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iPhone Background Manager
- Thread starter nanolife
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I'd be very interested in seeing how good this works. Would love to keep Line2 (second phone line app) running in the background so that it would not default to my main line when not in use.
If this worked I would pay MUCH more than the .99 that the developer is asking for.
If this worked I would pay MUCH more than the .99 that the developer is asking for.
I've purchased and started testing it - for the time being, on my 6.1.2 iPt4. (My iPhone 5's in DFU mode and, so far, I haven't managed to boot into it, no matter what I've tried. I won't test the tweak on my non-restoreable iPad 2/3/4 either before knowing it's absolutely safe and won't result in having to restore - and losing my JB.)
So far, I've tested it with the stock Camera app. You may remember it can't record video in the background. When it's forced to be in Background mode (just add it in Settings under Each App > Add Item, after which configure the just-added item in the same menu, by selecting "Background" in the "Background Mode" list section), it works just great in the background, even if you start pretty heavyweight apps (e.g., Keynote) in the foreground.
I'll go on testing for (potential) problems; for example, excess CPU usage when not explicitly killed etc. Will very soon report back with additional info.
So far, I've tested it with the stock Camera app. You may remember it can't record video in the background. When it's forced to be in Background mode (just add it in Settings under Each App > Add Item, after which configure the just-added item in the same menu, by selecting "Background" in the "Background Mode" list section), it works just great in the background, even if you start pretty heavyweight apps (e.g., Keynote) in the foreground.
I'll go on testing for (potential) problems; for example, excess CPU usage when not explicitly killed etc. Will very soon report back with additional info.
You are my hero, yet again. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.
Continued testing on the iPt4 and the iPad 2, both on 6.1.2.
- it indeed cannot be installed on iOS5. (Tested this with my iPad 1 running 5.1.1)
- no excessive CPU usage measured (I have done this very thoroughly with top -u, as I've explained in several other threads)
- background TV out support: in these tests, I've tested whether the given app is able to play back video / render contents over a TV output cable when backgrounded. After all, this is one of the most useful features. Think of doing something else while, say, playing a video, showing slideshows or a Keynote presentation on the external screen.
Basically, none of the built-in stock apps (Videos, Photos or, in OS versions prior to iOS6, YouTube) or Apple's / third-parties' apps (e.g., Keynote, GoodPlayer etc.) is able to do this by default. As soon as you press the Home button, they stop playing, even on the following, non-mirroring-enabled platforms / configurations:
- everything with a CPU prior to A5 (A4-based ones don't support screen mirroring over HDMI / VGA)
- everything connected via a non- HDMI / VGA adapter (that is, connected via the RGB / composite cable - they don't allow for mirroring, not even on A5+-based devices)
ALL the above-listed apps (except for the stock YouTube app coming with iOS versions prior to iOS6) worked just fine over both HDMI and the component cable on both the A4-based iPt4 and the A5-based iPad2. Note that I've tested the iPt4 with both mirroring enabled (hacked /System/Library/CoreServices/SpringBoard.app/N81AP.plist) and disabled (the default).
NOTE:
- display output doesn't work when suspended – it stops after 18s. This can NOT be helped with InfinityTask (see https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1541935/ ) - tested this very thoroughly too.
- however, it works just fine for at least 34 minutes (will report back if I run into a shutdown problem of anything like that; figure tested with an inifinite-loop presentation in Keynote) when the iDevice isn't suspended: it's in another app or the SpringBoard. The latter includes idling, making sure the suspension time is high enough.
I'll continue testing with non-multimedia apps; for example, the custom location & direction logger client I've written for the excellent UbiPix service. (See my dedicated article at https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1517256/ for more info.) I'll also test the apps other MR'ers would have wanted to use (see thread https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1541935/ ).
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Excent news so far. Hopefully it'll be able to force disable of apps like Mail from auto running.
Hmm, you should report the issue and the settings to the author ASAP to ensure he gets it.
Guys, here's a complete chapter from my forthcoming article "The Keynote Projector Bible" dedicated to backgrounding and providing a mini-tutorial to Background Manager. It also provides the readers with a quick intro to the two other, pre-iOS6 methods.
