How to close opened apps on iphone 12

Even iOS apps occasionally misbehave — they can crash, or freeze, or otherwise stop working. If you’re new to iOS or just haven’t had this happen before, you may not know how to actually quit an app (as opposed to just swiping it off your screen). Here’s how to quit an app and, if you need to, shut down your phone. (We used a phone loaded with a beta of iOS 16, but this will work with earlier versions of the OS just as well.)

Quit an app

• Open the App Switcher by either swiping up from the bottom of the screen and then pausing in the middle or (if you have a Home button) double pressing the Home button.
• You’ll see an overlapping view of all your open apps. Swipe to the right or left until you find the app you want to quit.
• Swipe up on the app to close it.

Open the App Switcher and swipe sideways to find the app.

When you’ve found the misbehaving app, swipe it up to quit.

While there isn’t any way to close all of your apps at once, you can swipe off up to three apps at a time by using the appropriate number of fingers. Otherwise, if you’ve got a lot of apps running, you’ll have to simply swipe them off one at a time.

Shut down your phone

If, for any reason, swiping the app off doesn’t solve the problem, then shut down your phone by pressing and holding the side button and either volume button until you see sliders appear. Drag the one that says slide to power off to the right. (If you have an iPhone with a Home button, instead, press and hold the side or the Sleep / Wake button.)

You should then be able to restart it by using the power button.

If worse comes to worst and you can’t shut down your phone this way, you can force restart it. If you have an iPhone 8 or later:

• Quickly press and release the volume up button.
• Quickly press and release the volume down button.
• Press and hold the side power button. After a while, the screen should go black; keep holding the button until you see the Apple logo, which will indicate that the phone has restarted. You can then release the button.

Update September 1st, 2022, 10:11AM ET: This article was originally published on June 4th, 2021, and has been updated to add information on force restarting an iPhone.

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For whatever reason, there are times when you may want to close all the background apps on your iPhone. While it would be handy if you could close all of your opened iPhone apps in one go, that isn't part of Apple's design.

However, you can speed up the process by using several fingers to close multiple apps simultaneously. Therefore, if you don't have too many opened apps, it is technically possible to close all apps on your iPhone.

Below, we'll teach you how to do it. So, let's get started, shall we?

How to Close Opened Apps Simultaneously on Your iPhone

While no feature allows you to close all your opened apps at the same time, you can close several apps simultaneously on your iPhone or iPad.

All you need to do is access the App Switcher as you normally would (which we'll explain below). Then, use multiple fingers to swipe multiple apps off the screen at once. Note that the steps to access the App Switcher and close apps vary depending on your device.

How to Close Multiple Apps on an iPhone With a Home button

Follow these steps if your iPhone has a physical Home button with Touch ID:

1. Double-click the Home button to access the App Switcher.
2. Swipe side to side to find the apps you want to close.
3. To close multiple apps, use multiple fingers to tap and hold several app previews. Then, swipe up to close them at the same time.

How to Close Multiple Apps on an iPhone Without a Home button

Follow these steps if your iPhone is Face ID-enabled and doesn't have a Home button:

1. From your Home Screen, swipe up from the bottom to the middle of the screen to access the App Switcher.
2. Swipe sideways to locate the apps you want to close.
3. Again, swipe up on the app previews to close the apps. You'll need to use multiple fingers to close multiple apps simultaneously.

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Is It Possible to Close All the Open Apps on Your iPhone?

If you have only three or four apps open in the background, it's possible to close all of them simultaneously. Based on our tests, you can simultaneously close up to five apps on your iPhone.

However, note that this number depends on your device's screen size. For example, you may be able to close all five apps on an iPhone 13 Pro Max or an iPad, but not on an iPhone mini.

Also, remember that the process is a bit unnatural and difficult to do with one hand. You should place your device on a flat surface and use the fingers on both hands to swipe and close all apps on your iPhone.

It can be a fun challenge to attempt to swipe up as many apps as you can in one go. But for practical purposes, it's faster to perform the old swipe-up gesture on every opened app in the background when you want to close all apps on your iPhone.

If you're interested in learning more about what the iPhone's touch screen responds to, check out these cool tricks you didn't know you could do with iPhone gestures.

You Don't Always Need to Close All Apps on Your iPhone

Many people have a habit of closing unused apps in the background every time they use their iPhones to avoid using too much battery or taking up a lot of system resources. However, this isn't necessary. In fact, Apple doesn't recommend closing apps unless they're frozen or not responding properly.

After you switch apps, they do remain active for a short time, but then they go into a suspended state. When this happens, they're not actively running or taking up system resources, so there's no need to close them. For more details, you can refer to our article on why you shouldn't constantly close apps on your iPhone.

Still, maximizing battery power gives you the convenience that you don't need to charge your device so frequently. And for that, learn more from our tips to save battery life on your iPhone.

Closing All Apps on Your iPhone: Decluttering or Losing Functionality?

Many of us feel like having too many unopened apps in the background makes our iPhones feel cluttered. Hence the urge to close all apps on our iPhones. However, the purpose of the App Switcher is to make it easy for you to access recently opened apps, saving you time and effort.

So, it shouldn't matter how many unused apps lie dormant in the background. You'll only need to close apps on your iPhone if they happen to freeze or lag.

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