Slow performance and lag after iOS 26 update on iPhone

Was having the same issues. Terrible lag specially affecting my keyboard. Disabling and disabling vpn solved it

I didn't tested it for a long amount of time but i get signifcant better performance if i disable the "reduce transparency" setting...remarkable because this setting will be advised to enable to get over performance issues. But it seems that the setting does not improve the problems but rather exacerbates them.

So...you have to decide between a windows vista glass design or fluent animations 🤔

Edit: Thought this was going to drop under Userkoozer’s response to toggle reduce transparency.

This should be one the top comments. I had to do this on my 4th Gen iPad. It didn’t completely resolve the issue because there is still a slight stutter when swiping between my list of apps. However, it does help a lot! Can confirm, it helped my iPhone 15 Pro max as well!

Not sure if anyone has seen slowness with the camera app. It seems pretty sluggish swiping between camera to video, etc. even with reduced transparency.

Thanks OP for posting this issue, thought I was going crazy!

suchinjack ~ Your iPhone 13 Pro Max could be 4 years old and the long process of applying a major iOS upgrade to an iPhone with a weak, aging battery can be the proverbial "straw that broke the camel's back." So...

Does your iPhone 13 Pro Max still have its original battery?

And what's the Maximum Capacity % here?...

Settings > Battery > Battery Health & Charging

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I was told to Turn OFF Apple Intelligence and that helped a lot, but there are still many many problems with iOS26

Just google: List of problems with iOS26

Almightyadil I did the same: turned off low power mode and the problem was solved for me. iPhone 14PM iOS 26.0.1.

the bad thing still is that I can’t use low power mode anymore. That is a bummer because I use it many hours a day if not all day.

THANK You for recommending turning off Apple Intelligence. That was a huge help.

My battery health is 87%

Have a ton of storage

And wanted to see if I could reset to an old version because this new ios being slow was brutal. Turning off the AI helped a ton so far.

You have a lag problem on your phone. Millions of users with iOS 26 do not have a lag problem, or they would tell us. So you need to troubleshoot the problem, or contact Apple support for help.

• Reading the rest of this thread would be a good starting point.
• If you have any apps to “improve” the performance or management of your iPhone, get rid of them.
• If you have an antivirus or similar app get rid of it.
• If you have VPN installed delete the VPN profile, don’t just turn it off or delete the app; it’s the profile that has to go

Following up on my previous comment even after turning off Apple Intelligence my iPhone still experiences lag. I have now reduced transparency and deleted my VPN profile again in

conjunction with turning off AI. My iPhone seems more responsive but only time will tell. Apple need to release a patch. I have only had my iPhone 15 Pro for about two weeks and find that my iPhone 13 responded so much better.

THIS SOLVED IT FOR ME THANK YOUUUU. I was late to update to 26 like did it beginning of this month and have been so disappointed because my phone ran so smoothly before. Turn reduce transparency on!! Saved my phone!

Battery saver mode INTENTIONALLY slows down your iPhone to extend the life of the battery.

For low bandwidth: Do you have a 3rd party VPN installed, even if you are not using it? If so, delete the VPN profile in Settings/General/VPN & Device Management/VPN, then restart your device. Don't just turn it off; delete the profile. If that fixes it, you can try reinstalling VPN, but probably shouldn't.

What is your Battery Health at Settings > Battery > Battery Health > Maximum Capacity?

A temporary fix

just do a hard reset and it will work fine for few weeks, speaking from personal experience

Turn off apple intelligence. It worked a dream on my 16 pro max. Back to being zippy and useable even with Proton VPN on.

This was exactly it. The transparency setting is causing functional lag even in higher processing devices. It’s a bug not a feature.

While toggling helped it didn’t eliminate lag in say the search/text pop up but leaving it off does.

you found the culprit.