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One of the appealing aspects of iPhones is their smooth user experience. While iPhones typically outperform their competitors in the same price range, they too can slow down over time. iOS updates can sometimes be a double-edged sword, causing iPhones to lag. But fret not! You can rev up your iPhone with the following tips.
Unlocking the Speed Potential of Your Slow iPhone
1. Restart Your iPhone
Restarting your device is often the first troubleshooting step recommended in IT support. Powering off and restarting can resolve issues and enhance performance. This trick is quick and easy, so there's no reason not to give it a shot. Press and hold the power button and swipe the Slide to power off button to turn off the device. Then, press and hold the power button again until you see the Apple logo appear.
2. Reduce Visual Effects
While eye-catching, fancy effects can slow down your phone. Hence, you can speed up your iPhone a tad by turning off or reducing effects. Head to Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size and enable Reduce Transparency. Also, consider accessing Settings > Accessibility > Motion and turn on Reduce Motion.
3. Uninstall Unused Apps
Scroll through all the apps and games on your iPhone, and uninstall anything you don't use regularly or never touch. They not only take up space but can also consume resources by running and updating in the background. Simply long-press the app you want to remove and tap the X to uninstall the app on iPhone.
4. Update iOS
Apple introduces new iOS updates not only to bring new features but also to enhance the overall performance of the iPhone. So, check if there are any new updates available and proceed with the update if there are.
You can do this by going to Settings > General > Software Update. iPhone will check for updates and prompt you to download and install if there are any available updates.
5. Disable Siri
Siri can be very useful, but you should consider disabling some features to improve iPhone performance. Siri may automatically suggest things when you search on iOS 9 and later versions, but this feature slows down iPhone. To turn it off, go to Settings > Siri & Search.
Another feature affecting performance is Hey Siri. If you own an iPhone 6S or newer models, you can say Hey Siri anytime to summon Siri. If you want to disable this feature, you'll find it in Settings > Siri & Search, turn off Listen for 'Hey Siri'.
6. Disable Automatic Updates and Downloads
If you go to Settings > iTunes & App Stores, you'll find an option called Automatic Downloads. If your iPhone is the only device linked to your Apple ID, you may want to enable this option, but if not, you can automatically download new apps and content you've purchased on other devices that you don't want on your iPhone.
Additionally, you can also halt other automatic background processes (such as automatic email fetching) by putting your iPhone into Low Data Mode. Go to Settings > Mobile Data > Mobile Data Options and then enable Low Data Mode.
7. Utilize Default Apps
This might truly irk some people, but few realize that Apple's apps perform best with the iPhone. They're set as defaults for most core functions, like email, navigation, and web browsing. They might not always be the most feature-rich, but if you want the fastest and smoothest performance, you should stick with them.
8. Disable Background App Refresh
Some apps continue to run in the background, syncing data and refreshing content while you're unaware of these activities. They can slow everything down and significantly reduce battery life. Contrary to popular belief, double-tapping the home button and swiping everything away isn't the answer.
What you should do is go to Settings > General > Background App Refresh and disable this option or at least disable it for selected apps. The only difference is that the app will sync when you activate it, instead of continuously syncing in the background.
9. Delete Old Files
Whether it's an old video file, a safely backed-up photo, outdated text messages, or data stored in the cache, old files you no longer need are a useless resource. So, head to Settings > General > iPhone Storage and you can see what's taking up the most storage space. Delete anything you don't need. For some apps, uninstalling and reinstalling them to clear cache data might be a good idea.
10. Clear Browsing History
Go to Settings > Safari > Clear History and Website Data and delete all unnecessary files in Safari. This may slow down web browsing in the short term as your iPhone will need to store the web pages you revisit, but it could achieve higher performance in cleaning up junk each time.
11. Reset iPhone
This is a more drastic way to speed up your iPhone. You should only resort to this method if all the above tricks are ineffective and you're unsure why your phone is running slow. As resetting will erase everything on the iPhone, you need to back up all important data. Then, go to Settings > General > Reset > Reset All Settings to reset everything. After the reset process is complete, you can choose Restore from iCloud Backup to retrieve files. A more radical approach is to perform a Factory Reset, reverting the iPhone to its factory state by going to Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings.
The reasons for an iPhone's slowness often include junk files, insufficient free space, or outdated software. So, before considering getting a new iPhone, you can try applying some of the speed-up tips shared above to improve the performance of your iPhone. Refer to How to Speed Up a Slow iPhone for more information.
