Adrian Kingsley-Hughes for ZDNet:
The iPhone and iPad are probably two of the most ubiquitous, and most well-known consumer electronics devices in existence… But it’s also amazing how many people are inadvertently mistreating their iPhone or iPad by doing things that are either unnecessary or even damaging.
Today [in a café in the wilds of Wales, UK] I got into a conversation with a couple about an iPhone that was misbehaving and running slow… Over the course of about an hour, the two of them spouted pretty much every iPhone and iPad power and performance myth and legend that I’ve ever come across. And I watched their faces fall as I told them that the “trick” didn’t work.
So, let’s debunk a few of these iPhone myths and legends!
Closing apps down speeds up your iPhone or iPad: No. In fact, it can slow it down and even use more battery when it needs to reload that app.
You should completely discharge your iPhone’s battery on a regular basis: [No!] While modern batteries are pretty good at dealing with this sort of abuse, it’s not something I recommend because it is possible to permanently damage your battery this way (for example, if you discharge it in hot conditions and then take it somewhere cold while it is in a discharged state).
MacDailyNews Take: There are many more in the full article, but we picked out our two pet peeves:
• Do not force close apps regularly trying to speed up your iPhone or iPad. You’re only wasting your battery life. Only if an app won’t respond, should you force it to close*. (See also: No, you should not be routinely force closing apps on your iPhone and iPad).
Just use [iOS multitasking] as designed, and you’ll be happy. No need to ever quit apps. – Steve Jobs, June 29, 2010
• Do not fully discharge your iPhone or iPad battery. In fact, try never to do so; your battery will thank you with better performance for a longer period of time. (See also: I used an iPhone X for a year and had 99% battery health – here’s how I did it)
*How to force close an app:
- On an iPhone X or later or an iPad with iOS 12, from the Home screen, swipe up from the bottom of the screen and pause slightly in the middle of the screen. On an iPhone 8 or earlier, double-click the Home button to show your most recently used apps
- Swipe right or left to find the app that you want to force to close.
- Swipe up on the app’s preview to force close the app.
Note: When your recently used apps appear, the apps aren’t open, they’re in standby mode to help you navigate and multitask. Again, you should only force an app to close when it’s unresponsive.
I used to force quit my apps. Not anymore. Much better this way.
I feel like having a ton of tabs open in safari slows down my phone. So maybe that’s worth keeping to a minimum?
I agree with this. I tend to leave lots of tabs open instead of book marking things (makes me feel like a windows user so it’s a bad habit in general). Sometimes pages won’t load once I’ve reached over ten tabs, and I have to close several before safari will respond to me again.
Yes. Minimize browser tabs when possible, regardless of platform.
While most people won’t notice when browsing or playing games or the like, if one is performing certain tasks – notably: music production using multiple VIs and FX as AUs or via IAA in an iOS DAW – then it is absolutely the correct thing to do to close every other app that one is not using to prevent other interrupts, background CPU use and RAM consumption, and to prevent preemptive page outs. Each of these has the potential to interrupt the real-time audio recording process and cause glitches as there is unnecessary context switching and RAM reclamation for audio buffers.
This is further compounded – and further necessary – if one is using an external audio interface for live real-time recording (mics, guitars, external synthesizers, etc.) and also seeking to monitor that through speakers or headphones with low latency and low buffer settings.
Certainly that only applies to the tens of thousands of people who produce music on iOS, (the iPad Musician FB group currently has > 10,000 users – and only represents a subsection of all iOS music producers), but it is not correct in every circumstance to say that this should not be done at all. There are very good reasons to do so in some situations beyond just closing an errant app.
I use about 7 apps regularly and I generally don’t close them. However, when I’ve used several more apps, I generally close them because it speeds ME up switching between apps. Same with closing tabs in Safari. The hit in battery/startup is inconsequential to me.
Unloading photos is required to save storage space. Sometimes I want 8 to 10 hours of video to watch on long trips.
Brilliant response – saving time for humans going between apps!
Also in earlier iOS versions, if I had a lot of things open, sometimes there would be issues with the keyboard, and then closing down everything would fix it.
I’ve had to do this less and less though…