iOS 9 beta 4 performance and battery thread!

[lagwagon]

Actually it's a bit more complex than that, there's a good reason Genius clear app from app switcher for troubleshooting (although arguably they might be doing it too much), while in normal usage it should actually be better if you left app in app switcher. Note that I didn't say leaving the app "open".

The reason being there's low correlation between the fact that an app shows in app switcher, and the app being in memory or running. Given the limited resources, iOS automatically manages memory, quitting apps that hasn't been used recently when more memory is needed, but app switcher only shows the last couple of app used, regardless of whether the app is in memory or not. If this works correctly (and hopefully it does most of the time), then when you remove app from app switcher, iOS will force the termination and clear the memory even though it's not short on resources. This actually leads to worse battery life and performance because if the app is a frequently used one, it will be kept in memory more often after you left it, and when you switch back or open it again, it doesn't have to start all over again. If you force its memory to be purged it has to do the extra work to start again every time, using more time and energy.

Now it's also possible that one of your app's (or its background process) will go rogue, in which case you have no choice but to forcibly terminate it by removing from app switcher. It's entirely valid as a troubleshooting measure. Although if it's not even running right now that does nothing, or just purge the memory, as a user you can't really tell for certain unless you hook it up to Xcode and examine the processes in instruments.

TL,DR: genius bar clear your app switcher (which may or may not actually "close" the app) as a valid troubleshooting measure, which you can also do when something doesn't feel right, however doing it regularly most likely lead to worse battery life and performance.

on topic: my 5S has worse battery life on beta 4 than beta 3, not sure why... i would say it went back to beta 2 level, barely enough for a full day :s

The battery and performance benefits of leaving something in the switcher are lost on anything you don't open often enough though. So why bother keeping something in it that you only open every 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 days? (Yes I know iOS handles the ram and everything on its own, that's not what I'm disputing.)

Isn't the app switcher basically an app itself within iOS? It has to remember everything you've opened and never force closed. The more you toss and leave in there the more it needs to remember. (Not talking about wether all the apps are running or not, I mean the app switcher.(app?) itself.) I've heard of people with 100, 200, even 300 installed apps. Surely this would have a toll if they were all left in the switcher 100% of the time? (Again I know iOS handles the individual apps themselves in memory.)

I'm not saying my "idea" is how it works. I'm simply just trying to think and come up with ideas as to why some people have a much worse experience with any iOS version compared to most. I keep my switcher fairly clean and only keep Safari, Mail and Messages in there 100% of the time. Everything else gets the boot because I don't use them often enough to have them still in ram by the next time I use it. Thus no risk of anything potentially causing issues. (And no mile long list of cards in the switcher.) I've never had a slow iOS 8.0, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4, 9.0 even when I was using a iPhone 5 (now 6 since 8.3 beta.) and battery life is almost always great (right now I'm 8 hours 15mins screen and 26 hours 20mins standby with 15% left. And not using low power mode.)

Again though I'm not saying that I'm right or as someone else liked to call it (I know more than Apple does about their own iOS.) I'm just trying to "brainstorm" and discuss what could cause slow down for some. And this was just an idea I thought about.

 

[C DM]

The battery and performance benefits of leaving something in the switcher are lost on anything you don't open often enough though. So why bother keeping something in it that you only open every 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 days? (Yes I know iOS handles the ram and everything on its own, that's not what I'm disputing.)

Isn't the app switcher basically an app itself within iOS? It has to remember everything you've opened and never force closed. The more you toss and leave in there the more it needs to remember. (Not talking about wether all the apps are running or not, I mean the app switcher.(app?) itself.) I've heard of people with 100, 200, even 300 installed apps. Surely this would have a toll if they were all left in the switcher 100% of the time? (Again I know iOS handles the individual apps themselves in memory.)

