Short answer: Background App Refresh is permission for iOS to wake an app briefly while you are not using it, so the app can fetch new content over the network. That is the whole of it. It is not an app "running in the background", it is not push notifications, and it does not govern the background features that navigation, music, recording and internet calls rely on.
The confusion is understandable, because "background" is used for at least four unrelated things in iOS, and only one of them is this switch. Getting them apart answers most of the questions people bring to this setting.
The switch is permission for the system to wake an app
An app you have used and then left — by swiping home, or by locking the phone — is normally suspended. It keeps its state in memory so it can resume where you left off, but it is not executing and it is not using the network. This is deliberate: it is why a phone with thirty apps "open" is not thirty times as busy.
Background App Refresh is the exception mechanism. When it is on for an app, the app has asked to be woken occasionally so it can do a short piece of work, usually a network fetch, and then go back to sleep. The app does not keep running; it gets brief windows, granted by the system.
That distinction explains a behaviour people find odd: closing apps from the app switcher does not reduce background refreshes. You closed a suspended app; the refresh permission is unaffected and the app will be woken again next time the system decides to.
Four different things people call background
| What people mean | What it actually is | Controlled by the Background App Refresh switch? |
|---|---|---|
| "My apps are still open" | Apps suspended in memory, holding state but not running | No — unrelated |
| Background App Refresh | Brief system-granted wakes so an app can fetch content | Yes — this is the switch |
| Push notifications | Messages sent by a server through Apple's push service straight to the system | No — alerts arrive regardless |
| Background modes | Navigation with the screen off, audio playback, workout recording, internet calls, accessory connections | No — separate support, separate switches |
Only the second row is this setting. The third row is worth dwelling on, because the single most common worry about Background App Refresh is that turning it off will silence messages — and the notification path does not go through it at all. That relationship is set out in Does Turning Off Background App Refresh Stop Notifications?.
The fourth row matters for a different reason. If an app's job happens while the screen is off — a walking route, a run, a call — that is a background mode, requested by the app and granted separately, not discretionary refreshing. Turning Background App Refresh off does not interrupt it. Where the two do overlap is battery reporting, which is why the two get blamed for each other; see Background App Battery Use.
Why the list under the switch only shows some apps
Open Settings → General → Background App Refresh and you will find a list that is not your full app collection. It contains the apps that have registered an interest in refreshing in the background — apps that never fetch content outside the screen have nothing to do with this mechanism, so they are absent rather than switched off.
Two practical consequences:
- A short list is normal. It is not evidence that an app is refreshing secretly. An app that is not listed is not being woken for background fetches.
- Most of Apple's built-in apps do not appear either. The list is dominated by third-party apps, which is why "my phone has 200 apps and this list has 40" is not a discrepancy worth chasing.
When a refresh actually happens
This is where most articles invent a number. There is no refresh interval you can set, and Apple does not publish a frequency. The system decides when to offer an opportunity, weighing factors such as how often you actually use the app, whether the phone is on power, the quality of the network, and how much background budget remains.
The practical consequence is that the same app can refresh within minutes on one occasion and not at all on another — which is why "I turned it on and it still was not updated" is usually not a malfunction. If you need content to be current, the reliable move is to open the app; opening it always fetches. If you want it fresh without waiting, that is a foreground action, not a background one.
It also means the setting is a preference, not a schedule. Turning it on does not promise a refresh at a particular time; it makes the app eligible.
Three things the switch is not
- It is not a permission apps request from you. Permissions such as camera, location and photos are requested per app inside Privacy & Security, and each app's page shows what it holds. Background App Refresh is a system-wide allowance you configure yourself, which is why it lives under General rather than Privacy. See App Permissions Explained.
- It is not a security control. Turning it off does not restrict what an app may access, and it does not stop an app from sending data while it is on screen. It changes when an app may fetch, not what it may see.
- It is not a storage control. Background fetching can leave caches behind, but the switch does not manage space. Storage questions belong in What Actually Takes Up Storage on an iPhone?.
The three positions of the master switch
At the top of the Background App Refresh screen the master switch has three positions rather than two:
- Off suspends background refreshes on every network for every app, without erasing the per-app choices underneath.
- Wi-Fi allows refreshes on Wi-Fi networks only, so preloading keeps working at home and stops on cellular. For most people this keeps the convenience and drops the mobile-data cost.
- Wi-Fi & Cellular is the default and the most permissive.
Two things override the whole screen. Low Power Mode pauses background refresh while it is active, and the master switch set to Off overrides every per-app choice at once. If you are deciding what to do for your own apps rather than what the switch means, the practical version is in What Happens When You Turn Off Background App Refresh? and the battery-first version in Background App Refresh: What to Keep On, What to Turn Off.