Do downloads keep going when I leave the app?

Short answer

Yes. When FoxDL leaves the screen, transfers hand over to a system background session and carry on — through switching apps, locking the phone, or the app being closed. Finished files land in your library and a notification tells you they arrived.

Reviewed 30 July 2026

iOS suspends an app seconds after you leave it, which is why so many download managers quietly stall on the Home Screen. FoxDL splits the work in two: a fast in-process lane while the app is in front, and a system background session that takes over at the moment it is not.

The handover happens at a committed byte offset, so nothing is downloaded twice and nothing is lost in between. A long download survives a reboot: the system resumes it and FoxDL picks the file back up on the next launch.

On the Mac there is no such suspension — transfers simply keep running while the app is open, and the window can be closed to the Dock.

The long version What a download manager does that a web browser will not Why transfers stop when you switch apps, what resuming really requires, and how streams become files.

Try it yourself

FoxDL is free to download. No account, no sign-up.

Download on the App Store