Are you bothered by a slow keyboard on your iPhone or iPad? Do the keys respond less well than you hoped and are the suggestions poorly displayed? Then you can solve this by tackling the problem at the root.
You may think that a slow keyboard has to do with a bug in iOS or iPadOS, but actually the cause lies elsewhere. The problem mainly occurs if you have been using an iPhone or iPad for several years. Due to the accumulated history, it may no longer function properly, resulting in a keyboard that works slowly.
Slow keyboard – iPhone or iPad
A slow or delayed keyboard on your iPhone or iPad is one of the most frustrating problems you can encounter. You type words, but they only appear on the screen after a few seconds, making typing almost impossible. Fortunately, there are several effective solutions that can solve this problem. In this article we discuss the most common causes and provide step-by-step instructions to get your keyboard working smoothly again.
Why does the keyboard become slow?
Since iOS 7, the problem of a slow keyboard has been a regular occurrence, and unfortunately the problem has persisted in more recent versions such as iOS 17, iOS 18 and even iOS 26. The default keyboard in iOS or iPadOS does not immediately respond to entering letters, numbers and characters. In addition, misspelled words are automatically corrected more slowly or reported as incorrect.
There are several factors that can contribute to a slow keyboard. It could be due to a corrupt keyboard dictionary that has collected too much data, problematic predictive text and autocorrect features, or too many background processes slowing down the system. iOS updates can also sometimes introduce new bugs that affect keyboard responsiveness.
Saved data for keyboard suggestions
The keyboard stores words, names and corrections to make better predictions while typing. This makes the keyboard smarter, but also collects an archive of everything you enter. Over time, this stored data can accumulate, and a major iOS update may cause the archive to no longer function properly with the new settings. This leads to delayed predictions and a short pause between typing and the appearance of letters. The keyboard works well for short messages, but for longer texts it can slow down. Ultimately, the stored learning capacity becomes a kind of ‘junk’ through normal use. This is not a software bug or hardware problem; the keyboard is simply overloaded with old data.
Restore keyboard dictionary
The most effective and commonly used solution is to restore the keyboard dictionary. This function erases all custom additions to the dictionary and resets it to factory settings. In most cases, this immediately solves the problem with a slow keyboard.
- Open Settings on your iPhone or iPad
- Go to ‘General’
- Tap ‘Transfer or Reset iPhone’
- Choose ‘Reset’
- Tap ‘Restore Keyboard Dictionary’
- Enter your access code and confirm the restore
Disable predictive text and autocorrect
If restoring the dictionary doesn’t help, disabling predictive text and autocorrect may help. These features can cause slowdowns by having to continuously analyze what you are trying to type.
- Open the Settings app
- Select ‘General’
- Tap ‘Keyboard’
- Turn off Autocorrect and Predictive Text
After disabling these features, you can restart your iPhone or iPad and check if the problem is resolved.