Video: Stop force closing all apps on your iPhone, it's a waste of time

AppleInsider · July 28, 2017 3:32PM

People who compulsively force close all apps on their iPhone in a futile effort to conserve battery life are wasting their time. AppleInsider explains why you should ditch this pointless habit.

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boogybren · July 28, 2017 3:40PM

I find this to be untrue. Too many apps are actively reaching out to the internet when left to their own devices, causing unnecessary battery drain. I have had to resort to closing my apps just to get decent battery life.

How do I know this outside of battery drain you might ask? Ever had your phone get ridiculously warm in your pocket for no reason? Next time that happens, close your apps and see if it cools down.

edited July 2017

mike1 · July 28, 2017 3:41PM

I close apps because I want them out of the way and only have to cycle through the apps I want now.

ihatescreennames · July 28, 2017 3:42PM

I think Neil Hughes did a PSA a while back about this and got flamed quite well in the comments.

Anyway, this is all true. They even talked about it during the keynote where iOS 3 (I think) was unveiled.

Force quitting is, generally, a waste of time, effort and battery life.

steve jobs jr · July 28, 2017 3:45PM

uhhhh, what screen was _THAT_ control center screen?!!?!?!!? he has WAAY more gadgets on his screen than my paltry volume, brightness, etc....

creativeoops · July 28, 2017 3:46PM

I close them because with enough of them open the iPhone / iPad will start to run slow and in some cases cause considerable lag in apps. I have know of 2 specific apps if left open will continue to drain the battery - the main one being PokemonGo.

dewme · July 28, 2017 3:47PM

Those of us who remember kilobyte and megahertz limitations will always feel compelled to force-close background apps no matter how many times we're told that such apps are consuming no resources. One thing Apple could do to persuade us "app closers" into new and more productive behavior would be to visibly mark the app placeholder images to show which ones are consuming resources (including location services!) so we would know for sure whether there is any benefit to be had from flinging the background app back to sleep. Otherwise, the mere presence of the app placeholder in the MRU list with what looks like a live screen image leads us to believe that the app is up to something. This is a case where Apple's insistence on photorealism kind of works against its best interests.

edited July 2017

randominternetperson · July 28, 2017 3:50PM

boogybren said:

I find this to be untrue. Too many apps are actively reaching out to the internet when left to their own devices, causing unnecessary battery drain. I have had to resort to closing my apps just to get decent battery life.

How do I know this outside of battery drain you might ask? Ever had your phone get ridiculously warm in your pocket for no reason? Next time that happens, close your apps and see if it cools down.

If that's the case (and I'm not disputing it), the "right" solution is to fine tune the background settings for those apps--like the ones that want to have continual access to the location data. Just say no to "needy" apps that aren't important to you. For example I believe the WalMart app wants your location continually; just say no. Use the app, just deny it access to needless services while it's in the background.

phbian · July 28, 2017 3:56PM

Closing the apps help not save the battery but free up allocated memory that every app in the background uses. Have enough them open and phone available memory gets really low. Had memory apps that showed memory usage and it proved that it was the case.

mubaili · July 28, 2017 4:07PM

Yea, Apple tries to make it a bit difficult to do in iOS 11 for iPad before beta 4, look how far it get them.

soli · July 28, 2017 4:13PM

steve jobs jr said:

uhhhh, what screen was _THAT_ control center screen?!!?!?!!? he has WAAY more gadgets on his screen than my paltry volume, brightness, etc....

iOS 11.

soli · July 28, 2017 4:14PM

boogybren said:

I find this to be untrue. Too many apps are actively reaching out to the internet when left to their own devices, causing unnecessary battery drain. I have had to resort to closing my apps just to get decent battery life.

How do I know this outside of battery drain you might ask? Ever had your phone get ridiculously warm in your pocket for no reason? Next time that happens, close your apps and see if it cools down.

Nope.

phbian said:

Closing the apps help not save the battery but free up allocated memory that every app in the background uses. Have enough them open and phone available memory gets really low. Had memory apps that showed memory usage and it proved that it was the case.

