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WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU FORCE STOP AN APP ON YOUR PHONE

Olanrewaju Sodiq 10 October 2020

Ever wondered what will tinkering with your smartphone will result to? You might
wonder if that will make your device perform better. What if it ends up breaking
and slowing down things? Instead of simply saying “Do it or Don’t do it” to
users, we like to explain in detail what actually happens – the effect, the
impact, and the invisible background action. So we shall expand on what happens
when you force stop an app on your Android or iPhone.

Force stopping an app on iOS devices is quite easy; swipe-up the app in the iOS
App Switcher. For Android devices, you’d have to launch the app’s info page
(Settings > Apps & notifications > App info > select App) and tap the Force Stop
option. Alternatively, you can use the Task Switcher feature of your Android
phone.



Force Stop App on iOS

Force Stop App on Android

You know how to force stop an app, but what exactly does it mean to force stop
an app? And what happens afterward? Does it have any negative effect on the
app’s performance? Does it affect your smartphone? Is it safe to force stop an
app? And when exactly should you do so? We answer all these and more in the
sections below.


WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO FORCE STOP AN APP



Most folks believe that all apps are terminated entirely when you close them on
your phone the regular way, i.e., removing them from the app switcher. But
that’s not always the case. For example, an application running some unfinished
processes (e.g. a pending/ongoing download) can stay active in the background
for a couple of minutes or seconds after closing it. The app will eventually be
closed, but not until it completes the ongoing processes and prepares itself for
shutdown.

On the other hand, some applications (like music player, health monitoring apps,
instant messengers, etc.) may continue to actively run in the
background—constantly updating their content and sending notifications— even
after you close them. No matter how many times you terminate them, they stay
running in the background.

Force Stopping an app will completely (and immediately) end all foreground and
background processes related to that particular app.


IS IT SAFE TO FORCE STOP AN APPLICATION

Well, this depends on why or when you’re force stopping the app. But for the
most part, it is entirely safe to force stop an app. More details below.



Ideally, it is recommended that you force stop an app only when it is
malfunctioning—if the app keeps crashing or some of its features don’t work.
Force Stopping an errant app has a good chance of resolving issues causing it to
malfunction.

Conversely, it’s somewhat unsafe to force stop an app, either it’s working
correctly or not. This is because you might lose unsaved data. We expand on this
in the next section


DO YOU LOSE APP DATA WHEN YOU FORCE STOP AN APP

Force stopping an app will not delete data that has been saved to your device.
However, unsaved data may be removed—this depends on the ongoing (foreground and
background) processes within the app. Say you’re writing in a note-taking app
that doesn’t auto-save your texts, force closing the app will delete the unsaved
text you composed.

Likewise, if an app is uploading data to a web server or downloading data to
your device in the background, force stopping the app will halt the process and
might cause data corruption.


DOES FORCE STOP FREE UP SPACE

When you force stop an app, previously-saved app data or cache data are
unaffected. Therefore, force stopping an app doesn’t have any storage-saving
effects. Only the memory (RAM) occupied/used by the app will be offloaded and
made available for other apps. Consequently, this might boost your phone’s speed
and performance.



If you’re looking to free up space on your Android or iOS device, force stopping
apps is the wrong line of action. Refer to the articles linked below for some
useful storage-saving tips.

 * 8 Ways To Free Up Storage Space on Android
 * Top 9 Ways to Free up Storage Space on iOS
 * How You Can Free Up 3 GB of Space on Your iPhone
 * 4 Cool Tips to Get the Max Out of 16GB on iPhone


DOES IT AFFECT APP PERFORMANCE

There are several ways in which force stopping an app could affect its
performance and other apps. As earlier mentioned, force stopping an errant app
might help restore its performance to normalcy. The app might perform better and
even faster when you relaunch it, and seldom slower.

Likewise, when you force stop an application (particularly CPU and RAM-intensive
apps), and it stays closed, other apps might perform better and faster. This is
because force stopping the app releases more memory for other apps to utilize.


DOES FORCE STOP SAVE BATTERY



Depending on the app’s status, force stopping it may or may not yield any
battery-saving effect. For example, if an app is inactive or suspended/minimized
in the background and is using zero CPU power, it is consuming next to no
battery power. Therefore, force-stopping the app might not save your device’s
battery.

To check how much battery juice an app is consuming, follow the steps below.


FOR IOS

Navigate to Settings > Battery. At the bottom of the page, you should see a list
of apps and their respective battery usage (in %) in the last 24 hours.


FOR ANDROID



Step 1: Go to Settings and select Battery.

Step 2: Tap the three-dotted icon at the top-right corner of the Battery menu
page and select Battery usage.

You should see the app consuming your device’s battery as well the portion (in
%) they’ve used since the last time you charged your phone.



Force stopping a battery-hogging app will save power only if the app stays
closed. The app will resume battery consumption as soon as you relaunch it.
Again, unless an app uses a great deal of your device’s power (especially in the
background), force stopping it won’t save battery life.


HOW TO UNDO A FORCE STOP

Once an app has been force-stopped, the action cannot be reversed. The app stays
closed until you manually launch it again. And that’s basically the only way to
undo a force stop—reopening the app.


FORCE STOP DEMYSTIFIED



At this juncture, we hope you’ve learned a thing or two about force stopping
apps on your smartphone. As we’ve established above, it is recommended to force
stop an app only when it is malfunctioning. If you need to save battery power
(particularly on Android), closing an app the regular way would suffice. Force
stopping apps yield little or next to no battery-saving result. Drop a comment
below if you have any related questions that we didn’t cover in this post.

Next up: Do you want to factory reset your phone? Read the article linked below
to find out what happens when you format your Android or iPhone smartphone.

Last updated on 07 February, 2022

The above article may contain affiliate links which help support Guiding Tech.
However, it does not affect our editorial integrity. The content remains
unbiased and authentic.


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DID YOU KNOW

Notion, the productivity app, was founded in 2013.




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WRITTEN BY

OLANREWAJU SODIQ

Sodiq has written thousands of tutorials, guides, and explainers over the past 3
years to help people solve problems relating to Android, iOS, and Windows
devices. He also enjoys reviewing consumer tech products (smartphones, smart
home devices, etc.) and previously worked with GearBest in that capacity.

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