Electronics

[wildcat fan]

We do quite a bit of blogging in our class, and today I noticed that a student's iPad is really slow. I could type 10-15 letters by the time the first one appeared on the screen. She's the type who loves to sneak into settings and change things around just to be different from everyone else, so I'm not sure if she set it that way, or if there's a bug, She's using an iPad 4 with the latest iOS. Any suggestions for speeding up the response time? Aside from the delay, there's lots of editing time involved because she can't immediately see what she types. Thanks for your help!

[ChynnaBlue]

Is she running many apps in the background? If so, close any apps that are not being used because they hog resources. To close apps, double-tap the home button so that all open apps are displayed and use a finger to "flick" them up and off the page. Close them all and start over. It's a good habit to close all apps at the end of every day so that they do not accumulate over time and drain the battery and use resources.

Has she rebooted it recently? I would power it off completely, wait 30 seconds or so, and then back on.

Is she at capacity for storage? If she's at or near capacity for storage, that will slow things down. Delete any unnecessary apps or pictures to clear space.

Is this an iPad that the school provided or one she owns? If these things do not work and it's a school-owned item, I would have the school tech person look at it.

[wildcat fan]

Thanks, ChynnaBlue!

Yes, it's a school-owned iPad. We don't have many technical support people around, so we have to do all the troubleshooting we can before we send the iPads to them.

I didn't notice any other apps running. It was slow when typing an email and when we went into Safari. She's not near capacity for storage. We'll try to reboot it again tomorrow and see what happens. Thanks, again!

[glb613]

On 12/1/2014 wildcat fan said:

Thanks, ChynnaBlue!

Yes, it's a school-owned iPad. We don't have many technical support people around, so we have to do all the troubleshooting we can before we send the iPads to them.

I didn't notice any other apps running. It was slow when typing an email and when we went into Safari. She's not near capacity for storage. We'll try to reboot it again tomorrow and see what happens. Thanks, again!

Double tap the home button and swipe up on each app you see on the screen.

[Moonchilde]

On 12/1/2014 ChynnaBlue said:

Is she running many apps in the background? If so, close any apps that are not being used because they hog resources. To close apps, double-tap the home button so that all open apps are displayed and use a finger to "flick" them up and off the page. Close them all and start over. It's a good habit to close all apps at the end of every day so that they do not accumulate over time and drain the battery and use resources.

Has she rebooted it recently? I would power it off completely, wait 30 seconds or so, and then back on.

Is she at capacity for storage? If she's at or near capacity for storage, that will slow things down. Delete any unnecessary apps or pictures to clear space.

Is this an iPad that the school provided or one she owns? If these things do not work and it's a school-owned item, I would have the school tech person look at it.

THANK YOU, Chynna! I have had my iPad 3 for almost 3 years, and just set up my new Air 2, and somehow I had never heard that. I just did it on the new iPad and was appalled at how many apps were running since Saturday. No wonder I haven't been impressed with the battery life! I'm afraid to find out how many are open in the old iPad and my phone ;-(

I have the slow keyboard periodically. Rebooting usually fixes it for me, but not always. It seems to clear itself eventually though.

[Lynnj]

Although the student has the latest OS installed (assume it's iOS8) have they installed the updates that were recently released? The last update fixed many problems many were having with slow or delayed repsomse time with some things. If all updates are up-to-date, and all apps are closed/turned off, then I suggest doing a restore and using the latest backup to restore from. This process will reinstall the OS, then bring back settimgs and apps as was saved from the backup. To do this connect the iPad to iTunes, click on the iPad on the top (if using iTunes 12) then select restore button located in the middle of the summary page in iTunes. But....make sure you have an iCloud backup, or backup,to the computer hard drive before doing this.

[Lynnj]

On 12/1/2014 moonchilde said:

On 12/1/2014 ChynnaBlue said:

Is she running many apps in the background? If so, close any apps that are not being used because they hog resources. To close apps, double-tap the home button so that all open apps are displayed and use a finger to "flick" them up and off the page. Close them all and start over. It's a good habit to close all apps at the end of every day so that they do not accumulate over time and drain the battery and use resources.

Has she rebooted it recently? I would power it off completely, wait 30 seconds or so, and then back on.

Is she at capacity for storage? If she's at or near capacity for storage, that will slow things down. Delete any unnecessary apps or pictures to clear space.<br /> <br /> Is this an iPad that the school provided or one she owns? If these things do not work and it's a school-owned item, I would have the school tech person look at it.

THANK YOU, Chynna! I have had my iPad 3 for almost 3 years, and just set up my new Air 2, and somehow I had never heard that. I just did it on the new iPad and was appalled at how many apps were running since Saturday. No wonder I haven't been impressed with the battery life! I'm afraid to find out how many are open in the old iPad and my phone ;-(

I have the slow keyboard periodically. Rebooting usually fixes it for me, but not always. It seems to clear itself eventually though.

I am surprised by how many people who don't know about closing apps when not using them. It's fundamental to keeping the device working properly. The mobile device processors aren't anywhere near the strength of a processor in a comouter, and cannot handle the workload put on by having so many apps open at the same time for such a long period of time. In addition it has huge impacts to battery life. Do people keep everything open that they used from the beginning of time on their computers? This is not directed at you, moonchilde, just an overall observation. And I find that it's not just newbies to mobile devices that don't do this, but people who have been using mobile devices for years and are quite proficient with using them.

