I turn off all my active Apple devices every night (currently iPhone XR / iPhone SE / iPhone 7 / iPad Air 4) and turn them back on the next day or when necessary.

I believe that means a reboot at least every day.

I turn my XR phone off at bedtime and then start it the next morning.

I’ve been having problems with Apple watch Series 5. Neither the phone or watch notified me that there are updates to both (from 14.7.0 to 14.7.1). They should have notified me. I updated the watch quickly and am now letting the phone update. Geez…phone finished updating but I cannot access the keyboard to enter my password.

iPhone didn’t notify me of a botched automatic backup either. It’s had several recently.

I have so many problems with iCloud on Windows 10 (2004) that I now tell folks to NOT mix Apple and Windows devices. Sigh.

I turn my MacBook off at the end of the day, and turn it back on the next morning. Same goes with my Windows laptop.

I do not have a habit of restarting or shutting down smartphones every day, though I do restart them every three days or so, just to keep things humming along smoothly. My experience with Android is that it can get a bit sluggish after about 72 hours of uptime, so I just restart it quickly to keep things fresh. The same has gone with my iPhone since purchasing it a few months ago.

These days, I think it’s perfectly possible to go for months without turning off your devices, barring updates. In the end, though, few things fix so many problems like a simple restart, even if that problem is as benign as being a little bit slower than usual.

Only after installing updates / new versions (iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch).

I will reboot my iPhone SE about once every 7-10 days. I turn it completely off with the slider.

I find that Siri does voice recognition better after a reboot and it seem more snappy to open apps or programs. I also find the Bluetooth connects better with a recent reboot (that may have also been that the car was 10 years old, as my new car connects real fast.) I have very few apps other than the installed ones, just Accuweather, Waze and Skyview.

I also turn off WiFi when I leave the house and only turn on BLuetooth in the car or if using my Bose speaker. Otherwise BT stays off on the iPhone. As the iPad Pro is what I use for music, BT stays on. However as a desktop if my preferred method of computing the iPad is often turned off.

I also power off my router and PC each night.

Restart everything everyday

I carry out a complete re-start occasionally but prefer the ‘RAM clear’ method (as my iPhone has TouchID) because it’s much faster to implement.

A ‘RAM clear’ means holding the iPhone’s power button until ‘slide to power off’ appears then pressing the ‘Home’ button (*not* ‘Cancel’) for ~5-8 seconds:

You then need to enter your device’s passcode and that’s it… performance is restored. (This also works with iPads.)

(I note that since updating my iDevices to iOS 14.7.1 it now often needs three attempts of holding the ‘Home’ button before the passcode entry screen appears.)

See this ZDNET article for more info.

Hope this helps…

[EDIT: Apologies for the huge graphic. I can’t find a way of removing it and substituting a replacement.]

I reboot my SE 2020 every 2-5ish days to fix an original iOS 14 bug that causes Facebook and Evernote to randomly disappear from the share sheet.  [According to Apple Support Forum posts, the apps that disappear depend on the user’s specific phone setup.]

I close all tasks using the task manager several times per day b/c iOS still does a bad job of multitasking and memory management.  I’ll have to try out Rick’s RAM clear method and see if that does anything for my phone’s performance.

If I ever get hold of iOS source code, I’m going to replace the multitasking and memory management code w/ stuff I wrote in undergrad in the early 80’s…  :-\

Phones about twice a month. Computers regularly used, about every 2 or 3 days. Computers not regularly used are turned off when not in use.

Computers at least every evening.
Android Phone only after updates but I use the Close All option on the Show Apps screen regularly.

iPad again only after updates but I routinely close apps. Now, however, I’ll use the Ram CLear method, Thanks Rick! 😎

I wish iOS had a Restart like Android.

What is nice on Apple, is the soft shutdown (Settings -> General -> Shutdown) whereas it depends on the Android phone manufacturer.

This report is in correct. The restart does not prevent it but improve it to hide better. Now a days most hacks involve writing to RAM of mobile device or computers to avoid detection. To improve speed of restart device. That data is saved  in memory for faster restart. This allows viruses to live in the system forever when data is written back into RAM. The restart allows it to bury it self deeper into your system. Other option now is to use TPM to hide a viruses on computers. It is outside of antivirus scanners.

RetiredGeek wrote:

Computers at least every evening.

Computer, only with monthly updates. PC is on 24/7/265

Tom-R wrote:

But do you keep your system up and running 24×7 because it’s actually running programs or processes that need to be up and running continuously?

The answer is yes.

Every evening I shut down my IMac.  Now in the morning when I try to connect to the internet I get “can’t connect to network” and rebooting my router fixes the problem.  I have a gateway from Verizon which is connected with an ethernet cable.  Once I reboot the router it’s fine until the next morning when I try to connect again.  Is it a router problem — maybe too old?

A few days ago my Android phone stopped making sounds for alerts on incoming messages and calls. Reboot needed! Photos I took wouldn’t show up in the gallery app. Reboot needed!

Wife’s iPad wouldn’t print. Reboot needed!

Not long ago my Windows 10 workstation locked up while sitting quietly with nothing running and screens sleeping (I don’t use any power-saving modes except for the monitors). Power reset needed!

Frankly I have to reboot EVERYTHING I use WAY too often. Except Windows 7, which is just running a few dedicated service applications for me.

There is no reason in 2021 that an OS should NEED rebooting. Failures are really not because of hardware but rather just sloppy programming or poor OS design. Why do we “need” these incessant updates that just leave us with software with usability reduced in the name of security, more complexity, more vulnerabilities, less speed, and less stability than ever before? Where are the functionality improvements that make going through this pain worthwhile? Does any of this tech feel like it’s getting easier to use to you?

Am I just getting old and cranky about this? It seems to me that technical things are more frustrating to use now than ever before.

Feels like we are slowly being boiled alive, frankly. We’ve seen stuff work better than this.

-Noel

I don’t automatically install whatever “updates” that any software publisher recommends. The publishers’ descriptions of their alleged updates are usually disingenuous at the very least, and also never explain in non-geek, customer-friendly language why they might, or might not, be important.

I check into them on a case-by-each basis because in several times past the “update” significantly degraded the performance of the device. That includes expensive iPhones and expensive Windows PCs. Yes, I shut off each device on a regular basis. At least daily.

I almost never reboot my iDevices. I have a ton of open tabs in browsers, I don’t normally force quit anything either. They just run fine and fast. I don’t use many apps, always the same ones. When Apple issues an update, the device gets rebooted. Works fine for me.

I don’t reboot my PCs either unless I have to. They are fine tuned and don’t cause issues that rebooting would solve. I just put them to sleep. However, I restart browsers and Thunderbird regularly because they end up chewing memory if left open non stop for too long. There are memory leaks in Firefox and Thunderbird, I suppose and it ends up slowing the computer if it is a very old one with not much RAM. It is quick and painless, restoring my previous session in the case of Firefox, so it doesn’t bother me too much. I have one computer right now where I didn’t even notice Firefox have been taking 2.5GB of RAM after days and days being opened and not restarted and it is a 2013 model with 16GB RAM and an SSD.

Does it really reduce your risk of hacking on IOS to restart often? I am skeptical of that.