Database Users

Taskiller...so what's the verdict?

I hear about people using different taskiller apps and now I have been reading that these apps are the cause of some problems and that the phone "knows" when to close apps if it needs the memory.
So what is the verdict??? Are Taskiller apps evil or necessary or do they have any value at all???

I use Taskiller. It's a great app but I have to admit, I wonder about its effectiveness. I tend to 'close all apps' if there are a lot running but I've found that this often causes more problems than it solves. As an example, I use the footprints widget on one of my screens. If I close the footprint app using Taskiller, sometimes it causes the whole touchflo process to terminate unexpectedly. I've also found problems closing processes with Taskiller which are related to the social networking/mapping features. If you know what processes to put in the 'ignore' list then fine, but closing some processes can hinder the phone's overall function.
Sometimes, however, if you want to close an app, there's no way other than to use a task killer. Take Peep for instance. No way to close it other than killing it. So yeh, task killers; generally unnecessary but sometimes handy.

Most applications do not properly handle shutting themselves down on Android. Android itself does not close many applications automatically, so a task manager is needed. How ever the automatic task managers have a tendency to kill system services as well and can cause a lot of problems on the phone.

s0v3r1gn said:
Android itself does not close many applications automatically, so a task manager is needed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess that is ultimately the question....is it really needed???

I used taskiller in the beginning but after I stopped using it I think my phone is generally more responsive and better. Why? Because it doesn't have to start apps everytime I change screen or whatever. However I do have taskiller to kill apps that crashes or similar just in case. I do not use it frequently though. Instead I let the phone handle killing apps and whatnot.
So in my opinion taskiller is not needed because the phone takes care of everything that's needed mostly.

advanced task killer screwed up my text messages so i havent bothered with one since. luckily the device is just as as quick and responsive without it. so my vote is 'a' and 'c'

My favorite has been Advanced Task Killer Free. It doesnt cost anything and doesnt get rid of any vital processes that Android needs, especially if youre using SenseUI. Also, I have seen noticeable performance increases afterwards. So yes, I would say it is needed.

I've been using advanced task killer with problems. It seems to do what it suppose to but it also closes the radio for some reason. The rx signal comes back but the evdo doesn't unless I do a reset... I even payed for the advanced task killer thinking it would have more options but only has a hourly function.

Linux has it's own scheduler which handles tasks very efficiently.

no its not needed. i use to use advance task manager and it totally screwed and lagged my phone. not to mention i wasnt getting my sms because of those apps...i stopped using it and my phone functions great. if i feel that the phone is bunddled up with alot of apps i previously opened, i simply reset it (i hardly do resets because the phone functions excellently).
so no to task killers.

I had Taskiller installed, but after initially using it, I found that I wasn't bothered to use it, but it was still there with the icon at the top of the screen.
I read that they can actually slow your system down, so as I wasn't using it, I uninstalled it and maybe it isn't but the system does seem a little more responsive now
Vince

i used advanced taskiller and it kept my phone awake even when locked/lcd off. that murdered my battery. i uninstalled and use task manager now with no issues. it is not as simple as dragging down the notifications bar but my battery life is fine now.

I've definitely found that there is pretty much zero benefit to regularly using a task killer. Other peoples mileage will vary of course, and I'm sure there will be combinations of applications that don't sit too well together and cause issues, but I'm pretty confident than Android handles resource management well enough for most users.
I do wonder how may of those who swear by task killers are also using swapper, as I can well imagine that swapper will cause problems with Androids own resource management.
Regards,
Dave

HAHAHA guess you're not getting a clear cut verdict on task killers from this thread! seems like everyone has their own opinion....
There was an earlier debate on this topic. The thread is here... http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=569709&highlight=task+killer
and the android info is here (must read for understanding task killing) http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=569709&highlight=task+killer

They work well when set up properly. No reason to be closing widgets and programs on your sense ui that you use on a fairly often basis because it will take some time for them to load when you want to view them.
Leave the stuff you use regularly open and close the junk that takes up resources that you don't regularly use. Most of these programs have exception lists for a reason.
People that automatically end all and close sense, or their system dialer files will obviously run into problems and lag when all that stuff restarts at the same time.

