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Outdo13

macrumors newbie
Feb 25, 2010
10
0
Uhm, that's not all that different than what I do now. It's not necessary in iOS 11, for example, to use the red minus (I don't get a red x ??) but just swipe up on the desired app to close it.
Absolutely right. The central premise of this atticle is that the gesture has changed in OS 12—it has not, I have been using the swipe up to close an app on iPhone X since I got it on launch day!
 

leicaman

macrumors 6502
Jul 22, 2002
272
225
Carlsbad, CA
I don’t care what anyone says, I usually kill all the apps running each morning,pretty much from the day before and start clean..

Why keep apps running if they don’t need to be.

Because they are not running. They are suspended. Phones don't manage memory like a computer manages RAM. (They're even working on static RAM for computers that work more like the way iOS devices do.) Now to be clear, some apps are capable of running in the background. Most don't. But some like Facebook, Mapping apps, etc. can and do. But you control whether they do or not.

It takes more time to actually manage your apps individually, but you can indeed control whether they run in the background or not. And you can monitor what apps run in the background. iOS has the reporting features to show you what battery resources are being used by which apps.

You just have to be a savvy user.
 

shamino

macrumors 68040
Jan 7, 2004
3,443
271
Purcellville, VA
Restarting the device, in my opinion, does much more towards system resource recovery than force closing all apps ... Why waste the battery life completely reopening all apps all the time?
I'm amused. It's wasting battery life to reopen apps but not to restart the entire phone?

Why keep apps running if they don’t need to be.
When the system works as advertised, then they're not actually running. The problem is that it doesn't always work as advertised.

Backgrounded apps do consume precious DRAM ! ... i.e., the main memory that ALL software programs run in !
Apps running in the background are running. Apps that have been suspended can be ejected from memory at any time. A critical piece of app development is responding to the system events used by this process so you can commit state data to flash and then recover from it when the app is restarted.

Just to be clear, I am talking about apps that have entered a suspended state, not apps in a background state. The different app states are explained here: https://developer.apple.com/library...e.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40007072-CH2-SW1

Background: "The app is in the background and executing code. Most apps enter this state briefly on their way to being suspended. However, an app that requests extra execution time may remain in this state for a period of time. In addition, an app being launched directly into the background enters this state instead of the inactive state. For information about how to execute code while in the background, see Background Execution."

Suspended: "The app is in the background but is not executing code. The system moves apps to this state automatically and does not notify them before doing so. While suspended, an app remains in memory but does not execute any code. When a low-memory condition occurs, the system may purge suspended apps without notice to make more space for the foreground app."
All completely correct. The problem is that sometimes apps are running in the background when they're not being used and are not doing anything (visible to us), so they drain battery for no (apparent) good reason.

I think Apple could do us all a favor if they would provide some indication (maybe on the task switcher screen) to indicate the state of each app. Maybe icons for "running (foreground)", "running (background)", "suspended" and "terminated". This way we can immediately see what the state is and kill an app if it's (for example) running when we think it should be suspended.

If Apple is concerned about the beauty of the interface, they can make this indication a configurable option. Maybe under some "advanced" or "developer" system settings panel.

It doesn't matter if an app is Backgrounded OR Suspended ... apps allocate "objects" in memory (i.e., DRAM) ... those objects are NOT DE-allocated (by the app OR by iOS) when an app transitions into the Background State OR the Suspended State.
Actually, suspended apps can be ejected from memory if the memory is needed by a foreground app.

According to Apple:
"When a low-memory condition occurs, the system may purge suspended apps without notice to make more space for the foreground app.​

Facebook bypassed app suspension by playing silent audio. They were caught doing this shady practice and supposedly "fixed" it. Google was doing something similar with YouTube and supposedly "fixed" it too.

Very few apps do this and you can tell which apps are doing it by checking background activity in battery info. I would say force closing Youtube, Facebook, and Google Maps should be enough.
The problem here is that we don't know which apps still do this. And checking battery usage history only helps after your battery has been drained and you want to figure out after the fact what caused it.

