Why Is My iPad So Slow and How to Fix It

Q: “My iPad 2 became unusable after upgrading to iOS 8. Closing an app (single tap on the home button) and app switching (double tap) took forever to the point it felt like the system had frozen. Everything else seemed to be running in slow motion. It was torture. Why is my iPad so slow now?”

Generally speaking, a new iPad has more powerful processors, and it runs faster than older models. Most of the time, however, you may experience the slow and sluggish iPad. For example, you may meet the problem like Facebook running slow, iPad buttons getting longer time to respond, or even iPad screen frozen, which greatly drive you crazy. Why is my iPad so slow? You may ask the same question as the above user.

Then, what are the possible reasons that cause a slow iPad? How to fix a slow and old iPad? That’s exactly what this article is about. So we will introduce the reasons why your iPad is so slow and we’ve got some great tips to get a faster iPad.

Also Read: Best iPad Data Recovery Software Review >

Part 1: Why Is My iPad So Slow

Basically, iPad running slow results from many factors, here we list the most common reasons why is my iPad so slow:

• Multiple apps are running on iPad at the same time. Generally iOS is powerful to run several apps simultaneously. However when exceeding its internal storage (RAM) ability, iPad will become freezing, or slow to respond.
• Storage is full on your iPad. Many users have the iPad with 16G, or 32G ROM. But with taking more and more photos, recording more and more videos, or saving more and more other data on iPad, the available ROM will be smaller and smaller, or even out. At this time, your iPad will also be running slow.
• A lot of junk files might be stored in your system. When iOS running, or updating, there will produce waste files or data, which will make your iPad freeze up sometimes.
• The apps may be holding high amount of caches and temporary files. When running any app on iPad, waste data will also be generated, normally calling caches. Especially when using Safari on iPad, a lot of cookies and caches will make iPad run slow.

Also Read: How to Free up Disk Space on Your iPhone/iPad >

Part 2: How to Speed up a Slow iPad

Base on the above information, here we will offer 6 tips to fix a running slow iPad. Although we can’t promise you that your iPad will run smoothly like new with the tips below, it will boost your iPad performance to some extent.

1. Install the Latest Operating System on iPad

Updating to the latest operating system is not only to speed up a slow iPad but always a good way to get newest features and tweaks on iPad. Make sure you have the most current version for your iPad. Just go to the General > Settings > Software Update, and download the latest iPadOS on iPad.

Notes: iOS 12 is available and it works for iPad mini 2/3/4, iPad 6th generation, iPad Air/Air 2, and iPad Pro.  You could try to update your iPad to iOS 12. But iOS 13 is no longer supporting iPad, the newest iPad Operating System is iPadOS 13, which was introduced at the WWDC 2019 with iOS 13.

Also Read: iPadOS New Features & Other Basic Info >

2. Remove Unneeded Apps from iPad

This tip is very needed for those 16/32 GB iPad users, just swipe through the pages on your iPad to find out if there are apps you don’t actively use or have never used. Removing the unwanted apps from your iPad is not only an effective way to free up space but also a good way to speed up your slow iPad. Just find the app you want to delete, long press on the app icon until a “X” appears, tap on it to delete the app.

You May Like: How to Transfer iPhone Apps to iPad Keeping App Data >

3. Clean Up Storage and Delete Junk Files

There’s no doubt that most iPad Pro users will use this new generation big-screen Pad to watch videos and play games. With so many media files and apps downloading, even the 64GB/128GB storage of iPad Pro would be run out someday in the future. Of course, at the same time, the junk files, caches and cookies will be created, which may seriously slow down your device. So keeping your device clean and delete these junk files from your iPad seems necessary. Then how to clean your iPad Pro? Below, we offer some methods.

Clean up Safari’s Cache

You can clean up caches/history of Safari and attachments of iMessages/Email to free up your iPad.

Clearing cache is like emptying the trash. The more websites you visit, the more information is stored in your web browser’s folder. When it gets too full, it starts to “overflow”, slowing down your device. To clear the cache (using Safari), go to Settings > Safari > Clear History and Data.

Remove junk files with PhoneClean help

It is hard work to collect junk files/caches and manually delete them one by one. So you can use the iOS cleaner tool – PhoneClean to get rid of junk files and unnecessary caches on your iPad Pro in 1 click. PhoneClean is a professional iOS optimization and waste files cleaning application, working for iPhone/iPad/iPod touch. It is recommended to speed up your running slow iPad, because its unparalleled performance and features:

• Quick Clean – This feature is able to quickly find and clean app temporary files, app caches & cookies, download temporary files, app crash log, camera photos caches, large & old files, etc.
• Internet Clean – This is specially designed for Safari browsing, covering Safari caches & cookies, Safari histories, webmail caches, etc.
• Privacy Clean – This is mainly for your call history, messages, contacts, and so on.
• System Clean – It is mainly for iOS optimization, clearing iOS notification, app leftovers, and shutting down apps running in background.
• Silent Clean – When this feature enabled, you don’t need to clean your iPad every other a period any more. Because PhoneClean will automatically clean your iPad as long as your iPad and the computer is under the same network.

With these 5 PhoneClean features, you can totally fix your running slow iPad 2/3, or iPad Air/Pro now. Why not give it try now?

4. Turn off location services

In Settings > Privacy > Location Services, you can turn all location services off or only the specific one. Remember that using the “kill all” switch will also disable the “Find my iPad” service, so we suggest you not to turn off all location services.

5. Perform a Factory Resetting

Is your iPad still slow after completing these steps? It’s time to put it to factory reset. This will swipe everything from your iPad and give you a blank slate. You’ll need to back up your iPad before doing this, and both iTunes and iCloud are good ways to backup your device. Restore your device to factory settings: Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings.

For many iPad users, applying these 5 methods one by one must be with much time consuming. And every other a period when iPad running slow, taking these operations again, it would be pretty annoying. So we recommend the ultimate tip 6 to fix a running slow iPad, but with less time consuming and automatically.

6. Restart Your iPad

A fully restarting could clean up all temporary processes and make your iPad run faster. And the process to restart your iPad is pretty easy: just hold on Sleep button and slide to power off your iPad. After a while, turn on your iPad by pressing again the Sleep button.

Sometimes when your iPad crashes and freezes, you may need a force restart, hold on both Home and Sleep buttons at the same time for at least 10 seconds until the screen goes black and the Apple logo appears. Normally, you will find your iPad goes well after a force restarting.

The Bottom Line

Hope this article can help you solve iPad is so slow issue. After downloading new operating system on your iPad, you may meet some problems like Wi-Fi not working, iPad Siri not responding, or iPad not sending iMessage. If you got any other fixes about iPad issues or solutions, leave you comments below to share with us.