Do you close apps?

[jabingla2810]

No, it doesn't very well. I just had 3 apps in the recently opened bar - safari, app store, and a tower defense game. All were "suspended" and I had 107mb memory remaining. After closing all three, my free memory immediately increased to 251mb. Yeah, I think that can make a pretty big difference in how smoothly apps run.

Your not supposed to keep checking available memory!

So what if you have 107mb of memory remaining??

If the app your using needs any more, it automatically closes another app to get it.

No need to close apps when your not using them, unless they are using a background API, like location or music playback.

 

[AppleTech22]

Nope, it doesn't seem to hold my speeds down

 

[luked14]

Your not supposed to keep checking available memory!

So what if you have 107mb of memory remaining??

If the app your using needs any more, it automatically closes another app to get it.

No need to close apps when your not using them, unless they are using a background API, like location or music playback.

This is not true. I tested this out by opening about 20 apps, and my available memory dropped as low as 10 MB and fluctuated between 10 and 30. Apps are never "automatically closed" but it seems like the iPhone does it's best to continue to spread the memory out evenly. However, once you have too many apps open at once, the phone can't handle them well. There is a noticeable difference of performance and speed of the phone when it has 250 MB available vs. 25 MB available.

 

[ritmomundo]

Your not supposed to keep checking available memory!

So, you're saying ignorance is bliss, huh?

So what if you have 107mb of memory remaining??

If the app your using needs any more, it automatically closes another app to get it.

No need to close apps when your not using them, unless they are using a background API, like location or music playback.

The point that you completely missed was that other posters were saying "suspended" apps don't use any memory. This is not true.

Also, what you say is false. Nothing "automatically closes" on the iPhone. Less memory gets allocated to apps as more of them are opened. Apps run slower accordingly.

 

[GfPQqmcRKUvP]

So, you're saying ignorance is bliss, huh?

No, the poster is saying that when something auto-manages memory it doesn't do any good to point to drawbacks as "but..but..but...I have less available memory!". That's not a drawback, slower performance is a drawback. I haven't turned my phone off in two weeks, I've never closed an app manually in those two weeks, and it's running perfectly fine. Why would I check available memory? I suspect most of the people saying "it runs faster when I manually close everything" are just falling prey to the placebo effect.

 

[Steve28]

Also, what you say is false. Nothing "automatically closes" on the iPhone. Less memory gets allocated to apps as more of them are opened. Apps run slower accordingly.

Just because the icon is in the tray doesn't mean the app is not closed. Do this experiment:

1) open pandora and start playing a song.
2) hit pause.
3) hit the home button
4) open notes app
5) hit home button
5) open pandora

Notice pandora is right where you left it (it was in suspended state).

Now repeat the above steps except in step 4 open a bunch of games or a navigation app - basically stuff that uses a lot of memory. Then web you open pandora again, you will get the pandora slash screen and it will no longer be paused on the song you left it on. Thats because when you opened up enough stuff, the OS needed ram and quit pandora because it was suspended and. OT being used.

This is well documented in apple dev documentation and lots of places elsewhere. Not even sure why people debate it.

 

[therationalist]

A lot of bro-science in this thread.

 

[Mr Slippy IV]

I'll occasionally close apps when my iPhone decides it has super powers and decides to have all of the apps I've opened over the last two weeks in my multitasking drawer.