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

[FlyingDutch]

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correct.
A lot of people complains, but just a few actually reports bugs.
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Of course they will, one of the dozen updates til iOS 14 will fix this. With iOS 14 the mess will start again ...

Apple is the company that makes me hate updates.

you should switch to Android.
You would be happy not to receive any...

 

[lympero]

Constant reloads on my 11 pro max and iPad Pro. I’m pretty sure that they wont provide a fix anytime soon.

 

[FlyingDutch]

That IS true. A very vocal number of users.

Not entirely sure about this.
I'm a big Apple fan, but I can reproduce the issue on any of my family's iPhone (11 pro, 11, XR and SE).
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Unfortunately, this is true. On an iPhone 11 Pro Max, opening the Camera app and taking a single picture is enough to crash Safari.

If you have a Screen Recording active, it will crash that as well when you take a picture (I tried to take a video to demonstrate).

you are NOT crashing Safari, dude.
Page reloading could be annoying in some circumstances, for sure, but it is different from crashing.

If your iPhone constantly crashes Safari take it to Apple because it's defective.
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It's a feature, not a bug: an ill-conceived attempt to improve battery life.

stop this BS at once.
Refreshing an app is NOT a battery saving maneuver.
Quite the contrary...

 

[jonnyb098]

correct.
A lot of people complains, but just a few actually reports bugs.
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you should switch to Android.
You would be happy not to receive any...

Ready to hear something crazy? People on here said they reported the safari crashing issue during the beta period. Also apples bug reporter is really not the best. They ask you the dumbest questions like what the problem is and then “what is the expected behavior?” ....yes that’s what they ask.

problem : safari keeps reloading tabs
expected behavior : SAFARI KEEPS TABS IN MEMORY.
Steps to reproduce: load up a few tabs . Wait 5 minutes or switch between a few apps, safari will then reload tabs.
Seriously the questions they ask are goofy as hell for some of the obnoxious bugs that we all see. I get it for more complex stuff but iOS 13 is riddled with silly stuff that’s just common sense.

Not to mention your average joe doesn’t understand how to reproduce a problem but that it exists. THIS IS WHAT WE PAY APPLE TO DO ! TEST THEIR DAMN SOFTWARE PROPERLY .

 

[mi7chy]

stop this BS at once.
Refreshing an app is NOT a battery saving maneuver.
Quite the contrary...

You're wrong and he's right. Apps get suspended when put in the background then killed from memory after x number of minutes to skimp on DRAM and for battery saving. x used to be 10 minutes for iOS 6 and prior then reduced to 3 minutes with iOS 7 and after. Now it seems even shorter. Suggest reading Apple developer docs instead of making things up.

 

[lazyrighteye]

No way you can have 225 active tabs on any smartphone.

What about 226?

 

[brucemr]

On iPad, opened 2 safari tabs. All other apps fully closed. One tab MR forum with this post partially written. Other tab Google search with a word typed in search box, but search not started.

MR was the active tad. I then minimized Safari. If I wait 1 minute, then maximize Safari again, MR forum tab opens and immediately reloads. It recovers to my draft post with my typed text recovered.

When then open Google search tab, it also reloads, but the word I had typed in search box is lost.

To be honest, I’m not at all sure this was not happening even on iOS iOS 12. The tab reloads I am seeing take less than 1 second per tab. I would assume it to be normal. Why wouldn’t I not want a website tab to refresh (to latest and greatest).

Definitely would be irritated though if filling out an internet form (such as making a purchase, booking a hotel, ordering a pizza, etc.), and went off it, then back to it and had lost all I had typed in. Reloading of tab itself would not bother me, if I did not lose the web page and my input text.

I suspect that keeping typed text on a website when it is reloaded (and for how long a period no activity prior to the reload will result in your text being lost) has more to do with design (and time limits) of website than iOS.

 

[FlyingDutch]

Today I setup a Huawei P30 lite for my mother and I was totally flashed. A 250€ device that ships with dual sim, 128GB flash storage, OLED and USB-C port.With swipe gestures enabled there is nearly no difference to iOS navigation. It has a brilliant display/camera and it feels rather lightweight in comparison to my current iPhoneX which bothers me with bugs, bugs and more bugs. And there is no Notch (just a very small cutout)!

