iOS 13.2: iPhone users angry as new update features strange bug affecting apps

A man uses his mobile phone as he walks past advertising for the new iPhones outside the Apple store in Hong Kong on October 10, 2019

(PHILIP FONG/AFP via Getty Images)

The new iPhone update is killing apps and slowing down people's phones, according to various users.

The latest download – known as iOS 13.2 – brought a whole range of upgrades, including new emoji and the addition of the deep fusion camera feature that Apple trailed when it revealed the iPhone 11 in September.

But it also made a tweak to the way the phone handles apps that are running in the background, many of the people who have used it say. And that change has meant that the phone feels slower and certain operations are more difficult.

When a user closes an app on the iPhone, it does not entirely shut: instead, it is held in the memory in the background, ensuring that it can jump back to life when it is opened again and does not need to start entirely afresh. After a certain amount of time, however, the phone will shut down the app fully to ensure there is enough memory available.

The new update has altered the amount of time required before that happens, meaning that apps shut too aggressively and take longer to wake back up when needed.

That can make everyday tasks – such as briefly moving away from watching or reading something – much more complicated and sometimes impossible, users complain. If a person is watching a YouTube video but takes a pause to visit another app, for instance, it is now more likely that the original video will have been lost.

It also affects the performance of apps in the background, users say. That could mean that downloads will not happen or audio may be lost.

The change appears to be affecting all devices running iOS, even if they are the latest iPhone 11 or iPad Pro.

The issues have been reported across Apple's forums and on a wide variety of social media sites such as Reddit.