Exiting Apps in iOS Can Drain and Worsen Battery Life

[Alex Co]

Exiting Apps in iOS Can Drain and Worsen Battery Life

Quitting apps in iOS won't help you save your battery's life, contrary to popular belief.

On computers and other devices, the more software and apps you have running, the more it drains the battery -- that might not be the case for iOS. While it's standard practice by now to close apps that are running on iPhones and other iOS units to preserve the battery's life, writer Scotty Loveless, who worked as a technician in a Genius Bar for two years, claims the contrary. In his blog post called "The Ultimate Guide to Solving iOS Battery Drain," [http://www.overthought.org/blog/2014/the-ultimate-guide-to-solving-ios-battery-drain] Loveless claims, "I worked on the Genius Bar for almost two years, and the most difficult issue to solve was short battery life. It was extremely difficult to pinpoint the exact reason why someone's battery was draining...I made it my mission to discover the specific reasons for iOS battery drainage. This article is a product of my years of research and anecdotal evidence I gathered in the hundreds of Genius Bar appointments I took during my time as a Genius and iOS technician, as well as testing on my personal devices and the devices of my friends."

His actual explanation as to why quitting/exiting apps on iOS can actually harm a battery's life more than preserve it is detailed below.

Yes, it does shut down the app, but what you don't know is that you are actually making your battery life worse if you do this on a regular basis. Let me tell you why.

By closing the app, you take the app out of the phone's RAM . While you think this may be what you want to do, it's not. When you open that same app again the next time you need it, your device has to load it back into memory all over again. All of that loading and unloading puts more stress on your device than just leaving it alone. Plus, iOS closes apps automatically as it needs more memory, so you're doing something your device is already doing for you. You are meant to be the user of your device, not the janitor.

The truth is, those apps in your multitasking menu are not running in the background at all: iOS freezes them where you last left the app so that it's ready to go if you go back. Unless you have enabled Background App Refresh, your apps are not allowed to run in the background unless they are playing music, using location services, recording audio, or the sneakiest of them all: checking for incoming VOIP calls , like Skype. All of these exceptions, besides the latter, will put an icon next to your battery icon to alert you it is running in the background.

Quitting apps on iOS devices might not be good on the battery life, but it does make the device faster to use, which might be a fair trade-off to many. For iOS users who want tips to help improve battery life properly, go check out Loveless' post [http://www.overthought.org/blog/2014/the-ultimate-guide-to-solving-ios-battery-drain] to learn more efficient and practical ways of doing it.

Source: LifeHacker [http://www.overthought.org/blog/2014/the-ultimate-guide-to-solving-ios-battery-drain]



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[NLS]

Except when you're quitting an app that is using location services or otherwise running in the background. Quitting apps like Facebook, which might both be using location services and background polling, is actually a good idea.
Just check this article from yesterday: http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/apr/08/facebook-app-revealed-to-be-cause-of-iphone-battery-woes?CMP=fb_gu

In short: Don't close apps that aren't doing anything. Close apps that are actively doing something.

 

[Monsterfurby]

You are meant to be the user of your device, not the janitor.

See, this is the attitude I completely despise about UX-design in the more design-focused modern OSs (well, iOS mostly). Don't tell me what I am meant to be, just give me full access to everything and let me decide for myself. Hiding everything the system does from me, the user, does NOT improve usability, but makes it a thousand times worse. Users are not stupid, uninformed sheep, but sometime - yes, even in the case of very casual users - would like to use some advanced functions.

 

[Strazdas]

Once again, Android already got this covered. When you quit the app on android it closes the program, but does not delete ram. thus saving the energy needed for ram in both closing and opening. it only cleans it up if ram becomes low and another program needs it, while still not having the program drain your power via CPU usage and whatnot.

In fact, even windows does this to some extent if it has enough ram to play with which is why you see ram "used but not actually used".

looks like iOS needs to fix thier ram handling is all.

