Not a car post: how do I increase my iPad 1's speed?

"Kat Callahan" (kyosuke)
07/20/2014 at 22:37 • Filed to: None

When I bought my iPad 1 when it first came out on the very day it came out, I promised myself I would not purchase another tablet until it outright died on me. I'm nowhere near death, but it's too slow to work on and it keeps crashing.

I know this isn't lifehacker or gizmodo, but I thought maybe some crossover would exist. All I really need from it is the ability to write articles on the go. As I learned this weekend, that is hard with it so slow and crashing. I don't think it is yet time to get a new iPad. This one is still practically mint outside.

It is jailbroken, it probably doesn't need to be. Suggestions?

DISCUSSION (47)

Arben72 > Kat Callahan
07/20/2014 at 22:42

Not much you can do, a lot of jailbroken tweaks cause instability so just restore it.

Diesel > Kat Callahan
07/20/2014 at 22:42

http://lifehacker.com/how-to-speed-u…

Conan > Kat Callahan
07/20/2014 at 22:43

Wipe and reinstall? About the only bit I can think of.

Flavien Vidal > Kat Callahan
07/20/2014 at 22:48

Like every single apple devices... throw it away

Just kidding :) A good formating and complete reinstall will do the trick.

Textured Soy Protein > Kat Callahan
07/20/2014 at 22:50

Honestly, it's probably time to replace it. My iPad 2 that I bought a few weeks after they came out is getting pretty long in the tooth. It just doesn't have enough RAM.

PS9 > Kat Callahan
07/20/2014 at 22:52

Get a newer iPad.

Wish there were more to it, but there isn't. Every software update is pretty much designed do exactly the things your iPad 1 is now doing to spur people to upgrade, and unfortunately it works extremely well. The good news is you don't have to drop $500 large on the newest of the new; maybe an iPad 2 or 1st gen Retina iPad will return that functionality to you. The bad news is, this problem is going to rear its ugly head again no matter which iPad you get, and when it does, it will have the same solution; get a newer iPad. You can try un-jailbreaking it (been a while since I've been in the walled garden so I can't tell you if that's possible or not, sorry.) but if that doesn't solve the issue, you'll know what you have to do.

Wish I could say it's different on the android side, but it's not really. Devices are cheaper somewhat, but that's the only advantage. This is the price we must pay for walled garden devices; when the hardware makers need a boost in revenue, they can just lock older devices out of software updates, or slowly cripple them with boated and half-functioning ones. The days of eeking 15+ years out of your old Dell might be over.

Once upon a time, I used an iPod touch to jot down ideas and stuff with, and had to drop it because a software update made the keyboard lag beyond the point of usefulness. Such a thing has yet to hit my 2013 Nexus 7, but it's only a matter of time before it does.

Kat Callahan > Arben72
07/20/2014 at 22:54

Before I go to that extreme, I think I'm going to try to get rid of all of the tweaks that I have so far. I have a lot of data I especially e-books that would take a lot of time to remove.

Kat Callahan > Textured Soy Protein
07/20/2014 at 22:55

That's really not a financial option at the moment. Probably I would just look into buying another computer.

beardsbynelly - Rikerbeard > Kat Callahan
07/20/2014 at 22:56

an Oppo sticker would speed it up. +15hp

Kat Callahan > PS9
07/20/2014 at 22:57

I don't even have $100 to spend on a new/old iPad. What money I have now is going to the car.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > Kat Callahan
07/20/2014 at 22:58

Copy everything off, erase it entirely. Slowly build it back up, making sure to only put on the things you *absolutely* need. Anything superfluous goes out the window.

The iPad is pretty antiquated by now, though I still think it's a handsome-as-hell device (the original iPhone was the best design, dammit!), but it should still be good for some basic computing tasks, though I feel like the Internet has gotten resource-heavy enough that browsing would be a bit of a chore on it no matter how lightweight you get iOS to be.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > beardsbynelly - Rikerbeard
07/20/2014 at 23:00

And a fart can. Exhaust volume is directionally proportional to speed.

beardsbynelly - Rikerbeard > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
07/20/2014 at 23:01

she could lower it too, slam it right on the ground.