[Moonchilde]

On 12/1/2014 Lynnj said:

On 12/1/2014 moonchilde said:

On 12/1/2014 ChynnaBlue said:

Is she running many apps in the background? If so, close any apps that are not being used because they hog resources. To close apps, double-tap the home button so that all open apps are displayed and use a finger to "flick" them up and off the page. Close them all and start over. It's a good habit to close all apps at the end of every day so that they do not accumulate over time and drain the battery and use resources.

Has she rebooted it recently? I would power it off completely, wait 30 seconds or so, and then back on.

Is she at capacity for storage? If she's at or near capacity for storage, that will slow things down. Delete any unnecessary apps or pictures to clear space.<br /> <br /> Is this an iPad that the school provided or one she owns? If these things do not work and it's a school-owned item, I would have the school tech person look at it.

THANK YOU, Chynna! I have had my iPad 3 for almost 3 years, and just set up my new Air 2, and somehow I had never heard that. I just did it on the new iPad and was appalled at how many apps were running since Saturday. No wonder I haven't been impressed with the battery life! I'm afraid to find out how many are open in the old iPad and my phone ;-(

I have the slow keyboard periodically. Rebooting usually fixes it for me, but not always. It seems to clear itself eventually though.

I am surprised by how many people who don't know about closing apps when not using them. It's fundamental to keeping the device working properly. The mobile device processors aren't anywhere near the strength of a processor in a comouter, and cannot handle the workload put on by having so many apps open at the same time for such a long period of time. In addition it has huge impacts to battery life. Do people keep everything open that they used from the beginning of time on their computers? This is not directed at you, moonchilde, just an overall observation. And I find that it's not just newbies to mobile devices that don't do this, but people who have been using mobile devices for years and are quite proficient with using them.

I certainly have been using them for years. I have never read the manual from cover to cover as I do with other devices because I never felt the need; there was nothing that "didn't work" and that's the usual reason I investigate things. I have certain done troubleshooting over the years by going into forums online and reading, but don't recall that I've ever come across a discussion of "closing" programs on an i-device. I think most people assume it is closed when you pinch it off the screen, as (up to now) only one program at a time supposedly can be "running" onscreen on an i-device, or so they say. I think most people think of it as "closing" one app and opening another.

[Lynnj]

On 12/1/2014 moonchilde said:

On 12/1/2014 Lynnj said:

On 12/1/2014 moonchilde said:

On 12/1/2014 ChynnaBlue said:

Is she running many apps in the background? If so, close any apps that are not being used because they hog resources. To close apps, double-tap the home button so that all open apps are displayed and use a finger to "flick" them up and off the page. Close them all and start over. It's a good habit to close all apps at the end of every day so that they do not accumulate over time and drain the battery and use resources.

Has she rebooted it recently? I would power it off completely, wait 30 seconds or so, and then back on.

Is she at capacity for storage? If she's at or near capacity for storage, that will slow things down. Delete any unnecessary apps or pictures to clear space.<br /> <br /> Is this an iPad that the school provided or one she owns? If these things do not work and it's a school-owned item, I would have the school tech person look at it.

THANK YOU, Chynna! I have had my iPad 3 for almost 3 years, and just set up my new Air 2, and somehow I had never heard that. I just did it on the new iPad and was appalled at how many apps were running since Saturday. No wonder I haven't been impressed with the battery life! I'm afraid to find out how many are open in the old iPad and my phone ;-(

I have the slow keyboard periodically. Rebooting usually fixes it for me, but not always. It seems to clear itself eventually though.

I am surprised by how many people who don't know about closing apps when not using them. It's fundamental to keeping the device working properly. The mobile device processors aren't anywhere near the strength of a processor in a comouter, and cannot handle the workload put on by having so many apps open at the same time for such a long period of time. In addition it has huge impacts to battery life. Do people keep everything open that they used from the beginning of time on their computers? This is not directed at you, moonchilde, just an overall observation. And I find that it's not just newbies to mobile devices that don't do this, but people who have been using mobile devices for years and are quite proficient with using them.

I certainly have been using them for years. I have never read the manual from cover to cover as I do with other devices because I never felt the need; there was nothing that "didn't work" and that's the usual reason I investigate things. I have certain done troubleshooting over the years by going into forums online and reading, but don't recall that I've ever come across a discussion of "closing" programs on an i-device. I think most people assume it is closed when you pinch it off the screen, as (up to now) only one program at a time supposedly can be "running" onscreen on an i-device, or so they say. I think most people think of it as "closing" one app and opening another.

I think you've hit the nail on the head, that people assume it's closed when they hit the next app. I think it's a miss on the makers of these devices, apple, Samsung, all of them, to not do a better job of messaging how to properly care for the device by making sure apps are closed when not in use. Of course, no need to be a fanatic about closing them when not using them, keep the ones open that you access often. But certainly there are others that have only been opened once, or only used every once in a while. I know of people, not newbies, who have gone out and purchased a replacement because they thought their device was no longer working. Simply closing the apps and giving the device a full charge brought the device back to life again.

[Moonchilde]

Interestingly, I have read a lot of articles over the last couple of years about how to improve battery life. Seems like every time a new i-device is released and every time a new iOS or iOS update is released, the battery articles pop up again. They all mention essentially the same things (Notifications, updating & etc.), but in all the ones I've seen, I would have remembered if they'd mentioned the app-closing explanation, and they didn't/don't, which I find very odd. I guess you could say they assume people know, but apparently not ;-(