How to Speed up your Jailbroken iPhone 3G

By Gary Ng on November 7th, 2008 176

As much as I love my iPhone 3G, the latest 2.1 firmware is still not the smoothest and stable yet. Apple has released a couple firmware updates so far and we have seen some improvements, but anticipation for 2.2 firmware can’t come any sooner. If you have jailbroken your iPhone, you’ve probably run into some more lag and just horrendous system speed.

The choice to jailbreak or not is entirely up to you. For myself, access to PDAnet, QIK, and some of the must have jailbroken apps is something that I enjoy. However, for some reason my iPhone 3G was at its slowest point ever and it was driving me insane. Wait times to launch apps such as the Phone, SMS, Mail, and just navigating around resulted in frustration and neverending pauses.

How to Speed up your Jailbroken iPhone 3G

Are you also experiencing laggy wait times and just general slowness? Well, here’s one simple solution to your problems. All you have to do is…

…uninstall Winterboard.

Yep, after doing some research and testing of uninstalling other apps, Winterboard is a major culprit. Sure, I love customizing my iPhone themes as much as the next person, but after uninstalling Winterboard I noticed the navigation and speed increased by 50%. So there you go, that’s my advice for the day. Uninstall Winterboard and I guarantee you’ll notice a difference in your iPhone. I would rather have a speedy iPhone instead of a laggy, customized theme installed. Let’s hope that 2.2 firmware will bring some more bug fixes our way!

Let me know if uninstalling Winterboard speeds up your iPhone 3G in the comments!

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  • http://martinkou.blogspot.com/ Martin Kou

    I did a bit of research about this issue as well. I found the issue was caused by memory leak in the syslogd daemon. Uninstalling Winterboard will only delay the problem, not solve it.

    I’ve written an analysis about the issue, here:
    http://blog.thinkbulbs.com/2009/02/how-to-stop-your-jailbroken-iphone-from.html

    My fix requires some knowledge of UNIX systems, so it may not be suitable for casual users. But I guess someone can “port” it to a GUI app in Cydia so casual users can access it.

  • http://martinkou.blogspot.com Martin Kou

    I did a bit of research about this issue as well. I found the issue was caused by memory leak in the syslogd daemon. Uninstalling Winterboard will only delay the problem, not solve it.

    I’ve written an analysis about the issue, here:
    http://blog.thinkbulbs.com/2009/02/how-to-stop-your-jailbroken-iphone-from.html

    My fix requires some knowledge of UNIX systems, so it may not be suitable for casual users. But I guess someone can “port” it to a GUI app in Cydia so casual users can access it.

  • pocketdoc

    Martin, that link does not work. I am very interested in what you were able to do to spped up a jailbroken iphone.

  • pocketdoc

    Martin, that link does not work. I am very interested in what you were able to do to spped up a jailbroken iphone.

  • guicey16

    yay this speeds up my ipod touch loads!!!! i think i can liv without the themes

  • guicey16

    yay this speeds up my ipod touch loads!!!! i think i can liv without the themes

  • Lance

    Winterboard’s running all the time and consuming cpu power thereby resulting in a prettier user experience at the expense of responsiveness. I’ve just uninstalled Winterboard and am now getting a snapper result. Although I like the customization usability is more important. “There’s always a price to pay”

  • Lance

    Winterboard’s running all the time and consuming cpu power thereby resulting in a prettier user experience at the expense of responsiveness. I’ve just uninstalled Winterboard and am now getting a snapper result. Although I like the customization usability is more important. “There’s always a price to pay”

  • Lance

    Winterboard’s running all the time and consuming cpu power thereby resulting in a prettier user experience at the expense of responsiveness. I’ve just uninstalled Winterboard and am now getting a snapper result. Although I like the customization usability is more important. “There’s always a price to pay”

  • http://www.mindframesandthoughts.com TOTO ANTONIO

    In the absence of winterboard, i guess we have to SSH it. Placing icons of fav themes per apps. Background can be done via iphone’s background. I don’t know about the sound though.

  • http://www.mindframesandthoughts.com TOTO ANTONIO

    In the absence of winterboard, i guess we have to SSH it. Placing icons of fav themes per apps. Background can be done via iphone’s background. I don’t know about the sound though.

  • ToTo Antonio

    In the absence of winterboard, i guess we have to SSH it. Placing icons of fav themes per apps. Background can be done via iphone’s background. I don’t know about the sound though.

  • erik

    What theme is that at the top?

  • erik

    What theme is that at the top?

  • luis

    how do you install it manually through the themes folder as you say?
    i miss summer board as well

  • luis

    how do you install it manually through the themes folder as you say?
    i miss summer board as well

  • Cam

    I have a jailbroken iPhone 3g with winterboard and tons of customized things installed and i havent had one speed issue, just slightly less battery–but since the battery life sucks anyways, its not a big deal

  • Cam

    I have a jailbroken iPhone 3g with winterboard and tons of customized things installed and i havent had one speed issue, just slightly less battery–but since the battery life sucks anyways, its not a big deal

  • matt scott

    well i uninstalled winter board and i must say that my iphone is much faster, i do miss winter board however, if you do feel the need to reinstall it, all the themes you had should still be available if you dont uninstall them because you had to install them via cydia to begin with…. hopfully that makes sense. cheers

  • matt scott

    well i uninstalled winter board and i must say that my iphone is much faster, i do miss winter board however, if you do feel the need to reinstall it, all the themes you had should still be available if you dont uninstall them because you had to install them via cydia to begin with…. hopfully that makes sense. cheers

