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Apps keep running in the background?

G

Grfelix

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 4, 2007
34
0
Hi,

Since I installed a few games and apps, my iphone usage and standby information it's the same (16hrs of usage/ 16hrs of standby)...and my battery is running out very very quickly, and I don't get pushed email since other aplication is already using the background... I gues that's why:(

I have installed the folowing apps on my iphone, Is anybody with the same apps and the same problem?:confused:

1.-Remote
2.-SportsTap
3.-Facebook
4.-Aurora Feint
5.-TapTap Revenge
6.-Othello
7.-Jirbo Says
8.-Jirbo Match
9.-Carrie's Dots
10.-Labyrinth LE

I appreciate any help :):apple:
 
I also have most of those apps, i do run out of battery much more easily buts thats because i use the apps so much, apple says that nothing should be running in the backround. Maybe you just use battery-draining apps to much
 
What about the usage info?

It is normal that my iphone have the same 16 hours of usage, and standby?:confused:
I only use my iphone around 2 hours a day, but my iphone displays in the usage settings exactly the same hours for the usage and the standby...

Thats why I think it is strange:(

Thanks,:apple::)
 
What you can do is go back to the application you think is staying open and using your process power, then hold the home button while in that application. it will take a while(15-20 seconds) but it will eventually force that application to quit
 
Thanks!

I think I found the app that was running on the background... it is sportsTap..
I enter the application and hold the home button until it forced to quit the app... just like Four20 told me (thanks! by the way:D) and then I checked minutes later the usage info and it stopped adding minutes on the usage part.

I think my battery will last longer now :D!!

Thanks for your help guys :D... this forum is very useful for me:rolleyes:
:apple:
 
I always thought Apple decided not to let Apps run in the background when they first revealed the SDK
 
Yeah none of those programs are running in the background. They can't run in the background.

It's all in your head.
 
Battery Life: Losing Reception

I've found that when I am in an area with very poor 3G reception (1 bar or so), my battery drains MUCH faster, even if the phone is idle. Perhaps that is because it's losing it's signal, then reconnecting, losing, reconnecting, and so on. Then, when I am in an area that has great 3G, I will be browsing the internet, and actually being more active with the phone, and the battery didn't drain that much at all!

It's true, the SDK does not allow Apps to run in the background. There are so many other factors involved that it can be difficult to pinpoint what's causing the battery to drain. I've heard it's Push notification, GPS, and others. However, for me, I've consistently found that the signal strength has been a determining factor in my battery power, probably because my phone is losing connection to the HDSPA network often, and always trying to reconnect to it.
 
ruinfx said:
oh you mean like a task manager? thats not allowed on the iphone, thats sooooo windows mobile.
Click to expand...

And sooooo unneeded unless you jailbreak your iPhone, since no 3rd party apps can run in the background anyway. I guess I could make an app that showes a static JPEG with a list of the same programs running which would be things like launchd, Springboard, etc ... but it would be utterly pointless and a waste of an icon spot on your phone.

And even if you jailbreak your phone, most of those programs don't run in the background and the ones that do require no processor power to do so anyway, like Taskbar Notifier. You think that takes up enough CPU cycles to display a graphic when you have unread emails/SMS to affect your battery life? Right.

You people are paranoid about this whole background applications thing, and you think that the smallest things will affect your battery life.

Battery life 50% backlight, 35% radio, 10% audio and 5% CPU.
I totally pulled those numbers out of my ass in case you were wondering.
 
Background apps

I know what Steve said, but I believe some apps still stay running when you exit to the home page. Take Safari for instance, I've closed it down when I had 6 or 7 different pages loaded, and then when I opened it up again all those pages were still there and loaded. If the program were shutting down I would expect that the memory for those pages would be released, not still retained.
 
The General said:
And sooooo unneeded unless you jailbreak your iPhone, since no 3rd party apps can run in the background anyway. I guess I could make an app that showes a static JPEG with a list of the same programs running which would be things like launchd, Springboard, etc ... but it would be utterly pointless and a waste of an icon spot on your phone.

And even if you jailbreak your phone, most of those programs don't run in the background and the ones that do require no processor power to do so anyway, like Taskbar Notifier. You think that takes up enough CPU cycles to display a graphic when you have unread emails/SMS to affect your battery life? Right.

You people are paranoid about this whole background applications thing, and you think that the smallest things will affect your battery life.

Battery life 50% backlight, 35% radio, 10% audio and 5% CPU.
I totally pulled those numbers out of my ass in case you were wondering.
Click to expand...

there have been posts about iphones running slowly only to find out that if they hold the home button down to force close a certain app that the problem will go away. i suggest you read the forums before you just blindy accept that apps dont impact performance once you leave them.

JonHimself said:
I was thinking more along the lines of Activity Monitor, but I do agree with TheGeneral that it's not a big deal. I'm just curious to see what is running.
Click to expand...

activity monitor is a task manager...
 
ruinfx said:
there have been posts about iphones running slowly only to find out that if they hold the home button down to force close a certain app that the problem will go away. i suggest you read the forums before you just blindy accept that apps dont impact performance once you leave them.
Click to expand...

