I have a lot of apps opening up in the background on their own and eating up my memory. Things like qik, skype, city id, vz navigator open on their own even though I barely use them, if at all. My free memory keeps dropping down to around 30mb. Is there anything I can do?
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA App
The best remedy I came up with was rooting my phone, and then installing Titanium Backup and Autostarts. Titanium can freeze the apps you never want to use like some of the crapware that comes preinstalled. For the apps that you do use, but don't want automatically opening all the time, you can use Autostarts to choose which conditions must be met for the app to open, or not open in this case. For both of those applications, you need to be rooted, and unfortunately that's the only way I know of to stop some of the apps you mentioned (especially Skype and CityID).
You can root to remove the bloatware, but that's it. Also, memory on android isn't the same as on a PC. With a PC, clear memory means a faster system, but the opposite is true for android. Because of the way it manages applications, you want to keep the memory as full as possible.
mlclm said:
You can root to remove the bloatware, but that's it. Also, memory on android isn't the same as on a PC. With a PC, clear memory means a faster system, but the opposite is true for android. Because of the way it manages applications, you want to keep the memory as full as possible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk
dwray said:
The best remedy I came up with was rooting my phone, and then installing Titanium Backup and Autostarts. Titanium can freeze the apps you never want to use like some of the crapware that comes preinstalled. For the apps that you do use, but don't want automatically opening all the time, you can use Autostarts to choose which conditions must be met for the app to open, or not open in this case. For both of those applications, you need to be rooted, and unfortunately that's the only way I know of to stop some of the apps you mentioned (especially Skype and CityID).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is the answer. There is a difference in night and day with my X since installed Autostarts and Fission.
If you install Autostarts and use Advanced Task Killer you will be able to kill the apps and they won't continue to run/open in the background. It's extremely worth it.
wad3g said:
This is the answer. There is a difference in night and day with my X since installed Autostarts and Fission.
If you install Autostarts and use Advanced Task Killer you will be able to kill the apps and they won't continue to run/open in the background. It's extremely worth it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Search android task killers on these forums. Then listen to the posts and let android do its thing.
Task killers bog down the system because these apps are shut down while attempting to do something (sync, send data, etc). The app then realizes that it needs to complete the process and restarts. This continues over and over hogging your cpu resources and slowing down the system.
Stop paying attention to the free memory and open apps. This is not an iPhone.
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App
AdhvanIt said:
Search android task killers on these forums. Then listen to the posts and let android do its thing.
Task killers bog down the system because these apps are shut down while attempting to do something (sync, send data, etc). The app then realizes that it needs to complete the process and restarts. This continues over and over hogging your cpu resources and slowing down the system.
Stop paying attention to the free memory and open apps. This is not an iPhone.
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Except you can put exceptions into what apps to kill.
EtherBoo said:
Except you can put exceptions into what apps to kill.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Read this
http://geekfor.me/faq/you-shouldnt-be-using-a-task-killer-with-android/
Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk
AdhvanIt said:
Search android task killers on these forums. Then listen to the posts and let android do its thing.
Task killers bog down the system because these apps are shut down while attempting to do something (sync, send data, etc). The app then realizes that it needs to complete the process and restarts. This continues over and over hogging your cpu resources and slowing down the system.
Stop paying attention to the free memory and open apps. This is not an iPhone.
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're missing the point. Autostarts doesn't allow the app to start in the first place so it doesn't bog down the system or hog resources.
Correct me if I'm wrong but is it not Gingerbread that has added the addition of a task killer.
It's not about the free memory, my phone runs faster. I can tell a difference.
It's possible we may be talking about different things.
I'm pretty sure closing Angry Birds when it's still open because I Home Screen buttoned out of it won't make a big difference.
If you're referring to closing services while they're running, it's a different story. I skimmed through the article, it looks interesting, but I honestly fail to see how closing an app that's running... even one that might be doing something I don't want it to (like using GPS because it didn't close when I back-arrowed out of it).
