iPhone 3G running slow after iOS 4? Speed up your slow iPhone 3G with these tips

Jul 28, 2010 - 93 Comments

If your iPhone 3G is running really slow after installing iOS 4, you’re not alone. While iOS 4 is a great OS for newer iPhone models, it makes my older iPhone 3G slow down to a crawl, with everything delayed and stuttering to catch up to touch. At times it’s practically unusable. So what can you do to speed it up?

Update: The first thing you should do is grab the iOS 4.1 download since it resolves some of the speed problems. After you install iOS 4.1, combine the update with the following tips to regain your iPhone 3G speed:

speed up iphone 3g with ios 4

Disable Spotlight on iPhone 3G

If iOS 4 has your iPhone 3G crawling, disable Spotlight search:

  • Tap on “Settings”
  • Tap on “General”
  • Navigate to and select “Home Button”
  • Scroll down to “Spotlight Search”
  • Disable everything by tapping the check box next to each item
  • Exit settings

You can leave some of the Spotlight search items enabled but I find that the best speed improvement comes from disabling everything.

I don’t even use Spotlight on my iPhone so I’m not missing this feature at all, but it does seem to improve the speed of the iPhone 3G in common tasks like flipping between screens, scrolling through text messages and emails, and even launching some apps.

Bottom line: if you don’t use Spotlight in iOS, disable it!

Hard reset iPhone 3G

Hard resetting your iPhone can speed it up for a while. Here’s how to do it:

  • Press and hold the Home button and the Sleep/Wake button at the same time, hold both for about 5 seconds
  • Ignore the typical ‘Slide to power off message’ and continue holding both buttons until the iPhone shuts itself off
  • When your iPhone 3G resets itself you can stop holding the buttons, it takes about 10 seconds to hard reset the iPhone
  • Let iOS boot as usual, your phone should be temporarily sped up

This works because it clears your iPhone’s memory completely, but this is less of a permanent solution than disabling Spotlight since caches and memory will inevitably be full again.

Restore factory settings and do not restore from backup

I don’t like this solution much because you lose your backups, but it does seem to help iOS 4 run a bit better on the iPhone 3G. Basically you’re just doing a clean iOS 4 install on the iPhone, but then you are left with an empty phone. You can obviously easily resync your music but you’ll lose all your iPhone text message backups, contacts, apps, and pretty much anything else that made it your phone.

Downgrade from iOS 4 to iOS 3.1.3

If you’re totally fed up with iPhone 3G and iOS 4, you can always just downgrade to the prior OS version, but it’s not a particularly fun process and you obviously lose out on all the iOS 4 features.

Thoughts on iPhone 3G and iOS 4

I know I would have been annoyed if Apple had left out the iPhone 3G from being able to upgrade to iOS 4, but I feel like the performance is just terrible. It’s no wonder they left out multitasking and background pictures, but even without those features it just doesn’t run well on the older and slower hardware of the 3G. There are some rumors (ie: wishful thinking) swirling that when iOS 4 for iPad is released and the iOS 4 versions are bridged in iOS 4.1 (or whatever the version ends up being), that the performance will improve on iPhone 3G. I’m not counting on that and here’s why: the iOS 4.1 beta is already available for download and people have put it on their iPhone 3G to practically no avail. Perhaps future versions will change and we just don’t know that yet, but for now I am not a fan of iOS4 my older iPhone 3G.

Update: the final release of iOS 4.1 make the iPhone 3G run a lot better than iOS 4, but iPhone OS 3.1.3 is still faster. It’s up to you whether or not the iOS 4 features are worth the performance hit.

Oh, and if you have an iPhone 3G, do yourself a favor and do not upgrade to iOS 4! Folders and editing playlists are not worth the huge slowdown!

.

Related articles:

Posted by: Paul Horowitz in iPhone, Troubleshooting

93 Comments

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  1. […] the release of a new OS brings unwanted consequences. For an older example, the release of iOS 4 runs very slow on iPhone 3G and the increased software lag and response time noticeably degrades battery performance as a side […]

  2. Sreedhar says:

    Dear Sir,

    I am using Apple I phone 3G (8GB) in this mobile having iOS 4.2.1, can i upgrade this version to iOS 4.3, it is possible, and phone also working very slow. what is the solution.

