# 3G iPhone updated to OS4



## Lee (Nov 7, 2008)

I am one of those brave but (in my case) foolish souls who upgraded a 3G to OS4 back when OS4 first came out. 

Now my phone is sluggish. I really like being able to view my two email accounts in one mailbox, but other than that I'm very unhappy. I deleted all large programs except for the Kindle app and it's a little better but still sluggish. Email is particularly slow. If I go into email and it's displaying more than one or two emails, and its trying to download new emails at the same time, the program seems to hang and I just have to put it away for ten minutes and give it a chance to untangle itself. 

The accelerometer is sluggish as well. Often I'll turn on the phone and the display will be the horizontal when the phone is vertical and vice versa, and it will stay that way unless I shake the phone. 

I'm not a heavy duty user, my smartphone needs are small, but I hate it that I'm paying 80 bucks a month for the voice/data plan for this thing and it's not working the way it's supposed to. 

Is there anything I can do?  I searched on the Internet to see if I can roll it back to its original operating system, but from what I've found, it's not a simple or risk-free procedure. I'm not a real techie person and I'm afraid all get stuck in the middle of the procedure and end up with a bricked phone. 

I'm not generally a conspiracy-minded person, but I get the feeling that Apple did this more or less intentionally -- "Sure, if they want OS4, let 'em download it -- it'll make their phones sluggish, and they'll be that much more likely to buy an iPhone 4!"

I'm eligible to upgrade my phone in March, and I'm seriously considering abandoning Apple because of this, maybe try a BlackBerry or Palm Pre instead.


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## VictoriaP (Mar 1, 2009)

Did you upgrade to 4.1 yet?

4.1 fixes most of the speed issues with the 3G. While you're still not going to get the experience you would with a 3GS or iPhone 4, it supposedly does make a pretty substantial difference over 4.0.

Test results: http://www.anandtech.com/show/3893/caring-for-the-elderly-ios-41-speed-boost-on-iphone-3g


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## geko29 (Dec 23, 2008)

4.1 makes a HUGE difference. The code optimizations even make the already quick iPhone 4 seem faster. I highly recommend trying it, if you haven't yet.

If you still don't like it, the downgrade process isn't terribly hairy, and unlike the newer phones, you don't have to have authorization blobs from Apple stored somewhere in order to trick iTunes into doing it. One tutorial is here, but you can google "downgrade 3G" and find a wealth of information on how to get back to 3.1.3.


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## ValeriGail (Jan 21, 2010)

My husband also upgraded way back then, even though I warned him not to.    he was able to go back to 3.1 with out any issues.. so I know it can be done.  I have no idea how he did it, but know that if he was able to, then it can't be all that hard.  

I've also heard from some that the new upgrade helps.  We bought hubby an iphone 4 for his birthday, so haven't done anything with the 3g.  Actually gave it to his mother to use as an ipod and she dropped it and cracked the screen three days later!!  totally cracks me up.


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## Ruby296 (Nov 1, 2008)

I upgraded my 3Gs to OS4 and hated it! I promptly reverted back to the previous. I am very non-tech and was able to do it by googling and eventually the iPhone help desk. Good luck!


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## Lee (Nov 7, 2008)

Thanks for the suggestions!  I didn't even know about the new 4.1.  I installed it but unfortunately my phone still has the same problems.  An hour after installing it, I even had a recurrence of a problem I had once before on 4.0, where any e-mail I go into won't display the message text.  (I fixed it both times by turning the phone off and on.)

I'm glad to hear of success stories with rolling back.  I'm still too much of a scaredy-cat to attempt it.  The article that geko29 linked to has lots of disclaimers and cautions.  It also appears that people with Windows 64-bit (like I have) have a harder time with the process, and some of the reader comments there make it sound like it's not always successful.

I like my iPhone but more important to me is to have something that works efficiently.  I called AT&T to find out about early termination fees, and the end result of two conversations with them is that they offered me a very good deal to get a new BlackBerry Bold 9700, so that's what I've decided to do.

I'm still an Apple customer since I have and like my iPad.  But I'm disappointed with Apple over this.


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## VictoriaP (Mar 1, 2009)

Lee said:


> I'm still an Apple customer since I have and like my iPad. But I'm disappointed with Apple over this.


You won't find any argument here--Apple's stance on rolling back firmware (among other things) is ridiculous. The 3G probably shouldn't have been allowed to update to 4.0 at all, the way the original iPhone isn't.

Glad you found something that will work better for you!


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## geko29 (Dec 23, 2008)

VictoriaP said:


> You won't find any argument here--Apple's stance on rolling back firmware (among other things) is ridiculous. The 3G probably shouldn't have been allowed to update to 4.0 at all, the way the original iPhone isn't.


This would be very logical from a technical perspective, as they're the exact same hardware. Literally the only differences between the original iPhone and the 3G is the 3G radio and the plastic case. The screen, processor, memory, GPU, and camera are all identical. However, the wrinkle is the 3G was still available for sale, brand new, on the day iOS 4 was released. It would have left a very bad taste in customers' mouths if their day-old phone was permanently downlevel before they even opened the box.


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