I've been running Netsurit for nearly 30 years and we support over 300 organizations, so I see device performance issues across thousands of employees daily. Here's what actually slows iPhones down based on what our helpdesk handles constantly. **Turn off Background App Refresh for apps you don't need updating constantly.** Go to Settings > General > Background App Refresh and disable it for non-essential apps. This feature lets apps refresh content even when you're not using them, which drains processing power and battery simultaneously. We see this eating up resources on client devices all the time--especially with social media and news apps that refresh every few minutes. **Disable automatic downloads and updates when you need performance.** Settings > App Store > let you control automatic downloads and updates. When your iPhone is updating apps in the background while you're trying to work, everything slows to a crawl. Our team recommends scheduling updates during off-hours instead of letting them run automatically throughout the day. **Turn off Location Services for apps that don't actually need it.** Check Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services and set most apps to "While Using" or "Never." Constant GPS polling is processor-intensive and we've seen significant performance improvements when clients limit this to only essential apps like Maps. Most apps request location access but don't truly need it running 24/7.
I run Alliance InfoSystems and we've managed thousands of devices since 2004, so I regularly see what actually bogs down iPhones in real-world business use. **Disable Motion & Transparency effects.** Go to Settings > Accessibility > Motion and turn on "Reduce Motion," then go to Display & Text Size and enable "Reduce Transparency." These visual effects look nice but force your processor to constantly render animations and translucent layers. When we disabled these on a client's 50+ employee iPhones last year, their support tickets about "sluggish performance" dropped by about 40%. Your processor can focus on actual work instead of making menus look pretty. **Turn off Live Photos as your default camera setting.** Settings > Camera > toggle off "Live Photos." Every time you snap a picture, your iPhone is actually recording 1.5 seconds of video before and after the shot. We see clients with storage full of these mini-videos they never wanted, and the camera app becomes noticeably slower because it's processing all that extra data. Switch to standard photos and your camera responds instantly--you can always enable Live Photos manually for specific shots when you actually want that feature. **Disable Siri Suggestions and app predictions.** Go to Settings > Siri & Search and turn off suggestions for apps you don't use constantly. Your iPhone is continuously analyzing your behavior patterns and preloading app predictions, which runs in the background eating up processing cycles. I keep this on for maybe 3-4 apps I use hourly, but disabled for everything else--makes a real difference when you're multitasking.
I'm Paul Nebb, founder of Titan Technologies--I've been managing cybersecurity and IT infrastructure since 2008, and iPhone performance issues come up constantly with our business clients in Central New Jersey. **Turn off Background App Refresh for apps you don't need updating constantly.** Go to Settings > General > Background App Refresh and disable it for everything except critical apps like email or messaging. Your iPhone is literally waking up dozens of apps throughout the day to fetch new data, which drains your processor and battery simultaneously. I see this all the time with our clients--they'll have 60+ apps refreshing in the background when they only actively use maybe 10 regularly. When we audit employee devices, this single setting change typically frees up 15-20% more processing power for actual work tasks. **Disable automatic downloads and updates during work hours.** Settings > App Store > turn off "App Updates" and "App Downloads." Your iPhone downloads app updates the moment they're available, which can spike your processor usage at the worst possible times. I learned this the hard way when a client's entire sales team complained about slowdowns during a major presentation--turned out iOS was pushing a massive update to their devices simultaneously. Set updates to manual so you control when your device takes that performance hit, ideally overnight when you're not using it. **Turn off Location Services for apps that don't actually need your location.** Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services--review every app and switch most to "Never" or "While Using." Your GPS chip is one of the biggest processor hogs on your device, and we routinely find 40+ apps constantly tracking location even when closed. That weather app doesn't need to know where you are 24/7.
I've been repairing iPhones for years and ran diagnostics on hundreds of devices that customers swore were "just slow." After nearly 14 years as an engineer at Intel, I can tell you that most speed issues aren't what people think. **Turn off Background App Refresh for apps you don't need updated constantly.** Go to Settings > General > Background App Refresh and disable it for everything except your actual essentials--maybe email and messaging. I've seen iPhones where 40+ apps were refreshing in the background, eating processor cycles and draining battery simultaneously. Last month a customer brought in an iPhone 11 convinced it needed a new battery because it was so sluggish. I disabled Background App Refresh for all but 5 apps, and she came back thanking me because it felt like a new phone. Your device is literally doing work for apps you're not even using. **Disable automatic downloads and updates over cellular.** Settings > App Store, turn off automatic downloads and updates unless you're on WiFi. When your iPhone is constantly downloading app updates in the background--especially over cellular--it's splitting processing power between what you're trying to do and what Apple thinks should happen automatically. I see this kill performance during micro-soldering diagnostics all the time when a customer's phone is trying to update 15 apps while I'm running tests. The real issue is that iPhones try to be helpful by doing too much in the background. Strip away what you don't actively need running, and let your processor focus on what you're actually doing right now.
I've launched dozens of tech products from Nvidia graphics cards to Robosen's Transformers robots, and here's what most articles miss: **Turn off Siri Suggestions entirely.** Settings > Siri & Search > disable "Suggestions in Search," "Suggestions in Look Up," and "Suggestions on Lock Screen." Your iPhone is constantly analyzing your behavior patterns, predicting what you'll do next, and pre-loading content. When we were launching the HTC Vive campaign, our team's devices would crawl during critical asset uploads because iOS was busy being "helpful" in the background. **Disable all notification previews and set everything to "Deliver Quietly."** Settings > Notifications > select each app. Most people don't realize that every notification wakes your processor, renders graphics for the banner, triggers haptics, and logs the interaction. During our Robosen Optimus Prime launch, we had devices processing hundreds of social media notifications daily--each one causing micro-stutters that added up to massive slowdowns during actual work like reviewing 3D renders or processing campaign data. **Turn off "Significant Locations" under System Services.** Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services > System Services. Your phone is constantly tracking and categorizing everywhere you go to predict your next move. That's your processor running ML algorithms 24/7. When we managed launches across multiple time zones for clients like RAVpower and VAVA, this single setting made the difference between smooth video calls and laggy disasters.
Depending on how much background app refresh will affect your battery life, I recommend turning off background app refresh for everything except your must haves such as email or Slack. Additionally, look in the System Services menu of your Location Services and toggle off both "Significant Locations" and all "Product Improvement" usage analytics. In a lot of cases, these features are running behind the scenes as background telemetry tasks that most people do not realize are happening 24 hours a day/seven days a week. The problem with using background app refresh and the other two settings mentioned above is they create a consistent "background noise" of activity that takes up working memory or RAM and prevents the processor from going into its low power state. This not only drains the battery but also creates heat, and when the iPhone reaches a temperature threshold, it dynamically adjusts the processor speed to reduce the amount of heat generated. Because of this adjustment, the applications that run on the IPhone operate slowly. Most people are not aware of how complex these devices are as they are very powerful computers and have very limited cooling. Reducing the background noise on these devices is not only for the purpose of saving battery, but also for allowing the hardware to perform to its fullest when in use.