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Is RAM management getting worse in iOS 11

PeLaNo

PeLaNo

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 6, 2017
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112
In iOS 10 I used to open 5-6 apps in my iPhone SE and keep switching between these apps with no reload.
But now on iOS 11 sometimes I just press home from app,open it again and it has to reload.
Anyone has this kind of problem?
 
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redfirebird08

redfirebird08

macrumors 6502
Feb 15, 2007
477
168
Glad to hear it’s happening on the newer phones with at least double the RAM amount in my iPhone 6. Sounds like buying a new phone probably won’t fix the issue. Hopefully later versions of iOS 11 will help fix this problem for everyone.
 
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KingslayerG5

KingslayerG5

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Oct 16, 2017
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Keeping my SE on 10.2.1 for good. I saw 10.3.3 update back then but usually prefer the update it came with. It's not only about smoothness and RAM but longest possible battery life.

iOS10 seems equal to Android's KitKat from the Holo era or Marshmallow or Nougat 7.1 in the Material era. Oreo is still very nice too but seems to generate more heat and I don't really like the minor changes coming from 7.1.2 to 8.0.

Android improves every year with the only one having RAM leaks being Lollipop for being the first to revamp to Material Design. It's like iOS7. Seems like Android 5.0 (not 5.1) RAM management is like iOS11.0.x. Not quite optimized.

Apple should have spelled it iOSX last year as an OS X tribute.
 
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cynics

macrumors G4
Jan 8, 2012
11,959
2,156
Personally I haven't noticed a difference between iOS 10 and 11. Although fter iOS 8 I've become very wary of my usage for apps that I dont want to refresh and I will switch back to them between switching to other apps in an attempt to "keep them fresh".

OP: Witch app(s) in particular do that? If you noticed an app refreshing itself simply from switching to the home and back we can look to see which API's they are using for background activity. You can intentionally code an app to do that, so for example an social media app will refresh its content when opening from a suspended state even though the app is still in memory.

I'm not saying that is the case, just something we can look into.
 
PeLaNo

PeLaNo

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 6, 2017
218
112
cynics said:
Personally I haven't noticed a difference between iOS 10 and 11. Although fter iOS 8 I've become very wary of my usage for apps that I dont want to refresh and I will switch back to them between switching to other apps in an attempt to "keep them fresh".

OP: Witch app(s) in particular do that? If you noticed an app refreshing itself simply from switching to the home and back we can look to see which API's they are using for background activity. You can intentionally code an app to do that, so for example an social media app will refresh its content when opening from a suspended state even though the app is still in memory.

I'm not saying that is the case, just something we can look into.
Click to expand...
I saw this problem with Facebook discord and some other apps but it happen occasionally not in a predictable way. If they intend to do that it would reload every time right ?
 
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cynics

macrumors G4
Jan 8, 2012
11,959
2,156
PeLaNo said:
I saw this problem with Facebook discord and some other apps but it happen occasionally not in a predictable way. If they intend to do that it would reload every time right ?
Click to expand...

First I want to be clear I'm not making excuses for Apple or iOS apps. It could in fact be an out of memory (OOM) condition causing the app to refresh.

But apps can appear to have unpredictable background activity based on the various background API's they utilize, VERY unpredictable if background app refresh is turned on.

A push notification, wifi connection, battery level, phone charging, location change, etc are all things that can cause a background app to do "something".

Combine the above with iOS using algorithms to adjust the frequency and duration of those background activities makes it even more unpredictable.

However in the case of Facebook I would say its an OOM (they refer to a background OOM as a BOOM). Its a bloated app, it knows it, it doesn't care.
 
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KGB7

KGB7

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Jun 15, 2017
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Rockville, MD
PeLaNo said:
In iOS 10 I used to open 5-6 apps in my iPhone SE and keep switching between these apps with no reload.
But now on iOS 11 sometimes I just press home from app,open it again and it has to reload.
Anyone has this kind of problem?
Click to expand...

How do you know the apps have been optimized for iOS 11??

People are quick to blame Apple for everything, while everyone else is treated like a saint.
 
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decafjava

decafjava

macrumors 603
Feb 7, 2011
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Geneva
atlchamp said:
My iPhone 7 on 10.3.3 is more fluid and faster than my iPhone 8 on iOS 11. iOS 11 is a freak show right now but apple is making improvements with every update. By 11.3 it should be a lot better
Click to expand...
Completely the opposite for me and my 7 plus...
 
longjack

longjack

macrumors newbie
Oct 30, 2017
3
1
Hi guys! i tought it would have been better to post here instead of open a new thread. I bought an iPhone 8 (256GB) last week and I experienced lags and battery drains, so I just want to share with you "how much" ram iOS 11.0.3 uses without any app open (sorry for my english, i'm italian). https://i.imgur.com/R31kMeM.jpg
In my case, iOS 11.0.3 itself drains about 70% of ram. I think it's too much because on my old iPhone 5 (iOS 10.3.3) it uses only 50% of it.

So my question goes to iPhone 8 Plus owners: how much ram does the plus version use? Because I'm thinking about switch to the plus version (I'm not interested in iPhone X). Is it worth it?
Thank you all, have a nice day.

update: iOS 11.1 drains 79-80% of ram without any open app (iphone 8 non-plus).
 
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Dvda66au

macrumors newbie
Jan 10, 2016
24
11
PeLaNo said:
In iOS 10 I used to open 5-6 apps in my iPhone SE and keep switching between these apps with no reload.
But now on iOS 11 sometimes I just press home from app,open it again and it has to reload.
Anyone has this kind of problem?
Click to expand...

Hi all,

With my iPhone 7 Plus since iOS 11 and maybe even a bit in my iPad Pro 9.7 , I can’t confirm for sure but it feels like apps are refreshing/reloading more often than before.

Also there are a few speed test videos where they load up like 10 or so apps on iPhones with iOS 11 and the same/similar apps on another phone and iPhones/iOS used to dominate these speed tests in both laps, and keep all the apps open for the second lap of the test where they reopen all the apps to see if they stayed in memory and they did.

Now... same tests, it’s the opposite. Most of the iOS apps are having to reload again from the beginning so ram management is definitely worse in iPhones.

Now million dollar question is... is it iOS 11 that has made ram management worse on iPhones?

Is it something in the os OR most apps not really being optimised for iOS 11 so it’s a 3rd party developer thing?

OR is it now a hardware limitation that 3 gigs is no longer enough in 2017 iPhones and 2018 iPhones will really need an extra gig so iOS 11/12 can function a lot better and be happier?

Thoughts?
 
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ronno

macrumors 6502
Nov 13, 2014
343
362
iOS 11 reloads a lot on the X as well.
Reminds me of the olden days when phones had less than a gig of RAM.
And by the way the betas have the same problem (running on 11.2.5 at the moment.)
My 7+ with iOS 10 was superb in terms of men mgmt.
 
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Dvda66au

macrumors newbie
Jan 10, 2016
24
11
ronno said:
iOS 11 reloads a lot on the X as well.
Reminds me of the olden days when phones had less than a gig of RAM.
And by the way the betas have the same problem (running on 11.2.5 at the moment.)
My 7+ with iOS 10 was superb in terms of men mgmt.
Click to expand...

It seems pretty much confirmed that 3 gig of ram isn’t really enough for iOS 11 to perform optimally like iOS 10 did with 3 gig ram.

If this years iPhones don’t have a ram increase then I’m going to have to pass this year as well and stay on my 7 plus or try an android for the first time.
 
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