Database Users

Why are so many programs starting on their own?

I downloaded Advanced Task Killer Free, and things like Sprint Navigation, Facebook, Voice Dialer, etc, the list gets 20 programs long after about 15 minutes... this makes no sense.
Can someone who has used Android longer please explain this to me? It seems that this OS needs much more babysitting than even WM, if it's really auto-starting all this crap for no reason.

It seems like all of the applications you described are system apps that were on the phone when you got them. They may be set to automatically run. I know you wont be able to remove any of them without the phone being rooted and having su access - but i may be wrong.
When you close them, it seems like the OS is just automatically reloading them.
Careful when you kill apps, it could cause some unwanted issues.

So many of these programs have nothing to do with day-to-day operation... this is bizarre.
Does Android supposedly have built-in memory-management? IE, you exit the camera app, it eventually FORCE closes it? So far, I haven't noticed that behavior at all. That's what caused so many issues on my old WM HTC devices.

Android does have built-in memory management. It is how the OS was developed.
If you have a program running on your screen, it will use whatever amount of memory it needs in order to run it.
If the program gets pushed into the background, but is still running, it will still use the memory, even though another program is being ran using up even more memory.
Having free memory will not make the phone run any faster. Eventually the program in the background will close if not used. It will also be force closed if the system is in dire need of memory.
Android knows when it is need of memory.

There are several threads already which explain memory use if you search. Since I'm using my phone I won't go into detail but I will say that task killers are not recommended. It's much better to let Android manage the memory and processes.
My personal experience bears this out as I had a lot of strange issues like losing wireless connectivity when I was using a task killer. Now I let Android handle things and my phone runs smooth. Using a Sprint Hero with Fresh 2.1.2 ROM.
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Sent via the XDA Tapatalk App

Interesting... all my friends who use Android have task managers... Most engadget posts mention that too. Hrm... I guess I'll make sure auto-kill is disabled and just watch and see how the OS holds up.

I just got the phone this morning and was killing apps left and right. I started to get a lot of Force Close errors.
I rebooted the phone which would clear the memory anyways and I'm letting the OS handle everything now - Havent had any problems since.
good luck!

ScrapMaker said:
Interesting... all my friends who use Android have task managers... Most engadget posts mention that too. Hrm... I guess I'll make sure auto-kill is disabled and just watch and see how the OS holds up.
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Honestly, if you are worried about a particular program running away and have reason to believe it, sure a task manager/task killer can be handy for that one program but historically, giving people task managers on Android causes more problems than it helps. Voice Dialer is your phone app for example and at the CDMA Hero forums, we've seen the phone do some crazy things when we removed it from the phone right after we got root (turns out that thing is hooked to more than just the "making phone calls" feature).
All that said, it's quite informative to google around about android's method of memory management. It's kinda cool!

I had a hero, and it least made it through the day. The Evo is way worse. I have no idea why some things run in the background that I've never used and have no reason to be running in the background. I'm using ATK and Auto Task Manager, which kills app once your phone goes to sleep. You just have to know what apps you shouldn't be killing. As a rule of thumb, I didn't kill any native google or HTC services. I did kill all Sprint services. Following this guide as well:http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2010/06...attery-life-and-what-this-says-about-android/

here is why you don't really need a task killer.
with that, i can say that i do have one but, i don't have any autokill going. i only use it as a last resort to kill things if i have like multiple things producing sound at once.

Honestly I can tell you from experience, that sprint bloat wear will launch on its own all day long. Even if you set ATK or AMM to nuke it, it eventually will cost more batt. in the long run because of the system resources required to launch and kill over and over again. The only way to successfully deal with the issue is to rm the crap, which requires root.

Android.process.acore draining EVO battery fast

I've got two HTC Evo's. One lasts for 24+ hours on a single charge, the other lasts 3-4 hours tops. They are both have been running Fresh 0.3 until yesterday. I upgraded one to 0.5 and the other will remain at 0.3 until today. The one still running 0.3 has terrible battery life. I've been running system panel on both and saw that Android.process.acore has kept the CPU ramped up for hours on end, the battery is always 40C+ and when I checked on it this morning it had been streaming 200kbps of data nonstop through the night. There are no market apps installed on this phone except for Advanced Task Killer, GScript Lite, and System Panel. There are no apps installed from untrusted sources.
Anyone know what Android.process.acore does exactly, and why it would be streaming data all night long? System and System Processes also have much higher CPU utilization on this phone as well. I've tried reinstalling Fresh, rebooting the phone, killing absolutely every task ATK will let me, etc and nothing seems to stop the flow of current. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
This happened with the stock software as well. One phone always lasted longer than the other. However, I'll let you know if Fresh 0.5 changes anything.
Thanks everyone.

