Why only 30 apps can run in background?

[audi360]

Suppose I got 31 apps which I need them to run in background. Why is there a restriction? Can't I overcome this 30 background apps restriction?

 

[dKp1977]

Nope, you can't. The limit is there to ensure having enough system resources to maintain system fluidity and stability. Being a WP user from day one, I can tell you that 30 actively running background agents is a whole lot.

 

[audi360]

Nope, you can't. The limit is there to ensure having enough system resources to maintain system fluidity and stability. Being a WP user from day one, I can tell you that 30 actively running background agents is a whole lot.

But I always have to disable some apps to have enough system resources. I reached the thirty app restriction from the first week. Do other operating systems like IOS got this restriction?

 

[Br1t]

The only reason most apps "need" this is to update a tile other than say background media apps. I hit the limit occasionally but once I review the list most apps really don't need to be on it.

Be sensible and save your battery from needless app operations.

 

[RumoredNow]

??? Really ???

I'm not sure what's going on with this. It isn't use it or loose it.

What, if I may ask, needs to run in the background all the time? None of my Apps seem to require this and I have plenty of live tiles refreshing. Of course they are subject to the 30 minute refresh rule, but still... Is it to get constant, second by second, updates on tiles?

​Truly I am just trying to understand.

 

[RumoredNow]

...Do other operating systems like IOS got this restriction?

Any decent and modern OS will either automatically close things or ask you to choose what to close in order to free up needed resources. Your device has finite hardware limitations and the OS will try and manage the limits and attempt to balance them against your use/needs.

 

[audi360]

Any decent and modern OS will either automatically close things or ask you to choose what to close in order to free up needed resources. Your device has finite hardware limitations and the OS will try and manage the limits and attempt to balance them against your use/needs.

With about 300 apps installed on my phone which I need them all, of course I need at least 10% of them to run in background. About 20 background apps which I need are communication and social apps which again I need the notifications. The other apps are weather and calendar and web browsers and ... which are essential to run in background

 

[dKp1977]

??? Really ???

I'm not sure what's going on with this. It isn't use it or loose it.

What, if I may ask, needs to run in the background all the time? None of my Apps seem to require this and I have plenty of live tiles refreshing. Of course they are subject to the 30 minute refresh rule, but still... Is it to get constant, second by second, updates on tiles?

​Truly I am just trying to understand.

Not at all. The update interval is at around roughly 20 to 30 minutes each. The only exception from this is live tile clocks who are permitted to update their tiles every single minute.
The apps appearing in the battery sense app offering you the option to enable or disable background settings, are just using background agents (for whatever reasons). Disabling them doesn't change a thing about their ability to run in the background. You can disable Metrotube there for example, and it will never get its live tile updated again. But it's still running in the background perfectly fine (e.g. keeps playing the music while you're no longer in the app).
It's up to the user to find out and decide which apps are important enough for him to keep their background agents running. Pretty much every Gameloft game has a background agent enabled by default. These are rather useless and can be disabled without the slightest issues. Same applies to many other apps. Facebook is another example. It does have a background agent. I've always disabled it, yet I'm still receiving notifications (toast and live tile) perfectly fine, as those are delivered via push services, where you don't even need an agent.

With about 300 apps installed on my phone which I need them all, of course I need at least 10% of them to run in background. About 20 background apps which I need are communication and social apps which again I need the notifications. The other apps are weather and calendar and web browsers and ... which are essential to run in background

Weather apps, perfectly legit. They do need an active background agent in order to update the live tile/lockscren and/or display notifications every 30 minutes (or hourly, whatever you've configured in the according app).
Browsers don't need an agent at all. I've disabled it for IE and also UC Browser, but both are working perfectly fine.
Your messengers normally don't need an agent either. I have disabled them for Whatsapp, Threema, Kik and FB Messenger. Notifications (tile and toast) arrive in real time still, because they're pushed to your phone. Unlike what background agents do. They contact a service/server, lookup any changes and inform you afterwards if there's anything new. That's a pull request initiated from the background agent of an app. Push is always initiated from a server and does not require to have the according app being actively running in fore- or background, nor their respective background agent.

