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Home > Industry News > iOS 4: iPhone 3G users angry over slowdowns, lack of advance warning

iOS 4: iPhone 3G users angry over slowdowns, lack of advance warning

June 28, 2010    

iOS 4 runs sparklingly on an iPhone 4 and just fine on an iPhone 3GS, according to our in-house tests and various third party findings. However, the story is different for those who have installed Apple’s new mobile operating system on their discontinued iPhone 3G, which has several iPhone 3G users upset over not only the lags and slowdowns they’ve experienced thus far on their iOS4-enabled iPhone 3G, but also the lack of any warning from Apple about what they were in for before they installed it. Some Beatweek readers are even suggesting something more sinister:

“I would say that for the average user the itunes prompt that says “new software available, want to upload doesn’t give you any warnings that this could include many cons that may outweigh the benefits. I’m a bit more aware and went in with my eyes open as I’m going to replace the phone soon so could manage to live with a few problems, but even so was surprised at the mystery lags I’ve encountered that have made this a worse phone on balance, despite bring features I love.” – Adebrophy

“I do like seeing both emails on the same page, that is cool. But not sure it was worth the 2.5 hours it took to install it and not to mention I still have to put all my songs back on. I think Apple should have said “do this if you want” – Milesbradford

“As for iOS4 on 3G hardware. Mine is such a backwards step that I feel it should have come with a warning before the install.” – Greg

“Yeah my iphone was already getting more and more sluggish and this was the knife in the coffin. It takes for ever just to load my sms app. Everything seems to be slower.” – Ggioe

“It’s almost unusable. I’m hoping fixed in 4.0.1. Thinking of downgrading back to 3.” – Mark Peden

“I installed iOS4 on my iPhone 3G and now I am debating if I should try to restore back to the older OS. The problem is that my iPhone 3G seems sluggish now. Some apps that opened very quickly before just sit there unresponsive.”

Beatweek’s own hands-on experiences in running iOS 4 on an iPhone 3G are right here.

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Comments

  • Cruzinnchrome
    Yeah I installed new 4.0 software and it drove a stake through my phone, unreasonable lag and had no warning from apple.. Big let down, how do you put the old software back on?
  • deadPhone
    ..and still no response from Apple to its iPhone 3 customers. Pity they're not as flash when fixing their mess as they are with product launches..
  • DJ
    I upgraded my iPhone 3G to iOS 4. Now all my apps are opening very slow, even Safari is not loading at once. Some apps are getting blacked out. Contacts loads after 2sec and then when I select any contact for details, it takes another 2sec to load.
    Apple should do something about it or I have to downgrade to iOS 3.
  • Guest
    Purposefully done by Apple so you feel the need to upgrade - written from my super fast iPhone 4
  • DC10
    Well I think we all need to complain to Apple because they were selling the 3G phones up to May. My son bought one and they said it wouldn;t be a problem with the upgrades. The phone is unusable and we could not downgrade to the previous version. I think apple needs to do something about this problem.
  • Facts of Life
    apple doesnt care about 3g users
  • Ybeame
    4.0 sucks way to slow on 3G
  • Well done for plugging away at this - kind of think Steve might forget about/ignore iPhone 3 users due to all the i4 antenna / sacked engineers / proximity sensor issues.

    Have tried various remedies but iPhone 3 is still brain-dead-slow in iOS 4 and Safari is still crashing every 10 minutes.

    Mark.
  • Sudhir
    iOS 4
    Performance – Very slow on 3G
    Camera permanently disabled
    I will plan to restore the previous version
  • RottenApple
    Apple has clearly become too big and gotten too much momentum in the sales of new gear to care one ounce about current users. Not surprising, they've been going that way for a while, but very sad nonetheless.

    One thing is the new iOS4 is painfully slugguish on a 3G, but Apple offers no warning before upgrading, no easy way of downgrading, and no way of disabling new unwanted features - like that stupid new wallpaper. All signs of a company that has become too big.

    APPLE YOU SUCK!
  • R_ivie
    I uploaded the new iOS4 and my phone is soooooo slow its upsetting. I can't afford to upgrade to the newer iphone so I guess I will just be unhappy!
  • J2112
    Look at it from Apple's point of view - what's the easiest way to get people to buy your latest product? Make the older products so frustrating to use that people will upgrade. I share everyone's pain (current 3G owner on iOS4) but let's be real, our phones are 2 years old and Apple needs us to upgrade, so it's not in their best interest to go out of their way to satisfy our best interests....
  • Sjobs
    My next phone will not be an iPhone anymore
    an Angry 3G customer.
  • Ajay
    My iPhone 3G has become so slow with the iOS4 that today I was unable to answer a phone call. By the time the phone responded to the "slide", the call had timed out.
  • Amy
    Same problem here, just installed os4 2 days ago on my 3G phone and can't believe how slow my phone is now, it takes so long for itunes to launch I usually just abort.

