Complaints Mounting About iOS 13.2 Being 'More Aggressive at Killing Background Apps and Tasks'

[MacRumors]

A growing number of iPhone and iPad users have complained about poor RAM management on iOS 13 and iPadOS 13, leading to apps like Safari, YouTube, and Overcast reloading more frequently upon being reopened. We've lightly edited some of the comments to correct things like capitalization.

MacRumors forum member Rogifan:

I was watching a video in YouTube on my iPhone 11 Pro. I pause the video to respond to a text message. I was in iMessage for less than one minute. When I returned to YouTube it reloaded the app and I lost the video I was watching. I noticed this a lot on my iPad Pro too. Apps and Safari tabs reloading a lot more frequently than they did in iOS 12. Very annoying.

MacRumors forum member Radon87000, using an iPad Pro on iPadOS 13.2:

I was working on a spreadsheet in Excel and I switched to a YouTube video for like 10 mins or so and when I switched back, the app was no longer in memory. Not just that, it also flushed all Safari tabs out of memory too. None of the games are staying in memory after 20 mins.

MacRumors forum member HappyDude20:

iOS 12 was perfect and miss it for the main reason that any time I use the app switcher to go back to my previous app such as Safari or Instagram or Facebook or anything really, the app refreshes. Back in iOS 12 I could go back [to] multiple app(s) and it wouldn't refresh. It was perfect. I'm running on an iPhone 7 Plus if it makes any difference but feel it shouldn't.

Based on anecdotal comments from affected users, the issue appears to have become worse as of iOS 13.2 and iPadOS 13.2. Artist, designer, and developer Nick Heer wrote this on his blog yesterday:

I'm used to the camera purging all open apps from memory on my iPhone X, but iOS 13.2 goes above and beyond in killing background tasks. Earlier today, I was switching between a thread in Messages and a recipe in Safari and each app entirely refreshed every time I foregrounded it. This happens all the time throughout the system in iOS 13: Safari can't keep even a single tab open in the background, every app boots from scratch, and using iOS feels like it has regressed to the pre-multitasking days.

On his blog, developer Michael Tsai has rounded up similar complaints on Twitter.

Marco Arment:

I've noticed this since the first 13.2 betas, and Overcast users keep reporting it as well: background apps seem to be getting killed MUCH more aggressively than before.

(Especially on the iPhone 11 if you use the camera, presumably because it needs so much RAM for processing.)

Christopher Stephens:

Every single app on my iPhone 7 iOS 13.2 gets killed every time I close. No backgrounding. And each tab on Safari when I move to a new one. So frustrating

Cabel Sasser:

This really affected Prompt. Extremely annoying to lose SSH connections when switch apps.

In yesterday's update we rolled out a semi-cheesy but effective fix: "Connection Keeper" keeps a running GPS-based log of where you connect to servers. Side effect: connections stay alive.

More complaints are found in this Twitter thread, in this Reddit thread, in the Apple Support Communities, and elsewhere on the web.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1186844814429437952

Affected users are hoping this issue can be resolved in a future software update. We've reached out to Apple for comment.

Article Link: Complaints Mounting About iOS 13.2 Being 'More Aggressive at Killing Background Apps and Tasks'

 

[VSMacOne]

I refuse to believe that this is intentional. It HAS to be a bug, otherwise this is a HUGE step backwards.

 

[fmcshan]

Haven’t noticed this on my iPhone 11 Pro running iOS 13.2? This is probably just a bug and Apple will likely fix in a smaller 13.2.x software update.

 

[turbineseaplane]

It's very "meta" to do an article on MacRumors that quotes a whole bunch of posts from the MacRumors Forums... lol

 

[madmin]

We reached out for a comment from Apple, they replied: "Trick or Treat !?"

 

[mattynat]

definitely having the issue on my iPhone 11 Pro Max. went from typing an email to a phone call and back in a matter of 30 seconds and my email that I was typing was gone. Hope this gets fixed!

 

[BeefCake 15]

I noticed this the other day and thought there was something wrong in the background App refresh settings, so I stopped most of my other apps from refreshing in the background to free up RAM for YouTube but no dice....