When I bought my phone, I installed Weather Bug. Weather Bug kept trying to get my GPS location while I was at work. My phone barely made it through work. Anytime I checked the weather, I had to close the program through a task killer, or I'd have no battery because the phone was trying to use my GPS all day.
How does not closing that save my battery?
EtherBoo said:
It's possible we may be talking about different things.
I'm pretty sure closing Angry Birds when it's still open because I Home Screen buttoned out of it won't make a big difference.
If you're referring to closing services while they're running, it's a different story. I skimmed through the article, it looks interesting, but I honestly fail to see how closing an app that's running... even one that might be doing something I don't want it to (like using GPS because it didn't close when I back-arrowed out of it).
When I bought my phone, I installed Weather Bug. Weather Bug kept trying to get my GPS location while I was at work. My phone barely made it through work. Anytime I checked the weather, I had to close the program through a task killer, or I'd have no battery because the phone was trying to use my GPS all day.
How does not closing that save my battery?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's not a valid comparison. The android system manages apps, but it doesn't monitor everything that they're doing to prevent a runaway (like weatherbug). Actually read the article, then comment on it. And you do know you can turn gps off, right?
I happen to like GPS, and as long as I don't have any runaways, it doesn't drain battery since it's not used.
I'm just saying, for programs like that, Task Killers are great.
I'll read it tomorrow most likely.
I tried Watchdog and a few other task killers before finally shelling out the money for the full version of Titanium. I found that often times, the biggest cpu hog and battery killer was the task killer itself since it has to be constantly running in the background. For apps that you use on a regular basis, the best remedy for saving battery life is to just change the update interval period. By default, a lot of widgets (especially weather) update every 15 minutes, which can be a little tasking on system resources at times. I set mine to 1 hour and that helped tremendously. The main reason I went to the full version of Titanium is because it accomplishes what task killers can't by freezing apps to deny their access to open at all. Instead of removing the bloatware like CityID, VZ Navigator, and others, which will keep your phone from receiving OTA updates, just freeze them and you'll never have to worry about them. Autostarts takes care of the rest for me by allowing full control over the condition changes on the device which trigger certain applications to open. For example, I may use Google goggles occassionally, but I don't want it to automatically open in the background just because I enabled GPS. Before rooting my phone, I would normally average between 14 to 18 hours on moderate usage (with a task killer running I might add). Now, with those two applications managing things more meticulously, and chaning the update interval for all of my widgets, I get around 30 to 36 hours easily.
Related
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.
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...
Click to expand...
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.
I don't know if this is an issue with android.. or galaxy s... or "Advanced Task Killer".... but apps keep popping up after i "Kill" them....
when i say apps pop up... i mean random apps that i have not touched...
for example I never touched the Visual Voicemail as i don't have use for it.. and amazong mp3.. the list just keeps going ...
i don't know why it keeps reloading after i "kill" them..i did google this problem and could not find any one else complaining... maybe i didn't do a good job of searching... this is wayy too frustrating
is there a "Fix" for this?
well first you shouldn't be using a task killer. Second they show up there because some apps run in the background occasionally without you even opening them.
Because the apps are doing stuff and you keep killing them so they restart. Stop using a task killer and let android handle the running programs like google programmed the os to do. The google programmers are really talented I promise.
As said above. Apps auto run in background. Android deals with this efficiently, best not to use a task killer
Don't use task killers.
It's really that simple.
Task killer is a no no for Phones with 128+ RAM
Most stuff needn't be killed, but T-Mobile includes some bloatware that has absolutely no right to be running at all, much less all the time (hi, daily briefing). The "don't use a task manager" meme is fine for a stock android phone where presumably you're only installing things that you actually want to use, but when you buy a branded phone you really *don't* want the carrier garbage running all the time. At best, it sits around doing nothing until Android kills it on its own, but at worst it can drain your battery life and cause instability.
The only surefire solution I've found is to actually remove the offending bloatware using root explorer or titanium backup.
