Anyone Having Serious iPad Issues moving from iOS 6 to 7? (Using 3rd gen iPad w/ 7.02)

[mjsottawa]

Hey all:

I upgraded my 3rd generation 64 GB iPad from iOS 6.13 to 7.0 when it first came out.

It seemed to work fine initially, but then it started to have a LOT of crashing issues when I accessed Updates in the App Store app.

This led to crashing of many regular apps that were presumably "iOS 7 ready", as well as seeing slowdowns in basic Safari usage, lots of freezing, and general lack of responsiveness.

One thing I have noticed that has suffered is the responsiveness of my Zagg Bluetooth Keyboard that I use with my iPad.

It takes several seconds for it to initialize and respond to input in iOS 7 whereas recognition was INSTANT and IMMEDIATE in iOS 6.

Checking the Apple community boards revealed iOS 7 crashing on iPads was a trend, and that for many iPad users, they were only able to reduce or resolve the crashing by removing a lot of apps and ensuring they had about 2-3 GBs of free space on a nearly continuous basis, presumably for future updates to the iOS system.

Now while I have no problem with this in theory, in practice, it really sucks, because:

a) There is no WARNING of such a requirement anywhere in iOS 7 when using one's iPad, this "fix" is just a residual "hack" designed to work around limitations of the OS,

b) The crashes are SEVERE, requiring MANY reboots/restarts for me to even be able to TRY to fix/address these issues,

c) I bought the MOST EXPENSIVE capacity device when it came out! If they had sold a 128 GB model (that came in Gen 4), I would have got that instead!

Why the $^#@ should I have to keep several GBs free in iOS 7 to ensure operating stability when I had NO issues pushing my limit before in iOS 6?

I hear all about things like "memory compression" and other stuff regarding OS X Mavericks, why am I having all of these issues here?

d) I went to the Apple Store to get some advice from the Genius Bar here in Ottawa, Canada, and the Apple employee I spoke with admitted freely that they felt that Apple rushed iOS 7's development for the iPad, not giving it enough testing, and that likely these problems would not be fixed until a major 7.1 release came out.

While I was grateful for the Genius' candor, I was disappointed in that Apple wasn't being honest and forthcoming about it, and even less happy when I heard stories of Apple PUSHING iOS 7 on people who wanted to wait a little while (or not at all) to upgrade, in the name of creating high usage statistics.

In a way, I am glad I am testing iOS 7 first on my iPad, because, as the owner of an iPhone 4S, I have NO interest in seeing these issues to this degree on my phone.

What is the consensus here on iMore/Mobile Nations? Is my experience just a freak blip?

Or are many other iPad users having issues with iOS 7?

I am hearing mixed results about the effectiveness of the iOS 7.03 upgrade, so until I get more feedback, I am sticking with iOS 7.02 until further notice.

-Mark

 

[kch50428]

Update to iOS 7.0.3 that came out yesterday.

I used the betas for iOS7 from the first one that was available for iPad... had a few issues - but all have been remedied.

 

[Nodnerb]

I have an ipad 3 and havn't had many issues. Mostly just wallpaper switching has been slow. I heard about all of the issues when 7.0.2 came out so I just stayed on 7 because mine was working ok. Not as smooth as in ios6 however, but certainly not as bad as your experience has been.
I updated to .0.3 last night and it seems to have made things work a bit smoother, but it's pretty early to tell if there are any issues for me. Maybe it was the .0.2 update that caused yours to act up like some others have experienced.

 

[iEd]

No serious issue on my iPad 2. It plays better now without the animations. No crashes or freezes. I did a restore as new after 7.0.2 which made things better than 7.0. Definitely not as smooth as earlier versions of iOS 6 but hey it's a iPad 2 but it still rocks.


#Naked Tuesday

 

[eastbayrae]

Lag, keyboard disappearing, bluetooth keyboard not working, apps freezing/crashing, and more on my iPad4.