I upgraded 2 days ago. My phone was always stock. Yesterday I took lots of video, like 15 mins or more, and battery, and GPS, and Google sky. A friend of mine invited me to his boat and we were on the river for almost an hour. The battery was still on the green side. I definitely noticed some battery improvement after the software upgrade. When I watched the video on the computer I learned the hard way that there are not vertical HDTVs.

Streaming data all night?
We may just have the first Android Trojan lol.
Sent from my Evo 4G

ejittles I think what you're seeing is a sync-loop, likely with facebook or exchange. This was supposedly one of the things addressed in the recent OTA update.
Try removing and re-adding any accounts you're synced with, disabling background data, etc.

scriptx said:
ejittles I think what you're seeing is a sync-loop, likely with facebook or exchange. This was supposedly one of the things addressed in the recent OTA update.
Try removing and re-adding any accounts you're synced with, disabling background data, etc.
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Brilliant Scriptx, I'll bet that is exactly what it is. I'm guessing its the exchange server. I will give that a try when I get access to that phone tonight. Will keep you posted. Thanks a ton.

HELLO
scriptx said:
ejittles I think what you're seeing is a sync-loop, likely with facebook or exchange. This was supposedly one of the things addressed in the recent OTA update.
Try removing and re-adding any accounts you're synced with, disabling background data, etc.
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Click to collapse
im with Him i also use shortcuts to turn on and off the internet (mobile) and i also use airplane mode when i don't what any one to call me my battery lasted MORE than 19hr and 31 min and i was using it downloding app, giving files, i saw some videos well you know the thing that you do when you brag about your phone. i am in the ARMY, so alot of people were looking at my iphonekiller (EVO) and wile some friends with evo battery already gone.... mine lasted 19:31 y lasted 24 before some sleep XD ( i have no ATK not needed for battery life)

Do you have a lot of contacts? On my Evo I have my personal gmail which only has a few hundred. On my Hero I have my developer account linked up which has thousands. During sync it isn't uncommon to see:
Code:
SyncManager(): canceling and rescheduling sync because it ran too long.
It will do this over and over and over again non-stop until it finally goes through. Secondly as was already mentioned is something like Facebook/Twitter/Friendstream. I personally only have twitter setup (and I use the official Twitter app for that) but again while testing on the Hero I found that the way Friendstream (and possibly facebook overall, and peep too but I'm not sure) gets updates is it checks the current status on EVERY SINGLE contact of yours. This of course is a huge battery drain.
The reason that I make the comparison with the Hero by the way is the software is basically identical. They are definitely forked off the same branch at HTC. So any problems on the Hero are likely the same on the Evo. The reason I don't have answers for you from the Evo side is because I use it as my personal phone and I don't have much on it.
You may also want to see this post: http://geekfor.me/faq/you-shouldnt-be-using-a-task-killer-with-android/
There is a chance that your phone keeps killing off background processes while they are trying to do stuff, so then they turn around and run again, then get killed again, and again. Automated task killers are the devil. The only way I recommend using a task killer is the same way you would use task manager or top in linux. Just to kill off the random zombie process that may be causing you issues.

flipzmode said:
You may also want to see this post: http://geekfor.me/faq/you-shouldnt-be-using-a-task-killer-with-android/
There is a chance that your phone keeps killing off background processes while they are trying to do stuff, so then they turn around and run again, then get killed again, and again. Automated task killers are the devil. The only way I recommend using a task killer is the same way you would use task manager or top in linux. Just to kill off the random zombie process that may be causing you issues.
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Flipz,
First of all thanks for the great work on Fresh Evo. Secondly, I only use ATK at startup to kill any processes that are set to start on boot that I don't care about. It's not set to autokill or to start automatically. I kill ATK when I kill everything else.
I think it has to be friendstream because I only have a handful of facebook contacts and the other phone has over 300 facebook contacts to deal with. Thanks for pointing me in this direction. I'll have facebook turned off on that phone and see if that makes the difference.
That particular phone is only set to receive email via exchange while mine syncs all of my work stuff via exchange so I don't think that is the problem. That just makes me suspect friendstream even more.
*EDIT* Also, I hope that ATK sends a sigterm to these processes and not a sigkill? Or is that not an option w/ the VM? I'm not too familiar with the internals on android atm. Haven't had time to play with anything due to work.

