The beta release schedule and eventual public launch of iOS 13 were chaotic, but many assumed that by the time iOS 13.2 rolled out, most of the major problems would have been addressed. Unfortunately, that does not appear to be the case, as iPhone and iPad users have been complaining in recent days about poor memory management that is resulting in background apps and tasks being killed more aggressively than ever.
On Thursday, MacRumors gathered a collection of complaints from its forum that demonstrate just how serious of an issue this can be. While Google Calendar or a weather app reloading itself might not be a big deal, some users have reported losing email drafts or progress on a YouTube video when they return to the app. I’ve noticed this myself, but didn’t think much of it until I read some of the complaints, one of which is copied below:
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.
Developer Michael Tsai has gone to the trouble of rounding up a bunch of tweets and news stories on his blog, just in case you needed any more proof that the issue is affecting more than just MacRumors forum-goers:
I thought it was just a beta thing, but iOS’ memory management has taken a big step back — as in, back to the pre-multitasking days of quitting and launching apps instead of switching between them.
— Nick Heer (@nickheer) October 29, 2019
I’ve noticed this since the first 13.2 betas, and Overcast users keep reporting it as well: background apps seem to be getting killed MUCH more aggressively than before.
(Especially on the iPhone 11 if you use the camera, presumably because it needs so much RAM for processing.) https://t.co/Qscmsj1OGY
— Marco Arment (@marcoarment) October 29, 2019
Apple has yet to issue a statement on the matter, but the hope is that this is just a bug that can be corrected in a future update. As I noted earlier, I was experiencing this myself without even noticing it, and chances are that there are plenty of others out there like me. But as soon as I lose a bunch of progress in a game I thought was running in the background, or have to rewrite a document I spent a significant amount of time working on, what seemed like a small problem will become a major concern for me and countless others.
Image Source: Apple Inc.