^^TL;DR Remove bloat, don't use a task killer.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
Ok, I'll ask if no one else will, why not run a task killer? What is the downside?
There are any number of applications on the phone that I literally never use like Amazon MP3, Slacker, and Visual Voicemail, why would I want to leave those running when I have no use for them, and there is an easy way to kill them off when they spawn themselves?
lmlloyd said:
Ok, I'll ask if no one else will, why not run a task killer? What is the downside?
There are any number of applications on the phone that I literally never use like Amazon MP3, Slacker, and Visual Voicemail, why would I want to leave those running when I have no use for them, and there is an easy way to kill them off when they spawn themselves?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think its ok to use Task Killers for occasionally stopping apps that are giving you issues (running slowly, frozen). The problem with using Task Killers is that it can make your system unstable, it can mess up widgets, and Android doesn't really need it. Android will close apps on its own when it needs more memory . Most apps, if programed correctly, will use little to no battery power when idle in the background. It can take more battery power to start up an app again rather than opening it from idle.
lmlloyd said:
Ok, I'll ask if no one else will, why not run a task killer? What is the downside?
There are any number of applications on the phone that I literally never use like Amazon MP3, Slacker, and Visual Voicemail, why would I want to leave those running when I have no use for them, and there is an easy way to kill them off when they spawn themselves?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We're finding more and more that on higher end phones, such as the Vibrant, when a task killer is running the Android OS isn't being allowed to control the apps to it's full potential and some of the task killers are causing problems. After we remove the task killers, problems can occasionally be resolved. Not always, it's just something we're seeing. At least in my store and when I can in to support.
Because when an app is running in the background, it uses practically no battery. Most of the time it is not using any processor clock cycles just taking up some ram space. You don't have to worry about the ram being used because android will automatically end apps when it needs more ram. A lot of the time, ending an app via task killers will actually slow the phone down because when you go to open the app again it has to totally reopen rather than just awake from an idle state. Android 2.2 is even better at managing background tasks and running a task killer will almost guarantee a slower phone.
Read 4 post down.
VVVVVVVVVVVVVVV
Smart Bars not a bad one that you can start up and kill a task that wont exit out. However i wouldn't use it to "free up RAM"
When you start up the phone on stock rom w/ all the bloatware you have like 20+ random apps already running by default. If you ran a quadrant test now your score wouldn't be as high as if you killed all those apps then did the test. I went from 1900 to 2250 by killing all the apps. Not a huge difference but personally I don't like things like Slacker or GoGo running in the background when I never use them.
I don't like using task killers though, I just wish all these stupid apps wouldn't start when the phone is booted up. It can really make the phone slower. Killing all apps + lagfix means load times are almost non existant. Having all those apps running + lagfix means you will get some stutters in load times.
Task killers often show cached apps. They are not running just on stand by until you open them.
Sent from the best phone from TMO... Vibrant
There is an app called "Start Up Auditor" It disables any app you want (yes including the bloatware) Form starting up when you boot up and randomly while the phone is on.
For example I have all my bloatware that I don't want set to do not start at boot up unless I physically choose to open that app.
Better than any task killer out there. So you NEVER have to worry about the bloatware other than it taking up some memory.
http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2010/04/multitasking-android-way.html
That's really the best explanation right there. It explains just why Android does what it does.
Sorry, no tl;dr for the lazy.
I had my task killer on auto kill cuz i was frustrated..... but i'm gonna go download that "Star up Auditor"... sounds like the most efficient way... since i actually do use Slacker..
anyhow..thanks alot guys for the suggestions..
So Samsung for whatever reason, decides it's a good idea to include an easy to access task manager with a giant "kill all tasks" button in TouchWiz. It seems like everyone I know, that has a Galaxy S II, has adopted a certain behavior due this. What they do is, every time they put their phone away, they will automatically go to this task manager and kill all tasks, before locking the phone. When I ask them why the hell they're doing that, the answer is usually something like "wasting battery blah blah blah" or "wasting CPU blah blah blah"... NO!
