How to Close iPhone Apps Running in the Background iOS4 to iOS8

by Vincent George

Nowadays, no mobile phone deals with as much processing demand as smartphones, especially the iPhone. Many iPhone users are unaware that their phone runs applications in the background, sucking precious life out of their battery and taking up valuable memory. Busy iPhone users jump at the chance to get more from their phone on a single charge. Alas, many do not know how. However, in just a few seconds, users around the world can take advantage of this simple solution for closing out background apps.

When too many applications run in the background, they slow down the iPhone and use extra power. By closing these extra apps, users can extend the life of their battery’s charge and enjoy using a faster device. Background applications pile up on the iPhone because the phone does not completely shut them down after use. Instead, the iPhone keeps applications in an intermediate state so they will quickly start should users wish to return to them.

Update: Closing iOS7 & iOS8 Apps Running in Background \ i0s4 to iOS6 Tutorial is below

Step 1:

In the Home Screen press the Home button twice quickly. (You have to do it Fast, otherwise wont work)

Step 2:

After double tapping the Home button, you will get your apps which are running in background. Swipe Left and Right to Choose the App. Swipe Up to remove the app to close the app.

Note: Following Tutorial is applicable for iOS4 to iOS6

To shut down extra background apps, the first step is to access the multi-task bar on the phone. This is done by pressing the Home button two times quickly. A popup menu appears that shows all the background apps the iPhone has in memory. Items are displayed 4 at a time. If users scroll to the right, they will eventually see all apps that are currently open.

For iOS4 to iOS6 :

In order to manage background apps, users need to press down on one of the app icon in the Bottom until a red circle with a minus sign appears on each item.

Users should tap the minus sign next to each application they wish to close.

When users are done, they can simply press the Home button to return to the main screen. This simple process will dramatically speed up the iPhone and extend the time it will run on a single charge. This is not the only function of the multi-task bar. Scrolling to the left brings up a couple hidden features that users may have previously been unaware of.

Author Bio:

Blake Sanders is a tech writer at phone comparison site Mobile Phone Expert. Blake specializes in industry news and mobile phone deals as well as wireless internet provider news and information.

Tags:iPad iPhone iPod

86 thoughts on “How to Close iPhone Apps Running in the Background iOS4 to iOS8”

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Terry October 17, 2011 at 6:56 pm

Great advice, got my first iphone recently and am trying to get past the learning curve from blackberry.
1. Vincent Raja October 19, 2011 at 8:13 am
  
  Surely you will love the iphone…
ElectronicsNews October 17, 2011 at 8:50 pm

Great sharing in these days, followable tooo….
1. Vincent Raja October 18, 2011 at 9:57 pm
  
  Thanks for your Valuable Comment electronics news
G Bailey October 18, 2011 at 8:32 am

timely info
1. Vincent Raja October 18, 2011 at 9:53 pm
  
  Thanks for your Valuable Comment….
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Mobile Application Development October 31, 2011 at 1:18 pm

I have been looking for a way to do this since a long time now.. I always thought apple hasn’t made a provision for it ! Thanks for the information Vincent.. I guess the same method should work on my iPad?
1. Vincent Raja November 1, 2011 at 9:03 pm
  
  Yes it will work for all iOS device…. 🙂
KBharath @ HDBloggers November 1, 2011 at 3:52 pm

Thanks for sharing this Tip i have a iPhone 3G its really useful.
1. Vincent Raja November 1, 2011 at 8:19 pm
  
  Thanks for your Comment Bharath 🙂 HD
tony greenberg December 3, 2011 at 5:38 am

i HAVE TRIED SEVERAL TIMES, PRESSING THE HOEM BUTTON TWICE QUICKLY AND I DONT GET THE OP UP MENU AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SCREEN. wHAT AM i DOING WRONG? I HAVE THE 3G-THANKS
1. Vincent Raja December 4, 2011 at 3:29 pm
  
  I think i pressed wronly.. Press DOUBLE time Quickly…
D.a.r December 16, 2011 at 3:57 am

nice tutorial, thanks, appreciate it a lot.:)
Jennifer December 17, 2011 at 10:53 am

This is great! I have had my new iPhone since October, and love it, but recently it’s been sluggish and given me a few problems. This at least seems to speed it up, and will hopefully solve the rest of the problems as well.
Val December 18, 2011 at 8:35 pm

Thank you! I just recently got an app that constantly runs in the background so after you use it and close it, you can’t adjust the ringer volume from the buttons on the side, & I thought the only way to stop that was to restart the phone. This is great.

Thank you.
jen December 30, 2011 at 1:15 pm

Hey great advice except my husband has an old 3G iphone and can’t close his background programmes. When he pushes the Home buttom twice, nothing happens. I think his phone is too old to do this – how does he close the background programmes?
1. Vincent Raja December 31, 2011 at 3:45 pm
  
  Update your Phone to Latest Firmware and try again!
Jay January 12, 2012 at 9:10 pm

Awesome u rule
Kitastriphi January 23, 2012 at 12:38 pm

If you think people don’t know how to multi-task, you’re just as clueless as you think they are.
A. B. January 27, 2012 at 9:23 pm

Kitastriphi: Actually, you’d be the clueless one. Never be surprised or amazed at what people don’t know. Try working in IT, especially a helpdesk. It’ll open your eyes a bit.

