iOS: Close Running Apps All at Once

Looking for a way to close all of the running apps on your iPhone all at once? Apple insists you shouldn’t ever have to force close an iOS app because memory and processor management is good enough such measures shouldn’t be necessary. In reality, though, there are definitely times when you might benefit from forcibly closing your apps, such as when your device is low on memory. The problem is how tedious it can be closing them one at a time. Here’s a way you can close running apps all at one time.

When your iPhone is running slow, it may help to close running apps (Image Credit: picjumbo.com)

How to Close Running Apps All at Once on iOS

This process is going to suspend all of your apps, freeing up memory and processor time. The first thing you need to do is press the Sleep/Wake button until you see the slider to shut down your iPhone.

To close running apps all at once on your iPhone, get to the Shutdown screen

Next, press and hold the Home Button for approximately five seconds, or until you are returned to either your Lock or Home Screen. That’s it, your apps have all been suspended. If you double-press the Home Button, you’ll still see each of them listed. However, you will probably notice these apps refresh or relaunch when you tap on them. That’s because they’ve actually been shut down.

Proof of the Method In Action

Since your apps will still show up if you double-press the Home Button, let’s show that this process actually works. The first screenshot below shows the memory usage on my iPhone 7 Plus just before I close running apps all at once.

Memory usage before I close running apps

Next, you can see the memory usage after completing the process. As you can see, more than a gigabyte of memory has been freed up.

Memory usage after closing all running apps

A Helpful Shortcut to Close All Your Apps

If you have a large number of apps running, this method can be much faster than swiping each one up individually to close it. You free up memory and processor time, helping to speed up your iPhone.

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