Aridon said:
...Most of these programs have exception lists for a reason.
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Click to collapse
Exactly. They are fine if you exclude ALL the necessary components, then just have a few remaining on the main page that you know can be quit. Advanced Task Killer has been fine for me with their 'ignore list'.

i found that since ive stopped using task killer m battery life has improved quite alot
now i leave all the work to the android system

I have had the hero from day one and have had taskiller installed for about as long. I DID use it but do not now... and have no slow downs...
how?.......
custom rom....?
service which frees memory?
no...
Simply press back to exit a program and not home... if you press home the program most likley will not catch the button press and close. click back to exit and the program closes properly.
Press Back ....... this ISNT an iPhone with only 1 button.
nuff said...

I'm going without on this hard reset. On the last go around, even with disabling native sms app and using a 3rd party I was still getting the 100% awake time issue on the sprint hero.
FWIW, On a sprint hero make sure you ignore htiqagent, iqrd and omadm. Killing these will cause a radio reset, and ignore htcsense if you are using sense, which btw you can disable by removing its default setting in settings-apps-manage apps.

I think it is safe to say that I'm pretty ignorant about Android/Linux/etc. Nevertheless, I have Advanced Task Manager and I like to use it. I do use it judiciously, only ending certain programs/apps yet leaving most of that business to Android. And, of course, I use it to end the program itself.
El Mono

Back button does NOT end applications!!!

So, after installing Task Manager and opening it I had 31 applications running in the background! Yup, you read that right, 31!!! I ended them all and started playing around. I would launch and app, hit the back button and then go into Task Manager and there it was, still running. I launched several applications hitting back aftewards and they were all still running. I even tried hitting home aftwards and still running. Oh, and I had some apps running twice!!! WTF!?!? Looks like I found a major flaw in the new 2.1 OS.

This is normal android behaviour.
Apps are only shut down when the phone runs out of memory, however if the app is not doing anyting it will be paused and not use any battery / cpu.
And since the nexus has 512MB RAM it can have a LOT of open applications
If it is a background app (like im) it usually has an exit button in the menu.

Apps always run on android if you don't end them with a task manager.

Ya, normal behavior. The app actually has to intentionally end itself when you press the back button for that to really end it. I wouldn't worry about it, though. Apps in the background tend to use very little RAM and CPU.

Not sure why people are freaking out about apps running in the background... This is normal and Android does an amazing job of freeing up memory by killing apps as NEEDED.

Hmmmm, guess I never looked at it that way. I do notice it gets a little sluggish when all of that is running in the background. I'm just used to my MT3G. I've NEVER seen that many apps running at once.

setzer715 said:
Hmmmm, guess I never looked at it that way. I do notice it gets a little sluggish when all of that is running in the background. I'm just used to my MT3G. I've NEVER seen that many apps running at once.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
try two and two-thirds the amount of RAM and that would explain how you get so many apps running lol.

david1171 said:
try two and two-thirds the amount of RAM and that would explain how you get so many apps running lol.
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Click to collapse
Ha-ha, good point!!!

From my experience the apps never close it is set to idle and is stored in the phone memory therefore decreasing startup time and allowing for a better multitasking experience but on all other previous android devices there wasn't as much memory so only a few apps could run at a time before the memory would be needed so something would get closed.

You're used to having 37.5% of the ram the Nexus One has
Now here's the question: does having 31 apps open affect battery life?

Paul22000 said:
You're used to having 37.5% of the ram the Nexus One has
Now here's the question: does having 31 apps open affect battery life?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It depends on the applications. If they just sit quietly when suspended (in the background) and don't do anything, they will have no impact on battery life (because their threads will never schedule/run). If they continue to do work while in the background, that will have some impact, however, unless they hold a wakelock (something they need the "keep phone from sleeping" permission to do), they will have no contribution to battery consumption while the screen is off and no other apps/services hold wakelocks.
In short, "it depends."
The menu / settings / about phone / battery use panel tries to give you as much information as possible about what apps/services are consuming your battery.

