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Old 07-07-2019, 07:14 AM
agfsteve agfsteve is offline
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Default iPad apps cannot be shut down?

My wife bought an Apple iPad, and she says the apps cannot be shut down, and some of them cannot even be logged out of (I think she mentioned twitter being like this).

Apparently, the only way you can close down an app is to force-close it (swiping up?), which should not be done unless it is unresponsive(?)

So it looks like there are two problems:
1) If your iPad gets stolen, and they break into it (they would have to guess the pin number first?), then they can just pull up your still-running apps, i.e. they don't have to log in to them?

2) If someone wants to borrow your iPad (my wife would want to lend it to her sister when she visits), then they can see your stuff, e.g. in an email app that is still running?

My wife is on the verge of returning her iPad because of this; I'm surprised that an iPad would operate in such an unsecured manner.
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Old 07-07-2019, 07:22 AM
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BrunoBlack BrunoBlack is offline
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Start up your iPad, then double click the home button. You will see all the open apps shown as thumbnails. Swipe the thumbnail picture of the apps upward and that shuts them down — no problem doing that. Leaving them open just reduces the time it takes to launch the app, which isn’t much. I make sure I do this after visiting my bank or performing any financial transactions. In fact banks tell you to close your browser (Safari) after visiting your account, and relaunching Safari before going to another website.

BTW, you can always log out of your apps, it just takes longer than swiping up. Go to your account in the app and select “log out.”

Direction with pictures here - https://www.imore.com/how-force-quit...-ipad#iphone-8

Last edited by BrunoBlack; 07-07-2019 at 07:34 AM. Reason: Add web link
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Old 07-07-2019, 07:28 AM
imwjl imwjl is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by agfsteve View Post
My wife is on the verge of returning her iPad because of this; I'm surprised that an iPad would operate in such an unsecured manner.
The iPad operates in a secure manner. It's why it is an option I have over other tech platforms in the work I do. The architecture is fine. That doesn't mean a particular app has a good design in terms of security or privacy.

If you don't save credentials in an app or allow it to work in the background and use something such as LastPass you can increase privacy.

We (my work) also have Android and Windows mobile devices. Programs can and some do keep running as you describe here. The Surface tablets have been truly great but they're at higher price points and in reality a Windows 10 general purpose personal computer. The Android stuff is all over and a relative junk show to the others in my contact of reliability, security & compliance. If security is a concern, no way I'd spend one penny on an Android tablet that's not a well supported first tier model.

The force close isn't going to break anything. I have dozens of users who do that all the time with iPads and Android tablets where you do not different user profiles for the whole device like a Windows tablet would.

For what you describe I provision Surface Pro models with one of two ways to authenticate the users. One thing to consider is that costs a lot more than base model iPads that are otherwise superb.
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Old 07-07-2019, 08:02 AM
agfsteve agfsteve is offline
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Originally Posted by Haasome View Post
BTW, you can always log out of your apps, it just takes longer than swiping up. Go to your account in the app and select “log out.”
Isn't the ability to log out of an app specific to the app? I.e., you can only log out of the app if it allows you to do so (presumably with a button or link)? I would have thought all apps would indeed allow you to log out, but apparently that is not the case with the iPad twitter app?

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Originally Posted by Haasome View Post
In the link you provided, it says, "You really shouldn't force-close apps". Any idea why you "really shouldn't"? I'm guessing it could corrupt memory, or not do proper clean-up, which could presumably lead to performance issues?

Thanks for your help.
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Old 07-07-2019, 08:14 AM
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BrunoBlack BrunoBlack is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by agfsteve View Post
Isn't the ability to log out of an app specific to the app? I.e., you can only log out of the app if it allows you to do so (presumably with a button or link)? I would have thought all apps would indeed allow you to log out, but apparently that is not the case with the iPad twitter app?



In the link you provided, it says, "You really shouldn't force-close apps". Any idea why you "really shouldn't"? I'm guessing it could corrupt memory, or not do proper clean-up, which could presumably lead to performance issues?

Thanks for your help.
It does no damage, you just don’t “have” to do it unless the app is misbehaving. If you check out Apple Support you’ll see they provide similar guidance. I think force closing is specifically recommended when the app is not working correctly. And, I believe, the device responds more quickly when it is left open. I am sure to close apps that involve financial interactions. I’ve been doing this for a very long time with no issues. If you still feel uneasy, you can ask Apple Support directly — either through one of their stores or thought a direct connection to Apple Support on their website by text/phone/support request.

