Fixing a friend's slow iPad - Advice Needed

[kurtj]

I have a friend's iPad right now - They were complaining about it being slow, and I said I'd take a look at it.

What do you guys check/do to make it faster?

Also, I'm considering restoring the iPad then loading a backup. I know that only backs up settings. Is there a way to backup everything?

 

[f4780y]

The iPad shouldn't really be running slow... But we'll try and help.

Can you tell us what model it is (iPad 1,2, or 3 - wifi / 3G etc.) and also what version of IOS it has installed? Go to Settings > General > About to find out.

If they are on IOS 5.x, are they using iCloud to backup? Check in Settings > iCloud > Storage & Backup

You can perform a full restore from a recent iCloud backup, but you MUST have their Apple ID and Password to do this. The restore will not only do settings from the backup, but also apps, which will be downloaded and installed as part of the iCloud restore.

If they are not using iCloud, you cannot do a restore from backup for them unless you have access to their PC. The iPad can only sync with one PC, so it needs to be theirs. Otherwise you will just be able to restore to factory settings, which is not too much use...

Hope that helps.

 

[kurtj]

It's an iPad 1. Wifi I believe. IOS 5.1.1.

Yes, there is iCloud on it. Does that automatically backup apps, music, anything that isn't listed in the options I can see? There's mail, contacts, calendars, reminders, bookmarks, notes, photo stream, documents & data, and the find my ipad option.

Thanks for the help.

 

[f4780y]

OK, so first things first, we need to get the definition of slow. In what way is it slow and compared to what?

There is no point in going through a full backup and restore to 5.1.1 if the end result will be the same.

5.1.1 is likely to be the last version of IOS for the iPad1. As such, it pushes the iPad1's limited resources to the max. I have it running on my iPad1 and I would not describe it as "slow", but it is noticeably different from say IOS 4.x and 3.x, which were slightly "snappier" due to having less features to stress the device.

Does it feel slow to you? Do they mean it is slow since they upgraded from an old version of IOS? In that case, they may be goosed, because downgrading is not an option if they have not been preparing for it by saving SHSH Blobs for old versions of IOS...

 

[kurtj]

It doesn't feel like it's crawling by any means, and I haven't been using it consistently. So I don't have much of a baseline. My friend said it feels like it's going downhill lately.

That's interesting about the newest IOS taxing the hardware compared to newer iPad models. - I hadn't considered that.

Here's a question - does restoring to an iCloud backup essentially 'defragment' the data?

 

[f4780y]

Defragmenting an iPad is not something you need to consider. Like most modern Unix/Linux filesystems, it's not prone to fragmenting badly and being solid state any normal fragmentation is not an issue.

Your issue if you really want to backup and restore is you will need access to their PC if they have music, video, photos, or any other media synced onto the iPad via iTunes. You can't restore that and it is not saved on iCloud. Only apps, data, and settings will come back without the PC. Media won't.

 

[kurtj]

Alright, thanks for the info.