Apple

How to Fix iPhone 13 Performance Problems

Published

11 months ago

01/12/2023

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.

As we push into 2023 we continue to get feedback from people who have adopted these iPhone models. 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 16 software. Point updates (x.x.x) are almost always focused on fixing bugs while milestone upgrades (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 16, 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 iPhone 13’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 16 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 16.7.2 & 11 Reasons You Should

Install iOS 16.7.2 for Better Security

1 / 15

If security is important to you, think about installing Apple's iOS 16.7.2 update on your iPhone right away.

iOS 16.7.2 isn't a huge upgrade, but the update does a number of security patches on board. These on their own should be enough to get you to install the software in the near future.

As for older updates, iOS 16.7.2 carried two important security enhancements including one that addressed a kernel vulnerability. You can learn more about the pair over on Apple's website.

iOS 16.7 had three security patches on board and you can learn more about them right here.

iOS 16.6.1 brought two important security patches to iPhone. If you're interested in what they patch up, here's Apple's guide.

The iOS 16.6 update delivered 16 security patches. For more information about the changes, check out Apple's rundown.

iOS 16.5.1 brought two security patches to iPhone users If you want to learn more, head on over to Apple's website.

The company's iOS Security Response 16.5.1 (c) update also included a security update and you can learn more about it right here.

iOS 16.5 brought a ton of security patches to the iPhone. You can find out more about them over on Apple's security site.

iOS 16.4.1 included two security upgrades . You can learn more about the pair right here.

Apple's iOS 16.4 update had a substantial number of patches on board. You can read about them in detail over on Apple's security site.

The iOS 16.3.1 update had three security patches on board including one for an actively exploited vulnerability. For more on the security contents of iOS 16.3.1, check out Apple's security page.

iOS 16.3 brought 10+ new security patches with it and you can learn more about all of those right here.

In addition, the software came with support for physical security keys for Apple ID. These will beef up your account security by requiring a physical security key as part of the two factor authentication sign in process. Learn more about the change right here.

If you skipped iOS 16.2, you'll get its changes with iOS 16.7.2. iOS 16.2 brought a ton of important security patches with it and you can dig into the details on Apple's security site.

The update also brought end-to-end encryption to iCloud, iMessage, iPhone backups, Notes, Photos, and more. If you want to learn more about it, head over to Apple's guide.

If you decided to missed iOS 16.1.2, you'll get its solitary security patch with your upgrade. Learn more about it right here.

If you skipped iOS 16.1.1, you'll get its security patches when you upgrade. You can learn more about them right here.

If you missed the iOS 16.1 update, it brought 19 security patches to the iPhone and you can learn about the particulars of those over on Apple's website.

If you failed to download iOS 16.0.3, it had one security patch on board, a fix for a potential exploit within the Mail app. For more about the fix, check out Apple's security site.

If you're still running iOS 15 your iPhone, you'll get a bunch of other patches when you upgrade.

iOS 16.0 brought a ton of security patches to the iPhone. If you're interested in the exact nature of these improvements, you can read about them over on Apple's security website.

In addition to those patches, iOS 16 brings some additional enhancements to privacy and security including Safety Check which, according to Apple, will help "people in domestic or intimate partner violence situations review and reset the access they’ve granted others."

The feature also resets system privacy permissions for apps and restricts Messages and FaceTime to the device on hand.

Apple's also made some improvements to Passkeys in Safari. iOS 16 brings a brand new sign-in method that's end-to-end encrypted and safe from phishing and data leaks.