 

[FAHMI BASSEM]

Not at all. The update interval is at around roughly 20 to 30 minutes each. The only exception from this is live tile clocks who are permitted to update their tiles every single minute.
The apps appearing in the battery sense app offering you the option to enable or disable background settings, are just using background agents (for whatever reasons). Disabling them doesn't change a thing about their ability to run in the background. You can disable Metrotube there for example, and it will never get its live tile updated again. But it's still running in the background perfectly fine (e.g. keeps playing the music while you're no longer in the app).
It's up to the user to find out and decide which apps are important enough for him to keep their background agents running. Pretty much every Gameloft game has a background agent enabled by default. These are rather useless and can be disabled without the slightest issues. Same applies to many other apps. Facebook is another example. It does have a background agent. I've always disabled it, yet I'm still receiving notifications (toast and live tile) perfectly fine, as those are delivered via push services, where you don't even need an agent.



Weather apps, perfectly legit. They do need an active background agent in order to update the live tile/lockscren and/or display notifications every 30 minutes (or hourly, whatever you've configured in the according app).
Browsers don't need an agent at all. I've disabled it for IE and also UC Browser, but both are working perfectly fine.
Your messengers normally don't need an agent either. I have disabled them for Whatsapp, Threema, Kik and FB Messenger. Notifications (tile and toast) arrive in real time still, because they're pushed to your phone. Unlike what background agents do. They contact a service/server, lookup any changes and inform you afterwards if there's anything new. That's a pull request initiated from the background agent of an app. Push is always initiated from a server and does not require to have the according app being actively running in fore- or background, nor their respective background agent.

I'm restricted for 20 apps only, 512 Mb of ram.+ thank you very much for sharing your knowledge with us

 

[FAHMI BASSEM]

Not at all. The update interval is at around roughly 20 to 30 minutes each. The only exception from this is live tile clocks who are permitted to update their tiles every single minute.
The apps appearing in the battery sense app offering you the option to enable or disable background settings, are just using background agents (for whatever reasons). Disabling them doesn't change a thing about their ability to run in the background. You can disable Metrotube there for example, and it will never get its live tile updated again. But it's still running in the background perfectly fine (e.g. keeps playing the music while you're no longer in the app).
It's up to the user to find out and decide which apps are important enough for him to keep their background agents running. Pretty much every Gameloft game has a background agent enabled by default. These are rather useless and can be disabled without the slightest issues. Same applies to many other apps. Facebook is another example. It does have a background agent. I've always disabled it, yet I'm still receiving notifications (toast and live tile) perfectly fine, as those are delivered via push services, where you don't even need an agent.



Weather apps, perfectly legit. They do need an active background agent in order to update the live tile/lockscren and/or display notifications every 30 minutes (or hourly, whatever you've configured in the according app).
Browsers don't need an agent at all. I've disabled it for IE and also UC Browser, but both are working perfectly fine.
Your messengers normally don't need an agent either. I have disabled them for Whatsapp, Threema, Kik and FB Messenger. Notifications (tile and toast) arrive in real time still, because they're pushed to your phone. Unlike what background agents do. They contact a service/server, lookup any changes and inform you afterwards if there's anything new. That's a pull request initiated from the background agent of an app. Push is always initiated from a server and does not require to have the according app being actively running in fore- or background, nor their respective background agent.

Sorry, but FB needs to be on so that it can connect to my phone, in people hub + photos.

 

[dKp1977]

I'm restricted for 20 apps only, 512 Mb of ram.+ thank you very much for sharing your knowledge with us

Ah, right. I completely forgot that these limitations differ between devices with lower RAM and those with more RAM. Tbh, I understand why many people appear to become frustrated with these limits, but in my opinion Microsoft found a good compromise between offering functionality while maintaining overall performance and stability at the same time.

Sorry, but FB needs to be on so that it can connect to my phone, in people hub + photos.

Mine's off, but I still can access all the FB albums in my pictures hub. It's just not updated frequently, but only when I open it.

 

[FAHMI BASSEM]

Ah, right. I completely forgot that these limitations differ between devices with lower RAM and those with more RAM. Tbh, I understand why many people appear to become frustrated with these limits, but in my opinion Microsoft found a good compromise between offering functionality while maintaining overall performance and stability at the same time.



Mine's off, but I still can access all the FB albums in my pictures hub. It's just not updated frequently, but only when I open it.

What about multitasking? Does it affected?

 

[dKp1977]

What about multitasking? Does it affected?

Nope. These things are only specific for backgound agents.