P.S:MR please use me in the article!

 

[newyorksole]

definitely having the issue on my iPhone 11 Pro Max. went from typing an email to a phone call and back in a matter of 30 seconds and my email that I was typing was gone. Hope this gets fixed!

Wow seriously? Damn I’m lucky this hasn’t happened to me. I’ve been using an 11 Pro Max and iPad Pro 2018 both running the latest iOS versions. Haven’t had anything happen yet, but we’ll see.

EDIT:!!! Lmao it JUST happened! I opened an email from Mail from 1 of my saved folders and switched to Calendar to input some dates. I switch back to Mail and it totally refreshed! Wow.

 

[Forti]

Definitly a bug. I though it's a bug with my old iPhone 7 - looks like just an ios issue.

Example:

1. watching netflix
2. received sms. open
3. going back to netflix - it's closed...

 

[Subrock]

Pioneer has an app for recording music out of their mixers via a lightning cable. I tried to record a gig on Saturday and could only get about a minute of audio with the screen locked before it would kill the app. Previously, I could record for 4+hours without issue. This definitely feels like an accidental regression and not a feature

 

[Wowzera]

I noticed it too in my iPhone XS Max.
It's definitely a bug, as far as I've experienced.

 

[al256]

I've noticed far more page refreshes and app refreshes after this update. I wasn't sure if it was some updated app ballooning memory but now I know.

 

[ThisBougieLife]

They keep assuring us we don’t need more RAM, but then if so, it needs to be managed a lot better than this. The iPad will never be a laptop replacement if apps continuously refresh.

 

[JoeCassara]

We've lightly edited some of the comments to correct things like capitalization.

LOL. I say! The murmurings of the unwashed proletariat must be sanitized!

 

[andsoitgoes]

I’ve had this issue and have been reporting it since the first bloody beta. Lots of people on the iosbeta sub are also experiencing this same issue.

I CANNOT believe apple released 13.2 with that garbage memory management in play, it’s not like they weren’t aware! Sheesh Apple.

 

[thadoggfather]

Lol at this rate I’m never leaving iOS 12

 

[twolf2919]

I just noticed this in the Amazon app yesterday! Several times, I would do some search/filtering in the app and look at some list - only to have that search/filter reset when I got back into the app after leaving it for a minute. I thought it's a new Amazon bug - but it's probably that the app was killed and restarted!

This is on an iPhone X running 13.2.

 

[NMBob]

I've noticed Apple's 'video app' (whatever it's called this week) losing track of the TV show/movie/whatever after I've left and come back for the past few weeks. I thought it was doing it in iOS12, but now I think it is this new "feature".

 

[Trader05]

I am still holding off on 13.2 on my 11 Pro until this is fixed. Hopefully they patch it soon. #deepfusion

 

[Baymowe335]

It's definitely an issue. Kills basically everything minutes after you open it. Safari tabs, YouTube videos. I only notice it on my iPad Pro.

 

[rjjacobson]

Yes a number of us on beta testing saw this starting in first 13.2 beta. It seems to be especially a problem in safari for us, but we have not noticed the other issues yet (at least I have not)

 

[ToneDriver]

Yep I've been noticing this on my iPad Air 2 with YouTube. Every time I go away from the app for a second and come back, the whole app reloads and I lose wherever I was.

Also feel like this is happening with my 11 Pro in the car when using Overcast. I'll turn off the radio for a minute, then turn it back on expecting the podcast to immediately resume like normal, but it ends up taking quite a while to come back on. Sometimes it even decides to play music or something from a different app even though Overcast was JUST playing.

 

[tharitm]

I think in iPad 11 at least I’ve noticed the memory usage is always high and has used at least 99% of the memory, so this could be why it’s closing the apps. This is even after a fresh reboot.

monitering though cpu z

 

[coolfactor]

Not noticing this on my iPhone XR.

 

[symphony]

I knew it. It was much a bigger deal on Reddit for me than it was on MacRumors. Glad it’s being noticed by everyone, this bug is so frustrating. It made my iPhone 6S more powerful at remembering background apps than my iPhone 11 Pro.