For starters:
http://geekfor.me/faq/you-shouldnt-be-using-a-task-killer-with-android/
http://lifehacker.com/5650894/andro...ed-what-they-do-and-why-you-shouldnt-use-them
http://www.infoworld.com/t/smartphones/myth-android-devices-need-task-killers-609
http://androinica.com/2010/05/googl...-imply-task-killermanager-apps-are-pointless/
People that are doing this, educate yourself. And Samsung, well done for encouraging this.
Just because a task is in memory, doesn't mean it's doing anything, and certainly doesn't mean it's using up battery. If it's staying in memory, it's because there's no need to release it just yet. If you start it up again, it will already be there, and load up faster. The alternative is, you keep killing it, and every time you run it again, it will have to reinitialize and reload everything. Which option do you think is actually going to cost more battery?
The whole thing with people saying "oh no it's using CPU, i must kill it"... what?! If it's using CPU, it's probably doing something. Why the hell are you killing a process while it's in the middle of doing something? Do you not care about data integrity at all? It could have been in the middle of syncing, or in the middle of a write operation who knows.
If you run other applications and your memory runs low, then Android will close it. And it will close it properly, as opposed to you force killing it, denying it of any chance to clean up.
Obviously there are rare exceptions with dodgy programs. But most of the time, the tasks being killed are system apps, or trustworthy apps, properly written by Google or Samsung.
If you're not a developer, you probably won't understand the whole Android application lifecycle.
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/Activity.html
By force closing an application, you're not allowing it to run its onStop() and onDestroy() functions. This is where apps do all the clean up, releasing resources, unregistering things, closing connections etc.
Do you do this on your PC. Open up Windows task manager, and just kill any task that's using CPU. Or hell, just kill all tasks every 2 minutes! Good luck with that.
This has probably been said hundreds of times, but a lot of people i know are getting GSII's and I see them doing this constantly. It's stupid. Do you really think they designed the operating system so that you have to kill everything each time you touch it?
TLDR: Stop "killing all tasks" (unless theres actually something wrong) and well done Samsung for encouraging this. Just stupid.
Damn your right, I never used a task killer on previous android phones, but for some reason I have got into the habit of doing it now. So I'm going to kill that habit. Well noticed
Well according to the user guide (the full one from Samsung's website)... though personally I don't bother killing anything
Use the task manager › ›
Your device is a multitasking device. It can run more than one application at the same time. However, multitasking may cause hang-ups, freezing, memory problems, or additional power consumption. To avoid these problems, end unnecessary programs using the task manager.
1 In Idle mode, open the application list and select Task manager → Active applications.
The list of all the applications currently running on your device appears.
2 To close an application, select Exit.To close all active applications, select Exit all.
i like the placebo effect and stop telling me what i have to do or not to do!
your writing style is to aggressive, stop being aggressive!
For me, it is worth to have the clear memory option because I already faced the glitch or bugs program which cause my phone to run constantly at 1.2ghz and this will cause my phone become extremely hot. I can't see what application is running but for some reason, the cpu gone crazy. It drain battery in no time. With the simple one click button, I can closed the programs without need to restart the phone. Yes, generally I will let the android system to handle the application by itself but I still think it was a good moved by samsung to have task manager if we use it in proper way...
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA Premium App
Well it's not all that bad, with 2 cores one core can easily come into a deadlock and the device will continue to function albeit much slower and consuming a lot of power, when this happens in the taskmanager the processes are listed red
Thanks ever so for much for this post I have just got my first Android phone and thought by doing this it would increase the battery life a tad but did kinda think it was a bit daft having a system that required manually killing tasks. Coming from a Windows 6.1 XDA Zest I am still getting my head round an OS that's doesn't require hours on Internet to work out how to do things.
