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How to Fix Keyboard Lag in iOS 7 on the iPhone 4s

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iOS 7 officially released yesterday to much fanfare, and users with an iPhone 4 or newer are able to get in on the fun. I shared my first impressions of iOS 7 running on the iPhone 4s, and the performance was splendid overall. However, many of you have been experiencing a ton of keyboard lag when typing messages and emails — something that I never came across during my experience.

However, there’s an easy way to fix it, but it’s simply more of a temporary fix rather than a permanent one, since we’re hoping that Apple will hear about the bug and issue a small update to fix it sometime in the near future. The keyboard lag problem lies within iCloud, which is an odd place to have a keyboard lag issue, but many iPhone 4s users have sworn by this fix.

2013-09-19 09.11.45

Fixing iOS 7 Keyboard Lag

If you’re experiencing lag and delays when typing out messages, try this: Open up the Settings app and navigate to iCloud > Documents & Data. That will open up another window where you’ll see a toggle switch. Turn it off if it already isn’t (i.e., the circle in the toggle switch should be on the left side).

2013-09-19 09.11.33After disabling Documents & Data, the keyboard should work just fine, but be sure to open up iMessage or another typing app and try it out just to make sure. Afterward, you can turn back on Documents & Data sync if you need to, but if you open iCloud > Storage & Backup, the keyboard problem is said to appear again (according to some of our readers), so you’ll have to turn off Documents & Data sync again if you do that.

From what we’ve been hearing from readers, this has fixed the problem for everyone. However, if this doesn’t fix it for you, you can try a last-resort fix. You can open up the Settings app and navigate to General > Reset > Reset All Settings. This will only reset the settings and it won’t delete any data or media that you have stored on your device, but you’ll have to go back into the Settings app and change everything back to how you had them before. However, we’re told that this also worked to fix the keyboard lag issue.

You should be all set to go at this point. If you come across any other bugs in iOS 7 (and fixes for them, if you discover any), let us know about them and we’ll be sure to write about it on the site and help spread the word!

120 Comments

120 Comments

  1. Spike

    09/19/2013 at 7:06 am

    Now i can type thank you for this easy fix :)

  2. P

    09/19/2013 at 7:07 am

    awesome that works. TY

  3. Lode Vill Tenzin

    09/19/2013 at 7:24 am

    thx ma this realy helpd. me

  4. jc

    09/19/2013 at 7:28 am

    Thank you. I was going nuts after installing ios7.

  5. t

    09/19/2013 at 7:30 am

    works for iPhone 5 keyboard lag as well – thanks very much

  6. Aimee

    09/19/2013 at 7:48 am

    A BIG thank you! I was freaking out this morning about this and now I can calm down and enjoy my phone again! Aimee :)

  7. normang

    09/19/2013 at 7:58 am

    Works for me…

  8. wfk

    09/19/2013 at 8:06 am

    Works on my Iphone 4. Was driving me crazy to text. Thank you!

  9. Rachel

    09/19/2013 at 8:13 am

    Thank you for this, the workaround has sorted this out, hope apple send a more permanent fix very soon. Was driving me MAD :-) thankyou.

  10. Alyx

    09/19/2013 at 8:29 am

    Turning off the iCloud documents/data worked! So happy! Thanks!

  11. Molly

    09/19/2013 at 8:37 am

    omg thanks so much! i was getting so frustrated!

  12. Kris

    09/19/2013 at 8:54 am

    Worked perfectly, thank you

  13. Ryan Tyler

    09/19/2013 at 8:59 am

    So mad, just tried to update my iphone 42 16gb to the IOS7 and it s came up with an unknown network error. :-(

  14. Alicia

    09/19/2013 at 9:02 am

    I have an iPhone 4s and was having AWFUL lagging problem. this helped a lot and is now working more to speed. thanks so so much! hopefully a more permanent fix will come soon !

  15. Katherine

    09/19/2013 at 9:10 am

    Thank you so much!!!! I was going crazy and thought it would always be like this. It also works for the iPhone 5 (:

  16. sharon

    09/19/2013 at 9:17 am

    Thank you this worked

  17. Jess

    09/19/2013 at 9:21 am

    Thank you so much! Had this problem on my iPhone 4 and it was driving me crazy, but this fixed it perfectly :)

  18. Jonathan T.

    09/19/2013 at 9:23 am

    Worked on my 4!

