Managing applications running in the background is crucial for optimizing performance and battery life on Apple devices. In the Apple ecosystem, particularly on iOS and macOS, background app management ensures that your device runs efficiently and that important apps can perform necessary tasks even when not actively in use. This article will guide you through the process of managing background apps on iOS and macOS, highlighting the tools and settings available for this purpose.

Examples:

Managing Background Apps on iOS:

1. Adjusting Background App Refresh Settings:
   • Go to Settings > General > Background App Refresh.
   • You can choose to turn off Background App Refresh entirely, enable it only on Wi-Fi, or allow it on Wi-Fi & Cellular Data.
   • Toggle individual apps to enable or disable Background App Refresh for each app.

Settings > General > Background App Refresh

2. Using Low Power Mode:
   • Low Power Mode reduces background activity to save battery life.
   • Go to Settings > Battery and toggle Low Power Mode.

Settings > Battery > Low Power Mode

Managing Background Apps on macOS:

1. Using Activity Monitor:
   • Open Activity Monitor from the Utilities folder in Applications.
   • In the CPU tab, you can see which processes are consuming the most resources.
   • Select a process and click the X button to quit it if necessary.

Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor

2. Energy Saver Settings:
   • Go to System Preferences > Energy Saver.
   • Adjust settings to optimize battery life and manage background processes.

System Preferences > Energy Saver

3. Using Terminal to Manage Background Processes:
   • Open Terminal from the Utilities folder in Applications.
   • Use the ps command to list running processes and kill command to terminate a process.

ps aux | grep [process_name]
kill [PID]