PSA: iOS8 & iPad

Midpack

Midpack

Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
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I always prefer to keep all OS/software up to date, and this experience won't change that. However, I downloaded iOS8 to my iPad a few days ago and it really slowed performance more than previous updates. My iPad has even locked up/frozen several times with different apps - I've never seen that before. Doesn't help that my iPad is and old 2, inferior CPU compared to current, but evidently users with newer devices are having some problems too. "Downgrading" back to iOS7 is difficult and won't even be an option in a few weeks if past Apple history is any indication.

Presumably the same may befall (older) iPhones and iPods.

I am sure iOS8 will improve soon, but my iPad is pretty doggy in the meantime. FWIW
 
You might try turning on "Reduce animations" in Settings.

Settings > Accessibility > Reduce Animations

I know it helps my old iPhone 4 (used as an iPod touch) run iOS 7.

I've used iOS 8 on an iPad 3 and haven't noticed any problems. I've also used an iPhone 4S (oldest iPhone supported) and iPod touch 5th generation (only iPod touch supported) with iOS 8 and they seem OK. I didn't even feel the need to turn down animations on those devices.

Some apps will always need updates when a new OS ships. For me, the only app I've had any trouble with is Gas Cubby - even with an update it's still crashing on me. They sent email apologizing so hopefully they'll figure out the error soon.

That being said, it's never a bad idea to wait until the first update from Apple to update your iOS devices.
 
I have the same model (iPad 2) and I noticed three things:

First, the update to iOS 8 took an extraordinarily long time (nearly 2 hours).

Second, I had to do another sync after the update finished, because quite a few of my apps were obsolete and had to be updated to new versions. This sync also took an extraordinarily long time.

Third, once I actually got through all that, my trusty old iPad 2 is chugging along quite nicely again. There is a slightly noticeable slowness, but nothing at all like it was right after the update. Just enough slower to be apparent, but not really objectionable.

I suppose when the next iOS update comes along, I'll want a newer model. The next models are supposed to be introduced in about a month, so I'll be looking hard at them, and there's a fair chance I'll sell this one and get one of the new crop. Three and a half years on my iPad 2 is fairly reasonable. DW has the first iteration of the Retina iPad, and her update went much more smoothly than mine.
 
braumeister said:
I suppose when the next iOS update comes along, I'll want a newer model. The next models are supposed to be introduced in about a month, so I'll be looking hard at them, and there's a fair chance I'll sell this one and get one of the new crop. Three and a half years on my iPad 2 is fairly reasonable. DW has the first iteration of the Retina iPad, and her update went much more smoothly than mine.
Click to expand...
+1. If the rumored larger (12.9") iPad comes out, that would probably get me to finally buy a new one. The old iPad 2 has done just fine until now for over 3 years, though I am sure iOS8 will improve. Evidently the A8 processor (iPhone 6's and presumably the next iPad) is 25-50% more powerful than the A7 while using less battery!
 

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I have to admit that I'm just slightly annoyed at how quickly the hardware gets overwhelmed by the new software. If not for the performance hit, I'd probably be happy keeping my iPad 2 for several more years yet.

However, at least I learned a valuable lesson with this one. When I bought the iPad, I got the one capable of both WiFi and cellular service. I assumed I'd want the cellular because I take the iPad on travels instead of a laptop.

My experience has been that cellular is pointless (for me) on an iPad. I've used a total of three months of it (you pay a month at a time) over the 3 ½ years I've owned this one. WiFi is so universally available today that there is just no point in getting the more expensive model.
 
braumeister said:
My experience has been that cellular is pointless (for me) on an iPad. I've used a total of three months of it (you pay a month at a time) over the 3 ½ years I've owned this one. WiFi is so universally available today that there is just no point in getting the more expensive model.
Click to expand...

I sorta agree, but...

My wife got an iPad 1 with cellular data and used it once just to try it and then never again. So when I got an iPad I got the WiFi only one and have been quite happy with just WiFi.

BUT when she got a iPad mini she got the cellular one because if you bought it "through" T-Mobile, they give you 200MB of mobile data each month for free.

T-Mobile tablet data

And she's used it more since there isn't the friction of having to decide to buy a months' worth of data. I know it's been handy in the car a few times. 200MB isn't huge, but it's enough for casual use.
 
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DW works in a library and they were told not to update iPads to iOS 8 yet. Not sure why, but perhaps it still has some bugs for iPad 2s
 
mpeirce said:
when she got a iPad mini she got the cellular one because if you bought it "through" T-Mobile, they give you 200MB of mobile data each month for free.
Click to expand...

That is a great deal. Thanks for cluing us in. I've been with AT&T for so long I tend to forget about checking other options.
 
Update: My iPad 2 simply couldn't handle iOS 8, poor performance across the board, and crashes/freezes that I'd never seen before. It seems iOS 8 just overwhelms the processor in the original iPad 2 (iPad 2 after Mar 2012 are different).

Though Apple doesn't facilitate downgrading AT ALL, I reloaded iOS 7.1.2 (over iOS 8) using instructions I found on several websites. So my iPad performance is back...

Unfortunately 38 apps had to be reloaded and several paid apps simply disappeared. I may have to repurchase some apps! So did all my music, videos, books and photos. When I reloaded iBooks, all my books came back. When I ran a sync, my photos came back. But my 2700 songs and all my videos/movies won't come back (still on my PC). When I try it sync, iTunes skips music and videos, and reports "sync session failed to start." Retried several times, no luck. But I'll keep trying.

