Is the browser (Safari) tabs memory and RAM management better in iOS 8?

[himmatsj]

On iOS 7, whenever you open a third tab (sometimes even second, sometimes fourth) and go back to the first tab in your browser (Safari), the page will reload. I found this infuriating on my Retina Mini, not the least because I used to have an iPad 2 with half the RAM that could open more browser tabs at once in iOS 6. I also had Android tablets that could have many more tabs open at once without them needing to be reloaded.

I asked around, and true enough others faced the same issue as well on their iPads. On my iPad 2 on iOS 7, it behaves the same was as my Mini Retina. Funny, cause you'd expect with double the RAM, the Mini Retina should be able to open many more tabs at once.

This is arguably the biggest issue I have with my iPad Mini Retina and iOS 7, cause I am a person who usually has 4+ tabs open at once.

May I kindly ask anyone who has iOS 8 on their iPads now...is this situation improved? Seeing that the newest iPhones are still on 1GB of RAM (yay!), I'd imagine they would have optimized Safari better, or if it was a bug causing this issue, fixed the bug.

Cheers!

PS: Also, it is worth mentioning that I experience Safari crashes at least twice a day. I use the browser quite a lot for reading (maybe 2 - 3 hours a day), but still even on the "buggier" Android or iOS6 for my iPad 2, I never faced crashes as often.

 

[Just_Me_D]

I don't have iOS 8 on my iPad Mini, but I do have iOS 8 GM on my iPhone 5, and it does not do the things you mentioned above. When I switch from tab to tab, nothing reloads. In regard to Safari crashing, it does not crash on my iPad Mini or on my iPhone 5. Is it possible you have a corrupted setting? When was the last time you restored and set up as new?

 

[himmatsj]

I don't have iOS 8 on my iPad Mini, but I do have iOS 8 GM on my iPhone 5, and it does not do the things you mentioned above. When I switch from tab to tab, nothing reloads. In regard to Safari crashing, it does not crash on my iPad Mini or on my iPhone 5. Is it possible you have a corrupted setting? When was the last time you restored and set up as new?

I never restored anything. I have the Mini Retina mind you. I see the RAM and crashing issue is common to the Air and Mini Retina and there are tons of dedicated forum posts to them. So I doubt resetting my device will do anything.

 

[Just_Me_D]

I never restored anything. I have the Mini Retina mind you. I see the RAM and crashing issue is common to the Air and Mini Retina and there are tons of dedicated forum posts to them. So I doubt resetting my device will do anything.

Okay. Well, since you appear unwilling to restore it and set it up as new and have found numerous other sites depicting similar problems then I suggest you make a Genius Bar appointment with the nearest Apple Store and have them diagnose the problem for you.

 

[GaryPSU]

Okay. Well, since you appear unwilling to restore it and set it up as new and have found numerous other sites depicting similar problems then I suggest you make a Genius Bar appointment with the nearest Apple Store and have them diagnose the problem for you.

I have had the same issues with my iPad Air. I have restored as new more than once. I even received a new (not refurbished) replacement from the "Genius Bar". The problems still exist. Terrible memory management for 64 bit devices. I do not have these problems with my iPhone 5.

 

[GaryPSU]

Hopefully we'll finally get a fix for this common problem.

 

[Ariel Babalao]

Also having that safari reloading pages on my iPad but not on the iPhone. Crossing fingers for iOS 8 to correct that.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[himmatsj]

Also having that safari reloading pages on my iPad but not on the iPhone. Crossing fingers for iOS 8 to correct that.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Which iPad model do you have? Which iPhone model?

Thanks!

 

[Ariel Babalao]

Retina iPad mini. Was having the iPhone 4s and now the 5s and none of the iPhones have that safari reloading troubles except when it reside in the multitasking for a period of time where I use other apps, only then the tabs in safari will reload.
But with the retina iPad mini, I'm in safari, open 3 or 4 tabs, each of them fully loaded and the 4th tab is on screen, when I switch to tab 3, it will reload the page again, then back to tab 4 and it will reload again, back to tab 2 or 1 and it will reload the page.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[GaryPSU]

On my iPad Air, Safari freezes, and the "wheel" spins until I run the "MemoryInfo app", and then return to Safari.

 

[fightcrazy]

Have iPad mini with retina display with 128gb of storage. Just loaded 5 websites on Safari and constantly reloaded websites every 3rd or 4th site. I use Chrome almost always so never knew this was a issue until reading this article. Needs more Ram. Don't understand why the iPhone 6 & 6+ didn't get a boost in Ram. Ram is very cheap to ad while building these devices. Hopefully IOS 8 fixes this issue.

 

[GaryPSU]

Have iPad mini with retina display with 128gb of storage. Just loaded 5 websites on Safari and constantly reloaded websites every 3rd or 4th site. I use Chrome almost always so never knew this was a issue until reading this article. Needs more Ram. Don't understand why the iPhone 6 & 6+ didn't get a boost in Ram. Ram is very cheap to ad while building these devices. Hopefully IOS 8 fixes this issue.

 

[GaryPSU]

I think that the iPhone 6 & 6+ having only 1gb of RAM has not been officially determined.

 

[Hiri89]

omg... i wonder the same thing!!!!!

 

[himmatsj]

So, can we safely say it is better in ios 8? I realise there is a slight white screen, but I think the tab reloading issue is less prominent here.

 

[GaryPSU]

"So, can we safely say it is better in ios 8? I realise there is a slight white screen, but I think the tab reloading issue is less prominent here."

Maybe a bit premature, but I've been using ios 8 on my iPad Air for one day, and the low memory freezing issue with Safari has not occurred. Right now I have 7 different apps and 5 tabs in Safari open. Pages seem to load a bit slower than under iOS a 7.12, but they eventually load without my intervention. Of those I've tested, only one app (AT&T Locker), which probably needs to be updated for iOS 8, crashed to the home screen . So far, so good. Fingers crossed.