  3. Gandalf says:

    Thank you, very helpful!

  4. AJ says:

    Thanks for this tip about speeding up iphone 3g, my iphone’s speed is back to normal now and there’s no more lag. Thanks again! Cheers!

  5. Doug says:

    Bought 2, iPhone 3GS about 9 months ago. About 3 months ago, one started dropping calls. I spoke to ATT & Apple. ATT did some things to “reset the phone to the tower”, so they say. Apple did nothing. The problem began getting worse. If I’m talking on the phone and get a text, the call will drop. Always shows 3 to 4 bars in signal. Called ATT 9 times since the problem started, called Apple 3 times, and ATT also did a 3 way conference call with Apple & me, twice.

    Apple swears it is a software problem with ATT sim card, so ATT replaced the sim card. Did not help. ATT swears it is a hardware problem. Long story short, I have been paying over 100.00 for the past 3 months, but can’t make calls longer than 20 seconds. Home button also started acting up. Sometimes you have to push it very hard several times to get any reaction. And you have to push it on the right hand side of the button or it will not work.

    Apple finally gave in, because the hardware warranty is still good, and said to take it to the local Apple store for replacement, because of the home button, not because it was dropping calls. Well, Apple store in Lafayette Louisiana does not handle iPhones….hmmm there’s a kick in the teeth. Apple tells me to go to THAT store, but that store is useless when it comes to phones.

    So, I bring the phone back home, and called ATT again. This time to cancel the account. I have been a ping pong ball between Apple & ATT long enough.

    Again, they do conference call with Apple, but now Apple wants 35.00 from me to send them the phone… why?? The phone only weighs a few ounces, I can FedEx overnight for about 15.00. I refused to pay anything. It’s under warranty, and they have been shinning me on for 3 months. I told ATT that I wanted to end the conference call with Apple and proceed with canceling the contract. ATT said I had to pay a penalty for canceling early. I told them to take me to court, I refuse to pay that also, simply because I have paid over 300.00 in the last 3 months for service that I didn’t get. The phone is a great iPod, but a terrible phone during the last 3 months.

    So, then ATT steps up, and offers me a free phone upgrade, 3 months early. I was surprised, but interested. I refused their offer for another iPhone, simply because of Apple. I would never ever buy another iPhone. Not that they are all bad phones, but because support is non-exsistant, even with warrenty and Apple care. Apple has offered absolutely no support in the past 3 months. They have done nothing all the way through this nightmare, but blame ATT’s network, which is bull. I can use the other iPhone, make a call and talk for hours, hang up, call the same person with the bad phone, and the call drops within 20 seconds. I know it’s not the network. I did take ATT’s offer for the HTC 4 Inspire. My total out of pocket cost for this phone was 4.06.

    ATT waved all the fees and didn’t ask me for anything except 4.06 which was some kind of tax that they couldn’t get around.

    So, be careful spending money on Apple care…. because Apple, really doesn’t care!

  6. georgie says:

    Awesome! Great advice with removing the spotlight settings…can’t believe I put up with the problem for so long. Now my phone works a treat. You are a legend! Big ups!

    • Eric says:

      Same here! I never acknowledged iOS4 as being the culprit since my 3G has been slow for as long as I can remember. Disabling spotlight search functionality (that I, like the author, never used nor knew existed) helped a fair deal! Now, I’m almost hesitant to upgrade to a Galaxy II S next week… Almost :-P

  7. RobMac says:

    Anyone with an iPhone 4 and finds that after updating to 4.3.3 the phone works but internet, 3G, wireless are utterly useless, this worked for me:

    On the phone itself delete everything, the one where it says are you sure you want to delete everything (RESET). When it wants iTunes again, plug the phone in and restore from the last backup.

    And it works again YEAH!!

  8. heaRt HaKeR says:

    The spotlight search and location services worked for meh…thanks :D

  9. Larry says:

    Gosh thanks. A life saver. Disabling spotlight worked like a champ. On 4.2. Now it’s fast like it used to be.

