All iPads How often do you hard close a bunch of apps?

[Kyle76]

I’ve read to just leave them all running in the background, but when things start acting wonky (sometimes a few days, sometimes a week or more), I’m forced to go in and do a hard close on what might be 20-30 (or more) apps. How often does this happen to you?

 

[Matcha]

Only when an app doesn't respond or I need to reset it because it's buggy, probably once or twice a day...
Today i had to force close the app store for not responding, I don't look to use force close a lot just when I have to.

 

[jchap]

I do it on an app-by-app, as-needed basis, if a certain app seems unresponsive for a long time.

iOS and iPadOS supposedly manage memory efficiently, so it's not clear whether it's really necessary to periodically close apps. However, the fact that Apple gives us the option to do so means that it's a fairly common practice, and often unavoidable. I can't tell you how many times I've had to force quit apps like Evernote, Dropbox and even Apple's Mail on iPadOS/iOS, just because they stopped responding for some unknown reason. I don't know exactly how it works when you've opened a whole bunch of apps in succession and iOS/iPadOS needs more memory to handle them, but I suspect that it's a LIFO (last-in, first-out) thing (hopefully a knowledgeable dev will correct me here if I'm wrong).

 

[svish]

I generally do not force close an app. I do it only when a particular app is not responding.

 

[Warped9]

I’m old-school in the sense that when I’m done with something I turn it off. With my iPhone or iPad that usually means when I’m done during a sitting. And given I’m rarely using more than two apps at a time it’s hardly a chore.

As for force closing thats only when an app is unresponsive.

For me it’s the same principle as turning off the lights when you’re done in a room.

 

[ericwn]

I generally do not force close an app. I do it only when a particular app is not responding.

Same here and that’s what the functionality to force an app off was designed for. In other situations I restart my iPad but rarely.
Constantly manually flicking apps off hasn’t been on my radar and I doubt it’s a useful cause of action outside of troubleshooting, same goes for forced iPad restarts.

 

[AutomaticApple]

I’ve read to just leave them all running in the background, but when things start acting wonky (sometimes a few days, sometimes a week or more), I’m forced to go in and do a hard close on what might be 20-30 (or more) apps. How often does this happen to you?

Whenever I'm not using an app, I hard close it. @Warped9 provided a great example.

 

[contacos]

Once my iPhone / iPad has been fully charged, I close all apps. Stuff like Google Maps, YouTube, Instagram or Spotify I also close once I stopped using them because you can say what you want, these still run in the background if you ask me, especially if you have YouTube Premium

 

[Feyl]

I leave open apps that I use daily, close those that I won't use that day and close all apps every evening when I go to bed. I've been doing that since iPhone 4 and don't have any problems with anything on my devices.

 

[Warped9]

If it’s running in the background unused it’s still drawing power. If a light is left on in a room nobody is using it’s still drawing electricity you’ll have to pay for on your electric bill. There is an old saying: mind the pennies and the dollars take care of themselves.

Close apps no longer needed helps manage battery life. Okay, I’m not on my phone like many others, but I can still get away with charging it every three days rather than every day.

Sure, people’s situation are different. I go for lunch or break and play with the phone. When lunch or break is done I close whatever apps I’ve been using. It’s an ingrained habit. During the workday I might not use it much, but I can close the apps after lunch or when the work day is done. I certainly will not leave anything running that I’m not using.

 

[scotty918]

I have a 2015 iPad Pro. I close the apps quite often. I'm not sure if it has any effect, but I do it anyway.

 

[rui no onna]

I regularly have 50-150 tabs in Safari so to reduce reloads, I force close unnecessary apps immediately after using them (basically, the ones that I only use once in a blue moon).

 

[BigDO]

Literally never.

 

[MisterSavage]

I’ve read to just leave them all running in the background, but when things start acting wonky (sometimes a few days, sometimes a week or more), I’m forced to go in and do a hard close on what might be 20-30 (or more) apps. How often does this happen to you?

Never. I'll force close an individual app if it freezes or hangs on a networking request.

 

[doboy]

By habit I force close apps that I don't frequently use.

 

[chabig]

Apps in the multi-tasking switcher generally aren't running. There are a few exceptions. The switcher is more like a list of recently used apps than a list of running apps.

 

[NoBoMac]

Rarely ever.

On iPad, the one app that gets wonky after some time, for me, is Safari. When I see that, I just power off and back on. Virtual force close of apps, and clears up any apps that are just web front-ends.

Also make a habit of restarting iOS devices and Watch once a week.

 

[rui no onna]

Also make a habit of restarting iOS devices and Watch once a week.

This I've had to do ever since iPadOS 13.

There seems to have been either a considerable increase in memory footprint or just sucky memory management going from iOS 12 to iPadOS 13. One of the reasons I'm happy to go from 4GB RAM/512GB storage to 16GB RAM/1TB storage.

My Ivy Bridge build with 16GB RAM from 2012 still works fine. Just replaced it due to 7 EOL and to get integrated HEVC HW acceleration. I think with the RAM and storage headroom on the 2021 Pro, I won't feel the need to upgrade for a long while.

 

[Gregg2]

I’m old-school in the sense that when I’m done with something I turn it off. With my iPhone or iPad that usually means when I’m done during a sitting. And given I’m rarely using more than two apps at a time it’s hardly a chore.

As for force closing thats only when an app is unresponsive.

For me it’s the same principle as turning off the lights when you’re done in a room.

So, I tried to call you, but your phone must have been turned off.

I have a flip phone which I turn on when I leave the house with it. It is mostly for me to call others, and to let my wife get in touch with me when I'm out. My iPad gets turned off before bed, if I remember. I tend to close most apps when I'm done with a session, but I'll leave one open and let the iPad sleep if I'm likely to use that app first in my next session.