Database Users

Accounts & Sync and RAM

I noticed something funny while setting up my wildfire.I found out that disabling the automatic sync for all accounts (except the weather) from the accounts & sync menu frees a lot of ram and makes the phone run very smooth and fast.I have now 150mb of ram free (instead of 60mb i had before disabling the account syncing).This is how the accounts & sync menu looks like now in my phone.

I only sync Facebook&gmail

Actually, I've read on Lifehacker in an article about why task killers are not so good for Android , that having lots of free RAM doesn't help that much.
I don't have a link to the article right now but basically it explains that Android knows very well how to handle applications and free up RAM all by itself and that actually closing applications when you know for sure that they will pop up again is not such a good ideea. Because applications, when closing or starting, use more CPU cycles than when they stay open (somewhat in a suspended state in the RAM) and that leads to faster draining speed of your battery.

I sync everything manually (only the weather is auto) anyway so i dont have a problem.I use task killer only for certain apps (like games,opera,).Every system app (and apps like friends stream,news,email,messages ect.) is ignored by the task killer.

I heard about that thing with the free ram too.
First it seems very stupid why much free RAM could me bad, but then I just tried some things myself.
On my Kaiser I'm running a vanilla Android 2.1 (Polymod) and 1min after startup I have only 5mb of free RAM, but anyways I can use the phone for days and doesn't even recognize that it is nearly out of RAM it runs nearly as good and fast as the Wildfire, the only thing you can recognize are the 100MHZ less CPUspeed.
So if you think about that maybe 60mb of free RAM are as good as 160 and also as good as 6. (That would fit the things the normal Linux kernel shows us too)
Maybe someone who knows more about Dalvik VM and how the Android patched kernel handels the RAM should confirm or deny this, but I think that the idea that the amount of free RAM doesn't really matters should be right.

The fact that more ram is available means that some services do not execute.That could mean that the processor handles less processes,so the phone is more responsive.My point is that all the syncing processes seem to slow down the phone.Or is it just my idea?
I 'm using the Ruu 1.37 rom.

[Q] What takes up so much RAM?

Hi,
i just bought an Ideos x5 and it's great.
I've loaded most of the usuall stuff including task manager.
Now i found that on average my free memory when i'm not using so much apps is around 180(that's how much free RAM i have).
Is this normal..i mean...the thing says it has 512 mb of RAM.
Sorry for beeing a noob..
Van

its said 128MB go to the GPU, 32MB are used by android system, which leaves about 352MB (353MB as shown in Elixir) for application use..
and then those google apps (Maps, Search, Market, etc.) all take up RAM in the background, plus other background apps you have installed and widgets you have enabled..
on average i usually have around 80-120MB free RAM left.. and since android 2.2 is said to have a good task manager which frees up the RAM when needed, i dont think its a place to worry about..

As iamelton said, Android's in-built task managing system does a good job of managing what apps are using the processor, memory and battery. Task manager apps don't really do all that much useful, and can sometimes be counterproductive if you're trying to use them to save battery. Lifehacker has a really great article on this called Android Task Killers Explained: What They Do and Why You Shouldn’t Use Them (I can't link because I don't have enough posts, but the article's a search away and is really worth reading). It runs through why it's generally best to avoid task manager/killer apps, plus it also explains how Android uses RAM - in a similar way to Windows Vista/7 (basically to speed up launching or re-opening apps).
It's probably worth noting that Android already has a function to force stop apps. If you go to Settings > About phone > Battery use, you'll get a list of what's been using the battery since it was last unplugged. Some widgets like Switch Pro have shortcuts to Battery use. It's useful if you've got Maps or a launcher or a rogue app sucking up battery in the background. As a rough idea, you may have an issue if anything not a system process is using more than 10%.
If you do need to force close an app, Battery use is generally the best way to go about it.

thx to cyvros for ur mentioning of the good article..
http://lifehacker.com/5650894/andro...ed-what-they-do-and-why-you-shouldnt-use-them
its a good read indeed, and for this topics discussion, i think the following paragraph gives a very good view on androids ram usage:
The problem is that Android uses RAM differently than, say, Windows. On Android, having your RAM nearly full is a good thing. It means that when you relaunch an app you've previously opened, the app launches quickly and returns to its previous state. So while Android actually uses RAM efficiently, most users see that their RAM is full and assume that's what's slowing down their phone. In reality, your CPU—which is only used by apps that are actually active—is almost always the bottleneck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

RAM and Task Manager/Killers explained!