 

[BreakingKayfabe]

If you update to 7.0.3 and still experience these issues, I really recommend you restore your iPad as new. When I upgraded my iPad 4 to 7.0 I was getting crashes on safari, some keyboard lag, and even crashing of native apps. Mostly settings. Settings would also freeze. I had no choice but to restore as new and I'm not experiencing these problems like before. A big update to the OS can possibly corrupt something deep rooted in the OS system that causes issues. I've already had 4 reboots on my iPhone 5S since updating to 7.0.3 and will be doing a restore as new if it continues. Sometimes restoring new is the best thing you can do.

 

[mjsottawa]

Thanks to everyone who has responded.

I upgraded to iOS 7.03 last night largely on kch's advice.

Haven't had a chance to use it much, I need to set it up properly and I don't have a Wi-Fi hotspot at home to set it up with at the moment.

That being said though, my iPad has been in continuous use for over a year and a half now, without any major restore, so I am thinking that perhaps it might be time to do a Restore as New via iTunes and see what happens with that.

Even in iOS 6.xx, I was still seeing some issues with crashing of very old apps on my iPad when I delete them, and the requisite forcing of re-boots as a result.

This to me indicates the kind of deep-level issues that Heisenberg has highlighted that would be difficult to fix without a clean re-start.

I believe the Genius at the Apple Store also mentioned using Restore, but I know there will be those who will not find these kinds of answers acceptable.

Initially, I was hoping to keep what I "had", but in the long run, I doubt this will be truly helpful for me. I've accumulated WAY too many apps and stuff I hardly ever use.

As such, my iPad has gotten extremely bloated and messy, so I'm thinking it's time to review what I have on it, sketch out what I want to keep, and start over from scratch.

For the moment, I will report on how well iOS 7.03 responds, but until I reinstall a fresh version of iTunes on my laptop and Restore as New, I am keeping my expectations modest.

Thanks again for your feedback and your help.

Sincerely,

-Mark (mjsottawa)

 

[Just_Me_D]

Thanks to everyone who has responded.

I upgraded to iOS 7.03 last night largely on kch's advice.

Haven't had a chance to use it much, I need to set it up properly and I don't have a Wi-Fi hotspot at home to set it up with at the moment.

That being said though, my iPad has been in continuous use for over a year and a half now, without any major restore, so I am thinking that perhaps it might be time to do a Restore as New via iTunes and see what happens with that.

Even in iOS 6.xx, I was still seeing some issues with crashing of very old apps on my iPad when I delete them, and the requisite forcing of re-boots as a result.

This to me indicates the kind of deep-level issues that Heisenberg has highlighted that would be difficult to fix without a clean re-start.

I believe the Genius at the Apple Store also mentioned using Restore, but I know there will be those who will not find these kinds of answers acceptable.

Initially, I was hoping to keep what I "had", but in the long run, I doubt this will be truly helpful for me. I've accumulated WAY too many apps and stuff I hardly ever use.

As such, my iPad has gotten extremely bloated and messy, so I'm thinking it's time to review what I have on it, sketch out what I want to keep, and start over from scratch.

For the moment, I will report on how well iOS 7.03 responds, but until I reinstall a fresh version of iTunes on my laptop and Restore as New, I am keeping my expectations modest.

Thanks again for your feedback and your help.

Sincerely,

-Mark (mjsottawa)

It's not a secret that I'm a fan of restoring and setting up as new so go for it. My iPad Mini runs like a champ on iOS 7.0.3. No problems, thus far.

 

[mjsottawa]

iOS 7.03 Installation Update:

Ok, now for my first report on moving from iOS 7.02 to 7.03:

So far, the results have been mixed regarding moving to iOS 7.03 from 7.02, however, there ARE still some issues for those who have an unstable iPhone/iPad storage system to begin with....

Let's look at the POSITIVES first:

1. The overall system and responsiveness seems a LOT more stable.

I attribute most of this to my already reduced animations setting in the Settings App, which, in 7.03, uses a lovely "fade" transition, thereby putting MUCH less strain on the system.

Wonderful! I actually really LOVE the effect, and I KNOW this is going to solve a LOT of problems and complaints Apple has been having with this issue, so full marks on this one!