  19. Ray Y

    09/19/2013 at 9:37 am

    Some iPhone 5s have the same issue, iCloud works on the 5 as well.

  20. deano

    09/19/2013 at 9:39 am

    i did reset all settings and thankfully its now fixed

  21. vengle2

    09/19/2013 at 10:08 am

    Thanks so much I was about to go all fifty shades on my phone LOL

  22. arun

    09/19/2013 at 10:53 am

    thanks

  23. Matt

    09/19/2013 at 11:22 am

    Thank you for this. Works for an iPhone 4 as well – my Keyboard lag was happening on the lock screen as well, but this workaround corrected it

  24. stlcupofjoe

    09/19/2013 at 11:44 am

    THANK YOU!!! so helpfullllll

  25. helen

    09/19/2013 at 1:06 pm

    brilliant, thankyou so much . has been driving me mad all day. !!!

  26. Irene

    09/19/2013 at 1:10 pm

    Thank you!!! It did fixed the problem.

  27. Rani

    09/19/2013 at 1:11 pm

    my imessage and facetime is not working. i have 4s, and before the upgrade to ios7 i dint have any problem. keeps saying network error.

  28. Jethro

    09/19/2013 at 2:05 pm

    Works! Was worried i couldnt get out of the apple sauce i found myself in!

    • Olivea

      09/20/2013 at 1:59 am

      Thank you so much. This was driving me mad! Have you any ideas when the bug fix will be out!? What a genius

  29. Ashlei

    09/19/2013 at 2:06 pm

    Thanks so much! I have an iPad2 and was having problems even with unlocking my iPad! Hopefully they will send a patch to fix it soon but this worked for now! Much appreciated!

  30. Tiffany K.

    09/19/2013 at 4:37 pm

    thank you so much :)

  31. lynnteague

    09/19/2013 at 5:16 pm

    Thank you Thank you Thank you!! It worked. I was thinking that my iPhone was going to be a sick puppy until they found a fix.

  32. Akzul18

    09/19/2013 at 6:42 pm

    Great..it works..i thought my phone memory not enough..now im enjoying it..thank you

  33. Jason

    09/19/2013 at 6:49 pm

    Huge thank you. My keyboard works perfectly now.

  34. saidy

    09/19/2013 at 7:13 pm

    I love you for this!!!

  35. Emmett

    09/19/2013 at 7:46 pm

    Thank you – the icloud shut-off worked for my 4S. Looking forward to the permanent fix!

  36. Mickey Segal

    09/19/2013 at 8:07 pm

    Does iOS7 add any way to delete “Documents & Data” stored on the phone? Various threads from earlier this year suggest it is marooned storage, but then there didn’t seem to be any way of deleting such data.

  37. Efrain

    09/19/2013 at 8:08 pm

    There is a bug with the imessage when u switch to landscape mode with the keyboard up, the animation and transition lags pretty bad. Both on my iphone 5 and ipad mini! Thats the only bug i have encounter

    • Nish32

      09/19/2013 at 9:16 pm

      Yeah!It is annoying.If you want to run smoother just turn on the increase contrast

  38. Steve

    09/19/2013 at 9:48 pm

    Was just about to revert to ios6 on my iPhone 4 when I saw your post! Thanks! Now I love ios7!

  39. Brent

    09/19/2013 at 10:05 pm

    Worked for mine too. I’m pretty surprised such a basic bug got through. Mine was lagging on the lock screen too.

  40. Nes Adi Bahar

    09/19/2013 at 11:56 pm

    Thank you very much! It helped! I hope apple will fix this problam in the future i’ts annoying….

  41. Danyel Griffin

    09/20/2013 at 12:17 am

    thank you so much my iphone was about to take flying lessons across the room you have just saved it must add that the Orange and EE websites should have had this and it didnt awful tech help cheers again

  42. Paul Gowers

    09/20/2013 at 12:51 am

    Many thanks. I was really concerned that my iphone 4 had become unusable with ios7 but this fix works a treat.