I knew you could but didn’t know how till I Googled it. Awesome information, thanks! Battery charge is a real problem for me sometimes – being able to conserve helps.
WmTell April 3, 2012 at 7:33 am

Not sure what your comment on multi-tasking was all about since that is not the subject of this article. Maybe you can enlighten us all, O Great Catastrophe!
TKhan April 19, 2012 at 6:37 am

Wow! I’ve only had my iphone for a few weeks now but after I saw this I realized that pretty much every app I have on my phone was open! I’m new to the iphone world but this surely helped a lot! Thanks! 🙂
Char June 9, 2012 at 2:40 pm

Finally somebody smart who explained this so clearly w/out having to watch a video. Ur site should be first on Google under this subject. Thank you- it worked. 🙂
Santanu Mazumdar June 21, 2012 at 12:17 pm

Thank You…It helped…
pooja July 15, 2012 at 12:22 pm

Hey great advice except my husband has an old 3G iphone and can’t close his background programmes. When he pushes the Home buttom twice, nothing happens. I think his phone is too old to do this – how does he close the background programmes?
Arnie de Guzman July 17, 2012 at 5:17 pm

Works, thanks. 🙂
Jason July 21, 2012 at 3:56 am

Why isn’t there simply a way to close the app when it’s open? If I have an app running and want to close it, first I have to hit the home button to get to the main screen, then I have to double-click the home button to access the running app, then I have to hold the icon for a few seconds, then I have to click the red circle…what a pain in the ass and poorly designed product! Better and more efficient to simply close the app when I’m finished using it.
Chris September 19, 2012 at 3:16 pm

Thank you soo much man, how come Apple does not tell more people about this damn. i appreciate it
Lanie October 30, 2012 at 10:20 am

Holy battery life, Batman. This was so helpful!! Thanks a ton.
John Tiratsoo October 30, 2012 at 11:04 pm

Now that’s a really useful tip: thanks very much. It’s a pity that Apple hides it so well that it takes an expert like you to tell us plebs how to make our phones work more efficiently.
Doug W November 3, 2012 at 10:53 pm

I agree with Jason’s comment. There should be a simple way to close an app while in the app, as there is in desktop applications.
Shawn B November 5, 2012 at 9:20 pm

How can I get rid of the little arrow in the top right corner? I turned off all the background apps already.
Rich B. November 16, 2012 at 2:16 am

The very same thing applies to the iPad, too, BTW
Emy December 15, 2012 at 11:28 am

gosh thanks a lot! 🙂
Rcd December 31, 2012 at 1:18 am

New iPhone user long time blackberry user. This is good to know. Lots of hidden stuff with iPhone. Give me my BB back. :0
Gigi January 9, 2013 at 9:27 pm

Thank you, this was very helpful.
Hussain January 13, 2013 at 9:22 pm

Wow Thank you so much!!
Peter January 15, 2013 at 6:15 am

Where did you get the cool picture of the giant wave as the background? I’d like to use it!
QA January 20, 2013 at 12:16 am

I have an Iphone 4s. THIS DOES NOT WORK. The apps appear at the bottom. Holding down the button causes them to vibrate. I can drag them back up but when I double click again the same ones are down on the lower bar again and apparently still open. The battery is draining too fast with these running.
1. Ryan January 24, 2013 at 7:29 am
  
  He said ‘double tap’ on the home button, should work oh and I appreciated the tip by the way
Diana January 21, 2013 at 12:43 am

Thanks so much! I didn’t even realize this.
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Natharu January 24, 2013 at 1:13 am

I am very grateful for this article!
Mary Brady January 24, 2013 at 7:29 pm

This would be a more useful FAQ if you added the words “in the popup menu” after “on one of the apps”.
Gframe February 2, 2013 at 8:00 am

Seems you’ ve already received plenty of accolades, but one more can’t hurt. Thanks so much.
Rachel Mendez February 2, 2013 at 10:36 am

Wow thank you. I’ve owned an iPhone since the 3G and several iPads. I thought I knew every trick in the book and then some. I’ve been worried about data usage since finding out that ironically unlimited isn’t really unlimited. If open apps are draining my battery then my data allotment of my ” unlimited” plan could be drained as well. Thanks again.
Tina February 5, 2013 at 2:50 pm

Thanks a mil. All those apps were draining my battery.
David Dodge February 8, 2013 at 7:15 am

This is interesting information but not applicable to my situation. I’ve a radio app that won’t shut down. I discovered that the only way to kill it is to go to settings, turn on airplane mode and turn off my wi-fi. That kills the station nicely. Then I tun on my wi-fi and off the airplane mode and I’m good to go.
Mike February 14, 2013 at 11:33 am

