Apple

How to Fix iPhone 12 Performance Problems

Published

2 months ago

01/10/2024

iPhone 12 owners continue to provide feedback about their device’s performance and we’ve heard about a number of issues plaguing the former flagships.

Some iPhone 12, iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Pro Max users are complaining about performance issues including UI lag, freezes, lock ups, stuttering, and random reboots.

If your iPhone stutters, freezes, lags, or randomly reboots, you don’t need to get in touch with customer service just yet. There’s a chance you’ll be able to fix your problems on your own.

Table of Contents

This walkthrough will take you through the solutions that have worked for us, and many others, in the past and they’ll help you maintain a fast, and efficient, phone down the road.

Restart Your iPhone 12

If you start noticing performance issues on your iPhone 12, iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12 Pro, or iPhone 12 Pro Max, the first thing we recommend is a quick restart.

Power down your phone, leave it off for 30 seconds or so, and then power it back on and see if the problems are resolved. If they aren’t, you’ll want to try the solutions below.

Update Your iPhone

Apple will release new iOS software throughout the year. Point updates (iOS x.x.x) are almost always focused on fixing bugs while milestone upgrades (iOS x.x) typically deliver a mix of new features and bug fixes.

While Apple might not call out performance fixes in an iOS update’s change log, new software always has the potential to help (or hurt) your iPhone’s overall performance.

For more on the latest version of iOS 17, check out our guide.

Update Your Applications

Try updating your applications to the latest version.

App developers are still rolling out support updates and they could help stabilize your device’s performance.

Before you install the latest version of an app, make sure you dig into reviews from other iPhone 12/iOS 17 users. If the reviews are mostly good, you’ll want to download the latest version.

Reset Your Settings

If you’re still running into performance problems on your phone, try resetting your iPhone 12’s settings. Here’s how you do that on iOS 14:

Go to Settings.
Tap General.
Tap Reset.
Tap Reset All Settings.
Enter your passcode if you have one enabled.

If you’re running iOS 15, iOS 16, or iOS 17 on your iPhone 12, here’s how to reset all of your settings:

Go to Settings.
Go to General.
Scroll and tap Transfer or Reset iPhone.
Tap Reset.
Tap Reset All Settings.

This will restore your iPhone 12’s settings to their factory defaults so make sure you have your Wi-Fi passwords handy. You’ll need to re-enter them.

Cleanup Your Storage

If you transferred your files from your old phone to your new iPhone, and you owned that old phone for a number of years, you probably have a ton of clutter taking up space on your internal storage.

Getting rid of unused files and apps could help improve your phone’s performance.

If you want to do some cleanup, you’ll want to first check and see how much space is available on your iPhone. Here’s how to do that:

Head into Settings.
Tap General.
Tap Storage & iCloud Usage.
Select Manage Storage.

If you’re getting close to reaching your device’s storage threshold, you’ll want to head back into General and head to where it says iPhone Storage. Here you’ll get a detailed rundown of your data.

Apple will make some recommendations based on your utilization of your device’s storage, but you can also just go through each section manually delete files you no longer need.

Stop Automatic Downloads

Apple’s automatic update feature can be useful, but a constant stream of updates will make your iPhone 12 work in the background.

If you’re fine with manually updating your applications on the App Store, try disabling Automatic Downloads on your iPhone and see if performance improves.

Head into the Settings app. Once you’re in there, tap on iTunes & App Store. From there you’ll want to toggle Updates, located in the Automatic Downloads section, off.

You might want to toggle the other options off as well.

Disable Widgets

If you don’t use widgets on your phone, try disabling some, or all of them, to see if that helps. Here’s how to do that.

Swipe to the right while you’re on your iPhone 12’s home screen. After that, you have two options. You can:

Hard press on an individual Widget.
Scroll all the way to bottom of the screen and select Edit. This will cause widgets to start wiggling.

If you hard press on a widget, a small menu will popup. To remove a widget you’ll want to tap on Remove Widget located at the top.

If you selected Edit at the bottom, you can tap the minus sign on a wiggling widget to remove it. You can also scroll down to the bottom and select Customize. This will allow you to quickly add or subtract Widgets.

We recommend disabling Widgets you don’t use. Remember, you can always turn them back on if you don’t notice a change or if you decide you want to utilize a particular widget.

Clear Browser Cookies & Data

Clearing your browser’s cookies and data will free up memory which could have a positive impact on your iPhone 12’s performance.

If you use Apple’s Safari browser, here’s what you need to do:

Go into the Settings app.
Tap Safari.
Scroll down to where it says Clear History and Website Data. Tap on it.