I publish this tutorial now as a separate entry as I still don't know when the full article is finished.
1.1 Playing Back Presentations In Background
As with all other iOS apps with native TV output, Keynote also stops outputting when sent to the background by pressing the Home button. (This also applies by the Apple TV's natively playing back an embedded video in full screen see section 4. Full-screen Playback With the Apple TV) This makes it impossible to, say, quickly look up a note by pausing the presentation without the mirrored operating system screen to be shown to your audience - assuming you use an A5+ device with, by default, enabled mirroring and with the HDMI / VGA adapters or the Apple TV; on previous devices or with the composite / component cables, a black screen will be shown. This isn't necessarily what you'd prefer you might want to keep your OS screen or other notes to yourself and not to your public.
This in no way can be fixed unless you jailbreak.
On jailbroken devices, you can install tweaks that allow for Keynote's continuing to work when backgrounded. On iPads with iOS versions prior to iOS6, you have even two: the commercial and absolutely excellent Quasar and the free Backgrounder. (The latter is also compatible with non-iPads and even the earliest operating systems. Note that there won't be TV output with OS versions prior to 3.2.) With any iDevice running iOS6, you have only one choice: the (fortunately, pretty inexpensive) Background Manager.
All these three tweaks (I've tested them all) work just fine with Apple's own Keynote Remote ($1; link; Universal) when Keynote is backgrounded on the linked and connected-to iDevice. The following screenshot shows it running on my iPt4G, linked to two iPads and being connected to the first:
1.1.1 iOS 6: Background Manager ($1)
This brand new and absolutely excellent tweak allows for doing the same as the very similar Backgrounder did in iOS versions prior to iOS6: when pressing the Home button, the app will run as before. With apps with TV out support like Keynote, this means the title will continue outputting its content to the TV. Again, if you use Keynote Remote, you'll be able to control the slideshow even when it's in the background.
![]()
(Main Cydia page)
Configuring it is pretty simple:
1, go to Background Manager > Each App in Settings:
![]()
(as with all screenshots below, tap / click them for the large-sized original versons)
2, tap Add Item:
![]()
3, select Keynote:
![]()
4, Keynote appears in the list below Each App, with an N suffix (annotated below):
![]()
N means it Background Manager uses the native backgrounding of Keynote when you press the Home button. This is the default for everything and, with Keynote, absolutely useless in our cases (as it doesn't support background running at all). Therefore, we'll need to force Keynote to "Background" (in pre-iOS6 parlance, Forced) mode. Tap Keynote in the above list and select Background in the uppermost Background Mode list:
![]()
(For (ex-)users of the pre-iOS6 Backgrounder, this Background mode is the same as Forced mode in Backgrounder, Native being the same in both tweaks.)
Also see my posts HERE for more info & my posts on the subject. I also recommend THIS and THIS posts.
1.1.2 Prior to iOS 6
1.1.2.1 (iPad only!) Quasar
![]()
(the screenshot, in addition to showing I've purchased this tweak, also shows the developer explains everything is run in the background)
No special settings need to be done with Quasar it'll keep everything running in the background, even if you tap the Close icon in the lower left corner of the window:
![]()
1.1.2.2 Backgrounder
This free and excellent tool, as has already been mentioned, runs on everything pre-iOS6, not only on iOS5 iPads. As opposed to Quasar, it doesn't support windowing.
Setting it up is done in exactly the same way as with the iOS6+-only Background Manager basically, the entire menu structure is the same. There is only one major difference between the two tweaks (iOS compability and price aside): it, by default, defaults to Forced (in Background Manager's terminology, Background) backgrounding, unlike Background Manager. With the latter, the Background Manager > Global menu will show the following by default:
![]()
Also note that, unlike with Background Manager, Backgrounder isn't configured from the system-level Settings app but it has its own icon on the SpringBoard.
This is why you'll need to do a bit more to properly configure it.