  43. YP

    09/20/2013 at 12:52 am

    Thanks a lot! It fixed the keyboard issue.

  44. Ipodlover

    09/20/2013 at 1:06 am

    IT WORKED OMG THANKYOU SO MUCH!

  45. ViTi

    09/20/2013 at 1:57 am

    Omg this solved my problem. Thank you so much!!!

  46. simon

    09/20/2013 at 2:35 am

    Fixed my 4. Manythanks

  47. Mats Fogelqvist

    09/20/2013 at 2:43 am

    Works like a charm – big thanx for the tip!!

  48. Trit

    09/20/2013 at 4:08 am

    Along with everyone else here, I have to say a big thank you! My phone works again!

  49. Giacomo

    09/20/2013 at 4:13 am

    Thank you so much! It works!!!!!

  50. Kmst

    09/20/2013 at 4:32 am

    Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! I’m very happy I found this fix!!! :)

  51. Silviu

    09/20/2013 at 5:03 am

    thank you so much,to bad i found this fix after trowing my phone to the pavement and crack it …

  52. Gale Rivers

    09/20/2013 at 5:07 am

    I tried resetting yesterday. No change the iCloud fix solved the problem. Thanks.

  53. f

    09/20/2013 at 6:39 am

    It WORKS!!!! Thx

  54. Lauren Larson

    09/20/2013 at 8:03 am

    Fixed my keyboard issues on my iPhone 5 as well! Thank you so much!

  55. Eric

    09/20/2013 at 8:08 am

    Great fix, thanks!!!!

  56. P

    09/20/2013 at 8:38 am

    Great, thanks! it was drinving me crazy.

  57. Richard

    09/20/2013 at 8:38 am

    Thank you. It fixed the issue as well on my iPad mini.

  58. bb

    09/20/2013 at 9:28 am

    great….nearly down grade back to ios 6

  59. IDWall

    09/20/2013 at 9:59 am

    It worked for me too. Now let’s see how long it takes Apple to fix the problem so I can use ICloud again.

  60. Sheila

    09/20/2013 at 10:18 am

    Thank you so much…fixed my problem…it was driving me crazy! I hope apple addresses this problem.

  61. President Ronald Reagan

    09/20/2013 at 11:08 am

    brilliant, fixed my iphone 4 porblem, thanks

  62. Rohit Ramchandani

    09/20/2013 at 1:19 pm

    you sir, have removed all my frustations!! i was so mad i was abt to do a full restore.
    Coming bak to solution, its interesting to note that only disabling the ‘Whatsapp’ data under Documents & Data solved the issue! So it might be an issue with Whatsapp and not ios after all!
    Well im not sure if all the users above had whatsapp installed or not, but a BIG thanks anyway to you :)

  63. Big Al

    09/20/2013 at 1:58 pm

    Thank you. This fixed my 4S keyboard la

  64. Jody

    09/20/2013 at 2:10 pm

    I have a different keyboard problem. I have a 4s with IOS 7. If I go to Contacts hitting he contacts icon, and then go to the search bar, the keyboard comes up as it should so I can type into the search bar to find a contact. BUT, if I go to Phone, and then Contacts at the bottom of the page, when I tap the search bar, THE KEYBOARD DOES NOT COME UP, and I can’t do a search of my contacts from here.

    Is anyone else having this problem, and are there any fixes?

  65. Scott

    09/20/2013 at 2:16 pm

    My brand new 5S was doing this after restoring. This fixed it. Thanks!

  66. Ken Payson

    09/20/2013 at 2:19 pm

    OMG – thank you so much. I was in the middle of downloading the software to go back to ios6 on my 4s
    . This is always apple’s way of getting us to upgrade to the new phone sooner rather than later. but now I can wait till later.

  67. Jay

    09/20/2013 at 3:19 pm

    Hi, I am having issues now with my Whatsapp after downloading IOS 7. Mid conversation the bar to type anything dissapears and just the letters show :s. I am using an iphone 4s 16gb?

