ios7 keeps refreshing apps after switching

Thanks for trying the Genius Bar route again rick7. I suppose it makes some sense if apps with Background App Refresh enabled have precedence over other suspended apps when the OS decides what apps to terminate, such as in a low memory condition (although I can't find any Apple developer documentation to back up this claim).

However, as helveticum says, we already know that the setting doesn't fix the issue. In fact, I first noticed the issue when using an app that had Background App Refresh enabled (Facebook).

I have a iPhone 5s too and I can't seem to duplicate the problem there. On my iPad mini I can every time. I will not say that it does not exist because I don't multi-task on my phone that much, mainly the iPad.

Solarc, that's interesting that you don't have the problem (at all?) on your iPhone 5S. I wonder if anyone can point us to any reviews of iOS 7 where our problem is discussed. I've been puzzled at not being able to find any. A technical writer/reviewer with access to more resources might have a better handle on exactly which devices have the problem and how bad.

Helveticum, the more I think about it the more I wonder that when he told me it's "working as designed" maybe he was actually and tragically telling me the truth. Maybe our problem is a downstream consequence of some consciously-designed feature(s) of iOS 7, and Apple just didn't think users would object to the collateral damage it caused to our devices' multi-tasking capability. Trying to save battery life maybe?

The way the technician explained it to me it sounded as if with iOS 7 Apple decided to put the onus on the individual app developer to deal with multitasking. iOS can do some kind of pseudo-multiasking but in iOS 7 the app has to add code to deal with it, and it's done via Background App Refresh. But after the research I've done I now think my technician's analysis was wrong. I think he was conflating two different things, maybe two different aspects of multitasking: what the OS has to do in order to guarantee smooth app-switching, and what the OS has to do to allow an app to run continuously in the background.

If it is indeed 'worked as designed' it would be deeply disappointing. However, what makes me feel it is still a bug is the reaction that some of the people on our sister thread had heard from Apple who appeared to have recognised the problem.

However, this problem is so slippery and hard to grasp and describe that there is plenty of room for miscommunication along the way. I do though like your thinking along the lines that perhaps each app has to be changed as well as iOS 7 before we have a solution.

We can however simplify the problem to the use of just two Apple apps, I.e. Safari and iBooks (as per a post I made a few days ago). One would imagine that these two would be enabled to handle the pseudo-background methodology. So this still leaves a problem with iOS 7.

It would be perverse for Apple to cripple the multi-tasking ability of iOS (such as it is) though if battery is seen as a significant metric then *perhaps* I can understand it (Btw, I cannot use the advanced editor using Safari on my iPad on an Apple site - sigh). In which case do we end up with a turbo mode that uses more battery power but keeps a full status of the background apps? But I don't think Apple goes for this low level tweeking in iOS.

It makes me wonder whether spare user-memory could be used for saving the apps statuses. It might be marginally slower but highly flexible - though I guess this would be a major break from the way things are done in iOS.

Rick7 - I just spent 40 mins surfing and switching on my iphone 5s and I could NOT make any app refresh. eBay had been open for about a week and I went to it and it did something that may have been a refresh but definitely not like my mini or regular ipad does. I then turn OFF background refresh with NO change from any app. They all kept there place with no screen flash or refresh.

I have also noticed on my 5s there is no or very little delay when switching to other apps before I can control them. On my mini when changing between apps it takes a few seconds before I can scroll or select any feature of the app. Anyone else notice this?

I think this observation my speak to the comments that the ios was designed for new device and maybe it is referencing different sectors of the storage mechanism and the older devices don't reference the same way. Also, I think this discredits the idea the app owner has to do more as all my apps on mini and 5s are same version and act totally different.

Any feedback?

I suspect Apple is somehow making money off the fact that iOS devices are hitting web pages. Every time your device refreshes a page, it increases the percentage of iOS hit stats. This is the only logical explanation. They don't consider this a bug or problem. The only way Apple is going to listen to us is buy hitting them in their wallet. And since were already deep into apple devices, we're screwed. People are so in love with Apple that they will tolerate this problem as just the way things are.

