Apple looking into iOS 4 problems on iPhone 3G

Posted:
in iPhone edited January 2014
After numerous reports of problems, Apple is investigating the performance of the iPhone 3G when running iOS 4.



A spokeswoman for Apple told the Wall Street Journal that the Cupertino, Calif., company is aware of the reports and looking into the matter.



Users have complained of several major problems after upgrading to the new operating system, including slowness, decreased battery life and overheating. Several blogs are currently advising iPhone 3G users against upgrading to the new operating system.



Many users have expressed anger or disappointment at the situation. ?This phone has gone from being a dream to constantly annoying me. Not a way to make friends. I would upgrade to an iPhone4, but I?m feeling pretty angry that Apple has forced my hand by making my 3G unusable,? wrote one user on an Apple forum.



As reported in June by AppleInsider, iOS 4 for iPhone 3G is missing several key features, including multitasking and support for Bluetooth keyboards. The increased memory requirements of iOS 4 are cited as a reason for disabling the extra features. First generation iPhone and iPod touch units are unable to run iOS 4.



The problems with iPhone 3G's running iOS4 are the latest in a series of high-profile hardware and software mishaps that Apple has faced. Issues with the iPhone 4 antenna have, for the most part, eclipsed several other reported problems.



In addition to the iPhone 4 antenna problem, Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs confirmed earlier in July that there is indeed a problem with the iPhone 4 proximity sensor. The company is currently working on a software fix for the sensor.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 80
    mcdavemcdave Posts: 1,927member
    Yes! Soon please! So I don't have to wait 10 seconds to write an SMS or roll back to v3 !!!



    McD
  • Reply 2 of 80
    kingkueikingkuei Posts: 137member
    Apple made it seem as though the original iPhone EDGE lacked sufficient processor speed and system memory to handle iOS 4. But as far as I am aware, the iPhone 3G uses the same SoC as the original and the only update was the addition of the 3G radio. I don't recall any increase in memory, CPU speed, or graphics update.



    Soooooo.... Apple made the decision to EoL the original as opposed to a more gradual dying out of it's use.
  • Reply 3 of 80
    anakin1992anakin1992 Posts: 283member
    IOS4 does not work well on iphone 3g. slow and power draining faster...
  • Reply 4 of 80
    grabbengrabben Posts: 1member
    Man I have not had any problems after updating my 3G, except on the first version. That same day though there was a patch to fix the slowness issues. Every update since then has produced no ill affects. I just updated to 4.0.1 (8A306) the other day, no problems. I have a a thin rubber cover on the phone as well.
  • Reply 5 of 80
    I experienced this extreme slowness after upgrading to 4 as well. Then I tried completely wiping the phone and starting from fresh. Now it works like new. Try it if you've got the time.
  • Reply 6 of 80
    jimmylojimmylo Posts: 1member
    I lost my App data, but at least my phone is running normally again.



    Following taken from:

    http://modmyi.com/wiki/index.php/How...U_Restore_Mode



    DFU MODE



    This method is best for restoring, upgrading, downgrading and such. This is not the same as regular restore (with the "Connect to iTunes" logo)



    Step-by-Step:



    1. Turn the iPhone ON

    2. CONNECT it to the dock

    3. Make sure iTunes is open so you'll know when it enters DFU mode

    4. HOLD the Power/Sleep-Wake button AND the Home button for 10 seconds

    5. RELEASE only the Power/Sleep-Wake button and continue to hold the Home button

    6. WAIT until iTunes recognizes the phone in DFU Restore mode (in Windows a bubble pops up saying it recognized new hardware "DFU Mode" or something to that effect)

    The last step may take SOME TIME, like, say, even 60 seconds or so. The screen should be OFF (black), if you see the "Connect to iTunes" logo, START OVER. It may take a few tries to do the steps just right, just reboot (hold both Power/Sleep-Wake AND Home until the Apple logo appears and the phone turns back on) then try again.





