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ios7 keeps refreshing apps after switching

I dont know if this is a new "feature", but it's really annoying.


If i have, say, an open webpage in Safari, and say i've scrolled down the page and zoomed in to a section i'm interested in, then switch to Mail to get some info, and then switch back to the webpage, the webpage will refresh and take me back to the top.

It's REALLY annoying.


Why can't it just stay where it was, like in ios6??


Is anyone else having this issue? Can anyone think of a fix?

iPhone 4S, iOS 7.0.2

Posted on Sep 27, 2013 12:16 PM

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Apr 16, 2017 11:14 AM

Just adding my issues here in hopes it gets attention from the powers that be


My Experience is as follows


Games - take your focus off the game and come back later and you have been refreshed out of a life and progress on current level. (I'll admit to playing Candy Crush when I have 5 idle minutes here and there )

Forms - Leave to get info on another page or app and come back to find your form emptied of previous entries.

Downloading Apps . take the focus off the app and it does not download in background as it did previously. Refocus to apps and page is refreshed to home page.

Facebook - since this is always on in background you may take a call, do work, etc and come back and now have refreshed what you left off with.


It is quite irritating and can not be called advantageous to the end user experience in any way. Maybe this frees up memory and makes the phone faster but at what cost?

1,052 replies

Dec 24, 2013 4:04 PM in response to Hugoniot

Hugoniot, welcome to the thread. You're absolutely right -- because of this bug/design flaw, iOS7 has severely degraded the experience of using an iPad. It's horrible and it's tragic. The scariest part about it is that Apple has been completely silent on the whole issue. I've contacted them, both through a visit to the Genius Bar at my local Apple store and by opening a help ticket on Apple's corporate web site. The technicians I've dealt with there have initially seemed like they want to help but at some point the interest seems to stop. Most recently, I was told I'd get a call back from the person I'd been working with, but never did. Two subsequent phone messages I left for him about my case have gone unreturned.


I think our only hope is that every single person on this thread does four things:


Dec 25, 2013 1:48 PM in response to rick7

Rick7-


Good ideas. I will follow through and give Apple a call and visit a genius in the next few days.


I have tried to reproduce this with my Mom's iPad 3, but I can't. Her iPad seems to work like it should.


I also wanted to point out that one of the earlier "genius" comments was that Background App Refresh needs to be on. None of the iWork apps show up in the Background App Refresh options, but they all reset almost every time I use them. Just another datapoint to show that the genius was no Einstein.

Dec 26, 2013 10:43 AM in response to rick7

I've just seen an email re a post to this thread by Merid but when I tried to follow it it said I wasn't authorised. Not sure what's happening. In case this authorisation is a problem for others, I'll repeat the gist of it. He referred to a post that suggested the problem may be solved in 7.1


http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1684239


This could be excellent news but I remain guardedly optimistic.


Rick7, thanks for laying out all the options for increasing the awareness of this problem. I could add one more: link to this thread from other iOS bug threads. As we all know iOS 7 is riddled with problems and I was on another thread taking about the auto-correct mess with apostrophes:


https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5562292?answerId=24241727022#24241727022


In my comment, I added a link back here to encourage more to this thread. While I know that not everyone has the time or inclination to formally log the problem, the more that are on the thread the higher that number will be.

Dec 26, 2013 1:13 PM in response to Bardzo

Yep my post was removed because they did not like me posting about beta versions what a joke I was just pointing out that it looked like it was fixed. I would not have to if they had this 3 month old problem sorted out by now.


I am getting sick of using my apple devices now becaus of this problem and if it's not sorted out soon I am going to look at other types of products. Removing my post has annoyed me even more.


I have herd iOS 7.1 is not even coming out for another 3 months and I can not live with it in this state now so they better release a 7.06 version or something to fix this problem as I am getting trick of it now.


Apple instead of removing posts fix your buggy iOS 7 software.

Dec 26, 2013 6:07 PM in response to Hugoniot

"I have tried to reproduce this with my Mom's iPad 3, but I can't. Her iPad seems to work like it should."


