Apple iOS update reportedly brings back bug that cripples multi-tasking performance

Users who rushed to get the latest update have found an annoying problem reportedly causing apps to forget what they’re doing has returned.

If you want to listen to Apple’s fancy new Airpods Pro, the company’s recently released flagship model for the world’s most popular true wireless earbuds, you need the latest iOS software.

But downloading and installing it appears to be causing a number of issues for some frustrated customers.

Since updating their iPhones to iOS 13.2, users are reporting the multi-tasking features of the phone have been severely diminished as apps running in the background purge memory to retain system resources.

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Users have reported losing emails and other work after switching back and forth between apps, and things like Safari web pages having to reload when the app is resumed.

Apple enthusiasts site MacRumors collated a series of complaints from users on its discussion forums.

“I was watching a video in YouTube on my iPhone 11 Pro. I pause the video to respond to a text message. I was in iMessage for less than one minute. When I returned to YouTube it reloaded the app and I lost the video I was watching.,” one user wrote. “I noticed this a lot on my iPad Pro too. Apps and Safari tabs reloading a lot more frequently than they did in iOS 12. Very annoying.”

Several have also posted complaints via Twitter.

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

Multi-tasking is almost non-existent on iOS 13.2. My 11 Pro is aggressively killing every app in the background. It’s BAD.

— Chris 🏳️‍🌈 (@ChrisKeone) October 31, 2019

It’s understood the issue is caused by the phone seeking to preserve random access memory (RAM), which stores information and data for apps that are or recently were in use.

A user writing an email for instance might switch to a more memory intensive app like the camera, causing the phone to panic and begin dumping data from the memory to free up space.

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Apple’s iPhone models have typically had less RAM than their Android rivals, though Apple’s marketing philosophies indicate it doesn’t focus heavily on the raw number behind specifications, preferring instead to focus on the benefit gained.

For instance, when talking about its iPhone 11 Pro models, the company will say that the phone has five hours longer battery life than previous models rather than giving a precise mAh rating.

iOS 13 launched alongside the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro but despite having more RAM, users of the new phones are also reporting problems.

But Apple is also able to wring more performance out of lower-specced hardware through software optimisations, because unlike many manufacturers using Google’s Android operating system, Apple makes both the software and the hardware that go into its products.

This is why iPhones can often beat statistically “better” phones in performance tests.

While software optimisations can bring better performance, buggy software can cause huge hindrances.

Apple recently released iOS 13.2, adding support for the Airpods Pro and Deep Fusion camera capabilities on iPhone 11 models, among other features.

It’s the fifth update to iOS 13, which has had something of a rocky start since launching alongside the iPhone 11 in September.

Things got so bad Apple had to rush forward the first update, which was delivered just four days after the iPhone 11 hit stores.

Another update was released three days later, and another three days after that, to address a number of bugs and issues.

An update on Monday brought a variety of new features including the introduction of new emojis, and the return of a feature that allows you to have Siri read your messages.

But it appears it has also revived the ghosts of iOS past by compromising the multi-tasking ability of a number of devices.

Hopefully Apple can quickly address the issue through yet another update, but until then it’s probably best to avoid switching away from an app before you finish what you’re doing.

Have you experienced the latest reported bug in your iPhone’s software? Let us know in the comments below.