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iPad Pro Ram management

M

MBX

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Sep 14, 2006
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It seems the ram management has gotten worse with each iPadOS update since 13.1 (which seemed to have great ram management).

My Safari tabs (dynamic website content/ YouTube) keep reloading all the time in 13.4.1 and it’s really annoying.

Anyone else experiencing it?
 
MBX said:
It seems the ram management has gotten worse with each iPadOS update since 13.1 (which seemed to have great ram management).

My Safari tabs (dynamic website content/ YouTube) keep reloading all the time in 13.4.1 and it’s really annoying.

Anyone else experiencing it?
Click to expand...
How much RAM does your iPad have?
 
MBX said:
It seems the ram management has gotten worse with each iPadOS update since 13.1 (which seemed to have great ram management).

My Safari tabs (dynamic website content/ YouTube) keep reloading all the time in 13.4.1 and it’s really annoying.

Anyone else experiencing it?
Click to expand...
I confirm that in my 2GB devices I have more issues than before (which makes me hate them). In my 3 or 4GB devices I can‘t see much of a difference...
 
My iPad also has 2GB and I noticed tabs refresh as soon as I navigate away from them. This has not always been the case in iPadOS. Here’s to hoping 14 will smooth out some of the RAM management issues. But I am also not holding my breath as 3GB seems to be the baseline for idevices.
 
Jxdawg said:
My iPad also has 2GB and I noticed tabs refresh as soon as I navigate away from them. This has not always been the case in iPadOS. Here’s to hoping 14 will smooth out some of the RAM management issues. But I am also not holding my breath as 3GB seems to be the baseline for idevices.
Click to expand...
exactly, for me 2GB are done, they are still good as a one thing at a time device, such as a secondary ipad or one for a specific use, but not as a primary one... they not only refresh, they often stutter when moving from an app to the other and then back
 
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Digitalguy said:
exactly, for me 2GB are done, they are still good as a one thing at a time device, such as a secondary ipad or one for a specific use, but not as a primary one... they not only refresh, they often stutter when moving from an app to the other and then back
Click to expand...
My iPad is still snappy, probably due to how great the A10 is, but yes in RAM related tasks, it has limitations. Would not invest in 2GB in 2020.
 
Digitalguy said:
exactly, for me 2GB are done, they are still good as a one thing at a time device, such as a secondary ipad or one for a specific use, but not as a primary one... they not only refresh, they often stutter when moving from an app to the other and then back
Click to expand...
Honestly, I experience stutters and reloads on Pro 12.9, 10.5 and Air 3 as well (also Safari crash). Can't really tell much of a difference between those and iPad 5th & 6th gen and Pro 9.7.

If I'm working on something that I absolutely can't afford to lose, I don't switch apps/tabs. I grab another iPad instead.
 
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I have the 2018 iPad Pro with 3gb (or is it 4gb?) ram which should handle things well and it did with 13.1 but ever since with new updates it seems to have gotten worse.

Which is why I hope Apple stops being so stingy with Ram next years iPad Pro and hopefully it has at least 8gb.
 
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Same issue here, there is a thread also inter iOS 13 and iPadOS 13 forum about this.

I have the 2018 iPad Pro, and often, if I just lock the screen and then open it again a few minutes later, iPadOS has helpfully completely killed the current application, which it never did under iOS 12.

rubbish.
 
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rui no onna said:
Honestly, I experience stutters and reloads on Pro 12.9, 10.5 and Air 3 as well (also Safari crash). Can't really tell much of a difference between those and iPad 5th & 6th gen and Pro 9.7.

If I'm working on something that I absolutely can't afford to lose, I don't switch apps/tabs. I grab another iPad instead.
Click to expand...

I agree. Even devices with 4GB ram struggle with this. For me personally it is Apple doing something wrong. I have installed app to check system status on both of my iPads (2018 pro with 4 GB RAM and 2018 6th gen iPad with 2 GB RAM). On both of them RAM is used almost to the max (only around 200 MB free) and still a lot of apps/tabs get closed. Obviously more on the 6th gen iPad than on the Pro.

I have Android phone with 4 GB RAM that does not close apps like that. However that device also keeps half of its memory free. Not sure how Sony does it but the phone never uses more than 2.1 GB RAM out of 3.9 GB. On the other hand the only apps that get reloaded are games. No tabs get reloaded, no other apps get reloaded. And in the rare case that reload is needed, it is actually significantly faster on Android compared to iOS. Obviously technically it is possible. iOS ram management is just not efficient or good one.
 
MBX said:
It seems the ram management has gotten worse with each iPadOS update since 13.1 (which seemed to have great ram management).

My Safari tabs (dynamic website content/ YouTube) keep reloading all the time in 13.4.1 and it’s really annoying.

Anyone else experiencing it?
Click to expand...
Yeah I get YouTube refreshes as well which I didn’t before

2020 iPad Pro here
 
I think the issue is the RAM management is that it is unpredictable... I just did a test. Took the 9.7 pro and opened safari, opened a few new tabs, one of which with a youtube video that I started, then opened the youtube app and started another video, then gmail, than facebook, then messenger, then note, jump desktop and my local radio app. And moved back and forth among them. No reloads, no refreshes... All fast... Crazy... When you see this you say it's crazy what apple can do with 2GB. Then you put the ipad on stand-by, leave for a hour, come back and your videos start reloading... To be honest I went on and watched both videos and only after the second one some tabs started reloading... Again, I don't know how the RAM algorithm is working, it can do miracles and can be unbearable... No way to predict...
 
