iOS9 has made my iPhone 5 work poorly - thoughts?

[cbsnbiker]

I have a Verizon iPhone 5. Other than being on its third battery, it has worked well for the years that I have owned it -- until now.

Soon after 9.2.1 came out with the announcement that it plugged a security leak, I backed my phone up to my computer, then upgraded to 9.2.1 (using iTunes) from whatever the most recent iOS 8 was.

The phone immediately became unstable.

It crashes several times a day. It can be just sitting there, or I can be doing anything with it when it crashes.

Something as simple as waking it or clicking on an icon can take seconds or minutes.

The lock button has become intermittently unresponsive. (It worked fine under iOS 8.)

Sometimes when I click on an app icon to open the app, the icon expands to fill the screen for several seconds until the app opens. (Zoom is turned off -- I double checked.)

Once, the phone's screen went black and the phone was unresponsive to the physical buttons. I knew that the phone was on because I could place calls using the car's Bluetooth. It took several tries doing a reset (power + front buttons) to get it to work again.

Upgrading to 9.3.1 has made the phone marginally more stable. Now it crashes only a couple times per day.

With iOS 8 and earlier, the phone may have rebooted on its own maybe two or three times in total.

I do *not* have the booking.com app, nor have I ever been to that website.

Any thoughts about how to make the phone reliable again? I can't downgrade to iOS 8, alas. I wish I could.

 

[slapppy]

It's old. Buy a new iPhone. The SE same size if you are happy with that size.

 

[cbsnbiker]

Meh.

Let's say it were my car. Let's say that the car worked great, until the ECU received some sort of upgrade. Then the car ran poorly after the upgrade.

Would the answer be: "It's old. Buy a new car. The same size car if you are happy with the size"?

That's an unacceptable answer.

How can I get the phone to work properly again?

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

Your phone doesn't have enough RAM. Welcome to iOS9.

Unless Apple really turn the boat around and optimize iOS9 properly for older iPhones, you (And many others) are out of luck.

 

[C DM]

Your phone doesn't have enough RAM. Welcome to iOS9.

Unless Apple really turn the boat around and optimize iOS9 properly for older iPhones, you (And many others) are out of luck.

Many devices have the same 1 GB of RAM that the iPhone 5 has and run just fine, at the very least without the type of issues that the OP describes. So it's not really RAM or anything like that.

 

[cbsnbiker]

So, any thoughts about how to make the phone be more stable, now that I'm stuck with 9.3.1? Or just hope that 9.3.2 makes things better? Or does something else need to be addressed?

I would rather not buy a new phone -- it rewards Apple for a bad software upgrade, or, I suppose, punishes Apple if I choose to buy another brand.

 

[iOSUser7]

It's old. Buy a new iPhone. The SE same size if you are happy with that size.

That useful answer tho, hope it's trolling at this point because it's ridiculous.

Many devices have the same 1 GB of RAM that the iPhone 5 has and run just fine, at the very least without the type of issues that the OP describes. So it's not really RAM or anything like that.

That may depend on the type of RAM aswell. The iPhone 5 RAM is DDR2 versus much faster DDR3 in the iPhone 5s and above. Though I agree with you, I think 1GB of RAM is plenty enough for iOS, DDR2 or not.

So, any thoughts about how to make the phone be more stable, now that I'm stuck with 9.3.1? Or just hope that 9.3.2 makes things better? Or does something else need to be addressed?

I would rather not buy a new phone -- it rewards Apple for a bad software upgrade, or, I suppose, punishes Apple if I choose to buy another brand.

I've seen multiples iPhone 5 running iOS 9 but never saw those really problematics issues that you have.

Maybe something went wrong in the update process, have you tried restoring your device with iTunes ? This could help a lot and fix all your issues. If you decide to do it, make sure to backup your data first because it will erase everything. Also keep us updated.

 

[slapppy]

That useful answer tho, hope it's trolling at this point because it's ridiculous.

Why? It's a valid answer. iPhone SE simply blows away that old iPhone 5 or even 5s. You want better performance, more stable operation, then dump that old outdated junk and get a new SE.

 

[C DM]

Why? It's a valid answer. iPhone SE simply blows away that old iPhone 5 or even 5s. You want better performance, more stable operation, then dump that old outdated junk and get a new SE.

It's one valid alternative certainly, but doesn't quite answer what the OP is trying to figure out it would seem.

 

[iOSUser7]

Why? It's a valid answer. iPhone SE simply blows away that old iPhone 5 or even 5s. You want better performance, more stable operation, then dump that old outdated junk and get a new SE.

Because if you read carefully OP post, you can clearly see that his/her issues are uncommon. Even if the iPhone 5 is quite old now, it should not perform like his/her device do.

So I think recommanding the iPhone SE here is a easy and non-smart answer. There are much better alternatives to try first like do a complete restore in iTunes or make an appointment in a genius bar (assuming OP can travel to an Apple Store).

Would you buy a brand new expensive car if yours suddenly encounter issues ? Of course not, you would call a mechanic or try to resolve the problem yourself. Well it's a similar situation here.

 

[tjwilliams25]

I agree that there may have been an issue with the update. I would suggest hooking your phone to iTunes and making a local backup, and then performing a full, clean restore of your phone to iOS 9. When you do this through iTunes, it downloads the install file again and completely reformats the phone. On the phone it just wipes the memory, so if you already tried this step on the phone, if it was something that happened during the install, it will still be an issue. Also, don't restore from the backup. Set up the phone as new and see if the problems are still there. If it runs fine, then it's probably either an app or installation issue.

 

[mildocjr]

It's old. Buy a new iPhone. The SE same size if you are happy with that size.

Lol my first thought when I saw this thread was time to upgrade.

With Apple devices, you will be forced (via software demand on hardware requirements) to upgrade your device after about 3 - 4 iOS versions. This time has come, you can try downgrading to iOS 9.2 if Apple is still signing it.

 

[C DM]

Lol my first thought when I saw this thread was time to upgrade.

With Apple devices, you will be forced (via software demand on hardware requirements) to upgrade your device after about 3 - 4 iOS versions. This time has come, you can try downgrading to iOS 9.2 if Apple is still signing it.

Yes, "forced", that's it.

 

[mildocjr]

Yes, "forced", that's it.

I still prefer Apple over Windows and Android. I'm just saying this stuff should be common knowledge and people should be prepared to part with their phone like an old sofa, just get it the heck out.

 

[KPandian1]

It's old. Buy a new iPhone. The SE same size if you are happy with that size.

Not a relevant reply. You must hate debate.

Why buy a new phone when the hardware in use is good enough for the person here. The question was not "Should I buy a newer iPhone?"

Don't have an answer, keep quiet - do not post obtuse nonsense.

 

[myrtlebee]

Why? It's a valid answer. iPhone SE simply blows away that old iPhone 5 or even 5s. You want better performance, more stable operation, then dump that old outdated junk and get a new SE.

What a joke of a reply. My 5S is perfect for me - not junk whatsoever. It's fast and does everything I want. Keeping it until September 2017 most likely.