Do you leave apps running in the background ?

You might want to research how iOS handles multitasking because you clearly don't understand.

Apps minimised into the background basically stop working and do not consume any memory at all. Thus, you can have as many of them there and it will not affect the working of your ios device one bit.

SO yeah, don't bother removing them, unless it is to shut down/reboot a non-responsive app.

As brand wrote - you dont understand iOS multitasking - apps are not running in the backround...

And of course no - i am not wiping icons from multitasking tray, why would I?

iOS multitasking allows apps to remain in the multitasking bar without consuming memory. Wouldn't hurt to restart your phone once every week, just to get that extra boost of speed.

See: How iOS multitasking really works

Why do people think its acceptable to throw the term OCD around?!

If you really had OCD you'd know about it!

This is all fine and dandy, but I and I know others that have experienced rapid battery drain and sluggishness. The fix has been to manually close all those programs that supposedly are not using any resources. Then restart and this always does the trick. I now do this at least once a week.

So those that say iOS takes care of this I would say for the most part that is true, but occasionally deleting all those programs from my experience gives improved performance and battery life.

William.Mantle said:

Why do people think its acceptable to throw the term OCD around?!

If you really had OCD you'd know about it!

Click to expand...

It seem the term OCD has taken on new heights since yellow/pink/green gate

b.c. said:

See: How iOS multitasking really works

Click to expand...

Thanks for the link. I think I have to write an email to all my unsuspecting friends who always argue that they are losing battery power and have to shut down all the apps manually.

Here's another article, from Apple...

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4211

I will say that I've manually quit apps such as the Airport Utility since I've found that it doesn't refresh properly sometimes. It does refresh after quitting the app then relaunching it.

William.Mantle said:

Why do people think its acceptable to throw the term OCD around?!

If you really had OCD you'd know about it!

Click to expand...

Don't want to claim personal responsibility? Claim OCD!

William.Mantle said:

Why do people think its acceptable to throw the term OCD around?!

If you really had OCD you'd know about it!

Click to expand...

I have to disagree as many here who ARE OCD do not realize it.

All good and well, but can someone explain why on my iPod Touch 3rd gen (with sbSettings) I had about 4mb of memory free (which clearly slowed down my iPod), closed all the apps in the multitasking bar and I had about 130mb free and ran smoothly again?

RestUnknown said:

All good and well, but can someone explain why on my iPod Touch 3rd gen (with sbSettings) I had about 4mb of memory free (which clearly slowed down my iPod), closed all the apps in the multitasking bar and I had about 130mb free and ran smoothly again?

Click to expand...

Same here with the iPhone 4 and had the same with the iPad 1.
They always used up a bunch of ram when in the multi tasking bar.
It does not work like Apple says it does.
I alway close all apps on my iPhone and get over 100 meg back on the ram.

I agree about the OCD thing (but that's another thread :3 )

I close all the back aps every couple of days, just because the list gets so long and after a while if I do need to shut down an app it can take a lot of box clicking.

but I don't do it to save battery, or memory or any of that. Sometimes I do it to feel vindictive and destroy something.

OTACORB said:

This is all fine and dandy, but I and I know others that have experienced rapid battery drain and sluggishness. The fix has been to manually close all those programs that supposedly are not using any resources. Then restart and this always does the trick. I now do this at least once a week.

So those that say iOS takes care of this I would say for the most part that is true, but occasionally deleting all those programs from my experience gives improved performance and battery life.

Click to expand...

I agree! Clearly, iOS 5 is designed to allow multitasking without too much concern for whether an unused app should be closed down. Most of the time it doesn't matter how many apps are "open." But, do not be misled. Depending on what apps you use, it may be prudent to close unused open apps periodically; some apps are known to consume memory, cpu, and power even when they are not currently being used by the user should.

Read the links posted earlier in this thread closely. Apple states that there are exactly five kinds of apps allowed to run indefinitely in the Background state in iOS 5: Apps that play audio while in the Background state. Apps that track your location in the background. Apps that listen for incoming voice-over-IP (VOIP) calls. Newsstand apps that are downloading new content. Apps that receive continuous updates from an external accessory in the background. And some social media apps and interactive games that use notification services. There are some built-in apps that also run continuously in the background on iOS—the most-used one is probably Mail. As long as these apps are running in the Background state, they will consume memory, CPU time, and power. Bottom line is, yeah, from time-to-time, you may want to close some of those apps.

brand said:

You might want to research how iOS handles multitasking because you clearly don't understand.

Click to expand...

Very sage advice.

William.Mantle said:

Why do people think its acceptable to throw the term OCD around?!

If you really had OCD you'd know about it!

Click to expand...

But would they really know about it? An obsessive behavior to most people with OCD seems perfectly normal. It's everyone else who doesn't understand.

At least that's what the voices tell me.

I never 'quit' apps. Unless it has a glitch, then I restart it.

avaloncourt said:

At least that's what the voices tell me.

Click to expand...

You offend every single real OCD sufferer with comments like this

Grow up

I clear them out every once in a while. Some apps like my Navigon seem to continue to throw out commands even when "minimized". But it's not something I do regularly.

Abazigal said:

Apps minimised into the background basically stop working and do not consume any memory at all.

Click to expand...

Suspended apps still consume memory. They are simply frozen in place, so that if you go back to them, they start instantly from where they paused.

If/when another app later needs more memory, then at that time the OS can and will totally shut down a suspended app and take its memory.

There's nothing special about this method, btw. It's a common mobile OS trick. Android was doing it before iOS did, and Windows CE was doing something similar before Android.

dukeblue91 said:

They always used up a bunch of ram when in the multi tasking bar.It does not work like Apple says it does. I alway close all apps on my iPhone and get over 100 meg back on the ram.

Click to expand...

Unused RAM is simply unused RAM. Having more free RAM doesn't help the foreground app that won't use it, just as having 100GB of free hard drive space doesn't matter to an app that only needs 1MB of storage.

It's actually GOOD when the RAM is full, because that means it's being used for frozen apps for better re-activation response.

The only downside to this method is that it might take a little extra time to fully shut down frozen apps and reclaim their memory.

William.Mantle said:

You offend every single real OCD sufferer with comments like this

Grow up

Click to expand...

Apparently, you need to educate yourself about OCD. A person with OCD doesn't hear voices. If you're going to get all indignant, you should at least defend the right illness.

i don't do it on my iPhone and i never did it on my iPad either. apps aren't running in the background. the multitasking tray is more for switching through apps and not for quitting them.