Unable to close open windows on iPad
I cannot remove open windows on iPad. No matter what I do they will not disappear. iPad has many open files. This never happen to me.
iPad mini, iPadOS 18
5 replies
From where are you attempting to close an open App window? Please also confirm whether your iPad has iPadOS 18 installed (as suggested by the tags appended to your post), or iPadOS 26.
With either major version installed, you should be able to close an App from the App Switcher / Exposé view. Simply swipe-up from the bottom edge to the centre of the screen - and pause briefly before lifting your finger from the screen; each of your open Apps will be shown as a thumbnail, the most recently accessed to the right of the screen. To force-close an App, simply swipe the associated thumbnail off the top of the screen.
If you have updated to iPadOS 26, Apps displayed in an App window can be closed using the traffic-light button seen at top-left of the App window. Tap the button to expand the control:
- tap the red button to close the App and its window.
- tap the yellow button to minimise the window but leave the App running.
- tap the green button to maximise the window to full screen.
Full-screen Apps can be similarly controlled by swiping-down from the top-edge of the screen to expose the new top menu bar and the traffic-light button. Again, tap this button to expand the control:
That advice might help if swiping up was working. Swiping up to close an app is definitely NOT working. I tried restarting to no avail. Is there a way to restart that clears some settings or might help with this issue? I have about 20 apps open and my iPad performance is deteriorating rapidly
No. Tried it.
Ok. Not sure what I did, aside from posting on here, but swiping up is working now! Maybe it just took a while after restart.
Unable to close open windows on iPad