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augustya

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Original poster
Feb 17, 2012
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464
This Guy here in this video is saying, doing these steps frees up RAM in your iPad !


I had some questions regarding that.

1. is this truly a method to free up RAM on the iPad ? How reliable is this method ?

2. Why is it required ?

3. How does it help ?

4. When is this required ?

And first of all, isn’t it a story Since legends that we have been hearing since generations, that iOS has a very efficient mechanism to make best use of RAM so why does an end user need to bother about to free the RAM let not the iOS do its job and the user should do its job then get into unnecessary R&D and tear his hair apart !!

what are your conclusions and observations on this people ?
 
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TheRealAlex

macrumors 68030
Sep 2, 2015
2,980
2,248
Wow that was nice, I see that being exploited as some security vulnerabilitie. Other than that keeping RAM use low it’s only a Precious 4GB which is pathetic in 2020.

Don’t use Today on Home, get Rid of extra animations, and Disable background Refresh on all apps. Disable FaceID (I’ve never used it)

All that disabled saves RAM and CPU cycles from constantly looking for a Face And more.
 

ericwn

macrumors G5
Apr 24, 2016
12,113
10,903
I don’t remember ever having to do this in years of using an iPad daily. Total useless YouTube vaporware as usual.

But it won’t last long until somebody will show up claiming he or she is a power user and that this is absolutely the bee’s knees right now. ;)
 

Digitalguy

macrumors 601
Apr 15, 2019
4,637
4,463
Ok, let's try to make this clear. It's totally useless.
Maybe I should add that I tend to watch Fernando Silva every now and then to keep up no Ipados update changes, but he is definitely not an expert...
So why is this useless? Because lack of RAM does not slow down ipads contrary to macs and pcs,
The RAM on an ipad is always mostly full, contrary to a pc, as ipad compresses apps and tabs and keep them in RAM and when you need them it decompresses them and when it needs more RAM it ejects them from RAM automatically (generally the older ones). Normally this happens without slowdowns. Emptying RAM just means ejecting compressed apps and tabs from RAM manually, but what's the point? Will it make the system faster? Not at all. Will it allow you to not lose a message you are writing because of automatic ejection? No, because if you eject everything you'll lose everything. In this latter case it makes more sens to manually eject recent you don't need apps from the apps switcher... But again this is just to avoid an automatic refresh of something that you want to keep in RAM for longer, especially if you have a device with as little as 2GB RAM, not to make the device any faster. RAM management in IOS/ipados has it's advantages and disadvantages. Contrary to PCs it never slows things down... at least with 2GB devices and up. But contrary to PCs you are never certain to keep you data safe from an automatic refresh, especially with 2GB devices. Trying to manage RAM manually on ipads is mostly useless.
 
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rui no onna

Contributor
Oct 25, 2013
14,907
13,234
Emptying RAM just means ejecting compressed apps and tabs from RAM manually, but what's the point? Will it make the system faster? Not at all. Will it allow you to not lose a message you are writing because of automatic ejection? No, because if you eject everything you'll lose everything.
I can see a benefit if your iPad and most of your apps are just acting wonky. Seems like this is a way to do a hard reset without needing to wait for the entire boot process.
 
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ericwn

macrumors G5
Apr 24, 2016
12,113
10,903
I can see a benefit if your iPad and most of your apps are just acting wonky. Seems like this is a way to do a hard reset without needing to wait for the entire boot process.

But if my device is acting up I’ll want to restart it completely anyway. But maybe that’s just me.
 

augustya

Suspended
Original poster
Feb 17, 2012
3,331
464
But if my device is acting up I’ll want to restart it completely anyway. But maybe that’s just me.

Agreed ! If a device is not working properly and acting wonky ! My first basic Instinct would be to restart the device.
 

Hym tix

macrumors 6502
Sep 21, 2012
255
321
Ok, let's try to make this clear. It's totally useless.

No. It’s not totally useless. There are some of us who push the iPad’s resources and in those cases it is worth resetting the RAM as is shown in this video. Things like demanding games, video editing, real-time music production and audio processing. Performance improves when you do this “soft reset” action. And we don’t really know if it is entirely due to killing background CPU processes or also partially related to freeing up RAM.

So your answer makes some bit of theoretical sense, but its just not always true. For most people and for everyday use of the iPad there’s no reason to free up RAM, but for some of us it does have some usefulness.
 

ericwn

macrumors G5
Apr 24, 2016
12,113
10,903
No. It’s not totally useless. There are some of us who push the iPad’s resources and in those cases it is worth resetting the RAM as is shown in this video. Things like demanding games, video editing, real-time music production and audio processing. Performance improves when you do this “soft reset” action. And we don’t really know if it is entirely due to killing background CPU processes or also partially related to freeing up RAM.

