Slow iPhone? Changing the region to France reportedly makes old iPhones faster

• Apple has been fined in the past for slowing down old iPhones.
  
• It has since added an option to disable this feature, but some users report this still does not improve the speed of their iPhones.
  
• Now, changing the iPhone region to France reportedly makes old iPhones faster.
  

Apple’s decision to throttle old iPhones and slow them down because of battery wear and tear has been controversial, with the company being fined by France’s competition watchdog for this practice, as well as several US states which led to a $113 million settlement.

Now, a new report suggests that changing the region to France makes old iPhones faster. This suggests that Apple doesn’t throttle iPhones in France, as a response to the country’s competition watchdog’s investigation and subsequent fine.

Earlier, Apple had revealed that it slows down old iPhones in order to preserve their battery life, prioritising it over performance. Apple’s critics have argued that this is planned obsolescence – a practice of artificially limiting the useful life of a product in order to push users to purchase a new one.

However, the company maintains that this is done to prevent iPhones from rebooting under heavy load.

While Apple did not pay any fine for slowing down iPhones in China, it was forced to lower the prices of its replacement batteries.

Apple has since added an option called ‘Battery health’ in Settings, allowing users to toggle the option to throttle performance based on the health of the battery. However, some reports suggest that despite this, old iPhones continue to be slowed down.

This is where changing the region to France reportedly helps. If you are experiencing slowdowns on your old iPhone, here’s how you can change the region to France and see if this helps in speeding up your device.

• Open Settings and tap on your name.
  
• Tap Media & Purchases.
  
• Tap View Account.
  
• Now, tap Change Country or Region.
  
• Change the location to France.
  

Follow the on-screen instructions to finish the process, and reboot, once done.

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