Database Users

Should i use a task killer? Atk?

SHOULD I USE A TASK KILLER?
The tips&tricks thread (nice by the way) answered;
"Absolutely not. You have the best OS and one of the best spec'd phones ever. You would be doing more harm than good. If you do have one, uninstall, reboot and let me know what you think!"
I don't get it. You'll be doing more harm than good? Right now I'm using Advanced Task Killer along with Auto Task Killer and it has definitely made a difference in my battery life.
Why would you NOT want to have these apps?
I'm confused LOL

I don't use one at all. I don't see the need for one on this phone...
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

iceman1251 said:
I don't use one at all. I don't see the need for one on this phone...
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It surprised me when I did see all the programs running ... would it not be of a benefit to close those for the sake of the battery? I found this to be very true and it was a noticeable with my battery.
I'm just trying to figure out why that other guy would say to uninstall it. Reasons...

I was using one for reasons of speed, but I stopped using it and I honestly did not notice a difference in performance or battery life. So for me, I will no longer be using a task killer. I simply don't see the need.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

In the time of low spec'd Android phones it was need. But with phones with fast processors and lots of ram its not really needed any more. Some people have said it even slows down the phone.

Task killers are a waste of time for any phone that has 256 RAM and up.

I'll let others chime in, but the reason I put that in the sticky is because I listen to those who know more than me... and EVERYONE who is in the know with android (developers and google) suggest task killers do more harm than good. I did not intend to come off harshly in the sticky, but I don't want those new to android thinking this is something they need to do.... when in fact, it could cause a lot of problems and they would not even be aware it was the cause.
Hope that helps, a little...

OK, like the OP, i do not get this claim that Killers do more harm.
Suppose you started a game which took 50-100K of your valuable RAM. Even if you have 500K of it, not much is actually left for apps. Even if you quit playing the game or other memory hungry app, it often still hangs in memory. Eventually you will have several pages of different apps which you've used over last days
What's wrong is with kicking them from there? How can this be harmful? That's sounds like a nonsense.
Don''t you all know also that unused memory is switched off by power management to save the battery?

Hahaa... okay, you are correct. Google and the ROM chefs are all wrong. Android is not capable of killing off apps when they are no longer needed. Everyone, rush to the market and immediately start killing off every app the second you close it. Especially the system apps you never use.
Alright, enough sarcasm (didnt mean to sound rude). Like I said in the sticky and above, I am only quoting those MUCH more knowledgeable on the subject. I will admit I purchased a task killer 2 years ago... and I hate seeing it under "Downloads" in the market as "Purchased" now. If you feel the need to kill off apps, so be it. But for those new to Android (and those who are very familiar), it is mine (and others) opinions, especially on the Vibrant, to not use a task killer.
Even Google at Google I/O 2010 told app developers to no longer add "Quit" or "Close" into their apps, as they were NOT needed.
This thread helped me. I have cleaned up the Sticky with more input. Here is a good article from a few months ago that sums it up well (also now in the sticky):
http://androinica.com/2010/05/07/go...-imply-task-killermanager-apps-are-pointless/
To the OP, thanks... this did help me and I'm certain a lot of others were probably put off by my vagueness. Do you think this makes it better now? Anything else needed you think?

s15274n said:
Hahaa... okay, you are correct. Google and the ROM chefs are all wrong. Android is not capable of killing off apps when they are no longer needed. Everyone, rush to the market and immediately start killing off every app the second you close it. Especially the system apps you never use.
Alright, enough sarcasm (didnt mean to sound rude). Like I said in the sticky and above, I am only quoting those MUCH more knowledgeable on the subject. I will admit I purchased a task killer 2 years ago... and I hate seeing it under "Downloads" in the market as "Purchased" now. If you feel the need to kill off apps, so be it. But for those new to Android (and those who are very familiar), it is mine (and others) opinions, especially on the Vibrant, to not use a task killer.
Even Google at Google I/O 2010 told app developers to no longer add "Quit" or "Close" into their apps, as they were NOT needed.
This thread helped me. I have cleaned up the Sticky with more input. Here is a good article from a few months ago that sums it up well (also now in the sticky):
http://androinica.com/2010/05/07/go...-imply-task-killermanager-apps-are-pointless/
To the OP, thanks... this did help me and I'm certain a lot of others were probably put off by my vagueness. Do you think this makes it better now? Anything else needed you think?
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Click to collapse
I really appreciate your dedication and yes it did help me built onto my knowledge base. As I always tell people, "If you don't know what you don't know then YOU DON'T HAVE A CHOICE, however, if you do know than YOU THEN HAVE A CHOICE."

