Upgrading my iPhone 6 to iOS 11.2.5 has rendered much of the functionality useless. Solutions?

[mpb2000]

A couple of days ago I updated my iPhone 6 to iOS 11.2.5. That was a huge mistake. This was my first jump to iOS 11. I had not felt the need to update, but certain apps required iOS 11 for certain features, so I went ahead. I am now unable to use even the most basic features of the phone outside of making phone calls, and even that has been negatively impacted by the software update. The system performance in general is terrible. Every user input is delayed. Every app takes an excessive amount of time to do anything. Even considering only the basic Apple apps such as Mail, Safari, Notes, iMessage, Photos, and Settings, they are all painfully slow and crash regularly. In Safari, more than 50% of the time, web pages are automatically reloaded with the message: "A problem occurred with this webpage so it was reloaded." This is new to me on my iPhone, but I have experienced it on my iPad. I have an iPad 3 that had this same symptom as the iOS version got closer to the end of life. In both cases, it feels like because everything is so slow, as I provide additional user input, the software cannot handle it and the website ultimately reloads. Even if I don't touch the phone, the page may still reload. On many occasions, pages have reloaded multiple times consecutively, resulting in the message that repeated failures have occurred and Safari stops trying to load the page.

Opening any of the aforementioned apps takes anywhere from 3 or 4 seconds to 15 to 20 seconds, and sometimes they crash before ever displaying anything beyond the white/grey background. Opening messages in Mail can result in the body of the message displaying "Loading" with the "spinning" annulus perpetually. Typing in any apps usually results in terrible lag. Even looking through Settings is slow and sometimes crashes.

I tried to write this post on my iPhone, but after 15 minutes, I gave up and wrote it on my computer.

It appears iOS has reached the point (or maybe passed it some time ago), for the iPhone 6, where, while technically supported by Apple, it is not actually a viable option. That may be common knowledge; I haven't kept up with that sort of information. What are my options at this point? Are these problems unexpected? Should my iPhone 6 still be capable of functioning normally on 11.2.5? I don't have a recent back up of the phone, as I ran out of iCloud space some time ago and never dealt with the issue. I'm kicking myself for that now, as every time that message pops up telling me my iPhone hasn't been backed up in X weeks, I tell myself I REALLY need to deal with that. But there's no sense in worrying about that now. If I offload all the important data from my phone and restore it, it will go back to a relatively old version of iOS (I'm not sure which one). Is that even an option? Obviously, I may lose functionality in some apps, but other than that, will I still be able to use the phone as it was at the time of that last back up? Is there any way to install older iOS versions without jailbreaking? I know Apple makes that all but impossible, but I'm hoping there's some roundabout way. Is there anything else I'm not thinking of? I've never jailbroken an iOS device, so I don't know much about it. Are there options if I were to jailbreak it? What are the limitations I would run into if I did go down that road?

Thanks for the help. This is beyond frustrating.

Matt

 

[Superspeed500]

It can help to restore the phone to factory defaults to get some performace back, but a better option would probably be to check if you can disable some background apps that you do not use in order to lighten the load. Newer software tends to have more resource-hungry features and apps do also tend to use more resources as they get new features.

Jailbreaking colud allow to install older versions of iOS if you had the SHSH blob from an older version of iOS. That would however require a jailbrake for both of the iOS version and I personally havn't heard about any succsessfull jailbreaks in quite some time for any current iOS version.

 

[eyoungren]

A couple of days ago I updated my iPhone 6 to iOS 11.2.5. That was a huge mistake. This was my first jump to iOS 11. I had not felt the need to update, but certain apps required iOS 11 for certain features, so I went ahead. I am now unable to use even the most basic features of the phone outside of making phone calls, and even that has been negatively impacted by the software update. The system performance in general is terrible. Every user input is delayed. Every app takes an excessive amount of time to do anything. Even considering only the basic Apple apps such as Mail, Safari, Notes, iMessage, Photos, and Settings, they are all painfully slow and crash regularly. In Safari, more than 50% of the time, web pages are automatically reloaded with the message: "A problem occurred with this webpage so it was reloaded." This is new to me on my iPhone, but I have experienced it on my iPad. I have an iPad 3 that had this same symptom as the iOS version got closer to the end of life. In both cases, it feels like because everything is so slow, as I provide additional user input, the software cannot handle it and the website ultimately reloads. Even if I don't touch the phone, the page may still reload. On many occasions, pages have reloaded multiple times consecutively, resulting in the message that repeated failures have occurred and Safari stops trying to load the page.

