Why iPhone Internet Connection Slow and How to Fix it
iPhone Internet Connection Slow – Are you wondering why your cellular data is slow? There’s nothing more frustrating than a slow data connection on your phone. Whether you’re trying to watch a video or check Facebook on your phone, you pay for and expect a certain level of speed. When service fails to meet that level, it’s easy to get upset.
iPhone users typically connect to the internet via one of two ways: cellular or WiFi. If you’ve noticed that your iPhone internet seems slow, there may be a few things creating issues. Read on to learn how to quickly increase iPhone internet speeds in this guide.
In most cases, a slow connection is temporary, caused by the location or network congestion. Other times, it can persist for hours or even days. Before you call your mobile carrier’s technical support, try these simple steps first to see if they fix your slow mobile data issues.
Restart Your Phone
This seems like a cliché fix, but it often works. Restarting your phone should fix sluggish cellular data speeds, especially if you haven’t turned it off in a while.
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Restarting your phone is simple:
- On an iPhone X or newer, press the side button and volume up or volume down until Slide to Power Off appears. Once you power off your iPhone, hold the side button again to turn it back on.
- If you have an iPhone 8 or earlier, hold the side button (on the right side of the phone or the top of older devices) until Slide to Power Off appears on the screen.
- For most Android phones, you need to hold the power button until the power options appear on the screen, then tap Restart.
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Clear Browsing Data if iPhone Internet Connection is Slow
Your iPhone accumulates browsing data like cookies, site data, web storage, and more like your desktop computer. Sometimes this data may contain corrupt files that cause problems in your browser app, slowing your internet connection speed.
Try clearing this out to see if this helps your internet speeds. For Safari, you clear cache and cookies in the settings.
- Open Settings
- Scroll down to and tap Safari.
- Tap Advanced.
- Select Website Data.
- Check the total space usage of the website and then tap Remove All Website Data.
- After successfully clearing the cache and browsing data, perform another soft reset. Then open Safari to see if your speed has improved.
Do the same for Google Chrome, Firefox, or any other browser. You can also clear this data in apps like Facebook, Instagram, etc.
Change Locations
Many factors can result in slow LTE service. These include weather, network congestion, and even solar activity. But chief among these are geography and buildings.
If you’re in a remote area, or there are a lot of natural barriers around you (such as hills, mountains, and valleys), they can affect your signal. The same goes for buildings. For example, you could be in the middle of a heavily populated urban area with full bars and then wonder why your data is so slow when entering certain structures.
Try moving somewhere else if you’re having speed problems that might have started in a specific location. For example, you may need to leave the building or drive a few miles away. While this may not be convenient, it’s an excellent way to troubleshoot your speed issue.
This step is something tech support will ask you to do if you call for help.
Reset Network Settings if iPhone Internet Connection is Slow
During iOS updates, your network settings can get overridden by corrupt files. These can cause your iPhone connection to become very slow. You can address this problem by performing a reset on network settings.
Be aware that when you do this, however, you’ll erase all saved network settings. So if you have unique network settings for your home router or somewhere else, you’ll have to input it again.
To reset network settings, follow these steps:
- Open Settings from the Home screen.
- Tap General.
- Scroll down and then select Reset.
- Next, tap the Reset Network Settings option.
- Enter your device Passcode.
- Then tap to confirm network settings reset.
- Once the Reset is completed, your phone will restart automatically. Test your internet speeds now.
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Update And Disable Apps
Sometimes a troublesome app can cause issues by hogging your data connection and slowing it down. In such a case, you’ll want to do a little investigating to see what, if anything, is eating into your speed.
If it turns out that something is missing, you can disable the app’s access to your cellular data connection or uninstall it.
When your iPhone internet is slow, you can visit Settings > Cellular and disable any app’s access to your cellular data connection.
On Android, you’ll find this at Settings > Network & internet > Mobile network > App data usage. Tap an app, then slide the Background data slider off to prevent that app from using data in the background.
You should also check for app updates. App developers publish updates to address bugs, so it could be a matter of opening the App Store or Google Play and downloading the fix through an update.
Disable Data Saver/Low Data Mode
Both Android and iOS contain modes designed to reduce your data usage. These are handy if you have a limited amount of data but can also make it seem like your service connection is slow. Try disabling these modes and see if everything feels faster.
On Android, head to Settings > Network & internet > Data Saver. If you have an iPhone, you’ll find a comparable setting called Low Data Mode under Settings > Cellular > Cellular Data Options.
If you’re worried about how much data you use, make sure you turn these back on after a bit. Then, you should be able to tell if this setting is making your mobile data slower or not.
Is iPhone internet slow? Check Carrier Settings
Carrier settings are important files that contain data about your iPhone and your cell network. They need to be up to date to ensure your network’s best performance and connectivity. Your iPhone will usually notify you when an update is available, but it’s possible to miss them.
To check for a carrier settings update, you can open Settings > General > About on your phone. If an update is available, you’ll be prompted to install it.
Disconnect From Your VPN
VPNs provide anonymity and privacy, but they can also slow down your speeds when using remote servers. Thus, if your phone is connected to a VPN, try disconnecting and try again.
You’ll notice an immediate improvement as soon as you disconnect. If that fixes the problem, you can improve your VPN’s speed when you reconnect.
Is iPhone internet slow? Check For Network Outages
Though mobile carriers love to tout their reliability, outages happen all the time. These outages often account for reduced speeds or even lost connections. So if you’re still experiencing slow mobile data, it’s a good idea to check for outages with your carrier before calling in.
If you can connect to Wi-Fi, it’s easy to do some investigating. First, try checking a website such as Downdetector. Quite often, if your issue is widespread, other people will have already reported it.
You can also hop onto social media. Twitter is an excellent place to research connection issues because people often tweet about their connection problems. If you contact your mobile carrier’s support Twitter account, you’re likely to get a response quickly.
This lets you do something else while you wait instead of wasting time on hold.
When All Else Fails, Call Tech Support
Remember, you probably have a mobile data cap ranging from a few to several dozen gigabytes. Your mobile carrier will usually slow your connection if you go over that cap. In addition, even those on so-called unlimited plans may experience throttling or “deprioritization” during times of network congestion after they hit a certain limit.
If none of these steps fix your slow data, then it’s time to call tech support. The technician may have you repeat some of these steps. You might be inclined to refuse because you’re already done them, but it’s the representative’s job to go through a list of troubleshooting steps to see what works and what doesn’t.
Hopefully, it doesn’t come to that. But, if it does, the issue could be something on your provider’s end that you can’t fix.
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