Why does my website keep freezing on iPhones?

[Ebarry]

Hello, 

My website keeps freezing on iPhones only with Chrome and Safari on wifi and cellular data. My Shopify speed score of 46. I’m using “GRID” theme 

I thought it was just my phone but I’ve had customers tell me it’s happening to them. I even went so far as to restore my iPhone to factory settings and it’s still happening. I’ve cleared cache and cookies mAny times still freezing. Works fine on MacBook. I wasn’t having this issue prior to January. Does anyone know what could be the cause of this ? 

[Andrew · Accepted solution]

Hi @Ebarry, 

Thanks for all the context! You've tried clearing your browser cache and cookies, tried different browsers. You've tried restoring your iPhone to factory settings, and you've tried different internet connections.

So that eliminates most of those elements and means the issue is likely coming from the store itself. And what's helpful is that you said the issue only started in the past month, and only happens on iPhone (ie. mobile devices) and not your Macbook.

This suggests that you either added a third-party app to your store in the past month or made code edits to your theme recently, that are impacting the way your theme displays on mobile devices.

If you have made code edits, you could consider rolling the code back to an older version of your theme. However, if it is an app that is injecting javascript into your theme code and slowing it down then you will want to reach out to the app developers directly for support. If you pop into the App section in the top left of your store admin, you'll see the option to get support next to each app:

The third and final possibility is that there was an update or problem with the third-party theme you are using called Grid, so you might have to reach out to the theme developers if none of the above applies!

I just want to give you a little more information about store speed optimization that I think will help.
Let me know if any of the situations apply to you and whether or not you fixed the issue by using the solutions I offered in this reply. I'd like to know that you have resolved the problem!

[Ebarry]

Thank you for those suggestions. The Route app was the last thing I added
to my website. This was back in early December. I don’t remember it being
slow when it was first added but I will reach out to them because I do
believe they added some coding. I have also reached out to the theme
developers as well to see what assistance they can provide. I will be sure
to update this thread once the issue is resolved.

Hopefully I won’t have to do my whole website over.

[Andrew]

That's great to hear @Ebarry!

In the meantime, where did you get the number of "46" from? If it was from your store's own site speed calculator, then I really do think it's important you understand how that number is estimated.

Google Lighthouse is the tool used to calculate that speed, so it's fairly accurate. Taken from the guide I linked in my last reply:

It's important to note that you won't ever have a perfect score and that this is ok! If you have files or code, like content, on your site, that can sometimes slow it down too. It depends really on where and what your content is.

For example, if you have videos on your products pages, that can sometimes slow things down - but then again, the videos might be absolutely necessary for a good customer experience!

In other words, you're engaged in a bit of a balancing act between site speed and material you need to have on your site to improve the User Experience and keep your customer informed.

I hope this all helps!

[Ebarry]

Thank you for all your help. I was able to restore an old copy of the site
as suggested and the freezing went away! Thank you so much!

[Andrew]

That's great to hear! If you have any other questions, let me know!