2. General performance seems better, and response time from re-starts seems a little snappier.

This is still something I'm tracking, and bear in mind, it's not like I've done extensive testing on Safari or a lot of major apps as yet, other than Zite, which seems to work well.

And now, the NEGATIVES: Things that have STILL NOT YET BEEN FIXED, and across the board BORKED ITEMS/ISSUES as a result of the upgrade:

1. Keyboard responsiveness, I am sad to say, is MUCH WORSE in this patch vs. 7.02.

At least before, things worked consistently with my ZAGG Bluetooth Keyboard, in that while it was slow, I could count off 4-5 seconds like clockwork, and what I was typing as input would be received by iOS 7 and would be fine after that. It was just somewhat delayed in receiving the signals.

7.03 borks this big time by either taking WAY longer to receive the input, or, in several cases, just FREEZE and CRASH, to the point where I can only reliably start my iPad from full Power Off approximately 40% of the time. FAIL!

Sorry, Apple. You've seriously BLOWN this component, and you need to FIX this issue. AND FAST.

2. App Store Updates are STILL crashing and freezing regularly for those who have compromised systems.

This issue puzzles me. If I use ANY other section of the App Store, it works just FINE. Only UPDATES seem to have issues with freezing and crashing.

I'm thinking about writing Apple directly regarding this. They really need to fix this one too, without having to resort to, "Just Restore as New" as their default answer to fix this problem.

What if I DIDN'T WANT to Restore as New? Must I RECREATE EVERYTHING in order to get satisfactory iOS performance? A little voice inside me says NO to this option.

3. NEW Issues now occurring with "drag and drop" of icons within folders.

Today I was more than a little surprised to see my iPad 3 do a big FREEZ-O whilst dragging and dropping an icon from one of my app screens into a multi-screen folder.

And while I WAS running a few updates to Apps at the time, I've NEVER had performance issues like this before, so, again, FAIL, Apple.

You need to do some extra work and testing to ensure that performance is NOT compromised when you are only running a few very minor apps and doing basic multi-tasking.

Ironically, this makes the argument that iOS CAN'T do proper multi-tasking somewhat plausible, if not supportable.

So here's my summary of iOS 7.03 thus far:

No doubt, a GREAT upgrade if your system is already stable.
If your system is NOT stable under 7.02, and you are using a Bluetooth Keyboard a lot, you MIGHT want to hold off until either 7.04 or 7.1 comes out first.
Failing that, do a "Restore as New" using either 7.02 or 7.03 off the bat, and you should be pretty good to go, without any major issues of note.

Given my iPad results, I'm seriously considering doing a full wipe of my iPhone 4S using Restore as New, but I am going to wait a few more weeks to see what Apple has up its sleeve first.

-Mark

 

[mjsottawa]

iOS 7.03 iPad v3 UPDATE:

Planning on doing an inventory of my Apps this weekend, figuring out what I want to and what I don't want to keep.

Will download newest and latest iTunes software from Apple, install onto my Sony VAIO Laptop (running Windows 7) today (Saturday).

Will consider running a dedicated app to thoroughly wipe the on-board storage of my iPad v3 first, then conduct a Restore as New process via iTunes this Sunday for a clean install of iOS 7.03.

Will report on my results late this coming week, on or about November 1.

Thanks again for your input and advice. It is greatly appreciated.

Apple products have a lot of helpful and dedicated users, and are among the best forums in the world.

Sincerely,

-Mark (mjsottawa)

 

[Sj Jones]

Hi Mark, I have a very similar set-up as you -- 64Mb iPad 3 with < 4Gb of free memory and a Zagg BlueTooth Keyboard. My iMac was down for a while, so that kept me from being able to sync to it (I also sync to iCloud, but I like to have local backups as well). So, I'm just now getting my iMac out of the shop and backing up my iPad, and updating to iOS 7. By now, it's up to iOS 7.1, but I'm still having very similar App Store Update Crashing issues as you. I have no problem with my Zagg Keyboard, so I presume they've worked those out, but the crashing is killing me! It seems that it's the big apps that have the most trouble. Apple's own Pages & iPhoto are each nearly 300Mb. GarageBand and iMovie are both over 600MB and all of these updates keep crashing or freezing (requiring a re-boot). I finally got iPhoto updated, but it took multiple attempts and crashes and usually the updates would need to start over after re-booting. I've finally stopped trying to update GarageBand, iMovie & Pages. I really want iMovie. I think GarageBand is a cool app, but I don't really use it, and now that Microsoft Word is here, I don't really need Pages (although I'd like to have it as well).