As an aside, if you look at my wife’s devices, you see she has every app she’s ever opened — still opened If you look at mine, more often than not, I have 1 or 2 open. It’s a personality thing I suppose.

Last edited by BrunoBlack; 07-07-2019 at 08:19 AM.
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Old 07-07-2019, 08:27 AM
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Another consideration — Here are a couple of articles that indicate closing apps actually shortens battery life. I’ve not experienced this, but worth noting. Maybe you could just close apps for banking stuff or when you are sharing your device with someone else if that provides you more comfort.

https://www.insider.com/force-quit-i...battery-2017-7

https://techzillo.com/force-closing-apps-good-bad/
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Old 07-07-2019, 10:12 AM
agfsteve agfsteve is offline
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Originally Posted by Haasome View Post
Another consideration — Here are a couple of articles that indicate closing apps actually shortens battery life. I’ve not experienced this, but worth noting. Maybe you could just close apps for banking stuff or when you are sharing your device with someone else if that provides you more comfort.

https://www.insider.com/force-quit-i...battery-2017-7

https://techzillo.com/force-closing-apps-good-bad/
It's interesting that at no point in either of those links, or anything else that I've read on this subject so far, does anyone mention anything about the security risk of leaving an app running. It doesn't even seem to occur to any of the authors that it's a good idea to shut something down for security reasons when you're not using it.
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Old 07-07-2019, 10:37 AM
agfsteve agfsteve is offline
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I just found out that once you've installed the iPad Gmail app, the only way you can stop another user of your iPad (friend or foe) from reading your emails is to delete the account, then re-install it the next time you need it. This is preposterous!
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Old 07-07-2019, 03:13 PM
vubui vubui is offline
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These are meant as personal devices. They are extremely secure for personal use, when you properly set up a passcode and enable all the security features.

Third party apps have different ways of operating. The gmail app operates the way Google wants it to, including the login and log off features. You can log in and out, it just takes time. Most people want the convenience of persistent login, with the security at the front of the device, you log in to your apps once, then log into the device each time you use it.

If you want an iPad to behave like a PC in terms of logins then don’t use the apps, just use email on the browser, or Twitter on the browser. But you can log out of both of those apps.
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Old 07-07-2019, 03:18 PM
vubui vubui is offline
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Originally Posted by agfsteve View Post
I just found out that once you've installed the iPad Gmail app, the only way you can stop another user of your iPad (friend or foe) from reading your emails is to delete the account, then re-install it the next time you need it. This is preposterous!


I can understand not wanting foes to read your emails, but that’s why you should set a secure passcode and set the auto lock on your display to a reasonably short amount of time. No foe is going to defeat a proper passcode on an Apple device, the FBI had to try to force Apple to build a back door into their security because they couldn’t get into some phones they wanted to get into.

As for friends, I suppose that’s a more personal issue with the friends, and how much they respect your privacy. I hand my devices to people when showing them something but don’t lend them to people to use for longer periods of time, but I don’t have friends who don’t already have a phone in their pocket already so they can do anything they need to on that.

But what you’re talking about, deleting your account and adding it back is exactly what you’re asking for, that’s called logging out and logging back in, just using different terminology.

I still think that using the web apps in the browser might be a better option for your specific use case. Then it will behave exactly how it would on a PC.
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Old 07-07-2019, 04:09 PM
agfsteve agfsteve is offline
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No foe is going to defeat a proper passcode on an Apple device, the FBI had to try to force Apple to build a back door into their security because they couldn’t get into some phones they wanted to get into.
The pass-code to unlock the device is a six-digit number. Maybe there's a way to change it so that the pass-code can be longer and alphanumeric? A six-digit number is an extremely weak pass-code.

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Originally Posted by vubui View Post
But what you’re talking about, deleting your account and adding it back is exactly what you’re asking for, that’s called logging out and logging back in, just using different terminology.
OK, here's what my wife had to do get back in after deleting her account:
1) Go to the Apple Store
2) Search for Gmail app (this might already be showing, so this step might not be required all the time)
3) Click "Open" (iPad recognises that it was opened before, otherwise it says something like "Install" or whatever)
4) Click on "Setup email"
5) Pop-up says "Gmail wants to use google to set up your account...", so click on "Continue"
6) Enter your email address and click "Next"
7) Enter password and click "Next"

That is hardly the same as "logging back in", it's re-installing, then logging back in; it is six or seven steps instead of one or two.
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Old 07-07-2019, 05:00 PM
vubui vubui is offline
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Originally Posted by agfsteve View Post
The pass-code to unlock the device is a six-digit number. Maybe there's a way to change it so that the pass-code can be longer and alphanumeric? A six-digit number is an extremely weak pass-code.







