For that you can switch off the "Background App Refresh" setting for that app. No need to force quit it. Apple has even made it easier with the Battery section of the settings, telling you which apps are actually running a lot in the background.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kfury77
This article is true and correct. If you don't want apps running in the background then turn off Background Refresh for the relevant apps.
I would suggest to erase this article completely, it is disinformation, and people not taking the time to read all the comments will not be aware that the article is not giving the proper information.
This article is true and correct. If you don't want apps running in the background then turn off Background Refresh for the relevant apps.
If you don't want to turn off Background Refresh. Then Quit Apps you don't need to have running.
Yes, there are some apps and instances where force-quitting is helpful. But for the majority of apps, it's not needed.
The harm in doing this to every app all the time is that if you're doing it to apps you use frequently, it actually can use more battery life as it has to fully boot the app each time instead of pulling data from its frozen state.
So if your phone is slowing down or apps are hanging, by all means, shut some of them down. But I agree with this author that it shouldn't be a habit. If your phone is running smoothly, don't close the apps.
"some apps". And how are we to know which ones? That is the problem. How do we know if an app is merely listed but not active, vs. an app that is listed and running a background process mucking up performance? The only way is to force-quit ALL of them. And I'm among those who does this several times a day. The 5-fingered up-swipe on iPad is a nice gesture to start with, instead of wearing out the home button.
"frozen state" ?? WTF are you talking about? The article described how you can re-boot the iOS and it still lists all the previously used apps, without (presumably) re-starting each one. So you are positing a yet-undescribed state where info is stored in RAM or something, ready to use? Maybe that made sense back in the day of slow and energy-sucking hard drives, but we're in the SSD era now, baby.
"shut some of them down". Because it doesn't matter which ones, just arbitrarily pick a few, is that what you're saying? SMH.
As mentioned, Facebook is designed to ignore system settings (apart from being a terrible app in general) and drains the battery so it should be closed completely (or better yet, deleted entirely).
There's also a point where you can have too many apps open in the background. I try to keep it to the four or five I actually use the most, which in my case is Messages, Twitter, Mail, Safari and a forum app.
^this
What's a waste of time is scrolling through that list of apps that you don't care about most of the time. Swiping out the clutter is quick and easy, and it eliminates the chance that some recent update of a formerly-well-behaved app actually is consuming resources unnecessarily.
This is incorrect. There are apps that run in the background that drain significant battery even if they are in active. I'll call out facebook and Map My Run as being two I am personally aware of. Also, some GPS apps run in the background and while they try to be smart about battery usage, it is still better to quit them. If you don't know what apps are draining battery, what harm is there in quitting them all?
there are certain types of app processes that can continue to run. GPS being one, of course. music another. this isn't regarding those...
normal apps that dont use those special processes dont do jack shit after theyre frozen.
In any event, force quitting all apps is a feature that many CUSTOMERS want, regardless of what Apple assures us about background processing. The Facebook app is just one example of Apple's total inability to properly vet ALL apps for things which break the "Rules."
Besides, if a hard reset actually did a hard reset, all would be OK for all types of users. The novice user could take Apple's (inaccurate) advice that there is "no need to close all open apps" and other users could have the assurance that everything has been shut down, even the brazilian of Safari tabs that are left open.
Remember we used to have a way to close all tabs before APPLE decided we didn't need that safeguard for our privacy anymore...
Facebook does not drain battery in the background. I run Facebook occasionally and never force quit it and never have battery drain issues.
Very few apps can actually run in the background using CPU time. When you register for background processing as an app that does not mean you keep running. It means it may give you some extra time to do some things before shutting you down, or will periodically wake you up so you can run some sort of process, etc. Same with GPS enabled apps. They don't actually run in the background all the time. They will get awoken if you hit a geo fence or may be periodically awoken for small amounts of time to get an update or something.
The article is essentially correct. Most apps in your switcher are not running any way as the system has already killed them for you.
I rarely kill an app there unless I want the app to hard reset because of an issue. I don't generally have battery issues, and when I have, it has not been because I did not force quit an app, but rather some system setting was corrupted or something.
