Because clearly old iPads don't cut it anymore, hence people on this thread coming up with bandages to make a 6 year old piece of tech kinda sorta work. Sometimes it's just time to take the leap.
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iPad 2 Users! Is yours almost unusable with iOS 9.x?
- Thread starter johngwheeler
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Able to see the page fine although to compose a reply, there are some difficulties. Some lag with the backspace key, but workable. But loading pages and paging thru threads are fine.
Puffin is worth a look as Safari on a5 devices higher than ios7 is a poor choice.
I'm more bothered to discover that SwipeselectionPro no longer works. Have to figure that out.
Update: on macrumors site, SwipeselectionPro doesn't work for some reason. Peculiar. On email, etc it is fine.
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I have really NO complaints with my iPad 2 running iOS 9.3.5, the key to having a responsive browser is to turn off JavaScript. You won't believe the responsiveness you'll get back by turning that feature off. I have it turned off on every tablet, phone and computer. I only turn it on if I need the feature. Most Windows Malware is introduced via JV. Even on my Mac with 8GB of ram I have it turned off unless I absolutely need the feature.
Yep, I too have fallen foul of that nice surprise.
If it is any consolation I unfortunately updated my 'apple store app' (had no choice) on my iPhone SE running iOS 9, and it no longer works. Tells me it needs iOS 10. Thanks Tim!
Of course it doesn't work on the A5 anymore but Its not just older hardware.
I am trying to eek out some more life from my A5 iPad mini, and it is just about useable.
In Safari I turned off most of the options (i.e. Search Engine suggestions, Safari Suggestions, Quick website search, Preload top hit) as well as keyboard dictation... and it seemed to help.
Yes, I could buy a new one (and have) but I would rather be able to use it than add it to the growing pile of still functional but useless electronics I have.
EDIT - Oh, and added to what heat_fan89 said; turn off javascript if you can..a big difference!
my Ipad 1 still works with that turned off, although some sites are borked.
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That is an option. However, I hate the thought of wasting what should be usable at least for some tasks. I'd like to exhaust the possibility of restoring the iPad2 first. If I need to buy a new iPad, then I get to consider other brands as well; there are a lot more choices these days. Eventually, I'll break down and get something, but I'll save the $$ for now, if I can!
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This is definitely part of the problem, however, resetting the device does seem to allow it to work better. Safari has crashed on me since then, but it's far less often. Also, I was getting crashes on other apps too, not just Safari, but of course, I'm doing a lot of web browsing.
So, it's not perfect (and I'm sure the more demanding websites are still problematic), but it's better, and maybe even usable.
I've seen mention of the Puffin browser before. I may have to check that out. Another thing that is worth trying would be an ad-blocking browser, although I kind of hate to do that. (The only thing that pays for most websites is ads.) However, they don't leave me a lot of choice. I'll take a look at Puffin, tho.
Thanks for the comments, and thanks again to the earlier posts.
I had a iPad 2. It became unusable on iOS 5.1.1. My grand dad has it now. And it is still unusable.
I then upgraded to an iPad 3 which was smooth on iOS 5/6. But unusable on iOS 7. I then bought an iPad Air which slowed down on iOS 8. Even worse with iOS 9. But better albeit just okay with iOS 10.
Long story short, if you have an iPad 2, I’m surprised it is usable on iOS 5.
I then upgraded to an iPad 3 which was smooth on iOS 5/6. But unusable on iOS 7. I then bought an iPad Air which slowed down on iOS 8. Even worse with iOS 9. But better albeit just okay with iOS 10.
Long story short, if you have an iPad 2, I’m surprised it is usable on iOS 5.
Still using the iPad2 as my daily driver. Bought on launch day. It was very fast till ios 6, then lots of apps i use didn't support 6 anymore, so it forced me to update to 7 which i regret. 7 was so bad, lots of crashes and the speed was horrible. As of today my iPad2 is on ios 9.3.5, it is still slow but less bugs than 7.