I'm not saying my "idea" is how it works. I'm simply just trying to think and come up with ideas as to why some people have a much worse experience with any iOS version compared to most. I keep my switcher fairly clean and only keep Safari, Mail and Messages in there 100% of the time. Everything else gets the boot because I don't use them often enough to have them still in ram by the next time I use it. Thus no risk of anything potentially causing issues. (And no mile long list of cards in the switcher.) I've never had a slow iOS 8.0, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4, 9.0 even when I was using a iPhone 5 (now 6 since 8.3 beta.) and battery life is almost always great (right now I'm 8 hours 15mins screen and 26 hours 20mins standby with 15% left. And not using low power mode.)

Again though I'm not saying that I'm right or as someone else liked to call it (I know more than Apple does about their own iOS.) I'm just trying to "brainstorm" and discuss what could cause slow down for some. And this was just an idea I thought about.

I think some people having issues of this type of that type are often related to many kinds of different things. Aside from some known problems that apply in general, the issues are usually somewhat unique to the particular hardware, installation, setup, etc. Task switcher doesn't appear to be a general underlying issue. Now if someone has some issues with some process being stuck or some services doing something in the background too often for some reason or something like that, closing out something or restarting the device, changing some settings, perhaps even resetting some accounts or settings, can be of help. But the simple aspect of using apps (no matter how many you might have installed) and not going to the task switcher to clear them out from there on a regular basis is generally not responsible for any particular issues.

 

[loftiness]

The battery and performance benefits of leaving something in the switcher are lost on anything you don't open often enough though. So why bother keeping something in it that you only open every 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 days? (Yes I know iOS handles the ram and everything on its own, that's not what I'm disputing.)

Isn't the app switcher basically an app itself within iOS? It has to remember everything you've opened and never force closed. The more you toss and leave in there the more it needs to remember. (Not talking about wether all the apps are running or not, I mean the app switcher.(app?) itself.) I've heard of people with 100, 200, even 300 installed apps. Surely this would have a toll if they were all left in the switcher 100% of the time? (Again I know iOS handles the individual apps themselves in memory.)

Good point, if the switcher itself is inefficient then yes keeping apps in there is going to lead to performance problem. I just flipped it on my phone and my conclusion says it's probably uses a lot less resource than you imagine. For example it's about as trivial for springboard to keep hundreds of app on your phone's homescreens as it is for app switch to keep a list of these apps, the preview image in the switcher is loaded from the last saved state of the app, and it's loaded as your flip it (it doesn't load all 300 app preview images, likely only cache the last 5-10 in memory).

The operating system keeps track of so many other things like threads and background processes that reducing resources used by switcher won't significantly impact. As an example, there're way more threads running in the background (either by system, or user), than the hundreds of apps in the switcher history. What is entirely possible though, is that by clearing up your switcher constantly, you are also free from any app background processes (rogue or not) which, if they are badly written could make the system less stable. Your battery life does sound pretty good, although that is also highly dependent on how you use your phone (regardless of app switcher).

And on the other point, the battery/performance benefits of leaving app in switcher is indeed lost when the app itself is purged, but also is the possibility that these app will cause any trouble: they won't be running at all, unless they have background refresh. They are basically harmless.

I could eek out a lot of battery life from my 5S too if I really micromanage it, but personally, at the end of the day I'd just rather not spend the time, it still works okey.

 

[jonnyb098]

Curious at what point in the beta process the "speed, stability and smoother animations" Apple promised on stage kicks in. We are 6 weeks out from release. (Yes I know we dont know the day but its always mid September, so spare me that rant)

 

[batting1000]

Curious at what point in the beta process the "speed, stability and smoother animations" Apple promised on stage kicks in. We are 6 weeks out from release. (Yes I know we dont know the day but its always mid September, so spare me that rant)

Agreed, because at this point, 8.4/3 is still far better than beta 4 with regards to performance and battery life.

