Q: ios7 keeps refreshing apps after switching

Hi James,

On 1gb ios with ios 6 or less I had no refresh problems.

Yes it does happen on other devices.

I have a 5s at work I can play with for a test comparison.

You use chrome I will use Safari.

Pick any 5 websites and load each in a new tab after clearing all cache etc.

Load on cellular.

My 5 sites will be as follows.

1) bgr.com

2) androidcentral.com

3) mobilesyrup.com

4) foxnews.com

5) espn.com

After you load all 5 switch to something else like google maps. I will load apple maps 

Sure this won't be scientific but will be interesting none the less since the nexus 5 has 2gb ram and has to crank out more pixels so the two should be pretty much working on the same pareters. Not that 1" screen requires an extra gb of ram but I know android does in general.

Oh and yeah when I rooted my one x it worked well with cyanogen mod. No refreshes so it all comes down to the code.

Just to point out that I don't consider this refresh problem to be mainly having to do with the web browser.  I first noticed the problem back in October when my third-party photo manager was always refreshing back to its splash screen.  Another early poster noticed that iBooks was refreshing.  Safari (or whatever) is only one example of the issue.  It happens to almost all apps.

Reason I'm emphasizing this point is that back a few months ago on our thread here someone was pointing out that the browser-refresh might actually be a separate (and additional) problem from the general app-refresh problem, that browsers are a special case of this problem.  I don't quite understand that, but it's worth looking into.  I guess I can't believe I'm saying this but since I'm using an iPad and am almost always on WiFi and therefore don't get charged for all the extra browser refreshes, I've almost gotten used to Safari refreshing and consider it mostly just a time-waster than a hair-puller-outer.  It bothers me less than all the other apps I have that get refreshed.  But I totally understand that for other people, the browser refreshing is the worst aspect of this problem.

Yes... I know some people with Droid OS phones and after telling them about my trick, and if it was also a problem for them on Droid-based browsers, go ahead and try it.  I heard back from one who said that his Droid-based browser does not have a 'Define' pop-up but that yes, this auto-reload of web pages happened there too, and it was also really annoying to him.  And so it goes.

"this auto-reload of web pages happened there too, and it was also really annoying to him."

That's scary.  The thing that would be most depressing to me as an iPad user is to find out that Android tablets do it also.

Was iOS 6 the last decent mobile operating system left on the planet?  That can't be! :-))  What about Windows 8 phones?  Windows has always had excellent multi-tasking.

I am a new Apple iPhone/iPad user. I assumed that this product would be user friendly, but this specific bug is so annoying that I am really considering returning my apple products and never using it again. Disappointed....

Don't forget to log your disappoitment here, too:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/

If you go to settings - wallpapers & brightness, then turn off auto brightness, this refresh problem should stop.

Worked for me on my ipad mini anyway.

Hope this helps

OMG! Can it be this simple? If so then you are a genius.

On my iPad Air safari refreshed every single tab, every single time I switched. Turned off auto brightness and it "appears" to have fixed the refresh. I have closed and reopened it and it reloaded once but then appears stable.

I will see for the next few days before believing this is a fix. However if it is then we all should do the apple feedback to let them know.

My auto brightness has always been off from day 1, and I still have the problem.

Yea, what? My auto brightness has been off for months and the auto app refresh problem still drives me crazy.

Too bad. Seems to have fixed at least Safari on my iPad Air. Maybe it is the auto gestures or something else running in the background.

I feel wrong calling you UglyBetty but anyway ... it does seem unlikely that such a simple setting will cure the problem but I did turn autobrightness off and it did seem to make a difference. I then turned it on again and I still couldn't make it refresh between apps.

I wonder if there is some side effect to disabling the autobrightness that either clears memory and frees up some. Perhaps this is another variation on the effect that we have all seen before where an iOS update often gives a temporary improvemnet if only because of the reboot required.

How long has this improvement held for you?

The ios developer in me fails to understand what connection the two might have.

Also, i dont feel the refreshing of pages is happening because of lack of memory. Cause i run more memory intensive apps and games and they dont seem to get killed!?

I'm having the same problem even when hitting "back" or swiping the page back. Refreshes the page and returns to the top. This, along with the wallpaper zoom issue, is driving me mad.

My auto-Brightness was off until this morning when I decided to switch it on.

Later I started noticing the refresh problem in both safari & a couple off apps & ended up at this thread looking for a solution when, hey presto my brain kicked in & I was sure I hadn't had this problem before I turned on auto-brightness, so turned it off, did a couple off tests & the problem had gone.

All I can suggest if your A/B is already off try switching it on, then off again or look for other settings that have a similar function.

Hope this helps