Quick question. I have background app refresh turned off. But when I check the stats under battery in settings, a couple apps show that they have been running in the background. Shouldn’t the background all refresh prevent that?
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iPhone 11 Pro Background app refresh.
- Thread starter Waterman316
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Background app refresh is just one aspect of background usage, there are others as well that have been around since well before background app refresh was introduced and are not controllable by the end user (aside from basically just not running an app or closing it after use).
Some apps can run rogue in the background and hang if they’re not force closed; bad code or maliciousness is up to you to decide.
I may be mistaken, but I also believe they are “allowed” 30 seconds to run processes after being closed, which might account for what you are seeing.
I may be mistaken, but I also believe they are “allowed” 30 seconds to run processes after being closed, which might account for what you are seeing.
In the Battery Settings, tap “Show Activity” you will see how much minutes the app usage in background. Normally, if you have Background App Refresh disabled, you will see some background activity after using some apps. This is usual for some apps with background activity up to 5 minutes after use. However, if the background activity is more than on screen time then the app went rogue and the system couldn’t completely suspend the app so you will need to force close it. For example, if you use Outlook for 1 minute just skimming through email, after you background it, the app will continue in background for up to 5 minutes before completely suspended. If the minute use and 5 minutes background, this isn’t too bad. It would be bad if it was 1 minute on screen and 30 minutes background.
Out of habit I force close everything when I’m done with it. The ring app is the big culprit. Shows 48 minutes in the background in the last hour alone. I haven’t even opened the app in the last hour.
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I force close everything when I’m done with it that’s why I’m confused.
Just FYI, killing apps every time after use actually drains more battery than keeping them suspended. iOS is smart enough to freeze / drop the processes when not being used.
Some apps need to run in the background. Apps such as VoIP (internet phone calls). Some apps abuse this though. Facebook is well known to use the VoIP system to keep itself running and doing its facebook spying despite not actually being a VoIP app.
Email fetching runs in the background. Not using Background app refresh but another method that it needs in order to actually get your email.
Dont fear BAR though. Apps work better with it. Weather apps so they can keep your widgets upto date. Email apps so when you open the app the email is ready for you. Nest needs it so it can keep your location upto date so your heating turns off and on. Ad blockers need it to refresh their block list. Syncsolver which gets data from our fitbit scales to feed into Health needs it. Unless I want to open the app.
And yeah, force closing apps is both unnecessay and actually drains your battery more. More details here https://techzillo.com/force-closing-apps-good-bad/
i have some apps showing hours of background use but less than 1% battery impact.
Email fetching runs in the background. Not using Background app refresh but another method that it needs in order to actually get your email.
Dont fear BAR though. Apps work better with it. Weather apps so they can keep your widgets upto date. Email apps so when you open the app the email is ready for you. Nest needs it so it can keep your location upto date so your heating turns off and on. Ad blockers need it to refresh their block list. Syncsolver which gets data from our fitbit scales to feed into Health needs it. Unless I want to open the app.
And yeah, force closing apps is both unnecessay and actually drains your battery more. More details here https://techzillo.com/force-closing-apps-good-bad/
i have some apps showing hours of background use but less than 1% battery impact.
As far as actual details "on paper" go, that is generally true, in practice, when variety of apps that end up doing something in the background when not needed/expected is factored in, it seems like for the most part for most people it likely doesn't make much of a noticeable difference in battery one way or another.