    Thanks.

  10. […] earlier, this is a great tip for older hardware in particular, especially anyone coping with the painfully slow experience of iOS 4+ on an iPhone 3G or an older iPod […]

  11. davidthedave says:

    I have had my iPhone 3g for 2 1/2 years now and until recently have been very happy with it. I was actually looking forward to upgrading it to a 4 shortly. I’d put the recent dead-slowness down to age/abuse.

    I am now very seriously reconsidering. I’ve been a huge Apple advocate for over 15 years but now see them lapsing into a Microsoft mindset. Sad.

  12. VictoriaLeigh says:

    The thing I hate the most about this is that when I bought the 3G, I had to sign up for the two-year contract, which I’m sure a lot of you had to as well. So now I’m stuck waiting for my contract to be up (it’s only going to be another month, thank god) in order to get the iPhone 4 and to stop feeling the urge to launch this thing across the room, otherwise I would have to pay nearly $600 for it, and my parents will not pay that kind of money just for a phone – they’d rather put it toward things I’ll need for college next fall. A lot of my friends were telling me to just get rid of the iPhone altogether, but even with all of its problems, I can’t picture myself with any other phone.

  13. K says:

    THANK YOU! THANK YOU!! I could kiss you!

  14. Liam Smith says:

    Hey everyone i have an iPhone 3G 16gb jailbroken, my iphone was so slow it wasn’t able to do much so i started to research a little the first thing i found was that the “spotlight search” slows the iphone down. Another thing is the “Location Services” which slows down the iPhone 3G down alot and the last and most important one the “3G” network should be disabled when your not using internet and disabling it also saves alot of battery life.

  15. Mark says:

    My phone was so slooooowwww when I upgraded and now it is a lot better. I have disabled the spotlight and most of the location services. It is much faster but still slow. However, I have over 4200 images on there – do you think this would make a difference.

    • Liam Smith says:

      This would definitely make a difference i had 700 photos at one time and my iPhone 3G was so slow and when i deleted the photos i noticed a big change in the iPhone’s performance.

  16. Dale says:

    The question I have with all the 3G speed up tips after going to 4.1 is how it compares to the original 3.1.3 on the 3G. I realize the tips and 4.1 upgrade improved the performance compared to the initial 4.0 install without tweeks, but in the end how does it compare to 3.1.3. i.e. if you have disabled spotlight, and you have 4.1 on a 3G phone, not a 3GS phone, would you rather you stuck with 3.1.3 on your 3G.

    I have not upgraded yet, but like the idea of folders and some of the 4.1 features.

    Thanks,

    Dale

  17. SK says:

    I have upgraded my 3g phone to OS4. After turning off spotlight performance is much much better. thanks verymuch
    -SK

  18. Tom says:

    You all do not even know what your talking about.

    First off, the solution is to get a newer iPhone, Ya if you find some way to speed up your iPHone 3G it will fix it, BUT NOT PERMENENTLY!!! The thing to do is get the iphone 4. The iOS 4 works way more better on it, and once you have the operating system iOS 4 on your iPhone 3G then you cant get rid of iOS 4. YOUR STUCK WITH IT!

    Thanks!

    -Tom

  19. MJ says:

    Turning off spotlight really helped! Before
    doing so it was sooooooo slow. Thanks
    for the tip.

  20. JB says:

    I agree with all those talking about os4 and the 3G. I hadn’t realised I wouldn’t get all the features of os4 – and was woefully dissappointed after I’d downloaded it.

    However, simply making that change to spotlight search has improved the speed already – so thank you for the advice.

    I had thought of downgrading to the last 3. version – but the hassle factor puts me off.

    Cheers,

    J.

  21. Laura says:

    Holy cow!! Worked like a CHARM!! Thanks for making this phone bearable. I can’t believe such a dumb feature could slow down the phone so drastically.

  22. […] of the currently relevant devices; the newest iPod touch 4G, iPhone 4, iPad, and iPhone 3GS (sorry iPhone 3G, you’re slow with iOS 4 […]

  23. TempHelp says:

    I downloaded latest OS 4.1 and if fixed the Iphone 3G issue. The device is back to the fast mode now.