- In the year 12 after first iPhone release iOS is still not capable of OOB (Bluetooth/Smart) except when pairing with other Apple devices like Apple TV.
- As a developer I have to bang my head against artificial Apple walls every day.
- There is still no way to select a music title I own for a ringtone (or just a short sequence of a music title).
- There is still no USB-C port on even the latest iPhone models.

For all of this you have to pay a heavy price. Think a P30 Pro is going to be my next Phone and I'm starting to understand Donald Trump since Huawei would wipe the floor with Apple if Trump doesn't stop Huawei by banning it (and if not already this year, then maybe the next year).

If you want to settle down to a vastly inferior product, go buy that Chinese phone.
we always have choices.
i will wait for a fix by apple.
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What about 226?

They are not active.
no way.
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So because so many people are accusing people who have problems of making them up, or having some idiotic “hatred” of Apple, and we know that more ram would only help, I ran a test. I have most of my old iPhones still, never sold them, my iPhone 7+ is on 13.2 along with my 11 pro max. I closed all apps and then opened about 20 on each phone, same exact apps, including mail, YouTube, Instagram, Safari, etc. I opened and closed all of them, then went through all apps again and again. The iPhone 7+ kept all apps open exactly in the same spot, no reloading or anything, kept Instagram and YouTube right where I left off. The iPhone pro however had to reload a few apps, not all, just a few. Now here’s where the iPhone pro failed miserably, I opened the camera app on both phones, took one picture, closed the camera app, and then swiped through my open apps to the beginning. On the 7 every app was open where I left off, not one app had to reload, not so on the 11 pro, it kept a few apps open, that’s it, Instagram, Safari, Mail, and YouTube all lost their places and had to reload the app from scratch. So the fanboys here couldn’t be more wrong, as usual.

I also take issue with people claiming this is a 13.2 bug as this happened on every iteration of iOS 13. I think more people have noticed it now because of this article. I don’t have iOS 13 installed on my other phones so I haven’t been able to test them, but you’d think the new iPhone 11 “pro” could multitask better than a 3 year old iPhone 7.

I do hope there’s something Apple can do in an update to improve this, but it will take a hell of a lot of evidence to convince me this isn’t a hardware issue in the new phones. Sticking with 4gb of ram is clearly not enough for the latest phones and it seems to Be affected the most when you take a picture, maybe something to do with the 3 camera system and all the voodoo going on with them. This phone should have had 6gb of ram at minimum, Apple screwed the pooch on this one.

I can reproduce the issue on the iPhone XR, and without opening the camera (just with Amazon app or YouTube).
So definitely NOT an hardware issue on my 11 Pro, and nothing to do with the 3 camera system.

 

[FlyingDutch]

All Apple had to do is add 2 or 4GB more RAM but they make it seem like it costs $1000 to add 2Gb or 4GB or RAM more to what they currently offer at 4GB of RAM. 8GB of RAM should be the minimum for an iPad Pro carrying a price north of $1000 and upwards of $1700. With 4GB of Ram when smartphones 1/3 the size of an iPad Pro are coming with 8 and 12GB of RAM Apple has some catching up to do.

I can reproduce the issue with 4 tabs and just YouTube app.
NO WAY this could fill up 4 Gb of RAM. Not even a fraction of that.
This is not related to the quantity of RAM, but it is related to the way iOS is mismanaging background tasks.

and please let crappy android smartphones out of this thread: they are adding RAM because of a poorly designed operative system and bloated UI.

 

[imagineadam]

Constant reloads on my 11 pro max and iPad Pro. I’m pretty sure that they wont provide a fix anytime soon.

I'm pretty sure they will fix it soon! I bet there was lots of sleepless nights for a few engineers this past week! I'd be pretty surprised if there wasn't an update on Monday or at least a beta.

 

[FlyingDutch]

Hopefully 13.2.2 Monday with the first fix stating,

-Addresses and issue that could cause safari to crash more frequently.

I’d also like to see,

-Addresses an issue where photos curating would get stuck indefinitely.

-Resolved a problem where photos within an iMessage thread will actually finish indexing before the release of iOS 14.