Tapping this will remove your browsing history, cookies, and other data from Safari. History will also be cleared from any devices signed into your iCloud account. If you’re fine with that, tap Clear History and Data again.

If you use Google’s Chrome browser:

Head into the app.
Tap the three horizontal circles in the bottom right corner.
Tap Settings.
Tap Privacy.
Now tap Clear Browsing Data.

You can now select what you wish to delete. If you’re noticing heavy lag, you might want to clear out everything and start from scratch.

Stop Using Background Refresh

Apple’s Background App Refresh feature refreshes apps in the background to show you the latest data when you open them up on your device. It makes your phone work in the background so if you don’t think you need this feature active, you might want to shut it off.

Here’s how you disable it:

Go into the Settings app.
Tap General.
Tap Background App Refresh.
At the top tap Background App Refresh and toggle it off.

If you want to keep it on for some apps, leave it on and then go down your list of apps and manually turn it off for apps you don’t use.

Check Your SIM Card

If your phone is randomly rebooting, try removing your SIM card. You’ll need a paperclip (or something like it) or a SIM removal tool to eject it. The SIM card tray on the iPhone 12 is located on the left side of the device.

If you no longer run into the problem with the SIM card removed, put it back in and monitor your phone’s performance. If you run into the issue again, try hard resetting your iPhone with the SIM card removed and then putting the SIM card back in after the phone boots back up.

Downgrade

If you recently upgraded to a new version of iOS 17, and you’re running into issues, you could try moving your iPhone 12’s software back to the previous version.

If you don’t know how to downgrade an iPhone’s software, have a look at our walkthrough. It’ll walk you through the steps you need to take.

Restore

If you can’t find a fix for your issue, and you want to avoid taking your phone into a store, you might want to restore your iPhone. This should only be used as a last resort.

You can do this via Finder, iTunes, or iCloud.

4 Reasons Not to Install iOS 17.4.1 & 11 Reasons You Should

Install iOS 17.4.1 for Better Security

1 / 15

If security is important to you, think about installing Apple's iOS 17.4.1 update right away.

The iOS 17.4.1 update includes security patches, but Apple hasn't revealed them yet. It's probably waiting until it releases additional software for Mac and other devices.

The update's patches will help keep your device and its data protected from harm. And that makes it an important upgrade.

If you missed iOS 17.4 and older software, you'll get the security patches from updates you missed when you upgrade to iOS 17.4.1.

iOS 17.4 had four security patches on board.

The update also delivered quantum security protection for iMessage. The company says the upgrade gives iMessage "the strongest security properties of any at-scale messaging protocol in the world."

The iOS 17.3 update brought 15 new security patches to iPhone. The software also added Stolen Device Protection to iPhone.

It increases the security of your iPhone and Apple ID by requiring Face ID or Touch ID to gain access to passwords, make purchases in Safari, and more. This is useful if someone gets access to your iPhone and its passcode.

iOS 17.2 delivered 10 new security patches to iPhone. If you wish to find out more, you can head on over to Apple's security site for the details.

iOS 17.2 also included iMessage Contact Key Verification which improves the security of iMessage. The company also fixed an exploit that let the Flipper Zero multi-tool lock up iPhones.

iOS 17.1.2 had two security patches on board. Both were related to WebKit. If you want to learn more, you can do so right here.

iOS 17.1 brought 18 security fixes to iPhone. It addressed issues within Weather, Status Bar, WebKit, and more.

iOS 17.0.3 brought two patches for two security issues Apple identified within the software. If you want to read about the patches, head here.

iOS 17.0.1 delivered three important patches to iPhone. If you're interested in the exact nature of these improvements, you can read about them over on Apple's security website.

As for iOS 17 itself, it brought 40+ new security patches with it. A staggering number to say the least. If you want to learn more about them, head over to Apple.

In addition to those patches, iOS 17 brings some additional enhancements to privacy and security including improvements to Communication Safety beyond Messages.

It now includes content sent by AirDrop, Contact Posters in the Phone app, FaceTime, and the systemwide photo picker. You now have an option to blur out sensitive photos and videos before you choose to view them.

There's also an expanded Lockdown Mode which will help protect you against cyber attacks.

Apple's also improved sharing permissions and you now have more control over what you share with the apps on your device.

The company also notes that starting in iOS 17, Voice Memos encrypts the titles of recordings stored in iCloud, in addition to the recordings themselves.

If you skipped older versions of iOS, you'll get the security patches from those updates with your iOS 17.4.1 update as well.