How to speed up iPhone iOS 16 – 20 Effective tricks

speed-up-iphone

Apple iPhone’s tend to always boast of speed and performance, however nothing is perfect and in many moments you can see how your iPhone slows down for some reason. If you notice that your iPhone is running slow, we have 20 effective tricks and tweaks to speed up any iPhone.

The reasons why an iPhone may be slow are diverse and can be easily solved. iPhones are not characterized by lag, as they incorporate the most powerful processors possible, and can last for many years to be updated. Your iPhone may be slow to unlock, run slow when low on battery, get hot or slow in normal use.

The main reasons why an iPhone may be slow can be related to problems with certain applications that are not very optimized and with errors, due to software problems, or, in the case of older iPhones, due to problems with the device’s own hardware. These methods will work on most iOS versions, including iOS 15 and iOS 16.

1. Update iOS to the latest version

Having the latest version of iOS is essential, Apple may have discovered a bug that makes the system run slower for some reason, and fixed it in a new update. Therefore, go to Settings > General > Software update and check that you have the latest available version of iOS installed.

2. Turn iPhone off and on

It may seem simple, but it works. Occasionally restarting the iPhone causes certain temporary files to be deleted which accumulate and cause the iPhone to slow down. To turn off the iPhone just follow these steps:

  1. Simultaneously press and hold the power/unlock button on the right side of your iPhone and the volume down button, located on the left side.
  2. You will see how a white slide bar appears on the screen with an off button.
  3. Slide the bar from left to right to turn off your iPhone.
  4. When it turns off, press and hold the unlock button again.

3. Clear the cache

It is something quite little known and that can solve performance problems on your iPhone. We have a complete tutorial to clear the cache of your iPhone, a quick access memory in which recent data is temporarily saved so that we can recover it quickly. Basically this is how you can clear it:

  1. Go into the Settings of your iPhone.
  2. Scroll down to the bottom and locate the app you want to clear the cache for.
  3. You will see a setting that allows you to activate the deletion of data that is stored in cache.
  4. In case this option is not available, in Settings > General > iPhone Storage you will see the data that each app stores.
  5. Enter the app in question, and touch Delete app.
  6. Reinstall the app from the App Store.

4. Free up storage space

When iPhone is low on storage space, everything from the interface to launching apps slows down. This is because there is part of this storage memory that is temporarily used by the system and apps. Therefore, your iPhone can run really slow if the storage is almost full.

You can check your iPhone storage from Settings > General > iPhone Storage. From there you will see what is taking up the most space on your iPhone and you will be able to make decisions. The system itself suggests some actions such as optimizing photo storage or reviewing large files and downloaded music. And something that always works is to delete apps that we don’t use.

5. Limit apps that run in the background

Some apps run for a short time before going to sleep. On iOS, apps that are in a sleep state aren’t actively in use or open, and they don’t consume system resources. But if we turn on Background Refresh, suspended apps can check for updates and new content.

This can cause them to consume resources and slow down the iPhone, especially if the device is old. To prevent this, go to Settings > General > Background App Refresh and enable only the apps you want to work in the background.

6. Reduce the movement of the iOS interface

The interface of iOS has certain movements and transitions that make everything look better, however on iPhone with fair power, this can slow down the device more than improve it.

Therefore, without noticing that your iPhone is slow, you can try to reduce the movement. To do so, follow these steps: go to Settings > Accessibility > Movement > Reduce movement.

7. Free up RAM usage

The above tricks are very good. But sometimes things go wrong and our iPhone does not want to respond to anything. Don’t waste your time turning your phone off and on to fix it, just free up the RAM with this trick.

Press and hold the power button until the “Power off” message appears. No, don’t swipe to turn it off. When you see that screen, press the Home button and hold it down for a few seconds. That is all. You will return to the main screen with the RAM memory freed.

In 2017, Apple removed the home button from their new flagship device. A physical Home button did not come with the new iPhones, except for the iPhone SE series. Firstly, if you’re using an iPhone without a physical Home button, you’ll need to enable Assistive Touch.

Go to Settings > Accessibility > Touch > AssistiveTouch. At the top, toggle AssistiveTouch on. You can use the circular button to tap Home button now. While on the shutdown menu, long press the Home option on the the circular button. Then leave it and tap the cancel button. After that, you’ll see a lock screen.