 

[audi360]

Not at all. The update interval is at around roughly 20 to 30 minutes each. The only exception from this is live tile clocks who are permitted to update their tiles every single minute.
The apps appearing in the battery sense app offering you the option to enable or disable background settings, are just using background agents (for whatever reasons). Disabling them doesn't change a thing about their ability to run in the background. You can disable Metrotube there for example, and it will never get its live tile updated again. But it's still running in the background perfectly fine (e.g. keeps playing the music while you're no longer in the app).
It's up to the user to find out and decide which apps are important enough for him to keep their background agents running. Pretty much every Gameloft game has a background agent enabled by default. These are rather useless and can be disabled without the slightest issues. Same applies to many other apps. Facebook is another example. It does have a background agent. I've always disabled it, yet I'm still receiving notifications (toast and live tile) perfectly fine, as those are delivered via push services, where you don't even need an agent.



Weather apps, perfectly legit. They do need an active background agent in order to update the live tile/lockscren and/or display notifications every 30 minutes (or hourly, whatever you've configured in the according app).
Browsers don't need an agent at all. I've disabled it for IE and also UC Browser, but both are working perfectly fine.
Your messengers normally don't need an agent either. I have disabled them for Whatsapp, Threema, Kik and FB Messenger. Notifications (tile and toast) arrive in real time still, because they're pushed to your phone. Unlike what background agents do. They contact a service/server, lookup any changes and inform you afterwards if there's anything new. That's a pull request initiated from the background agent of an app. Push is always initiated from a server and does not require to have the according app being actively running in fore- or background, nor their respective background agent.

Oh thank you very much.i didn't know I still get notifications when background is disabled. That was pretty helpful thank you.

 

[FAHMI BASSEM]

I disabled WhatsApp in battery saver settings, and received nothing.
Is it the app? Or something wrong I did?

 

[PepperdotNet]

With about 300 apps installed on my phone which I need them all, of course I need at least 10% of them to run in background. About 20 background apps which I need are communication and social apps which again I need the notifications. The other apps are weather and calendar and web browsers and ... which are essential to run in background

Just my humble opinion here, if you have 300 apps on your phone and think you "need" all of them, and that many of them you "need" running all the time in background, I think you "need" a different kind of help entirely, something nobody on this forum is qualified to offer.

Perhaps Cortana can recommend an addiction support group.

 

[envio]

@audi360, seems to me that your complaint is probably less about the actual limit of background agents running simultaneously and more about the dialogue box that prompts you to go to the notification settings. Perhaps you should add a suggestion on the Uservoice website to add a toggle to stop reminding you about too many background tasks?

 

[audi360]

Just my humble opinion here, if you have 300 apps on your phone and think you "need" all of them, and that many of them you "need" running all the time in background, I think you "need" a different kind of help entirely, something nobody on this forum is qualified to offer.

Perhaps Cortana can recommend an addiction support group.

I don't need all of them running at the same time. But I need more than 30 of them. And it's not my fault Windows phone apps are not complete and of not the best quality and I got to have at least 2-3 apps for a simple job for example a simple web browser or a music app

 

[dKp1977]

I don't need all of them running at the same time. But I need more than 30 of them. And it's not my fault Windows phone apps are not complete and of not the best quality and I got to have at least 2-3 apps for a simple job for example a simple web browser or a music app

Hmm.. Weird enough, but all the apps I'm using are doing a great job in what they're supposed to do. Heck, I can't even complain about Xbox Music. And like I've said before, most of these apps don't actually NEED the background agent.

 

[RumoredNow]

...I got to have at least 2-3 apps for a simple job...

I'm going to make a guess that you are transitioning to Windows Phone from another platform. Often times that means letting go of expectations of things working with exactly the same usage pattern as before and learning the new way. Apps on WP will not have the same behaviors as their equivalent on another platform. Note that this is not equal to capability.

I think a common pitfall when users switch platforms is expecting the same behavior and when it doesn't materialize, rather than retraining themselves for a new platform, they equate the lack of expected response for a lack of capability.

Windows Phone is different, but it certainly does not require 2-3 Apps to perform the functions of 1 App elsewhere. Especially for basics. That's both my personal experience and also I comb through tons of threads here every day - almost daily for about 16 months now. This is the first time I have read the statement of yours I quoted.

Perhaps some more reading in the forum for your device (you never said here which phone you have) and also in the Apps forums will help you get things smoothed out...