iPhone 12 animation lag caused by RunningBoard?

Apologies if this isn't the right venue for this, but I figured the developers on here might have some insight.

I've been looking into a problem which I'm experiencing on my 12 Pro, and others have also reported: when closing apps, occasionally there's a stutter in the animation, like dropped frames. It seems to start occurring after I've opened many apps since my last restart. It's been an issue since launch, on iOS 14.1, 14.2, and now the 14.3 Public Beta 2. I've also tried reinstalling iOS and setting up as a new device, with no change.

Based on when I see it, my theory for the cause is basically: when you close an app, but the memory allocated for suspended apps is already full, the OS needs to clear out some of that memory, and there's a lag/stutter in the UI while it does this.

To test this out, I plugged my phone into my Mac, and pulled up the Console app to watch for error/fault messages in the iOS log. Almost every time I close an app and see this stutter, there are error messages from runningboardd (RunningBoard), such as the following:

Code Block
error 17:38:41.087985-0700 runningboardd RBSStateCapture remove item called for untracked item <RBProcessMonitorObserver| qos:0 qos:(null) configs:{
}>


Such errors do not occur when an app closes smoothly with no stutter. It's not always the same error, but there's a pretty consistent correlation between seeing the stutter and seeing a runningboardd error.

Some light googling tells me that RunningBoard is a new-ish part of iOS used to track active processes.

Does anyone have more experience with RunningBoard errors, or has a good idea for further troubleshooting steps?
One update to this, is I've discovered this is not iPhone 12 specific, as the same animation behavior occurs in the iPhone XS, accompanied by the same RunningBoard errors.
I have the same kind of issue with my iPhone 12, this is a very good post, I think Apple should fix this problem, the overall performance of iPhone 12 series is very unpleasant.
Same exact issue on my 12 Pro. Went through device resets and restores with the issue still persisting.

Talked with Apple support and they said something about escalating this to software development, will need to follow up.
This has been happening to me since I got the iPhone 11 Pro in fall of 2019. The worst part is when the stutter hits just at the right time, it causes the swipe up to fail and you end up in the multitasking view. Very frustrating!
I experience the same stutter with my iPhone 12. Please fix this!
Yes, I’m having this same problem on an iPhone 12 Pro. I get the stutter that often times pulls up the multitasking view.
It's ruining the experience of iPhone, and some users started complaining the App developers about this issue.
I thought it was a hardware problem, and your post reminded me that it was probably an under-optimization of iOS.
The animation performance of iOS now is terrible,Craig should pay more attention to basic experience, otherwise A14 Bionic will just become a vase .
Same issue on my iPhone 12 Pro since day one. Hope it gets fixed soon.
It's definitely not specific to just defective phones. I experienced it last year on the iPhone 11 Pro and Apple replaced it. The replacement exhibited the same behavior as well. Now my new iPhone 12 Pro experiences it also. I have an open support case with Apple. The last update I heard was that engineers are looking into it and to install any new updates. After over a year of anxiously installing every new update, I have to say I'm no longer holding my breath for a fix any time soon.
iOS 14.4. No fix whatsoever. My 12 Pro Max has terrible lag spikes while opening multitasking window. Did anyone successfully get a replacement due to that issue?
Hi folks. We'd like your help understanding this issue better. Please use the Feedback Assistant app or website to file this feedback, so we can gather logs and other information for our investigation. Sign in with the Apple ID you use for the Apple Developer Program, Compose new feedback, and choose iOS and iPad OS, then App Switcher for the Area and Application Slow/Unresponsive for the type of feedback.

Once you’ve filed, add your feedback number to this thread. After you file, you’ll be provided a special debug profile and instructions to install it and gather a Sysdiagnose and other data.

Thanks for your help,

—jasonag.
Thanks Jason! I really hope you guys can fix this. It is driving me crazy because it breaks the main navigation gesture. If it was just animation stutter, I think most people wouldn’t care much. But when you swipe up to go home and the phone stutters and you end up in the app switcher instead, that’s super frustrating. My feedback number is FB8991103. Please let me know what to do next. Thanks!
My Feedback number is FB8991127
My Feedback number is FB8991146

I really hope you guys can fix this. It is driving me crazy because it breaks the main navigation gesture. If it was just animation stutter, I think most people wouldn’t care much. But when you swipe up to go home and the phone stutters and you end up in the app switcher instead, that’s super frustrating. 
Exact same issue. Except I also see a lag while scrolling down on gmail/ other apps.
updating to 14.4 did not resolve it.
Hoping its a software bug and will resolve with the next updates.


My feedback number is FB8992300

slight animation stutter occurs when I try to open apps.


My feedback number is FB8892424.
I don't think I filed my report under App Switcher, but my feedback number is FB8886411.

Happy to do anything to help diagnose this bug - it's so incredibly annoying.
I have 2 feedback reports for this:

FB8903850 was submitted back in November when I was on the iOS Public Beta releases. This includes a screen recording and sysdiagnose.

FB8993381 I submitted today, running iOS 14.4 back on the general non-beta releases. This includes 2 screen recordings. I was not prompted to install a debug profile for sysdiagnose data, perhaps because I submitted this feedback through my laptop rather than my phone/app?
My feedback ID: FB8994096

I also attached a video of the stutter in it.
Same since day one with 12PM on 14.2 and on. In every iOS release. Ticket: FB8940870
I also have had this issue with my iPhone 12 Pro Max since day one (literally “day one” as pre-ordered, etc.). Eagerly updated every software update since, in the hope that it would be fixed but alas here we are at IOS 14.4 and it still has not been addressed. Yes, it’s not the worst problem to have in the world but after three months of owning the phone I’m becoming increasingly annoyed at this - at £1,099 it’s comfortably the most expensive phone I’ve bought and yet the user experience has been nowhere near as smooth as any of my other iPhones (probably had half a dozen different iPhones since iPhone 3G). The hype around it having “the fastest chip in a smartphone” seems completely ridiculous when you can only have ten or so apps open at once before getting this ugly stuttering when closing an app (or as others have said, the ‘open apps’ menu appears when you don’t want it to). I’ll persevere, but so far I really don’t feel the phone has been worth anywhere near the cost as the user experience (in my opinion) really is affected by this - we also had the stuttering issue when beginning to type out iMessages for the first few weeks, although that seems to be fixed now. Please fix this, Apple - I really don’t want to be looking elsewhere for my next handset...
Same stutter issue with feedback number FB8994900
Really bad experience with this stuff! There are tons of people with this problem , i'm calling them every day ! the result is just , you have to wait! I'm thinking after 10 year to change in other phone !
iPhone 12 animation lag caused by RunningBoard?
 
 
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