If we could see the state of each app, then we would know before we've lost all our battery time.

Personally, I think Apple should look for apps that cheat like this and keep them out of the App Store, but until then, there really is no good way to know (without having already been burned enough to figure it out on your own) if an app is violating the rules.
 

leicaman

macrumors 6502
Jul 22, 2002
272
225
Carlsbad, CA
I'm amused. It's wasting battery life to reopen apps but not to restart the entire phone?

When the system works as advertised, then they're not actually running. The problem is that it doesn't always work as advertised.

Apps running in the background are running. Apps that have been suspended can be ejected from memory at any time. A critical piece of app development is responding to the system events used by this process so you can commit state data to flash and then recover from it when the app is restarted.

All completely correct. The problem is that sometimes apps are running in the background when they're not being used and are not doing anything (visible to us), so they drain battery for no (apparent) good reason.

I think Apple could do us all a favor if they would provide some indication (maybe on the task switcher screen) to indicate the state of each app. Maybe icons for "running (foreground)", "running (background)", "suspended" and "terminated". This way we can immediately see what the state is and kill an app if it's (for example) running when we think it should be suspended.

If Apple is concerned about the beauty of the interface, they can make this indication a configurable option. Maybe under some "advanced" or "developer" system settings panel.

Actually, suspended apps can be ejected from memory if the memory is needed by a foreground app.

According to Apple:
"When a low-memory condition occurs, the system may purge suspended apps without notice to make more space for the foreground app.​

The problem here is that we don't know which apps still do this. And checking battery usage history only helps after your battery has been drained and you want to figure out after the fact what caused it.

If we could see the state of each app, then we would know before we've lost all our battery time.

Personally, I think Apple should look for apps that cheat like this and keep them out of the App Store, but until then, there really is no good way to know (without having already been burned enough to figure it out on your own) if an app is violating the rules.

I like your idea about an indicator for status of an app's use of resources that is current, but the tracking of battery usage does not require the battery to be drained. How would you see it if the battery is dead and your phone is a virtual brick?
 

shamino

macrumors 68040
Jan 7, 2004
3,443
271
Purcellville, VA
I like your idea about an indicator for status of an app's use of resources that is current, but the tracking of battery usage does not require the battery to be drained. How would you see it if the battery is dead and your phone is a virtual brick?
Well, not completely drained, of course.

My point is that the battery usage report shows a historic log of usage after the fact. It does not show you current usage - what is consuming power at the moment (or just before) you looked.

A report of usage for the past 24 hours is useful, but it's hard to tell from that report if the drain was due to your active use of the app (which is generally OK) or due to background processing (which is bad if it's unexpected.)

Ideally, I'd like to take a look at some panel to show me "what is consuming my battery right now". If I see Facebook (for example) on that list when I last used it over an hour ago, then it's clear where the problem is.
 

OlliFlamme

macrumors 6502
Jan 2, 2018
287
249
Sweden
Well, not completely drained, of course.

My point is that the battery usage report shows a historic log of usage after the fact. It does not show you current usage - what is consuming power at the moment (or just before) you looked.

A report of usage for the past 24 hours is useful, but it's hard to tell from that report if the drain was due to your active use of the app (which is generally OK) or due to background processing (which is bad if it's unexpected.)

Ideally, I'd like to take a look at some panel to show me "what is consuming my battery right now". If I see Facebook (for example) on that list when I last used it over an hour ago, then it's clear where the problem is.
I totally agree! This as well as the control centre swipe from the top made me regret buying the iPhone X, up to the point that I sold it to get rid of it. I then instantly bought a new copy of it's predecessor that I had sold: the iPhone 7Plus. Ridiculous, yes, absolutely! But, I have been using that one after having had the X for about 5 months now, and never regretted it.

It's sad, but I hate the form factor of the X and the subsequent models that just came out.
 
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