How to Fix Keyboard Slow on iOS 14 (Keyboard Lag)

Having trouble with the keyboard being laggy and slow on iOS 14?

Having a slow keyboard is probably the last thing you expected to run into when you updated to iOS 14. Apple’s new operating system gave us Apple users a lot to look forward to. New camera software features, the App Library, and various widget customizations are a few of the many new features with the exciting update.

iOS 14 has been a rollercoaster of great innovation and changes, as well as problematic bugs and glitches. The keyboard being laggy is not a recent issue and can be traced to earlier beta versions of iOS 14 and even iOS 13.

In this article, we’ll try out a couple of reliable methods to try and fix your slow keyboard.

Let’s get started!

• 1. Restart Your iPhone.
• 2. Reinstall The Application You’re Having A Problem With.
• 3. Reset Keyboard Dictionary.
• 4. Enable or Disable Reduce Motion.
• 5. Delete iCloud TextInput Data.
• 6. Disable All Keyboard Settings.
• 7. Try A Third-Party Keyboard.
• 8. Update Your iOS.

1. Restart Your iPhone.

Restarting your device should always be your first option when trying to fix software problems with your phone. This technique works on any device that has an operating system like laptops, computers, iPads, tablets, and so on.

Whenever you reboot your device, like your phone, all running applications are terminated. This will eliminate software bugs or glitches that are messing with your mobile experience. When your device powers on, the operating system and background apps should run like normal, fixing the issue.

Now, contrary to a lot of articles who like to endorse this idea, ‘force restarting’ your phone is potentially hazardous to your device. First off, restarting your device will completely reset all your phone’s software operations. This is all you need for software-related problems.

Force restarting your device will directly cut off your phone’s power from the battery. This will abruptly force your device to shutdown. Since it overrides all software operations and physically disconnects your power, any background processes on your phone will terminate. This can result in unsaved and potentially corrupt data.

Restarting and force restarting your phone will make no difference because once your device turns back on, all your programs will boot like normal. The only difference it makes is how your iPhone will have its power cut. A force restart should only be used for devices that have hanged or frozen and cannot be rebooted the conventional way.

Here’s how you can restart your device:

1. Go ahead and hold down the power button of your iPhone. This should be located on the right side of your device.
2. After doing so, a red slider that says ‘Slide to power off’ should appear. Drag this to the right so you can turn off your device.

3. Finally, after several seconds you can go ahead and press on the power button again to turn your phone back on.

2. Reinstall The Application You’re Having A Problem With.

Is your keyboard lag an isolated case? If so, you may have to reinstall the application you’re having a problem with. Depending on the application you’re using, like if it’s resource intensive, getting a laggy device might be an inevitable side effect.

However, you can also get this laggy effect if the application you’re using is transferring large files of data, updating parts of its software, or doing anything resource-intensive in the background. Be familiar with your app and look through the settings for any related activities and switch this off.

Other than that, reinstalling it might be your best bet at getting your keyboard to function again.

3. Reset Keyboard Dictionary.

A popular fix is resetting your ‘Keyboard Dictionary’. If you’re the type to make up your own words or use internet slang and have them saved in your dictionary, this might be a painful method for you.

The theory behind this is that anything related to your keyboard’s settings might be malfunctioning with iOS 14 software. Since Apple allows you to keep your personal preferences when you update to iOS 14, the data your keyboard brought from iOS 13 might be causing incompatibility issues.

Here’s how you can reset your Keyboard Dictionary:

1. First, open up your Settings app and navigate to General.
2. Once you’re there, scroll down until you can find and tap on Reset.

3. Now, a list of different resets should be displayed, but for this method just select Reset Keyboard Dictionary.
4. Finally, you might be asked to input your PIN or Passcode. Fill this in, go through the prompts, and your dictionary should be reset.

Open up a messaging app and test your keyboard to see if it’s still slow and laggy. If this issue persists, go ahead and proceed to the next method.

4. Enable or Disable Reduce Motion.

Animations make your iPhone feel smoother. But this neat feature is purely an aesthetic choice and can slow down your phone. Other than that, ‘Reduce Motion’ is also a setting that’s been related to errors with the keyboard not showing. Perhaps this is a variation of that bug.