So your answer makes some bit of theoretical sense, but its just not always true. For most people and for everyday use of the iPad there’s no reason to free up RAM, but for some of us it does have some usefulness.

This is interesting. Do you have some data points with measured results to give us an impression of what performance improvements can be expected?
 

vish26

Suspended
Sep 17, 2012
341
23
No. It’s not totally useless. There are some of us who push the iPad’s resources and in those cases it is worth resetting the RAM as is shown in this video. Things like demanding games, video editing, real-time music production and audio processing. Performance improves when you do this “soft reset” action. And we don’t really know if it is entirely due to killing background CPU processes or also partially related to freeing up RAM.

So your answer makes some bit of theoretical sense, but its just not always true. For most people and for everyday use of the iPad there’s no reason to free up RAM, but for some of us it does have some usefulness.

This is interesting. Do you have some data points with measured results to give us an impression of what performance improvements can be expected?

Absolutely even i am like dying to find out what and how performance improvements can be expected with examples out of doing these steps ? Response keenly awaited !!
 

sparksd

macrumors G3
Jun 7, 2015
9,966
34,032
Seattle WA
For anyone who wants to use this approach regularly, you can add Accessibility Shortcut to Control Center - saves time digging down through the menus to turn it on/off.
 

Never mind

macrumors 65816
Oct 25, 2018
1,071
1,191
Dunedin, Florida
Can’t you just swipe up from the left on the screen, than to the right to show apps, than swipe each up to close the app ? I do this all the time to clear memory.
 

TheRealAlex

macrumors 68030
Sep 2, 2015
2,980
2,248
It’s not useless RAM management is real and a real issue. For example the beautiful presentation during the iPad 11 Pro keynote. Which used like 60 layers of some animated drawing editing program with butterflies animating was used only on the infamous 1TB iPad Pro which has 6GB RAM that same demo or design is not possible to that layer of complexity on iPad Pros with only 4GB of RAM. But we are led to believe any iPad Pro can do that.

So yeah a must have in 2020.

6GB RAM or 8
full speed Thunderbolt 3
and a 10-bit IPS Panel 120Hz Promotion 500nits HDR10 with Quantum Dots.
 

Apple Mac Daz

macrumors 68040
Jun 2, 2011
3,204
3,720
Manchester
It’s not useless RAM management is real and a real issue. For example the beautiful presentation during the iPad 11 Pro keynote. Which used like 60 layers of some animated drawing editing program with butterflies animating was used only on the infamous 1TB iPad Pro which has 6GB RAM that same demo or design is not possible to that layer of complexity on iPad Pros with only 4GB of RAM. But we are led to believe any iPad Pro can do that.

So yeah a must have in 2020.

6GB RAM or 8
full speed Thunderbolt 3
and a 10-bit IPS Panel 120Hz Promotion 500nits HDR10 with Quantum Dots.

pretty sure the extra 2GB of Ram on the 1TB’s are only used for the storage and apps can’t access it
 

Hym tix

macrumors 6502
Sep 21, 2012
255
321
The number of users who would benefit might be very small. It includes those who do large video projects in a pro level video editor like LumaFusion. It also includes music production. Producing a complete song on iOS with audio tracks, MIDI tracks, full suite of live effects, mastering, etc.

There is no data set to prove the benefit of a soft reset that I’m aware of. But it is common knowledge among those users that these demanding tasks and apps run better after a soft reset (like recommended here) or a hard reboot. Less crashing, less hang ups, more responsive app performance. In the case of music production it is absolutely dependent on RAM, due to the documented fact that audio unit plugins in iOS have a maximum allowable RAM allotment. (300mb or something like that), and if enough audio units are active you can reach iOS device capacity fairly quickly especially on devices with 2GB RAM total.

For the average iOS user and basic tasks RAM management might be useless, but a blanket statement like that is unhelpful for those of us who would benefit from it.
 

vish26

Suspended
Sep 17, 2012
341
23
The number of users who would benefit might be very small. It includes those who do large video projects in a pro level video editor like LumaFusion. It also includes music production. Producing a complete song on iOS with audio tracks, MIDI tracks, full suite of live effects, mastering, etc.