It has been demonstrated again and again that there are apps out there that do in fact run in background in a way to have significant impact on battery life.
duh. nobody has disputed that. of course there are background processes used by some apps. GPS, media, etc.
Facebook is just one of these apps but possibly the worst example.
facebook can use background processing for things like location services.
...man, when did the hysterics start taking root on AI?
Even if the dubious notion that closing apps will have no effect on performance is correct, it's often just a matter of tidiness in closing out apps so I can more readily find the app card I want to get back to.
that is crazy. its a historic list of last used apps, sorted by time.
if you need to search for a particular app from way-back-when, you just pull down from the home screen and type the first few letters of your desired app.
I'll jump in and also state that another app that runs in the background is the ShoreTel Mobility app. If it isn't open in the background, you won't get instant messages from the corporate chat server. So, it must be checking in while running in the background to keep the connection alive and receive messages from the server and is utilizing processor cycles and battery. During working hours, I leave it in the background, but I typically close it when I leave work. There are other methods in place to reach me outside of business hours, so I don't need the app using any resources, however minimal.
Probably not. It may be getting woken up by the system periodically for it to check, but it is not constantly running in the background. That is not how iOS background processing works.
VOIP and audio apps can run in the background continuously I believe, but others will be woken up periodically, or given extra time when going in to the background to finish up, or will be woken up when a push notification comes through, or whatever, but the system will shut them down once you start running a couple more apps anyway and the system wants the memory.
Comments
For that you can switch off the "Background App Refresh" setting for that app. No need to force quit it. Apple has even made it easier with the Battery section of the settings, telling you which apps are actually running a lot in the background.
This article is true and correct. If you don't want apps running in the background then turn off Background Refresh for the relevant apps.
Except that setting is ignored by apps.
Article sounds like it was written by a 12 year old.
Author doesn't even know the difference between "quit" and "force quit".
I would suggest to erase this article completely, it is disinformation, and people not taking the time to read all the comments will not be aware that the article is not giving the proper information.
This article is true and correct. If you don't want apps running in the background then turn off Background Refresh for the relevant apps.
If you don't want to turn off Background Refresh. Then Quit Apps you don't need to have running.
Yes, there are some apps and instances where force-quitting is helpful. But for the majority of apps, it's not needed.
The harm in doing this to every app all the time is that if you're doing it to apps you use frequently, it actually can use more battery life as it has to fully boot the app each time instead of pulling data from its frozen state.
So if your phone is slowing down or apps are hanging, by all means, shut some of them down. But I agree with this author that it shouldn't be a habit. If your phone is running smoothly, don't close the apps.
"some apps". And how are we to know which ones? That is the problem. How do we know if an app is merely listed but not active, vs. an app that is listed and running a background process mucking up performance? The only way is to force-quit ALL of them. And I'm among those who does this several times a day. The 5-fingered up-swipe on iPad is a nice gesture to start with, instead of wearing out the home button.
"frozen state" ?? WTF are you talking about? The article described how you can re-boot the iOS and it still lists all the previously used apps, without (presumably) re-starting each one. So you are positing a yet-undescribed state where info is stored in RAM or something, ready to use? Maybe that made sense back in the day of slow and energy-sucking hard drives, but we're in the SSD era now, baby.
"shut some of them down". Because it doesn't matter which ones, just arbitrarily pick a few, is that what you're saying? SMH.
from a developer who knows:
http://www.speirs.org/blog/2012/1/2/misconceptions-about-ios-multitasking.html
Just the fact that the author incorrectly uses the term "force close" is reason to totally ignore anything else said in this article.
it's not opinion, it's fact.
http://www.speirs.org/blog/2012/1/2/misconceptions-about-ios-multitasking.html
http://daringfireball.net/2012/01/ios_multitasking
...while you may have a stalled app or something (ehh), it's more likely you're just being superstitious.
As mentioned, Facebook is designed to ignore system settings (apart from being a terrible app in general) and drains the battery so it should be closed completely (or better yet, deleted entirely).
