How to close and restart iPhone and iPad apps

The apps on your iPhone or iPad may occasionally crash or start behaving erratically. In this case, you can close the app using the built-in app switching functionality. Restarting the app is the best solution to solve most problems - here's how.

First, launch the App Switcher

To close an app on an iPhone or iPad, you need to open the built-in App Switcher. This feature is essential for multitasking. It allows you to manage which apps are running and easily switch between them.

Here's how to start App Switcher:

• On iPhone X or later / iPad with iOS 12 or later: swipe up from the bottom edge of the screen, pause near the center of the screen, then lift your finger.
• On iPhone and iPad with Home buttons: press the Home button twice quickly.

Using the Switcher app, we will force quit an app. This means the app will have to restart and reload the next time you tap it. This method can fix some temporary problems you may have with an app.

Close an app with the Switcher app on iPhone

• Once you launch App Switcher on your iPhone, large thumbnails of all the apps you have recently opened will be visible on the display, you can swipe left or right to look at them.
• Scroll through the previews until you find the app you want to close and center it on the screen.
• Swipe up on the app thumbnail until it disappears from the screen.
• After that, the preview will no longer appear on the app switching screen because it is now closed.
• To restart an app, find its icon on the Home screen and tap it.

Close an app with the App Switcher on iPad

After launching the App Switcher on your iPad (as described above), you will see a grid of thumbnails of all the apps you have recently opened. If you've used a lot of apps recently, you can swipe left or right through them until you find the app you want to close.

• Swipe up on an app thumbnail until it disappears. If you prefer, you can use more than one finger to close more than one app at a time.
• After you remove an app preview, it closes and will no longer appear on the App Switcher screen.
• To restart an app, tap its icon on the Home screen. This should restart the app and (hopefully) it will work fine this time.

Still having trouble with an app?

If, after all, an app still crashes or causes problems, try restarting your iPhone or iPad. If that doesn't help, there are a few other techniques you can try, including updating or reinstalling an app. You could also try to contact the app developer and explain the problem. Good luck!