PS9 > Kat Callahan
07/20/2014 at 23:02

Know any neighbors or friends willing to donate an old laptop?

Frank Grimes > Kat Callahan
07/20/2014 at 23:07

take it with you in the shower. or if its more your bag a bath with some jasmine candles. the relaxation of warm water as well as cleaning out the insides and the jasmine has aromatherapy benefits and will do it wonders most importantly the water will help its cooling and efficiency.

Sally O'Broder > Kat Callahan
07/20/2014 at 23:28

Attach it to the hood of your car and go for a drive. Duh.

Kat Callahan > Arben72
07/20/2014 at 23:29

That seems to have made a significant difference. I've even managed to get Google Chrome's voice recognition working. That's without even restoring.

Almost all tweaks removed and nearly all nonessential apps removed. Then a reboot. Much snappier. I still think a full restore is the way to go, but that will need to wait until tomorrow.

starkruzr > Kat Callahan
07/20/2014 at 23:32

Nonononono. Delete your information from this thing and eBay it immediately to someone who is dumb enough to use an iPad that can't be patched above iOS 5. An iPad 1 will have the Heartbleed bug, among many, many other critical security vulnerabilities, and should not be trusted to check the weather much less access your email or do anything else important with it. Using this is a very bad idea, I promise.

Kat Callahan > starkruzr
07/20/2014 at 23:35

Wait, what?

Arben72 > Kat Callahan
07/20/2014 at 23:40

By reboot did you hold the lock and home button till it restarted or turning it off and on. You should try the first method if you didn't do it yet.

Kat Callahan > Arben72
07/20/2014 at 23:42

The former. Hard reboot.

Kat Callahan > starkruzr
07/20/2014 at 23:47

I have an iPhone 4 and this. I could put them together, go to Hard Off and trade for a newer iPad. Here's the catch. I have no acces to a computer at the moment. Everything I do must be able to be done on the devices alone.

starkruzr > Kat Callahan
07/21/2014 at 00:05

That is a good idea. You can register a new device while it is not connected to a computer. You can back your existing stuff up with something like Dropbox.

Kat Callahan > starkruzr
07/21/2014 at 00:08

Can you walk me through this?

starkruzr > Kat Callahan
07/21/2014 at 00:08

You bet. If you wanna do it live over Skype or something on your iPhone 4 (or at a cafe) let me know when's good.

Kat Callahan > starkruzr
07/21/2014 at 00:11

I have an iPhone 5c ready to go.

Garrett Davis > Kat Callahan
07/21/2014 at 01:42

Hey Kat,

This is a well known thing in the industry that we call "feature creep."

Feature creep is what happens to all of our little gadgets and computers and there is very little that can be done about it other than just upgrading altogether. Over time your OS gets more and more updates and the apps you use are constantly growing and becoming more and more sophisticated. This results in your aging hardware not being able to handle how resource heavy new apps are, because the developers have to constantly innovate at the cutting edge level along with the new hardware that is continually being released.

With a typical PC you can upgrade a few things here and there to cope with this, but unfortunately there is no such option here. Really the only thing you can do would be to flash back to the OS version your iPad shipped with, and somehow only use old or lightweight applications. Then your iPad will be as fast as the day you pulled it put of the box, but not much else would work right. It sucks, but that's just life in the tech world. Our gadgets have an increasingly short lifespan at this rate of progress.

My advice would be to wait for the next iPad announcement (maybe a few months) and figure out whether or not it's worth the upgrade. If it isn't, you'll be able to get the current gen iPad for much cheaper by then.

Best of luck!

