Is your iPhone or iPad ready for iOS 9?

iOS 9 will be available in just a few hours, hurray! Better multitasking, cleverer search, doodles in Notes, what’s not to like?

Well, depending on which iPhone or iPad model you have, it may be better to wait a bit. Not all features are available on all models, and older generation devices will struggle with iOS 9 and become very sluggish. We’ve installed iOS 9 on just about every iPad and iPhone we could – impressions below.

iPhone

iOS 9 is compatible with iPhone 4s and above, but we wouldn’t recommend installing it on anything less than an iPhone 5. The new multitasking features are iPad only anyway, and we believe you’d rather have a usable on-screen keyboard than a laggy one.

iPad

Surprisingly, iOS 9 is compatible from the iPad 2 up. Apple is over optimistic here: we’ve extensively tested on an iPad 3, and it’s simply unusable. Even stock apps such as Notes or Calendar can take substantial time to load, double clicking the home button can freeze the UI for entire seconds, and worst of all, every time the on-screen keyboard shows up (after substantial lag), it is barely responsive for the first 5 seconds.

In short, we don’t recommend updating at all on anything less than an iPad 4 / iPad Mini 2. It should also be noted that the new multi tasking features are only available from the iPad Air or iPad Mini 2 upwards, and that the best part – split screen apps – is only available on iPad Air 2.

Update Safely!

Major updates are generally safe, but don’t forget that behind the scenes it’s a hugely complicated process, and that bugs can occur. Take the time to backup your device before updating, it will bring you peace of mind, and potentially become a life saver when things go south. As always, iMazing has your back – just follow the guide!

1. Make sure you have updated to the latest version of iMazing ( 1.2.4 and above )
2. Backup your device in iMazing. Note that Health data will only be backed up if you choose the Encrypt Backup option in our backup wizard.
3. Update to iOS 9, peacefully. The simplest is to update directly on your device: in the Settings app, navigate to General->Software Update, and tap Install Now.
4. If the update process goes awry, simply restore your backup with iMazing. It’s as simple as that!

We’ll be releasing iMazing 1.3 just after iOS 9 goes public. It’s a huge release with lot’s of new features and improvements, and support for specific iOS 9 features such as the new Notes app. We hope you’ll enjoy it.