I use it mainly for:
- Youtube: the speed is not that bad, is acceptable
- Spotify: horrible start up time, +- 40 seconds, if you let it play randomly, it is just fine
- Safari: startup and loading times are unacceptable, use it mainly for wiki
- Monster Buster: this runs pretty fast, maybe its just a small game.
- Notes: sometimes note taking, it works fine
- Music: sometimes i play the music stored on the ipad, its ok, but the app often crashes
But I really want to replace this with ipad air 2, pro 9.7 or pro 10.5. the Pros will probably overkill for me, but at least they are more future proof. I love the air 2 design and weight, but the slower chip is most likely a deal breaker.
I use it mainly for:
- Youtube: the speed is not that bad, is acceptable
- Spotify: horrible start up time, +- 40 seconds, if you let it play randomly, it is just fine
- Safari: startup and loading times are unacceptable, use it mainly for wiki
- Monster Buster: this runs pretty fast, maybe its just a small game.
- Notes: sometimes note taking, it works fine
- Music: sometimes i play the music stored on the ipad, its ok, but the app often crashes
But I really want to replace this with ipad air 2, pro 9.7 or pro 10.5. the Pros will probably overkill for me, but at least they are more future proof. I love the air 2 design and weight, but the slower chip is most likely a deal breaker.
I have a Mini 1 which as mentioned is more or less the same as an iPad 2 but with a smaller screen. It was my primary iPad until I got an Air about 2.5 years ago, so is now my secondary iPad. I still like the form factor so was keen to get it working better with iOS 9.3.5.
So I made it more usable by resetting it as new then only adding apps I need. Then did the following in Settings:
General/Spotlight Search - Turned off spotlight for all apps
General/Accessibility/Increase Contrast - Turn on reduce transparency
General - Turn off Gestures
General/Accessibility - Turn on Reduce motion.
Safari - Turn off Search Engine Suggestions, Safari Suggestions, Preload Top Hit
Safari/Advanced/Website Data - Remove All Website Data
I found if I turn off Java I can't get to certain control panel features in the MacRumors site. But after making the changes above Websites seem to load ok, albeit still slowly.
So I made it more usable by resetting it as new then only adding apps I need. Then did the following in Settings:
General/Spotlight Search - Turned off spotlight for all apps
General/Accessibility/Increase Contrast - Turn on reduce transparency
General - Turn off Gestures
General/Accessibility - Turn on Reduce motion.
Safari - Turn off Search Engine Suggestions, Safari Suggestions, Preload Top Hit
Safari/Advanced/Website Data - Remove All Website Data
I found if I turn off Java I can't get to certain control panel features in the MacRumors site. But after making the changes above Websites seem to load ok, albeit still slowly.
I think my iPad 2 is still doing better after the factory-reset, but still has some issues. It seems to work fine for Facebook, although loading web pages from FB often have problems. If I launch them into Safari, it usually works, but I'm also trying the Brave browser -- not loading ads improves some pages. (Sorry web sites, I want to load your ads, but your ads are killing the pages, soooo....) I have not tried a dedicated ad-killer in Safari, although maybe that's something I should try. However, "Reader Mode" works really well, as it strips away a lot of the junk.
So, yeah, it's still slow loading web pages, but with a bit of fiddling, I'm back to using it.
So, yeah, it's still slow loading web pages, but with a bit of fiddling, I'm back to using it.
The iPad 2 is 6 years old. 6 years old. That's past middle aged even for a laptop or desktop computer. If Apple continued to cater to the iPad 2 just to "keep iPad 2 customers happy" then the anger coming from the people buying new hardware would be exponentially greater than the anger from people who want to keep using a 2011 iPad 2. Yes, iOS for iPad has been slow to get with the program as far as making it a more versatile device, but think how much longer we'd be waiting for an iPad specific update to iOS (like iOS 11) if Apple were still worried about whether or not things ran ok on the iPad 2.