Speaking of Microsoft apps, i've had the same problem trying to download MS Word & MS Excel - I guess because they're large apps as well (both over 200Mb).

I have WiFi at home, so my iPad automatically attempts to update when locked, and charging so it's constantly freezing or rebooting when I charge it. I know I can change the setting so it won't automatically update in iTunes. Still... This is a HUGE Issue. I can't believe that it's not getting more wide-spread complaints. I guess it's limited to iPad 3's with low memory. Have you verified that it's the lack of available memory that's the issue? I have 3.2Gb available. How much do I need?! Any other updates on your end now that you've updated to iOS 7.1 (if you have)? Btw, I also have an iPhone 5, and I updated that long ago with no issues at all.

SJ Jones

Hey all:

I upgraded my 3rd generation 64 GB iPad from iOS 6.13 to 7.0 when it first came out.

It seemed to work fine initially, but then it started to have a LOT of crashing issues when I accessed Updates in the App Store app.

This led to crashing of many regular apps that were presumably "iOS 7 ready", as well as seeing slowdowns in basic Safari usage, lots of freezing, and general lack of responsiveness.

One thing I have noticed that has suffered is the responsiveness of my Zagg Bluetooth Keyboard that I use with my iPad.

It takes several seconds for it to initialize and respond to input in iOS 7 whereas recognition was INSTANT and IMMEDIATE in iOS 6.

Checking the Apple community boards revealed iOS 7 crashing on iPads was a trend, and that for many iPad users, they were only able to reduce or resolve the crashing by removing a lot of apps and ensuring they had about 2-3 GBs of free space on a nearly continuous basis, presumably for future updates to the iOS system.

Now while I have no problem with this in theory, in practice, it really sucks, because:

a) There is no WARNING of such a requirement anywhere in iOS 7 when using one's iPad, this "fix" is just a residual "hack" designed to work around limitations of the OS,

b) The crashes are SEVERE, requiring MANY reboots/restarts for me to even be able to TRY to fix/address these issues,

c) I bought the MOST EXPENSIVE capacity device when it came out! If they had sold a 128 GB model (that came in Gen 4), I would have got that instead!

Why the $^#@ should I have to keep several GBs free in iOS 7 to ensure operating stability when I had NO issues pushing my limit before in iOS 6?

I hear all about things like "memory compression" and other stuff regarding OS X Mavericks, why am I having all of these issues here?

d) I went to the Apple Store to get some advice from the Genius Bar here in Ottawa, Canada, and the Apple employee I spoke with admitted freely that they felt that Apple rushed iOS 7's development for the iPad, not giving it enough testing, and that likely these problems would not be fixed until a major 7.1 release came out.

While I was grateful for the Genius' candor, I was disappointed in that Apple wasn't being honest and forthcoming about it, and even less happy when I heard stories of Apple PUSHING iOS 7 on people who wanted to wait a little while (or not at all) to upgrade, in the name of creating high usage statistics.

In a way, I am glad I am testing iOS 7 first on my iPad, because, as the owner of an iPhone 4S, I have NO interest in seeing these issues to this degree on my phone.

What is the consensus here on iMore/Mobile Nations? Is my experience just a freak blip?

Or are many other iPad users having issues with iOS 7?

I am hearing mixed results about the effectiveness of the iOS 7.03 upgrade, so until I get more feedback, I am sticking with iOS 7.02 until further notice.

-Mark

 

[Jamie Wooten]

I'm going to get involved in this thread as I myself am using an ipad 3. I have the 32GB model but I've noticed a lot of freezing and crashes since the update. It's gotten a little better with the latest update but still an issue.