  68. Ian_In_Napa

    09/20/2013 at 3:40 pm

    JUst tried replying to an email and the keyboard shos up but there are no characters listed…then…got the characters back but nothing listed on the screen as I typed. Not lag, but white text on white background…very strange…just reboot the phone…iOS 7 on 4S

  69. CHiGOAT

    09/20/2013 at 4:36 pm

    Thanx! It worked for me.

  70. Pawel

    09/20/2013 at 5:12 pm

    Works! Not perfect but much better on iPhone 4. It was unusable before.

  71. tiffany

    09/20/2013 at 7:37 pm

    THANK YOU SOO MUCH LIFE SAVER..

  72. Amit mathur

    09/21/2013 at 12:22 am

    Amazing it works. Apple have no official answer till now to fix this issue.its people like you who are helping to sort out Apple issues. Apple has gone from bad to worst after google maps faisco

    • Lisa

      09/22/2013 at 1:33 pm

      I totally agree!

  73. Sangma Limbu (@Sangmiimii)

    09/21/2013 at 1:35 am

    omg thank you thank you thank you my life is back to normal again! haha ^^’

  74. Tara

    09/21/2013 at 1:56 am

    Oh thank you for the lag fix!! I was going to be headed to take my phone in tomorrow and don’t need to now!! :)

  75. Brittany

    09/21/2013 at 3:46 am

    Thank you on the advice to fix the keyboard issue however I cannot do any of this because I can’t type in my passwords!! I can’t use the top row on any keyboard or numbers! Please someone help I am about ready to throw my iPhone 4S at the wall. Thank you.

  76. fwuiN

    09/21/2013 at 5:09 am

    Thanks

  77. mary

    09/21/2013 at 6:19 am

    Thanks so much. ATT&T instructed me to call 800 number to Apple, make appointment then drive two hours away to fix my iPhone. I truly appreciate the help. You rock :)

  78. Kirk

    09/21/2013 at 7:03 am

    It worked thanks

  79. awkwardfly

    09/21/2013 at 7:34 am

    Thank you so much~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ it was really a great help and relieve for me :D

  80. Anita Walton

    09/21/2013 at 10:55 am

    Thank you so much for the help with this

  81. Steve

    09/21/2013 at 11:11 am

    ha ha…. have just taken my wife’s ipad out the rubbish bin as it was the wrong time of the month to have a lagging ipad!!!! thank you so much, shes now calmed down :)

  82. Morgan

    09/21/2013 at 11:33 am

    Thank you so much!! My iPad mini has been doing this ever since I updated and this has fixed the problem. Huge help!

  83. David

    09/21/2013 at 12:49 pm

    Hi, I found a solution (it still working at least), You have to disable Icloud. Completely, e-mail, contacts, calendars, etc. except Find my Ipad/IPhone/IPod. Before this, I tried disabling just documents and Data, but didn’t work. In my case, the problem was that virtual keyboard stopped to work when I tried to insert a letter (or any character)into a word. The problema now is I can’t use Icloud again because, when I try to turn it on, the problem appears again. I will try again in a couple of days, maybe Apple fix this.

  84. Gene

    09/21/2013 at 5:03 pm

    The lag was really bad on my 4. The reset on the settings took care of it for now. Thank you!!!’

  85. Carolyn

    09/21/2013 at 9:04 pm

    Thanks, worked really well on my 4. It was a mess! I could type whole sentences and none of the letters showed up for 30 seconds.

  86. Lily

    09/22/2013 at 9:18 am

    My gosh thank you so much! Iphone 4 was about to downgrade and frustrated, saved by you! Icloud-connection n data turn off works well! Only still lagging while typing on safari, but much better now

  87. Lisa

    09/22/2013 at 1:32 pm

    Seriously I love you!! I was getting so fed up and you totally saved the day! Works perfectly :)

  88. yummy

    09/22/2013 at 4:27 pm

    it fixed!! thank you so much!

  89. Edward Zinkon

    09/22/2013 at 9:08 pm

    Worked with my iPhone 4 too. Thank you so much!

  90. Mihail

    09/23/2013 at 5:19 am

    Great! Finally the problem was solved , Thank you. I was so close to throw the phone against the wall. That lag just makes me go crazy!!!! Also, after I close ICloud (docs and data) it seem the battery life is getting better. (iphone 4S ios 7)

  91. Mike Roos

    09/23/2013 at 12:36 pm

    Wonderful. It worked. Thanks!