Nope.

keeganm5150 · July 28, 2017 4:18PM

I'm not sure this is true. Often when I attempt to use microphone icon on the keyboard it is greyout and not responsive. When I swip up and close most of my apps this seems to free up some type of memory or processing that enable the microphone to work again.

soli · July 28, 2017 4:24PM

keeganm5150 said:

I'm not sure this is true. Often when I attempt to use microphone icon on the keyboard it is greyout and not responsive. When I swip up and close most of my apps this seems to free up some type of memory or processing that enable the microphone to work again.

You're saying the system will disable that one odd feature because of low RAM, and not because you have a runaway app that is controlling that feature?

edited July 2017

spamsandwich · July 28, 2017 4:27PM

Rene Ritchie and iMore did this whole thing last week.

lkrupp · July 28, 2017 4:30PM

SpamSandwich said:

Rene Ritchie and iMore did this whole thing last week.

Because somebody asked Craig Federighi if he closed apps and he said "No." That's why this is making the rounds.

paisleydisco · July 28, 2017 4:33PM

"Asked specifically whether Cook quits apps to save battery and if it's truly "necessary for battery life," Federighi jumped in with a concise "no and no." Although far from an official condemnation of the force quit belief by Apple, it is the most the company has directly said about the myth in the six years since multitasking became available in iOS 4."

from

https://www.macrumors.com/2016/03/10/force-quitting-apps-doesnt-help-battery/

foregoneconclusion · July 28, 2017 4:36PM

I force close apps all the time, but it's mainly because I like to double-click the home button to switch between them. Too many open at one time makes it kind of ridiculous in that view.

boogybren · July 28, 2017 4:40PM

randominternetperson said:

boogybren said:

I find this to be untrue. Too many apps are actively reaching out to the internet when left to their own devices, causing unnecessary battery drain. I have had to resort to closing my apps just to get decent battery life.

How do I know this outside of battery drain you might ask? Ever had your phone get ridiculously warm in your pocket for no reason? Next time that happens, close your apps and see if it cools down.

If that's the case (and I'm not disputing it), the "right" solution is to fine tune the background settings for those apps--like the ones that want to have continual access to the location data. Just say no to "needy" apps that aren't important to you. For example I believe the WalMart app wants your location continually; just say no. Use the app, just deny it access to needless services while it's in the background.

Agreed. I personally have taken those steps as location services is a HUGE battery drain.

steven n. · July 28, 2017 4:49PM

creativeoops said:

I close them because with enough of them open the iPhone / iPad will start to run slow and in some cases cause considerable lag in apps. I have know of 2 specific apps if left open will continue to drain the battery - the main one being PokemonGo.

My PokemonGo app goes 100% to sleep when it is not front and center. Force closing apps is a fools game full of placebo effects.

rrrize · July 28, 2017 4:52PM

I disagree. Obviously, at least some memory is being taken up when apps are left open. Even if it's just a screenshot of the app being cached, it's still taking up some memory. But the fact of the matter is, it's not just a screenshot of the app being cached. The app actually is opened and is therefore taking up memory of some kind... obviously. I believe the video demonstrates, in theory, that you SHOULD close your apps on your iPhone/iPad: He says the only reason you should close an app is if it crashes. But if the app crashes while it's opened then is that not evidence that the app is opened and running in the background? And if it's running in the background, is it not using memory? If it's using memory does that not potentially impact performance at some level, even if perhaps minuscule? And thus, the more apps you have opened the greater the impact of that potential performance decrease? Okay, perhaps opened apps are in some dedicated memory for background tasks... but in the end it's still sitting in memory and memory has a limit. So I think it's only common sense and reasonable to quit apps from time to time. I don't think one has to be obsessive about it, but being conscious of it is absolutely wise and to one's advantage. I think this video/article telling folks to NOT force close apps because it's a "waste of time" is... unfortunate.

Video: Stop force closing all apps on your iPhone, it's a waste of time

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