ejittles said:
I only use ATK at startup to kill any processes that are set to start on boot that I don't care about.
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Do yourself a favor and go grab Autostarts (autostarts not autostart) from the market instead. It will be the best $0.85 you've ever spent on an app. It lets you control every single onEvent trigger in Android, preventing the applications from starting in the first place.

flipzmode said:
Do yourself a favor and go grab Autostarts (autostarts not autostart) from the market instead. It will be the best $0.85 you've ever spent on an app. It lets you control every single onEvent trigger in Android, preventing the applications from starting in the first place.
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haha did you do that conversion for me from EUR to $ or is there a way to set a currency in the market app? Downloading it now. Thank you sir! The Evo has a great community here on XDA and I look forward to contributing when things settle down at work in the next few months.

ejittles said:
haha did you do that conversion for me from EUR to $ or is there a way to set a currency in the market app? Downloading it now. Thank you sir! The Evo has a great community here on XDA and I look forward to contributing when things settle down at work in the next few months.
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I'm just smart. haha j/p. When you actually click on buy in the app it will show you the USD price. That's where I grabbed it from. I did buy it for my Hero over 6 months ago just so I could deconstruct it though and I knew it was under $1. lol

Fresh 0.5.3 and the disabling of friendstream has the second phone performing great. Battery lasts 24+ hours now. I suspect it was friendstream. Thanks for the help.

I had this exact same issue and with system panel's help I was able to determine that Facebook for Sense was causing the problem. I turned off FB's auto-update and the problem went away completely. After the OTA, I am able to turn auto-update back on without issue.

Task killer = bad?

2 guys in the n1 section here gave me these articles during a converstation i was having with them. i havent read them yet becuase im at work, but it sounds interesting. ive never heard anyone say this before. im going to try it out.
discuss?
http://geekfor.me/faq/you-shouldnt-be-using-a-task-killer-with-android/
http://androidspin.com/2010/05/25/why-you-dont-need-a-task-killer-app-with-android/

I think it is more user preference, they can cause issues. I use mine often and would not be without it.
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App

Automated task killers (as opposed to something like SystemPanel which is just a convenient way to kill running processes) are bad. They hearken back to 1.x versions of Android which had poorer process/memory management.
Just say no.

I've downloaded a task manager that shows the CPU usage, and even with a ton of things open (browser, etc) most of them show 0% unless i go reopen them. and i havent killed any tasks since yesterday.

elborak said:
Automated task killers (as opposed to something like SystemPanel which is just a convenient way to kill running processes) are bad. They hearken back to 1.x versions of Android which had poorer process/memory management.
Just say no.
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+1. I use a manual one, and have excluded apps that I know cause problems when they are killed (e.g., contact-specific ringtones don't sound if People is not running). Mostly that is system apps and stuff that comes on the phone; I haven't taken the time yet to prune HTC apps that I don't use (and you must be careful with some of those, too).
But I rarely have to use it. I usually have >200MB free RAM, and the phone is responsive. I don't think I'd need it at all if more apps had exit buttons, but it seems that few do.

Any suggestions for a good task manager?

Hello, all. I am currently running the free version of Advanced Task Killer, which seems to work ok, but there has to be something better. What I've noticed is, that after a reboot, the app will tell me that I have about 240 MB of available memory when all apps are closed with the exception of the task killer itself.
However, by the end of the day, after I've opened and closed a few apps, sent some messages and emails, made some calls, etc, the task manager will show significantly less available memory available. It could drop to as low as 135 MB with all apps closed with the exception of the task killer.
This leads to me to believe one of two things:
a) The Task Killer is full of it and it does not have an accurate read of how much memory is actually available.
b) The Task Killer is only able to "kill" certain tasks while others remain running in the background and it does not show that the app(s) are actually running.
Honestly, I think it is option B, because I do notice that when the app tells me that I have less than normal available memory, the phone does tend to function slower and lag a bit. Nothing that cannot be fixed by a powering it off and on, but I am hoping that someone knows of a good app (even if it is a paid app) that will actually bring up ALL tasks running and kill them. I've also noticed that even with this task killer, Google Talk (which I have never used) always remains open in my phone and I have to manually go into into the settings and turn that off.
Any suggestions?

