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EvilEvil

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 8, 2007
1,243
2,090
New York City
Besides saving battery what happens when you turn off app refresh for all apps? What exactly are apps refreshing in the background?
 
You mean from the App store? Would they update if you open the app?
If you have app refresh turned off, the app store will throw up a red number from the MAS app, letting you know that one or more apps have updates available. And you if you want to update the apps that were flagged, you have to manually log into the MAS and either give approval for each app or click on update all.
 
You mean from the App store? Would they update if you open the app?

He means they won't be able to refresh their data in the background. For example, if you had a weather app and you disable background app refresh for it, it won't continuously update the weather for you in the background (i.e. when you're not using the app but it's still open in the multitasking app switcher).
 
He means they won't be able to refresh their data in the background. For example, if you had a weather app and you disable background app refresh for it, it won't continuously update the weather for you in the background (i.e. when you're not using the app but it's still open in the multitasking app switcher).

Thanks! That's what I needed to know. So if I launch the app will it manually update its data then?
 
Thanks! That's what I needed to know. So if I launch the app will it manually update its data then?
Yup, just like it did before background refresh was there. I keep it all off as I just have it update whenever I actually go to the app (not counting the usual push notifications).
 
I turn off the background app refresh on everything except my weather, step counter, and data usage monitoring apps. Most apps don't need constant refreshing if they're not in active use. Switching the app refresh off did help my battery life, and I've read that Facebook is particularly notorious for sucking up power in the background.
 
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