Hugoniot, that's interesting that you couldn't reproduce our problem on another iPad. One of the biggest mysteries for me in this whole issue is whether we're only a small subset of iPad owners or if it's a universal problem that other iPad (and iPhone) owners just don't seem to notice or care about or conceptually understand. If as you suggest it's not universal, then ... I don't even know where to go with that information. It certainly does seem that Apple is treating this issue (if they are in fact dealing with it) like it only happens on some devices and not others.


Is it possible that the apps on the other iPad are in fact resetting just like on our iPad 2's but that the resetting happens much more quickly on the iPad 3 because of it having more memory?

Dec 26, 2013 9:32 PM in response to rick7

The issue isn't the speed of the reset only, it is also the data loss that happens when Safari refreshes and you have a form partially completed. If it happened instantaneously, ipad 3 users would still lose their spot and likely notice the bug as some point.


One poster in the beta forum said that iOS 7 is working exactly right when it refreshes after another app launches or you go to the home screen & back. That is absolutely wrong but that guy is so entrenched in that position it is worthless to argue. If that were the case, then I would have noticed in iOS 6 that every time I left Safari to look up a username/password in another app, Safari would have refreshed upon return...but it absolutely did not. I bounce between applications all the time. iOS 6 worked as expected. iOS 7, no.

Dec 26, 2013 11:39 PM in response to turfstuf

I'm facing the same problems here on my iPad2 and iPhone5 with iOS7. Without multitasking and in combination with the forced refresh the device is unusable.


General question though... Is it actually possible to downgrade the OS? Maybe something worth considering until v7.1 comes out and might fix that problem?

Dec 27, 2013 12:26 AM in response to sjmawer

I too suffer from this problem on my iPad 2 (Verizon 16GB) w/ iOS 7.0.4. I went into settings and turned OFF the Background App Refresh (BAR) completely and did a hard reset (home and power button for 10+ sec until Apple logo appears).


I then loaded the following Apps: Gmail, Safari, Messages, Chrome & Settings.


So far, no resetting between apps. This leads me to believe it is a progressive memory 'leakage' problem that might be managable (w/ resets) until a proper fix is made.


I'll keep you all posted here...

Dec 27, 2013 8:02 PM in response to ScottyBoyAZ

I have the same issue with my iPhone 4S

Now on iOS € multitasking is not exist. Only works on GPS app.

The other apps always reset.

I think that is only a low memory issue. And there will be a solution.

Please give us the possibility to downgrade.


After years of iPhone supremacy. I love iPhone.

I think that if the problem will not been solved as

soon as possible my next phone will be Android :

I need Multitasking !

Dec 27, 2013 8:18 PM in response to Miellino

This is my email sent to feedback, copy and do the same.

Object: multitasking iOS 7 - my last IPhone - next one Android



After upgrading to io7 I lost multitasking on my iPhone 4S !

Now on iOS € multitasking is not exist. Only works on GPS app.

The other apps always reset.

.

Please give us the possibility to downgrade, I need multitasking.

I have tried all solution of apple community support.

The problem remain. All my friends have the same issue. With 4/4S/5 IPad

Before iPhone was a computer substitute now I can't do anymore it

After years of iPhone supremacy. I loved and I love my iPhone.

I think that if the problem will not been solved as

soon as possible my next phone will be Android :

I need Multitasking !

Dec 30, 2013 1:08 PM in response to ScottyBoyAZ

Another voice affected, and it's seriously affected the usability of my iPad mini (2012) to me as well.


The memory analysis matches my own hypothesis, and disabling Background App Refresh could indeed help (I've just turned it off entirely to see if I notice an improvement): fundamentally, BAR must use more memory as it either allows ana pp to be resident or check for updates or act on received notifications. Whether or not it's a significant amount of memory is the question, though.


This, and the increased lag/responsiveness of the onscreen keyboard, are my two biggest annoyances with iOS 7. Does anybody know of an appropriate thread for the keyboard? It seems far less accurate for me to type at speed, with shifts and spaces both being misread more frequently than they were in iOS 6 (for me).

ios7 keeps refreshing apps after switching

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