Apple Experts Reveal The Surprising Reasons Your iPhone Might Be So Slow

Admit it: your iPhone is so slow you’re about to throw it out a window. There are a number of reasons why your phone could be sluggish and, fortunately, some of them have easy fixes that don’t require throwing money at the problem. Whether the websites you try to access on your browser are slow to load or you have to wait forever and a day for your apps to download, knowing the common culprits behind a slow phone is the first step toward resolving the problem and finally getting a phone that doesn’t operate at a snail’s pace. Apple experts reveal the surprising reasons your iPhone might be so slow. 

If your internet browsing on your phone is getting slow, the solution may be super simple: you may need to clear your cache, Ben Tibbits, managing director at BroadbandDeals.co.uk, reminds us. “Just like on a computer, your phone browser will be trying to help speed up your browsing by caching the sites you visit,” Tibbits said. “But over time, this data can become out of date and can actually start slowing you down. To fix just open your settings app, find the app you use for the internet, and look for a clear history option.”

Your iPhone is designed to work when the ambient temperature is between 0º and 35ºC (32º to 95ºF), Tibbits says, and extreme temperatures can really throw off your phone’s ability to work well (not to mention damage its battery). “If your phone is somewhere where it is getting too hot, it will try to protect itself, and you may notice changes like; slower performance, a dim screen, and some functions being disabled,” Tibbits said. “To prevent this happening, don’t leave your phone anywhere too warm, such as a car on a hot day, and if it does get hot, try and move your device somewhere cooler to restore functionality.”

Don’t ignore messages on your phone that remind you that it is in need of an update. These aren’t merely suggestions — they are important for the health of your phone. If you don’t have the current version of iOS on your phone, then it’s likely you will start to notice performance being affected. “So make sure you are regularly updating your iOS software, and it isn’t lagging behind the latest version; this is also important for security,” Tibbits said. “The same applies to your apps; you should either regularly update them manually or set them to update automatically.”

A power cycle (basically turning your phone off then on again) is something that seems like common sense, but think of the last time you turned your phone completely off, it’s probably been a while, says Esteban Facundo, co-owner of Uptradeit.com, a comparison site for certified used and refurbished iPhones. “There is a ton of information moving through our devices each day and bit by bit, there is a cache being saved that tends to slow down your phone,” Facundo says. “Consciously performing a quick power cycle will help your phone stay at its peak performance.”

If you’ve tried everything and your phone is still a slug, the problem may actually be your phone’s battery. “The device battery has a rough set of charges that can be reloaded before degrading to the point of being a ‘bad battery,’” Facundo said. “In addition to the cache being heavily loaded, if the battery is not able to deliver peak performance due to its own instability, this can also cause your phone to run significantly slower.”

You don’t have to live with a slow phone. Knowing some of the major reasons why your device is stalled and addressing them can give you the full user experience that you expect from your investment.