 

[Merlark]

Huh, guess it must just be the phone because I don't think my Ipad ever closed out an app ever in its life no matter how little memory it had left. its solution was to run slower and slower until it stopped. but hey why argue with a genius...

Certain apps of mine just suck power. so for me it pays to be the janitor. still maybe its more for the angry bird and twitter app crowd.

 

[uncanny474]

You are meant to be the user of your device, not the janitor.

See, this is the attitude I completely despise about UX-design in the more design-focused modern OSs (well, iOS mostly). Don't tell me what I am meant to be, just give me full access to everything and let me decide for myself. Hiding everything the system does from me, the user, does NOT improve usability, but makes it a thousand times worse. Users are not stupid, uninformed sheep, but sometime - yes, even in the case of very casual users - would like to use some advanced functions.

Actually, yes, a lot of users ARE stupid, uninformed sheep. When you spend most of your time on the internet, where a certain level of computer literacy is basically required, you can forget that there are people out there who actually WOULD delete System 32, who shut down vital processes in the Task Manager and question why their computer breaks, and who can't even navigate through Windows Explorer to find their files half the time.

I agree that there should be some sort of "I know what I'm doing, let me toy with my computer's guts" button--but there usually IS. Not on Apple machines, necessarily, because those are designed for and marketed towards people who DON'T know what they're doing, but on Windows, there are absolutely buttons to show hidden files, ways to display and edit the registry, and ways to get elbow-deep into the way your computer runs, so long as you have

As for this particular story, A) if you want a phone that's designed for people who understand computers, get a droid. iOS devices have, for the past few years, been designed for simplicity at the expense of functionality. Android devices, on the other hand, are designed as a more open platform, and from what I've heard, they give you plenty of access to their internal workings.

 

[Agente L]

You are meant to be the user of your device, not the janitor.

This gotta be one of the the worsst advice I've ever heard about anything, ever. Even more when it comes to eletronic devices.

Well, I guess he needs to get money by working as a technician, right?

 

[Veylon]

You are meant to be the user of your device, not the janitor.

See, this is the attitude I completely despise about UX-design in the more design-focused modern OSs (well, iOS mostly). Don't tell me what I am meant to be, just give me full access to everything and let me decide for myself. Hiding everything the system does from me, the user, does NOT improve usability, but makes it a thousand times worse. Users are not stupid, uninformed sheep, but sometime - yes, even in the case of very casual users - would like to use some advanced functions.

Super true. Android won't natively let you access the filesystem. Want to copy your pictures to the card so that you can take it out and print them off? Too bad. I'm fine with it hiding away the more advanced things - perhaps behind an "Advanced" option - but making them completely inaccessible is madness.

 

[Athinira]

Super true. Android won't natively let you access the filesystem. Want to copy your pictures to the card so that you can take it out and print them off? Too bad. I'm fine with it hiding away the more advanced things - perhaps behind an "Advanced" option - but making them completely inaccessible is madness.

Wrong. Android gives you access to the file system from the get-go, with some areas (like system) being sealed off until you root the device.

All you need to access the file system is an application equivalent til Windows Explorer. These aren't included on all ROM's (stock Android typically includes one if i recall, but custom ROM's from manufacturers often don't), but they can be easily downloaded from Google Play. The best one - and the one i use - is probably ES File Explorer [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.estrongs.android.pop], since it's not only free, but includes support for browsing cloud-applikations and FTP-servers in addition to the file system on your phone, and has a build-in media player. So you can use it to manually copy or move files from your device to your cloud services easily.

I've been using the File Systems on my Android-devices extensively since i got them. From FTP-syncing files on my LAN (including my music collection or documents i scan on my scanner with my Hewlett-Packard app, as well as backups of my application data), to cloud-syncing files using Dropbox and Google Drive. It all works pretty much out of the box.

