Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

1rottenapple

macrumors 601
Apr 21, 2004
4,701
2,717
What I mean is, do you spend much time going in and killing apps that you've recently used? I was with iPhone from the very start but in the last year or so I've been pretty fully dedicated with Android. I always made it a point to back out of apps so they'd close down when I was done using them.

I know that both iOS and Android do a pretty good job about killing processes as needed but I tried to manage it myself if I can. I never used things like Task Killers but I'd do what I could on my end.

But as it stands, I'm getting tired of worrying about that crap, lol. I just got my iPad 4th Gen and wondered if I should be perfectly fine with ZERO concern about all the apps running in the multitasking bar.

Nope. On my ipad, I don't run a GPS app so I hardly ever close apps. On the iPhone, I do close GPS apps, such as waze especially when I quit the app before reaching my destination. Very much impressed with task management in iOS. I used android 4.0 and I was constantly closing apps since my battery was so bad.
 

kodeman53

macrumors 65816
May 4, 2012
1,091
1
"Modern" people have replaced such things with stupidity and insanity that would shock even pre-historic people.

"Modern", supposedly educated people, clearly are not believers in the axiom, "Correlation does not imply causation".

In this case, "I restart my phone every night and have never had any issues, therefore, restarting my phone every night is the cause of no issues."
 

kodeman53

macrumors 65816
May 4, 2012
1,091
1
Oh nonsense, I do it and will continue doing it. You manage your device and I will manage mine.

Yes, you can manage your device however you want, but you have zero proof that fully charging and restarting your phone each night is the cause of no issues and claiming that it is is nothing more than a modern, technical superstition.

As Stevie Wonder sang,

"When you believe in things that you don't understand
Then you suffer
Superstition ain't the way."
 

aleni

macrumors 68030
Jun 2, 2006
2,560
858
Nonsense. If games need RAM, apps will automatically be terminated. They still show as "open" in the task switcher, and will be restarted and continue where you left them if you try to switch to them.




If there isn't enough memory, iOS will terminate other apps.

Yes the theory is like that, but in real life usage, when games need more memory, ios terminates all other apps, while ios doing that, the game often crashes and quit too.

Some games have bugs so dont count on scott forstall 100% because apple itself didnt.
 

jrtdot

macrumors member
Jun 17, 2012
30
0
On reading the title I just closed most of my apps. Really when I'm about to charge or go to sleep ill just do it. I feel my ipad runs better and the battery doesn't die as quickly
 

SnowLeopard OSX

macrumors 6502a
Dec 5, 2012
676
60
California
Of course I do. I don't have like having too many apps open. It doesn't take much time, either. More so on my iPad than I do on my iPhone, though.
 

Kadin

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 16, 2009
597
2
Interesting answers. Seems more tend not to worry about it but quite a few like the peace of mind with closing them all out. I know it's been a hot topic for a while but maybe it's becoming less of an issue as ram and CPU speeds continue to increase...
 

CSpackler

macrumors regular
Jun 22, 2010
236
33
On a plane
Only if an app is acting up. iOS was not designed to have apps being manually closed, therefore you'll see very little (if any) performance change when running stock.
 

OTACORB

macrumors 68000
Jun 21, 2009
1,542
1,030
Central, Louisiana
Yes, you can manage your device however you want, but you have zero proof that fully charging and restarting your phone each night is the cause of no issues and claiming that it is is nothing more than a modern, technical superstition.

I don't need to prove a thing, I just stated what I do and what I feel I gain by doing so. Sorry it bothers you so much! LOL. I love how some folks just love to analyze what others do. Must be sad to have nothing better to do.
 
Last edited:

jabingla2810

macrumors 68020
Oct 15, 2008
2,271
938
Never.

Absolutely no point, unless an app is "acting up"

I can understand how people think it makes a difference, but it doesn't.

But if it makes you feel good then who am I to say whats right and wrong.
 

stuaz

macrumors 6502
Jun 16, 2012
446
1
I only do it for apps that a causing issues. Same reason I only restart the iPad/iPhone if it acts up, but rarely that happens.

I did use to close the apps on my iPhone in the hope of saving battery life/performance but after reading into how the apps are saved into memory and are not running as such (Unless they are GPS) I soon realised it made little to no difference and any difference I thought it made was just me being silly....
 

Awakener

macrumors 6502
Mar 28, 2011
345
0
"Modern", supposedly educated people, clearly are not believers in the axiom, "Correlation does not imply causation".

In this case, "I restart my phone every night and have never had any issues, therefore, restarting my phone every night is the cause of no issues."

Human beings are not machines. They make subjective judgements. And sometimes correlation turns out to be causation because human beings have amazing power of inference.
 

kodeman53

macrumors 65816
May 4, 2012
1,091
1
I don't need to prove a thing, I just stated what I do and what I feel I gain by doing so.

This solution works because I feel is does. Who needs proof?

I love how some folks just love to analyze what others do.

Just trying to prevent newbies from wasting their time by following what you do. However, if they are into 'feeling it helps', like you are, they should restart their phone twice, just to be sure.

Must be sad to have nothing better to do.
This from someone who restarts their phone every night. :rolleyes:
 

dasmb

macrumors 6502
Jul 12, 2007
369
385
I don't need to prove a thing, I just stated what I do and what I feel I gain by doing so. Sorry it bothers you so much! LOL. I love how some folks just love to analyze what others do. Must be sad to have nothing better to do.