  24. […] – No Comments There was a lot of speculation and hope that iOS 4.1 would help fix the dreadfully slow speed of iOS 4 on iPhone 3G. Well, it did. Having installed iOS 4.1 on an older iPhone 3G I can confirm that speed is […]

  25. […] The software update is hotly anticipated, not only for its additional features but for some significant bug fixes including the proximity sensor issue on iPhone 4, and apparently iOS 4.1 improves the speed and performance of the iPhone 3G, which makes it a necessary download for any owner of a 3G running slow iOS 4.0. […]

  26. […] an interesting post that suggests turning off Spotlight on the iphone, as that may be culprit. I’ve just done this, so I’ll have to post an […]

  27. […] running iOS 4, you’ve certainly suffered from the performance and speed issues. To say that iOS 4 runs slow on iPhone 3G is an understatement, it runs terribly slow almost to the point of being […]

  28. […] iOS 4 slowness problems with iPhone 3G fixed – this is a big one for iPhone 3G owners […]

  29. Ramsey says:

    I still think 4.0 kills my battery way to fast. I just need the new iphone 4 on t-mobile asap!

  30. Houston Brown says:

    I think it is amazing that there are so many people willing to go to the ends of the earth to make there phones work like they should. Why doesn’t apple just test this out before they release it. It seems they are always releasing stuff in BETA and calling it ready. It is really annoying. We should not have to jump through hoops to get the performance from our high dollar products after an UPDATE. Yes, I am venting a bit here but at the same time, there is a lot of truth to this observation as well. Just my $0.02.

    • Stepher says:

      @Houston, it’s not just Apple that does this. For some reason though, everyone jumps on every little glitch that Apple makes. I’m not saying it is right, but don’t point your mouse at only Apple.

      For example it’s strange how the whole iPhone bumper/antenae issue, which affected 4% of users, blew up so huge. But Dell was somehow spared the same major press when it was revealed they’ve been replacing know faulty machines with know faulty machines for years. This ‘oversight’ as they seem to suggest, affect thousands of computers over many years.

      http://www.techspot.com/news/39476-court-documents-show-dell-knowingly-sold-faulty-computers.html

  31. Ashi says:

    WOW :)
    my iphone 3g was so slow i was thinking of getting rid of it.
    i did a hard reset twice which helped a little but i think disabling the spotlight settings helped the most.

  32. Bryan says:

    I highly recommend downgrading and jailbreaking. With a jailbroke 3g you can do everything OS4 does plus more. Cydia categories can create categories. SBsettings gives you total control over processes and memory that background apps use, biteSMS allows you to txt from anywhere in any program, winterboard allows you to customize your iphone with new icons, backgrounds, etc… 5 icon allows you to have 5 icon apps at the bottom, grooveshark is pandora on crack, cycorder allows you to record video on a 3g using the camera (it works really good), I could go on and on about it, but just try it yourself – it’s not that hard. Downgrade to 3.1.3 and jailbreak.

  33. T BONE says:

    How do I downgrade please?

  34. Jonathan says:

    I just downgraded today back to 3.1.3. I did not have a backup that I saved from that firmware so I lost everything but let me tell you, it was so worth it. Everything works normal again. I saved my 4.0.1 backup and when I get a new phone or they fix it I will restore that backup to get everything back. I strongly recommend downgrading it takes about 15 minutes and is honestly not that difficult, most of the time is spent downloading and installing old itunes & firmware.

  35. T BONE says:

    I have an iphone 3G.I did not buck-up my phone when upgrading to 4.0.I lost all my contacts and apps.I lost my apps icon on the screen too.I managed to load some contacts and notes saved a year ago on my last buck-up on a different comp.I tried to restore,hard reset and nothing doing.The phone is very slow too.How do I get my app icon on the screen again and also my speed?Please help.