I really think using AutoKiller is a better method to controlling what you have running in the background.

Finally someone to educate the masses ... time to get them off this task/app killer *CrAcK*
Dan0zonE

As said previously. Maybe worth using them on a G1 but not on any recent phone.
For those who do think it worth running them. How quickly do new apps open? Lets say you kill 30 apps, how long before 30 new apps are running? 20mins? If it's such a huge drain on resources why has google not fixed this issue, its been around since the first retail offering G1 with android 1.1? In fact, as previously pointed out google does not recommend even using task killers. I would say using a task killer to kill the apps is a far bigger drain (cpu, battery) that allowing android to as it was intended.
Android is not like windows. Android will shut down and make available what is needed. It does not need any help.

They cause more problems than good. Task killers slowed my phone down more.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

The problem with task killers is two fold.
First you have to really grasp what you are killing. Many apps and services are interdependant so killing the wrong app or process can result in apps dead-ending, or worse locking up and taking all the cpu task time (which will make battery use worse).
Second, everyone's phones are different. We may all run an identical build of 2.1 on our Vibrants, but I'd wager each of us is running a different set of 3rd party applications, so anecdotal statements that "task killers work" don't necessarily mean anything, other than for you specifically.
Here's the bottom line. So long as you do not have a buggy app taking ridiculous amounts of cpu time your battery life is solely dependant on what you are doing with and have installed on the phone. The Android Service UI does an excellent job of handling task management, providing those 3rd party tasks are behaving. Apps on the market do not go through an orwellian level of scrutiny like on the Apple App Store, and many (if not most) are currently in a constant state of development owing to the explosive growth of our smartphone platform.
And one additional tip thanks to the Vibrants styling. As the phone is incredibly thin, it's quite easy to feel when the cpu is a crankin! If after you've locked your phone for 10 minutes or so the upper middle back is warm? You probably have sleep issues with an app or apps.
In essence welcome to beta testing, even if you didn't realize it. And welcome to the consequences of an open platform.
Use the built in battery stats, market apps like spare parts, and you can likely discover what 3rd party apps you may have that are giving your battery grief. The level of detail you can gain from the built in stats in 2.1 are excellent and immensely useful, providing you use them.
In my experience apps and widgets that routinely poll for data and interrupt the phone's sleep process are the main culprit you can control. And the OS's built in battery usage statistics can really tell you what is going on.
Some apps may look cool and do great things, but if they're interrupting the sleep process or eating entirely too much cpu when they are active, you're probably best off trying one of the gazillion alternatives to that app available on the market.

I flash my occasional ROM, but am not a developer of any sort. this post has been great insight into my many attempts to "protect" my phone from the running apps. I did start to notice that advanced task killer was asking me to shut down system processes that I would never know what they do. Now obviously I can see the third party apps and scrolling widgets that needed to be closed when I finally let my device sit, but after uninstalling ATK I have found that my device is actually running more smoothly.
FYI - a simple battery pull at the end of the day has been my best medicine.
thanks for the discussion guys!

S4X said:
Don''t you all know also that unused memory is switched off by power management to save the battery?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hope that was meant as a jest.

Never used one on my G1 from the day I bought it an I was one of the early adopters, and now to the Vibrant.
I've always had awesome battery usage and I just use my phone. I've never used a task killer in my PC so I don't see how this is any different.
Task killers are IMHO a waste of space and money if they charge.

This is one if the best threads on XDA about task killers. I will make a point and link it in the sticky thread also. Really encouraged by the Vibrant forums.

From what I have heard, tasks when you first load a rom need to run to configure. If you keep closing them they will keep trying to run to do what they need to. So, it actually slows you down.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

Android does a TERRIBLE job at cpu management

Ok, so I finally bought into this whole "task killers are horrible especially on froyo" bit and have not used one for a couple months and have factory reseted my phone between then and now.
There times my phone barely functions. I am currently listening to music and it skips every few seconds because the phone is so slow. Why isn't android killing the background apps? Sure, in a FEW HOURS it will be working ok again but give me a break. Why is it so bad?

Where is the music you are listening to? Your sdcard? Pandora's servers?
I have no trouble with the speed of my EVO..

/shrug my phones speeds are great !

Just try nHAVS, that's something you are thinking about
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

i dont seem to have this problem either. even my friends that are too dumb to figure out how to root and install custom roms dont have this problem.... weird.

