But actually, they DO need a little maintenance sometimes. Some TLC (don’t we all? 
)
You see, when you open an app, and then leave it, it continues to run.
Before very long, you can have dozens of apps running in the background, slowing down your iPhone and/or iPad.
In order to prevent this from happening, you must periodically close all those running apps.
Here is how you do it:
Double click your home button.
Once you have double-clicked, you will see a line of apps appear across the bottom of your iPhone/iPad. If you swipe to the left, you will see there are LOTS of apps in that row.
This row of apps are all the ones that are currently running. The ones on the far left are ones you most recently opened. You can see that I last used Google Maps, played Words with Friends, tinkered with my Settings and looked at some photos.
So now…. let’s close them!
Put your finger on any one of those, and hold.
The icons will start to wiggle AND you will see a red minus sign on the upper left hand corner.
Now start tapping those red minus signs. By doing that, you will CLOSE the running app. Keep going until you have eliminated the entire row.
Then tap your home button one more time to return to your regular screens.
That’s it! Do this regularly to keep your iPhone and/or iPad from getting sluggish.
Marcia
/ January 29, 2013Well, the good news is, I’m not totally inept. The Home button is just what I thought it was. The bad news is that it does NOT let me double click it. No matter how fast or how slow I double click, I simply get the keyboard option. I don’t get any row of currently running aps. And if I double click it right off the bat, without swiping to unlock my phone, I get nothing at all. ?????
sharechair
/ January 29, 2013Is your phone very old? Your software up to date? If it is a very old phone, perhaps it doesn’t have this ability ….
Marcia
/ January 29, 2013It’s about 3 years old, which is why I want to upgrade soon. And it definitely will not do this. I actually understood the post you linked to last night, but when it wouldn’t work, I though maybe I was calling something the “Home” button that really wasn’t. That’s why I wondered what you meant by “Home,” in case we were talking about 2 different things. So, just one more reason I need an upgrade. That and the fact that more than 2/3 of my memory is eaten up with the unidentified “Other.” If I could delete a bunch of that, it would probably run a lot better, but there isn’t a way that will work on my phone, apparently. I think there is nothing for it but to try to hang on until I can upgrade. Oh, and yes, my software gets updated every time I synch the phone with iTunes, which is often, so I can get my photos onto my computer. Thanks for the info, though. I will now know how to do this when I DO get a new phone.
sharechair
/ January 29, 2013Jose
/ February 22, 2013The way to know if your phone have this option is by the model you own. The iphone (first one) and the iphone 3G can´t do that, even the iphone 1 can’t be updated over iOS 3 and the iphone 3G can’t get over iOS 4 I think 4.2.1
There are severeal things they cant do for example the 3GS record videos, have multitasking (the function that is commented in this blogs) while the 3G isn’t, even having the same iOS
sharechair
/ February 22, 2013You are right, Jose. I tend to write my posts for the most recent version of everything. But thanks for the reminder that there are lots of people with the older models of iPhones.
Marcia
/ February 22, 2013Like me…:(
But I’ll get that upgrade one day!
A Dog With Fleas
/ January 29, 2013Great advice. I never knew that!
sharechair
/ January 29, 2013Good! It’s really important.
Alastair
/ January 29, 2013I never knew that. Didn’t realise how many I had running
sharechair
/ January 29, 2013It is surprising, isn’t it?
Alastair
/ January 29, 2013It is. It probably eats your power as well.
sharechair
/ January 30, 2013I’m guessing you are right!
ladysighs
/ January 29, 2013I like that picture of the broom. It reminds me of those pictures that bloggers are suppose to write a story about in 100 words or less. lol
I can’t think of anything romantic about a broom, but I’m sure somebody could.
sharechair
/ January 30, 2013I liked that broom picture, too. You’re right… it could be a ‘creative writing’ prompt!
ladysighs
/ January 30, 2013And so it was. lol
http://ladysighs.wordpress.com/2013/01/30/the-broom/
Long Life Cats and Dogs
/ January 30, 2013Yip, it’s a problem all the smartphones have now. Multiple running apps. Oh well, what would we do without them
sharechair
/ January 30, 2013My smartphone is smarter than me. I rely on it now for remembering almost everything. I’d be lost without it!
firstandfabulous
/ January 30, 2013I do that after every app I use – when I remember.
It also might help if you’re on a plan that charges you for usage. If an app is open and still running, your usage goes up. Found this out the hard way. 
Marcia
/ January 30, 2013Lots of good info here, SC…thanks so much for reposting this, and generating so many new comments. I’m going to be much better prepared when I upgrade.
sharechair
/ January 30, 2013Someone mentioned to me about the data usage thing. Makes sense. I try to remember to do this every day.
Renee Spindle
/ January 30, 2013Good reminder.
sharechair
/ January 30, 2013I try to remember to do it regularly. When I forget for a while, I am always amazed at all the apps that are open!
utesmile
/ January 30, 2013Haha, we don’t need to clean only our ipad but our minds need sweeping too sometimes…..airing and emptying. And as you say we all need our TLC. As I don’t have any i’s in my house, only real apples I don’t have a problem, but I would be happy if I could understand my phone more…. it keeps surprising me daily….:-) One day I will learn it….
sharechair
/ January 30, 2013You are right… those round, red apples are lot easier to understand!
utesmile
/ January 30, 2013utesmile
/ January 30, 2013Yes it was a lot easier when Apples and Blackberries were just fruit…..