Sad, but true, I was getting onto Android from Symbian, and first thing after I realised that I do not have option of killing all apps, I have installed the task killer and kept using it for like a week, then I've read one of the articles about it, that its wrong, and that Android is not working as Symbian nor Windows, so I realised that I dont need to do that... unninstalled it and not using it at all since
You don't need Task manager / killer if only all android applications are developed by good programmers that implement Android application lifecycle properly.
The problem is not all applications are developed this way. Some application may buggy / in beta stage that still consuming processing time even they are in background.
Task manager is still useful to close nasty program manually. But I do agree, auto-kill is useless and can cause battery drain and system instability.
Yep .. it's mostly services what eats battery. And there is poor control over that. It would be interesting to see what service was active at what time, or even how much battery did it use. All battery discussions are about guessing what is running in the background and how often and how much. We should not guess such things.
As far as I'm concerned an in built task manager is just as important as an in built modem right now. There are far too many unstable applications out there that hang up and Android can never fully deal with them(despite what research may or may not have been done in the past).
I have a few games installed on my S2(namely Pool Break Pro & TNA iMPACT!) that crash quite often and require the use of the task manager to manually end those programs(they are in the task manager highlighted in red when they have stalled).
However, what I will say is that the button to clear memory in the RAM manager really shouldn't be there at all. The task manager alone is more than enough to manually exit necessary apps that crash and stay open for no reason.
I like to have the ability to close programs easily at hand. It gives me better control over "rogue" apps. I only use it for a few programs though, like the Engadget app. It seems to be poorly coded, often using 40-50% CPU when running in the background.
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I like it because it lets me close frozen apps quicker..
the_Calen said:
i like the placebo effect and stop telling me what i have to do or not to do!
your writing style is to aggressive, stop being aggressive!
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Lol yes. Not to be taken too seriously.
Force closing apps with the task manager when somethings wrong with the phone or closing broken apps makes sense. I'm just talking about people that instinctively press the close all apps button every time they use the phone for a second. It's just silly. Basically doing what those automatic task killing apps do.
I use to kill opera everytime i'm done with browsing because even in idle mode the phone gets very hot when opera runs in the backgtound. But after these explanstions i stop force killing every app
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If a program is badly written and won't stay idle, then kill it.
I am very selective about what I install, and never kill or need to kill anything.
You have 1 GB of ram on this phone. If you want best battery and speed, don't kill anything. loading a running app from ram uses less power than starting from scratch and booting it from nand, then starting it up.
So if apps are well written, don't kill them. If stuff stays around causing drain, kill it individually but find a better app
This thread is spot on... for the most part. Like Pulser said, there are apps when idling/cached, cause detrimental effects like the one I detailed here causing your phone to stay Awake constantly and draining battery:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1094666
ATK isn't the most elegant method, but it allows you to put everything else on ignore and have it actively kill the apps that love to stay cached and cause issues even after you've exited out of them.
Is there a way to "lock" some apps into a memory so they never quit by the android OS except if I would decide to?
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You have a valid point, but most of the time those apps don't do anything critical that it would hurt to interrupt. I usually prefer to exit them normally, but sometimes I just kill it, like when I forgot the Messages / Internet open. No need to paranoia though, leaving a few open won't kill your battery.
PINki92 said:
Is there a way to "lock" some apps into a memory so they never quit by the android OS except if I would decide to?
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That's exactly what I needed. There are some apps, like SetCPU, TB, Root Explorer, which can be added to SuperUser authorization and it won't get killed by anything unless someone manually kills it. I'd really really like to know how to add an app under SuperUser or anything which will do the job to add the app in to the OS and which can't be killed by any Task Killer or anything.
Besides I also hate those Task Killer apps, they are meaningless unless an user do nothing regularly with his/her phone.
I've no Task Killer installed but once I used the built in Memory Clear feature and next day my schedule app got closed. From then I never touched it. But one thing if RAM usage goes above 400 MB I think sometime its good to clear the memory as it will help to refresh it. But Samsung should had put the Memory Clear feature more precisely.
Regards.
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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.