martijnve said:
This is normal android behaviour.
Apps are only shut down when the phone runs out of memory, however if the app is not doing anyting it will be paused and not use any battery / cpu.
And since the nexus has 512MB RAM it can have a LOT of open applications
If it is a background app (like im) it usually has an exit button in the menu.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes. Traditional multitasking (WinMo, BlackBerry) phone OSes will not close an application (or program, on WinMo) until you tell it to close, or it decides to close itself. This is a resource hog, and results in the freezing up or running painfully slowly that we have come to expect from those devices. The iPhone always runs fast because it ALWAYS closes an app--no multitasking whatsoever--so it never runs out of resources and slows down. It "pauses" the app, then closes it, so when you open it, it resumes right where it left off, as if it were open the whole time. The downside is nothing gets done in the background--which is why awesome apps like Locale or Screebl won't run on iPhone. Android is the best of both worlds. It leaves apps running until it NEEDS to close them. When resources run tight, it pauses apps just like the iPhone, so it stays running fast, but as long as you don't overload the system, you can run background apps. And background services will stay running.
Paul22000 said:
Now here's the question: does having 31 apps open affect battery life?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm sure it does some, but with that monster of a CPU, and as little power as apps use when they're sitting in the background not doing anything, I'm guessing it is a negligible difference. But that's why I love Advanced Task Manager's auto-end feature.

i lol'd -----------__________----------------

When you have 31 applications running, is there a hardware key that you can press (perhaps with a third party software) to show those which are running, and to switch to anyone of them instantly without resorting back to the application menu? Also, does this same tool let you shut down an active tasks in order to conserver memory and battery life? I understand that a long press of the home key only shows the last 6(?) application launched but not necessarily the currently active tasks.
On my jailbroken iPhone, I'm used to be able to double click the home button to show all active tasks, and there I can switch to or terminate anyone of them. While running an application, I also have the option of long pressing the home button to end it directly so that it does not continue running in the background. If I do a normal home press, the application will continue running in the background, and I'm presented with a screen which lets me jumps to any of the desktop in order to launch new applications.
I hope I can have the same level of convenience here.

All of the applications in the backround are essentially in hibernation - it is part of the way Android manages the RAM. I think it's great.

Advanced Task Killer Questions please

Hi
Ive just got this app (really to save myself some battery time)
On launching for the first time it presents me with a whole bunch of stuff including my clocks
Now i'm sure this maybe a pretty dumb question but if i kill the htc clock App will that stop the time and weather updating correctly? (i have my weather set to update hourly) and also if i kill any app like K-9 or Peep (that i have an update schedule set for) will it stop that schedule till i manually launch the app again or will it auto launch when it reaches the sheduled update time?
Sorry for the (potentially) stupid questions
Cheers

The only thing you're going to achieve with using a task killer, is lowering performance and causing even worse battery drain. If that's what you want to do, fine, but otherwise, I wouldn't bother if I were you.
Here's why:
Android's memory management is nothing like Windows Mobile. Applications you've finished with are MEANT to stay in memory until they really are completely finished with, and just because YOU aren't using them, doesn't mean the phone has. If they've been inactive long enough, or some other program needs the RAM, Android will tidily close them down.
If you close them prematurely, then Android will have to load them back up again, so that whatever was using said program's services, can continue to function. This noticeably affects phone performance, and puts an extra load on your battery. Do you REALLY want to do that?
I'm not using any task killers, and my phone runs great, and battery is up to 2.5 days.

Hmm interesting, i might try that, im killing all instantly and repeately, thanks for the tip

FloatingFatMan said:
The only thing you're going to achieve with using a task killer, is lowering performance and causing even worse battery drain. If that's what you want to do, fine, but otherwise, I wouldn't bother if I were you.
Here's why:
Android's memory management is nothing like Windows Mobile. Applications you've finished with are MEANT to stay in memory until they really are completely finished with, and just because YOU aren't using them, doesn't mean the phone has. If they've been inactive long enough, or some other program needs the RAM, Android will tidily close them down.
If you close them prematurely, then Android will have to load them back up again, so that whatever was using said program's services, can continue to function. This noticeably affects phone performance, and puts an extra load on your battery. Do you REALLY want to do that?
I'm not using any task killers, and my phone runs great, and battery is up to 2.5 days.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats correct.
I installed it on the phone, and the battery was empty the same night
Uninstalled it, and all works fine now.
Greetz.

