Struggling with a slow iPhone 12 mini? Find out why your iPhone 12 mini is so slow and discover a few ways to speed it up
A slow iPhone 12 mini can make even the simplest of tasks feel like a real hassle. Luckily, there are plenty of things you can do to speed up your iPhone 12 mini and improve its performance.
Read on to discover how to fix a slow iPhone 12 mini and prevent your device from slowing down further in the longterm.
Why is my iPhone 12 mini so slow?
Every iPhone 12 mini owner has asked this question, annoyed and disappointed. There are many reasons why an iPhone 12 mini may run slowly.
Here are some of the things that slow down your iPhone 12 mini:
- An app installed on the iPhone may have issues.
- Slow internet connection.
- Your device storage space may be full
- Background apps
- Running an outdated iOS
- Your iPhone is overheating
How to Fix a Slow iPhone 12 mini
If your iPhone 12 mini seems to be running slower than usual, here a few solutions to try:
Note: The solutions discussed in this article applies to iPhone 12, iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Pro Max.
1. CLOSE OPEN APPS
If your iPhone 12 mini speed is not what it should be, the first thing to try is closing open apps.
Your iPhone adds every app you open to the App Switcher, the iPhone task manager, so that you can quickly switch between apps while multitasking. After a while, the number of apps in the App Switcher can add up. Many of these apps are in a suspended mode or running in the background. To help your iPhone 12 mini pick up its pace, make sure you don’t have any useless apps running in the background.
swipe up from the bottom of the screen to bring up the app switcher. Find the app that you want to close, and then swipe up on it.
2. Restart your iPhone
Simply closing apps that are running on your iPhone helps, but restarting your iPhone allows it to be refreshed in a number of other ways as well. It ensures apps won’t keep running on the background and get things running smoothly again.
- Start the Settings app and select General.
- Scroll down and tap Shut Down.
3. Connect to a faster Wi-Fi
If restarting the device doesn’t improve its performance, it may not be the iPhone 12 mini that is running slow. It may be your wireless network. When you’re on slow, public network Wi-Fi, websites and apps take time to load. Plus, apps that need internet connectivity might not work properly in the background and show no new notifications. All this leads to a slow and painful iPhone experience. To fix this, switch to a different, faster network. And if that’s unavailable, try using your cellular data.
4. Turn off Background App Refresh
A slow iPhone 12 mini is often caused by too many activities running in the background, taking up processing power and reducing the iPhone’s performance.
Background App Refresh allows apps to refresh their content even when you aren’t using them. For example, Facebook can retrieve posts for your news feed, or a news app can fetch the latest articles so that they’re ready for you. As a result, this feature takes up processing time and internet bandwidth, which could cause the iPhone 12 mini to run a little slower.
- Open the Settings app and select General.
- Tap on Background App Refresh.
- Tap the switch next to the apps that you want to turn off Background App Refresh on.
5. Delete unused apps
Your iPhone 12 mini needs adequate space to function efficiently. The iOS becomes sluggish when it gets too close to full capacity.
As your iPhone 12 mini may be behaving slowly due to storage issues, it’s good to check whether you have some free space left. Unused apps are the biggest space-wasters. All of us download applications that seem helpful and exciting at first but turn to clutter up our device instead of being used frequently.
To check your iPhone’s available storage space, open the Settings app and go to General > iPhone Storage. Here, you can view all the apps installed on the iPhone, when you last used each one, and how much room each takes up. Delete the apps you don’t use by tapping the app, then selecting Delete App.
You can also set iOS to remove seldom-used apps automatically to free up space (while maintaining your files and data for those apps). To do so, open the Settings app and go to General > iPhone Storage, then select Enable next to Offload Unused Apps.
6. Check your photo library
How many gigabytes of photos are there on your iPhone? 10 GB, 20 GB, have any idea? That’s exactly the point. We seldom bother to check how many photos we have collected over the years. In any case, there will be more than you expect. This results in a lagging iPhone 12 mini because your storage space space is quickly vanishing.