I use a task killer. I have no problems with it on Froyo. Sometimes my phone is running a little slower than I'd like it to, and I use the task killer and it helps. I really don't know why people have such a problem with task killers. I think it helps me more than it hurts, but if someone wants to chime and fill me in as to why they are frowned upon, maybe I'll change my mind about them.

rugedraw said:
I use a task killer. I have no problems with it on Froyo. Sometimes my phone is running a little slower than I'd like it to, and I use the task killer and it helps. I really don't know why people have such a problem with task killers. I think it helps me more than it hurts, but if someone wants to chime and fill me in as to why they are frowned upon, maybe I'll change my mind about them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I always used a task killer mainly cuz I think it improved battery life a bit and also never bought into the anti task killer mentality. But since Froyo no longer lets them completely kill the app I've stopped using them. To me they seem unnecessary now.
Sent from my FROYO'D EVO using xda app

I don't think its anything that the phone is running in the background. I think its the kernel you might be running. I am running Netarchy 4.1. 9.1. And it does that, I was also running KingxKlick #4 I believe when it was doing that.
Try using a different kernel.
...in 1943, I killed a drifter.

Hellooo.... I said nHAVS
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

I think the OP needs to be a bit more specific. What music app? Is everything slow? Custom ROM or stock? Did you try wiping both caches?
This problem wouldn't be considered normal for anyone. So either it is an easy fix, or you might have a defective phone.

Need more details, what ROM & Kernel are you using? What apps do you have?
I use a task killer but only manually and only kill apps I know don't need to be open, it works great. You just shouldnt use them if you are one of those people that wants to kill every single process that is in memory.

felacio said:
I don't think its anything that the phone is running in the background. I think its the kernel you might be running. I am running Netarchy 4.1. 9.1. And it does that, I was also running KingxKlick #4 I believe when it was doing that.
Try using a different kernel.
...in 1943, I killed a drifter.
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Click to collapse
Are you using the BFS or CFS version? The BFS version did that to me as well, CFS runs perfect though.

I still wanna find the person that wrote the development guideline that says that apps shouldn't have a Quit option in the settings. It's one thing to back out of an app to do something else, then come back to where you left it. But a lot of times, I KNOW I'm finished with an app, I want to release its resources NOW and there's no Quit option. It's probably some of these that don't let go nicely that cause me to have much worse battery life one day than the next.

pbarrett said:
I still wanna find the person that wrote the development guideline that says that apps shouldn't have a Quit option in the settings. It's one thing to back out of an app to do something else, then come back to where you left it. But a lot of times, I KNOW I'm finished with an app, I want to release its resources NOW and there's no Quit option. It's probably some of these that don't let go nicely that cause me to have much worse battery life one day than the next.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Give them a good punch for me. Add a QUIT option next time!

Please be helpful to the op guys.

OP, if you haven't done so after you stopped using a task killer, you should do a factory reset. One of the issues with task killers is it can mess up the way Android handles tasks automatically. So if you do a factory reset and don't run any task killers, Android gets pretty efficient on its own and you shouldn't have any more issues. If you are using a custom kernel/rom like others are saying, then you'll want to try switching Roms. Remember to do a full wipe any time you switch roms/kernels. Also, if you are using Titanium backup when switching, don't replace everything. I had a lot of issues when I did that because it can replace some things that won't work right when replaced on a new rom. Plus, if you are having performance problems, it can also be caused by a specific app or service, and restoring it will only bring the problem to the new Rom. I suggest using App Brain to backup your apps and Titanium for only a few specific things, like Scenes and SMS.
Try the Factory reset first without installing anything. Give it a day and see how well it performs. If that works, add things back and see if it still performs well. If that doesn't work, try a different Rom if you are using a custom one or a new kernel if using a custom kernel. If stock, then you probably have a specific app that is causing issues and you'll want to uninstall it. Android will remain pretty speedy if you don't use a task killer as it learns and becomes more efficient at handling tasks.
To all those that say task killers work great, the reason you don't understand the issue is because you haven't read how Android works and how task killers interfere. They are bad, and even Google's engineers say that. They wrote the platform, so I'd recommend that you follow their advice. You can really screw stuff up with a task killer and overall they don't actually help you at all. Most people find that they use more power and resources than they end up saving, since if they are running on automatic, they are actively using resources to stop apps. That, and the system uses more resources to restart an app after its killed, which will worsen battery life and resources more than if you just let it run. Most "running" apps are actually just sitting in memory, doing nothing. When Android is running properly, it manages the memory, keeping it mostly full of apps that it thinks you might need in the future sitting there. If you open an app that isn't already in memory, it chooses to close other apps that you are less likely to use to give back enough memory for the current app.
In short, if you are having issues with Android not managing resources properly, its either because you screwed it up using a task killer, or you screwed it up with some mod that interferes with Android's resource management tools, which will either make it unstable or break it completely.

homescreen is sluggish

every so often when I return back to my homescreens and slide through them they get very laggy and sluggish anyway to fix it?

