Q: How do I shut down or close apps?

Double-tapping the Home button will bring up the running app's icons along with an app screenshot "card" above the icon. Tap-drag the app's -card- (NOT the icon) up and off the screen.

You don't have to do anything. The system manages resources and memory for you.

If you double-click on the Home button, you will see a list of Recently used apps. You can remove an app from the list by dragging it up, but it's really unnecessary.

A more effective method in that case is to Reset your device: Hold down the Wake/Sleep and Home buttons until the Apple logo appears. This seems to resolve all sorts of issues and does not result in loss of any data.

NewbMacUser wrote:

 

Okay I just did this, but when the iPad Mini had 'rebooted' all of my apps were still open when I double touched the 'Home' button.

Those are not open apps, they are recently used apps. Most apps are not doing anything in the background. "Closing" them does nothing useful unless the particular app is malfunctioning.

This article may help you understand what's actually going on:

Understand multitasking and background activity on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch - Apple Support

The only apps that would be doing much in the background would be music apps, navigation apps. But, as noted above, iOS will manage its resources quite well without any intervention.

Keep in mind that, unless you have a paid subscription, Evernote has to pull things down from its servers every time you need them (it does then cache them for a while). If you have a slow connection or a very large database, it can be slow. Messing with trying to close apps won't fix that.

No apps run in the backgroud. It's impossible.

Edit. Except as Meg St. Clair pointed out the music app.

bobseufert is wrong. Apps can run in the background, and when you close them, it does help your device run faster. To close the apps running in the background, just double-click the Home button, and swipe up on each app to close it. When you've closed all of the apps (or most of them, anyway), your device should be more responsive.

As previously stated: The Apps revealed by double tapping the Home button are recently used Apps, they are NOT running in the background, unless specifically designed to do so. Very, very few run in the background.

a098 wrote:

 

bobseufert is wrong. Apps can run in the background, and when you close them, it does help your device run faster. To close the apps running in the background, just double-click the Home button, and swipe up on each app to close it. When you've closed all of the apps (or most of them, anyway), your device should be more responsive.

Actually, you don't seem to know what you're talking about. A very limited number of apps do anything in the background. I know it makes some people feel better to spend time "closing" apps. The placebo effect is very powerful. I can see from your other posts that you do not yet have a great deal of technical knowledge. Until you're up to speed, it's better to stick to asking questions.