The new iOS 13.2 update is causing iPhone and iPad handsets to aggressively close down apps running in the background, according to a growing number of users.
An issue potentially pertaining to RAM management is causing multitasking issues when people attempt to reopen apps, including core apps like Safari and Messages and high-profile third-party apps like YouTube.
Marco Arment, the programmer and writer, went as far to say “apps get killed in the background so aggressively that iOS effectively doesn’t offer multitasking anymore,” because they are forced to reload when selected from the multitasking menu.
Major new bugs introduced in iOS 13.2:
– background downloads often hang forever and never run
– apps get killed in the background so aggressively that iOS effectively doesn’t offer multitasking anymore
…continuing the iOS 13 pattern of breaking long-held basic functionality.
— Marco Arment (@marcoarment) October 31, 2019
Apple’s community support forums, Twitter and the MacRumors forums are awash with comments from users complaining the issue is causing inconvenience and interrupting their ability to work using their iOS device.
One user on the forums, Radon8700, wrote: “I was working on a spreadsheet in Excel and I switched to a YouTube video for like 10 mins or so and when I switched back, the app was no longer in memory. Not just that, it also flushed all Safari tabs out of memory too. None of the games are staying in memory after 20 mins.”
Nick Heer, who uses an iPhone X and runs the Pixel Envy blog, wrote: “…I was switching between a thread in Messages and a recipe in Safari and each app entirely refreshed every time I foregrounded it. This happens all the time throughout the system in iOS 13: Safari can’t keep even a single tab open in the background, every app boots from scratch, and using iOS feels like it has regressed to the pre-multitasking days.”
It isn’t just those using older devices either. Some people are experiencing issues with the newest, most powerful handsets, like the iPhone 11 Pro.
Apple is yet to comment on the reports, but iOS 13 has been beset by issues since its launch on September 19 this year. The company has launched a wide array of updates for the new operating system, some to add new features, but a lot to fix a massive array of bugs.
In this instance, it appears Apple may have bitten off a little bit more with iOS 13 than the RAM within the hardware can chew.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