Safari doesnt crash.
it reloads webpages, that could be annoying for sure, but is definitely different from crashing.
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You're wrong and he's right. Apps get suspended when put in the background then killed from memory after x number of minutes to skimp on DRAM and for battery saving. x used to be 10 minutes for iOS 6 and prior then reduced to 3 minutes with iOS 7 and after. Now it seems even shorter. Suggest reading Apple developer docs instead of making things up.

I did. I’m a (former) developer and you are still wrong.
This is not a battery saving feature.

 

[FlyingDutch]

Ready to hear something crazy? People on here said they reported the safari crashing issue during the beta period. Also apples bug reporter is really not the best. They ask you the dumbest questions like what the problem is and then “what is the expected behavior?” ....yes that’s what they ask.

problem : safari keeps reloading tabs
expected behavior : SAFARI KEEPS TABS IN MEMORY.
Steps to reproduce: load up a few tabs . Wait 5 minutes or switch between a few apps, safari will then reload tabs.
Seriously the questions they ask are goofy as hell for some of the obnoxious bugs that we all see. I get it for more complex stuff but iOS 13 is riddled with silly stuff that’s just common sense.

Not to mention your average joe doesn’t understand how to reproduce a problem but that it exists. THIS IS WHAT WE PAY APPLE TO DO ! TEST THEIR DAMN SOFTWARE PROPERLY .

no doubts somebody reported that, but how many ? We don't know.
It surely is under Apple scrutiny now, thanks to this (and others) article.

 

[stylinexpat]

I can reproduce the issue with 4 tabs and just YouTube app.
NO WAY this could fill up 4 Gb of RAM. Not even a fraction of that.
This is not related to the quantity of RAM, but it is related to the way iOS is mismanaging background tasks.

and please let crappy android smartphones out of this thread: they are adding RAM because of a poorly designed operative system and bloated UI.

Yes obviously there is a problem with the way IOS is mismanaging background tasks. Obviously this is true. On a side note though it still would help to have more RAM regardless. Apple with RAM is like Apple was with batteries. Took Apple until this year before they started offering a decent sized battery in the new iPhone 11 Pro Max. Now if they can catch up with RAM like they caught up with battery life this year would be great. Bigger battery and more RAM is always great.

 

[mw360]

You're wrong and he's right. Apps get suspended when put in the background then killed from memory after x number of minutes to skimp on DRAM and for battery saving. x used to be 10 minutes for iOS 6 and prior then reduced to 3 minutes with iOS 7 and after. Now it seems even shorter. Suggest reading Apple developer docs instead of making things up.

How do suspended apps use battery power? What’s the point of purging a suspended app from RAM after a few minutes if no other app needs the RAM? What’s the point of granting it those few minutes if it’s suspended?

I think you have confused backgrounded and suspended apps. And you are confused about what happens to backgrounded apps when their grace period is over.

Backgrounded apps are allowed to keep running for a few seconds or request an extension for a few minutes, then they are suspended. Suspended apps are not running on the CPU but stay in RAM until something else needs the RAM. Keeping RAM full of suspended apps is a better power management policy than purging them to keep RAM ‘free’.

 

[TrueBlou]

Yes obviously there is a problem with the way IOS is mismanaging background tasks. Obviously this is true. On a side note though it still would help to have more RAM regardless. Apple with RAM is like Apple was with batteries. Took Apple until this year before they started offering a decent sized battery in the new iPhone 11 Pro Max. Now if they can catch up with RAM like they caught up with battery life this year would be great. Bigger battery and more RAM is always great.

You’re right, more RAM can be better and indeed it would be useful, which is why the latest round of devices have up to 4GB of RAM (6GB including the 1TB iPad Pro).

iOS 13 is designed to run smoothly on devices with as little as 2GB of RAM, even taking into account new features on newer devices, double the amount of RAM is quite a step up.

When iOS is operating normally (so, not the current iOS 13.2) it’s actually surprisingly difficult to max out the RAM. I see it every day when I’m debugging my apps, I monitor RAM usage carefully to make my own apps as optimised as possible. Even with dozens of apps suspended, background tasks running (playing music, or whatever) and debugging, very rarely do I see the full 4GB come close to being used.

As you said yourself, something is amiss with the latest iOS, Apple dropped the ball and throwing more RAM at the issue wouldn’t fix it, indeed the way it’s operating just now, we'd see the exact same problems if we had 12GB of RAM. It’s a memory management problem, plain and simple.