My suggestion is to not use one.
I do use Autokiller though which tweaks the thresholds for Android's internal "task killer".
It's best to let Android do it's thing.

Tikerz said:
My suggestion is to not use one.
I do use Autokiller though which tweaks the thresholds for Android's internal "task killer".
It's best to let Android do it's thing.
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Really? Do you mind elaborating on why you feel that way a bit so I can understand? Because I do notice that when the I am running a bunch of things at once and I use this app to kill the tasks, it does improve the performance of the phone.

I can understand why some people say you don't need one but I do think it is necessary to have it installed for when you do. I'd rather kill apps than pop the case, battery cover and battery to fix a frozen phone.
I have some GPS apps I run occasionally that after exiting them they don't turn off the GPS or lock the GPS on and drain my battery. So for those apps where the developer didn't put a close buton on the menu it helps shut them down. I don't know why Google Market doesn't require apps to have a close option.

get OS MONITOR from the market

PAPutzback said:
I don't know why Google Market doesn't require apps to have a close option.
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Because users shouldn't have to manage their own memory. Apple folks already love laughing at us for that very reason, and even though it pains me to say it they're absolutely correct.
I can certainly buy the argument that task killers are nice for those occasions when something does go haywire and it needs to be forcibly killed, and I can understand using one just because you're curious and want to see what's running and how much memory you have, etc, but beyond that I find that they're unnecessary. My EVO runs very smoothly without me manually intervening, even after many days of uptime with many apps running.

GHOST99K said:
get OS MONITOR from the market
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Wow! That's detailed and a lot more than I bargained for....lol. Thanks! Good thing my phone is rooted and I was able to use it since I never did the recent update to the 1.47.xx OTA update and I'm waiting for a fully functional version to be released, but there is a lot of stuff on this that goes well beyond my basic knowledge. Apparently, my phone has 89 processes running with no apps running (according to Task Killer) and only one widget running and the CPU is fluctuating at 10-40% usage.
Interestingly enough, but apps report the same amount of available memory......EXACTLY the same. So it can be assumed that both apps provide an accurate figure of available memory.

I would advise against using a Task killer. Android has its own memory management, which works extremely well on the EVO, to be honest. The latest update (1.47) feels like its makes the EVO perform much better and allows it to be more efficient.
If anything, I would suggest you read this thread about an app called Autostarts, which isn't a task killer, rather a startup manager that can be tweaked to do many different things. By not allowing certain things to start up when your phone boots, you'll have more memory to begin with and Android will be more efficient in memory management. I would try Autostarts before using a task killer.
Hope that helps.

eagle63 said:
Because users shouldn't have to manage their own memory. Apple folks already love laughing at us for that very reason, and even though it pains me to say it they're absolutely correct.
I can certainly buy the argument that task killers are nice for those occasions when something does go haywire and it needs to be forcibly killed, and I can understand using one just because you're curious and want to see what's running and how much memory you have, etc, but beyond that I find that they're unnecessary. My EVO runs very smoothly without me manually intervening, even after many days of uptime with many apps running.
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I agree, but having to run a task killer is a small price to pay to not be part of the iPhone bandwagon crew, IMO.
Are you running a custom rom on your phone? I just have a rooted stock rom. Maybe that's why your phone can go days without the performance being affected? I still have all the bloatware on mine, and I've put off removing it because I am still a noob at this and I'm in the learning process. I wonder if the new update that was just released improves this aspect of the phone at all.....?

pseudoremora said:
I would advise against using a Task killer. Android has its own memory management, which works extremely well on the EVO, to be honest. The latest update (1.47) feels like its makes the EVO perform much better and allow it to be more efficient.
If anything, I would suggest you read this thread about an app called Autostarts, which isn't a task killer, rather a startup manager that can be tweaked to do many different things. By not allowing certain things to start up when your phone boots, you'll have more memory to begin with and Android will be more efficient in memory management. I would try Autostarts before using a task killer.
Hope that helps.
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Click to collapse
Thanks, I will definitely look into it. All advise is appreciated as I am very new to all of this. You answered my last question on my previous post with this, too.... I can't wait for a fully functional rooted OEM rom to be released with the goodies from the new update to try it out. I'm hesitant to update my phone now and lose superuser as I use the WiFi tether a lot.

RANDOM APPS OPEN ALL THE TIME *curses at phone*

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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Click to collapse
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.