It's configured for forced background mode, with two exceptions (Mail and Safari). The forced mode is shown in the following screenshot (in the Global main menu):
![]()
Basically, if it's only Keynote (and/or a handful of apps) that you want to run in the background while accessing the TV output, you'll want to change this to Native:
![]()
Also, after this, don't forget to add Keynote with Forced mode: Overrides > Add and select Keynote in the list.
Then, select Keynote from the Overrides main menu (below, I've also annotated the Add icon you need to tap in the previous step):
![]()
and tap Forced:
![]()
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Could you post a video of it? It's working just great on all my devices I've installed it to - now, including the iPad 3 too.
I publish this tutorial now as a separate entry as I still don't know when the full article is finished.
1.1 Playing Back Presentations In Background
As with all other iOS apps with native TV output, Keynote also stops outputting when sent to the background by pressing the Home button. (This also applies by the Apple TV's natively playing back an embedded video in full screen see section 4. Full-screen Playback With the Apple TV) This makes it impossible to, say, quickly look up a note by pausing the presentation without the mirrored operating system screen to be shown to your audience - assuming you use an A5+ device with, by default, enabled mirroring and with the HDMI / VGA adapters or the Apple TV; on previous devices or with the composite / component cables, a black screen will be shown. This isn't necessarily what you'd prefer you might want to keep your OS screen or other notes to yourself and not to your public.
This in no way can be fixed unless you jailbreak.
On jailbroken devices, you can install tweaks that allow for Keynote's continuing to work when backgrounded. On iPads with iOS versions prior to iOS6, you have even two: the commercial and absolutely excellent Quasar and the free Backgrounder. (The latter is also compatible with non-iPads and even the earliest operating systems. Note that there won't be TV output with OS versions prior to 3.2.) With any iDevice running iOS6, you have only one choice: the (fortunately, pretty inexpensive) Background Manager.
All these three tweaks (I've tested them all) work just fine with Apple's own Keynote Remote ($1; link; Universal) when Keynote is backgrounded on the linked and connected-to iDevice. The following screenshot shows it running on my iPt4G, linked to two iPads and being connected to the first:
1.1.1 iOS 6: Background Manager ($1)
This brand new and absolutely excellent tweak allows for doing the same as the very similar Backgrounder did in iOS versions prior to iOS6: when pressing the Home button, the app will run as before. With apps with TV out support like Keynote, this means the title will continue outputting its content to the TV. Again, if you use Keynote Remote, you'll be able to control the slideshow even when it's in the background.
(Main Cydia page)
Configuring it is pretty simple:
1, go to Background Manager > Each App in Settings:
(as with all screenshots below, tap / click them for the large-sized original versons)
2, tap Add Item:
3, select Keynote:
4, Keynote appears in the list below Each App, with an N suffix (annotated below):
N means it Background Manager uses the native backgrounding of Keynote when you press the Home button. This is the default for everything and, with Keynote, absolutely useless in our cases (as it doesn't support background running at all). Therefore, we'll need to force Keynote to "Background" (in pre-iOS6 parlance, Forced) mode. Tap Keynote in the above list and select Background in the uppermost Background Mode list:
(For (ex-)users of the pre-iOS6 Backgrounder, this Background mode is the same as Forced mode in Backgrounder, Native being the same in both tweaks.)
Also see my posts HERE for more info & my posts on the subject. I also recommend THIS and THIS posts.
1.1.2 Prior to iOS 6
1.1.2.1 (iPad only!) Quasar
(the screenshot, in addition to showing I've purchased this tweak, also shows the developer explains everything is run in the background)
No special settings need to be done with Quasar it'll keep everything running in the background, even if you tap the Close icon in the lower left corner of the window:
1.1.2.2 Backgrounder
This free and excellent tool, as has already been mentioned, runs on everything pre-iOS6, not only on iOS5 iPads. As opposed to Quasar, it doesn't support windowing.