Opening any of the aforementioned apps takes anywhere from 3 or 4 seconds to 15 to 20 seconds, and sometimes they crash before ever displaying anything beyond the white/grey background. Opening messages in Mail can result in the body of the message displaying "Loading" with the "spinning" annulus perpetually. Typing in any apps usually results in terrible lag. Even looking through Settings is slow and sometimes crashes.

I tried to write this post on my iPhone, but after 15 minutes, I gave up and wrote it on my computer.

It appears iOS has reached the point (or maybe passed it some time ago), for the iPhone 6, where, while technically supported by Apple, it is not actually a viable option. That may be common knowledge; I haven't kept up with that sort of information. What are my options at this point? Are these problems unexpected? Should my iPhone 6 still be capable of functioning normally on 11.2.5? I don't have a recent back up of the phone, as I ran out of iCloud space some time ago and never dealt with the issue. I'm kicking myself for that now, as every time that message pops up telling me my iPhone hasn't been backed up in X weeks, I tell myself I REALLY need to deal with that. But there's no sense in worrying about that now. If I offload all the important data from my phone and restore it, it will go back to a relatively old version of iOS (I'm not sure which one). Is that even an option? Obviously, I may lose functionality in some apps, but other than that, will I still be able to use the phone as it was at the time of that last back up? Is there any way to install older iOS versions without jailbreaking? I know Apple makes that all but impossible, but I'm hoping there's some roundabout way. Is there anything else I'm not thinking of? I've never jailbroken an iOS device, so I don't know much about it. Are there options if I were to jailbreak it? What are the limitations I would run into if I did go down that road?

Thanks for the help. This is beyond frustrating.

Matt

The iPhone 6 has 1GB ram.

That's really the problem here.

As to jailbreaking, at some point this might be possible, but I doubt it much.

First, gone are the early days where SHSH blobs and downgrading were an easy process. It's all very convoluted now. Second, while there IS an iOS 11 jailbreak, you have to be on the right firmware. Third, the current iOS 11 jailbreak is beta. There is no Cydia right now. It's more of a developers jailbreak.

You'd really need to know what you're doing to make this work (if the possibility was there).

 

[Paddle1]

A couple of days ago I updated my iPhone 6 to iOS 11.2.5. That was a huge mistake. This was my first jump to iOS 11. I had not felt the need to update, but certain apps required iOS 11 for certain features, so I went ahead. I am now unable to use even the most basic features of the phone outside of making phone calls, and even that has been negatively impacted by the software update. The system performance in general is terrible. Every user input is delayed. Every app takes an excessive amount of time to do anything. Even considering only the basic Apple apps such as Mail, Safari, Notes, iMessage, Photos, and Settings, they are all painfully slow and crash regularly. In Safari, more than 50% of the time, web pages are automatically reloaded with the message: "A problem occurred with this webpage so it was reloaded." This is new to me on my iPhone, but I have experienced it on my iPad. I have an iPad 3 that had this same symptom as the iOS version got closer to the end of life. In both cases, it feels like because everything is so slow, as I provide additional user input, the software cannot handle it and the website ultimately reloads. Even if I don't touch the phone, the page may still reload. On many occasions, pages have reloaded multiple times consecutively, resulting in the message that repeated failures have occurred and Safari stops trying to load the page.

Opening any of the aforementioned apps takes anywhere from 3 or 4 seconds to 15 to 20 seconds, and sometimes they crash before ever displaying anything beyond the white/grey background. Opening messages in Mail can result in the body of the message displaying "Loading" with the "spinning" annulus perpetually. Typing in any apps usually results in terrible lag. Even looking through Settings is slow and sometimes crashes.

I tried to write this post on my iPhone, but after 15 minutes, I gave up and wrote it on my computer.

It appears iOS has reached the point (or maybe passed it some time ago), for the iPhone 6, where, while technically supported by Apple, it is not actually a viable option. That may be common knowledge; I haven't kept up with that sort of information. What are my options at this point? Are these problems unexpected? Should my iPhone 6 still be capable of functioning normally on 11.2.5? I don't have a recent back up of the phone, as I ran out of iCloud space some time ago and never dealt with the issue. I'm kicking myself for that now, as every time that message pops up telling me my iPhone hasn't been backed up in X weeks, I tell myself I REALLY need to deal with that. But there's no sense in worrying about that now. If I offload all the important data from my phone and restore it, it will go back to a relatively old version of iOS (I'm not sure which one). Is that even an option? Obviously, I may lose functionality in some apps, but other than that, will I still be able to use the phone as it was at the time of that last back up? Is there any way to install older iOS versions without jailbreaking? I know Apple makes that all but impossible, but I'm hoping there's some roundabout way. Is there anything else I'm not thinking of? I've never jailbroken an iOS device, so I don't know much about it. Are there options if I were to jailbreak it? What are the limitations I would run into if I did go down that road?

