Closing apps but they are still open?

[NYHorsewoman]

So, I'm finding when I swipe up and then hold down an app til it jiggles, then close it and go back to the app I want to be in and then swipe, all the apps I just closed are still in the swiping cycle. What's up with that?

 

[Tim SPRACKLEN]

What do you mean by the 'swiping cycle'? You've double pressed the Home button to open the multi-task bar, then pressed any icon in the multi-task bar until they all start to jiggle, then - one-by-one - touched the upper left hand corner of the app icons in the multi-task bar to close them. Then you return to the Home screen....are you saying that if you then go back to the multi-task bar, all those apps you closed are - once again - open?

I'm guessing I've misunderstood your question.....

Tim

 

[NYHorsewoman]

Hi Tim, yes to your initial question. But you know how with multigestures you can swipe through the open apps left or right? Well, I assumed that once I jiggled them closed, they would no longer be available when you swipe left or right because I thought those were the "open" apps. Shouldn't they be closed at that point and no longer in the 'swipe cycle?'

 

[motabag]

had the same thing happen on my 3gs.

 

[jsh1120]

The "close" operation is a lot like the "door close" button on an elevator that isn't connected to anything. It just gives occupants the illusion of control. If you "close" an active app, it does, indeed, kill it. But in fact all it does it move it to a suspended state. The fact that it disappears from your list of apps is a lot like the door close button. You don't see it anymore but it's still available. When you "swipe," however, iOS assumes you want to "re-activate" that app and use it. So it does so.

I suspect that the inconsistent behavior (between the multitasking bar and the swipe gesture) results from a failure to communicate among Apple engineers, especially since the swipe gesture was recently added to the mix. I see this a lot among engineers in the software firm for which I work. Each group thinks they're meeting the requirements for the functionality for which they're responsible but there isn't an arbiter to resolve conflicts between requirements.

 

[leelai]

I'm a little confused, so once you get them jiggling are you actually closing them one by one?

Sent from my iPad using iPF

 

[s2mikey]

The "close" operation is a lot like the "door close" button on an elevator that isn't connected to anything. It just gives occupants the illusion of control. If you "close" an active app, it does, indeed, kill it. But in fact all it does it move it to a suspended state. The fact that it disappears from your list of apps is a lot like the door close button. You don't see it anymore but it's still available. When you "swipe," however, iOS assumes you want to "re-activate" that app and use it. So it does so.

I suspect that the inconsistent behavior (between the multitasking bar and the swipe gesture) results from a failure to communicate among Apple engineers, especially since the swipe gesture was recently added to the mix. I see this a lot among engineers in the software firm for which I work. Each group thinks they're meeting the requirements for the functionality for which they're responsible but there isn't an arbiter to resolve conflicts between requirements.

That's a good way to put it. I was wondering about this myself. It's like when are the apps REALLY closed? Only Apple knows for sure.

 

[twerppoet]

They do seem to get removed from RAM, and are therefor not open.

Hold in mind that many apps also have saved states, which lets them open where they left off even if they have been removed from RAM, it just takes a bit longer. I'm guessing this is part of the what is happening.

I suspect that as jsh suggests, it is a difference in what list of apps the two parts of the OS are using. There must be two app history files somewhere, one that the multitask bar uses, and one that the multi-gesture is using. Weird, and inconsistent. It is probably worth sending Apple some feedback on the issue, though since it doesn't seem to be hurting performance, maybe we can pretend it's a feature.

At any rate, I started the Systeminfo app, then four-swiped up to get the multitask bar. As I jiggled and removed the apps I saw my available RAM increase. That is why I'm (reasonably) certain you are still freeing up your RAM and forcing the app to reload the next time you open it. Those are the two main reasons for closing the app in the multitask bar.

 

[NYHorsewoman]

Yes ,closing each app one by one in the bottom tray.
As far as RAM, where do you check that?
And it is a curious thing that perhaps was "missed" in development.

 

[twerppoet]

There are several apps that will check your available RAM and other stats for the iPad. I use Systeminfo for iPad (the free version). I'm not sure what the paid version offers.

If you start the app then access the multitask bar you can watch the RAM increase as you close apps. If you have enough apps in the bar, eventually you stop seeing RAM increase. That is because those apps were already automatically removed in order to free up RAM when it started to get low. Apple probably chose to leave the purged apps in the multitask bar so that you can still open them easily. After all, most of them also save their run state, which means they will open where they left off, much like the ones frozen in RAM, only slower.

On the iPad 1, never found more than 5 to 7 apps in RAM. On the iPad 2 I've seen as many as 18. The extra 512MB makes a big difference.

 

[NYHorsewoman]

Hmm, I just downloaded that but I don't see where it shows you RAM.

 

[twerppoet]

Hmm, I just downloaded that but I don't see where it shows you RAM.

It is the left pie chart in the Memory & Disc tab, or top if you are in portrait view.

 

[NYHorsewoman]

It is the left pie chart in the Memory & Disc tab, or top if you are in portrait view.

Hmmm, no pie chart for me. Wondering if I downloaded a different version or app??

 

[jsh1120]

Xsysinfo also enables clearing of RAM and it tells you how much RAM you're actually using. BTW, one of the confusing aspects of this entire discussion is that Apple insists on referring to data storage capacity as "memory." (i.e. 16G, 32G, 64G) I suspect that is to make comparison between the iPad and other devices with more RAM confusing and difficult. As Twerppoet notes, the actual "memory" (in the conventional sense) or RAM in the iPad 2 is 512K (compared to 256K in the original iPad). That's still not much but because Apple severely limits true "multi-tasking" on the iPad (and iPhone), it suffices.

As far as the inconsistent behavior being "missed in development," I have no idea if that was actually the case, but I suspect it may not have been "missed." Rather, if it works at Apple as it does in many software development organizations, there may have been a disagreement between development teams as to their individual requirements. Rather than trying to sort out the conflicts between two development teams, Apple may just have decided to let each go their own way as long as the inconsistent behavior isn't noticeable to most users.

P.S. I think the most notorious example of this sort of thing is the long running conflict between Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express. Two incompatible email clients with almost the same name. The conflicts between the two went on for years, much to to the confusion of users.

P.P.S. BTW, I've noticed much more "free" memory (according to Xsysinfo) since I upgraded from 4.3.5 to 5.0 and now to 5.0.1. Prior to the updates, I routinely reached a low of 5-10 mg of "free" memory. Since the update, it usually runs more than 100 mg. Though Apple doesn't talk about it, I think they improved memory handling significantly with iOS 5.

 

[Andy Loba]

Could this be the reason that when I close my Ipad (only using the on/off button) , after a while, I can hear the sound associated with my email. I was under the impression if I close my Ipad, everything is shut down ! I notice this only after ios5 was installed.
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Is it normal ..... Can I modify an option to prevent the Ipad from staying alive after I closed it ?
Thanks for your cooperation