In iOS 7, apps reset and refresh themselves and lose their place after switching back to them

rick7072

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Has anyone else noticed that sometimes when you are working in one app, then switch to another to do some other work there, and then switch back to the first app, the first app then either resets itself and goes back to its starting screen (losing what you were working on) or simply refreshes itself slowly and unnecessarily? Turning off Background App Refresh has no effect since this is not about what apps do in the background but rather what they do when they're brought back to the foreground. I have an iPad 2 and never saw this problem with iOS 6.
 
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taz323

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Re: In iOS 7, apps refresh themselves and lose their place after switching back to them

Have to say I hadn't noticed it till now, but it seems like it's not all apps that does it. So I'm thinking it's more with the apps them self than ios7.
 

rick7072

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Re: In iOS 7, apps refresh themselves and lose their place after switching back to them

Have to say I hadn't noticed it till now, but it seems like it's not all apps that does it. So I'm thinking it's more with the apps them self than ios7.

It definitely doesn't happen all the time and I haven't yet figured out exactly when it does and when it doesn't. But I've found that if I've switched to another app or two and work in them for more than, say, five or ten minutes and then switch back, this reset/refresh does happen most of the time with most of the apps I use, including the "stock" iOS apps like Safari and even Settings:

  • Safari -- when you come back to Safari, the page you had been on refreshes (sometimes very slowly!), and then you're finally returned to the top of the page, losing where you had been on the page. If you had been filling out a web form and had entered text, your text is now lost.
  • Twitter -- if you had an article open, that article is now closed and you're sent back to the itemized list of tweets
  • Wikipedia -- the article you had been looking at has now closed and you're brought back to Wikipedia's home page: "Today's featured article"
  • Photo Manager Pro -- if you had been looking at an individual photo, your photo is closed and you're brought back to the display of root folders
  • Facebook -- the app refreshes and you're no longer looking at the newsfeed article you had been reading. Instead you're brought to the very top article in your newsfeed.
  • Settings -- suppose you're in General, looking at one of the settings at the bottom of the right pane that you had scrolled down to get to. The app refreshes/resets and you're now looking at the settings at the top of the right pane.
  • Maps -- it refreshes unnecessarily but seems to properly restore its previous state and location
  • iBooks -- probably the most interesting of all. If you're reading a book and you were on a certain page, when you return to iBooks your page now closes and the app displays the bookshelf of books. You think you're about to lose your page and book completely. But then all of a sudden the book reopens and you're happily sent right back to the page you had been on. So it does the refresh which it shouldn't do to begin with, but then makes up for it by returning you properly to where you were.
  • Photos -- seems to be fine. Does not reset
  • Mail -- fine, does not exhibit this behavior
It's still possible that it's the apps themselves, and they have to be recoded to accommodate this pretty major change from v6 to v7 in how iOS does multitasking. But I think most of our apps have already been rewritten for iOS 7 as the developers have seen the APIs. This may be a feature in IOS 7 that was never announced to developers or the public. This behavior definitely didn't happen in iOS 6.

The ability of apps to store their state when they're about to be backgrounded (so they can instantly and seamlessly restore their state when they're re-foregrounded) may have taken much less memory in iOS 6 than it now does in iOS 7. I have a feeling that this "re-foregrounded app reset" problem may not happen on the iPhone 5 or iPad 3 and later, all of which I believe have more memory than the iPhone 4 and iPad 2. It's possible that apps simply cannot be rewritten to accommodate this change in how the OS does multitasking if the user (like me!) is running an older device with less system memory. I'm hoping I'm wrong and it's a matter of either a pretty major industry-wide app rewrite or, more simply and hopefully, an iOS update.
 

anon(8221395)

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I have the 4S and I can't stand this issue. I don't think this is an issue for the 5S and probably the 5 since they are faster phones but on the 4S this issue is super annoying. I just want my apps to keep their state and let me decide if they need to be refreshed. I'm not going to upgrade to the 5s until Christmas but until then this issue really drives me crazy.
 

rick7072

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Darryl, what apps does this happen to you on? Do you get it with most apps as I do? I'd be curious to hear a description of the problem as you see it. From my perspective it does seem to be an OS problem rather than with the individual app, though it's hard to separate the two -- unless developers just never noticed (or never were told about) this fairly important change in how the OS handles foregrounding and backgrounding apps. Or maybe there just never was any testing done of switching back and forth among apps on the iPad 2 and iPhone 4, so the problem never showed up.
 

rick7072

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Thanks, Karen. Would be curious to know which apps you see this problem on and which you don't. It definitely happens to me with Safari. When I switch away from it and work 10 minutes in another app, then come back to it, the page I'd been on refreshes/resets and loses its place and any data I may have entered. I would at least expect Safari's Apple developers would be able to do this seamlessly since it's their own OS.

I also haven't found that the number of open apps has much effect on the phenomenon. I've stripped down to a bare minimum of three or four apps and still had the problem.

Would be glad to hear of your experiences.
 

anon(8221395)

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Darryl, what apps does this happen to you on? Do you get it with most apps as I do? I'd be curious to hear a description of the problem as you see it. From my perspective it does seem to be an OS problem rather than with the individual app, though it's hard to separate the two -- unless developers just never noticed (or never were told about) this fairly important change in how the OS handles foregrounding and backgrounding apps. Or maybe there just never was any testing done of switching back and forth among apps on the iPad 2 and iPhone 4, so the problem never showed up.

