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Background audio flawed in iOS8?
I've noticed a thing, that I hope some of the developers here can clear up:
It seems that some apps are continuously draining your battery if background audio is enabled, even though they are not actually PLAYING any audio while in the background.
I've noticed this from several apps like Gadget, Launchpad and more.
Some apps, like Cubasis, show the red status bar to inform you that they are using audio actively in the background, but for example Gadget does not.
Still if I don't force quit Gadget it will suck up my battery with "background activity" as reported by the new battery use list.
This happens even if "background refresh" is off, but background audio is on.
I feel this behaviour is flawed somehow, since iOS usually is good at managing resources and shutting down anything consuming power if it is not used (like a DAW not actually running or playing audio). But I read somewhere that they need to keep the audio part active in iOS 8 for it to work.
Does anyone know anything about this? Should it be reported to Apple?
It seems strange if you have to force quit all your audio apps to conserve battery, if you are not actively using them??
Comments
By 'force quit' you mean closing them, clicking on the go button to reveal them half-minimized and them swiping them to make them disappear? Sorry if I'm misunderstanding you....this is an almost obsessive-compulsive behavior now for me....must be done.
Yes, swiping them up from multitasking view.
This is something that is not suppose to be needed, unless an app is stuck or misbehaving, as iOS will manage resources itself. That's why I refer to it as force quitting.
It's the only way to really close an app in iOS, but you shouldn't need to under normal circumstances.
Hey, thanks for posting this thread. I think it brings out a issue for clarification that is relevant to iOS musicians. This is most definitely not a flaw or error to report to Apple and developers.
Basically, yes, iOS in general does a decent job of managing resources and when you aren't actively using an app it will sit quietly in the background and generally only use resources to provide notifications if you have them turned on (like messaging, skype, or email, which use background refresh).
Music apps require a different functionality. The nature of "background audio" allows a setting that deliberately de-activates the way an app normally "goes to sleep" when it is not the active app. This is necessary when we want a music app to continue functioning while in the background, such as effects or synths and drum machines controlled by external MIDI, etc. It is absolutely essential for Audiobus and for using multiple audio apps simultaneously.
The downside is that you can't have both the iOS resource management and the background audio. If you use background audio, you always have to remember to force close apps when you are done using them. Otherwise, the apps will continue using resources and battery.
I think its actually really important that iOS musicians understand this. It would be tragic if users were to send complaints to Apple and for them to decide that "background audio" goes against their goal for simplicity and ease of use and remove the feature (I imagine this is not likely to happen, but that would be the worst-case scenario).
read somewhere (elastic drums) it is a must be, as per request from Apple
Elastic got 2-3 deny on app submition because of different approach to bg audio, as far as i remember
I remember some apps can go to sleep after a while in background audio. E.g: if there's no user interaction for some time. The dev has to code it in.
Take this with a grain of salt though, haven't checked the docs.
@Hmtx well put.
@Hmtx thanks for the explanation, good to hear it's not a bug and that we are supposed to force quit apps like this. I just never noticed this behaviour before iOS 8 but maybe it was still there, just not visible because we didn't have the battery usage counter.
What confused me was the e.g. Cubasis displays the red bar to inform the user that it's active in the background, but other apps do not do this, so for the average user it's looks like they are "broken".
I just thought that Apple would never allow an app to just continue to run in the background without the user knowing it.
E.g. a streaming music app will play music so you know it's running, but should shut down if you stopped the music and left the app, at least I've not experienced for example Spotify draining my battery even though I have not force quit it after using it. So you can understand why it seems strange if you are not a programmer ;-)
No worries. Yes, it's odd and somewhat of a workaround but we still depend on it.
I think the red audio bar only shows up (and is required by iOS to do so) with apps that are accessing your mic input (such as skype, phone, cubasis, LoopyHD) but not with synths which only create audio without accessing the mic.
Also, I'm pretty sure even music apps default to standard app behaviour (going to sleep and saving battery) unless you turn on background audio by enabling a specific setting within each app.
And then there is the fact that Audiobus somehow turns on background audio when an app is loaded into the Audiobus chain.
... so it can get a bit complicated. The general rule I use is to force close all apps before starting up a music session (so un-related apps don't take up CPU resources). Then I force close all music apps at the end of the session (so unused music apps don't drain my battery after I'm done makin musik).
@JohnnyGoodyear said:
Same here, I hardly ever have any apps running in the background unless I'm actually using them. I'm not sure but even if an app is dormant and not using any CPU wouldn't it still be hogging its share of RAM?
@supadom said:
I'm not convinced about the dormancy or the hogging, either way, but a fundamental life instruction or article of faith for me is the primacy of not having two (or more) variables in any equation when trying to troubleshoot or define, well, almost anything. And thus do I justify my madness.