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What apps are really worth turning on Background App Refresh?

gordon1234 said:
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The battery usage section under usage in settings will mark any tasks that used battery as a result of app refresh with the words "background activity," which can be very helpful. I'm assuming this includes other forms of background activity such as usage from GPS navigation, music playback, push notifications, etc, but I'm not sure.

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It does! I've never noticed :) thanks.
 
I have it turned on for a few apps such as OneDrive, DataMan, OmniFocus 2 and Delivery Status touch. The BAR only works when you are on WiFi/cellular network and when the app is running in the background. For OmniFocus 2 having BAR is crucial since this will allow it to sync a lot quicker. The same applies to OneDrive. DataMan has to have this enabled to work properly. I simply check what BAR does for that particular app. If it does very little or is more like a convenience then I mostly won't enable it.
 
I leave these constantly on:

Waze, YNAB , Wunderlist, Myfitnesspal, Data Usage Pro, 1Password, Dropbox, Facebook Messenger
 
Casts - so any large (100 MB+) podcasts will download automatically in the background rather than waiting for me to do it manually. Some podcasts I like refresh overnight or late in the afternoon and I wouldn't have time to download them manually before heading to or leaving work otherwise.

Pocket - so any stories I save from other apps are automatically downloaded rather than needing me to manually refresh/open the app.

Tweetbot - so any new tweets are automatically downloaded without me needing to refresh.

Basically, those 3 apps as those are ones where I'd like the content to be available on my commute (some of which is underground so offline) without needing manual intervention.
 
gordon1234 said:
No. A good example of it being really helpful is Dropbox' Carousel app for auto uploading photos without background refresh, photos only get uploaded if you remember to open the app when connected to WiFi after taking photos. With background refresh, they upload on their own without you needing to do anything.
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Really annoying this only works with the Carousel app installed. With just Dropbox installed photos will only upload when Dropbox is open.
 
gordon1234 said:
You shouldn't need this for anything that tracks movement. In fact, it would be quite useless for this since apps have no control over when they actually get refreshed. It could be hours before an app wakes up. There are other APIs for location tracking that can wake up an app at a specific location, as well as location APIs that allow an app to simply keep running indefinitely in the background (only for real time voice navigation purposes.)

BAR is only really useful for apps that need to either send or receive data from a server in cases when this is not time sensitive.
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I was thinking more like Waze where you relay data such as time spent in traffic and the like. Now that I think about it, there probably isn't much of a reason for them to do this live anyways.
 
IMO, Background App Refresh isn't worth it for any app I have. I have just turned it off. I use Dropbox, but I'll just go in and let it refresh. I would think it would suck down too much power (which it did under 7) and the battery impact isn't worth it.
 
Weathers the only on I use background app refresh for cuz when I pull down for that notification center I want my **** up to date. For everything else I turn it off as I feel its not needed.
 
freeskier93 said:
Really annoying this only works with the Carousel app installed. With just Dropbox installed photos will only upload when Dropbox is open.
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What happens if you have both installed and both set to upload photos? Do you get duplicates?

I might just get the Carousel app since it doesn't need location services even though it's been stated in this thread that it doesn't affect battery life significantly, it's still annoying to look at.
 
rza49311 said:
been looking for a good data usage monitor app while on wifi. which are you using?
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I Don't think anyone responded...I use DataMan Next.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dataman-next-track-data-usage/id592962356?mt=8

I like it because it tracks Cellular and WiFi usage. and has warnings and a Notification Widget to check on it.

One unfortunate is my wife and I share mobile Data but I think it only checks each phone singularly. but I can always check ATT app for combined.
 
BJMRamage said:
I Don't think anyone responded...I use DataMan Next.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dataman-next-track-data-usage/id592962356?mt=8

I like it because it tracks Cellular and WiFi usage. and has warnings and a Notification Widget to check on it.