This article was posted on Android Central and should be mandatory reading for everyone in these forums:
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/andr...hat-it-how-its-used-and-why-you-shouldnt-care

Good read, reminds me of how XP's memory handleing is compared to Vista/7's system.
Basic jist:
XP: System asks for very little: Task manager shows only ~100mb used on a very slim system
Vista/7: System uses ~40% of available memory if it's free, surrenders it back as programs are loaded that need it. Task manager shows ~2gb used on a slim system (assuming 4gb total rom)
What's it look like? Vista/7 uses 2gb vs XP uses 100mb.
What it does: Not much difference really, Vista/7 is just as stable with ram intensive apps (example: a virtual machine asking for 3gb ram on a 4gb system) both on XP and Vista/7 it will run and not bog the system down (from a ram perspective, we're completely ignoring cpu usage).
It's reasonably similar in android: recently loaded apps stay resident in memory, if the foreground app needs more ram android will unload older apps that arnt running. If you wanna run an app unloaded from memory, android has to reload it from storage.
If you task-kill everything immediately, android will ALWAYS have to reload from memory. The only exception is if the app didnt behave well in the first place (like auto-loading with a memory heavy service), if that's the case you're just as well off complaining to the dev because he/she needs to fix it anyway.
Though with the streak stageui is a pretty good example of this, widgets pretty much always stay loaded as they're widgets. Most of them use background services to update themselves and they're rather cpu/ram intensive.
You could task-kill them, but the right thing would be to freeze/completely remove them if you dont use them.

Thanks for sharing

I repair cell phones for a living and I notice carriers puting task killer on peoples phones....this is a phone killer some important processes get killed and I've had customers complain about phones not rotating right cause of thus also it causes alot of phone freezes and other problems cause of this....if u haveba task killer get rid of it and you will notice the difference..
Sent from my Dell Streak using XDA Premium App

very useful.
personally never used task killers and the like , coming from the old school just dont feel at ease with applications doing things

[Q] RAM Usage increases when Force Closing?

New owner of a Nexus 7 2013 here. Had it for a month or so now.
So the device came shipped with 4.3, I updated the device to 4.4.2 OTA. Weird thing is, everytime I "Force Close" an app from Settings, the RAM usage decreases, then it INCREASES!
Google Play Store (44mb), current RAM usage: 444mb
Force close Play Store, current RAM Usage: 400mb
*a couple of seconds later after display refresh*
current RAM Usage:480mb
This keeps going. No matter how many apps I force close, the RAM usage keeps increasing until the point where it reaches ~660-~700mb!
Is this normal? Does this happen to anybody else? Is there something wrong with the garbage collector? Also my RAM usage is in the 400mb range on startup and a LOT of apps run on startup which I need to force close manually (is it normal they run on startup?).
Thanks!

So memory usage is supposed to increase when you force close apps, so I take it this is usual for Android? But is there any explanation as to why ram usage increases instead of decreasing like on iOS? Is the garbage collection on this thing significantly different to conventional Linux kernels or for that matter Windows' variant too?
Sounds like a very stupid idea tbh

greatnoob said:
So memory usage is supposed to increase when you force close apps, so I take it this is usual for Android? But is there any explanation as to why ram usage increases instead of decreasing like on iOS? Is the garbage collection on this thing significantly different to conventional Linux kernels or for that matter Windows' variant too?
Sounds like a very stupid idea tbh
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK wrong forum this one is for the n7 2012 but your question is more to do with how android runs rather than specifically the nexus.
First of all forget everything you think you know about ram. In android the more ram being used the better the device will run. This is not always true but largely the more apps being held in ram the smoother android will run them. When an app closes it moves from running services to cached and the system will then call on that if you reopen the app or clear space if it needs it thus saving itself valuable power. The other reason for not force closing apps it they no longer run in the background as they were designed to. This is one reason task killers are bad for your system. If you close the mail app you won't get emails, if you close the clock your alarm won't go off, if you close the play store your apps won't update ect. Android is as far removed from windows as iOS is although windows 7 does use a similar idea towards ram. It doest need you to clear ram its perfectly capable of doing it itself. The exception to this is when you get badly designed apps that don't clear up after themselves and stay in the running services.
Try looking in your cached services you will probably find that's where your ram increase is. By force closing apps you make more work for the system reopening them.
Look here for more information about this
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=904023
Sent from my C5303 using xda app-developers app