My best advice for syncing with Android with your PC automatically is to use a cheap and efficient tool like Foldersync [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=dk.tacit.android.foldersync.full] and set up an FTP-server like FileZilla Server [https://filezilla-project.org/download.php?type=server] on your LAN at home for automatic syncs or transfers of files. It's cheap and relatively easy by using online guides (just remember to assign your computer a static IP address on your LAN and allow FileZilla through the Windows Firewall) and you're golden.

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

Doesn't really affect me, since my original ipad I just got to mess with is so old I need to start closing anything idle so Safari can open even the most basic of today's web pages. Still Apple should give you a setting for if you don't multitask often on an ipad so it would be faster than letting the RAM fill up and then take processing power away to clear unused portions.

I know there has to be more out there, but this is the first time I've heard of a "Genius" that doesn't fix a problem by just throwing more parts at a machine until it works. And if it doesn't they give you another refurbished unit if your Applecare isn't expired or tell you "tuff shit, logic board is fried, buy this new one shiny one here."

[spoilers]

You are meant to be the user of your device, not the janitor.

See, this is the attitude I completely despise about UX-design in the more design-focused modern OSs (well, iOS mostly). Don't tell me what I am meant to be, just give me full access to everything and let me decide for myself. Hiding everything the system does from me, the user, does NOT improve usability, but makes it a thousand times worse. Users are not stupid, uninformed sheep, but sometime - yes, even in the case of very casual users - would like to use some advanced functions.

Actually, yes, a lot of users ARE stupid, uninformed sheep. When you spend most of your time on the internet, where a certain level of computer literacy is basically required, you can forget that there are people out there who actually WOULD delete System 32, who shut down vital processes in the Task Manager and question why their computer breaks, and who can't even navigate through Windows Explorer to find their files half the time.

I agree that there should be some sort of "I know what I'm doing, let me toy with my computer's guts" button--but there usually IS. Not on Apple machines, necessarily, because those are designed for and marketed towards people who DON'T know what they're doing, but on Windows, there are absolutely buttons to show hidden files, ways to display and edit the registry, and ways to get elbow-deep into the way your computer runs, so long as you have

As for this particular story, A) if you want a phone that's designed for people who understand computers, get a droid. iOS devices have, for the past few years, been designed for simplicity at the expense of functionality. Android devices, on the other hand, are designed as a more open platform, and from what I've heard, they give you plenty of access to their internal workings.[/spoilers]

That is why I hate Macs. Unless you know Unix code plus Apple specific stuff and open a terminal window, they railroad you into changing only the simplest settings. I can mess with basic registry and file system things in Windows without worry my incompetence will crash it. It's helped me fix virus and non-virus related problems in the past many times. I've messed with Linux too in order to fix things like hardware/driver issues so I guess I can learn the Apple stuff, but they could make it easier for the "not too computer literate but not complete dumbass" guys like me. That's far beyond their foolish scope of making it "seamless and simple", though.

 

[SKBPinkie]

On a related note - how lame is it that Apple insists on calling its tech support "Geniuses"?

Seriously, their name badges read "John Doe, Genius". Fucking dumb as shit.

 

[Waaghpowa]

You are meant to be the user of your device, not the janitor.

This gotta be one of the the worsst advice I've ever heard about anything, ever. Even more when it comes to eletronic devices.

Well, I guess he needs to get money by working as a technician, right?

I almost guarantee this is the kind of hypocrite who'll dismiss an issue like this with iOS but will criticize any other platform for the same thing. This is the kind of thing I see with Cnet, which is why I refuse to read tech "reviews" since everyone seems to be massive biased tools for Apple.

 

[PoolCleaningRobot]

Wrong. Android gives you access to the file system from the get-go, with some areas (like system) being sealed off until you root the device.

