[JonBoy]

My wife's iPad is an iPad 3 - not the newest one but should still be ok I think?

In recent weeks it's got very slow - when typing it is very slow to respond - it continuously takes about a second or more for the characters to appear on the screen after touching the screen to type. Like a delayed reaction

It's not short on memory, she's not got that much stuff on there. I've tried swiping all the apps off to close them down and have reset it using the double button press and waiting for the Apple logo (all done many times).

So, question for the experts - is it kaput or is there a solution to improve it's performance?
Cheers!

[malcolmfrost]

I'm afraid you have to buy a new iPad! That is "the Apple way" my Android phone gets faster every update, my iPad gets slower.

[PaulB]

Rubbish. My mum was using an iPad 1 until a couple of months ago. We've now upgraded her to an iPad 2

[malcolmfrost]

What iOS is it using?
Slightly more helpfully, the iPad does use a cache, which can get full, a way to clear it is to order a film that won't fit on, something like "The Hobbit" in HD, the download will fail, but the cache will be cleared.

[stevelup]

I think your best course of action would be a full factory reset. You'll need a PC or Mac with a recent version of iTunes to do this.

Plug in the iPad, and run a backup from within iTunes. Make sure you have the 'encrypt backup' option ticked otherwise you'll have to reenter all your passwords later.

When the backup is done, unplug the cable and power the iPad down. Once it's off, hold the home button and plug the cable back in. Keep the home button pressed.

iTunes will pop up saying it has found an iPad in recovery mode. Choose the option to 'restore' the iPad. This will completely wipe it and install a clean copy of iOS.

When this is finished, iTunes will present you with an option to restore your backup. Choose the one you did earlier.

[OCB]

Apple regularly push out "slow down" updates, just before they release a new model or around holiday/sales periods.

The last update was 4 weeks ago (well, price drop/minimum spec bump).

Coincidence I'm sure

[stevelup]

That would be a splendid conspiracy theory if it wasn't for the fact that the iPad 3 which is being discussed hasn't had any updates since August last year.

[Paul_Sengupta]

my Android phone gets faster every update

Hmm, is this the case? My old phone got much slower going from Android 2.2 (or was it 2.3?) to 4. Better user interface, but slower. I've deliberately kept all most of my tablets on Android 4.4.4 to keep them running fairly fast, apparently 5.0 slows them down. A couple of my tablets (one 2013 Nexus 7, one Asus 572) are on 5.something and seem ok but they have the faster processors. I have one 2013 Nexus 7 on 4.4.4, another on 5.something, maybe I should try and compare them.

Rubbish. My mum was using an iPad 1 until a couple of months ago. We've now upgraded her to an iPad 2

Why? Was it getting too slow?

[PaulB]

Why? Was it getting too slow?

No. I wanted a new iPad so gave my mum my old one

[Paul_Sengupta]

Why? Was it getting too slow?

No. I wanted a new iPad so gave my mum my old one

Why, was yours getting slow?

Sorry...

[JonBoy]

Thank you for all the replies about this, especially Stevelup. I will certainly try that when I get back home. I didn't know about that factory reset technique.
Thanks again, Jon

[Nick]

Rubbish. My mum was using an iPad 1 until a couple of months ago. We've now upgraded her to an iPad 2

Is she much faster now?

Nick.

[PaulB]

No. I wanted a new iPad so gave my mum my old one

Why, was yours getting slow?

Sorry...

No, but my wife had a new iPad and I didn't want to be out done!

[Sir Morley Steven]

Before the factory reset try a soft reset. Hols the top button and bottom button together till it goes off.

[stevelup]

and have reset it using the double button press and waiting for the Apple logo (all done many times).