine on it, before and after the update. Perhaps you are thinking of the droids which are reported to have a horrible time with bluetooth.
I have had to restart my 3GS more often than before to try to clean up what feels like dragging applications. Something just doesn’t feel right on it anymore though I really like the new features… if everything else isn’t broken.
It is with sadness that after decades of being a trusting Mac user I no longer believe Apple’s word on any software upgrades. I now watch forums very closely before ever taking the plunge. As an iPhone 3G owner I’m sure glad I have NOT upgraded to pOS4.
I can confirm both the lagging and the remedy, to do a complete restore fixes the problem. My guess is that the problem has to do with some file permission issues, which causes similar problems on big OS X devices.
Glad to see so many people speaking honestly about the IOS4 on 3G and 3Gs iPhones. I have IOS4 on my 3Gs and have had all kind of problems : bluetooth,battery life,slow,sync problems just to name a few. I’m a mac user. I appreciate the way their products usually worked well in the past. I own and have owned most everything they have made. I’m a fan. But not an apologist. It’s not like it used to be 10-15 years ago when you were a Mac guy. Now they’re simply the biggest company around. They are beginning to have quality issues with their products. That’s very un Mac like. I’m getting tired of it.
FWIW, iOS4 works great on my 3G and my wife’s 3G. Mail loads fast (with multiple accounts), camera works great, including digital zooming, navigation is fast.
Like everyone else with the 3G it is running very slow with the latest software. Please correct this…….
@Deus Ex Technica: I did exactly what you posted three times. Once after the update to ios4, then twice after updating to ios4.01, on the advise of Apple Tech support. on the last restore as new, I didn’t even load any third party apps. The phone was still a dog. I waited up to 21 seconds for apps to respond, and worse yet, my phone would run out of juice three times a day.
I updated to an iphone 4 a couple of days ago in frustration. I have 30 days to decide if I want to keep it. If I have issues, it’s goodbye iPhone, hello something else.
Every time I’ve ever updated the OS on my 3G the battery has at first been terrible. I’ve nothing but my own experience but I’ve always found resetting all my settings fixes this. At the moment my battery life is pretty decent on iOS4, however I definitely agree that it’s slow, actually not so much slow, but slow to respond, when it does it acts like normal.
jotaeh
Be very careful my friend, a couple of my buds we convinced to “upgrade” to ‘roids by the apple hating tech press and the army of trolls that seems to be everywhere…
They were terribly disappointed, most of the features have been copied from the iPhone and even some new directions Problem is they just don’t work like an iPhone, and many of the things they just assumed work, don’t and the phone become sluggish quickly forcing constant reboots, and they can suck the charge out of the batteries in just a few hours.
One was able to return his ‘roid and get an iP4, the other is stuck with it.
I have iPhone 3G with iOS-4 installed, apart from some of the functions not being available I have not noticed any slow down.As for the battery running down faster I have not noticed any difference at all. My wife as iPhone 4 and its really is a great device, she can’t understand what all the fuss is about regarding the supposed drop in signal, she has not noticed any problem with either signal strength or dropped calls. The audio is crystal clear and she is impressed with camera and video functions.
My 3G is as slow as a week in the Bar-L. 12 seconds to get the camera app. Small improvement since turning off ALL spotlight apps. Now it’s 5 seconds.
The unified inbox is the KILLER APP for me so I have to put up with the slow OS on my 3G. Gonna get the white iPhone 4 fully unlocked later (i.e., not in USA).
@Uncle Fester’s cousin
After taking my smackdown from a couple of you for not doing the “restore” plan, I followed your advise and it’s done (took an hour and a half).
What I’ve found:
You are correct. I didn’t lose most of my personal data. Some Apple apps and settings needed to be reconfigured (Weather, wireless, etc.) No big deal.
Overall, my 3G’s performance IS faster. It was also faster after a hard restart, but that didn’t last long, so the jury is still out on this one.
Navigon is back to its usual 1 1/2 minute loading time (down from the previous 3+ minutes) Hopefully, GPS is also working better and I’m not directed to make a U-turn in the middle of an Interstate on-ramp again! Google maps just froze. Haven’t tried it after the rebuild.
My Plantronics Voyager Pro headset still randomly disconnects. No difference – during calls or on standby. It still requires a trip into Preferences to get it to connect again – same as before. Sometimes switching to “Airplane Mode” and back will make it connect, but usually not. Under 3.1.3 I never had a problem with it. No need to ever turn the headset off, re-pair it, etc. Something is definitely not right with the 3G’s BT and iOS 4.
While at least I can actually use my iPhone 3G again without wanting to blend it, I’m still waiting to see what the 4.1 update brings. Definitely upgrading to iPhone 4 as soon as I can (with no fear of the joke that is “Antennagate”).
For the record, I am neither troll nor “fandroid”. I’ve followed MDN for a number of years, but rarely post here specifically because of the attack posture that seems to inevitably occur when someone suggests that Apple may be occasionally somewhat less than perfect. This was no exception. I do, however, thank you for providing the tips on performing the rebuild.
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