There is no data set to prove the benefit of a soft reset that I’m aware of. But it is common knowledge among those users that these demanding tasks and apps run better after a soft reset (like recommended here) or a hard reboot. Less crashing, less hang ups, more responsive app performance. In the case of music production it is absolutely dependent on RAM, due to the documented fact that audio unit plugins in iOS have a maximum allowable RAM allotment. (300mb or something like that), and if enough audio units are active you can reach iOS device capacity fairly quickly especially on devices with 2GB RAM total.

For the average iOS user and basic tasks RAM management might be useless, but a blanket statement like that is unhelpful for those of us who would benefit from it.

But in the first place have we established the fact ? that this indeed is the correct method to do a soft reset and indeed clear up RAM. i am in the first place i do not believe that this is the method to clear up the RAM !! or is it ?
 

Hazmat401

macrumors 6502
Dec 29, 2017
390
1,071
Delaware County, Pa
It’s not useless RAM management is real and a real issue. For example the beautiful presentation during the iPad 11 Pro keynote. Which used like 60 layers of some animated drawing editing program with butterflies animating was used only on the infamous 1TB iPad Pro which has 6GB RAM that same demo or design is not possible to that layer of complexity on iPad Pros with only 4GB of RAM. But we are led to believe any iPad Pro can do that.

So yeah a must have in 2020.

6GB RAM or 8
full speed Thunderbolt 3
and a 10-bit IPS Panel 120Hz Promotion 500nits HDR10 with Quantum Dots.

Yeah unless you don’t mind the thick rod a MBP 13 and 2 hours battery life.... battery tech just isn’t going there yet..... give it 5 years
 

Hym tix

macrumors 6502
Sep 21, 2012
255
321
But in the first place have we established the fact ? that this indeed is the correct method to do a soft reset and indeed clear up RAM. i am in the first place i do not believe that this is the method to clear up the RAM !! or is it ?

Yes This method is correct. It does what is advertised. It forces all apps to close, effectively clearing all non iOS system RAM usage.

for some reason Apple has chosen not to document this as a support article, so there’s no definitive proof. Im guessing this is probably because for average use there’s no need to clear RAM. There’s even an argument that it takes more resources(to force a reload of apps that otherwise are ready to open).
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It’s not useless RAM management is real and a real issue. For example the beautiful presentation during the iPad 11 Pro keynote. Which used like 60 layers of some animated drawing editing program with butterflies animating

Great example. Animation and multi-layer drawing apps require a lot of RAM. The app slows down if iOS is working on freeing up RAM from other apps. If you clear RAM first it will run better.
 
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ericwn

macrumors G5
Apr 24, 2016
12,113
10,903
The number of users who would benefit might be very small. It includes those who do large video projects in a pro level video editor like LumaFusion. It also includes music production. Producing a complete song on iOS with audio tracks, MIDI tracks, full suite of live effects, mastering, etc.

There is no data set to prove the benefit of a soft reset that I’m aware of. But it is common knowledge among those users that these demanding tasks and apps run better after a soft reset (like recommended here) or a hard reboot. Less crashing, less hang ups, more responsive app performance. In the case of music production it is absolutely dependent on RAM, due to the documented fact that audio unit plugins in iOS have a maximum allowable RAM allotment. (300mb or something like that), and if enough audio units are active you can reach iOS device capacity fairly quickly especially on devices with 2GB RAM total.

For the average iOS user and basic tasks RAM management might be useless, but a blanket statement like that is unhelpful for those of us who would benefit from it.

So there is no measurable data point and we are supposed to just take the word based on what? It’s a computer system. You either have a way to prove your point or the point is maybe just not in existence.
 

Hym tix

macrumors 6502
Sep 21, 2012
255
321
@ericwn Haha, welcome to iOS. Apple simply doesn’t bother to document these things. [its frustrating but all we can do is laugh] The best evidence is just trying it and seeing the difference.

I could care less if you believe me. Do it, or don’t. If clearing RAM makes no difference on your iPad, then maybe your apps and work flow are not demanding full use of available RAM. That’s good news.

I’m not going to get bothered if people don’t believe me, but I can say that I only mentioned specific apps and scenarios that I’ve personally experienced and clearing RAM helps me... and I thought it was worth sharing my experience that is different from the “its useless” idea.
 
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ericwn

macrumors G5
Apr 24, 2016
12,113
10,903
It’s common on MacRumors to have to back up your claims. I believe that’s even stated in the forum rules. It’s a simple necessity on other Internet forums too. All you need to provide - and that goes to all you RAM cleaning believers - is a measurable path.

Until that time we’ll file this under hot air.
 
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