While the iPhone’s latest update, iOS 9.0.1, fixed an issue many people had with the “Slide To Upgrade” problem updating to iOS 9, a few other problems still plague Apple’s latest iteration of its mobile operating system. They’re not major problems, but the minor annoyances do amount to a blemish on Apple’s record.
If any of these below have happened or are happening to you, there should be a way of fixing the issue.
1.) If you’ve recently updated and seem to keep having your touchscreen go unresponsive or your screen is freezing, it may be a couple things. The most likely culprit is the background maintenance iOS 9 needs to do after it’s been installed to optimize your iPhone or iPad for the new operating system.
Things like Spotlight going through and cataloging your messages, emails and contacts takes up precious processor cycles, and the problem is exacerbated due to Spotlight’s new features, which includes searching through your apps that have deep linking turned on. Uninstalling these apps may improve your performance, however, if you wait it out, it should get better.
To use another example of what’s going in the background, if you’ve ever been to the App Store and selected Update All (your apps), you’ll notice that your iPhone or iPad will be incredibly sluggish afterward, especially the older it is. That’s because the processor is busy, in much the same way the iOS 9 makes the processor busy for the first couple days after it’s been installed.
If things get really bad and your iPhone is completely unresponsive, perform a hard reboot of the device by holding both the power button and the home button for 10 seconds. Do not let go until the screen turns black, not even when the slide to turn off prompt comes up.
2.) If random apps seem to keep freezing and crashing, the problem may not be with Apple but with the apps developers themselves. Many developers think ahead and download publicly available betas of a new iOS before it comes out.
That way, they could make sure their apps will work on the new iteration of iOS by launch date. However, if the developer of an app is feeling lazy, or has just stopped development of an app in general, the app may incompatible with the unseen changes Apple has implemented in iOS 9’s system folders.
The best remedy would be update your apps at the soonest possible date, or if no salvation is no where to be seen, search for alternatives apps to use instead.
3.) If your iPhone seems to be undergoing battery drain and hitting 0-percent way too quickly, make sure to take advantage of iOS 9’s new Low Power Mode. To access it, find the Settings app on your home screen then go to Battery (in the third section, right above Privacy with the green icon) and slide the toggle on the Low Power Mode button. Your battery icon should turn yellow in the status bar and your iPhone will automatically reduce background operations to save on battery life. Note: You will have to turn it on again every time you charge it to a 100-percent.
If that’s not enough to make a noticeable dent in your battery life, I’ve assembled an in-depth guide on battery saving techniques by done by configuring your preferences in your Settings app.
4.) If connecting to a cellular network, is your problem, the best option is reset what you can and turn off before turning back on again everything else.
For cellular network problems, go to Settings -> Cellular -> Cellular Data -> Toggle Off. Give it a couple minutes, and then try turning it back on. Hopefully your cellular connection would have reset itself and you’ll have a fresh settings profile in the background. You can do the same with the LTE connection by going to Settings -> Cellular -> Enable LTE -> Off. Also try utilizing Airplane mode to rest the connection as well.
5.) If Bluetooth or Wi-Fi problems are giving you a headache, you can perform a hard reset by going to Settings -> General -> Reset -> Reset Network Settings. This will completely wipe everything network related however, so make sure to have your Wi-Fi passwords handy.
6.) If you can’t even make it to iOS 9 because you’re still on iOS 8.4.1 stuck on the “Software Update Failed” error, the best solution is try to updating your iPhone via iTunes. I’ve assembled a guide to help you through this particular problem, accessible here.
7.) If nothing seems to be working and you’d rather just go back to iOS 8.4.1, there’s a way to do that. Alternatively you could reset the whole device (you’d lose everything, but you would still be on iOS 9) by going to Settings -> General -> Reset -> Erase All Content and Settings