would an app like task panel work?
you can add apps that are system apps etc to the ignore list and have apps such as games on the force to kill list or is it just best not to have any task killer apps installed at all?
its strange that there are so many task killer apps and its bad to run on your device. There must be some reason as to why there is an app for this purpose?

ragmanchu said:
would an app like task panel work?
you can add apps that are system apps etc to the ignore list and have apps such as games on the force to kill list or is it just best not to have any task killer apps installed at all?
its strange that there are so many task killer apps and its bad to run on your device. There must be some reason as to why there is an app for this purpose?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They exist, because people think memory management on Android works like it does on Windows Mobile. It doesn't, and never has. Think if it like the so called "memory manager" tools you can get for XP that claim to be able to free all your RAM and speed up your system... Every single one of them is nothing but a placebo designed to part you from your cash, and often end up CAUSING problems, just like task killers on Android do.
Avoid them.

FloatingFatMan said:
They exist, because people think memory management on Android works like it does on Windows Mobile. It doesn't, and never has. Think if it like the so called "memory manager" tools you can get for XP that claim to be able to free all your RAM and speed up your system... Every single one of them is nothing but a placebo designed to part you from your cash, and often end up CAUSING problems, just like task killers on Android do.
Avoid them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Guess thats a good enough reply lol

task killers can work fine, but you need to know what is running and what is using it.
for example, if you have the music widget on the homescreens, then the music player process will be opne in the background.
likewise friendstream will keep people, facebook and twitter open in the background.
if you kill those processes, they will just get opened again.
As long as you are careful, using task managers will not decrease battery life, you just need to know how to use them properly. randomly killing everything in the background is NOT the way to do it.
and you should never close clock if you want your alarm clock to actually go off!!

Might be worth making a list of what apps should be ignored and what apps can be forced killed?
When i had an app killer installed, i used to only force kill games and sat nav apps, the rest i asked it to ignore but after reading this thread, i decided to delete the app killer app =)

Ive put a bunch of stuff like clock, weather, Peep and facebook etc on the ignore list and have used the task killer to only kill off frivolous apps like Spark (for xbox friends) streamfurious, photos etc...Nothing Major!
I unhooked my phone from the power at 7:30 am on the 13th April, its now 16:36 on the 14th april and it still has 30% of the juice left, and i always have wifi and mobile data connection on too...phone is always left on with facebook connecting ever 4 hrs and peep once a day and mail set for every 2 hrs (besides which i do check and update them manually a couple of times a day)
I'll try all this without task killer installed and test how long the phone can run before charging
As you say, it could well be a combination of the battery coming up to speed and a placebo effect.
However, surely it cant do more harm than good to kill an app like Spark !
However, im no Phone Genius so im sure someone will soon tell me that im completely wrong
But so far so good....like i said, ill test things without task killer installed

I've stopped using the task killer now and my battery life has improved very noticably.

oursoul said:
I've stopped using the task killer now and my battery life has improved very noticably.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
im not so sure about this.
im using a task killer when i want to close the browser or something using internet, as we all know internet drains a lot of battery and even if the browser or market is in the background it still probably has some active connections = draining battery

cez10 said:
im using a task killer when i want to close the browser or something using internet, as we all know internet drains a lot of battery and even if the browser or market is in the background it still probably has some active connections = draining battery
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you want to close fast the browser or any app, you should have a try at taskOS and launch it with the search key whenever you want...

Binned this app in favour of Juice defender, my new battery saving app of choice, seems to be working as it should too...nice

profete162 said:
If you want to close fast the browser or any app, you should have a try at taskOS and launch it with the search key whenever you want...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
but then that works pretty much like a task killer
can anyone correct me about the apps i.e. browser using internet while not active(in background) is this true or not? of course having the sync/updates turned off

Task killers can be handy for those times when apps seem to have crashed but aren't forcing close. for example, i've had times where ebuddy just doesn't want to even try to sign in. Task kill it. Try again. all is well. And last my internet browser wouldn't let me click any buttons. Again, killed it - restarted - all is ok.