    Another Way is to hear to the sound of the hardware Disconnect and Reconnect. When you hold power and home to reset, once you hear the USB disconnect sound leave the power button but keep holding the home until you hear another USB plugin sound. This is the easiest way to know that your phone is in DFU mode.
  • Reply 7 of 80
    landnsealandnsea Posts: 17member
    The iOS 4 upgrade on my iPhone 3G has been a very disappointing experience. My iPhone 3G is linked to the Rogers network in Canada, and with three-year contracts here (makes AT&T look positively generous!), the earliest I could upgrade without a special Rogers promotion is next summer. So I'm likely stuck with the 3G for another year, and I would really like it to work well for the life of the contract. Since updating to iOS 4, I've experienced ridiculous slow-downs and freezes. When I upgraded to iOS 4.0.1, the performance improved, although relatively marginally.
  • Reply 8 of 80
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by anakin1992 View Post


    IOS4 does not work well on iphone 3g. slow and power draining faster...



    That is wayyyy too sweeping a generalisation to make from your personal experience.



    From mine, I would say quite the opposite - I find several things (including battery life, bluetooth control and sound quality, plus folders) working much better in iOS4. I do notice (and expected it) slower application start-up times, too imperceptible to trouble me (I also have a 3GS to compare with). I spent around 3 days using the upgraded 3G alone and to be honest, I'd be happy using it as my main phone for another 2 years as it does most of what I want done and all that I need done.



    It must be said that several of my colleagues who upgraded their 3G's are either unhappy or have downgraded back to 3.1.3, but when I ask how they upgraded, they generally tinkered with and interrupted the tediously long upgrade process, thereby hosing it.



    I suspect that a great deal of unhappy upgraders are tinkerers, jailbreakers and the like, or just plain smart-ass know-it-alls too "knowledgeable" to follow simple instructions and exercise a little patience during crucial processes like OS upgrades.



    But then again, that's just my personal perspective.
  • Reply 9 of 80
    mazda 3smazda 3s Posts: 1,613member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by JimmyLo View Post


    I lost my App data, but at least my phone is running normally again.



    Following taken from:

    http://modmyi.com/wiki/index.php/How...U_Restore_Mode



    DFU MODE



    This method is best for restoring, upgrading, downgrading and such. This is not the same as regular restore (with the "Connect to iTunes" logo)



    Step-by-Step:



    1. Turn the iPhone ON

    2. CONNECT it to the dock

    3. Make sure iTunes is open so you'll know when it enters DFU mode

    4. HOLD the Power/Sleep-Wake button AND the Home button for 10 seconds

    5. RELEASE only the Power/Sleep-Wake button and continue to hold the Home button

    6. WAIT until iTunes recognizes the phone in DFU Restore mode (in Windows a bubble pops up saying it recognized new hardware "DFU Mode" or something to that effect)

    The last step may take SOME TIME, like, say, even 60 seconds or so. The screen should be OFF (black), if you see the "Connect to iTunes" logo, START OVER. It may take a few tries to do the steps just right, just reboot (hold both Power/Sleep-Wake AND Home until the Apple logo appears and the phone turns back on) then try again.





    Another Way is to hear to the sound of the hardware Disconnect and Reconnect. When you hold power and home to reset, once you hear the USB disconnect sound leave the power button but keep holding the home until you hear another USB plugin sound. This is the easiest way to know that your phone is in DFU mode.



    "It just works"
  • Reply 10 of 80
    cjlaczcjlacz Posts: 45member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by airmanchairman View Post


    That is wayyyy too sweeping a generalisation to make from your personal experience.



    From mine, I would say quite the opposite - I find several things (including battery life, bluetooth control and sound quality, plus folders) working much better in iOS4. I do notice (and expected it) slower application start-up times, too imperceptible to trouble me (I also have a 3GS to compare with). I spent around 3 days using the upgraded 3G alone and to be honest, I'd be happy using it as my main phone for another 2 years as it does most of what I want done and all that I need done.



    It must be said that several of my colleagues who upgraded their 3G's are either unhappy or have downgraded back to 3.1.3, but when I ask how they upgraded, they generally tinkered with and interrupted the tediously long upgrade process, thereby hosing it.



    I suspect that a great deal of unhappy upgraders are tinkerers, jailbreakers and the like, or just plain smart-ass know-it-alls too "knowledgeable" to follow simple instructions and exercise a little patience during crucial processes like OS upgrades.



    But then again, that's just my personal perspective.