Kat Callahan > Garrett Davis
07/21/2014 at 01:48

I'm going to take Kruzr's advice and just figure out how to get rid of everything on it and send it to stock and sell it along with an with an iPhone 4 to see if I can trade it for something better. Assuming I can figure out how to do that and wipe everything without access to a computer.

Kat Callahan > Garrett Davis
07/21/2014 at 01:53

Looks like I can erase via the ipad's onboard Find my iPhone App. Is this what I should do before selling it, do you know?

Kastle > Kat Callahan
07/21/2014 at 02:15

I just gave my iPad1 to the most trusted person I know . . . . But before I did, I went into settings and in general settings found "erase all content and settings" which meant they had to totally start from the beginning including starting up their own Apple iTunes account, because the pad was just like new.

Maybe you should do this?

Kat Callahan > Kastle
07/21/2014 at 02:18

Excellent. Exactly the information I was looking for.

Kastle > Kat Callahan
07/21/2014 at 02:50

You have taught me so much, I am humbled to maybe have paid back 1%.

Thank you . . .

Kat Callahan > Kastle
07/21/2014 at 02:58

About how long does it take? It seems to be taking quite a while.

Kastle > Kat Callahan
07/21/2014 at 03:02

ummm... It takes quite a while to erase the content on your iPad. Depends on how much is there.

It may take even longer to teach me? :)

Kat Callahan > Kastle
07/21/2014 at 03:31

Out of 32 GB I think 26 were open. I've deleted pretty much all of the contents before I started.

Kat Callahan > Kastle
07/21/2014 at 03:59

Jailbreaking has a custom IPSW, therefore that method doesn't work.

Kastle > Kat Callahan
07/21/2014 at 08:28

Oh, dear. It worked for me.

I have no idea then. Sorry.

Garrett Davis > Kat Callahan
07/21/2014 at 13:32

I came to say exactly what Kastle said below. Good luck :)

Garrett Davis > Kat Callahan
07/21/2014 at 13:33

Ah, think you'll have to do it from iTunes then. What version of IOS are you on?

PeterVWJetta > Kat Callahan
07/21/2014 at 16:02

A catapult? ;-)

pauljones > Kat Callahan
07/28/2014 at 10:31

I've removed a post from yesterday's K-Roll thread in which someone came out and attempted to flat-out e-attack you, so to speak. The post was by a user named blacktruck or something like that. I apologize for not having caught it sooner.

Kat Callahan > pauljones
07/28/2014 at 10:35

Thanks. I'm half curious what it said—as you can imagine, I get all sorts of crazy stuff on my articles. I'm becoming desensitised. :/

Let Gamecat know, he's also sort of on the look out for it.

pauljones > Kat Callahan
07/28/2014 at 13:25

Essentially, he just tried to call you out, assert that you were a bitch, campaign to have you banned, and that whole thing. He also threw in a couple of "fuck-you's" here and there, and a few gender-based comments for good measure.

You know, the usual. I deleted it and made sure he didn't have authorship privileges.

See what happens when you try to encourage positive interaction, learning, and understanding!?

I'm sorry you got caught up in that whole shitshow and got the blowback that you did.

Kat Callahan > pauljones
07/28/2014 at 16:06

Oh, how nice.

Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man > Kat Callahan
07/28/2014 at 17:21

this may or may not help, but it only takes about 10 seconds to try, hold the power and home buttons down at the same time (its better if its on so you can tell that it did what it was supposed to do) and it will reset but wont erase anything, I had to do this a few times on my ipad mini because the wifi stopped working and now the wifi works perfectly, and that may help, that or to really help it, but this is a pain, back it up, then restore it to stock firmware and no apps, then put all your purchases back on from your backup, and then try rejailbreaking, this would be more likely to help in my "oppo"inion

Kat Callahan > Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man
07/28/2014 at 17:35

I actually restored it and sold it. I'll be picking up a new version at some point.

Jordaneer, The Mountaineer Man > Kat Callahan
07/28/2014 at 17:38

oh, I didn't see this post was from a week ago.