Do you have live wallpaper running that might not be optimized for Honeycomb, or are there lots of 3rd party widgets on your home screens.
If the above is the case, I’d suggest return your home screens to stock and apply a single widget at a time to see if any of them is causing the problem.
It also could be an app running at background causing the problem.
Sorry, i don't think there is easy fix for your problem.

are you on the latest honeycomb 3.1 build? that update was supposed to improve that problem. if not, i suggest root, flashing a tiamat kernel with OC'd GPU

turn off live wallpaper
get a task killer and kill unused programs every once in a while
reduce the number of widgets on your homescreens
Hope that helps!

I'd not recommend use any task killers. I don't believe there are any task killer designed for Honeycomb, or using 3rd party task killer will benefit Honeycomb.
if you want to kill an app or process, just goto running apps in settings.

Bigmille said:
I'd not recommend use any task killers. I don't believe there are any task killer designed for Honeycomb, or using 3rd party task killer will benefit Honeycomb.
if you want to kill an app or process, just goto running apps in settings.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, you don't know what you're talking about. Advanced Task Killer Free works just fine with honeycomb. I run it several times a day and it speeds the system up every time.

slack04 said:
Sorry, you don't know what you're talking about. Advanced Task Killer Free works just fine with honeycomb. I run it several times a day and it speeds the system up every time.
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I can say with absolute authority that the people who designed android, and wrote the best practices documents for development have stated repeatedly that task killers do more harm than good.
If you have apps sucking so much memory or cpu in the background that they're impacting performance, uninstall those apps: they were developed by android noobs.
Don't rely on bad software as a crutch to run more bad software.

slack04 said:
Sorry, you don't know what you're talking about. Advanced Task Killer Free works just fine with honeycomb. I run it several times a day and it speeds the system up every time.
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Click to collapse
Yeah mate, it's a pretty well known fact that task killers are a complete waste of time these days. They served a purpose in previous android versions (1.*) but now they really do more harm than good.
You say it speeds the system up? I'd suggest that's maybe only a placebo effect.

Bigmille said:
I'd not recommend use any task killers. I don't believe there are any task killer designed for Honeycomb, or using 3rd party task killer will benefit Honeycomb.
if you want to kill an app or process, just goto running apps in settings.
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Click to collapse
Just taking the opportunity to also jump on you and say ''No! Bad post!"".
Inform yourself before spreading falsehoods please.

I've been using ADWex and I like it alot more, since it's been updated for honeycomb (looks really nice, never slows down, ever).

Hi all
Funny how even this long after the latest Android versions have been released there are still two camps in those that feel a Task Killer is absolutely necessary and those that don't.
Well i fall in the not necessary camp and have been using Android now for a little over a year and have never used one. The only real difference i see in my use is that i don't download and install every app and widget i can but just those i really need and use and like the previous poster i use ADW EX as my launcher and i just don't see any lag, freeze or stutters in anything i do. I tend to agree that those that have those issues as well as poor battery life have a badly written app that is most probably the cause. It amazes just how some obsess on how much free Ram they have at any given point without realising free Ram means nothing only when you don't have any free to run something is it even an issue and at that point the OS will close something to free it up.
But as always each of us is welcome to make thier own choices on thier own device but nothing would convince me i need a Task killer as i just don't.
Marc

Well, I may not be the most knowledgeable android user, but I get slowdowns all the time which are fixed by the task killer. Not sure of the "harm" that the other posters are suggesting. This is just my experience, take it with a grain of salt.

yea and your slowdowns would probably go away if u uninstall a badly coded app you have and stop letting it kill tasks on its own

PSA: Stop using Task Killers!

Buddy Chris says it all:

I use ATK, but only for Engadget because Engadget goes over my CPU limit thingy on watchdog.

Yup, he explains that use it for things like that

Well said!

Old news is exciting, isn't it?

There are still lots of users putting their faith in TKs. This is good advice. Hopefully more users start listening.

Lol this guy is corny. He talked too much though. No reason that should have been 7 minutes long.
I do my best to educate all my fellow Android users on the best way to manage their apps.