    I am very disappointed that Apple released this update when they must have know about this issue.
  • Asmolloy67
    Totally agree with everyone, too sluggish, almost un-useable and a wee warning prior to upgrade would have been nice.
  • Tamwa26
    I installed ios 4 on my 3g and it took a good minute for a key press to come up on the screen not to mention how many times I had to reboot due to it locking up. I downgraded back to 3.1.3 on iTunes only to receive an error 1015 but lucky I knew the irecovery trick and forced a reboot now I'm back on 3.1.3 and happy again
  • ios4 slow
    every app on my iphone 3g takes forever to open. I think apple should allow us to restore to 3.1.2
  • Adding to everything you guys said it also drains your battery life a lot. My phone use to last 2 days(Internet over wi-fi only) and now it only last about 7 hours. Sucks, hopefully they fix this. Apple is paying more attention to the new iPhone 4 than to anything else.
  • Louise14
    I am 3G user too, im hoping apple developement team take care this problem as soon as possible
  • Mahjan39
    I have apple 3G & installed V4 software. Phone has become so slugish thsat it can not be used. The contact Photos are blurred.
    Apple if you are listening do some thing Practical. One is the you exchange 3G with 4G at discounted prices. Before this upgrade, I jusat loved it, and made manny friend to buy it . now every one is cursing me. Mahajan
  • Drown2
    Just downgraded, 3G was unusable with IOS4. Couldn't even answer incoming phone calls the thing was so unresponsive. No big deal....
  • Ryan9d
    My 3GS won't sync with my car anymore. I'm extremely irritated. Who knows how to safely downgrade?
  • Guy
    Absolutely! As a 3G owner, I hate Apple today. I dont CARE about more bells and whistles if it means trekking through the mire at every click. I went and complained to a guy at the Apple store, and he pulled out his 3G and said: "I sympathize. It's driving me nuts too." Stupid.
  • Niek
    I had a 5 hr download and Itunes stopped working 2 times and crashed once trying to load to the 3G. Now settings comes up and may or may not display the systems setting and then goes back to the icon display. IPOD fails either 10 secs or loading song to play or the next tune. About half of the applications fail. They seem to fail when the apparently trying to access data. It has restarted several times over past 4 days. Have done the restore and reload restarting the Iphone. The phone calls work so the basic use is there. Haven't seen anything about a fix. Is there a way to go back to ios3?
  • Ajeet Bharti
    iPhone 3G owners are experiencing problems after installing the latest iOS 4 update. The phone has not only become slow but at times becomes unresponsive. Many users have reported that it hangs if you try to take some quick work from it.

    Apple released the iOS 4 a week ago and with that released the new iPhone 4 with the latest OS, iOS 4 which enables multitasking and folder functionality along with a claimed 100 features.
    Apple has earlier declined multitasking on iPhone 3G, the second generation iPhone that came as the top feature of iOS 4 update. Once I, who own an iPhone 3G installed the updated version after prompt from the iTunes, the iPhone got slow in processing.
    The same phone which ran flawlessly over the last iPhone OS 3.2 started to give a tough time. Some common problems after installing iOS 4 on iPhone 3g are:
    1. The overall performance of the phone is slow
    2. The iPhone becomes unresponsive if you try to do things fast
    3. iPhone 3G hangs
    4. The selection of contacts becomes slow and at times dead
    5. Folders will open but icons won’t work the way they work, the app will be fired but after you have used many buttons
    6. The device gets hot after you use it for a while

    I hope Apple will fix it in the update for the iOS 4 problems on iPhone 3G that it is expected to roll out in some time soon.
  • iOS4 killed my 3g. Texting is now the worst experience ever! It frustrates me that Apple didn't look into this further, and I really, really hope they come out with a fix for this in their rumored 4.0.1 update. So far I've heard it only addresses the reception issue for the iPhone4, but I could be wrong. This makes me want to throw my phone against the wall, but I cant because my sister wants my phone when i upgrade to the 4. Only thing is, I don't want her to deal with all this lag either. They need to fix it. Oh, texting and playing music at the same time is a call for disaster! Mind you I also restored and erased EVERYTHING but my contacts and still just as bad!

    one angry iphone customer,
    Mugzee18
  • I've had my iPhone 3G for 18 months, and have been having these issues for the last few firmware updates. Here's what finally fixed it for me.

    Basically, when you close Safari it doesn't get unloaded from memory - it just hides itself. This leaves my phone with only 12Mb of free memory.

    To make Safari actually unload itself (and free up another 30Mb of memory), you have to leave it with no open web page.

    I have put instructions here for people who aren't sure what I mean!
    http://www.andrewstechnology.co.uk/reference/tips/38-iphone-3g-lag-fix.html

    This lets my phone run normally, although the keyboard still lags for a short while when I re-open Safari.

    Hope that helps someone!
  • captainpoopypants
    Dude, thanks for the heads up! Seems simple enough. I don't care about closing all my safari windows and spotlight (mentioned in your link) if it means less lag on the UI. My phone is definitely faster now. Here I thought I would just commiserate with other 3g owners and I actually learned something! Thanks!
  • Almacote
    Paul. I so appreciate that you shared this with all of us. I tried your fix with safari, unfortunately, when I try to close the last page out of safari, it does not give me the "X" to close it so it always has a page open, even if it is blank. Do you happen to know a what to force this? Thanks again for your post!!! -Alma
  • Hi Alma,

    You should end up with a blank page - Safari has to show "something" on the screen.

    That's all you need to do - when you close Safari at that point it will unload.

    You can confirm this yourself by installing one of the free memory monitoring apps (I used "Memory Sweep" - I have no affiliation with it), and running it after you've left a page left 'open' in Safari and when you've left it blank.

    You may find that other programs are running when you don't expect them to be, such as the iPod (be aware there are lots of things that are running in the background that you won't recognise). If so, there is a procedure to force these to close - hold down the Sleep/Wake button for four seconds until the "Slide to power off" message appears. Then hold the Home button for four seconds to force-kill the app.
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