Articles on: iPadOS

Why did my files automatically close?

Scriptation didn't crash — and your work isn't lost. When your iPad runs low on memory and Scriptation is in the background, iOS may close Scriptation's open tabs to free up resources for whatever app is in the foreground. This is normal iOS behavior, not a bug.

📝 NOTE: Any annotations you made before switching away from Scriptation are already saved. Reopening the file brings everything back exactly as you left it.

What's Actually Happening

Modern iPads juggle multiple apps by giving each one a slice of RAM. When the foreground app needs more memory than is available, iOS pulls memory away from background apps — closing their open documents to free things up. The apps themselves stay installed; their open files just get released.

Scriptation gets prioritized for this when:

The iPad is running low on free memory overall;
Several apps are open at the same time;
The foreground app is memory-hungry (heavy web pages, video, large games);
Scriptation has been in the background for a while.

How to Reduce Auto-Closes

Three things make a real difference:

Stay up to date on both Scriptation and iOS. Newer versions of iOS handle memory better, and Scriptation's memory footprint improves with each release. See Current Version and System Requirements;
Close apps you're not using. Background apps still hold memory until iOS evicts them — closing the ones you don't need leaves more headroom for Scriptation;
Keep only the tabs you need open. Each open document in Scriptation holds memory. If you're working on one script, close the other 12 tabs you opened last week. See Are there any Scriptation best practices? for more tab-management tips.

💡 TIP: If files keep closing even when you've done all of the above, your iPad may be at the edge of its memory comfort zone. The System Requirements page lists which iPad models we recommend.

If Scriptation Loses Your Place After Switching Apps

If Scriptation closes and reloads your script — forcing you to scroll back to where you left off — after switching to another app or locking your phone for a couple of minutes, this is the same memory management behavior described above, just happening on iPhone as well as iPad. Background App Refresh does not prevent this; that setting only allows apps to fetch data periodically and does not keep them running or preserve their state in the background.

A few additional steps can help:

Close memory-heavy apps (especially camera, social media, video, or games) before switching back to Scriptation, since these are the most likely to trigger iOS to reclaim memory.
Make sure your phone has free storage space — low storage can cause iOS to be more aggressive about closing apps.
Restart the phone occasionally if this is happening frequently, which clears out stalled processes and memory pressure.
If you're using Low Power Mode, try turning it off, since Low Power Mode limits background activity and can cause apps to close sooner.

What's Next

How do I save my files?
Are there any Scriptation best practices?
Current Version and System Requirements
What hardware does Scriptation work best with?

Updated on: 04/08/2026

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