8. Disable Siri

By turning off Siri, there are many examples of “iPhone being faster”. If your old iPhone is slow or heavy, turn off Siri first. Go to Settings > Siri & Search > [App Name (eg. Chrome] and Turn off “Search, Suggestions & Shortcuts” to turn it off individually.

It seems that there are many users who hardly use Siri. In such a case, I recommend you completely disable Siri, this will speed up your iPhone. Go to Settings > Siri & search and Turn off [Access with locked device] and [Allow “Hey Siri”].

9. Disable Spotlight searching

You can boost your iPhone speed by reducing the amount of indexing Apple’s Spotlight search does. iOS constantly indexes your iPhone content, including messages and email. To see what’s being indexed by iOS, go to Settings > General > Siri & Search. You can toggle off the functions you want to exclude from Search.

10. Disable location services

The iPhone constantly tracks your location, which is useful for apps like Google Maps and Find. Disabling location services has a greater effect on battery drain than performance.

Go to Settings > Privacy > Location Services. You can turn off Location Services for all apps, but we don’t recommend it unless you never use GPS. Or you can disable location tracking individually.

11. Enable Low Data Mode

Low Data Mode restricts background network use. When that setting is enabled, automatic updates and background tasks are paused.

Go to Settings > Cellular > Cellular data options > Low data mode. Then toggle the Low data mode switch on.

12. Turn off notifications

To disable unnecessary notifications, go to Settings > Notifications.

Turning off constant notification checks will also speed up phones. Review the list of applications. Decide, for each of them, if you want the app to perform checks and send you notifications.

13. Use a simple wallpaper

Many users usually place gifs or animations as wallpaper, but they have to take into account that this type of action usually makes the system work much slower. Furthermore, it not only slows down the performance of the iPhone, but also increases the consumption of the battery.

On the other hand, it is recommended to use normal images with gray or black backgrounds, this will make the system not have to do as much work as placing a striking image with many colors.

14. Remove widgets

Widgets give your iPhone a special style, and make everything look better on the eyes, but they eat up your RAM. That’s why you should disable them as soon as you think it’s running too slow, so as not to overload it.

15. Scan your face or fingerprint again

We could come to think that the security of the device has nothing to do with its operation. But it’s not like that. You can improve its performance by removing your face or fingerprint, and re-establishing it on the device.

Resetting Face ID on iPhone will take no more than a minute and hopefully it will work with you.

16. Use Dark Mode

Using Dark Mode reduces iPhone battery consumption and helps maintain its performance.

If you have a smartphone with an OLED screen, the difference is big enough that the dark mode is worthwhile, even if it is not your favorite.

Black is the color that saves the most, but even dark colors like gray make a big difference, and that’s why apps like YouTube use those shades.

17. Hard reset

A hard reset might help your iPhone.

For Hard reset, you need to press and hold the volume up button, then the volume down button, and then the side button. After a few seconds, the Apple logo will appear, the signal for you to stop pressing it.

18. Reset iPhone settings

After restarting your device, it still doesn’t work well. Go to Settings, you can reset all content and settings, including network settings and carrier services. Go to Settings > General > Reset > Reset settings.

Remember to back up your data to iTunes or iCloud before beginning this reset.

19. Factory reset

As an almost final method, if after trying everything nothing works, you can try to factory reset your iPhone. This method, especially if you don’t include your backup afterwards, can drastically speed up your iPhone. To restore an iPhone, it’s best to use a computer running macOS or Windows.

  1. Connect your iPhone to PC or Mac.
  2. On a Mac with macOS Catalina or later, open the Finder. On a Mac with macOS Mojave or earlier, or on a PC, open iTunes.
  3. Click Trust this computer on your iPhone.
  4. In iTunes or Finder, tap on the iPhone and tap Restore.
  5. Enter your password if necessary.

20. Change the battery

Your iPhone may be running slow because of the battery, when the battery drops to its maximum capacity, it can cause slowdowns. You can check the battery status of iPhone from Settings > Battery > Battery Health.

If the maximum capacity falls below 80%, performance issues may be caused by a degraded battery. It is likely that replacing the iPhone battery will recover speed, as well as hours of use.