All you need to access the file system is an application equivalent til Windows Explorer. These aren't included on all ROM's (stock Android typically includes one if i recall, but custom ROM's from manufacturers often don't), but they can be easily downloaded from Google Play. The best one - and the one i use - is probably ES File Explorer [https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.estrongs.android.pop], since it's not only free, but includes support for browsing cloud-applikations and FTP-servers in addition to the file system on your phone, and has a build-in media player. So you can use it to manually copy or move files from your device to your cloud services easily.

I've been using the File Systems on my Android-devices extensively since i got them. From FTP-syncing files on my LAN (including my music collection or documents i scan on my scanner with my Hewlett-Packard app, as well as backups of my application data), to cloud-syncing files using Dropbox and Google Drive. It all works pretty much out of the box

Same here. The minute I couldn't figure out how to delete documents I downloaded, I got ES file browser. Easily one of the best apps made. Just recently I was editing an important paper and since I don't like having only one copy of something, I plugged the flashdrive into my phone and use ES to copy it to my SD card and upload it to Google Drive. Sometimes I like to browse Windows Phone Central with sense of smug satisfaction as they get excited over small features Android and iOS have had for years. WP 8.1 finally gave them a notification shade and volume controls, yet they still can't manipulate their own files

I almost guarantee this is the kind of hypocrite who'll dismiss an issue like this with iOS but will criticize any other platform for the same thing. This is the kind of thing I see with Cnet, which is why I refuse to read tech "reviews" since everyone seems to be massive biased tools for Apple.

It was really annoying when I was trying buy a decent, cheap 7" Android tablet. So many damn reviews would just end with "well this Android device is great but its too expensive. You might as well just spend twice as much and get an iPad mini with a lower resolution"

 

[Veylon]

Super true. Android won't natively let you access the filesystem. Want to copy your pictures to the card so that you can take it out and print them off? Too bad. I'm fine with it hiding away the more advanced things - perhaps behind an "Advanced" option - but making them completely inaccessible is madness.

Wrong. Android gives you access to the file system from the get-go, with some areas (like system) being sealed off until you root the device. All you need to access the file system is an application equivalent til Windows Explorer. These aren't included on all ROM's.

Key word: natively. This isn't (bafflingly) an out-of-the-box feature.

I suppose this is fine if you own one of the things (I don't) and don't mind potentially bricking it by rooting it (which can happen?). I'm stuck in the unfortunate situation of being obligated - as de-facto tech guy - to "fix" problems that shouldn't exist in the first place. After the dozenth or so person complaining that their phone is out of memory despite having a completely empty MicroSD installed and finding out that the makers of Android have inexplicably greyed out the button that would allow you move the thousand or so photos, amongst other data, over to make room, it's hard to feel that they aren't being jerked around.

Android - especially the phone version - is aimed at the non-tech savvy. Some stuff that might come across as condescending to an expert would be perfectly in line. It wouldn't be that hard to have the system pop up and say "Hey! You have eight zillion dog pictures, you're out of memory and there's space on the SD card! Want me to move them over to free up room?" Obviously, such a feature should be turn off-able. And again, more advanced stuff should be accessible. But the key selling point is that this is an easy system to use and my objection is that it's made unnecessarily difficult. I don't need a third-party tool to access files in Windows or Linux.

Though I will keep that ES System in mind and see if I can't get the next person to need help to let me download it. I've been stuck plugging the thing to a computer in order to move files from phone to card. Tell that isn't madness.

 

[Athinira]

Key word: natively. This isn't (bafflingly) an out-of-the-box feature.

The system supports it natively, and some ROM's do give you an application so you don't have to go download one from Google Play. Mind explaining how that is not an 'out-of-the-box' feature? )

I suppose this is fine if you own one of the things (I don't) and don't mind potentially bricking it by rooting it (which can happen?).

Only some very specific operations carries a risk of hard-bricking your device. I've bricked my devices many times experimenting with different advanced root features (including flashing new kernels etc.), but those are all soft-bricks that can be easily corrected. Even if you're an amateur at this, it's very hard to hard-brick your device permanently (almost impossible if all you want is simple root functionality).

