Speeding up a iPhone SE2

[caioferrari]

Hello,



I have an iPhone SE2 with a somewhat worn-out battery at 76%. The system still states that it is running at maximum performance.
Despite this, I’ve noticed some significant slowdowns: typing on WhatsApp becomes slow, switching between apps is sluggish, and even logging into the system and showing the Touch ID is not very responsive. In my haste, I end up pressing the home button twice, which opens my credit cards when I just want to log into the phone.

With that said, is there anything I can do at the software level, or is my only solution to buy a new battery?

 

[Slartibart]

which version of iOS? How much free total storage on device? besides: How much storage does WA use? Do you use a screen protector?

 

[eyoungren]

Hello,



I have an iPhone SE2 with a somewhat worn-out battery at 76%. The system still states that it is running at maximum performance.
Despite this, I’ve noticed some significant slowdowns: typing on WhatsApp becomes slow, switching between apps is sluggish, and even logging into the system and showing the Touch ID is not very responsive. In my haste, I end up pressing the home button twice, which opens my credit cards when I just want to log into the phone.

With that said, is there anything I can do at the software level, or is my only solution to buy a new battery?

Purchasing a new battery won't necessarily 'solve' your problem if the things that you are doing with the device are intensive. I would suggest getting a new battery though if you intend to keep using your SE2.

The questions @Slartibart is asking are intended to ascertain how you use your device and therefore what could be the issues that might be causing your problem.

 

[caioferrari]

which version of iOS? How much free total storage on device? besides: How much storage does WA use? Do you use a screen protector?

Version 17.5 (updated to 17.6.1 yesterday)
Using 50 out of 64Gb
WA uses 7 Gb
No screen protection.

 

[arw]

For what it's worth, I experience something similar since I updated my SE2 from 17.3.1 to 17.6.
Even typing a password is problematic now as some letters lag one finger type behind.
So maybe it's just a software issue...
I even set up the iPhone as new.
[Using 25/64 GB and 85% battery health acc. to coconutBattery]

 

[caioferrari]

Nice to know that.
in this case, I’m going to report this issue to Apple.

 

[shadowboi]

Okay, so here are few steps I found to be reliable when trying to speed up every iPhone:

• disable Siri (if you don’t need it)
• Go to settings>general>background app refresh, turn everything off (gives significant boost and more battery life)
• go to home screen first page and swipe to the right to open widgets. Disable every single one of them except the ones you really need
• disable notifications from the apps you don’t need or use
• in Settings>Siri and search disable everything you can, also boosts battery and performance slightly
• install adblocks for Safari. I use Roadblock and BlockBear in tandem (both free). Ads slow down Safari significantly. In BlockBear disable website fonts so that sites will use your iOS fonts which also gives great increase in performance
• in General>Privacy and security revoke location access from most apps except maps, find my iPhone and date/time selection
• go to your iCloud settings, disable iCloud drive, Photos upload and most things that you would not want to be in the cloud
• disable predictive typing.

Hope this helps a bit!

 

[now i see it]

After an OS update, there’s lot more background processing going on. Give it a few days.

 

[NoBoMac]

Stop using WhatsApp? Or dumb it down a bit (eg. as suggested earlier, add it to the list of apps that don't update in background, limit notifications). Don't follow the Meta app world, but their apps have been notorious in the past for being resources hogs.

What's up with WhatsApp draining battery … - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

ADD: was using SE2 until a year-ish ago, was smooth for me, no Meta apps then. Still is smooth when I power it up every few weeks to check the battery. On latest OS.

 

[caioferrari]

Stop using WhatsApp?

Not possible in Brazil. It’s the standard messenger here.

 

[John_Blackthorne]

which version of iOS? How much free total storage on device? besides: How much storage does WA use? Do you use a screen protector?

What does the screen protector have to do with performance?

 

[John_Blackthorne]

Not possible in Brazil. It’s the standard messenger here.

Could be the battery. Could be that you are super low on storage. Could be the machine has just become too dated for the most recent applications.

Probably your battery and storage though. I believe the battery throttles when it gets below a certain capacity.

 

[shadowboi]

Stop using WhatsApp? Or dumb it down a bit (eg. as suggested earlier, add it to the list of apps that don't update in background, limit notifications). Don't follow the Meta app world, but their apps have been notorious in the past for being resources hogs.

What's up with WhatsApp draining battery … - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

ADD: was using SE2 until a year-ish ago, was smooth for me, no Meta apps then. Still is smooth when I power it up every few weeks to check the battery. On latest OS.

WhatsApp is somehow still super light in terms of resource use, both on iOS and Android. It would probably run even on calculator lol. Messenger tho… a great way to make yourself nervous, it lags even on flagship phones.

I use WhatsApp on SE 3 but also had it on old 6s and it seems to work just nice, I don’t have it in background app refresh tho (and still all the messages are getting delivered well, no problems).

Facebook, Instagram and Messenger can be sluggish so I would suggest to pull them out of multitasking when those are not used

 

[caioferrari]

Okay, so here are few steps I found to be reliable when trying to speed up every iPhone:

• disable Siri (if you don’t need it)
• Go to settings>general>background app refresh, turn everything off (gives significant boost and more battery life)
• go to home screen first page and swipe to the right to open widgets. Disable every single one of them except the ones you really need
• disable notifications from the apps you don’t need or use
• in Settings>Siri and search disable everything you can, also boosts battery and performance slightly
• install adblocks for Safari. I use Roadblock and BlockBear in tandem (both free). Ads slow down Safari significantly. In BlockBear disable website fonts so that sites will use your iOS fonts which also gives great increase in performance
• in General>Privacy and security revoke location access from most apps except maps, find my iPhone and date/time selection
• go to your iCloud settings, disable iCloud drive, Photos upload and most things that you would not want to be in the cloud
• disable predictive typing.

Hope this helps a bit!

Great! I did most of it already and my iPhone seems to be more responsive.

 

[Slartibart]

What does the screen protector have to do with performance?

OP reports problem when typing; possible side effect: TouchID impacted.

 

[Reverend Benny]

Not sure its still improving performance but on older devices I used to enable "reduce motion" and just have plain background colours.