I have one very simple question amidst all the media hype about Apple’s WWDC announcements yesterday:
Will iOS 9 make my iPad2 usable again?
Yes, all that other stuff announced yesterday sounds cool… but I have this more basic question.
You see, I made a mistake.
I believed Apple when they said that iOS 8 would run on an iPad2. I mean, the device is from 2011 – it was “only” three years old when iOS 8 came out last year. It was still working very well with iOS 7 and I was excited to try out iOS 8.
To be crystal clear, Apple is correct – iOS 8 does “run” on an iPad2. But…
… it… r…u…n…s… s… o… o… o… o…. o…. o… o… … g… l… a… c… i… a… l… l… y… … s… s… l… l… o… o… o… w… w… w… l… l… l… y… y… y…
… that it’s hardly worth using. It takes a long time to open up applications, to bring up the keyboard, to switch between applications, etc. It is so slow that I’ve really stopped using it for almost everything but occasionally reading documents when traveling.
Yes, I do realize this is a very definite “first world problem” in that much of the world doesn’t have access to even a device such as an iPad2. So who am I to complain about how slow a device is?
I acknowledge that.
But the iPad2 did work very well with iOS 7 … and the cynical view is that iOS 8 seemed to be a way to make all of us iPad2 users get frustrated enough to buy new devices. And sure, that’s perhaps great for Apple’s revenue (assuming we don’t buy an Android device instead) … but it’s not great for all the electronic waste of discarded devices. I’d like to continue using what is otherwise a perfectly fine device.
In the WWDC announcement yesterday, Apple’s Craig Federighi mentioned that iOS 9 was slimmed down to be able to be upgraded easier over-the-air. He said that it was to help make sure it would run on all devices.
My request to Apple would be simply that – please make iOS 9 truly run on the iPad2!
If Apple is going to claim to still “support” the iPad2, they should do so in a way that lets you use the device in the manner in which we used it when we purchased it.
Or… they should simply be truthful about it and drop the iPad2 from the list of supported devices. Then we all who have them can at least know and not bother upgrading iOS. (And we can figure out what we want to do with the device…)
Will iOS 9 make my iPad2 usable again? I don’t know… but I’ll definitely be upgrading when it is released because at this point I don’t know that Apple can make the device worse than it is running iOS 8. 🙂
UPDATE – 24 Nov 2015 – As I note in this post, I finally gave up on the iPad 2 and bought a new iPad Air 2.
Photo credit: an image of a massive glacier by David Stanley on Flickr
Let us know how it goes. I decided to keep my iPad2 on iOS7 because I heard iOS8 was slow … but 7 is getting outdated and some of my apps don’t support it anymore. I could upgrade to 9 if it wasn’t too glacial, but there no going back
8-|
I too made the mistake of upgrading, which wouldn’t have been so bad if only Apple would let us turn back the clock and reverse the process, but no, too bad, too sad…
FWIW, I just installed IOS9 beta 3 (public beta) and it does seem a bit faster. Still sluggish, but maybe not quite as bad.
Here’s hoping it gets better yet.
Michael, Thanks for the report about the IOS9 beta. I’m looking forward to seeing if it does indeed help.
I’m not having any trouble on my iPad2 and OS 8 — Is it zippy? No, but is it unusable? Absolutely not. I am not sure what you’re running — I’m mostly taking online courses, watching videos & “TV”, browsing news stories, etc. But I also use Explain Everything to create and export explainer videos. And it works fairly well as long as I export the native format and use the Explain Everything Compressor on my mac. All computers get bogged down after a few years. I have a glut of apps running on my iPad. As apps get updated, they don’t get any “slimmer” –usually they add features, bogging down their own code. Of course, sometimes they smash bugs which is awesome. I occasionally weed out apps I’m not using to free up disk space — which in computer terms is “Swap” or “Virtual memory” — that’s where the CPU puts stuff when it runs out of RAM. I also habitually swipe completely out of apps from time-to-time to take them out of memory or the “ready” state (double click the Home button…. swipe apps up to quit them fully — you might know this, not everyone does). I’m on the 32gb model without the cell data option.
Anyway — looking forward to iOS9? Sure! Crossing fingers and toes that it works well on my iPad2. I spent good money on it. I don’t need to turn it into a paperweight.