Thanks for the help. This is beyond frustrating.

Matt

First of all you can’t downgrade. You can’t jailbreak and even if you could you still wouldn’t be able to downgrade. Apple has blocked installation of the older software and no exploit exists to work around that.

Second. How is your battery health? iOS 11 slows down the processor if the battery is too worn out. There are a few ways to check:

1. Download a program to your computer like Coconut Battery.

2. Enroll in the public beta program to install the latest beta version of iOS which allows you to check battery health and/or disable the slowdown.

3. Take it to the Apple Store to have them run their battery diagnostic.

4. Install a benchmarking app to see if your device scores lower than average.

Apps crashing sounds strange but it could be related.

 

[mpb2000]

First of all you can’t downgrade. You can’t jailbreak and even if you could you still wouldn’t be able to downgrade. Apple has blocked installation of the older software and no exploit exists to work around that.

Second. How is your battery health? iOS 11 slows down the processor if the battery is too worn out. There are a few ways to check:

1. Download a program to your computer like Coconut Battery.

2. Enroll in the public beta program to install the latest beta version of iOS which allows you to check battery health and/or disable the slowdown.

3. Take it to the Apple Store to have them run their battery diagnostic.

4. Install a benchmarking app to see if your device scores lower than average.

Apps crashing sounds strange but it could be related.

My battery is the original one from about two years ago. It’s certainly not what it used to be, but I don’t have to charge it during the day unless I use it excessively. I’ll download Coconut battery if that’s the best app for checking on that. What should I be looking for in the results?

What is the preferred benchmarking app and what are the expected results? Obviously, I can post results here from that test and a battery test, but it would be helpful to know what I’m looking for.

Since it is apparently impossible to roll back OS versions, is there a general rule of thumb as to when you should stop updating iOS on your devices? From my experience with my iPad, and from what I read about the experiences of others, Apple claims versions of iOS are compatible with devices that, while technically supported, do not function reliably enough to be practically usable. Is there a site that tests and publishes findings about this sort of thing?

If the battery and benchmark diagnostics don’t reveal anything, I’ll take it into the Apple store. I'm not one to replace my phone regularly (I held out on smartphones until this iPhone 6, even though I have had iPods since the first release), so I’m hopeful they aren’t going to just suggest buying a new phone. That’s not happening. Considering Apple is still selling the 6s, I assume with a current version of iOS, a phone one year older shouldn’t be experiencing the problems mine is.

 

[Paddle1]

My battery is the original one from about two years ago. It’s certainly not what it used to be, but I don’t have to charge it during the day unless I use it excessively. I’ll download Coconut battery if that’s the best app for checking on that. What should I be looking for in the results?

What is the preferred benchmarking app and what are the expected results? Obviously, I can post results here from that test and a battery test, but it would be helpful to know what I’m looking for.

Since it is apparently impossible to roll back OS versions, is there a general rule of thumb as to when you should stop updating iOS on your devices? From my experience with my iPad, and from what I read about the experiences of others, Apple claims versions of iOS are compatible with devices that, while technically supported, do not function reliably enough to be practically usable. Is there a site that tests and publishes findings about this sort of thing?

If the battery and benchmark diagnostics don’t reveal anything, I’ll take it into the Apple store. I'm not one to replace my phone regularly (I held out on smartphones until this iPhone 6, even though I have had iPods since the first release), so I’m hopeful they aren’t going to just suggest buying a new phone. That’s not happening. Considering Apple is still selling the 6s, I assume with a current version of iOS, a phone one year older shouldn’t be experiencing the problems mine is.

For Coconut battery, max battery health is 100%. You just want to see how far from 100 it is.

As for the benchmark apps, CPU DasherX or Geekbench 4 would work. CPU DasherX would let you see the speed the processor is running at which you can compare with how fast it's supposed to run. Geekbench has comparisons for how each iPhone should perform built into the app. The only thing is, neither app is free.

There isn't really a rule of thumb for updating, some iOS versions accommodate older devices better than others. iOS 10 was pretty good in my opinion. iOS 11 not so much. The 6s was a pretty big upgrade internally from the 6 but with iOS 11 it still suffers from slowdown at times, particularly with degraded batteries.

 

[Stan Lee]

The iPhone 6 has 1GB ram.

That's really the problem here.

iPhone 6 Plus was worse. It was laggy from the beginning.