One more thing about disabling Background app refresh

[katbel]

For people who cares about battery consumption and privacy

I just discovered it is not enough to just disable it in general prefs. You will see an empty list of on or off.
If you are with the generic Background App refresh off
then check each one of your apps in
Settings
where they are listed by name on the left , click on each one and you'll find that many are still with the green on!!
To completely disable the refreshing you need to go to
General-Background app refresh , turn it on wifi,
and then you will have the list of all your apps still using the background refresh.
Manually turn it off and then turn the Background App refresh off again.
Good for now till dishonest developers will figure something new

 

[guesswho183]

You're wrong

 

[casperes1996]

Good for now till developers will figure something new

As a developer.... What are you thinking when you say that?

 

[Nermal]

As a developer.... What are you thinking when you say that?

Presumably that the less-trustworthy developers will find another way to go behind customers' backs.

 

[casperes1996]

Presumably that the less-trustworthy developers will find another way to go behind customers' backs.

Ah, right that makes sense. I read it in a different way. As in finding a better system than Background App Refreshes to accomplish the same tasks (in the positive and not the intrusive way) without the potential downsides.

 

[katbel]

As a developer.... What are you thinking when you say that?

What Nermal just answered you

 

[C DM]

For people who cares about battery consumption and privacy

I just discovered it is not enough to just disable it in general prefs. You will see an empty list of on or off.
If you are with the generic Background App refresh off
then check each one of your apps in
Settings
where they are listed by name on the left , click on each one and you'll find that many are still with the green on!!
To completely disable the refreshing you need to go to
General-Background app refresh , turn it on wifi,
and then you will have the list of all your apps still using the background refresh.
Manually turn it off and then turn the Background App refresh off again.
Good for now till dishonest developers will figure something new

They are not on when the main setting is disabled. The grayed-out green is there to show that they are enabled if the main setting is enabled, otherwise the main setting being off basically overrides it all.

 

[katbel]

They are not on when the main setting is disabled. The grayed-out green is there to show that they are enabled if the main setting is enabled, otherwise the main setting being off basically overrides it all.

I hope you are right and it should be like you says, but doesn't cost too much to eliminate any doubts

 

[cynics]

Background App Refresh aka Background Fetch is very restrictive entirely system controlled. If your app is using too much power during background fetch your app is highly restricted from using it in the future. Its difficult to abuse because of this, the more you abuse it the more iOS punishes your app and restricts its usage. Merely exceeding 30 seconds allowable time causes the system to terminate your app entirely. Its good for speeding up your apps interface based on time and location but not much else.

Privacy concerns are completely absurd. While I'm not dismissing those concerns but an app in the background is more restricted then it is in the foreground. It's not like you can SEE the data being sent regardless of background or foreground states. An app that can't be trusted shouldn't be restricted it should be REMOVED entirely.

 

[icloudUser]

It's not like you can SEE the data being sent regardless of background or foreground states.

One can (thankfully). And would be how one knows if an APP can be trusted or not and removed entirely as you suggest.
Digital fingerprinting, syncing ad with ad services are a few things that happen at regular intervals (background or foreground). All of this results in data usage also and it is not trivial amount of data either.
This is not my opinion or guess but is what i see on my iphone.

Disabling background app refresh didnt work with some of the apps on my iphone. Had no effect on background api calls they were making.

Disabling Background refresh- means disallow the app completely from doing background activities and not throttle them to zero with time
whats the point of this if iOS does not enforce it ?

 

[cynics]

One can (thankfully). And would be how one knows if an APP can be trusted or not and removed entirely as you suggest.
Digital fingerprinting, syncing ad with ad services are a few things that happen at regular intervals (background or foreground). All of this results in data usage also and it is not trivial amount of data either.
This is not my opinion or guess but is what i see on my iphone.

Disabling background app refresh didnt work with some of the apps on my iphone. Had no effect on background api calls they were making.

Disabling Background refresh- means disallow the app completely from doing background activities and not throttle them to zero with time
whats the point of this if iOS does not enforce it ?

I apologize if I'm misinterpreting you, but if you mean turning background app refresh (background fetch) off stops ALL app background activity then that isn't correct. Background app refresh is a single background mode (1 of 9).

This is why you can have background app refresh off, a music app in the background, and use other apps. That would be the audio background api. Or how a cars bluetooth can start music days after you last used the app.

Again apologizes if I just didn't understand what you were saying, its early/late. lol

 

[icloudUser]

I apologize if I'm misinterpreting you, but if you mean turning background app refresh (background fetch) off stops ALL app background activity then that isn't correct. Background app refresh is a single background mode (1 of 9).

View attachment 842785

This is why you can have background app refresh off, a music app in the background, and use other apps. That would be the audio background api. Or how a cars bluetooth can start music days after you last used the app.

Again apologizes if I just didn't understand what you were saying, its early/late. lol

Thanks. no need for apologies The screenshot in your post- What is that? How do i access it on my Iphone?
I do agree with you but i didnt find the options as in your screen shot.

 

[cynics]

Thanks. no need for apologies The screenshot in your post- What is that? How do i access it on my Iphone?
I do agree with you but i didnt find the options as in your screen shot.

That is actually a screenshot from Xcode on a Mac. Its the software environment used for developing apps in iOS (and tvOS, WatchOS, etc).

 

[icloudUser]

I see . Thanks.

From an end user point of view this couldnt be more misleading then.

 

[casperes1996]

I apologize if I'm misinterpreting you, but if you mean turning background app refresh (background fetch) off stops ALL app background activity then that isn't correct. Background app refresh is a single background mode (1 of 9).

As per iOS 13, one of 13 (hey, the numbers match!). Including one that allows heavier usage than before, if the device is connected to power. But only for regularly used apps. If your app hasn't been used for like a month, even if you try, it won't be given background time.