Um, I don't need to watch the video to know that it went too long and sucked.. he's not amusing. Having a 7 minute video for a simple subject is not cute
I have to use a task killer without touching the system ram managment settings. The phone runs out of enough free ram to run ram intensive applications. Android's free ram management system is nice, but it's not perfect. When the phone only has ~50MB free and no other applications are running, you HAVE no other options besides rebooting it or killing everything that's running in the memory. Android phones need at least 1GB of ram to keep everything running smoothly..
I can attribute a ton of lag issues to a lack of free ram.

I personally use auto killer memory optimizer or something like that. Its worked wonders for me and keeps my phone running smoothly and battery life good. I Haven't had any issues with it personally.
Sent from my Galaxy S via XDA App

I'm going to make an app called "make your phone better"
Description will only say "placebo"
Profit

Sorry I love task killers and I will continue to use them. Now I use the built in task killer from Samsung.
There are so many times my phone is starting to slow down and crash, I just go to the Task Killer and kill everything and it breathes life into my phone without having to reboot.
I'm a fan of the task killer despite what others say.

[Q] Is the "Kill All" from Recent App like a task killer ?

Hey,
As mentioned in the title I was wondering if using Kill All button (equivalent of swiping everything in Recent App) was as bad for the OS as task killers. Because this swiping ability is built-in ..
++

teribilis said:
Hey,
As mentioned in the title I was wondering if using Kill All button (equivalent of swiping everything in Recent App) was as bad for the OS as task killers. Because this swiping ability is built-in ..
++
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No its not bad, it closes all the apps in recent apps thus taking them out of memory.

heat361 said:
No its not bad, it closes all the apps in recent apps thus taking them out of memory.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's what task killers do and it interferes with Android memory management .. That's why I hope it's not similar

teribilis said:
It's what task killers do and it interferes with Android memory management .. That's why I hope it's not similar
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
youve been brainwashed. ive been killing my apps since october 2008(g1, mytouch, og droid, nexus one, nexus s, galaxy nexus, nexus 7, and nexus 4). it only makes my devices happier, task killers and "non task killers". yea, android manages itself, but it doesnt do a good enough job for my liking.

simms22 said:
youve been brainwashed. ive been killing my apps since october 2008(g1, mytouch, og droid, nexus one, nexus s, galaxy nexus, nexus 7, and nexus 4). it only makes my devices happier, task killers and "non task killers". yea, android manages itself, but it doesnt do a good enough job for my liking.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed with this. I've constantly read about how task killers don't help and they're useless etc., but on my HD2 the fact of the matter was that killing tasks would make my phone significantly faster and reduce battery drain by around 5mA (equivalent to a standby drain of 1%/50 mins going down to 1%/1.5 hrs). I haven't found any need to use any automated task killer with hardware this good but I don't see any reason it would harm the device at all either. I guess killing something which needs to be open (and thus will reopen itself soon enough anyway) could cause unwanted battery drain, but other than that there's no problem with task killers.

there are other ways to manage memory. i like to use the autostarts app on my devices, you can prevent apps from starting up in the first place. also, i like using the auto memory manager app to change androids memory management numbers.

I believe its different.. It just takes out the apps from your recents section. Even if I have a kill button on my custom rom, the app will still appear in the recents menu.

Rizy7 said:
I believe its different.. It just takes out the apps from your recents section. Even if I have a kill button on my custom rom, the app will still appear in the recents menu.
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Click to collapse
its the same to a point. some roms come with a longpress back button to kill option too.
the whole task managers are bad thing started when cyanogen made a statement about them. people were killing their launchers and widgets(widgets would stop updating), and creating false issues for themselves then blaming cayanogenmod for for their troubles. cyanogen didnt want to deal with these people so he made a statement that task killers are bad. since then, its been blown up more than the "issues" that they create.

simms22 said:
there are other ways to manage memory. i like to use the autostarts app on my devices, you can prevent apps from starting up in the first place. also, i like using the auto memory manager app to change androids memory management numbers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Greenify also works well for hibernating apps that like to "start up" :highfive:

What about the background processes option in developer options?
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app

killall swipes apps out. its the same as swiping them out by hand, it does not harm your android.

Thanks, glad to hear that.

good questions should get thanks too
So many newbs don't ask a perfectly good question anymore because so many times they get dawged and told maybe they shouldn't have that technology or search the threads newb even though he just spent 30 minutes doing that. So apologies for prior and future newbs who don't have enough time in the day to keep up on what's been posted and where and sorry for whatever else some, definitely not the majority, contributors get upset about. It's so crazy the way people treat people online, think about would you be saying this to a person you don't know in a physical socal setting. I hope not to the angry contributors of wrath. Good night and day to my opposite world companions.

Such a random bump.
Sent from my iPad Mini