Offload unused apps (be selective?)

[Abiyork]

I use this feature to ensure I'm not wasting space on my phone.

However, there are a couple of apps I use for work which I dont want this feature using on, they are a decent size and I often use them in locations without signal, therefore unless I remember it can screw me up for a good while having to drive to get good signal/wifi.

Does anyone know a way to be selective with the feature?

If not this would be a great option for future IOS.

 

[Shirasaki]

With “Apple knows better than you” in mind, I doubt Apple will allow user to fine tune automatic offload feature. Your best bet would be doing offload yourself.

 

[ApfelKuchen]

There's no current way to be selective, and I don't think that will change.

There's nothing wrong with going to Apple's product feedback page to toss your request onto the pile https://www.apple.com/feedback/ - I just have a feeling this particular one isn't going to rise to the top.

If you were to make a list of features where someone wants "a bit more control," the list would be very, very long but the number of individuals wanting more control of any one feature would be relatively small. If a significant number of these requests were granted, it could result an an exponential growth of the size and complexity of the settings app.

As things stand, Settings does become more complex with every new version of the OS. Consider what Screen Time added. And Screen Time's "Always Allowed" list is a good example of what this particular feature might look like - a list of every app on the device. Now, it might not add a lot to code bulk or user data - such lists seem to be handled very neatly by the API, and an exceptions list file would be pretty compact - but it could look daunting to someone exploring Settings - yet another feature to be considered.

The battle to keep things (relatively) simple is endless. I don't think it's a matter of "Apple knows better than you" as much as needing to balance competing objectives/desires. A new feature that can be trotted out with fanfare at WWDC is likely to win over "greater control" of a feature that was barely mentioned at the time it was introduced.