It's not just about sales. Yes, Apple loves making money, but if they want to continue doing so, they have to progress. iPad 2 is not a device that's going to allow them to do that, and if I were a decision maker at Apple, I'd be totally fine with leaving the iPad 2 behind. It's not like you haven't gotten your money's worth out of it. To say Apple is greedy because it's not as fast as it was in 2011--that's just kind of ridiculous.
It's not just about sales. Yes, Apple loves making money, but if they want to continue doing so, they have to progress. iPad 2 is not a device that's going to allow them to do that, and if I were a decision maker at Apple, I'd be totally fine with leaving the iPad 2 behind. It's not like you haven't gotten your money's worth out of it. To say Apple is greedy because it's not as fast as it was in 2011--that's just kind of ridiculous.
I timed Spotify on my ipad2 on ios 7.x and it took 22 sec to start up. With only 512kb RAM on the ipad2, startup times on any app will take longer compared to later ipads. True if you were on ios 4, ios 6, or later.
There's a 'cost' if you upgrade beyong a certain point.
Safari is a dog even on ios 7, but I use another browser and it seems to help a little.
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More like slow CPU and storage is the reason for slow start up. Now slow app refresh/reloading, those could have been mitigated with more RAM.
Despite the slowness of the ipad2, i thought i would sell it in 2 years, but now it's already 6 years old, it just grew on me without knowing. It is actually a beast considering the lifespan.
What a damn useless answer!!!
"Hey! Ford just came by and trashed my car! Duh, OK go buy a new Ford!"
Really? A useless answer. To use your same car analogy in a more accurate sense, thats like saying "Why doesn't my 5 year old Ford use the latest Sync 3"
The iPad 2 is now almost 7 years old. Get a grip and update. The tech world doesn't just take a break and stop moving forward because of a few luddites who expect to get 7-10 years from a device.
Besides getting 7 years out of an iPad is way longer than you'd get out of a Ford before it takes a crap so feel lucky.
I get decent performance out of mine, but it all depends on what you want to use it for. I use mine for pure media consumption (mostly YouTube, Netflix & Spotify) and web browsing (using Puffin, 'cause Safari on iOS 9 runs like crap).
The key is to apply the right tweaks in Settings - basically you should turn on "Reduce Motion", then disable Spotlight and Background App Refresh. I found that doing a clean install of iOS 9 also helped a great deal with performance.
The iPad 2 is still great for casual media consumption and light web browsing but if you're expecting fast app loading times, spotless multitasking and multiple heavy webpage tabs at once: go for a newer device. I'm still satisfied with mine 6 years later but then again I'm not a heavy user
The key is to apply the right tweaks in Settings - basically you should turn on "Reduce Motion", then disable Spotlight and Background App Refresh. I found that doing a clean install of iOS 9 also helped a great deal with performance.
The iPad 2 is still great for casual media consumption and light web browsing but if you're expecting fast app loading times, spotless multitasking and multiple heavy webpage tabs at once: go for a newer device. I'm still satisfied with mine 6 years later but then again I'm not a heavy user
You can actually downgrade, although unofficial methods, but they work. I have my iPod Touch 5G on iOS 7 and it’s WAY better on that than it was on iOS 9.
You guys should try downgrading to iOS 8.4.1 at least as it still supports a lot of apps yet. Might even give you another thought about upgrading if you are.
You guys should try downgrading to iOS 8.4.1 at least as it still supports a lot of apps yet. Might even give you another thought about upgrading if you are.
Yep, you can use OdysseusOTA 2.0 to downgrade to either 8.4.1 or 6.1.3 - completely untethered, no blobs required.
