Should I open all my iPhone apps and leave them running?

• Apps are not running in the background, they are suspended. The battery savings comes from not having to relaunch the app, so no it does not make sense to launch every app first.
• Apps that are suspended can be removed at anytime by the OS, so they are not guaranteed to remain there. Less frequently used apps will be removed first when those resources are needed by the OS..
• The only time you would ever need to Force Close an app is when it is frozen or not working. That is very rarely the case so there should not be anything to be confused about. I can't remember the last time I had to Force Close an app, maybe 3 or 4 months ago.

Limnos wrote:

Mac Jim ID wrote:

The only time you would ever need to Force Close an app is when it is frozen or not working. That is very rarely the case so there should not be anything to be confused about. I can't remember the last time I had to Force Close an app, maybe 3 or 4 months ago.

My Phonak app is misbehaved. I have contacted the developer several times about this but they don't even believe me (or simply do not care) when I tell them that their app is progressively storing "app data" on my iPhone to the tune of several hundred MB per day. I even have all auxiliary services disabled like providing usage feedback, so I have no idea what could be taking up that amount of storage (and that would be a huge amount of usage data unless it is recording everything within earshot). Once it got to 10GB on a 64GB iPhone.

I need that app and there is no substitute, so I have taken to force quitting it when not actually in the process of doing some configuration. Even now I have to delete the app entirely every few weeks so it clears all app data, then redownload it.

So there could be times when force quitting is merited.

I tend to close apps which I'm not using and won't need for a while. I especially close Meta Apps (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp) as they often don't just get suspended, but continue to use system resources when not actively being used. I will from time to time check battery usage and if I see an app is using more battery than I'm using the app, it gets closed.

Mac Jim ID wrote:

The only time you would ever need to Force Close an app is when it is frozen or not working. That is very rarely the case so there should not be anything to be confused about. I can't remember the last time I had to Force Close an app, maybe 3 or 4 months ago.

My Phonak app is misbehaved. I have contacted the developer several times about this but they don't even believe me (or simply do not care) when I tell them that their app is progressively storing "app data" on my iPhone to the tune of several hundred MB per day. I even have all auxiliary services disabled like providing usage feedback, so I have no idea what could be taking up that amount of storage (and that would be a huge amount of usage data unless it is recording everything within earshot). Once it got to 10GB on a 64GB iPhone.

I need that app and there is no substitute, so I have taken to force quitting it when not actually in the process of doing some configuration. Even now I have to delete the app entirely every few weeks so it clears all app data, then redownload it.

So there could be times when force quitting is merited.

“Quit and reopen an app on iPad

If an app isn’t responding, you can quit it and then reopen it to try and resolve the issue. (Typically, there’s no reason to quit an app; quitting it doesn’t save battery power, for example.)

1. To quit an app, open Exposé, then swipe up on the app.
2. To reopen the app, tap it on the Home Screen, App Library, or in the Dock.

If quitting and reopening the app doesn’t solve your problem, try restarting iPad.”

Quit and reopen an app on iPad - Apple Support

This is considered a best practice, but it’s not immutable. Quiting apps as a routine is unnecessary as Apple confirms above. However, like any guideline, some common sense is need to appraise some situations where it’s necessary to force quiet an app. It’s not something to obsess over. But it’s a poor habit to get into unless conserving battery capacity is unnecessary in your daily iPhone usage.