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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.
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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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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
Im using advanced task manager to kill tasks so too many are not running. I used it all the time with the mytouch. Now using it with new Vibrant
Question,
I have excluded TwLauncher from being killed when I press end all, or press the widget. but when i kill all tasks (except for the excluded ones) I has to reload my home screen. What other process should I be exclude from being killed so that it does not reload my home screen?
Thanks
the better question is what else did you kill? Keep killing apps often so the list is small and see what app it is. Even better would be to close the one at a time and go back to the home screen each time.
In all reality, with the amount of ram and how good android is at killing apps itself, taskkillers are not needed. Infact google does not recommend them.
Like previously stated, do not use a task killer. Uninstall, reboot and you will have no issues.
s15274n said:
Like previously stated, do not use a task killer. Uninstall, reboot and you will have no issues.
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precisely.
forcing your phone to constantly kill apps only causes your phone to restart the services which were running in the background. While your phone is now being forced to RE-start those services it uses more clock cycles than simply leaving the services running would have done.
There's more than enough literature and evidence that task-killing in Android is at best useless, and at worst counter-productive.
Hello XDA, this is my first post. I've had the EVO since launch and I just installed the early rooted Froyo build when it was released but that's irrelevant because this problem was there from the start. I use Advanced Task Killer and see that random apps are opening without my prompting, things like Google Voice, Gmail, Voicemail...very annoying.
On another note I have much more available memory running this unofficial Froyo, even with these apps opening at their will, than I did originally. Thanks for that, XDA.
Since you're rooted, you have two options that I know of.
Download Titanium backup and when you click on the backup/restore tab, you can click on the apps that frequently pop-up in ATK (e.g., voice dialer) and chose to freeze them. This will render the app inoperable. If you have any functional problems you can simply defrost it.
If you find that you're frozen apps are not causing any problems and you don't use them, you can then uninstall them with root explorer (or another file explore with root access).
I have Titanium Backup and didn't know I could do this, thank you very much. is there any way I could stop the apps from opening without rendering them useless?
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
Get Autostarts. Configure it.
If I download Autostarts, will it stop my apps from opening by themselves even if I use them occasionally?
I know StartupAuditor does, but its a paid app...
Negrito said:
I know StartupAuditor does, but its a paid app...
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I suppose I'll go for that then
Some of the apps need to be running in order to work as they should. Unless and app is chewing up a lot of CPU you won't notice a drain on the system. A lot of these apps have services that are running constantly so they can poll the system for updates in state, say like receiving a text, call or email. Likely many of the apps are set to auto-refresh so they have to start every so often to complete a task.
ITS FINEEE!!!!
Ok, I am pretty good with computers and electronics but not so much on Android.
But I have done research from people who do know android, and will tell you what to do.
1. Don't use a task killer!!
2. Android is based off of Linux OS.
3. When you turn your phone on and launch Advanced task killer, all of your apps will most likely be "opened" however they are not running.
4. The way the OS works is by technically having all of those apps opened, but they are most likely not wasting CPU or battery, so don't worry about them, thats the way everyone's android device works.
5. Using a task killer is bad, because when you shut down the apps, eventually you will get a lot of force closes, because apps that were supposed to be open were closed and their for not running the way they should.
6. Apparently the OS runs better with more apps open, however its not like windows mobile where if you have 3 apps running at once, it will make the phone slower. Android is designed to have all apps "opened" Again it does not mean they are running.
However,
If you notice that a certain app is hogging CPU or causing poor battery life, delete it, but if you really need the app, then you can use the task killer to kill that app.
And no if used a task killer, your phone will not be ruined or anything.
Hope this helps.
agreed, don't use a task killer, they are essentially useless and just end up causing problems on the evo
What your seeing is most likely the app 'process' so it will actually work correctly.
I use Auto KillerMemory optimizer, when I had it on EB13 it worked great. But now idk if it does much anymore. whenever I look into my "running services" I always see apps I dont even use or open. Like Titanium Pro,Maps,XDA,settings, other stuff. like Titanium backup I dont have it set to auto backup or anything. Its just installed for quick use, thats it. Yet its always running in background.
