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Sluggish iOS 4 performance on the iPhone 3G? We have the fix

Brad Sams
29 July 2010 - 13:34
80 Comments
Liked this (4)

After information surfaced yesterday that Apple is investigating sluggish performance on the iPhone 3G when running iOS 4, a Neowin reader posted what could be a quick and easy fix and the best part is, it actually works. 

To remedy the sluggish performance (or at least one cause of it) go to “Settings->General->Home Button->Spotlight Search-> deselect every option” and this will stop background indexing on the phone. Several users reported that the fix showed immediate results and Neowin has observed improvements on two separate iPhone 3G devices.

While the fix may not work for all units, it is clearly working for some whose iPhone 3G has become sluggish after the upgrade. It’s a relatively simple fix and there is no harm to the device by testing it out. 

If you try this solution and it works out for you, let us know as were interested to see if this is the fix that Apple is looking for. Even if this is a solution, it makes you wonder how such a simple problem made its way past quality control.   

Thanks for the tip NathanMillson 

Comments (80)

  1. Jan - 29 July 2010 - 13:38

    This worked for me, I miss 2.0 for my 3G. Good times.

  2. TrOjAn. - 29 July 2010 - 13:38

    It is also sluggish on my iPhone 3GS. Fix works for me though

    Apple, just give us the chance to go back to 3.1.3 or older... -.-

  3. joker999 - 29 July 2010 - 14:03

    TrOjAn. said,
    It is also sluggish on my iPhone 3GS. Fix works for me though

    Apple, just give us the chance to go back to 3.1.3 or older... -.-


    yeah i wish they let us go back down to 3.1.3 or whatever like windows/mac can,
    eg: win98se LOL

  4. Dinggus - 29 July 2010 - 15:40

    TrOjAn. said,
    It is also sluggish on my iPhone 3GS. Fix works for me though

    Apple, just give us the chance to go back to 3.1.3 or older... -.-

    If you jailbroke before you could. I hated 4.0, so I went back down to 3.1.3.

  5. +Northgrove - 29 July 2010 - 17:03

    TrOjAn. said,
    It is also sluggish on my iPhone 3GS. Fix works for me though

    Apple, just give us the chance to go back to 3.1.3 or older... -.-


    If this fix works, why go back to 3.1.3? 4.0 is much better, especially if this fix solves the only issue I've seen with it. *shrug*

    Anyway, if this is effective, I think iOS 4.1 (which is supposed to solve 3G slowness issues) has optimized Spotlight indexing part of the package.

  6. AoM_Scott - 29 July 2010 - 13:40

    Is anybody actually a bit user of Spotlight? I know I don't have that much information on my phone to lose something..

  7. Jan - 29 July 2010 - 13:50

    AoM_Scott said,
    Is anybody actually a bit user of Spotlight? I know I don't have that much information on my phone to lose something..

    I never understood the need for it either, with iOS 4 we now have folders, so it is even easier to keep track of apps.

  8. jasondefaoite - 29 July 2010 - 14:41

    I wouldn't be able to use the phone without it!

    I've 22GB of audio on there. If I'm looking for something specific, spotlight is the fastest way to get to it. I usually use it to access a contact name, in addition to find something from a specific work email.

  9. AoM_Scott - 29 July 2010 - 15:19

    Hmm, well I only have an 8 GB 3G.. No audio on mine any more, wanted room for my apps to breathe..

  10. Mark Thomas - 29 July 2010 - 13:40

    cool - unticked all apart from contacts on my 3gs. Certain I can see a performance increase.

  11. Dead'Soul - 29 July 2010 - 13:42

    tried on 2g itouch, will check...

  12. :B: Rex - 29 July 2010 - 14:55

    Dead'Soul said,
    tried on 2g itouch, will check...

    does it help the 2g touch?
    i have not upgraded to ios4 because of the reported battery life problems

  13. fametown - 29 July 2010 - 13:44

    Work fine in a spanish 3G... i can feel the speed improvement.

  14. MisticRain - 29 July 2010 - 13:46

    Holy cow! this actually worked i dont have 2 wait on the notes app any more. i can browse my email within a couple of seconds. browser reacts almost instant! ( i used to have to bash the 'x' about 5 to 6 times before it reacts.. now its the first time again !! )

  15. M. Sullivan - 29 July 2010 - 13:48

    Wow!!! There was an immediate performance increase. I missed this kind of speed.

  16. 3rd impact - 29 July 2010 - 13:49

    Also, go to “Settings->General->Home Button->Reality Distortion Field-> deselect every option”

  17. PeterKD - 29 July 2010 - 14:07

    3rd impact said,
    Also, go to “Settings->General->Home Button->Reality Distortion Field-> deselect every option”

    +1

  18. toufas - 29 July 2010 - 14:59

    3rd impact said,
    Also, go to “Settings->General->Home Button->Reality Distortion Field-> deselect every option”


    no such thing on the iphone3g!

  19. excalpius - 29 July 2010 - 15:29

    toufas said,

    no such thing on the iphone3g!

    Actually, you can find it on every Apple device. To see through the RDF, one just has to concentrate really hard and say "I will not overpay due to niche marketing" three times while you press the Home key.

  20. hotdog963al - 30 July 2010 - 02:01

    excalpius said,

    Actually, you can find it on every Apple device. To see through the RDF, one just has to concentrate really hard and say "I will not overpay due to niche marketing" three times while you press the Home key.

    Oh you.

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