I've had to use such an app countless of times due to unwanted/unneeded apps running, hanging FCs and black screens, checking/closing net related or sensor using apps, and numerous times when 300KB apps wouldn't install citing 'low memory' when I have more than 70MB free, but it was the RAM being near full causing FCs in apps like Market, and halting the installs. I only use Androids built-in TaskPanel widget for this though. Everything routine is set over to the ignore list so that I don't accidently hit and close that (single hit closes the app). Additionally I use this app to check and to switch to an opened application that is running (when it's not in the recent list).
Sent from my HTC Desire using the XDA mobile application powered by Tapatalk

profete162 said:
If you want to close fast the browser or any app, you should have a try at taskOS and launch it with the search key whenever you want...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is the route I've taken naturally. I'm using jkAppSwitch on my longpress search key, mainly used for switching but can be used to kill problem apps.
Full task killers are being proven to be useless on the Desire.

I would recommend using an app that monitors the cpu usage(watchdog etc.). This way your can see which apps put a drain on your phone.

Thank you for the information. But I do notice a considerable improvement in battery power with Advanced Task Killer.
I hope someone can provide me an answer.

the lag vs apps

Now when installed a lot of apps including juicedefender and advanced task killer (set to aggressive when screen off with lots of exclusions) the lag has become more of an issue.
Now tell me whats the logic behind having installed a lot of apps and a lag? Running several apps multitasked will offcource produce performance-dips but just having them installed?
What exactly is "aggressive" on the task killer anyway? Some people say its just bad to kill tasks.
I have the idea that its the widgets that causes trouble, since they actually needs to run in the background all the time. I noticed today that the fancy-widget got stuck on upboot for like 60 seconds, that caused the 4 buttons below to not load properly. Alto the rather useless "daily brefing" seems to slow down.
I dont want to root and hack with sd-hacks now when froyo is confirmed to be released officially soon.
Do you have experice with sertain apps/widgets causing lag. If so, it would be great to make a list of "bad" apps.
PS, I tested the 30-day navigon today in car and it worked with no problems at all. Fix in 2 seconds and right on track.

robnil said:
Now when installed a lot of apps including juicedefender and advanced task killer (set to aggressive when screen off with lots of exclusions) the lag has become more of an issue.
Now tell me whats the logic behind having installed a lot of apps and a lag? Running several apps multitasked will offcource produce performance-dips but just having them installed?
What exactly is "aggressive" on the task killer anyway? Some people say its just bad to kill tasks.
I have the idea that its the widgets that causes trouble, since they actually needs to run in the background all the time. I noticed today that the fancy-widget got stuck on upboot for like 60 seconds, that caused the 4 buttons below to not load properly. Alto the rather useless "daily brefing" seems to slow down.
I dont want to root and hack with sd-hacks now when froyo is confirmed to be released officially soon.
Do you have experice with sertain apps/widgets causing lag. If so, it would be great to make a list of "bad" apps.
PS, I tested the 30-day navigon today in car and it worked with no problems at all. Fix in 2 seconds and right on track.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't used it in a while, but "spare parts" in the marketplace tells you which apps are consuming your processor IIRC. This will obviously give you a temporary hit to your ability to load and run processes but will let you know more details about your phone that you don't already have and the battery use section of settings obviously only talks about what is using your battery but that isn't going to tell you the whole picture.
I am also someone who says you shouldn't use ATK, at least the way you do, but I have it installed and use it a bit differently. What I try to do is kill all tasks after I've used the marketplace or before I do anything intensive (gaming, GPS tracking) and I kill all apps including ATK. ATK will consume processor, battery and will free up memory which then Android uses to open more tasks you don't need (using processor and battery in the process -> repeat cycle). If you need to free up memory 1-5 times a day I think my way will save maybe 15-30% of your battery over a 24 hour period while costing you less than a minute of hassle (too much for some, sure). Again, I only kill after marketplace (because everything opens to check for updates, AFAIK) and before something that will use heavy memory and processor.