    I didn't interrupt the long upgrade process, but my phone became a huge frustration after I upgraded. When writing emails in Japanese the phone would slow and crash after about 4 lines. Apps often crashed, phone became unresponsive when there was an incoming call. Extremely frustrating and it's what drove me to upgrade to the iPhone 4 a couple months faster than expected. It's not driving me away from Apple, but I'm unimpressed that they decided it was ok to release that software on the 3G. Out of about six friends that have upgraded no one has been happy with iOS4 on the 3G. I find it hard to believe all of Apple's test phones worked fine.
  • Reply 11 of 80
    sudzsudz Posts: 10member
    I have upgraded two Iphone 3G's and they are both working well. A little bit slower but nothing really to complain about. Rogers will no doubt allow upgrades at two years so will likely be getting new IPhone 4's shortly. I am thinking of upgrading end of September as I suspect Apple will have the antennae issue factory fixed by then, and the backlog of manufactured units have all been shipped and sold.



    Back to topic, iOS4 on my IPhone 3 works well enough.
  • Reply 12 of 80
    grkinggrking Posts: 533member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by airmanchairman View Post


    That is wayyyy too sweeping a generalisation to make from your personal experience.



    From mine, I would say quite the opposite - I find several things (including battery life, bluetooth control and sound quality, plus folders) working much better in iOS4. I do notice (and expected it) slower application start-up times, too imperceptible to trouble me (I also have a 3GS to compare with). I spent around 3 days using the upgraded 3G alone and to be honest, I'd be happy using it as my main phone for another 2 years as it does most of what I want done and all that I need done.



    It must be said that several of my colleagues who upgraded their 3G's are either unhappy or have downgraded back to 3.1.3, but when I ask how they upgraded, they generally tinkered with and interrupted the tediously long upgrade process, thereby hosing it.



    I suspect that a great deal of unhappy upgraders are tinkerers, jailbreakers and the like, or just plain smart-ass know-it-alls too "knowledgeable" to follow simple instructions and exercise a little patience during crucial processes like OS upgrades.



    But then again, that's just my personal perspective.



    I am glad that your upgrade works and went so well.



    I am a bit puzzled though that you give advice that you do not keep (generalizing based on limited data).



    Mine did not work in the sense that it is slow, Safari "hangs" etc. I did not tinker, and there were no interruptions.
  • Reply 13 of 80
    I upgraded my 3G while waiting for my iphone4. The upgrade worked without a hitch. The worst was simply waiting for that huge download. Was definitely slower after. Then it got slower and slower. Before the iphone4 arrived, I could not even answer a phone call with a Bluetooth headset as the lag to pickup the call took longer that AT&T to kick it over to voicemail. It was miserable near the end. Tried every simple reset I could without wiping my data. No change.



    Post upgrade some of my apps no longer worked either (not ios4 compatible). Perhaps that has something to do with it. The code is still in there it just doesn't work right. I can only guess at the real or imagined effect it may have



    After I got the new phone I decided to give the old one to my mom. I completely rest the the phone ( but did not reinstall the OS). It was still a dead toad at that point. I downgraded it to 3.1.3 and it worked like a champ after that. Whatever the cause, at that point the bad mojo was out.



    I believe the claims that there are those with 3G that do and don't have the issue. Like cancer think finding the cause may be the real task.



    With that said, I wish I'd done a truly clean install on that 3G and put iOS4 on it just to satisfy my curiosity. mYbe I can still get my dad to put it in DFU mode and throw iOS4.0.1 on there just to find out.
  • Reply 14 of 80
    After upgrading my enterprise 3G phone, my life took a turn into the slow lane. Swipes on the phone lagged for several seconds before anything happened. Opening the camera lens or MMS took as much as 15 seconds. I regretted upgrading to iOS4. I told several friends at work to not upgrade and they haven't.



    I just updated my OS again yesterday hoping that the problem might (fingers crossed) be addressed, but no such luck. If I could go back to the 3.X whatever version I would. Is this possible? If so, where are the instructions for doing so?
  • Reply 15 of 80
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by grking View Post


    I am glad that your upgrade works and went so well.



    I am a bit puzzled though that you give advice that you do not keep (generalizing based on limited data).



    Mine did not work in the sense that it is slow, Safari "hangs" etc. I did not tinker, and there were no interruptions.



    Same here. On the 3G a major disappointment, on the 3GS couldn't be happier.
  • Reply 16 of 80
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    I know several people with the 3G. All that upgraded have had issues with iOS 4.0. I expect this from a company wanting to show that they technically have a new version of Android on a phone that can't really take it, but not from Apple so I have to assume this is was not an issue while testing v4.0 on the 3G. Hopefully this gets resolved soon as it's pretty awful.