I didn’t notice a big difference between 7 and 8. My Ipad2 was always slow. I did try iOS9 Beta 1. I could barely use the machine after and had to roll it back. That scared me.. even though I’ve seen reviews of beta 2 and 3 for ipad2 that are positive. I’ll wait until after I see reviews for the finished product before I upgrade.
If the beta is any indication…DON’T DO IT! I noticed a drop in performance from 7 to 8, but it was livable. 9 beta broke my iPad 2, it’s literally unusable. I get that it’s a beta, but it’s an order of magnitude slower than from 7-8. I’m rolling back to 8 before the official 9 is released. Hopefully the reason it’s this slow is because it’s a beta. I won’t be the guinea pig though.
I also experienced a dramatic decrease in performance between iOS7 and iOS8 on my iPad 2. Sometimes apps won’t even open, or I wait so long they might as well not open. I’m going to give iOS9 a try right away, because it can’t be much worse than the poor performance I’m experiencing now.
I’d really appreciate it if someone reports back having done the upgrade.
Installing ios8 on my iPad 2 was a disaster. Yes, it still runs but it lost so much speed that I would have upgraded the hardware if I could afford to (but I can’t).
I understand the view that ios9 is worth doing ASAP since it can’t be worse than ios8, but I think I’ll wait a while as I can easily imagine my iPad Getty so slow that it fails the definition of ‘runs’ – more like a slow stagger followed by a lengthy sleep!
After going to iOS8 I found my iPad2 was so glacial as to be virtually unusable. However, someone suggest I do a full reset and restore and since then its been absolutely fine – gave it a completely new lease of life.
Make sure you have everything backed up – and it can take an hour or two to get everything back the way you had it, but it made a HUGE difference to my iPad, so I would highly recommend trying this.
FYI, I did upgrade my iPad 2 to iOS9. In the hour or so since, I haven’t really noticed any marked speed improvements – but I also haven’t noticed any problems.
Ars Technical writes that iOS9 doesn’t make the iPad 2 worse but also doesn’t offer many of the new features of iOS9 on the iPad 2.
I’ll just be happy if my iPad 2 is a bit more usable! 🙂
So I went ahead and upgraded from 8 to 9. I was/am experiencing the same issues. My iPad 2 is horrendously slow on ios8 and unfortunately it seems to be just as slow or worse with ios9. This is very disappointing as I don’t want to spend another $600-900 on a new device that will only last another 3-4 years. I really like the apple products, but this may be a deal breaker for me. At the price vs performance it would be cheaper and maybe a more pleasant overall experience to buy the Amazon tablet every 2 years and come out ahead. This is not the product I was promised.
I did upgrade my iPad 2 64GB and one iPad 3gen to iOS9. Also for me iOS8 it was a nightmare. Specially with WiFi networks and OS performance. Now, I think that in a first sight my iPad back to life. Some buggy graphical performance but generally I think that now is much better. Apple was trying to push users to change tables every two years, and meanwhile Android devices are consolidating market position. I hope that Apple changed the direction with this kind of decisions. Apple old devices customers still buying on Apple Store and also will buy new devices in the future. In my case for example, now I’m using my fourth iMac (yes, every iMac is more difficult for DIY, Apple could reconsider to make a port for SSD/HD easy replacement… but is a great equipment) and waiting for… yes! An iPad Pro! Regards from Spain.
> Will iOS 9 make my iPad2 usable again?
Nope. I tried it on mine to no avail. I wish I had the option of reverting to iOS 7.
Same here. iOS8 literally bricked my iPad2 which was great on 7. Did the “right” thing upgrading as Apple said it was compatible and it’s literally a pain to use now. Sooo slow and quick to crash apps. Cutting off downgrading was a heel move, not all of us can afford updating our tech every two years. 😩😩😩
NO! My ipad 2 is totally unusable with crashes and freezez with half painted screens after ios 9″. My ipad air 2 is also slower and glitchy. This upgrade is a retroactive abortion and a disgrace!
I upgraded our two iPad 2 tablets from iOS 8 to iOS 9, and there appears to be small improvements in performance, certainly nothing to write home about (so I’ll write about it here). Initial post-upgrade speed was HORRENDOUS, my heart sank at the sight of it, but a restart caused everything to work much better. Mail runs a little better, I think Safari runs a little slower.
