Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Other Do we really need background app refresh?

revmacian

revmacian

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Oct 20, 2018
1,745
1,468
USA
These are my settings for background app refresh. I’ve been doing this for as long as I can remember and apps, data fetching and notifications have always worked as expected. Is this why I have been able to get over 20 hours of battery life on every iPhone I’ve owned since the iPhone 4s (I’ve owned 7 iPhones since 2012). Do we really need background app refresh enabled for individual apps? If everything works as expected with refresh disabled, why did Apple allow background app refresh to begin with?


CD1EF9B2-E4ED-46F5-A09A-784169D974EC.jpeg
 
Background refresh is not about notifications. Notifications will be delivered regardless. Background refresh is about refreshing the content of the app in the background. For example, if you allow it for Twitter, your timeline will be updated when you open the app. If you don’t, the timeline has to be refreshed after you open the app.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Macintoshrumors, revmacian and willmtaylor
johannnn said:
Background refresh is not about notifications. Notifications will be delivered regardless. Background refresh is about refreshing the content of the app in the background. For example, if you allow it for Twitter, your timeline will be updated when you open the app. If you don’t, the timeline has to be refreshed after you open the app.
Click to expand...
Well, if you’re going to open the app then content will be refreshed when you open the app. If the app isn’t open then refreshing content isn’t going to benefit the user anyway since the user cannot take advantage of new content until the user opens the app.

Thank you for the information regarding notifications, you helped me learn something new.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mprime_17
revmacian said:
Well, if you’re going to open the app then content will be refreshed when you open the app. If the app isn’t open then refreshing content isn’t going to benefit the user anyway since the user cannot take advantage of new content until the user opens the app.

Thank you for the information regarding notifications, you helped me learn something new.
Click to expand...
The benefit is that it's ready to go when you open it rather than waiting.

Not sure how background app refresh affects things like tile trackers or navigation or security cameras. Weather apps. Package tracking. I use an app that reports temp probes for barbecuing and need constant updates on that. Not sure how app refresh affects that one.

If a news app isn't refreshing in the background then how would you get notifications for it?
 
  • Like
Reactions: Macintoshrumors
archer75 said:
If a news app isn't refreshing in the background then how would you get notifications for it?
Click to expand...
I thought all notifications were pushed from a server, not generated locally. Is that right? if it is, then News apps send your preferences for notifications/alerts to their server and ping you from it. Nothing needs to be running locally. If I'm wrong, then that's probably wrong too 😁
 
I always leave it on. Battery life has been great for the last three or four iPhones I have had, anyway.

My feeling is it is meant to be on and there's really no reason to turn it off unless it's actively causing a problem.
 
archer75 said:
The benefit is that it's ready to go when you open it rather than waiting.

Not sure how background app refresh affects things like tile trackers or navigation or security cameras. Weather apps. Package tracking. I use an app that reports temp probes for barbecuing and need constant updates on that. Not sure how app refresh affects that one.

If a news app isn't refreshing in the background then how would you get notifications for it?
Click to expand...
The Weather app refreshes when you open it. In fact I’ve not had to wait more then a second or two for any app to refresh once it is opened. Perhaps that is due to not having every app refreshing in the background? Notifications also work.. I’ve noticed that I still receive notifications from various apps even though app refresh is disabled for the app. I’m curious if notification functionality is designed to override app refresh.

Edit: Thank you @adrianlondon , your thoughts on notifications and servers may be why notifications are seemingly unaffected by the app refresh setting.
 
revmacian said:
The Weather app refreshes when you open it.
Click to expand...
Yes, when you open it. But I want up to date updates from it. Will it send those updates if the app isn't allowed to update in the background? Will the widget work if app refresh is off? I guess some testing is in order.
Edit - Just tested the tile app and it requires background app refresh to be on in order to function.
I imagine my bbq probe app won't function properly without it being able to refresh as I can set alerts locally.
 
Last edited:
archer75 said:
Yes, when you open it. But I want up to date updates from it. Will it send those updates if the app isn't allowed to update in the background?
Click to expand...
I don’t know. I don’t open the weather app until I’m planning to go outside.. I don’t really need to know what is happening with the weather until it has the potential to affect my plans.

But, then again, I could be totally wrong about all of this.
 
revmacian said:
I don’t know. I don’t open the weather app until I’m planning to go outside.. I don’t really need to know what is happening with the weather until it has the potential to affect my plans.