Those posts are about programs like iPod, ones that come with the phone.

Read: 3rd party programs CAN NOT run in the background.
 
The fact that your usage and standby are the same could mean you have a defective iPhone. I know this sort of thing happened with some original iPhones. If your phone was in sleep mode for any of those 16hrs and the sleep time isn't being registered, you should bring the phone in and have a genius look at it(be sure you don't charge it so you can show him the usage page).
 
theaustinpeay said:
I've found that when I am in an area with very poor 3G reception (1 bar or so), my battery drains MUCH faster, even if the phone is idle. Perhaps that is because it's losing it's signal, then reconnecting, losing, reconnecting, and so on. Then, when I am in an area that has great 3G, I will be browsing the internet, and actually being more active with the phone, and the battery didn't drain that much at all!

It's true, the SDK does not allow Apps to run in the background. There are so many other factors involved that it can be difficult to pinpoint what's causing the battery to drain. I've heard it's Push notification, GPS, and others. However, for me, I've consistently found that the signal strength has been a determining factor in my battery power, probably because my phone is losing connection to the HDSPA network often, and always trying to reconnect to it.
Click to expand...

I found this to be the case at my work, where I'm right on the edge of 3G service. If I keep 3G enabled I'll see it go from 1 tiny bar, to no signal, to full bars (when it fails over to EDGE), and then back to 1 tiny bar after a bit. My battery life was terrible the first few days (admittedly, I was using it a bit more, but nothing that would've eaten the battery that bad), but now I turn off 3G when I get to work in the morning and I have much better battery life.
 
If you jail break, good old "top" - Shows whats running.

You will see only apple programs run in the background, appstore apps dont... they just hog memory.
 
I now have the same problem

After recent application updates I now have this problem of depleting battery when no activity. My IPT ws off for ten hours today, when I turned it back on it was at red level. Yes, it was 100% charge this morning.

This started happening immediately after the app store updated 4 applications yesterday.

Does anyone know if there is a log file or some way to figure out which apps updated?

I should add, I had wifi turned off, There was no music playlist going in the background. Since it's a Touch no 3g, bluetooth, etc. to turn off.

I will start offloading apps in groups to narrow the field. I'm sure it's an app causing some kind of problem since all was fine since July 12 until two days ago. THere hasn't been a firmware update, only the apps.

Thanks, Bob
 
bobyco57 said:
After recent application updates I now have this problem of depleting battery when no activity. My IPT ws off for ten hours today, when I turned it back on it was at red level. Yes, it was 100% charge this morning.

This started happening immediately after the app store updated 4 applications yesterday.

Does anyone know if there is a log file or some way to figure out which apps updated?

I should add, I had wifi turned off, There was no music playlist going in the background. Since it's a Touch no 3g, bluetooth, etc. to turn off.

I will start offloading apps in groups to narrow the field. I'm sure it's an app causing some kind of problem since all was fine since July 12 until two days ago. THere hasn't been a firmware update, only the apps.

Thanks, Bob
Click to expand...

Update: Problem solved.
It turns out there was an app being updated that was "stuck"
I connected the IPTouch to pc to run off power. When I did, saw that an application was trying to update. I waited and it never completed. I ended up having to delete the app and use Itunes to get the software update and synk to the Touch.

I heard a tip on Macbreak Weekly podcast by Leo Laporte which said to do all application updates through Itunes rather than direct from the iPhone/Itouch. Users reported crashing was eliminated updating this way.
 
Stuck Apps

My iphone all of a sudden had a very low battery life. I took it in to apple where they discovered that Safari was stuck. The tech said that they have been seeing alot of problems with stuck apps especially Safari. Hold down the home key while the app is open for about 10-15 seconds shuts down the app completely.
 
Understanding Caching

DN7335 said:
I know what Steve said, but I believe some apps still stay running when you exit to the home page. Take Safari for instance, I've closed it down when I had 6 or 7 different pages loaded, and then when I opened it up again all those pages were still there and loaded. If the program were shutting down I would expect that the memory for those pages would be released, not still retained.
Click to expand...

Those pages weren't still "loaded", they were cached. In other words, removed from memory and placed in a file on the hard disk (Similar to Maps). When Safari then opens again, it looks to that file and re-loads the page. Similar to settings you can have in Firefox and IE... to open pages last viewed. These browsers don't keep running once you close them, they cache the information about the pages that are open upon exit and reopen them when the browser is used next. Besides, even if those pages were kept in memory, it wouldn't take any battery power to do so. Pour use of memory though!
 
theaustinpeay said:
I've found that when I am in an area with very poor 3G reception (1 bar or so), my battery drains MUCH faster, even if the phone is idle. Perhaps that is because it's losing it's signal, then reconnecting, losing, reconnecting, and so on. Then, when I am in an area that has great 3G, I will be browsing the internet, and actually being more active with the phone, and the battery didn't drain that much at all!
Click to expand...

when your phone have poor reception, the phone will put out more output power (RF power dBm) to keep the connection alive. when you have good reception it only have to put out little bit of power.
 
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