robnil said:
Now when installed a lot of apps including juicedefender and advanced task killer (set to aggressive when screen off with lots of exclusions) the lag has become more of an issue.
Now tell me whats the logic behind having installed a lot of apps and a lag? Running several apps multitasked will offcource produce performance-dips but just having them installed?
What exactly is "aggressive" on the task killer anyway? Some people say its just bad to kill tasks.
I have the idea that its the widgets that causes trouble, since they actually needs to run in the background all the time. I noticed today that the fancy-widget got stuck on upboot for like 60 seconds, that caused the 4 buttons below to not load properly. Alto the rather useless "daily brefing" seems to slow down.
I dont want to root and hack with sd-hacks now when froyo is confirmed to be released officially soon.
Do you have experice with sertain apps/widgets causing lag. If so, it would be great to make a list of "bad" apps.
PS, I tested the 30-day navigon today in car and it worked with no problems at all. Fix in 2 seconds and right on track.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Forgot the first part of your question, forgive me. I believe, the reason for more apps causing more lag is at least 2 fold. There are more apps that can be opened when you have free memory (in the vicious cycle I described above). There is also something that might be a bit unique to our phone, and I've only recently read this, it's a bit of speculation so I'm not trying to pass it off as fact but I think it's likely to be knowledgeable on the issue, even if not completely correct. Samsung's internal storage method is an SD card, that allows extra apps to be written to the internal storage but comes with a trade off of lag due to a potential combination of:
slow random-access
bad partition
I think I'm missing an important reason, I'll try to look and edit.

When I initially got my SGS I loaded it with a heap of apps and suddenly noticed the lag and quick battery drain. Problem was I couldn't track down the culprit.
I recently reset my device and was a bit more organized with what I installed. One of the things I started doing was checking what services were being used in the process which you can find under the manage apps part of the system.
So while you can load apps and they may/may not be killed by android or a task killer, the services will always be running - taking up memory, sometimes cpu, network. Things like weather checking, news checking, even email sync are some examples. These services plus any apps you run are I think what starts the lag. You need to be aware of which apps are also run as services.
Yes, there are some bad apps (last Facebook version was found to be a heavy drain) but I think they tend to add up with all the other services running.
As for 'Aggressive' depends on the app killer but my understanding (with the one I use), is that there is a memory limit before the app is killed. Once the limit is reached on aggressive, it doesn't take much before memory is cleared.
One thing to install is SeePU as this gives an indication of CPU, memory and network on the top menu bar. This also helps when the system lags (usually CPU is high and memory is low) and helps to know when to clean (or what threshold to set).
Hope this helps.

couple broblems with MT4G

First issue. I've installed Advanced task killer cause I was getting bad battery performance. and sure enough every app i had was running in the background. I'm cool with the Genius button running. but the phone seems to autostart media room, maps, my account, video chat and wi-fi callling (which I dont use). Is this something I could stop?
second problem is just something I've noticed. sometimes when I try to download apps they pause and wont resume until I turn off the internet (in setting) and turn it back on. anyone else having this problem? I do live in a 4g area. was wondering if its a problem with switching from 4g to 3g or something. I really have no idea. any thoughts?
thanks guys

What other apps have you installed? There could be a poorly written app or apps causing the drain.
Try resetting your device to how it was when you first received it and see if after that day you get better battery performance. Slowly add back your apps, one or two a day, and compare to narrow down which app may be contributing to the drain - perhaps the app has addt'l settings you can adjust to prevent it from running in the background until needed...
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA App

First of all you don't need advanced task killer. The apps show they are running but actually are not in your background. The task killer is actually fighting with the operating system to close apps that don't need closing and thus probably giving you worse battery life then.
As far as the market goes. I download everything through wifi so I won't know for sure but it could be a signal issue.

Jeffmeister said:
First of all you don't need advanced task killer. The apps show they are running but actually are not in your background. The task killer is actually fighting with the operating system to close apps that don't need closing and thus probably giving you worse battery life then.
As far as the market goes. I download everything through wifi so I won't know for sure but it could be a signal issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed 100%. Task killers are more of a battery drain than anything. IMHO I would uninstall the task killer.
Android OS is designed to provide process management. You can close or stop any app you want from within the OS.