Free Up RAM on iOS Devices
With my iPhone, I tend to open program after program thanks to its ability to multitask. Over time, I also notice a tendency for things to slow down. Opening up a game and using finger gestures don't respond as fast or there's a delayed response. Opening Mail causes the status icon to display longer and longer, and opening Safari shows a longer delay in the status loading as the last known page is updating. Previously, I would simply hold down the power button on my device and shut the entire thing off, wait a while, then boot up and wait for it to start up. This freed up the application RAM and more often than not, the apps responded quicker after rebooting. Thanks to iOS updates and a third-party app, things got easier and faster.
The application is called Process Killer and the info can be found here (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/process-killer/id446197823?mt=8). The program isn't required for this guide, but not only does the program show what processor or applications are running, but what their process ID is and how long they have been running. The program does not allow individual processes to be "killed", but when the program is running, you shake your device like an Etch-A-Sketch and end processes one by one. Again, even without the program, you can free up that RAM.
The application is called Process Killer and the info can be found here (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/process-killer/id446197823?mt=8). The program isn't required for this guide, but not only does the program show what processor or applications are running, but what their process ID is and how long they have been running. The program does not allow individual processes to be "killed", but when the program is running, you shake your device like an Etch-A-Sketch and end processes one by one. Again, even without the program, you can free up that RAM.
When you open up the app, you'll see a window like this. Without the app, your memory status may exhibit symptoms to what the top status bar is displaying. My iPhone is an 8 GB model, and according to the status bar, it has approximately 256 MB of RAM reserved for application use, not 8 GB of storage. The list shows the process ID, process name, and how long the process has been running. Now let's get back to the main screen to show non-Process Killer owners how to do this.
The above diagram shows the main screen on my iPhone. Under iOS5 you simply tap the home button two times and you'll get the following:
The bottom tray moves up in the background and a tray beneath it appears, showing the most recent apps that have been used or are still in use (screenshot truncated). Hold down one of the icons in the new bottom row, and they'll start to jiggle just like they would when you do the same to move or remove apps:
When you delete an app from the bottom row, an icon from the right moves to the left to take the rightmost spot, and whatever app that happens to be is one of the more recent apps used. The diagram above shows the icons for Process Killer, Photos, Settings, and Line2. While the icons were wiggling, I deleted the first three of Process Killer, Photos and Settings. This resulted in the diagram below:
Whenever you delete an icon from this row, you're not deleting an application from your device, but rather the program memory. Other apps that were running start appearing from the right and sliding over. However, you can slide your finger from the left to the right:
The icon to the far left will lock or unlock portrait orientation, and the icon shown tells me that it is not locked. For those of you that use apps that have a landscape layout, as is with some racing games, I would keep this unlocked. The middle set of icons is for skipping back and fourth between songs. The caption shows (Boz Scaggs') "Lowdown" as that was the last song playing in iTunes. The right icon is that for accessing iTunes itself, and pressing this will close the current home screen and take you to iTunes. Slide your finger from the left to the right one more time and you'll get the volume slider:
For those using Process Killer you can go out to the home screen, open up the app, then shake your device:
From the first screenshot, it had appeared that nearly all the application RAM was being used, and since I've already deleted some, the top status bar shows the memory being freed up little by little. Right now it looks like 59.2 MB is free.
As more seconds pass, more application data and processes start to disappear and more memory gets freed up. Now I'm at 59.9 MB and climbing. Eventually, all processes come to a stop, even Process Killer. When this happens, the program will quit and you'll be back at the screen on your device where the Process Killer app resides. So far, the big culprits of memory hogging seem to be the Apple's Mail and Phone apps, which are always running and restart once Process Killer has finished running. By killing these processes and relaunching them, you're freeing up valuable resources and should notice faster startup and response times.