7 Signs Apple May Be Slowing Your Old iPhone

On Thursday, Apple apologized for failing to tell us the truth: The company had been secretly restricting the speed of older iPhones to keep them from unexpectedly shutting down. The fix? A newly inexpensive battery replacement — just $29 for any iPhone 6 or later, starting in January 2018. It normally costs $79, but Apple’s making it cheaper as part of its apology.

According to Apple, there are seven signs that a worn battery may be causing Apple’s software to slow down your device.

They are:

• Longer app launch times — Force-close your apps. Do they take longer than normal to launch from scratch?
• Lower frame rates while scrolling — Does your screen seem to stutter when you’re scrolling down web pages and through homescreens?
• Backlight dimming — Does your phone’s screen no longer get as bright, even when you set it that way?
• Lower speaker volume by up to -3dB — Do your speakers no longer get as loud?
• Gradual frame rate reductions in some apps — Try this with intensive games, in particular.
• During the most extreme cases, the camera flash will be disabled as visible in the camera UI — Can you not even use your phone’s camera flash anymore?
• Apps refreshing in background may require reloading upon launch — Apps that normally pull in new data, even when you’re not using them…did they stop doing that all of a sudden?

There are other factors why some of these performance issues might happen– so be sure to try our 8-point guide to speeding up your old, tired iPhone to make sure it’s not something else.

Apple says the following parts of your phone aren’t affected by battery-related controlling issues at all:

• Cellular call quality and networking throughput performance
• Captured photo and video quality
• GPS performance
• Location accuracy
• Sensors like gyroscope, accelerometer, barometer
• Apple Pay