I personally used 6.1.3 on my iPad 2 until mid-2017 and found that it worked fine for tasks such as email or web browsing (again, using Puffin or Chrome), but app support was... so-so. You can, however, download the last compatible version of any app that you've previously bought/downloaded with your iTunes account. Most apps run fine this way, though there are some exceptions such as Facebook Messenger and Snapchat. Performance is incredible on 6.1.3, but if app compatibility is important to you - I'd stick with 9.3.5 or try 8.4.1. Haven't tried 8.4.1 myself so can't speak for the performance versus iOS 9 though.
can you give me a basic step by step for this method please? i'd LOVE to downgrade my ipad2 if it doesnt involve a working degree of rocket science behind it
There's a pretty good video tutorial here:
This video describes an 8.4.1 downgrade but the process is the same for 6.1.3. IPSW files can be found here: https://ipsw.me/#!/platform - remember to select the appropriate iPad 2 model (Wi-Fi, GSM/AT&T or CDMA/Verizon).
If you're a Windows user, I'd use Beehind instead of OdysseusOTA. It's basically a slick GUI wrapper for Odysseus which means you won't have to bother with terminal commands. Just remember to run it as administrator (right click->run as admin). I also believe you need to download java first if you don't already have it on your PC. Tutorial:
Before you begin with either of the above methods, you need to jailbreak your device with Phoenix (I assume you're running 9.3.5, otherwise update to 9.3.5 or download the appropriate jailbreak tool for your firmware). Tutorial found here: http://www.idownloadblog.com/2017/08/10/jailbreak-ios-935-phoenix-move-from-version-1/
When your device is jailbroken, you also need to install OpenSSH. Simply open Cydia and search for OpenSSH and install it.
Let me know if you run into any problems. I've performed the process on an iPhone 4S using both OS X and Windows.
[doublepost=1514985164][/doublepost]Another way to get an older iOS version running on your device is to dual-boot two iOS versions using CoolBooter. Start off by jailbreaking your device, then download CoolBooter through Cydia (first add the coolbooter.com repo). This tool will allow you to partition the device's internal storage and let you switch between the current firmware (9.3.5) an an older firmware of your choice, such as iOS 7 or iOS 6. I think you can even go as far down as 5.0 with CoolBooter. The downside of dual-booting is that you won't be able to use the full storage capacity on either OS since the internal storage will be partitioned - so, unless you're craving for iOS 7 or iOS 5, I'd recommend using the OdysseusOTA/Beehind approach. I played around with this for a bit on my old iPhone 4 (dual-booted 7.1 and 6.0) and it seemed to work okay.
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https://www.reddit.com/r/jailbreak/comments/719v6j/tutorial_downgrade_ios_935_to_841_ota_no_shsh/
this is easier.
but i did it on ipad 3 and evetything was pretty the same.. isn't worth it. most of the apps require ios 9 to run the latest version, i prefer newer apps than 0.1 second better in performance.. ios 7 on the other hand was still usable.. but hey, i only use it to watch movies and tv shows so who cares. it isnt event supposed to work after all these years. a used ipad air 2 is a good option for everything heavy
This is all solid advice. I have an iPad 2 that my kids use and my daughter kept complaining about it being stuck. So I took a look and couldn’t believe how bad the performance was. It was unusable for all intents and purposes.
Then I did a reset and all the steps above. Now at least the kids can use the thing. I want to stress that this is not a miracle cure, but it does allow the tablet to function at an acceptable level.
Sad thing is that I’ll probably buy them each an Amazon Fire Kids edition tablet to replace the iPad 2 since I can get one for each kid for less than the cheapest iPad. And say what you want about the Fire, but it will seem like a huge improvement to the kids. That being said, I did get my moneys worth on the iPad 2. I got it before my oldest kid was born and she is now in first grade.
This I do not understand. You will get Amazon Fire for less money than a new iPad, because the Fire will perform better than the old iPad, where you already got your moneys worth from? Should´t you compare the Fire with a new (refurbished) iPad? And will it then really be the better deal for the longer term?