    PS: It sucks for the consumer that the Chicken Littles made a such a ruckus about the iPhone 4's new antenna design that a real issue affects real users who already own thw device and cant return it went virtually unheard of by most people, thus making it worse for them. Way to go, Asshats (you know who you are)¡



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by KingKuei View Post


    Apple made it seem as though the original iPhone EDGE lacked sufficient processor speed and system memory to handle iOS 4. But as far as I am aware, the iPhone 3G uses the same SoC as the original and the only update was the addition of the 3G radio. I don't recall any increase in memory, CPU speed, or graphics update.



    Soooooo.... Apple made the decision to EoL the original as opposed to a more gradual dying out of it's use.



    1) How or where did they make it seem like it "lacked sufficient processor speed and system memory" when it's the same speed processor and amount of RAM as the iPhone 3G.



    2) As I recall from iFixit's teardowns of each device there were component model changes even though the processor type and speed, and amount of RAM was unchanged.



    3) Even if we assume for a moment that the CPU, RAM and GPU SoC was similar enough to not require any driver changes there are still a mess of new and updated chips in the iPhone 3G. They didn't simply glue on a 3G radio to the original iPhone then call it a day.



    4) Yes, Apple made a decision. They could make

    Mac OS X run on Motorola-based Macs if they really want to, but that would be fruitless and silly. They made a demarkation point to stop supplying rich updates to their "cellphone" after 3 full years. I'm not sure of any other handset developer that keeps rich updates going for that long or offers them at the time of the release of their next big release. Case in point, the HTC Dream and HTC Nexus One.



    5) I'm sure part of Apple's reasoning in even supporting a phone with rich updates for 3 years is because other vendors would spread themselves thin with too many products thus making it Pyrrhic Victory if they actually try to keep all their smartphones updated at the same time with all feasible features for 3 years.



    6) The gradual dying will happen as it happens. If you don't want the latest tech then you probably don't care or even know about the latest features. If you are drilling using an EDGE-only smartphone in mid-2010 then the latest absolutely doesn't matter to that user and thinking Apple should be build, test and support a 4th phone simply because the base "performance" is the same as their next phone doesn't make much sense.
  • Reply 17 of 80
    lukeblukeb Posts: 6member
    I had slowness/instability/spontaneous power down problems after upgrading to OS4. Finally thought I would try downgrading to OS3. It was really easy, and better, the phone's back to its normal self now. I would totally recommend downgrading to any 3G user unless your very attached to the new e-mail features and folders, the two things I miss now. Still, the device is responsive in a reasonable way now.
  • Reply 18 of 80
    paxmanpaxman Posts: 4,729member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Anthracite View Post


    After upgrading my enterprise 3G phone, my life took a turn into the slow lane. Swipes on the phone lagged for several seconds before anything happened. Opening the camera lens or MMS took as much as 15 seconds. I regretted upgrading to iOS4. I told several friends at work to not upgrade and they haven't.



    I just updated my OS again yesterday hoping that the problem might (fingers crossed) be addressed, but no such luck. If I could go back to the 3.X whatever version I would. Is this possible? If so, where are the instructions for doing so?



    Just google it. I downgraded my 3g successfully after the ios4 upgrade slowed it to a painful crawl.
  • Reply 19 of 80
    I have an iPhone 4 and a 3GS, so no issues (aside from all of the iPhone 4 issues) for me... but a friend of mine uses the 3G still and he showed me how horrible it runs iOS 4 on this 3G. I'm sure he did the upgrade like pretty much everyone else... thats why they call it "UPGRADING" rather than a full brand new install. Not everyone wants to lose thier SMS messages/etc.



    His phone was horrifically slow... Text messaging especially. He could type only 1 character at a time and the character would "stick" for a second. I'm sure the issue is super annoying for iPhone 3G owners. I feel for yall. Hopefully you feel the same for us iPhone 4 owners lol. (Sensor issue, antenna issue, etc)
  • Reply 20 of 80
    Rolled back to 3.1.3 last night. It was like I got a new phone. With iOS 4 on my 3G it was horrible. Super slow, could not answer calls because i could not swipe the phone open in time. Random re-boots in the middle of the night on my night stand.



    iPhone 3G + iOS 4 = EPIC FAIL



    The whole iOS 4/iPhone 4.0 is Apple's Vista. Apple should have NEVER allowed the 3G to updrade to the iOS 4.
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