I don't think anybody would mind you being ignorant in private. It's this public ignorance masquerading as advice that's the problem. Some kid could come in here and see you talking crap and think that's the way to act, that they don't have to research or engage their thought processes at any point and can just make any dumbass claim they like. That's how we destroy future generations: by suffering fools gladly, rather than identifying them as such.

An app in the background will only consume resources if it uses location services, is currently playing music (either over the speakers/headphones or via AirPlay) or is one of a handful of core apps that perform background tasks (such as downloading software/media, receiving push notifications or rendering a safari page). An app in the foreground may consume whatever it likes and some poorly behaved games (Baldurs Gate comes to mind) may draw significant power even with the screen off.

In short, all you really have to do to ensure there aren't any high draw apps open is return to the home screen and make sure the status bar doesn't have any location services or speaker icons. Which most of the time it won't. Anything beyond that is a waste of your time.

By the way, those of you who are closing apps to "make room for games" aren't likely doing much good either. Apps have a maximum amount of ram they can allocate that is much, much lower than the maximum for the device; freeing up extra ram beyond this limit does nothing at all. On the original iPhone the limit was something like 32 mb(!); I've no idea what it is now.
 

bobbysmith

macrumors regular
Nov 4, 2012
108
0
But as it stands, I'm getting tired of worrying about that crap, lol. I just got my iPad 4th Gen and wondered if I should be perfectly fine with ZERO concern about all the apps running in the multitasking bar.
Well, the first problem is that it's not a list of running apps, it's a list of the last used apps. Unless, of course, you want to claim that my mini goes and launches all 63 apps in it every time it's powered on.
 

The Bogeyman

macrumors regular
Mar 15, 2012
137
7
Under your stairs
Seems to be a matter of personal preference. I guess the answer would be to leave 'em alone if they are not impacting on battery and speed, and close 'em if you wanna run something big and power-hungry. I tend not to shut them down completely, but I will every now and then have a little purge.
 

D.T.

macrumors G4
Sep 15, 2011
11,050
12,460
Vilano Beach, FL
Nope. It's not needed except for rare occasions when an app goes pear shaped. Seriously, spend some time with the API docs or just read the post by dasmb above. :cool:
 

wgnoyes

macrumors 6502
Jul 20, 2011
287
33
What I mean is, do you spend much time going in and killing apps that you've recently used? I was with iPhone from the very start but in the last year or so I've been pretty fully dedicated with Android. I always made it a point to back out of apps so they'd close down when I was done using them.

I know that both iOS and Android do a pretty good job about killing processes as needed but I tried to manage it myself if I can. I never used things like Task Killers but I'd do what I could on my end.

But as it stands, I'm getting tired of worrying about that crap, lol. I just got my iPad 4th Gen and wondered if I should be perfectly fine with ZERO concern about all the apps running in the multitasking bar.
Yeah, I do, but that's my background in mainframe data processing, to not have a whole lot of stuff in core running when you're not really using any of it. My wife doesn't do this and she's from the same background as I, and her devices all work fine.
 

mkaake

macrumors 65816
Apr 10, 2003
1,153
0
mi
I usually ignore these discussions on closing apps - but I do get kind of tired of hearing that it makes no difference whatsover. I know that iOS is supposed to manage available ram and free it up on the fly as needed - but I'm sorry - it doesn't always work out the way it should. Those of us who still use original iPads with iOS 5 know this. It's not a placebo, it's not to make myself feel nice. It's the fact that there are times my keyboard lags while typing an email 3 seconds behind my fingers - until I manually force close Safari - and bam - my keyboard keeps up again. No location services running, no music or movies running in any of the tabs... iOS just doesn't release memory aggressively enough on devices that lack ram - which would be the iPad 1, in particular.

I've got several (very good) games that I can't even open if I don't force close the last 3-4 apps first. And I've got some (again, very good) games that you couldn't get past about the 7th mission without it freezing up if you didn't close *everything* *and* shut down notification center.

So yeah - I get how iOS is supposed to free up resources on demand - and it's good enough at it that I don't worry about it often - not nearly as often as I have to with my work issue android (4.1), which routinely goes through 50% of its battery in a few hours. But it definetly is an issue for some devices, and closing background apps *does* have an impact on how the system runs.

That said, those of you running newer devices are likely to never see the effect - but stop suggesting that it can't possibly be the case for everyone. Because its not.
 

SandboxGeneral

Moderator emeritus
Sep 8, 2010
26,482
10,051
Detroit
What I mean is, do you spend much time going in and killing apps that you've recently used? I was with iPhone from the very start but in the last year or so I've been pretty fully dedicated with Android. I always made it a point to back out of apps so they'd close down when I was done using them.

I know that both iOS and Android do a pretty good job about killing processes as needed but I tried to manage it myself if I can. I never used things like Task Killers but I'd do what I could on my end.

But as it stands, I'm getting tired of worrying about that crap, lol. I just got my iPad 4th Gen and wondered if I should be perfectly fine with ZERO concern about all the apps running in the multitasking bar.

I don't normally worry about that, but maybe once every few days I'll go in and kill all the apps running in the background.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.