Setting it up is done in exactly the same way as with the iOS6+-only Background Manager basically, the entire menu structure is the same. There is only one major difference between the two tweaks (iOS compability and price aside): it, by default, defaults to Forced (in Background Manager's terminology, Background) backgrounding, unlike Background Manager. With the latter, the Background Manager > Global menu will show the following by default:
Also note that, unlike with Background Manager, Backgrounder isn't configured from the system-level Settings app but it has its own icon on the SpringBoard.
This is why you'll need to do a bit more to properly configure it.
It's configured for forced background mode, with two exceptions (Mail and Safari). The forced mode is shown in the following screenshot (in the Global main menu):
Basically, if it's only Keynote (and/or a handful of apps) that you want to run in the background while accessing the TV output, you'll want to change this to Native:
Also, after this, don't forget to add Keynote with Forced mode: Overrides > Add and select Keynote in the list.
Then, select Keynote from the Overrides main menu (below, I've also annotated the Add icon you need to tap in the previous step):
and tap Forced:
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Could you post a video of it? It's working just great on all my devices I've installed it to - now, including the iPad 3 too.
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I bought it and I'm testing it on my iPad Mini now. Hopefully this resolves my apps being killed prematurely issue.
You can. I've tested this very thoroughly. The settings you'll need:
This will result in Mail's being listed as "X" in the main "Each" list:
This is the default process list without disabling Mail this way (via top; I've annotated MobileMail):
and this is enabling getting rid of MobileMail (and either restarting the device or killing the process manually after enabling the X mode):
Tested with both the previous and the current, just-released version.
A few questions...
Is there a way to keep the phone app closed? Or basically to force close apps after closing them? The phone app uses ram.
Does it keep a safari page open in safari after switching to another app then back to safari or does it need to load the entire webpage again?
And is this compatible with "remove background" tweak? I have it so that when I hold the home button from anywhere, it kills all apps in the task switcher and in ram. Like if I open apps that are forced to background, then I exit, can I kill it with remove background?
Thanks. I will most likely purchase this a little bit later in the week once some more bugs are worked out.
Update: Actually, I'm buying it now before the price goes up. lol!
Is there a way to keep the phone app closed? Or basically to force close apps after closing them? The phone app uses ram.
Does it keep a safari page open in safari after switching to another app then back to safari or does it need to load the entire webpage again?
And is this compatible with "remove background" tweak? I have it so that when I hold the home button from anywhere, it kills all apps in the task switcher and in ram. Like if I open apps that are forced to background, then I exit, can I kill it with remove background?
Thanks. I will most likely purchase this a little bit later in the week once some more bugs are worked out.
Update: Actually, I'm buying it now before the price goes up. lol!
Excuse me if I'm missing something but what does this mean "Minimize at mode changed" ? It's selected to on by default?
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It does as it doesn't touch it.
Should you want to remove it to conserve memory, Adding "Safari" with X (see my mini-tutorial of Mail above on doing this) does prevent it from being kept in memory after you press the Home button.
HOWEVER!
A, it won't kill "webbookmar" started by Safari. Fortunately, it only occupies 5M RAM on an iPad 2.
B, True Web shortcuts created by "Add to home screen" from inside Safari aren't killed by this. Unfortunately, even if you do add them in BM as "X", they won't be killed and can take up a LOT of memory (on the non-Retina iPad 2, for example, 12M for a simple blue screen like the one at https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/81986513/042013/hdmi/i3.html (my test page for benchmarking purposes; for non-empty pages, a LOT more) on both the iPad 2 and 3). If this is a problem, don't use shortcuts created by "Add to home screen" at all. This only applies to pages with the <meta name="apple-mobile-web-app-capable" content="yes" /> metatag. Ones that don't have will run in Safari and, consequently, will be shut down by BM.
A screenshot with these two processes annotated:
You realize you can ask the dev about all that right? That's probably going to be a faster and more accurate answer.
It is. I've very thoroughly tested this (iPad 3 6.1.2). When you kill a truly backgrounded app (e.g., Keynote constantly outputting slides to a TV), killing all apps from Remove Background (including its SBSettings toggle, which I've also tested) works just fine. That is, it will kill apps running in forced BG mode too, not only suspended / native BG ones.