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iPhone Background App Refresh — what am I missing?

J

jschnee21

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 26, 2018
170
81
So I recently turned off background app refresh just to see what would happen. I’ve always been afraid I would miss notifications, navigation commands, etc.

But does background refresh actually do anything useful/vital aside from making sure content in the app is in theory up to date when you back to the app?

Most apps I use seem to force a refresh anyway when I switch back. And my “OCD” usually has me force quitting apps routinely (multiple times per day) anyway.

I guess I’m concerned that turning this off might interfere with some apps that can run in the background.

Thought?
 
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From developer.apple.com, here's how Background App Refresh is intended to work:

"Background App Refresh lets your app run periodically in the background so that it can update its content. Apps that update their content frequently, such as news apps or social media apps, can use this feature to ensure that their content is always up to date. Downloading data in the background before it is needed minimizes the lag time in displaying that data when the user launches the app."
 
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Thank you. I guess my main interest/concern would be apps like Find My phone/friend, Life360, apps that use geofencing (eg Nest), Google Photo/Amazon Photo.

Though since these apps seem to still work even when force quit, perhaps these “background” capabilities are separate.
 
Nest and Life360 require background refresh to keep track of / update your location information. The apps complain/warn when it’s turned off.
 
Don't force quit apps! You will eat up more battery and processing power doing that than leaving them open. Might as well leave background app refresh on too since there aren't many good arguments for turning it off.
 
I have it turned off since forever. The only difference I think is that when you open some apps, it will take a second to fetch and refresh its feed instead of being available immediately. e.g. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter.
 
Also. If you always kill all apps in the background then background refresh has never worked for you. Apps need to be left in the app switcher to be able to request a refresh
 
ZEEN0j said:
Also. If you always kill all apps in the background then background refresh has never worked for you. Apps need to be left in the app switcher to be able to request a refresh
Click to expand...

So, I’ve tried that. But honestly I don’t really care if web content, for example, is refreshed automatically in the background or not. I’m always going to doubt it anyway and swipe down from the top (for example) to force a content refresh.
 
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Some people force-quit apps out of "OCD," others want their app content already up-to-date when they open them due to another kind of "OCD." Of course, our views of what is obsessive behavior and what is necessary/ordinary also vary.

In principle, I don't mind waiting a few seconds while my inbox or news feed updates. If it means a bit less behind-the-scenes churn that could cost me a bit of cellular data (the background update that I never see because it's superseded by yet another update), I can live with it. Still, there's something nearly luxurious about opening an app and not having to wait at all.

On the other hand, I can imagine one of those high-powered multi-taskers to whom every second of delay is excruciatingly painful... background app refresh would be a no-brainer.

Similarly, with apps and windows... as long as my system has the overhead to support it (and under iOS, there's no overhead at all for an inactive open app), I tend to leave apps and windows/tabs open, as there's a good chance I'll be coming back to them at some point or other. On my Mac desktop I'm more likely to Minimize to clean house than Close. To each his/her own.
 
I keep it off to help reduce battery drain. Dont like apps updating without knowing what the update includes beforehand anyway.
 
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