If your iPhone is more than two years old, chances are it is getting slower. But don’t worry. You don’t have to buy a new phone yet.
There are a few things, like settings adjustments, that you can try to make your slow iPhone run faster.
In this article, we’ll guide you through 10 quick tips to speed up your iPhone and help it perform better.
1. Update to the Latest iOS Version
One of the most common reasons why your iPhone is running slow is because of outdated software.
New iOS versions often fix performance bugs and help your iPhone perform at its best.
Here’s how to update your iPhone:
- On your iPhone, open Settings
- Go to General and tap Software Update.
- If there are any pending updates, tap Download and Install.
To ensure you always have the most up-to-date features and security standard, turn on Automatic Updates.
2. Clear Up the RAM
Your running apps consume a lot of RAM in the background. If you have multiple apps running simultaneously, it may cause your iPhone to run slower than usual.
Sometimes closing running apps doesn’t always free up the RAM, and it’s not recommended either.
To ensure the RAM was properly freed up, follow these steps:
- Hold down the Sleep/Wake button.
- When you see “Slide to power off,” release the Sleep/Wake button.
- Hold down the home button until the home screen comes back on.
If you’ve recently cleared the RAM, holding the home button may summon Siri.
For iPhones with Face ID, such as iPhone X and newer models, here’s how to clear the RAM.
- Go to Settings, and tap Accessibility.
- Select Touch, then AssistiveTouch.
- Tap the toggle next to it to turn it on.
- Go back to Settings and tap General.
- Scroll down and select Shut Down.
- Tap once on the AssistiveTouch button.
- A pop-up card will appear on the screen, touch and hold the virtual Home button in AssistiveTouch until the lock screen appear.
You know you have cleared the RAM when your iPhone returns to the lock screen. Enter your password to start using your iPhone again.
3. Free Up Space on Your iPhone
Less space could be to blame if your iPhone is running slow—time to free up some space on your iPhone.
Go ahead and delete all the apps you’re not using and back up your pictures to a cloud storage service.
To delete the apps:
- Go to your iPhone Settings.
- Tap General.
- Then, select iPhone Storage.
You’ll see a list of all the apps installed on your iPhone with the amount of space used. Delete the ones you don’t need.
4. Reduce Transparency and Motion Effects
I know the parallax effect of the icons looks pretty cool, but those effects could potentially slow down your iPhone.
Why overwork your iPhone when it’s already struggling? Let’s turn those effects off by going to Settings > General > Accessibility and toggling on Reduce Motion.
Your iPhone has another awesome feature, which is transparency. It allows you to see a few of your icons in the background when you open a UI element like the control center but requires more processing power.
Go ahead and reduce those transparency effects by going to Settings > General > Accessibility > and toggling on Reduce Transparency.
You should see improvements in your iPhone speed after performing these two actions.
5. Automatic Updates
It’s convenient but might not help your slow iPhone. Automatic updates use more memory and could lead to the slow performance of your iPhone.
To prevent the apps from updating independently, go to Settings > iTunes & App Stores and toggle off Updates. You’ll have to update your apps manually in the App Store app.
6. Clear Your Browsing History
Unlike Android phones, you cannot clear the apps’ cache. You’ll have to completely delete the app and re-install it.
However, you can clear your browsing history since it can take up much of your iPhone space over time.
Go to Settings > Safari, then tap Clear History and Website Data. By doing this, you’re removing all the information Safari has stored about the sites you visited.
7. Update Apps
Your iPhone may run slower if your apps are not updated. Do your poor slow iPhone a favor and update all its apps.
To do so, go to the App Store App, tap on Updates, and update all the apps that need to be updated.
8. Disable Background App Refresh
Background App Refresh could seriously slow down your iPhone. Disable it could significantly improve your iPhone speed.
To turn off Background App Refresh, go to Settings > General > Background App Refresh. You can either turn it off completely or leave it on and turn it off for specific apps.
9. Check Your iPhone Battery Health
As you probably know, your iPhone may become slow because of deteriorating battery health. You can check the status of your battery in Settings > Battery > Battery Health.
You can follow our iPhone battery-saving tips to help prevent the battery from dying fast.
If your battery is dead, we recommend making a Genius bar reservation to have Apple professionals replace the battery.
10. Factory Reset Your iPhone
Last, if your iPhone is slow and none of these tips seems to work, you may need to reset it to factory settings.
Remember that this will wipe out all the data and settings on your iPhone, including photos, videos, call logs, passwords, messages, browsing history, and installed apps.
Make sure to restore your iPhone as new. By doing so, you’d remove any unwanted data, junk files, and caches that may have slowed down its speed.
Wrap-Up: Speed Up iPhone
So, there you have it, some basic but effective tips and tricks that will help you make your iPhone run faster.
If your iPhone is running slow, you should focus on clearing the RAM, turning off background app refresh, and freeing up space, as they usually affect your phone performance.
Do you have any additional suggestions for making your iPhone run faster? Don’t forget to tell us about it in the comments section below.
HELP!!
Hey Toni what can I help you with?
You have no idea how helpful your tips were, thank you 🙏
Hi Shona, You’re very welcome and we’re so glad that you found our tips helpful. Take care.
Thanks for the very useful tips!!
If I delete my email from my phone will I lose it on my iPad as well? My last update on my phone is iOS 16.7.1 I it won’t allow me update until since my email is using up most of the 128GB of memory. Thank you!