There’s very little to complain about with the iPad Air. It is the best 10-inch tablet on the market right now, but true perfection is tough to achieve. But there are always a few bugs with a new product. We’ve gathered together the most common iPad Air issues we’ve been hearing about, and provided a rundown of your potential solutions and workarounds. If you have other problems, they may be related to iOS 7. We have a detailed guide to the many issues with Apple’s new OS right here.

Malfunction: The Screen has dark lines or yellow tint on one side

A few iPad Air owners have been complaining about issues with the screens on their new tablets. Reports have mentioned dark vertical or horizontal bars, mostly on the left edge of the display when held in portrait view. There have also been complaints about a noticeable difference in color between the two halves of the screen, with the left hand side having a yellowish tint. This is easiest to see when the display has a white background, on a web page, for example.
Solution: This seems to be an issue with production, so your only option is to take it back to Apple or your retailer and get a replacement. There is a danger that the replacement will suffer from the same issue, but early production problems are usually ironed out fast.
iPad air front maps

Glitch: Keyboard and navigation lag

Some people have encountered lag when typing on the keyboard, or when navigating around in and out of apps. The pinch to close gesture seems to be produce a noticeable stutter for some. This is probably an issue with iOS 7 rather than the iPad Air, but there are things you can try. Be aware that you might encounter lag when the iPad Air is in the process of restoring as it downloads apps and data.
Workaround: Problems related to the animations can be alleviated or reduced by switching them off via Settings > General > Accessibility > Reduce Motion. You may also find that turning Increase Contrast on, also in Settings > General > Accessibility, might help.
Potential solutions:
  • Go to Settings > General > Reset All Settings and see if that helps.
  • If the keyboard is your main problem then try going to Settings > iCloud and turning Documents & Data off.
  • Try restoring your iPad Air and then make sure you reboot by holding down the Sleep/Wake button and slide to power off.

Bug: Safari crashing

A lot of people are having issues with the Safari browser crashing frequently. This seems to be occurring most often when people try to open additional tabs, or have multiple tabs open in Safari. Pressing the tab button is enough to produce a crash in many cases.
Potential solutions:
  1. Try going to Settings > Safari and tap Clear History and Clear Cookies and Data.
  2. Try rebooting the iPad by holding down the Sleep/Wake button and then slide to power off.
  3. If that doesn’t work then go to Settings > iCloud > Storage & Backup > Back Up Now then go to Settings > General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings and set the iPad Air up again and restore your backup.
  4. Just download Google’s Chrome browser.

iPad air front safari

Problem: Won’t connect to Wi-Fi, slow, or drops connection

This problem always rears its ugly head in our problem roundups. If you find that your iPad Air won’t connect to your Wi-Fi or it drops the connection frequently without explanation, then you can try a few things.
Potential solutions:
  • Reboot your router and your iPad Air. Turn them both and wait 30 seconds and then turn them both on again.
  • Put your iPad Air into Airplane mode then go to Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings. Now turn Airplane mode off and set your connection up again.
  • Check your router settings and ensure the firmware is up to date. You’ll have to refer to your router’s manufacturer or ISP for details on this. You might be able to switch bands on your router or tweak other settings that make a difference. Changing from automatic channel bandwidth to a specific setting can sometimes improve the speed.
  • Try backing up your iPad to iCloud and restoring it.

Annoyance: Battery life

This is another common problem with all modern tablets, but the iPad Air should actually get comparably good battery life. If you find that the battery is draining fast and you’re sure it’s not just because of heavy use then you can try a few different fixes.
Potential solutions:
  • Could it be related to a specific power-hungry app? If you get consistent problems with a specific app then make sure it’s up to date. You should also double click the Home button to flick the offending app up and off to close it when not in use.
  • Try resetting your device by holding down the Sleep/Wake button and the Home button together for a few seconds, ignore the slide to power off and wait until you see the Apple logo.
  • If you have cellular support on your iPad and you’re in an area of bad reception or between two towers then the LTE or 3G connection could be the culprit. Try switching connection types and keep it off when you don’t need it.
  • Back up via iCloud and try restoring your iPad Air.
  • If nothing seems to help and you’re getting significantly less than 9 hours on a charge then you could have a hardware problem. Take it back to the retailer or contact Apple and get a replacement.
That’s it for now, but do drop in again, because we will add new iPad Air problems and fixes when we discover them. Please post your own issues, and solutions that have worked for you, in the comments below.