I'm stuck in the unfortunate situation of being obligated - as de-facto tech guy - to "fix" problems that shouldn't exist in the first place. After the dozenth or so person complaining that their phone is out of memory despite having a completely empty MicroSD installed and finding out that the makers of Android have inexplicably greyed out the button that would allow you move the thousand or so photos, amongst other data, over to make room, it's hard to feel that they aren't being jerked around.

I'll be the first to admit that Androids handling of SD-cards isn't perfect.

Googles solution seems to be not including an SD-card in their Nexus devices, explaining that they feel it confuses users. To me, that's an excuse to not actually fix the problem, which is Androids file system being a confusing mess.

The solution doesn't lie in the system itself, but as you mentioned, in apps. The customized Camera app on my Samsung Galaxy actually asks you the first time if you want to store your photos on the SD-card or the internal memory, so props to Samsung for that.

Though I will keep that ES System in mind and see if I can't get the next person to need help to let me download it. I've been stuck plugging the thing to a computer in order to move files from phone to card. Tell that isn't madness.

It is, but i would in that case recommend cloud storage apps.

Dropbox and many other cloud providers offer to automatically upload photos and videos once taken. It's easy (so easy that you can instruct a newbie in doing it without much hassle), works great, provides at backup solution for photos at the same time and many of my friends have taken that recommendation to heart. As someone who uses a lot of my time to research security and how it works, the best security is invisible security, meaning security that works without users even knowing about it. Dropbox photo upload is that kind of security (backup in this case) that's a great recommendation for newbies. I didn't have to spend much time explaining to people how it works, including explaining that if their phone gets filled up, they can just delete all the photos and they will still be on their computer/in the cloud

Ultimately i don't think Android is much worse than, say, iOS in this regards. Even though iOS comes with a lot of built-in features (like Photostream, which is Apples cloud version of Dropbox to iCloud) that you have to go to third-parties for on Android, many people don't know how to use them properly. I've seen a lot of iPhone-users complain about a stolen/lost iPhone also being the cause of losing photos and contacts, because they don't understand how the system works, and haven't managed to switch it on and backup their device properly. It's sad, because i think it's great of Apple to provide this functionality, but the newbie is still going to be at a loss.

 

[Athinira]

Same here. The minute I couldn't figure out how to delete documents I downloaded, I got ES file browser. Easily one of the best apps made. Just recently I was editing an important paper and since I don't like having only one copy of something, I plugged the flashdrive into my phone and use ES to copy it to my SD card and upload it to Google Drive. Sometimes I like to browse Windows Phone Central with sense of smug satisfaction as they get excited over small features Android and iOS have had for years. WP 8.1 finally gave them a notification shade and volume controls, yet they still can't manipulate their own files

It doesn't really matter. On a phone, most users don't need the ability to manipulate files.

I've always tried to be a person who isn't narrow-minded, and of the core values i believe in is that of 'One size does NOT fit all'. Those users we are talking about here are living in a different world than us, with different goals for using tech, and they don't need file system access. What they need is easy tools to manage stuff (for example storage space). They don't need and don't want to understand how the underlying mechanics work like we do.
To me, seeing other people get excited over features on operating systems i don't even use (or want to use) gives me the feeling of "Oh that's great" rather than smug self-satisfaction. I think it's more important that people get their needs fulfilled rather than me having the chance to consider myself superior. For example, my attitude towards Macs and iOS is not that they suck or that i hate them (in fact, i think they're absolutely great systems), but rather that me and them will never make friends* )