  36. Julio says:

    Hi every one no need to downgrade or worry ant slowness of your 3G iPhone. This the solution. Tap home botton twice u will see alot applications running, exit all the applications by pressing one and hold, u will see they will start shaking with a red – attached to each it, tap the red sign to close. Close all applications and u will just enjoying ur new phone. The phone is slow bcos of multi tasking. Email me for more explanations. njulio6@gmail.com

    • Krister says:

      What do you mean? I don´t get multitasking with iOS 4.0.1 on my iPhone 3G. I don´t understand how you guys have multitasking on a iPhone 3G?

    • John D says:

      The applications you see on your screen aren’t all running simultaneously. You’re describing the procedure for removing applications from you phone.

    • Iracema says:

      Cara, já sabia desta dica de fechar os aplicativos com dois toques. Mas mesmo assim o meu iphone 3g é mais lento do que uma lesma!!! Já tentei de tudo e o danado não acelera na hora de navegar, mesmo com o status do operadora há 100%. Gastei uma nota neste aprelho e sincerasmente to arrependida!!!!!!!!!

  37. pteng says:

    I have tried additional steps to make my 3G works responsiveness in google map.
    My problem was the goggle map showing the blue circle jumping back and forth, and it has a very sluggish response (~10 seconds) in presenting the current position. I found out that I am not the only one, as there are many complaining about the same.

    What I did in addition to the original post (spotlight and etc), are:
    1. Disable all location service (Settings->General->LocationServices->), except goggle. This improves a bit.
    2. Disable 3G (Settings->General->Network). This improves a lot.

    My purpose is to make the 3G works for GPS, but obvious this defeats the benefit of getting faster network (for other network apps).
    I got the clue as I traveled to Toronto. I found my GPS working smoothly there (but not in US). I got the data roaming in Toronto. So it tells me something about network is the issue causing the GPS to fail.
    But of course, all these are temporary solutions, until Apple get its act together.

  38. Steve B says:

    I found an app in the App Store called FreeMemory. It’s very simple; you run it and it frees up tons of memory within a few seconds. It’s great to run just before i want to play a game or run my Tom Tom GPS app.

  39. lulusha says:

    in addition to disabling spotlight search, reducing the numner of apps running in the background ocnsiderably improves performance.
    to removes apps running in the background simple double click the home button. then hold the app until the “x” shows on the top right hand corner. tap on the “X” to kill the app. repeat the process until you have fewer apps showing as running in the background.
    this worsk for me. my 3g is back the way it was.
    OS 4 is the best.

  40. Stef says:

    That was fantastic. I have been beating this phone on it’s side trying to figure out a way to get it to work faster and I love how Apple gives us older iPhone users the heads up.

    Anyway, I did the unchecked everything and the phone is back to speedy gonzoles. Thanks again. Now I can add my music back on.

  41. Paul says:

    so i had this problem on a Jailbroken phone luckily I had installed sbsettings which gives me two very nice and handy features
    1) I actually get to see how much memory my phone has left
    2) I can actually remove and kill programs running in the background which has speeded everything up
    I’m not going into details here on how to do this as so many more knowledgeable people than I have posted how to do this on a number of sites.
    simply google jailbreak (so easy it is untrue) and sbsettings
    good luck :)

  42. angel says:

    i have a slight prob wid my iphone 3g …….i got the new update 4.0 but when i installed it …. my utilities folder app gets deleted……..how do i get it back ……..!plllllllzzzzzzzz HEEEELLLPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!

  43. Brendan says:

    I have a 3G with all the same problems. I’m about to call AT&T a complain and yell and get them to give me a discount and/or a free phone. I have a friend that said he did that and spent 4 hours back and forth between at&t and apple… (he said he was a jerk about it) but in the end he got a free 3G with the old software (they had in stock still) AND $50 off an iPhone 4 AND $30 off his monthly bill. I think we should all do that and maybe they might start paying attention!!!

  44. bbot says:

    iOS 4 has made my iPhone 3G unusable, it is so slow nothing works and even answering a call takes about 10 seconds as it hangs after you slide to answer.