 

[imagineadam]

I've been waiting patiently as well for this. It's still a step behind 8.4 but it's close. I'm hoping for faster and no lag before an app will open after touching it! It does it on 8.4 but it's worse on the beta. Hopefully they aren't saving the smoother animations and speed for the 6s. My battery has been about the same as 8.4 though. Periodically though the day I'll check and make sure the cpu usage is staying down and not doing anything weird and it has been fine. I took a 1 hour run with low power mode on listening to music and using Nike to track and the percentage moved about 2-3 percent. (Screen off) That's a little better than 8.4 for me. Hopefully we see some of the speed improvements soon!

 

[TommyA6]

Curious at what point in the beta process the "speed, stability and smoother animations" Apple promised on stage kicks in. We are 6 weeks out from release. (Yes I know we dont know the day but its always mid September, so spare me that rant)

Agreed. So far there are no performance improvements whatsoever in iOS 9. App switcher is choppy, spotlight rotation is still choppy, typing on keyboard still lags often... (iPhone 6 Plus and Air 1 so no ancient technology here to blame)...

 

[TommyA6]

I've been waiting patiently as well for this. It's still a step behind 8.4 but it's close. I'm hoping for faster and no lag before an app will open after touching it! It does it on 8.4 but it's worse on the beta. Hopefully they aren't saving the smoother animations and speed for the 6s. My battery has been about the same as 8.4 though. Periodically though the day I'll check and make sure the cpu usage is staying down and not doing anything weird and it has been fine. I took a 1 hour run with low power mode on listening to music and using Nike to track and the percentage moved about 2-3 percent. (Screen off) That's a little better than 8.4 for me. Hopefully we see some of the speed improvements soon!

I'm expecting better and smoother performance than in iOS 8, because:

a) iOS 8.4 isn't that great performance/smoothness wise (worse than iOS 7 and even worse than iOS 6)
b) Apple promised better performance compared to iOS 8

 

[batting1000]

I'm expecting better and smoother performance than in iOS 8, because:

a) iOS 8.4 isn't that great performance/smoothness wise (worse than iOS 7 and even worse than iOS 6)
b) Apple promised better performance compared to iOS 8

I'd argue that 8.3 and 8.4 have had the best performance since iOS 6 which was probably the best performing version of iOS out of them all.

 

[treichert]

So why bother keeping something in it that you only open every 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 days?

Why bother quitting something that is not even running in the first place?

Just because something in the app switcher does not mean it is actually running.

 

[TommyA6]

I'd argue that 8.3 and 8.4 have had the best performance since iOS 6 which was probably the best performing version of iOS out of them all.

I think 5s on iOS 7 is pretty close to iPhone 6 (not Plus) on iOS 8.4.
iPhone 5 on iOS 6 was pure perfection in terms of performance/smoothness.

 

[batting1000]

I think 5s on iOS 7 is pretty close to iPhone 6 (not Plus) on iOS 8.4.
iPhone 5 on iOS 6 was pure perfection in terms of performance/smoothness.

Agreed.

 

[shandyman]

My iPhone is still seeing a big drain. No surprises that FB & FB messenger are high on the list. I'm suspecting FB Messenger as it got an update Friday and I had no issues before that.

 

[permar]

Exactly the same happened to me...

 

[jonnyb098]

I'm expecting better and smoother performance than in iOS 8, because:

a) iOS 8.4 isn't that great performance/smoothness wise (worse than iOS 7 and even worse than iOS 6)
b) Apple promised better performance compared to iOS 8

Apple doesn't promise anything. They made a statement about how speed is a focus of iOS 9. They also said MobileMe would do X , iCloud would do Y, and Apple Music would do Z.

 

[BittenApple]

Curious at what point in the beta process the "speed, stability and smoother animations" Apple promised on stage kicks in. We are 6 weeks out from release. (Yes I know we dont know the day but its always mid September, so spare me that rant)

9.4 lol

 

[shandyman]

Exactly the same happened to me...

That in response to my post?

 

[permar]

That in response to my post?