Another option is to buy an android device with a ‘back’ button so if you wan to exit the app you just click ‘back’ instead of home.
1. Vincent Raja February 19, 2013 at 8:27 pm
  
  The back button in android device never quit the app. It runs in background.
Marion February 17, 2013 at 2:03 pm

The app icons wiggle, but there are no red minus signs.
Help!
1. CheekyG February 22, 2013 at 2:54 pm
  
  all the icons in the task bar will wobble and will have little red minus signs on….!! are you looking at the home screen/screens which wobble when pressed only added apps having red symbols?!
  
  make sure you are on the home screen double tap the home button quickly the task bar opens up below and then press an icon until it wobbles – just done it here and they all come up with red minus signs.
2. eric February 24, 2013 at 1:49 am
  
  First you have to press the Home Button twice quickly. then on the bottm bar the icons change, then you press the icons on the bottom batr only, then the minus sign appears ONLY on the icons on the bottom bar.
3. so March 11, 2013 at 2:24 pm
  
  In order to manage background apps, users need to press down on one of the apps until a red circle with a minus sign appears on each item.
Wikus March 7, 2013 at 5:02 pm

Bloody marvelous! Thank you so much!
Haseeb March 11, 2013 at 10:46 pm

do u have ios 4 or later ??
jwala March 17, 2013 at 8:07 am

Hi Marion. Once the app icon wiggle, hold the first appeared app for a second, so that u can get minus sign to cancel.
Kak March 21, 2013 at 4:56 am

Just press and hold on to the icon for few secs, then minus sign will appear.

Thanks for the tutorial!
db March 27, 2013 at 10:07 pm

is there no way to close them all at once?
1. Vincent Raja April 6, 2013 at 12:40 pm
  
  No…
2. 1. Mary Gerhardt April 5, 2014 at 2:02 am
    
    I’ve tapped the home key twice, see the icons at the bottom, have pressed at various pressures and the icons don’t wiggle.
  2. 1. carter June 2, 2014 at 1:21 pm
      
      your iphone might be ios 7 in this case after double clicking you have to swipe the open applications to top then it will get closed.
Doug Ninja April 10, 2013 at 6:33 pm

Thanks! Just converted from droid last week. I was wondering why the hell my battery is draining so fast now.
Hooper April 15, 2013 at 5:58 am

Thanks worked great. You would think a single option to close them all would be available. Battery doctor app first made me aware of the open applications….thanks for the tip.
Paul April 24, 2013 at 4:20 pm

Thx for guide, it was really helpful for novice 🙂
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Tom May 14, 2013 at 7:15 am

Awesome!! Thanks so much; this was very very VERY helpful. I just got the iPhone 5 and you probably just saved me tons of trouble with battery life. Kudos.
Katie May 31, 2013 at 11:54 am

Wow thank you so much for this tip!!! I have had an iPhone for 2 years now and apparently have never closed a single app.
Barbara June 13, 2013 at 8:37 am

How do you later open the now-closed app again?
nahalum June 13, 2013 at 1:03 pm

If you close applications such as snap chat, faceboook etc…, will you stop receiving notifications from those apps?
1. Vincent Raja June 13, 2013 at 2:15 pm
  
  No… u will get push notifications even u close the apps
Marash Girl June 15, 2013 at 6:07 am

Thanks so much! It worked!
Becca June 22, 2013 at 4:18 am

If you are still able to receive notifications from an app, that should mean that it hasn’t really stopped acting in the background. I “killed” an app according to your instructions, but it still sent me notifications, which means that it is still running in the background. It’s an app I wrote, so I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a backlogged notification (ie, it wasn’t delayed). Are you sure this does what you think it does?
Mat July 24, 2013 at 8:21 am

Good job man. It work
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Dan September 20, 2013 at 8:02 am

This no longer works on the latest iOS 7 download from Apple. Does anybody know how to turn off the applications now that they’ve changed the operating system?
1. Vincent Raja September 20, 2013 at 10:22 am
  
  Hey Dan,
  I have included the iOS7 Tutorial to Close the iphone apps… kindly check that .. thank you.
Sheri 663 Rt Gate-9 September 21, 2013 at 5:35 am

Dear Vincent, I have not found the info on how to close the apps. Please post this information for those of us stuck with the iOS7.

Thank you
1. Vincent Raja September 22, 2013 at 11:23 am
  
  You can See iOS7 step atlast
2. 1. Aque March 19, 2014 at 3:08 pm
    
    Hi,
    
    Please help, l’m in SA and l’m trying to view your post you send about step to close iphone apps running in the background. l have the new software of iOS7, and l cnt stop like l used to do before the new software.
    
    Thanks
D September 23, 2013 at 12:20 am

Very helpful. I had almost 30 apps running in the background the past 24 hours. How am I supposed to properly exit apps so they do not keep running like this? I thought I have had a bad battery but maybe just user error
Kevin April 10, 2015 at 2:58 am

how about iOS 8.3? Are there hidden apps in the back ground using battery that the user can shut down if they are non essential to the user?
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