How to make iFile not cache .plist files after updating to iOS 8?

Question

A friend recently updated to iOS 8 on his iPhone. The iPhone is jailbroken and has an iOS 8 supported iFile version installed.

Before the update he was able to start an app and then tab out to desktop, open iFile, find the app's .plist and exchange it for a different .plist. When he resumed the app the new .plist would take over and continue running the app.

After update, he can tab out of app and exchange the .plists but when he tabs back into app, iFile reverts back to the original .plist file.

My question is, does iFile for iOS 8 have a cache that is storing .plist files in different places and if so, how do I go about locating them or is there possibly some options that can be turned off either in iOS 8 or in iFile that will stop this from happening?

Answer 1

It's not iFile caching the property lists, it's iOS 8 doing this. For improved performance, preference files are not actually read from file often—only when necessary. Furthermore, the cache that iOS maintains can overwrite the stored property list files when necessary, meaning that it can be difficult to change preferences. SyncedPreferences also adds to the complexity, being that iCloud must update the key-value pair asynchronously with the iOS 8 cache. As far as I am aware, there is no way round this other than changing the property list when the app is guaranteed to not be storing its preferences in cache (i.e. just after a reboot).