Yep. Sorry...

 

[nordique]

Thought I would share my 2 cents,

I don't have the public beta on my 4S anymore, but public beta 1 was fantastic for me on that phone so hopefully public beta 2 improved that

On my 5s, on pb1, I had a lot of bugs and battery draining issues whenever the battery saver mode was enabled (ironically) and also performance issues (though no where near as laggy as my experience with developer beta 1)

However on public beta 2, so far my 5s has been great. Performance is snappy, no lag or frame drops I've noticed since it was released and the battery saver bug seems to be gone. A huge improvement in swiping up/down to access notification and control centres - those were laggy before but now everything loads fast and immediately (my widgets) included)

That said there is still this annoying delay when opening all apps. It makes iOS 9 seem slower at first but the general system seems as responsive as 8.4. But this app delay is what throws it off for me.

As for battery, it's hit and miss. There are days where I'll have battery saver on and it will last me a full day with 22% to spare (never had that with the 5s before) while runnin LTE

Yesterday for example it drained within 3 hours or so

So there are definitely some bugs that are affecting that; I've noticed one of my apps (Banque Scotia/Scotiabank) randomly keeps location services active and I can't turn it off.

Also the phone will randomly heat up when this happens which seems to drain the battery even further.


I am still a huge fan of the new San Fran font - it's so much nicer. And I like the keyboard lower/uppercase distinguish. It's awesome. And the new multitask switcher just looks super slick to me still.

Overall I like iOS 9 more than 8, but hopefully the next beta Apple can really get rid of these annoying bugs and negate this annoying app loading delay

That would really improve my experience with the device. I am sending Apple a lot of feedback reports whenever I can.

It's certainly a smoother and less laggy experience than the first public beta 1 was for me.

 

[shandyman]

Yep. Sorry...

That's ok. thought so, but wanted to check, rather than assume.

So oh got the FB messenger update Friday and since then, bigger drop than normal?

I think it was an FB or FB messenger update that did it to me on one of 8.X betas too. Was fine on the next beta release tho. Roll on the next beta release for 9!

 

[iPub]

I have installed IOS 9 on my iPad and it is stable. Not so much new but it was a suprise for me there was a IOS 9 upgrade for iPad 2.

 

[limatime42]

Battery has been pretty solid on my Air with the latest beta. I do get serious lag when pulling down an imessage notification but almost everything else is snappy. Also videos sometimes play just sound with a black screen but it's no big deal for a beta.

 

[steve31]

I'm finding battery life on my 6 to be worse than 8.4. But still not as bad as some previous betas.

 

[Jman13]

Agreed, because at this point, 8.4/3 is still far better than beta 4 with regards to performance and battery life.

I can't disagree more with my experience. I'm getting fantastic battery life with iOS 9. Massive improvement over 8.3 and 8.4.

On iOS 8, I have typically been down to around 65% at lunch and 35% by 7PM, pushing completely dead by the time I go to bed if I don't hit a charger at some point in the day. On iOS 9, I'm usually at around 75-80% at lunch and 65% or so at 7 if I don't plug in. Without charging, I've plugged in at 11PM with 35% left.

 

[nordique]

I put the PB of iOS 9 back on my 4s, and will play around with it and report back once I have done some battery drains and let the system settle a bit. I decided I'd like to provide as much feedback as possible to Apple during the beta along with other 4s beta testers with the hope that it helps Apple streamline iOS 9 to be the best possible iOS 9 version it can be on the 4S.

My experiences with iOS 8.4 on the 4S are as follows: Noticeably Slower than iOS 7, slower and less snappier, more lag, but improved from iOS 8.1.3 performance wise. Laggy frames and slow loading apps still apparent. Slow to load texts and type at times, other times its faster. Overall slow though compared to my 5s or 4s on iOS 6. Multitask can lag a bit. Battery life about 3 hours usage.

^ Will compare PB 2 iOS 9 to this.