How to Make Your iPod Touch Run Faster

Restarting your iPod Touch often speeds it up temporarily. If your iPod continues to perform sluggishly, a few basic troubleshooting and housekeeping tasks may improve the overall operating speed of the device.

Quit Unnecessary Apps

Press the Home button twice to open the iPod's multitasking screen.

Swipe left or right through the thumbnails until you locate an app you're not using.

Swipe the app's thumbnail upward and off the screen to quit the app.

Free Up Storage Space

Freeing up storage space on the iPod can improve its speed as well.

Delete Apps

Removing apps you don't use is the quickest and most effective way to free up storage space. The App Store on your iPod Touch remembers the apps you purchase, so you can always download deleted apps again later at no charge.

To delete an app, press and hold its app icon on the iPod's Home screen until the apps wiggle, touch the X icon that appears above the app icon and then tap Delete to confirm you want to remove the app from the iPod. If the icon does not have an X, the app is part of the iOS and cannot be removed.

Delete Files

Free up additional space by deleting any unnecessary music, videos, photos and other files from the device. Before you delete files, back up to your iCloud account anything you may want to access again in the future.

Open the Settings app on your iPod, touch iCloud and sign in to your account, if prompted. Scroll down and tap the Back Up Now link to back up the device.

Disable Unnecessary Services

A fair number of background services and processes run behind the scenes on the iPod Touch. While some of these are necessary for the device to function properly, others are not. Some of the biggest culprits are the iTunes and App Stores and a feature called Background App Refresh. Disable these and any other unnecessary services to further improve the overall speed of your iPod.

Open the Settings app and select iTunes & App Stores.

Toggle all the buttons under the Automatic Downloads heading to the Off position.

Return to the main Settings screen, select General, touch Background App Refresh and toggle the Background App Refresh switch to the Off position as well.

Install the Latest Software Updates

Apple regularly releases updates for the iOS operating system that runs on your iPod. Often these updates include changes intended to speed up the overall functioning of the device. Use the Software Update section of the iPod's Settings app to install any updates currently available for your device.

Plug your iPod into its charger to make sure it has power throughout the update process.

Launch the Settings app, tap General and then select Software Update.

Tap Download and Install and then tap Install to confirm you want to install the available updates.