How To Speed Up a Slow iPad

Got an iPad that isn't as fast as it used to be? Follow these tips to speed up your iPad and get it to run much more quickly.

If you own an older model of iPad - perhaps an iPad 1, 2, 3, or 4, or the iPad mini 1 - then the chances are that it isn't running as quickly as you like. Even though iOS is a modern operating system that requires minimal maintenance, it still gets full and slows down over time.

Sometimes even relatively new models feel sluggish compared to the way they performed when brand new.

Here are some of the tricks we use to speed up old or slowed-down iPads. If you've got a slow iPhone, we can help you there too. 

Delete apps you no longer use

The first trick is to have a good software clear-out. Remove any apps that you no longer use. Apps take up storage space, and freeing up space makes it easier for iOS to operate.

Note that we're talking about deleting the apps from the device entirely, not just closing them down (by double-tapping to open the multitasking bar, then swiping up on the app you want to close).

Deleting apps that you no longer use has a notable effect on iOS - especially if you have limited storage available because it will free up space.

You can delete apps you no longer want or use by pressing and holding on the app icon until it starts to jump around. Then tap on the x in the top right of the icon to delete it.

If you're looking to delete multiple apps, there's a quicker and easier way than deleting each one individually. Tap Settings > General > Storage & iCloud Usage.

Now tap Manage Storage (under Storage, not iCloud) and look for items that are taking up lots of space. Podcasts, GarageBand and Movies are likely suspects. Tap an app to view its contents, and then tap Delete it remove it.

Here's a guide on how to delete iPad apps.

Restart your iPad

Once you've removed apps you don't use from your iPad, you should restart it. The restart refreshes the memory and enables it to start from scratch.

To restart your iPad hold down the Sleep/Wake button until you see the Slide To Power Off control slide and swipe it to power down your iPad.

Then press and hold the Sleep/Wake button again to wake it back up.

Stop Background App Refresh

Now that you've freed up some memory your iPad should already be working much faster. But if you're using an older iPad, such as an iPad mini or iPad 2, then you'll get even better results by turning off features you can manage without.

Start by stopping Background App Refresh. If you have this service selected in Settings your iPad will be working away in the background checking all your apps for updates. If you have a lot of active apps - social networking apps like Facebook are particularly notorious for this - they will be taking processing power from your iPad without you even having the app open in front of you.

Tap Settings > General > Background App Refresh and set Background App Refresh to Off.

You could leave it so that some of your apps use background app refresh and others don't, but we feel like you might as well turn the whole thing off.

Update to the latest version of iOS

Usually the first thing you will be asked if you have an issue with your device is whether the software is up to date. This is because sometimes there are issues with older versions of software, and it's usually a safe bet that the newer version will have fixed those issues.

Be warned though, updating the iOS can be a mixed bag in terms of speed. Sometimes it introduces new features that actually slow down an older iOS device, while on the other hand, newer versions of iOS introduce new, and more efficient code.

In any case, if your iPad is unusably slow after trying all the other tips here, it's worth updating if you aren't already running the most recent version of iOS.

Tap Settings > General > Software Update and check if there's a new version of iOS available. Updating iOS is almost always a one-way process, so only do this if you're certain... or desperate.

Clear Safari's cache

Safari is one app where you might notice slowdown more than most. This can be caused by a full cache, which Safari has to search through.

Tap Settings > General > Clear History and Website Data to remove all of the Safari cache information.

This should speed up the Safari interface, although web pages may take slightly longer to load in the short term (as the cache fills back up).

Stop Notifications

Notifications can helpfully alert you when messages arrive on your iPhone, but some time you don't really need a notification - for example, every time someone comments on a post on Facebook or when you get more lives in your favourite free-to-play game.

As with Background App Refresh, scanning for and providing notifications can slow down an iOS device.

Tap Settings > Notifications and, for each app, set Notifications to Off.

Turn off Location Services

While it can be handy for apps like Maps and Facebook to know your location, Location Services is liable to sit in the background sucking up battery power and reducing performance.

Tap Settings > Privacy > Location Services and set Location Services to Off. Tap Turn Off.

Turn off Spotlight

Spotlight powers search on your iPad, making it quick to find something, but it has to index each item on your iPad that can occasionally slow things down.

Tap Settings > General > Spotlight Search and set all the Search Results items to Off.

Enable Reduce Motion

If you've turned off everything else and want a little bit more speed, turning off some of the visual effects can provide a slight speed boost. Tap Settings > General > Accessibility > Reduce Motion and set Reduce Motion to On.

Alternatively, take a look at the other tips, tutorials and general advice for iPad owners in the articles linked below.

Find out if your web connection is slow

If you still find Safari to run slowly after doing all this, the issue might not be with your iPad, but instead with your internet connection. It doesn't matter how fast your iPad is, if your connection to the internet is weak then it'll slow things down to a snails pace. 

Download a speed test app like Ookla's Speedtest app and run the test. The average broadband speed in the UK is around the 29mb/s mark, but this can be much higher (or lower) in some places.

If you find that your internet is extremely low, around the 1-4mb/s mark, that might explain why your iPad is running so slowly - especially in Safari, and other apps that require an active internet connection. 

The solution? Move closer to your Wi-Fi router, or look into Wi-Fi extenders to provide wider wireless coverage in the home.