Apple

How to Fix iPhone 13 Performance Problems

Published

2 months ago

01/10/2024

The iPhone 13, iPhone 13 mini, iPhone 13 Pro, and iPhone 13 Pro come with fairly recent hardware, but they aren’t immune to performance issues.

We continue to get feedback from people who have adopted Apple’s iPhone 13. A lot of the feedback is good, but we’ve also heard about various issues. Among them, performance problems like random freezing, lockups, and lag.

If your iPhone 13, iPhone 13 mini, iPhone 13 Pro, or iPhone 13 Pro Max freezes, lags, or randomly reboots, you don’t need to get in touch with Apple customer service just yet. You may be able to fix your issue(s) in a matter of minutes.

Table of Contents

This walkthrough will take you through solutions that have worked for us in the past. They’ll help you maintain a fast, and efficient, iPhone 13 in the future.

Restart Your iPhone 13

If you’re running into performance issues on your iPhone 13, iPhone 13 mini, iPhone 13 Pro, or iPhone 13 Pro Max, try restarting your device. Often times a quick reboot will iron out the problems.

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

Update Your iPhone 13

Apple will continue to push out new iOS 17 software. 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.

Apple may not call out performance fixes in an update’s change log, but new software always has the potential to help (or hurt) your iPhone 13’s overall performance.

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

Update Your Apps

If you’re having performance issues, try updating your applications to the latest version if an update is available.

App developers are rolling out support updates and they could help stabilize the app and/or your iPhone’s performance.

Before you install the latest version of an app, make sure you dig into reviews from other iPhone 13 users. If the reviews are mostly good, download the latest version.

Reset Your Settings

You can also try resetting your iPhone 13’s settings. This will restore your phone’s settings to their factory defaults so make sure you have your Wi-Fi passwords handy. You’ll need to re-enter them when the process completes.

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

This could take a few seconds to complete so remain patient.

Cleanup Your Storage

If you transferred files from an old phone to your iPhone 13, you probably have a ton of clutter taking up space on your internal storage. Getting rid of these unused files and apps could help improve your iPhone’s performance.

If you decide to do some cleanup, you’ll want to check and see how much space is available on your iPhone 13 model. 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 go to where it says iPhone Storage. This will show you a detailed rundown of your data.

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

Clear Browser Cookies & Data

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

If you use Apple’s Safari browser, here’s how to clear them:

Go to 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 up for that, tap Clear History and Data again.

If you use Google’s Chrome browser on your iPhone 13, here’s what you need to do:

Head into the app.
Tap the three horizontal circles in the bottom right corner. They’re in the top right corner if you haven’t updated to Chrome’s new design.
Tap Settings.
Tap Privacy.
Now tap Clear Browsing Data.

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

Check Your SIM Card

If your iPhone 13 is randomly rebooting itself, try removing your SIM card. You’ll need a paperclip (or something like it) or a SIM removal tool to eject it.

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 13 with the SIM card removed and then putting the SIM card back in after the phone boots back up.

Downgrade

If you recently installed a new version of iOS 17 on your iPhone 13 and you started noticing issues soon thereafter, you could try moving your iPhone 13’s software back to the previous version if the option is available.

If you don’t know how to downgrade your device’s software, have a look at our walkthrough.

Restore

If you can’t find a fix for your performance issue(s), 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.