It did it to all my apps. I actually reset my phone and reinstalled all my apps. It actually made a huge improvement! Switching back and forth between apps is much smoother now. I'm hoping this lasts. I'll report back tomorrow to keep you posted.
 

swampbaby

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Same here I also have a 4S and I have the same issues that the original poster mentioned. It drives me crazy. I have an iPad 4 and I don't notice the issues on the iPad, other than Maps returning to my current gps location when relaunching.
 

anon(8221395)

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Darryl, what apps does this happen to you on? Do you get it with most apps as I do? I'd be curious to hear a description of the problem as you see it. From my perspective it does seem to be an OS problem rather than with the individual app, though it's hard to separate the two -- unless developers just never noticed (or never were told about) this fairly important change in how the OS handles foregrounding and backgrounding apps. Or maybe there just never was any testing done of switching back and forth among apps on the iPad 2 and iPhone 4, so the problem never showed up.

By the way, in case you decide to reset your phone also I did the full 'Erase all Content and Settings' and then I set it up as a new iPhone. I didn't restore a backup from iCloud or iTunes. So far so good.
 

anon(8221395)

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Same here I also have a 4S and I have the same issues that the original poster mentioned. It drives me crazy. I have an iPad 4 and I don't notice the issues on the iPad, other than Maps returning to my current gps location when relaunching.

Yea, I have the iPad mini and there is no issue. Doing a full reset and setting it up as a new iPhone seems to be the solution. I just did it today. I'll check back to let everyone know if it keeps up or if it begins to lag again.
 

Marcus Diddle

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So far so good 😊

Could you report back on this? Everything still good for you?

This has been my biggest problem with iOS7. Apps just don't seem to be able to multi-task. I can be in Trillian chatting away with someone, switch to mail and reply to an email, switch back to Trillian, and the app completely refreshes itself, throwing me back to the contact list. Games will often kick me back to their splash page. Instagram throws me back to the top of the page. Rdio is completely frustrating as it reloads itself all the time. Facebook as well. Basically if I switch away from any app for more than a few minutes, it refreshes itself when I go back.

I compulsively close apps when I'm not using them, which I know isn't necessary, but OCD is what it is. So number of running apps should not be an issue. Only thing I can think of is the lower available memory of the 4S being a factor.
 

Susan MC

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I've found this to be a HUGE problem for me in Safari. It's literally driving me nuts...I have a 64gb iPad2 and have regretted for several months. It's significantly impacted my enjoyment and the overall utility of my iPad.
If anyone has a solution I'd likely fall over with joy!
 

anon(8221395)

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It is worth doing a complete reset. Apps still refresh every time you go back to them but it refreshes much much faster. When i first installed ios 7 it would take about 10 seconds for an app to refresh before i could finally start using it. Now it only takes 2 seconds. Better than nothing. I say you should do it. Keep me posted on what you decide to do.
 

WaWaTuSi_BBQ

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Re: In iOS 7, apps refresh themselves and lose their place after switching back to them

It's up to the app developers to use the Apis that Apple provides to properly restore themselves.

Thanks, thought it was something like that.



Nonsense, it happens in all apps including Safari, iBooks, etc. it's an issue with ios7 not Facebook, not ebay, not amazon, not almost every app.


It's like when I upgraded to ios7 7.03 and all the sudden my charger, connector in my car stopped working. Apple blamed the car. Apple is losing it. Already bought a nexus, and have a galaxy on order. I prefer the apple system, but this jacks up data rates and renders the devices almost unusable.
 

lscp

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I have noticed this and it's really annoying. No on else seemed to notice or be bothered by it, but I find it a giant step backward in convenience. All my apps are updated. Can't imagine the developers all think this is handy to have.
 

cctpitts01

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Has anyone else noticed that sometimes when you are working in one app, then switch to another to do some other work there, and then switch back to the first app, the first app then either resets itself and goes back to its starting screen (losing what you were working on) or simply refreshes itself slowly and unnecessarily? Turning off Background App Refresh has no effect since this is not about what apps do in the background but rather what they do when they're brought back to the foreground. I have an iPad 2 and never saw this problem with iOS 6.

That's been happening a lot with me lately :(


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

thuson

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I have an iPhone 4s and this problem is driving me crazy. It happens with the Economist app, Weather Underground app, and the Marketplace.org app, which forgets all podcast shows I have downloaded. I thought it was the individual apps at first, but they all do it. I wish I hadn't upgraded to ios7, because I'm pretty sure it didn't happen prior to ios7. It is really surprising how long it can take for the apps to reset. I'll be keen to hear if anyone figures out a work-around. I might consider reinstalling, but only if it would stop the apps from resetting, not if it just speeds up the resetting. Thanks all.
 

jmoplease

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I am so glad to see I am not the only one, but at the same time it sucks that others are dealing with the same thing.

It is literally every app for me. Words with friends, candy crush both completely restart my games. Safari resets, apps that require a password such as financial or medical communications with my clinic all sign me out if I leave for one second. It is maddening.

I purchased the 5S and loved it but the home button was often really hard to push and it sounded like there was a piece of sand in it. I had previously owned the 4S and had resisted upgrading to ios7 because of all the issues people were having with it.

I returned the phone because if the issue and went back to my 4S and had to do the upgrade. Man oh man am I regretting all of this. I HATE using my phone now and am considering changing. Eeekkkk!!!!

If I knew that the next phone would still not have a larger screen I would be outta here. I am hoping it will.

I don't want to do a full erase and not start from a precious back up because I don't want to lose the changes in my content. Is there another way than to lose everything?

I hate this. I am glad I sold my apple stock when it was at its highest! Lol

Mid way through this posting I got a text I could not answer because I would have lost all of what I have written. This is NOT the way things should be. Ggggrrrrrrrr
 

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