But anyway, if you are that much of a filesystem junkie like me, one of the best recommendations i can give you is setting up an FTP server at home like me, and using a syncronization tool. It easy, gives you a GREAT tool for managing files on your home system across devices (including backups). Here are examples of what i use my FTP-server for (using it for LAN-only even):
[ul][li]Keeping (selected) music in sync between my computer and my phone[/li]
[li]Keeping specific folders in sync between my computer, my phone and my tablet (like, say, a folder that contains ringtones, wallpapers for my phone etc. I place the ringtone in the folder on my computer, and it transfers to my device at the next sync schedule or if i manually press the 'Sync all' button on Foldersyncs widget).[/li]
[li]Since i recently bought a new computer, and turned my old computer into a music computer (I'm an active DJ), i use my FTP-server to keep my music collection (aka. iTunes library) in sync between the computers.[/li]
[li]Backup of other computers in my house. On both my moms and my sisters computer, i have installed a software called GoodSync [http://www.goodsync.com/], which - in my experience - really is the best sync program out there. It regularly takes a backup of their ENTIRE collection of personal files (including mails, photos etc.) to my computer in a clean, and efficient manner (meaning only changed files are backed up). Soon, the backup will go to my coming NAS server instead, and it all happens over our home network Wi-Fi, and they didn't need to do anything for it to happen. The licenses cost me a bit, but it was worth it, and in turn they don't have to worry about backups, because it's handled for them automatically.[/li][/ul]

Oh yeah, and GoodSync can be used to backup using other protocols too, including normal file backup to an external hard drive. I've had two hard drive crashes recently, but didn't lose a single personal file

Edit: for FTP-server software, i recommend FileZilla server. It's easy, and the settings are stored in the install folder (which is a portable installation), so all you need to do to backup the software - settings included - is copy the folder. I personally have a folder on my non-system drive called 'Apps' where i store software like this. If i ever need to reinstall Windows, all i have to do afterwards is go to that folder, launch the software there and set it to boot with Windows again.

* .oO(Incidentally, i do hate Apple as a company however, but that's because i despise their business practice and attitude, not because they make shoddy products)

 

[PoolCleaningRobot]

It doesn't really matter. On a phone, most users don't need the ability to manipulate files.

I've always tried to be a person who isn't narrow-minded, and of the core values i believe in is that of 'One size does NOT fit all'. Those users we are talking about here are living in a different world than us, with different goals for using tech, and they don't need file system access. What they need is easy tools to manage stuff (for example storage space). They don't need and don't want to understand how the underlying mechanics work like we do.
To me, seeing other people get excited over features on operating systems i don't even use (or want to use) gives me the feeling of "Oh that's great" rather than smug self-satisfaction. I think it's more important that people get their needs fulfilled rather than me having the chance to consider myself superior. For example, my attitude towards Macs and iOS is not that they suck or that i hate them (in fact, i think they're absolutely great systems), but rather that me and them will never make friends* )

I'm mostly only saying that due to the hilarious hypocrisy of Microsoft fan boys on a Microsoft self-serving site. You'll see people shit on Android and iOS and talk about how Windows Phone is "light years ahead", then ***** about features that other OS's have that Windows Phone doesn't. Or in the case of the new 8.1 update, get excited to have features that other platforms like Android have had since its inception. There are still users who were hoping for a Windows Phone file browser when they could just use Android if it matters so much, but they hate Google and under the deluded impression you're guaranteed viruses and that Android can't run on anything less than a $600 handset.

snip

I'd like to get a cheap mini pc and learn how to set it up as a server but unfortunately I'm short cash at this point. Luckly, I can at least use ES to remote into my computer on my home network and transfer/view files. Also, sweet use of bullet points

* .oO(Incidentally, i do hate Apple as a company however, but that's because i despise their business practice and attitude, not because they make shoddy products)

I agree too. I can't argue with the quality of their products, but the prices they charge given they use cheap Foxconn labor (fucking $600 for a 32gb iPhone 5c?!) and their patent trolling put me off

 

[Athinira]

I'm mostly only saying that due to the hilarious hypocrisy of Microsoft fan boys on a Microsoft self-serving site. You'll see people shit on Android and iOS and talk about how Windows Phone is "light years ahead", then ***** about features that other OS's have that Windows Phone doesn't. Or in the case of the new 8.1 update, get excited to have features that other platforms like Android have had since its inception. There are still users who were hoping for a Windows Phone file browser when they could just use Android if it matters so much, but they hate Google and under the deluded impression you're guaranteed viruses and that Android can't run on anything less than a $600 handset.