Paulfromstone, when you say "when the OS decides what apps to terminate", by "terminate" do you mean "force to refresh"? I'm not sure that any apps are terminated here, but maybe you're using the word in a different sense. Thanks.

Helveticum -- yes, right on. I actually got the "battery life" idea from Bardzo on our sister thread -- which I think has now been joined to ours. Maybe Apple saw that iOS 7's ability to more easily allow apps to run in the background (not so aptly called Background App Refresh) was going to require more battery power. They looked at iOS 6 and asked, "OK, what aspect of iOS 6 multi-tasking can we jettison that won't hurt the users too much? How about the ability to hold an apps's state while the user is working elsewhere?" And here we are.

Or maybe it's not battery juice that's the issue here, but rather system memory. We still haven't seen rigorous statistics comparing the iPad Air and iPhone 5S vs. the older models like my iPad 2 and iPhone 4.

I'm all for the "turbo mode" you suggest, with a setting to turn it on or off. But battery drainage is less of a problem for me than it is for other people because half the time I work with my iPad plugged in to the charger.

Solarc, thanks for this (I wrote my previous comment before seeing yours). Does this suggest that it may not be an issue of battery power but rather system memory? I don't know if Apple releases these figures formally but we've heard reports that the iPhone 5 and iPad Air have (twice?) as much system memory as the respective earlier models.

Though I think I've seen reports here of people with the iPad Air having our problem? Or maybe not. We need a tech writer to keep track of all this.

Can you elaborate more on when you say that newer models may be "referencing different sectors of the storage mechanism"?

Very important to note that the same apps act differently on your two different devices -- thank you for this.

I received an email from the technician at the Genius Bar with this link for developers and speaks in depth about how multitasking works:

https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/iphone/conceptual/iphoneos programmingguide/ManagingYourApplicationsFlow/ManagingYourApplicationsFlow.html

He also sends this article from the public Apple Knowledge Base which talks about multitasking in layman's terms: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4211

By "terminate" I mean that my suspicion is that the OS is terminating inactive apps for some reason, so when you try to switch back to them, they have to restart (and restore their previous state as best they can - how near this is to how you left it varies from app to app) - the "refresh". I did propose that this was all due to iOS 7 using more RAM than iOS 6, but my rudimentary testing suggested that they're pretty similar, which does give me hope that there is an issue that can be fixed.

Hi there, I've been following the other thread about the subject on the iPad for and did some reading on here too.

Taking into account what the Genius said to you, Rick7, and your suggestion about the problem being memory related, I did some tests on my iPhone 4s. I'd definately say that the problem is memory related. At first I tried simply switching on the Refresh on the Background setting, to no avail. Now take into account that I consider the problem rather severe in my case. Almost any action, switching apps or going back a page in safari takes a refresh.

After thinking the problem is memory related, I tried switching off my device, which as you knows frees up a lot of RAM space. And how about that. No refreshing whatsoever, at least not by Apple apps (maybe your genius was right about the setting in other apps, as an extra to the problem.)

As the problem doesn't occur on newer devices, I'm rather worried we'll never get a solution.

Because honestly, Apple has not been the top dog in keeping older devices compatible.

I'm right here hoping with you guys, but I know for sure that in the time coming I'll be switching my iPhone off a lot more!

Completely tunring off the device for a couple of minutes and then turning back on seems to have temporarily helped. I do have free RAM (138 MB at this second) and could get 17 tabs on a web browser out with no refresh before I got disinterested. I definitely think this is a memory issue, but the question now is why are some things staying in memory and how do they get ramped up so quickly. I've reset a few times before this, so the memory seems to get filled up quick and never releases. If the memory could release (which can be done by software) this issue may resolve. I have an old app that can actually completely take things out of memory, so I'll wait unitl this happens again and try the app to see if it clears it up.

I wonder if the iPad handles memory differently than the iPhone. I did a full reset on my iPad 2 and am not sure I see a change.