But, then again, I could be totally wrong about all of this.
Click to expand...
Weather alerts/advisories released from the national weather service. We recently had several special weather alerts for severe thunderstorms. Severe winds. Heavy snow. Things like that are good to know.

I can test my nest cams when I get home. I suspect those will still work as they rely on the cloud. But I have other cams from other companies that function entirely locally and I think alerts for those would require background app refresh. We'll see.
 
Last edited:
archer75 said:
Weather alerts/advisories released from the national weather service. We recently had several special weather alerts for severe thunderstorms. Severe winds. Heavy snow. Things like that are good to know.

I can test my nest cams when I get home. I suspect those will still work as they rely on the cloud. But I have other cams from other companies that function entirely locally and I think alerts for those would require background app refresh. We'll see.
Click to expand...
It appears that you and I operate differently. We have those types of weather patterns here too. But, again, when I need to leave the house I open the weather app and am informed about the current weather. Background app refresh isn’t going to provide any additional benefit worthy of impacting battery life.
 
revmacian said:
It appears that you and I operate differently. We have those types of weather patterns here too. But, again, when I need to leave the house I open the weather app and am informed about the current weather. Background app refresh isn’t going to provide any additional benefit worthy of impacting battery life.
Click to expand...
It's not about what's happening now, it's about what's going to happen that could have an impact. I like to plan ahead so I can leave earlier as needed. Work commute(snow or ice). Kids to school. If there's a chance there won't be school I have to make arrangements. Travel plans(working on a trip now through the passes that could get cancelled so I have to stay on top of it). Can I mow today. When's a good time to plant grass seed. I have 4 different weather apps on my phone.

Having refresh on or off doesn't appear to affect battery. At least not in any meaningful way.

If there's a thunderstorm coming in I like to know in advance so I can close the windows in the house. I once had a sudden storm show up unexpectedly and a great deal of rain came in the room my computers are in and soaked them. Luckily nothing died.

Besides, other apps require app refresh to be able to function properly.
 
Last edited:
I've always had it turned off, and never had an issue. I don't want a million apps doing their own thing behind the scenes. If I want an app to update itself, I'll open it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Cryates and revmacian
revmacian said:
It appears that you and I operate differently. We have those types of weather patterns here too. But, again, when I need to leave the house I open the weather app and am informed about the current weather. Background app refresh isn’t going to provide any additional benefit worthy of impacting battery life.
Click to expand...
I am a fan of turning off lots of them.. but one example for us leaving weather BR on is being out on a boat. I don’t want to check for the lightning storm that is hitting us. I want to know where it is and where it is going well before it’s close.
 
  • Like
Reactions: revmacian
JRoDDz said:
I've always had it turned off, and never had an issue. I don't want a million apps doing their own thing behind the scenes. If I want an app to update itself, I'll open it.
Click to expand...
Back when I bought the iPhone 5, I think it was the 5, I thought battery life was great. Then I read where someone turned off individual background app refresh and it improved his battery life. So, I spent a week testing his hypothesis and found that my own battery life was drastically improved.

But, that was the iPhone 5, perhaps I should perform those tests again and see if this is even relevant on new iPhones.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JRoDDz
I turn off several.. and I just turned off several more. I agree, I can wait unless it’s an app I want ‘monitoring’ some condition (weather).
 
PBz said:
I turn off several.. and I just turned off several more. I agree, I can wait unless it’s an app I want ‘monitoring’ some condition (weather).
Click to expand...
And, you don’t even have to wait long.. I’ve noticed that apps refresh almost immediately when they’re opened. I’ve had my iPhone XR for 6 months and only installed 12 apps. Are apps technically “frozen” while in the background? I don’t think the number of installed apps has anything to do with how quickly an app refreshes after it is opened.
 
Thanks for this thread. Just looked and mine are all on! Not sure when that happened. I had them individually selected at one point with most being off.
 
  • Like
Reactions: PBz and revmacian
revmacian said:
And, you don’t even have to wait long.. I’ve noticed that apps refresh almost immediately when they’re opened. I’ve had my iPhone XR for 6 months and only installed 12 apps. Are apps technically “frozen” while in the background? I don’t think the number of installed apps has anything to do with how quickly an app refreshes after it is opened.
Click to expand...
Good point. Even with weather and the boat.. can often see storms and then check the radar to see where they are/going. It’s apps like Carrot that have told me there hav been 100 lighting strikes in the past 5 minutes in my area that make me want to keep weather running in the background.. gotta love living in the lightning capital of the US.
 
  • Like
Reactions: revmacian
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back