Background App Refresh?

[t0rqx]

Hi,

So iOS has had the option to turn on/off Background App Refresh. Does anyone know if this feature actually work? Even if I turn it off, apps still update in the background and retrieve new data. Like e-mail, messages and navigation.

Does anyone have some solid real world examples where it is useful and really obeys the toggle on/off?

 

[Samdh90]

I can't say why it is useful per say because I have it disabled but yes, you will still see "Background Activity" on the battery graph. I am not sure if that simply means that the app was still running in the app switcher, even though suspended, or if there actually is an issue. I remember this started when iOS 15.0 first launched. One way to ensure that is not happening is to close the apps from the switcher. I don't have any evidence that suggests that these apps that are reported are actually draining battery life though.

 

[sorgo †]

Seems like a toggle that when "on" just opens up the OS to more abuse by rogue/privacy-invading apps, as apps largely still refresh as needed even with it disabled in my experience. Similar to Ad Tracking Transparency prompts, it's probably best (or at least relatively harmless) to leave it off.

 

[JM]

I have all of them on, as I’m enjoying a vanilla iOS experience.

I honestly can say I never noticed any difference either when I used to have it off.

I believe that with it on, iOS will predict when you use the app to go in behind the scenes to update data? Which is different from mail fetch…. And yeah agree with Sorgo, I always worried it opened up to rogue apps coded poorly and so I would always turn off 3rd party apps for sure.

I would trust Apple apps. And I think with it completely off, it will just refreshes apps when you open it up.

ALSO, I am fairly certain that the apps have to be “open” on the app switcher for this to work. When they are swiped away and CLOSED closed then they won’t background refresh… I really want to say I remember reading that some wear a few years ago.

 

[iStorm]

E-mail and messages are bad examples, as they are fetched or pushed.

An example would be the News app. It will keep the headlines/top stories up to date, rather than having to wait for it to load or manually refreshing when opening the app.