OK, here's what my wife had to do get back in after deleting her account:

1) Go to the Apple Store

2) Search for Gmail app (this might already be showing, so this step might not be required all the time)

3) Click "Open" (iPad recognises that it was opened before, otherwise it says something like "Install" or whatever)

4) Click on "Setup email"

5) Pop-up says "Gmail wants to use google to set up your account...", so click on "Continue"

6) Enter your email address and click "Next"

7) Enter password and click "Next"



That is hardly the same as "logging back in", it's re-installing, then logging back in; it is six or seven steps instead of one or two.


A six digit passcode is quite strong if you only have 10 tries before the device is wiped automatically, an option I enable on all my devices. But the iPad does also offer alphanumeric passcode. When you go to change passcode click additional options, you can choose alphanumeric.

Steps 1-3 are not the way you should be opening apps, so really you’re talking about 4 steps (the first two of which are just clicking “continue”) instead of 2. Opening the app is no different from what you’d have to do on any other device. And if you were logging onto gmail on a computer you’d also need to type gmail.com to get to the site, or clicking a bookmark.

As I said, I think in your case you would probably be better off using the browser. Apps are designed for convenience, and persistent login is a big part of that convenience. The vast majority of phone and tablet users would be incredibly inconvenienced to have to log in each time they use an app.

Or perhaps the iPad isn’t the right device for you. But I don’t know what tablet would be, the process on an Android tablet would be nearly the same. These devices are meant more as personal devices, not as sharing devices (outside of your own family). If you have sensitive emails the best option would be to log in through the browser, then you log in and lot out as usual.

I have been an Apple iPad user since they came out, iPhones as well. They behave the way I want the experience to behave, which is probably what most people want, as the devices are extremely successful. But that doesn’t mean they will be what everyone wants, of course, and perhaps you fall outside of the perfect target audience.
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Old 07-07-2019, 05:42 PM
agfsteve agfsteve is offline
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Originally Posted by vubui View Post
the iPad does also offer alphanumeric passcode. When you go to change passcode click additional options, you can choose alphanumeric.
Thanks, that will help a bit.

Quote:
Originally Posted by vubui View Post
Steps 1-3 are not the way you should be opening apps
Well I agree, in principle, but it is the only way that you can open the Gmail app if you don't want someone to be able to read your emails. Here's a scenario that is problematic: My wife wants to hand her iPad to our niece, who is twelve years old, to play games or whatever. Our niece has mental medical issues that my wife talks about in emails to her sister (niece's mother). So there is no way to prevent our niece from either deliberately or inadvertently reading these emails. I think that is ridiculous. If there was just a simple "Log out" button in the Gmail app, all would be fine.

Quote:
Originally Posted by vubui View Post
As I said, I think in your case you would probably be better off using the browser.
Yes, you're probably right, but it's frustrating, because a dedicated app is invariably better than using a browser. It's just really annoying that there is no "Log out" feature. If there was, then anyone who wants the persistent login could stay logged in, and anyone who wants to log out can do so. In fact, my wife might want to stay logged in most of the time, and then simply log out before handing the iPad to someone, but instead she would have to delete the app and re-install it--that's crazy.
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Old 07-07-2019, 05:52 PM
GCWaters GCWaters is offline
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The issue is an app specific issue, not an iPad issue...most of the apps I use that deal with confidential data allow you to log in and out...
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Old 07-07-2019, 05:55 PM
imwjl imwjl is offline
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Don't confuse a third party where you do agree to their terms.

You can also use Google and some social media products with your web browser instead of their apps.

As Vuibi said, these are personal devices with a default schema ideal for the one personal device owner. They do multi-factor authentication and some will use your finger print or eyes.

As said earlier, you can also get a tablet with software architecture for multiple users but any price near a a basic iPad will not be anywhere near the same quality or offer the same support.

Depending on the iPad you can also use your finger print or have it scan your face and eyes.
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