Enabling ‘Reduce Motion’ will decrease animations around your iPhone, like app transitions and your keyboard popping in and out of your screen. In this method, we’ll guide you through the steps to find this option so you can disable or enable it.

Here’s how you can find ‘Reduce Motion’:

1. Let’s open up your Settings app and go to Accessibility.
2. Once you’re there, navigate to Motion. This should display a list of visual effects options for your phone.
3. Finally, disable or enable Reduce Motion, whichever is the opposite of what it’s currently set on.

5. Delete iCloud TextInput Data.

It’s easy to confuse your keyboard lagging as a bug or glitch instead of a performance issue. Since your keyboard is the most interactive part of your screen, a slight performance decrease can make you think that your keyboard is bugging out.

However, it’s entirely possible that your iPhone is running a background process that’s lagging your keyboard. We’ll be looking at your iCloud’s TextInput sync and deleting any data that’s stored on your phone.

Here’s how you can delete iCloud TextInput data:

1. Go ahead and open up your Settings and proceed to Apple ID Profile.

2. Now, head to iCloud and then navigate to Manage Storage.
3. Finally, a list of documents and data should be displayed. Tap on TextInput and select Delete Data.

This should delete cache files related to your keyboard. Don’t worry, this data isn’t anything personal you can use and will actually build up over time just like all cache files.

6. Disable All Keyboard Settings.

If clearing your cache files and reducing the animation of your keyboard still doesn’t clear up any lag. It might be time to try and troubleshoot your problem by disabling all your ‘Keyboard Settings’. This can be things like autocorrect, auto-capitalization, and so on.

Any bugs from these features should stop bothering you once you find and disable the problematic setting. This step can take you a while to troubleshoot since there are a lot of keyboard features, but going through it should be worth your while.

Here’s how you can go to your keyboard settings and disable it:

1. First, open up your Settings app and go to General.
2. Next, navigate to Keyboard.

3. A lot of features should be listed down. Methodically disable one at a time, and test your keyboard. If you don’t feel like doing all that, you can disable everything and see if that works.

7. Try A Third-Party Keyboard.

Another solution you can try is installing a third-party keyboard application. Chances are your keyboard problem is coming from a bug or glitch in iOS 14. Hopefully, in a couple of weeks, Apple will release a patch fix and resolve your issue.

Until then, you can try a third-party keyboard app. Finding a reliable application isn’t that hard since there a lot of apps to choose from on the App Store. Here’s a previous guide we made that you can draw inspiration from.

8. Update Your iOS.

iOS 14 is still a new release and has many bugs and glitches. Apple is currently working on patch fixes and has already released a new patch, iOS 14.0.1. Keeping an eye out for software updates like this should fix multiple bugs if you’re experiencing glitches other than the keyboard.

Furthermore, if you haven’t updated to the latest patch then chances are your problem could be fixed in the latest iOS. Before performing this method, we suggest making sure that you’re connected to a stable Wi-Fi network and have more than 40 percent battery life on your phone.

Here’s how you can update your iOS to the latest version:

1. Start by opening up your Settings app and going to General.
2. Once you’re there, tap on Software Update.

3. If an update is pending, there should be a clear indication. Tap on Install Now.
4. Finally, you might be asked to enter your PIN, fill this in, and follow the prompts to update your iOS.

Now that you’re using Apple’s latest iOS version, this patch full of fixes should hopefully resolve your problem.

If the issue still persists, installing a third-party keyboard app might be a great idea. This functions independent of your operating system and shouldn’t be affected by related bugs. Keep in mind that iOS 14 is still full of glitches that need to be patched, so waiting for the next patch is also a viable option.

We understand if you can’t wait, since your keyboard is one of the most crucial components to using your phone. If so, you can try to reset all your settings or factory reset your device. These two methods will perform a software nuke on your iPhone and clear any complications that could be causing this issue.

Now that you’ve reached the end of this article, we hope that we’ve helped you fix your ‘keyboard slow on iOS 14’ issue. If you have any questions regarding the article, you can leave a comment down below or perhaps discuss your opinion with any of our readers.

If this guide helped you, please share it. 🙂