How to stop OnePlus from closing apps in the background

Among Android phone brands, OnePlus sits with Samsung and Xiaomi at the top of the group of manufacturers whose custom user interface (in this case, OxygenOS) aggressively shuts down background apps to conserve battery power. You could be using a few apps and when you switch back to one of them, you notice that it has been closed in the background and is now starting afresh. So much for multitasking; right?

But we Android lovers choose it for its multitasking abilities, among other reasons. So, can you stop OnePlus from closing apps in the background? The answer is a Yes. You can prevent OxygenOS from killing apps in the background.

There are two settings that you need to modify to stop OxygenOS from killing background apps so aggressively. One is a generic feature, while the other requires you to modify the settings for each app you want to exclude.

How to prevent OnePlus from closing apps

1. Go to Settings -> Battery
2. Battery Optimization
3. Advanced battery optimization (tap on the three dotted menu in top right corner to see this)
4. Disable Turn on adaptive battery.
5. Disable Sleep Standby Optimisation.
6. If enabled, also disable Optimise App Power Consumption.

After you have done this generic procedure, it is time to modify the optimisation settings for each app you want to exclude.

Go to your OnePlus phone’s system Settings >

• Select Apps and notifications (or Applications, on older models)
• Tap on See all apps
• Select the app you want to exclude
• Tap on Advanced and under that, on Battery
• Pick the “Don’t optimise” option.

That app is now free from OxygenOS’ optimisation. Repeat this for as many apps as you want to keep running in the background. I recommend that you do it for the most critical apps to you.

You have now prevented OxygenOS from killing these apps in the background. Note that depending on the size of your phone’s RAM, the resource needs of the apps in question, and the number of apps you have running, sometimes, these apps might shut down of their own accord if the phone runs out of RAM. But the experience is definitely different from the aggressive behaviour of OxygenOS.

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Mister Mobility

Way back from the days of EPOC, Symbian, Palm, PocketPC/Windows Mobile, BlackBerry/BB10, webOS, Windows Phone, Firefox, Ubuntu Touch, to Android, iOS, and KaiOS operating systems, founder of MobilityArena, Mister Mobility, has owned a few hundred smartphones and tablets, and counting.