Someone recommend a tweak or sort to not have nonsense running? Perferably NOT a task killer.
Auto KillerMemory optimizer used to do a great job at doing this =/
I use a program called "autostarts" It lets you choose to block certain apps from running at startup. I really don't worry about it too much as android does a pretty good job on its own, but I do like to have SOME control as well.
Yes Autostarts is great. You can also freeze apps you don't normally use with Titanium Pro paid. If you really want to see all the crap that loads you can try Auto Task Killer for Froyo and set it for maximum.
Shoulon said:
Perferably NOT a task killer.
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I ended up just uninstalling the apps and used autostart wich is nice =)
Sent from a Epic 4G
Yes, I read the other threads out there but no true answer.
I have a ton of apps in my auto-end list... I've heard two things, keep em on there and let them kill them but I also heard for Android 2.2 and above it actually hurts the battery life because it takes more juice to restart the app after being killed then actually leave it running. Any insight on this at all? I currently have every app that isn't a widget on the auto-end list and would like to know if I should stick to this or get them off there?
I added and removed stuff on the auto end list and it doesn't seem to make a difference to me. I started to "freeze" apps from starting by using Titanium Backup. I know it costs a couple bucks but whenever I change ROMS, it reinstalls all my apps that I had downloaded. There's apps like weather service and news, DLNA, and a few others that I don't use but when I look at running apps they are running. Hope this helps.
cwburns32 said:
Yes, I read the other threads out there but no true answer.
I have a ton of apps in my auto-end list... I've heard two things, keep em on there and let them kill them but I also heard for Android 2.2 and above it actually hurts the battery life because it takes more juice to restart the app after being killed then actually leave it running. Any insight on this at all? I currently have every app that isn't a widget on the auto-end list and would like to know if I should stick to this or get them off there?
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I use Gemini App Manager to alter the auto-start conditions for every app. Apps don't start until I start them. Isn't a noticeable difference between startup times for me. Once they are running, I let them run or quit on exit if the option is there.
Phoneguy589 said:
I added and removed stuff on the auto end list and it doesn't seem to make a difference to me. I started to "freeze" apps from starting by using Titanium Backup. I know it costs a couple bucks but whenever I change ROMS, it reinstalls all my apps that I had downloaded. There's apps like weather service and news, DLNA, and a few others that I don't use but when I look at running apps they are running. Hope this helps.
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I have TiBu and do freeze apps I don't use but I'm talking like the Market staying open after you shut off the screen or the messaging app, etc. Not apps I don't use, I'm actually talking about apps I use, apps I don't use are already frozen.
I wouldn't have anything on auto-end list... It basically force closes the app every time you exit out of it then, which is a big no-no.
The way I see it, if an app is using battery in the background, it needs to do it and shouldn't be closed. If it doesn't need to use any battery or processing power, then it won't even if the task manager SAYS it's still running (it's really minimal).
Task killers are probably only useful to kill apps that are going haywire and running when they shouldn't be...In which case, reinstall or just don't use that app.
But I say, don't put anything on auto end. If you are worried about losing battery, lemme tell you I get two days of battery life and I don't do even have a task manager. I just use setcpu to underclock while the screen is off/while I'm sleeping/etc.
I wondered about this too, and while some people still claim to get better battery life with one, I always see articles like this: http://androinica.com/2010/05/googl...-imply-task-killermanager-apps-are-pointless/ that tell me you should never use one ever.
You don’t need to kill an app just because a task manager says it’s running. Android automatically closes apps if the phone requires RAM or if that app remains inactive too long.
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There's also this quote that seems to argue that it's more harmful:
Applications may seem present to the user without an actual process currently running the app; multiple applications may share processes, or one application may make use of multiple processes depending on its needs; the process(es) of an application may be kept around by Android even when that application is not actively doing something.
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I keep something around to easily pick out running apps to force close if they're borking out on me, but I don't have any auto-kill or kill all running apps with a whitelist or anything.