  92. Frances

    09/23/2013 at 1:44 pm

    Thank you so much…after two long phone calls to O2 and being told it was a fault with my phone…you have fixed it!

  93. Kiki

    09/23/2013 at 7:02 pm

    THANK YOU!!!! SOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!! <3

  94. Cari

    09/24/2013 at 10:29 am

    worked like a charm :-)

  95. Brandon

    09/24/2013 at 10:43 am

    Thank you!!Thank you!!Thank you!!Thank you!!Thank you!!Thank you!!Thank you!!Thank you!!Thank you!!Thank you!!Thank you!!Thank you!!Thank you!!Thank you!!

  96. Frank

    09/24/2013 at 1:38 pm

    Thx it works

  97. Alok taunk

    09/24/2013 at 11:56 pm

    Thanks a ton. It worked for my I phone 4

  98. Jambo

    09/25/2013 at 10:12 am

    Fixed, thank god, the lag had me throwing the phone at the wall

  99. Bree

    09/26/2013 at 9:39 pm

    oh my gosh! thank you so much for this information! I have been going nuts for the past 12 hours ! I tried everything except the reset option ( to hesitant ) but this did the trick!

  100. Rita

    09/29/2013 at 5:19 am

    Thank you so much *.*

  101. Nate

    10/02/2013 at 8:47 am

    This seems to have fixed some of my lag issues with the iPod app also

  102. beanguy

    10/02/2013 at 10:55 am

    YES! YES! YES! It worked. Thank you!

  103. Marrr

    10/04/2013 at 6:38 am

    Works! A life saver fix on my iPhone. I was about to restore back to iOS6!

  104. JoJoLemons

    10/04/2013 at 11:33 am

    It worked! But the problem reoccurred when I turned Documents and Data back on :/

  105. Andie

    10/04/2013 at 9:40 pm

    Omg,…finally, I can see what I’m typing again without delay!….thank you!

  106. Loren

    10/06/2013 at 1:02 pm

    Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!

  107. Brent

    10/09/2013 at 6:07 am

    Open settings, general, accessibility, increase contrast “ON” this should perfectly work for sure.:)

  108. murphy

    10/12/2013 at 2:29 pm

    Perfect! Thank you!

  109. Dan K

    10/22/2013 at 5:53 am

    Wow–thank you! This not only fixed my keyboard, but it also enabled my foreign language apps to work.

  110. sad panda

    12/03/2013 at 8:24 pm

    This only worked the first time, unfortunately the problem still keeps happening. I’ve repeated it several time. Is there going to be a proper fix soon?

  111. ALEX HARRY

    12/27/2013 at 8:03 am

    NOT WORKING FOR MY PHONE..)):: PLEASE HELP .
    I DID EVERYTHING SO MANY TIME….

  112. karen

    01/08/2014 at 4:16 pm

    Thank you so much that was driving me insane for a few weeks ! phone is perfect now !

  113. Chris

    03/14/2014 at 11:33 am

    For me since I updated to iOS 7.1 the problem is Google Contacts. If I go to Settings-> Mail, Contacts, Calendars -> select my gmail account and toggle OFF contacts the keyboard lag goes away. If I go back in and toggle Contacts ON then the lag comes back.

  114. papoula r a

    03/24/2014 at 5:04 pm

    yeap! it is working. thank you

  115. sandeep shanker

    07/28/2014 at 9:14 am

    after the recent update
    i am facing two problems on my iphone 4
    1. English keyboard two letters n and u not working in vertical position but working in horizontal position of the phone
    2. sometimes the phone becomes too sensitive to the touch and works without even touching the phone

    please help

  116. pj lagging text

    07/15/2015 at 1:38 pm

    I have an iPhone 4s with software update iOS 8.4. The letters lag when I am typing a text message. I tried disabling Documents and Data but I still cannot type out a text without the letters freezing and taking time to show up on the screen. i have done a soft and a hard reset but does not fix the lag in letters appearing on screen. What else can I try?

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