We have an excellent experience on iOS 14, but iPhone SE users have been complaining of various performance issues including crashes, freezes, general, lag and random reboots. These problems are extremely common and you will find them in Apple’s iPhone lineup.
If your iPhone SE starts to lag or restarts itself frequently, you don’t need to make an appointment to see a Genius at the Apple Store. There’s a very good chance you’ll be able to fix your performance issues from your home or office in minutes or even seconds.
In this guide, we are going to show you several ways to fix iPhone SE performance issues in case they occur suddenly or after an iOS 14 update.
Restart Your iPhone SE
If you start to notice performance issues like lag and crash, try restarting your iPhone SE. Press and hold the power button, slide it to power off, leave it off for a minute, then turn it back on to check performance.
You can also try hard resetting the phone done by pressing and holding the power button and home button at the same time until the Apple logo appears.
Update Your iPhone SE
If you are running an older version of iOS, consider downloading the latest software on your iPhone SE.
To check which version of iOS 14 you are currently running, go to Settings, then About and look under Version. If you are not running the latest update, you will want to install the software.
To do this, go to Settings, then General, then Software Update. If a new update is available, you will be prompted to download and install the software.
Be sure to read the reviews before taking action.
Delete What You Don’t Need
If you’ve owned your iPhone SE for a while, you’ve probably saved a ton of data on your device’s internal hard drive. Photos, videos, apps, that sort of thing.
Some people are really good at keeping their device’s hard drive clean, others not so much. If you fall into the latter category, it may be time to examine your phone’s contents because clutter can slow down your iPhone.
To do this, go to your iPhone SE’s Settings, go to General and tap on iPhone Storage. There you will see in detail what is taking up space on your device.
Scroll down the list and decide what to keep and what to delete. You’d be surprised how much space Messages and Videos take up on your phone.
If you’re running a newer version of iOS on your iPhone SE, you’ll also get some personalized recommendations on how to free up space on your device.
Stop Your Automatic Downloads
Automatic updates are extremely useful if you have trouble keeping your apps and services up to date with the latest features and fixes. Automatic downloads are helpful, but they can also slow down your phone.
If you don’t mind manually updating your apps in the App Store, try disabling Automatic Downloads on your iPhone SE and see if you get a boost.
Go to your Settings app, then the App Store. Once inside, turn off Apps and App Updates located in the Automatic Downloads section.
You can also turn off other options. You can always turn them back on later.
Clear Browser Cookies and Data
Clearing your browser’s cookies and data frees up memory that can help speed up your iPhone SE.
If you’re using Safari on your iPhone SE, go to Settings, then Safari, then Clear History and Website Data. Give it a touch.
Tapping this button will remove your browsing history, cookies and other data from Safari. Your history will also be cleared from any other device signed into your iCloud account. If that sounds good to you, tap Clear History and Data again.
If you’re using Google Chrome on your iPhone SE, you’ll want to go to Chrome and tap the three horizontal circles in the bottom right corner.
A popup window will appear. From here, tap Settings, then Privacy, then Clear Browsing Data. You can now choose the ones you want to delete from your device.
If you’re noticing severe lag on your iPhone SE, you might want to get rid of everything. To do this, select them all and then click Clear Browsing Data.
Kill Background Refresh
If you have Background App Refresh enabled, your iPhone SE will work to keep your apps updated with new data. It’s a nice feature, but you probably don’t need it turned on for all your apps.
If you don’t want or need apps running in the background, turn this feature off. You can turn it off completely or run a list and turn it off on a case-by-case basis.
To do this go to Settings, then General, then Background App Refresh and then turn Background Refresh off. If you prefer to pick and choose, you’ll have to scroll down through your list of apps and turn them on or off one by one.
reset all settings
If none of these solutions work, try resetting your iPhone SE’s settings to factory defaults. To do this, go to Settings, then General, then Reset, then select Reset All Settings at the top.
Before doing this, make sure you have your Wi-Fi passwords at hand. This will cause your iPhone SE to forget its known connections.
downgrade
If the current iOS version is mistreating your iPhone SE, you can try downgrading to an older version, assuming it’s available.
If you’re having trouble downgrading, check out our guide to downgrade iOS. It will hold your hand throughout the entire process.
start again
Wiping your iPhone SE and starting over is a tedious process, but it can have a dramatic impact on your device’s overall performance.
Before making this move, make sure your data is properly backed up via Finder/iTunes or Apple’s iCloud service. That way, if you don’t see any improvement, you can easily restore from a backup.
Once you’ve made a proper backup, go to your iPhone SE’s Settings, then General, then Reset, then Erase All Content and Settings and get the ball rolling.