What a mess...
 
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Midpack said:
Update: My iPad 2 simply couldn't handle iOS 8, poor performance across the board, and crashes/freezes that I'd never seen before. It seems iOS 8 just overwhelms the processor in the original iPad 2 (iPad 2 after Mar 2012 are different).

Though Apple doesn't facilitate downgrading AT ALL, I reloaded iOS 7.1.2 (over iOS 8) using instructions I found on several websites. So my iPad performance is back...

Unfortunately 38 apps had to be reloaded and several paid apps simply disappeared. I may have to repurchase some apps! So did all my music, videos, books and photos. When I reloaded iBooks, all my books came back. When I ran a sync, my photos came back. But my 2700 songs and all my videos/movies won't come back (still on my PC). When I try it sync, iTunes skips music and videos, and reports "sync session failed to start." Retried several times, no luck. But I'll keep trying.

What a mess...
Click to expand...
Too bad, sorry for the mess but appreciate your sharing it. Doesn't your iTunes account have a history of all your purchases? You shouldn't have to purchase anything a second time.

Have you tried Apple support forums?
 
Midpack said:
iOS 8 just overwhelms the processor in the original iPad 2 (iPad 2 after Mar 2012 are different).
Click to expand...

Sorry to hear that. I must have just hit the sweet spot, because I bought mine in March 2012, and it's doing fine, just a trifle sluggish at times.
 
I downloaded ios8 on my 4th gen iPad and it seems faster. No app problems so far, but I had to delete some apps to make room for ios8
 
My iPad 2 sometimes slows down with iOS8, but it hasn't been enough to bug me yet. I'm hoping they send out a patch to fix it.

If I was having enough trouble with it to be really upset, I'd probably ditch the iPad 2 and buy a more up-to-date iPad. That's probably what they are hoping most people might do. :(
 
I worked for over 30 years doing software and systems development, and I have software running on many customer systems today. All I can say is that my own mechanism for upgrades is to never do them unless absolutely necessary. :)
 
MichaelB said:
Too bad, sorry for the mess but appreciate your sharing it. Doesn't your iTunes account have a history of all your purchases? You shouldn't have to purchase anything a second time.

Have you tried Apple support forums?
Click to expand...
That's what I expected but it hasn't panned out so far. Some apps are missing from iTunes on my PC, that's never happened to me before. But I didn't have much time to search today and nothing simple on Apple (or other) forums yet, but hopefully I'll sort all this out next few days. Thanks.
W2R said:
My iPad 2 sometimes slows down with iOS8, but it hasn't been enough to bug me yet. I'm hoping they send out a patch to fix it.

If I was having enough trouble with it to be really upset, I'd probably ditch the iPad 2 and buy a more up-to-date iPad. That's probably what they are hoping most people might do. :(
Click to expand...
I'd be happy to buy the rumored 12.9" iPad BUT rumor has it they're only going to rollout a new 9.7" in Oct. The new mini and 12.9" not until Spring 2015. It'll be pretty grim if I have to wait that long...we'll see.
travelover said:
If only CFB was here to defend Apple....:hide:
Click to expand...
I admire Apple, we have two iPads and had a slew of iPods. I've never had a bad experience like this before, was just trying to warn others who might want to hold off on iOS8 if they have the original pre-Mar 2012 iPad 2. There aren't any problems reported with later iPads, thanks to more powerful processors.
 
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Midpack said:
That's what I expected but it hasn't panned out so far. Some apps are missing from iTunes on my PC, that's never happened to me before. But I didn't have much time to search today and nothing simple on Apple (or other) forums yet, but hopefully I'll sort all this out next few days. Thanks.
Click to expand...

Rather than messing with iTunes, try looking in the App Store app on your iPad. You should see a Purchased tab which lists all the apps you've bought in the App Store. You can re-download them from their.
 
Also if you turned on backups, you may want to note the date of the last backup BEFORE you lost apps.

That way, if they rollout an update that works better on your iPad 2, you can restore your older set of apps. Or if you upgrade to a newer iPad, you can use the older backup, not one created after you lost your apps.

I back up to icloud and I'm not sure if it stores every backup or just the last few. May need to turn off backups temporarily to prevent the good backup from being overwritten.
 
braumeister said:
That is a great deal. Thanks for cluing us in. I've been with AT&T for so long I tend to forget about checking other options.
Click to expand...

I bought a mini with LTE earlier this year for an overseas trip because I wanted to use mobile data rather than rely on wifi from smaller hotels, which I've often found to be unreliable or too slow.

I've used mobile data in Italy, Amsterdam and France on it, often overcoming slow and cumbersome (logging in over and over again) hotel wifi.

Plus I signed up for t mobile Simple Choice data plan which offers 1 GB of LTE data a month but more importantly, 'unlimited' international data in many countries. It's very slow data but you can get email, surf and even use maps on it.
 
Sarah in SC said:
Such a techie, lol! :D

My own phone is a plain ole 4, but by god I'm getting the uprade to the 6, as soon as those yahoos at Verizon see fit to send it to me!
Click to expand...


Like you, I have the plain ol' 4 with Verizon but have been loathe to give up my unlimited data plan, which I have been assured will happen with upgrades.

Still, I love the size of the 6+ and am considering it....


Sent from my iPhone using Early Retirement Forum
 
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