Not that I object to the notion of having more RAM, all I’m saying is, it wouldn’t have an impact on the current problem.

 

[Kier-XF]

There's definitely something dubious going on that wasn't previously. Simple things like maintaining scroll position in an app like Google Photos is now impossible, when switching away briefly to answer a message etc. It certainly does feel like multitasking is effectively broken.

 

[TrueBlou]

There's definitely something dubious going on that wasn't previously. Simple things like maintaining scroll position in an app like Google Photos is now impossible, when switching away briefly to answer a message etc. It certainly does feel like multitasking is effectively broken.

Its like Apple has issued a beta test release to the public at large. Or rather, several of them. I know whinging about it here achieves absolutely nothing, heck I’m often one of the first to say just that. But damn Apple has really screwed the pooch with iOS/iPadOS 13. I seriously hope they’re putting their entire teams effort into releasing a stable, fully functional release with the next point update.
Under normal circumstances, I’d say I have every confidence that they’ll do just that - but this time, I’m less convinced.

 

[Beards]

Load YouTube, watch a clip for several minutes, pause then let the screen turn off... Return 3 minutes later and Youtube has not only lost the video but dropped me back to the Home screen. In no form whatsoever is this a feature.... If it is then someone surely has a weird sense of humour!

 

[lympero]

I'm pretty sure they will fix it soon! I bet there was lots of sleepless nights for a few engineers this past week! I'd be pretty surprised if there wasn't an update on Monday or at least a beta.

I'm having this issue since day 1 with my 11 pro max (that's 1.5 month - so i'm not very optimistic about it)

 

[TrueBlou]

I'm having this issue since day 1 with my 11 pro max (that's 1.5 month - so i'm not very optimistic about it)

Wow, I think that may be a lot worse than many of us, certainly for me the problem wasn’t there before 13.2, it’s not really something you could miss easily. Bloody annoying thing.

 

[metalsiren]

this crap is really pissing me off on my ipad and my iphone. refreshing the safari tabs, messing up email like others have mention etc. they need to fix this one ASAP

 

[duffman9000]

Dang it. It's Monday and still no official acknowledgment of the issue.
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no doubts somebody reported that, but how many ? We don't know.
It surely is under Apple scrutiny now, thanks to this (and others) article.

IIRC, people reported this during the 13.2 beta period. I didn't use the beta and I would have waited to upgrade 13.2 if I had known about this.

 

[chewbaka]

I’m still running 13.1 and have the issue using PDF expert

 

[stylinexpat]

Hopefully this has Apple's attention

iOS 13 has a huge bug that makes me want to dump my iPhone and iPad

iOS 13 has what is becoming a show-stopping bug -- switching between apps has become painful to the point of frustration.

www.zdnet.com

 

[FlyingDutch]

Yes obviously there is a problem with the way IOS is mismanaging background tasks. Obviously this is true. On a side note though it still would help to have more RAM regardless. Apple with RAM is like Apple was with batteries. Took Apple until this year before they started offering a decent sized battery in the new iPhone 11 Pro Max. Now if they can catch up with RAM like they caught up with battery life this year would be great. Bigger battery and more RAM is always great.

More RAM is always welcomed (within limits), but in this specific case I suspect even 6 Giga wouldn’t be enough, because there is something wrong In iOS behavior.
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Dang it. It's Monday and still no official acknowledgment of the issue.
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IIRC, people reported this during the 13.2 beta period. I didn't use the beta and I would have waited to upgrade 13.2 if I had known about this.

There wont be any.
The best you can expect is a 13.2.1 fix with release notes.
in a few days.
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How do suspended apps use battery power? What’s the point of purging a suspended app from RAM after a few minutes if no other app needs the RAM? What’s the point of granting it those few minutes if it’s suspended?

I think you have confused backgrounded and suspended apps. And you are confused about what happens to backgrounded apps when their grace period is over.

Backgrounded apps are allowed to keep running for a few seconds or request an extension for a few minutes, then they are suspended. Suspended apps are not running on the CPU but stay in RAM until something else needs the RAM. Keeping RAM full of suspended apps is a better power management policy than purging them to keep RAM ‘free’.

Correct.