Except if you do a factory reset it is still slow and painful to use.
Apple are GREEDY wanting people to upgrade their devices as often as they release new software.
I have (HAD) a perfectly useable iPad 2 and made the mistake of upgrading to iOS 8. Ruined it isn’t the word. As other users have commented it made the iPad painfully slow and sluggish with app crashes. I tried to roll back to 7 but was a few days too late.
Having read this thread I will be staying well away from iOS 9 as it doesn’t appear to be making anything any better for people like me.
The decline in performance on my iPad 2 and the complete unwillingness of Apple to address this problem for MILLIONS of users worldwide made me think long and hard about upgrading my phone to the 6 last year. In the end I did get the 6 in the hope that they would learn from their mistakes and repair my faith in them with iOS 9. How wrong could I have been! I love the apple simplicity in their devices but their greed and as I say, unwillingness to “look after” loyal customers is a complete disgrace. I will think twice about ever buying one of their products again.
iPad 2? iOS 9?………DONT DO IT!
If you think about what an iPad 2 really is –
* 1024×768 capacative multitouch screen
* 1 GHz dual-core CPU (A5)
* 512 MB RAM
* 16, 32 or 64 GB solid state hard drive
* wifi & bluetooth (and 3G for some models) radios
* microphone
* speakers
* a (potentially) long battery life
* front and back 30 FPS cameras (720p & VGA quality)
it doesn’t take a Steve Jobs amount of “visionary genius”
to realize that in the very least, this computer that Apple
was calling state of the art and asking between $579 and $949 retail
circa spring 2011, should still be useful for lots of tasks.
Unless you’re a gamer, in the past 4 years the world hasn’t changed
so drastically that we need super computers for our everyday tasks.
In the very least, you should be able to use an old tablet or smartphone
with a multi-touch screen and wireless as a wireless keyboard & touchpad for
your current smartphone, tablet or computer.
If it’s too slow as a computer, you should be able to load LINUX on it
(UBUNTU or the super fast & easy Puppy Linux) to make use of the hardware,
and you shouldn’t have to be a computer hacker genius to do it.
The waste of money and resources in causing or letting these devices to go obsolete
is obscene, not just for conservation but because it’s just not necessary.
I upgraded to 8 then 9, or as I like to put it, from horror show to really bad horror show. My IPad is now virtually useless, I take this as a harbinger of bad things to come in the Apple world. Sell your stock, if you have any.
I have a 16GB iPad 2 (no 3g) and I have always updated to the latest iOS. The only times it becomes slow is when I get close to the space limit. Somewhere in the last 200MB (@ 15.8GB use). At that point, it quickly improves As soon as I delete even the littlest app.
Otherwise is has been pretty fast to startup (<20secs) and fast to do anything on it, and I often consume heavy content in it.
Do you think your usage has to do with your iPad being slow?
I’ve iOS 9 in iPad 2 for 1 week and stuck in iOS7 for some years….. Actually all runs OK… IOS9 doesn’t affect performance in any mode…. The new keyboard and safari are the biggest diference….i recomend to update
I write my experience so that it can be helpful to others. Even my iPad 2 32GB, after installing iOS8, has become so slow and unstable to become unusable.
Yesterday I did a factory reset WITHOUT retrieve app and data, like new, installing iOS9. The iPad 2 is completely reborn, is fast and responsive, much better than when it was with iOS7 and not too far from the performances when I bought. Apps in the background now are not closed immediately due to lack of ram as before, I can switch between Safari and Mail in moments. The keyboard is fast and no longer stop to response in the middle of typing. Even autonomy, apparently, seems to have improved but it is too early to tell, for sure is not worse.
I was about to throw it away … now I keep it tight, my iPad 2 returned a great tablet.
I upgraded my iPad 2 to iOS8 from iOS7 last September. Immediately the iPad was basically useless as it was so slow. However I did a bit of a search and found that you can actually ‘roll-back’ to your previous version of iOS as long as you do it pretty quick after the new iOS is released (within a week or so, whilst Apple still support it).
I was able to roll-balk to iOS7 and I’ve been using it fine ever since.
It’s worth remembering for any future updates.