  • matt scott

    well i uninstalled winter board and i must say that my iphone is much faster, i do miss winter board however, if you do feel the need to reinstall it, all the themes you had should still be available if you dont uninstall them because you had to install them via cydia to begin with…. hopfully that makes sense. cheers

  • Unterscharfuhrer

    I have iphone 3g 2.2.1 firmware and recently jailbroke it and installed winterboard and a TON of different themes… To me, there’s absolutely no speed different between jailbroken/jailed phone… if there is any problems to speak of it would be an occasional crash now and again (really only after I try to Background too many apps!!) and as far as speed no difference to speak of. Internet and WiFi works perfectly, no diff in speed there either. Trick is to just keep re-springing constantly to kill off any programs running in background u dont need. Get SBSettings to do this thru Cydia and keep a constant eye on your memory. Ive found optimal memory is in the high double-digits, (ie: 15-30 mb free). Good luck.

  • Unterscharfuhrer

    I have iphone 3g 2.2.1 firmware and recently jailbroke it and installed winterboard and a TON of different themes… To me, there’s absolutely no speed different between jailbroken/jailed phone… if there is any problems to speak of it would be an occasional crash now and again (really only after I try to Background too many apps!!) and as far as speed no difference to speak of. Internet and WiFi works perfectly, no diff in speed there either. Trick is to just keep re-springing constantly to kill off any programs running in background u dont need. Get SBSettings to do this thru Cydia and keep a constant eye on your memory. Ive found optimal memory is in the high double-digits, (ie: 15-30 mb free). Good luck.

  • Unterscharfuhrer

    I have iphone 3g 2.2.1 firmware and recently jailbroke it and installed winterboard and a TON of different themes… To me, there’s absolutely no speed different between jailbroken/jailed phone… if there is any problems to speak of it would be an occasional crash now and again (really only after I try to Background too many apps!!) and as far as speed no difference to speak of. Internet and WiFi works perfectly, no diff in speed there either. Trick is to just keep re-springing constantly to kill off any programs running in background u dont need. Get SBSettings to do this thru Cydia and keep a constant eye on your memory. Ive found optimal memory is in the high double-digits, (ie: 15-30 mb free). Good luck.

  • http://www.solarisutilitydvd.com/ Solaris17

    wow i would have thought the themes would take up some mem but i didnt think winterboard would use so many resources however im still curious as to what that theme is

  • http://www.solarisutilitydvd.com/ Solaris17

    wow i would have thought the themes would take up some mem but i didnt think winterboard would use so many resources however im still curious as to what that theme is

  • http://www.solarisutilitydvd.com Solaris17

    wow i would have thought the themes would take up some mem but i didnt think winterboard would use so many resources however im still curious as to what that theme is

  • http://twitter.com/Cyvros Tobias Krenz

    You are kind of a Hero to me now ;)
    i'll Miss winterboard, but my 3.0 3G is now … How to Say ? WOW ! ^^
    its fast, battery lasts longer and i don't get networkloses all the time anymore

  • Name

    It's called Reveal.

  • Name

    Reveal

  • jamestunt101

    Hey what theme is that shown? The one with the shack and the grass? Email me back, thanks.

  • http://www.iphoneincanada.ca/category/x1zeros-corner/ X1Zero

    The answer is two comments above you!

    Its called Reveal.

  • marcomoretti

    Whatever dude.

  • Pingback: How to Change Your iPhone Desktop/SMS Background | iPhone in Canada Blog - Tips, Tricks, News, and Tutorials for Canadian iPhone Users

  • ulf_g

    Yes! I had no problems to give up winterboard as long as I got to keep my 5 columns.
    Excellent.
    Thanks!

  • nickmoore118247

    ON the 3.1 frimware there dose not seam to be any lag or slow down of the iphone and i have new themes and im always playing around with it :)

  • Brandon

    OMG I never thought I'd find the solution to it! Holy crap it is so much faster now! Thanks so much!

  • Ryan

    Yes it definitely made my phone faster and more usable. Thank you!

  • http://www.iphoneincanada.ca Gary

    Cheers !

  • kentots

    use “SwapMode” found it in cydia. use it when playing games and stuff. its fast as if you have a new jailbroken device and no other app installed. you can always turn it off and you'll have your themes again.

  • Conor

    or its the slipknot theme i think…

  • DAT

    Which theme is that? ( from the image displayed)

  • yes

    i timed it. 12 seconds to press unlock button, slide to unlock, click sms, then open the first text message.
    then uninstalled winterboard, and it took 7 seconds. that's a huge difference.

  • Princess Jellybean

    Uninstalling Winterboard worked like a charm! Speed is much more important than customization, the main reason for me to jailbreak/unlock was to use another carrier. Many thanks!

  • cindyhytr

    noooooooo!! :[

  • pitwar

    Try “bosspaper”. Claims not to lag like WB. It works well to use for just background images.

  • iPhoneDaddy

    You're a moron, there are tons of ways to increase the avail. ram……don't give crappy advice

  • http://www.instructables.com/member/pickingrin/ Andy

    On one iPhone I was only using WinterBoard to get rid of the labels and the dock on the springboard, and on the other I wasn't even using it and deleting WinterBoard sped up both significantly

    8GB iPhone 3G 3.1.2
    16GB iPhone 3G 3.1.2
    Jailbroken with blackra1n

  • http://twitter.com/SakuRedux Liam Stubbs

    Wrong. Summerboard is the old version of Winterboard from 1.x. The home screen is called the Springboard. That's why it's called “Respringing”.

  • Keir

    I am NOT unistalling Winterboard. I added this new LaunchDaimon so I get like 80MB of RAM

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