    What a joke, this is the Windows Vista of phones…

  45. gammaburst says:

    UNUSABLY slow after 4.0. Its ridiculous. I want to crush it under my cars wheels! I hear clicking when typing and the letters dont show up for a minute…all applications crash…keys get stuck…minutes go by after clicking a button…blank screens for minutes…I can’t have a phone that doesn’t work.

    If this is apple’s way of getting people to upgrade to another phone, forget it! My phone worked just fine under 3.0, THEY f***ked it up with 4.0. THEY need to fix it. Or I’ll get a phone that works, like an android.

  46. Kelly says:

    Ya’ know, it’s just not worth the trouble! I hate AT&T with their “fastest 3G network” BS, and now I’m sick of Apple because frankly they’re just stupid for not testing this crap before releasing it. I’m going to a different provider and a different phone that’s actually usable (and MUCH cheaper!). I suggest a mass exodus to get their attention. Competition always improves things!

    • Karen says:

      Mass exodus? You think you’re going to find a phone that does what the iphones do intuitively? Yes, the 3G is terribly slow at times, but you’re working with a piece of technology that is 3 (soon to be 4) generations behind.

      All I’m saying is, don’t be a jerk.

  47. Richard Hastings says:

    correction its IOS 4.0.1 sorry lol

  48. Richard Hastings says:

    I have a 8gb 3g with IOS4.1 just installed, I like the folders option, but it still runs sluggish, and glitchy I am thinking that the internal memory such like ram, how ever i have apps i have deleted and still in the memory bank, I need to know how to fully delete the apps from the back door. that right there is whats slowing these nice little gadgets down.

  49. David says:

    Thanks for this tip ! I thought i’d have to downgrade my 3G to OS 3, but it’s now fast again after turning off spotlight search.

  50. KAD says:

    Thanks for all the advice. My 3G was so bad I was seriously thinking about going back to factory settings and starting again. Bit dissappointed in Apple with this one to be honest, my phone is only a year old and they don’t seem to care that it runs like a dog with the latest version of their os. Poor show Apple, combine this with the “finger of death” and it looks like the shine is coming off the brand !

  51. Lou says:

    Looks like major-upgrading your iPhone is like major-upgrading your Mac: It slows it like hell, makes you frustrated and thinking you need to change your machine…

    I followed your instructions and now I’m back on regular speed. Thanks for the tips, you just saved me 500$

  52. Conni says:

    I would like to thank you for the Spotlight tip. It’s not perfect, but it’s better –

    • Babak says:

      To the tipster on removing spotlight……THANK YOU!!!!
      I wanted to throw my phone away…….its almost back to normal again…….wow……awesome

  53. Chris says:

    Thanks for the Spotlight tip, it’s made my 3G far better.

  54. Richard says:

    Wow! Turning off spotlight made my 3G usable again. I was ready to throw it out because I couldn’t even switch between screens, the IPod app crashed 2/3 of the time, as did mail. So far, so good. I hope this fixes it.

  55. Forrest says:

    Don’t upgrade your 3G iphone to the 4.1 OS, because your phone will be soooo slow!!! I did it and my iphone sucks now. I cannot believe iphone allowed this to happen! Did anyone try this out at apple?

    I reinstalled the software twice! deleted most of my applications and content and I still have trouble with it!! I want to downgrade my OS, but it as I read these blogs..its a pain in the ass!

    I get freezes, crashes, and locks all the time now! I feel like I am on a Windows system!! It’s pretty bad when it take you one minute and a half to text your wife and tell her “I love you”

    I makes me not want to text or surf anymore! What a great way for ATT to lower bandwidth demands!

  56. M Grech says:

    I have found that reducing the icons on the desktop by putting them in folders greatly improved performance.

  57. M Grech says:

    I have found that reducing the icons on the desktop by putting on them in folders greatly improved performance.

  58. Todd Bradley says:

    Whoever wrote this article, I’d like to give you a big kiss. This simple reconfiguration – turning off Spotlight indexing – instantly improved navigation of the main screens of icons and scrolling performance in the Mail app is suddenly bearable again. Thank you!