Rafport, thanks for the report … now, when you do a factory reset you lose all your information, correct?
So you have a happy, snappy iPad2… but you have to rebuild it will all of your data and apps, right?
I totaly agree my ipad 2 is to painful to use now after upgrade to os9 Big mistake, things would not be so bad if you could roll back to a STABLE earier version, i am guessing this ids just another marketing ploy to m!ake user buy their latest ipad, this device was great, but not anymore, if you have an ipad DO NOT update your current OS
I am SURE GLAD I READ THESE COMMENTS! I made the mistake of upgrading to iOS 8 and had to roll it back on my iPad2…I sure won’t be upgrading to 0S9! Shame on you APPLE!! Shame!! Sneaky way to get us to spend money on new devices!
I don’t think it’s fair to blame this on Apple, if they had discontinued iOS8 for iPhone 4s and ipad2 back then many would be still be blaming apple for being greedy for wanting users to upgrade to new devices by not supporting any more iOS updates for legacy devices. They cannot win either way. The problem is with hard to please users who will find a way to complain no matter what.
I am going to Factory reset based on Rafport experience. Fingers crossed . . . lets see . . . coz I just pressed the ERASE button . . .
I have never regretted “upgrading” ANYTHING more than I regret installing iOS9 on my iPad 2. Every app that I use now crashes at a ridiculous rate – games are completely unplayable IF THEY EVEN LOAD AT ALL, Facebook crashes constantly, news sites, videos.
For the most part I’ll be using it to keep papers from blowing off my desk until Apple decides to fix this mess or allow for a rollback…
Don’t do it. I did it last week with much regret. My ipad 2 isn’t unusable, but so slow. I’m hoping another update will alleviate some of the issues.
Just downloaded IOS9 on my I-pad2. Big mistake! Apps are crashing or not opening at all. Internet connection speed down to almost zero? Constantly told “not connected to the Internet”! WTF Apple? Did I want the Friends future? NO! I know where my friends are!
Back to the drawing board Apple!
A class action suit should be filed against Apple for not warning us as to the problems associated with upgrading. Ios8 ruined my ipad2. I was one of Apple’s greatest devotees until this willful attempt to make us buy new devices!
IOS8 degraded my performance on ipad2 With IOS9 it is even worse. Apps take forever to open, crashes leaving you with black screens, don’t even try and open large email attachments unless you like watching paint dry …..
My iPad 2 is also totally unstable with the last OS. I say last and not latest because I consider the latest update to be the last I accept from these scammers. If they had been German and called VW they would be facing law suits by now, but because they are the mighty Apple they are protected. They sell over-priced tech built by chinese slave labourers. Maybe if I delete all the apps and all the content it will stable again. Then again maybe if I nail the effing thing to the wall it will also be stable.
Dear Apple, you are not too big too fail – look at VW and think very carefully about how you want your future to unfold.
I hate my iPad2 now. I tried in vain to reset my entire iPad and it forced 9.01 on my ipad2 and it hangs so bad and now it won’t even find my Bluetooth devices…I have a new ultra book in my shopping cart I won’t be buying a new iPad… what a shame I have used this iPad every single day since I bought it. Sorry Apple you just drove me away instead of forcing me to buy a new iPad.
I decided to take a chance and upgrade my iPad 2 from IOS 7 to 9.1. I backed up to a computer, then upgraded. I restored as a new iPad. I am slowly adding back apps. So far so good – no performance issues, maybe even a little better.
The update o IOS9 has been terrible. Apps are sluggish, crash, and hang quite frequently. They have to fix this.
I have a refurbed iPad 2 16 Gb WiFi only. Never budged from iOS 7 Facebook and Google search apps crash a lot but I can use it a lot. I find it cruel to sell the 16 gb devices
For me it is now clear that Apple record profits are directly related to hardware obsolescence of their older devices. Those who expect to improve performance of an iPad 2 by upgrading to newer versions are too naive, as I was when I upgraded from IOS 7 (it was great!) to IOS 8 (it became almost unusable).
Now I use my iPad 2 (IOS 8.4.1) essentially for photo albums and music playing (Spotify). As for browsing, I stopped using Safari (constant crashes) and use Ad-Blocker instead (slow but usable AND no crashes).