There's also a point where you can have too many apps open in the background. I try to keep it to the four or five I actually use the most, which in my case is Messages, Twitter, Mail, Safari and a forum app.
^this
What's a waste of time is scrolling through that list of apps that you don't care about most of the time. Swiping out the clutter is quick and easy, and it eliminates the chance that some recent update of a formerly-well-behaved app actually is consuming resources unnecessarily.
there are certain types of app processes that can continue to run. GPS being one, of course. music another. this isn't regarding those...
normal apps that dont use those special processes dont do jack shit after theyre frozen.
http://www.speirs.org/blog/2012/1/2/misconceptions-about-ios-multitasking.html
it's not opinion, it's fact.
http://www.speirs.org/blog/2012/1/2/misconceptions-about-ios-multitasking.html
http://daringfireball.net/2012/01/ios_multitasking
...while you may have a stalled app or something (ehh), it's more likely you're just being superstitious.
Oh, okay. Good to know I'm simply crazy or that all of my iDevices and apps are defective.
nope. not unless you had a stalled app you needed to reset (happens to me in Messages sometimes), or a background task.
At least as of a year ago, when I was in a Apple Store last for support, killing apps this way was a technique used by geniuses...
nope. not unless you had a stalled app you needed to reset (happens to me in Messages sometimes), or a background task.
If you have 40 Apps opened, how do you know which one is stalled?
In any event, force quitting all apps is a feature that many CUSTOMERS want, regardless of what Apple assures us about background processing. The Facebook app is just one example of Apple's total inability to properly vet ALL apps for things which break the "Rules."
Besides, if a hard reset actually did a hard reset, all would be OK for all types of users. The novice user could take Apple's (inaccurate) advice that there is "no need to close all open apps" and other users could have the assurance that everything has been shut down, even the brazilian of Safari tabs that are left open.
Remember we used to have a way to close all tabs before APPLE decided we didn't need that safeguard for our privacy anymore...
Very few apps can actually run in the background using CPU time. When you register for background processing as an app that does not mean you keep running. It means it may give you some extra time to do some things before shutting you down, or will periodically wake you up so you can run some sort of process, etc. Same with GPS enabled apps. They don't actually run in the background all the time. They will get awoken if you hit a geo fence or may be periodically awoken for small amounts of time to get an update or something.
The article is essentially correct. Most apps in your switcher are not running any way as the system has already killed them for you.
I rarely kill an app there unless I want the app to hard reset because of an issue. I don't generally have battery issues, and when I have, it has not been because I did not force quit an app, but rather some system setting was corrupted or something.
oh, you mean other than here, here, and here.
duh. nobody has disputed that. of course there are background processes used by some apps. GPS, media, etc.
facebook can use background processing for things like location services.
...man, when did the hysterics start taking root on AI?
It's just friggin' basic good house keeping.
("FORCE close") Sheesh!
Facebook does not drain battery in the background. I run Facebook occasionally and never force quit it and never have battery drain issues.
The preponderance of evidence says otherwise.
that is crazy. its a historic list of last used apps, sorted by time.
if you need to search for a particular app from way-back-when, you just pull down from the home screen and type the first few letters of your desired app.
I'll jump in and also state that another app that runs in the background is the ShoreTel Mobility app. If it isn't open in the background, you won't get instant messages from the corporate chat server. So, it must be checking in while running in the background to keep the connection alive and receive messages from the server and is utilizing processor cycles and battery. During working hours, I leave it in the background, but I typically close it when I leave work. There are other methods in place to reach me outside of business hours, so I don't need the app using any resources, however minimal.
Probably not. It may be getting woken up by the system periodically for it to check, but it is not constantly running in the background. That is not how iOS background processing works.
VOIP and audio apps can run in the background continuously I believe, but others will be woken up periodically, or given extra time when going in to the background to finish up, or will be woken up when a push notification comes through, or whatever, but the system will shut them down once you start running a couple more apps anyway and the system wants the memory.