  59. […] here: iPhone 3G running slow after iOS 4? Speed up your slow iPhone 3G … […]

  60. […] I used for her, almost on par with our family iPad (which is also a Wi-Fi only device).  Several blogs have reported that simply turning off Spotlight Search (Settings > General > Home Button > […]

  61. Donna says:

    I have just talked to apple and they say that You cant go backwards to a previous operating system ??? for the iphone, So how are people doing it then ??? HELP PLEASE

    • Sarah says:

      You can downgrade to the previous firmware. They most likely told you this because its not done through them. You can do it yourself just look around on google. Best information you can get is from the dev-team. Just read through their blog posts and the comments. If you have questions post one on there and someone will help you out. They are an amazing group of people!

  62. Donna says:

    How do you down grade to the previous OS 3 version My phone was still fantastic before the up grade. I am telling everyone not to up grade. The slowness is a -Pain in the ass.. I didnt really need the up grade stuff anyway.
    Thankyou

  63. […] I used for her, almost on par with our family iPad (which is also a Wi-Fi only device).  Several blogs have reported that simply turning off Spotlight Search (Settings > General > Home Button > […]

  64. […] I used for her, almost on par with our family iPad (which is also a Wi-Fi only device).  Several blogs have reported that simply turning off Spotlight Search (Settings > General > Home Button > […]

  65. […] I used for her, almost on par with our family iPad (which is also a Wi-Fi only device).  Several blogs have reported that simply turning off Spotlight Search (Settings > General > Home Button > […]

  66. […] Excellent news for iPhone 3G owners who have been plagued by the iOS 4 update, an Apple spokeswoman told the Wall Street Journal that they are investigating various complaints about iOS 4 running slow on iPhone 3G. […]

  67. […] almost on par with our family iPad (which is also a Wi-Fi only device). Following several blogs, there have been reports that turning off just the Spotlight Search (Settings > General > […]

  68. LH says:

    I had a LOT of photos on my 3g, so I backed them up and removed them. I got a nice performance boost out of it. I would be curious to know if anyone else has tried this with similar results.

  69. […] to iOS 4, you can always downgrade to a previous version of iOS to get things working again. iPhone 3G owners can play with settings on their devices to optimize their OS’ performance further. It’s not convenient, but at […]

    • Denise says:

      Turning off spotlight seems to have fix my ios 4 woes on my 3 G. If this keeps up I will love my phone again!

      Thanks

  70. Matthew says:

    Another tip for speeding up the camera app even further in iOS4: disable Location Services for the Camera (Settings->General->Location Services->Camera->Off). It makes a huge difference to the launch, shutter lag and saving the image.

  71. […] an easier to read version of the same information is at OSX Daily Posted by snolan on Wednesday, July 28, 2010, at 6:17 am. Filed under Personal. Follow any […]

  72. Murphy says:

    I’ve got a 3GS and there are times when I think it’s slow – and it feels like it’s because of multitasking and a delay in closing out an app.

    The camera is really slow but that feels like something else.

    Still – I wouldn’t give up iOS4 at this point. Background audio and gps are too useful.

    • Paul says:

      I definitely agree for my 3GS. Unfortunately I can’t say the same about my iPhone 3G, it is just dreadfully slow with iOS 4 and I don’t get the benefits of multitasking (which I now understand why, the processor can’t handle it!).

      I am still debating about what to do with the 3G, it’s still a great phone, but it may just need to be downgraded to become fully usable again.

      • Jordan says:

        the processor can handle it. my jailbroken 3g has been multitasking for a long time. they just need to give u an excuse to update. and if your gonna move to the 3GS you might as well move u to the iphone 4.

      • David says:

        just jailbreak it. same problem with mine, i jailbroke it and installed maultitasking and wallpapers and deleted the luanch deamons on the /system/library and now it runs great. just after run the command in terminal login root alpine chmod 777/*above files and then killall SpringBoard. perfect

        • Jonno says:

          Do you mean: delete all the entire folder ‘launch deamons’? I don’t really get what you said: “just after run the command in terminal login root alpine chmod 777/*above files and then killall SpringBoard” what does this mean? Can you explain this to me?

    • Matthew says:

      Murphy: See my comment below on how to speed up the camera.

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