Q: ios7 keeps refreshing apps after switching

iPhone 4 - iOS 7.0.4:

Cheers,

GB

This really is odd. I have an iPad 2 64GB (wifi only) running 7.0.4 and I don't see an entry for Safari in my settings. (I know that strictly speaking this is an iPhone thread but the app refresh problem can be found across all devices.)

Anyone else?

You are correct. This is not available on iPad. Bizarre.

It is really odd. I have an iPad 2 64BG as well as an iPhone 5 64GB running 7.0.4 and I do not have Safari as an entry in the background app refresh settings either.

GB,

The following has been true on my phone for a long time:

• Background App Refresh: Off completely, including all apps
• iCloud: Off Completely
• Photo Stream: Off Completely
• Siri: Disabled
• Reduce Motion: On

As you can see, this is a threadbare system. That said, another commentator said something about this issue being "random". It is not random at all and very easy to create. As demonstrated in my earlier memory tests, after a reboot time and/or usage show that iOS7 puts a lot in to locked system member and does not release that memory. When that happens (and I can get it to happen within minutes after a reboot just by opening up the right apps), app/page reload starts. iOS7 decides what should stays in active memory, and when the system is at 98% usage, that equals out to one web page or one active app, nothing else.

I am not sure your interest here, because everyone here has this issue. While some are reacting rather extremely thinking there are conspiracies or the like, this just appears to be bad programming choices that impact a large amount of the user base. Much of the user base may not care or only see the issue minimally and therefore do not notice as much, but this is happening. I am not sure your purpose or thoughts saying this does not happen or one switch fixes everything when it does not? Going through 18 pages of this thread you will see plenty of people have already done the items you suggest and thensome. Additionally, Apple support has not been able to provide solutions either in person or through the helpdesk, so I'm not sure why you are so flippant in believing there are simple solutions?

I would kindly ask you to rethink your tone with this group of frustrated people who have taken meticulous effort to document real examples and efforts to resolve this situation.

I am running iOS 7.0.4 on an iPhone 4s and iPad2. I also do not have the option of turning off Background App Refresh for Safari.

Interesting that for most of us, there is a global Background App Refresh on/off toggle, but not in Gail's image capture above.

Regardless, this is an issue of staggering annoyance on my phone and has rendered my iPad virtually unusable for work.

gail from maine wrote:

 

Settings>General>Background App Refresh>turn OFF Safari....

 

I just tested this and with this setting = ON, the page refreshes. With it set to = OFF, it goes back to exactly the same place I was on the Safari page....

 

GB

Incorrect. This has been discussed in this thread already.  This does not solve the issue.

gail from maine wrote:

 

iPhone 4 - iOS 7.0.4:

 

 

Cheers,

 

GB

What problem do you think this solves?  The problem is systemic through many apps, not just safari. And even this does not work as it's supposed to, refreshing pages when one switches back, regardless of above setting.

Suz Howells wrote:

 

I am running iOS 7.0.4 on an iPhone 4s and iPad2. I also do not have the option of turning off Background App Refresh for Safari.

 

Interesting that for most of us, there is a global Background App Refresh on/off toggle, but not in Gail's image capture above.

 

Regardless, this is an issue of staggering annoyance on my phone and has rendered my iPad virtually unusable for work.

I took a look at my devices, and I don't have it either, I did have it at one time, prior to 7.0.4. I could not tell you where or when it went, but this did not help the issue.

Suz Howells wrote: "Interesting that for most of us, there is a global Background App Refresh on/off toggle, but not in Gail's image capture above."

Suz, I think she has scrolled up a little. I'll bet she has the global setting too.

Eddie

Suz Howells wrote:

 

 

Interesting that for most of us, there is a global Background App Refresh on/off toggle, but not in Gail's image capture above.

 

Regardless, this is an issue of staggering annoyance on my phone and has rendered my iPad virtually unusable for work.

I agree with you on the problem, but what she's showing is scrolled up, you can repeat that if you have enough apps where scrolling is required.

I do not have a safari like she does, which raises an eyebrow.

@babsonnexus:

For me, the problem does not happen each and every time I switch between apps. Sometimes, I can switch out of the browser to another app, then switch back to the browser and still be logged in for example, but many times I cannot. As another person was saying in an earlier post, it seems to be related to the amount of time I spend away from the app that refreshes / reloads.

This “Flaw” or “Bug” or “Feature” is really driving me crazy. It totally disrupts the usability of my phone as a smart phone.

Apple’s failure to acknowledge this “Flaw” or “Bug” or “Feature” is very suspect. To me, it makes me believe Apple wants the “problem” to exist. They apparently have a vested interest in leaving it the way it is and pretending there is no problem.

What's so entirely frustrating is that it has not been acknoledged as a flaw. I even went to speak to a Genius in an Apple Store and they said they had never heard of the issue before.

It's made my iPhone about 25% as useful as it was on iOS6. What I would do to be able to downgrade back to an OS that worked, in my opinion, flawlessly.

It's most frustrating when using Google Maps, popping into Safari to check a destinatation (IE: to see the difference between two places), switching back to Google Maps and it restarting from the Google Maps logo and losing all waypoints.

Even more frustrating was using it in the gym today. I just bought a heartrate monitor. Switching between the app I use to monitor my weights, and the heartrate monitor app meant that it started a new gym session each time I switched out.

From experiencing issues before with Apple products, it's obvious they do not acknoledge issues unless it's effecting a signifcant part of the user base. My hunch is that this issue is, but that not everyone is a 'power user'. IE: uses more than one app at a time.

I periodically watch 'iPad Today', a video podcast hosted by Leo Laporte and Sarah Lane (http://twit.tv/ipt). Many of you will have heard of Leo Laporte, who Wikipedia describes as 'an American technology broadcaster, author, and entrepreneur'. He is certainly very well known in tech circles.

It only occurred to me today that this might be a useful forum to get our problem better known. I seem to recall that at least one of you has already tried to contact another tech site. It would help me if you could post the statement of the problem that you used in your email.

We need a clear, succinct, easy to understand statement of the issue and simple steps to reproduce the problem using standard apps. We know that this can easily be demonstrated on an iPad 2 or an older iPhone and that should be sufficient to interest Leo Laporte given that Apple still sells the iPad 2. However, is it also easy to force the phenomenon on the iPad Air, new iPad mini and iPhone 5?

Should we concentrate on demonstrating the problem on older kit rather than risk diluting the effect? The problem is that I simply don't have a grasp of how significant the problem is on new (A7) devices.

We want to go for maximum impact but with minimum hysteria. I will start on a statement of the problem tomorrow. Once I'm ready I will forward it to iPad Today. I appreciate that this focuses on the iPad but I believe that most of us accept that this is an iOS 7 issue not one of device form-factor.

Views, ideas?

Chris

I don't mean to be a dick but  it really feeling like a valued customer anymore--

How about, rather that going to anybody associated with iOS products, you let Microsoft & Android fanboys know how Apple is (not) responding to this issue?  I'm sure salespeople for those products would love this tidbit.