The best fix is to move your pics to a cloud storage. Not only does this get you a few gigabytes of extra space, but it also motivates you to put your photo library in order. Better late than never. You may transfer your photo library to an app like Google Photos or DropBox, or move it to separate storage.
7. Update iOS
Having the latest iOS version is good practice (the latest version at the time of this writing is iOS 15.3. Don’t think of it as adding more junk to your already slow iPhone13 Pro Max— think of it as new software that makes your iPhone 12 mini run more smoothly. So, to update your iOS and speed up your iPhone 12 mini, go to the Settings and tap General. Then tap Software Update. If a new version is available, update the software, and you’re good to go!
8. Put your iPhone in Low Power Mode only when required
Low Power Mode is designed to extend your battery life by cutting down some features. As a result, things might take a bit longer to complete. If your iPhone has sufficient battery power, you should keep this feature turned off so that the iPhone functions at its usual speed without any power restrictions forcing it to slow down. To disable Low Power Mode, go to Settings > Battery and disable Low Power Mode.
9. Lock your iPhone and let it cool down
During the sunny days, the iPhone screen brightness automatically sets to the maximum. The outside temperature adds to it, which heats up the device. And using apps like Maps, it worsens things. Using the phone in these situations, the iPhone 12 mini slows down. To fix this, lock the device and let it cool down. Another good option is to turn it off for 5 minutes or so.
10. Clear Safari website data
Like any other browser, Safari keeps a log of websites you visit and their data like cache, cookies, etc. When your iPhone 12 mini feels slow, clearing the Safari cache should help. Start by going to the Settings app > Safari and tap Clear History and Website Data.
11. Stop unnecessary apps from accessing location
Undoubtedly, apps like Uber, food delivery, maps, weather, etc., need your location to function. But several apps work perfectly fine without the need to access your location constantly.
When your iPhone 12 mini is slow, check which apps are always accessing your location and block them from doing so. Here’s how to do that:
- Open Settings and select Privacy.
- Tap Location Services.
- Find the unnecessary app(s) that have your location access and tap it.
- Select Never.
You can follow the same steps and choose While Using the App in order to permit the app to access your location.
12. Turn off automatic downloads and updates
This is another way to ensure your iPhone does less work on its own and thus keeps system resources free. Go to the Settings app > App Store or other app names like Music, Books, Podcasts and turn off automatic downloads and updates for apps, music, books, podcasts, etc.
13. Change new Mail fetch settings
The Mail app continuously uses system resources to fetch new emails from the server. When your iPhone 12 mini is slow, you can change the mail settings to fetch data less often or fetch it manually. Your iPhone can use the freed-up system resources for other tasks, making your experience a tiny bit better.
- Go to Settings and tap Mail.
- Tap Accounts.
- Tap Fetch New Data and turn off Push. Under Fetch, you can choose Manually. Plus, for other accounts and calendars, you can select Manual.
14. Use fewer widgets on Home Screen and Today View
All iOS widgets frequently refresh (like the Weather widget) to show you the most relevant information at a glance. This sounds useful, but it also means continuously using RAM, battery, and processing power. Though it has little effect, reducing the number of widgets will clean the look and improve things on a slow iPhone 12 mini.
15. Factory Reset
Yes, it’s that faithful old last resort that can save the day when all else is lost (and if you’re doing this, all else will be lost). A factory reset will restore the iPhone to the condition Apple shipped it in, which can do wonders to clean up obscure bits of leftover software and buggy code that could be clogging up performance.
Trouble is, of course, that you’ll lose all your data. But if you’ve tried all our other tips and your iPhone 12 mini is still lagging, then it could be time for drastic measures.
First of all though, you should do a backup:
How to Backup your iPHONE using iTunes, Finder or iCloud!
Then, follow these instructions to carry out a factory reset:
- Open the Settings app and select general.
- Tap transfer or reset iPhone.
- Tap erase all content and settings.
This is how you can fix a slow iPhone 12 mini
We hope that you’ve found these tips useful to getting your slow iPhone 12 mini fast and fit again!
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