How to prevent refresh

[The_Eck]

Hi,

One of the most irritating things about the iPad (to me at least) is the automatic refresh so many apps perform if you double-click the home button, access another app, then return to the app you were previously using, the previous app does a screen refresh and quite often will return you to a "home" state. An example of this is Safari: I'll be browsing a page and something occurs to me and I'll go access Mail. When I return to Safari, it does this refresh and returns me to the top of the page I was viewing. Another example is a Big Fish mystery game where I want to go to the online walkthrough (in Safari) but when I return to the game, the game refreshes to the login screen and I have to go through the interminable process of loading to get to where i was in play. Same thing with Zite, only Zite refreshes and returns me to page 1 and I'll have to flip through pages to get to where I was reading.

Is there any way of telling iOS to knock it off? I really don't want my suspended apps to go through this refresh cycle each time I leave them.

I've got an iPad 2, iOS version 8.1.3, 64GB WiFi.

Thanks for any tips!

 

[twerppoet]

It's an issue caused by limited RAM. The iPad 2 has half the RAM as newer models. (and a quarter of the iPad Air 2) There is no 'knock it off' solution. When the iPad runs low on RAM it automatically frees it up from inactive applications, which means they lose their current state and have to reload when they become active again.

Yes, it has become more common with iOS 8, because iOS 8 uses RAM for more background and system tasks than previous version.

There are few things you could do that might help a little, but nothing I know of that would make it go away. Nothing that will make a big enough difference that you're likely to consider the problem solved.

 

[The_Eck]

@ twerppoet: Thanks for an extremely lucid explanation. I've posed this at other sites, including the Apple forums, and you're the first to respond. I had never thought that running low on RAM would be a problem but there you go. Now I have to go figure a way to save for next year's model.

 

[giradman]

It's an issue caused by limited RAM. The iPad 2 has half the RAM as newer models. (and a quarter of the iPad Air 2).....

Hi TP - nice concise explanation for the OP's question about 'multi-tasking' (MT) on an old iPad 2 - sold mine a few months ago and obtained the iPad Air 2 w/ 2 GB RAM and the newest processors - boy what a difference! SO, I agree w/ our OP's thought of saving up for a new iPad - will help.

BUT @ the OP - keep in mind that you're dealing w/ iOS and not OS X or Windows - this mobile operating system has struggled for years relative to MT - it has improved and will likely do so in the future w/ hardware/software updates - one's computing habits relative to using these iDevices vs. Mac (or PC) computers is still a 'paradigm' issue and adaptive differences in using these operating systems must be adjusted to avoid frustration. Dave

 

[twerppoet]

No problem. I've oversimplified a bit, but RAM is at the core of the issue. I'll probably be taking serious look at next years iPad as well. I expect it to be a worthwhile upgrade from my iPad Air.

 

[Ser Aphim]

The reason for this "refresh cycle" is because iOS uses ARC for memory management, which means the compiler will do the memory management for you, which is far better than the memory management of Android.

 

[scifan57]

The reason for this "refresh cycle" is because iOS uses ARC for memory management, which means the compiler will do the memory management for you, which is far better than the memory management of Android.

Agreed. There's far less need for any sort of manual memory management on an iOS device. iOS is a more efficient operating system and uses fewer resources to preform similar tasks.

 

[The_Eck]

@ Ser Aphim and scifan57:

Thanks for the followup info on memory management.

 

[scifan57]

@ Ser Aphim and scifan57:

Thanks for the followup info on memory management.

You're welcome.