Q: ios7 keeps refreshing apps after switching

My follow-up post here relates to those asking about the behavior of this refresh issue (in both Safari and general apps) on the latest Apple iOS devices.  I was in an Apple Store the other day (well, an authorized Apple reseller's store) and decided to see if the newest iOS devices behaved any better.  I fired up the newest iPad Air sitting on the table (a 16 GB version, I believe) and pressed and swiped through the following scenario:

Safari - I loaded up an article on espn.com, an article on yahoo.com, an article on cnn.com, and the apple.com home page, allowing each page to fully load before opening another tab.

Flipboard - I clicked through one of the first topics and opened an article, flipping through to the third page.

Keynote - I loaded up one of the demo presentations that displayed a bunch of fish. I selected about 3 different slides.

Garageband - I just opened a blank piano project and tapped a few keys.

I returned to Safari and each page reloaded as I clicked each page's tab.

I switched to Flipboard, which refreshed to the home 'page'.

I switched to Keynote, which remained with the file open, and had the same page selected as when I left the app.  This points to the posts here which maintain that there appear to be mechanisms that can be implemented on the app side to prevent the refresh from occurring.

I switched to Garageband, which refreshed and returned me to the main screen.

I then went back to Safari, which of course reloaded the page of each of the four tabs.  I switched to Flipboard, which refreshed, then loaded another article and flipped to the bottom of the article.  I switched back to Safari. The first tab refreshed again (I didn't click the others). Back to Fliboard. Refresh to home.  Argh!

Back to Safari. The first tab remained, but tabs 2-4 refreshed, then I added a fifth - the local store's home page.  I would load each page, scroll up and down a bit to make sure the page was fully loaded, then would cycle between each tab.  EVERY tab refreshed as I selected it.  Disgusting.  I loaded each page, turned off WiFi, then cycled through each tab. It attempted to refresh (instead of being smart enough to know there was no connection), but displayed the "Safari cannot open the page..." message.

So there you have it.  iOS7's "smarter multitasking".  It's beyond me why this issue hasn't received any significant press.  I'm up next week for a new phone and no way am I laying down $ for an iUpgrade.  And I am a very loyal Apple customer - they completely won me over on the Mac side after they replaced my 3 year-and-two-week old iMac (which was two weeks out of warranty) with a BRAND NEW 27" iMac and the screen had gone out for the third time in two years.  But they need to right the ship on this iOS debacle.

I just tried the autobrightness thing on my ipad and iphone. My iphone has stopped refreshing the safari webpages but it has remained unchanged on my ipad.

Mine seems a lot better now on my iPad retina, though I don't know if that was down to updating to iOS 7.1 or by switching OFF "Reduce Motion" in Accessibility, as I did them around the same time. I could experiment with putting Reduce Motion back on obviously, but I'm almost loathe to do that in case the issue starts again.

Has anyone else got Reduce Motion on?

Its trying to refresh everything. When you're out of your country, you pay terrible traffic without any reasons..

i had about 200-300 Mb each day just for realoding maps and all browsers. And i've used just one map and few same sites opened.

IPad mini 1st edition.

IOS 7.1

For what it's worth, I'll share my experience with changing my auto-brightness settings.

Since turning AB off, my apps do not refresh as much as before. I ran with AB off for about a week and it was not nearly as bad. I turned it back on and noticed an IMMEDIATE change for the worse.

This was my short experiment yesterday using my iPhone 4S:

With Autobrightness turned OFF...

1. Opened Safari to the first website I could find with a text entry box (which was a search field on Centurylink).

2. Entered some text in the search box but did not submit

3. App-switched to Mail and read an email

4. Switched back to Safari - tab did not refresh, my text was still there and I could add to it

5. Switched to Mail again and opened several new emails. Then switched to Facebook and browsed a few updates.

6. Switched back again to Safari. Page remained unchanged and did not refresh. My entry was still there and I could add more text to the search query.

7. Switched to settings and TURNED AUTOBRIGHTNESS ON

8. Switched to Safari which IMMEDIATELY refreshed and I lost my content.

I don't know what it is, but there is a definite connection.

VerminZ I was in Mexico with no data well at least it was turned off. My 3 year old HTC with google maps let me download an offline map of the entire city so I could get around without need for data or wifi. Why can't Apple maps do this let alone keep current data when you go back into an app. It's a joke really.

apple maps is a substandard maps experience. goole maps for ios can do it...

http://gizmodo.com/how-to-save-offline-maps-in-the-new-google-maps-for-ios-81967 2562/all

I just want to share that I have the same problem. I use my ipad for 'everything' and all the time and it is so frustrating that all the apps reload when switching between them. I have 'solved' my problem by using my iphone to check safari and other apps if needed when I fill in a form or write an email to avoid that I loose my work... And it is not a solution that I am satisfied with. I have had this problem for a long time, but in the beginning I thought is was something I did wrong ;) And also the fact that searching for a solution to a problem often requires a lot of time, has prevented me from looking into this until now. This might also be the reason that it seems that many are not influenced by this issue and could also depend on how much you use your ipad and for what.

I do understand that it may be due to lack of memory, however, I really hope that Apple will take this sereously and make a workaround for those of us that still have an old model. This would be extremely value adding and highly appreciated ;-)

@AceNeerav - that's the best tip I've seen in months!  Caching a map doesn't stop Google Maps from refreshing if you had a route pulled up, but it does ensure that the map is still usable in the event you lose coverage (e.g., when in a subway).

@Annemarie, welcome to the iOS 7 commiseration club.  Just don't hold your breath waiting on a fix.  You'll surely pass out. :-/

have you try to disable (Background App Refresh)? if not...

go to

1. Settings

2. General

3. Background App Refresh and u'll be able to disable it!!

see if it work.

Thanks Little_J, but if you take opportunity to read the 43 pages of responses since you'll find that Background App Refresh has no impact on this issue of causing or preventing unwanted foreground app refreshes.

Helveticum has a nice recap of the issue here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pb5pk5UTrT8E7c0FXR7vajImBzkwm3IHaL9Cj14UHYw/ edit?usp=sharing

Thanks for being willing to jump in and try to help, though.

Annemarie, thank you much for your message.  I'm one of the very early posters here from back in November.  Your explanation of how it took a while for you to discover the source of the problem is really important.  It does take a long time to mentally figure out what's actually happening and then to find this thread.  I think there are tens of thousands people out there suffering from this problem and just scratching their head in puzzlement.

So now that we're here, if only we could figure out what to do...

I turned off the zoom in and out effects and it seemed a bit better.

I find that if I use the 4 finger swipe to switch between apps it refreshes far less than if I do the double click home.

Not only does it do this annoying action when switching between apps. But also when switching between tabs in safari itself. I've read elsewhere that it can even happen to chrome running on iOS devices too.

So, apple, please stop toying with us like were subjects to a social experiment and use your $70K/day profits to prevent me from being in a situation where I shatter and destroy my iPad because the job application that I spent half an hour filling out got erased simply while checking another tab.....