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This is one of the reasons why I’m returning the iPad Pro.
In no way the iPad Pro does Pro work. It’s just an iPad with up to date specs at a ridiculous price.
 
I did a test the other day (locked down, and was bored) and completely wiped and setup my 2018 iPad Pro again.

Did some testing, and the same problems happen.

Even after - as a test - I manually closed every open app, and then launched just one (Apollo, the Reddit client) I then spent ten minutes scrolling through a lengthy subreddit, locked my iPad, came back five minutes later and unlocked it, and oh, look, it had completely killed Apollo.

And that was the only application running on top of iPadOS.

This really isn’t good enough, especially on top if the debacle with email on iPadOS 13.
 
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secretk said:
I agree. Even devices with 4GB ram struggle with this. For me personally it is Apple doing something wrong. I have installed app to check system status on both of my iPads (2018 pro with 4 GB RAM and 2018 6th gen iPad with 2 GB RAM). On both of them RAM is used almost to the max (only around 200 MB free) and still a lot of apps/tabs get closed. Obviously more on the 6th gen iPad than on the Pro.

I have Android phone with 4 GB RAM that does not close apps like that. However that device also keeps half of its memory free. Not sure how Sony does it but the phone never uses more than 2.1 GB RAM out of 3.9 GB. On the other hand the only apps that get reloaded are games. No tabs get reloaded, no other apps get reloaded. And in the rare case that reload is needed, it is actually significantly faster on Android compared to iOS. Obviously technically it is possible. iOS ram management is just not efficient or good one.
Click to expand...

Ok, I’m a bit slow so please be patient

How can you find out how much RAM you have? I have a 2020 IPad 3 Air

Thanks
 
Not too long ago, I was still using a OG iPad Air in 2019 (only 1GB of RAM). Was only recently that I got my second generation iPP 12.9.
 
pmmacd said:
Ok, I’m a bit slow so please be patient

How can you find out how much RAM you have? I have a 2020 IPad 3 Air

Thanks
Click to expand...

I used an app. It does not tell me everything but it gives me some information. Something like this one - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/system-information/id455777146#?platform=ipad.
[automerge]1588727258[/automerge]
Digitalguy said:
I think the issue is the RAM management is that it is unpredictable... I just did a test. Took the 9.7 pro and opened safari, opened a few new tabs, one of which with a youtube video that I started, then opened the youtube app and started another video, then gmail, than facebook, then messenger, then note, jump desktop and my local radio app. And moved back and forth among them. No reloads, no refreshes... All fast... Crazy... When you see this you say it's crazy what apple can do with 2GB. Then you put the ipad on stand-by, leave for a hour, come back and your videos start reloading... To be honest I went on and watched both videos and only after the second one some tabs started reloading... Again, I don't know how the RAM algorithm is working, it can do miracles and can be unbearable... No way to predict...
Click to expand...

Agree. Indeed if the tabs/apps reloading was a bit more predictable I would have been fine. However it is not. It happens randomly and as an end user I have no idea on how to make sure to not lose any post data that is still not sent/stored. Also quite annoying specifically for me when it comes to videos. I have data limit in terms of usage. Every time a video is reloaded it consumes again data and that is definitely not acceptable for me. I think this is one of the reasons why I do not use the iPad as a consumption device especially when it comes to youtube. On my laptop even if the yutube tab refreshes it starts the video from the point where I was. On the iPad it starts from the beginning. It is quite annoying for me as I do not own TV and most of my media watching is in youtube - constantly.
 
I have an iPad Air 1 with iOS 12 which has 1GB ram and it has better ram management than my iPhone 8 (2GB ram) with iOS 13 lol

So it’s an iOS 13 problem, I hope they will solve it on iOS 14
 
But it was fine in 13.1. Just with some updates after it started to suck.

I hope Apple is aware of this and fixes it asap.
 
MBX said:
But it was fine in 13.1. Just with some updates after it started to suck.

I hope Apple is aware of this and fixes it asap.
Click to expand...

It was better. It was not exactly fine to be honest. The moment I started using my first iPad I noticed the reloads. It is really not something I was used to even on mobile device.

That being I said I do think that it is not just hardware and the solution is not just or Apple to add more RAM to their devices. Now they can do this, but there is also obviously a lot to be done on the software side as well.
 
secretk said:
I used an app. It does not tell me everything but it gives me some information. Something like this one - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/system-information/id455777146#?platform=ipad.
[automerge]1588727258[/automerge]


Agree. Indeed if the tabs/apps reloading was a bit more predictable I would have been fine. However it is not. It happens randomly and as an end user I have no idea on how to make sure to not lose any post data that is still not sent/stored. Also quite annoying specifically for me when it comes to videos. I have data limit in terms of usage. Every time a video is reloaded it consumes again data and that is definitely not acceptable for me. I think this is one of the reasons why I do not use the iPad as a consumption device especially when it comes to youtube. On my laptop even if the yutube tab refreshes it starts the video from the point where I was. On the iPad it starts from the beginning. It is quite annoying for me as I do not own TV and most of my media watching is in youtube - constantly.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that. Worked well
 
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Personally I had the iPad 5th gen 128GB, upgraded about a month ago to iPad Pro 11” 128GB. Not sure if it is the SOC, extra Ram or a combination of both but overall user experience has dramatically improved.
 
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