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IPhone: How to Close All Apps at Once

How to close iPhone apps

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Apple delivers premium products to the market, and that’s why they are pricey.  On the other hand, these devices are not perfect; they have some limitations.  One downside of Apple’s products, such as the iPhone, is that you can’t close all the background apps in one go.  You can only swipe them away one by one because the capability to close multiple apps simultaneously is not part of Apple’s design.

The terrible habit has made some users force close apps, making them feel they have little control of their iPhones.  Users want to close these background apps to save battery or system resources.  Here are ways to close all apps on your iPhone at once.

3 Ways to Force Close Your Apps on iPhone

1.    Jailbreaking

The process frees the iPhone from the limitations that Apple imposed on it.  You can install third-party software after jailbreaking your iPhone to help you close all the apps at once.

Jump into Cydia and find tweaks like Slide2Kill, Purge and Swipe Home based on the iPhone model and its iOS version.  For instance, the Swipe Home tweak is simple to use and works well with iOS 6 to iOS 10.  You can force close all the running apps once you open your app switcher and swipe up on the Home screen’s card.  You can only use other force closing tweaks on iOS 11 but not Swipe Home tweak because Apple removed the Home screen card.

Even so, jailbreaking is not a highly recommended method to force close all apps on iPhone.  Because of that, you can consider any of the following methods that work best for you.

2.   Swiping Multiple Apps Away

Apple has no hidden button to help users close all apps with a single swipe or tap.  However, you can force close up to four apps simultaneously.  But this option takes more effort, although it’s better than closing one app after the other.

Double click on the Home button of an iPhone running on iOS 7 or higher to access the app switcher.  Then place 3-4 fingers on different cards and swipe them away simultaneously.  The process is a bit different for iPhone X running on iOS 11 or higher because they don’t have a Home button.

Open the app switcher by swiping up from your screen’s bottom.  Next, tap and hold each app to reveal the red minus symbol.  Then plan different fingers on different cards and swipe up the app cards simultaneously.

Alternatively, you can use the AssistiveTouch instead of multiple fingers.  Here is the step for accessing AssistiveTouch.

  1. Activate the AssitiveTouch feature on the Setting app.
  2. Click on the Setting Icon and tap on General.
  • Hit the Accessibility icon and then AssistiveTouch.
  1. Tap Create New Gesture and then mimic the 3 finger swipe up the same way you do when closing a bunch of apps. Lastly, click on the save icon, name this gesture and save.
  2. Go back to the app switcher, tap the AssistiveTouch button, select Custom, and click on the gesture name you saved.
  3. Force close your apps by tapping and holding the screen to bring up the 3 dots, put them in a proper position, and swipe the 3 apps away. Finally, tap on the screen and make 3 swipes up that you intend to make.

This procedure is long and takes a bit of work and time.  But it will simplify your work instead of closing the apps with 3-4 fingers.

3.    Clear the iPhone RAM That Your Apps Use

You can overcome the challenge of swiping away apps now and then by clearing your iPhone’s RAM that all your apps use.  The option works the same way as closing all your apps at once, but you’re solving the problem from its root this time.  Although the method doesn’t move them from the app switcher, it does force close the apps.

Here are the steps for closing all running apps from your iPhone.

  1. Press and hold the side button if your iPhone has a Home button until Slide to Power Off pops up.
  2. Next, press and hold the Home button until your Home screen or the app reload reappears.
  • This method does not apply to iPhone X because it lacks a physical Home button but has a virtual Home button that does the same thing.

Conclusion

Many people want to switch apps on their iPhones in order to inactivate them or close them.  They believe that closing them simultaneously can help save their battery and minimize the system resources these background apps use.  The good news is that Apple designed its iOS to intelligently control the apps by putting them in a suspended state when not in use, thus lower battery and low memory usage.

However, you can close all apps through jailbreaking, swiping away multiple apps and clearing the iPhone RAM that your apps use.  These options are dependable on the iOS that your iPhone is running on.

Play around with these options and discover the one that works best for you.

Picture of Kokou Adzo

Kokou Adzo

Kokou Adzo is a stalwart in the tech journalism community, has been chronicling the ever-evolving world of Apple products and innovations for over a decade. As a Senior Author at Apple Gazette, Kokou combines a deep passion for technology with an innate ability to translate complex tech jargon into relatable insights for everyday users.

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