Well in that case, go us, we're apparently intellectually superior

I just see no need to waste energy gloating about it. If those people are satisfied going around complaining, who am i to argue?

I'd like to get a cheap mini pc and learn how to set it up as a server but unfortunately I'm short cash at this point. Luckly, I can at least use ES to remote into my computer on my home network and transfer/view files. Also, sweet use of bullet points

You don't need a seperate PC for it. An FTP-server is very lightweight (FileZilla Server has a 2.1 megabyte memory footprint on my system), and you can easily experiment with it on your normal PC.

All you need to do is to make sure that the server is allowed through Windows Firewall and your computer has a static IP address. Then you're golden. It only took me about 25 minutes to set one up the first time i tried it.

 

[ForumSafari]

I'm mostly only saying that due to the hilarious hypocrisy of Microsoft fan boys on a Microsoft self-serving site. You'll see people shit on Android and iOS and talk about how Windows Phone is "light years ahead", then ***** about features that other OS's have that Windows Phone doesn't. Or in the case of the new 8.1 update, get excited to have features that other platforms like Android have had since its inception.

It's mostly differing featuresets for differing use cases, Windows Phone just is light years ahead on some things, particularly its' handling of calendars and emails for business users, its' satnav capability for international travel and its' ability to review and edit Office documents out of the box.

However, there are some features Windows Phone is lacking, from the UI evolution of the swipe keyboard, to the baffling omission of the native VPN client. With these two additions Windows Phone would become my favourite platform to replace our ageing Blackberry handsets and is by far my favourite mobile operating system for low end handsets. In fact in all honesty I can't fault anything that the OS does aside from those two omissions, which will be fixed soon.

 

[Veylon]

The system supports it natively, and some ROM's do give you an application so you don't have to go download one from Google Play. Mind explaining how that is not an 'out-of-the-box' feature? )

I guess it's in the box in the sense that Android has a file system and that apps can access it, but I can't conveniently get it out of that box in order to use it. But I suppose I'm semantically confusing boxes at this point. I'd be a lot happier in this particular aspect of my life if "some ROM's" were the ROMs I'm stuck dealing with.

Dropbox and many other cloud providers offer to automatically upload photos and videos once taken. It's easy (so easy that you can instruct a newbie in doing it without much hassle), works great, provides at backup solution for photos at the same time and many of my friends have taken that recommendation to heart. As someone who uses a lot of my time to research security and how it works, the best security is invisible security, meaning security that works without users even knowing about it. Dropbox photo upload is that kind of security (backup in this case) that's a great recommendation for newbies. I didn't have to spend much time explaining to people how it works, including explaining that if their phone gets filled up, they can just delete all the photos and they will still be on their computer/in the cloud

Ultimately i don't think Android is much worse than, say, iOS in this regards. Even though iOS comes with a lot of built-in features (like Photostream, which is Apples cloud version of Dropbox to iCloud) that you have to go to third-parties for on Android, many people don't know how to use them properly. I've seen a lot of iPhone-users complain about a stolen/lost iPhone also being the cause of losing photos and contacts, because they don't understand how the system works, and haven't managed to switch it on and backup their device properly. It's sad, because i think it's great of Apple to provide this functionality, but the newbie is still going to be at a loss.

I have terribly little opinion - or experience - on iOS. But I keep hearing good things about that Dropbox as regards PC, so I'm inclined to think that having on Android would be good as well. Especially if it's zero maintenance.