How to increase iphone 3G speed with iOS 4
10! Is it the number of iphones in the NuBlue office? No (well it might be roughly 
).. That’s the time in seconds my Iphone 3G took to go into ‘Settings’ or play a track using its ipod feature after updating to Iphone iOS 4 from 3.x. I mentioned this catastrophic performance degradation to my colleague Rob and he told me about the following technique which has improved the speed of Iphone iOS 4 on my Iphone 3G by at least 100%, so I thought I’d write it up for any existing Iphone 3G customers not wanting to make the leap to a new Iphone4G just yet.
Ok so lets get started. This article is written for the Iphone3G but will probably work very well for the Iphone 3GS if that also has performance issues after a straight upgrade from Iphone iOS3 to iOS 4. By following this guide you’re going to do the following.
1) Backup your existing settings and files in Itunes
2) Restore your Iphone 3G to a factory default installation (i.e 100% clean/brand new) of iphone iOS 4
2) Restore ‘just’ your settings and files to your new clean iphone iOS 4 installation
Obviously with any procedure like this there is a small chance something bad might happen and if it does I take no responsibility. I followed this procedure with my Iphone 3G and it worked fine for me so should work fine for you 
Step 1 – Backing up your existing settings and files in Itunes
Backup Iphone Settings & Files
The first step is very easy and will be quite quick provided you’ve recently synced with Itunes (which you probably have if you’ve installed Iphone iOS4 of your phone). This backs up all your settings (which we will then restore later). One thing to mention here as well; as you’re backing up your phone settings you will also want to transfer purchases (if you haven’t already done so) as you will want to move these to your new install most probably. This is done by clicking ‘Transfer Purchases’ in the same menu as backup, although I was automatically prompted to do this when backing up.
Step 2 – Restoring your Iphone 3G to a factory default iOS4 installation
Restore Iphone 3G to factory default OS4
Ok, once Step 1 has been completed the next step is to wipe the phone and put a clean install of iOS4 onto it. Doing this is once again very straightforward. Simply click the ‘Restore’ button and follow the onscreen instructions. This part took around 5 minutes for me if that. You’ll know its worked if your Capcity bar at the bottom of the Itunes Window is much lower than previously once completed (assuming you’ve actually uploaded some stuff onto your iphone in the past). Once done you’ve got a Iphone 3G with a ‘brand new’ installation of iOS4 (just like you bought it new from the store). At this stage clicking around you should notice its definetely faster than before (although still not as fast as iOS3 was).
Step 3 – Putting back your settings and files
Restore Iphone Settings and Files
The final step is to put back the settings we backed up in Step1 into your clean install from Step 2. To do this simply select ‘Restore from Backup’ by right clicking your phone in itunes (the same way we did the backup) . Select the backup you made in Step1 and then sit back. As I had quite alot of files on my phone before starting this it took a while (at least 30mins). Once its finished you’re done!
Conclusion
As mentioned at the end of Step 2 the phone is probably still not as fast as iOS3 but is significantly faster than it was when it was just upgraded from iOS3 to iOS4. Hope this helps anyone using a Iphone 3G with iOS4!
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