iOS 11

[Bald Rick]

My iPad (a 2 year old Air 2) upgraded itself to iOS11 a couple of weeks ago.

Since then it has been nothing but trouble. It runs more slowly, some apps tend to crash, the new keyboard is extremely frustrating, and typing often freezes, occasionally causing a web page to hang up. Indeed it just happened on the forum now.

Is it just me? And is there any way I can undo it?

 

[Lucan]

Software has already reached the point of doing most things that people want to do. Further "upgrades" have started to become pointless, but as software does not wear out, upgrades have been the only way for software writers and their companies to continue make money. However the days of people willing to queue overnight to buy the next copy of Windows 9x have gone, and even the glamour of new iPad launch events is fading; these companies are now forcing "upgrades" to justify themselves, and some of them are known to slow your gadget deliberately to encourage you to buy a new one.

Companies like Microsoft and Adobe want to get users onto software rental, which assures them of a steady predictable income without having to do much except security patches and occasional cosmetic make-overs. Meanwhile every "upgrade" brings a new set of bugs, and changes the interface possibly, or likely, for the worse.

I can't help you with iOS11, but you are not the only sufferer. I have just updated my Firefox browser (because things started refusing to work in my previous version) and it not only lost all my bookmarks but now won't save any at all. I am going to need to spend an evening trying to sort it out.

 

[Flying Snail]

Users of any old* apple or android devices need to be very careful when it comes to OS updates. Apple especially will push updates to devices that make them all but unuseable and then blame the victim for not upgrading to the latest device.

Refusing the updates will make the device less useful but still useable, updates and apps will become unavailable as new versions are only compatible with the newer OS, even app versions that would work with older OS become unavailable from Apple.

*In the world of mobile devices anything more than 2 versions older than current is old, more than 4 is prehistoric, is likely to be in imminent danger of allowing scammers, North Koreans and terrorists of gaining access to you and your families most personal data and needs to be destroyed immediately.

It has nothing at all to do with the tech giants wish to sell you more crap and introduce ever more intrusive data mining systems.

 

[thejuggler]

Same device, same operating system, no problems at all.

I suggest a full back up, if not already done via icloud and a factory reset. Also remove any apps you no longer use.

 

[Crossover]

I feel I should point out uph dates are also launched for security, not necessarily features and as such aren’t pointless

I also have an iPad - can’t remember which one but I think it is an Air. It also seemed to become less speedy with iOS 11 and the keyboard was a bugbear for me too. I have got rid of the keyboard a while back and in itself that seemed to help quite a lot. I can’t remwmber off hand what I changed and don’t have the iPad to hand at the moment to check

 

[najaB]

Further "upgrades" have started to become pointless, but as software does not wear out...

And if you want to continue to use your current software then you're more than welcome to decline updates (which may or may not be an easy thing to do depending on the EULA).

However, with that comes the risk that you fall victim to malware (e.g. the WannaCry attack of last year only affected systems that hadn't had updates applied) and also the inability to install/use new versions of application software that use new OS features and library routines.

 

[Bald Rick]

And if you want to continue to use your current software then you're more than welcome to decline updates (which may or may not be an easy thing to do depending on the EULA).

This was the odd thing. I’d been declining the updates for ages, and then one morning it had restarted itself overnight, and when I tapped in my passcode it automatically did the update without asking.

 

[najaB]

This was the odd thing. I’d been declining the updates for ages, and then one morning it had restarted itself overnight, and when I tapped in my passcode it automatically did the update without asking.

Yeah, they are making it harder and harder to avoid updates, mainly driven by malware like WannaCry that takes advantage of unpatched devices.