Background Processing

Overview

Background execution is a privilege, not a right. iOS actively limits background work to protect battery life and user experience. Core principle: Treat background tasks as discretionary jobs — you request a time window, the system decides when (or if) to run your code.

Key insight: Most "my task never runs" issues stem from registration mistakes or misunderstanding the 7 scheduling factors that govern execution. This skill provides systematic debugging, not guesswork.

Energy optimization: For reducing battery impact of background tasks, see axiom-energy skill. This skill focuses on task mechanics — making tasks run correctly and complete reliably.

Requirements: iOS 13+ (BGTaskScheduler), iOS 26+ (BGContinuedProcessingTask), Xcode 15+

Example Prompts

Real questions developers ask that this skill answers:

1. "My background task never runs. I register it, schedule it, but nothing happens."

→ The skill covers the registration checklist and debugging decision tree for "task never runs" issues