One unfortunate is my wife and I share mobile Data but I think it only checks each phone singularly. but I can always check ATT app for combined.
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Thanks, found my data manager yesterday and it's free but may upgrade if need be.
 
rza49311 said:
been looking for a good data usage monitor app while on wifi. which are you using?
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I use My Data Manager. Very useful app for keeping track of my data usage, and where and when I use data.

The app used to have a lot more utility when it could also monitor the data usage by individual app. But, Apple changed the Terms of Service sometime before iOS 7 came out and forced the developer to remove that feature. I kept the old version on my iPad for a while until I accidentally updated the app.
 
If you are an active last.fm user, then you must know that scrobbling tracks to it is essential.

I use Scrobl and it periodically sends played tracks to last.fm with BAR activated.
 
BJMRamage said:
I think DataMan goes free every so often. I didn't pay for it. the PRO version looks nicer but not sure of $5 nicer.
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Thanks for the heads up. I'll keep an eye on it.

Woochifer said:
I use My Data Manager. Very useful app for keeping track of my data usage, and where and when I use data.

The app used to have a lot more utility when it could also monitor the data usage by individual app. But, Apple changed the Terms of Service sometime before iOS 7 came out and forced the developer to remove that feature. I kept the old version on my iPad for a while until I accidentally updated the app.
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Yeah I wish it had by app usage. Obviously I can use IOS to tracking cellular usage by app but would be nice to have wifi usage by app somewhere.
 
rza49311 said:
Yeah I wish it had by app usage. Obviously I can use IOS to tracking cellular usage by app but would be nice to have wifi usage by app somewhere.
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It's a little bit different. iOS 8 tracks the battery usage by app.

My Data Manager used to track the actual data usage. It was a good tool to see which apps might be phoning home a lot and/or chewing through an inordinate amount of data. Unfortunately, Apple also saw this (and several other monitoring apps) as a potential security hole, so the feature got removed.

My Data Manager tried to get around this a few months ago by introducing a feature that tracks the amount of time spent with each app. But, Apple flagged that feature as well on security and privacy grounds, and had it removed from subsequent versions.
 
Woochifer said:
It's a little bit different. iOS 8 tracks the battery usage by app.

My Data Manager used to track the actual data usage. It was a good tool to see which apps might be phoning home a lot and/or chewing through an inordinate amount of data. Unfortunately, Apple also saw this (and several other monitoring apps) as a potential security hole, so the feature got removed.

My Data Manager tried to get around this a few months ago by introducing a feature that tracks the amount of time spent with each app. But, Apple flagged that feature as well on security and privacy grounds, and had it removed from subsequent versions.
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You can see cellular data usage by app lower down on the page at Settings > Cellular in iOS (at least as of iOS 7).
 
3bs said:
What happens if you have both installed and both set to upload photos? Do you get duplicates?

I might just get the Carousel app since it doesn't need location services even though it's been stated in this thread that it doesn't affect battery life significantly, it's still annoying to look at.
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When you install Carousel it takes over the photo uploading, so no you won't get duplicates.
 
dacreativeguy said:
What real benefit does BAR really provide? For most apps, like games and tools, I don't need anything from them when I'm not using them. All the news and social apps have push notifications from the server, so I get info regardless of whether the app is refreshing in the background. So is the only benefit of BAR to save me a few seconds of refresh time when I open an app?

What apps do you deem worthy and valuable of background refreshing on your phone? I haven't been able to find any such lists or recommendations.
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I have it turned on for ALL my apps that can use it.

P.S.

Battery has not been impacted at all by this.
 
From Apple's support site (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4211)

"To save battery, apps running in the background refresh at certain times, like when your device is connected to Wi-Fi, plugged into a power source, or being actively used. iOS learns patterns based on how you use your device and tries to predict when an app running in the background should refresh. It also learns when the device is typically inactive, like at night, to help keep apps from refreshing when you're not using your device. Apps can also schedule background refreshing based on your location.

To use this setting, tap Settings > General > Background App Refresh."

I used to have it enabled for only a few apps (messaging apps mostly) but after reading this I've enabled it for all apps that support it and haven't noticed any change in battery life on my 5S
 
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