[q]very high system ram usage[lollipop][5.0][lrx21t]

Hi ,new user on xda
i have a nexus 4
running completely stock 5.0 LRX21T NO ROOT
i have noticed very high ram usage on 5.0 as compared to 4.4 after the update
normally had ~1gb Ram free but now only ~500mb remains free
on ruuning applications screen,it shows
system-~750mb
apps-~600 mb
why is system using so much Ram,wasnt the case in 4.4...
is it bcoz of ART ?
is this normal?

same problem..on my nexus 4 after 5.0 update
After reboot, system ram usage stays low (read 100 to 150mb) for 1 to 2 days.. But suddenly shoots up to more than 1gb.
Does anyone know the root cause.

I think i found the root cause to this..
In Settings -> Sound & Notifications
change the setting When Device is locked -- Don't show notifications at all
By doing this, the system ram usage never shot up above 200mb for the past 2 days for me.
previously I had to reboot my device every night before going to bed.
I will further observe if this is the root cause and revert back.

apv25 said:
Hi ,new user on xda
i have a nexus 4
running completely stock 5.0 LRX21T NO ROOT
i have noticed very high ram usage on 5.0 as compared to 4.4 after the update
normally had ~1gb Ram free but now only ~500mb remains free
on ruuning applications screen,it shows
system-~750mb
apps-~600 mb
why is system using so much Ram,wasnt the case in 4.4...
is it bcoz of ART ?
is this normal?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
art by default use more ram than dalvic to run applications so this might be normal for you. on top of that there is some memory leak found in android l.
the important thing to now is how android manage ram. when you open an application it is loaded in the ram. whether you close the application or let it run on the backround android does not clean the memory occupied by the application until it has to. android LMK (low memory killer) clean the ram memory occupied by a program denpending on the priority id of the app. for example system apps (system ui) has lowest priority so LMK never kills that app. other apps have different priority. an application that runs in the backround (facebook messenger or whatsup) have lower priority than a game so when android need more ram it will empty the ram occupied by the game first and if there is more need for ram it will later empty the ram occupied by the backround app.
Long story short android will handle the ram as it sees fit. unlike windows, android will keep the memory full so apps can be launched faster. the problem is that android l has memory leak so you need to reboot your device every few days if you feel it starts to have some lags.
apps like task killers do more harm than good in terms of performance or lags. also facebook and facebook messenger are very badly written apps so they will consume a lot of memory. also antiviruses (especially cm security) are responsible for lags and memory leaks.
hope i helped you somehow understand android and find your problem (if there is one)
P.S. sorry for the long post!!

ttheodorou said:
art by default use more ram than dalvic to run applications so this might be normal for you. on top of that there is some memory leak found in android l.
the important thing to now is how android manage ram. when you open an application it is loaded in the ram. whether you close the application or let it run on the backround android does not clean the memory occupied by the application until it has to. android LMK (low memory killer) clean the ram memory occupied by a program denpending on the priority id of the app. for example system apps (system ui) has lowest priority so LMK never kills that app. other apps have different priority. an application that runs in the backround (facebook messenger or whatsup) have lower priority than a game so when android need more ram it will empty the ram occupied by the game first and if there is more need for ram it will later empty the ram occupied by the backround app.
Long story short android will handle the ram as it sees fit. unlike windows, android will keep the memory full so apps can be launched faster. the problem is that android l has memory leak so you need to reboot your device every few days if you feel it starts to have some lags.
apps like task killers do more harm than good in terms of performance or lags. also facebook and facebook messenger are very badly written apps so they will consume a lot of memory. also antiviruses (especially cm security) are responsible for lags and memory leaks.
hope i helped you somehow understand android and find your problem (if there is one)
P.S. sorry for the long post!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks

ttheodorou said:
art by default use more ram than dalvic to run applications so this might be normal for you. on top of that there is some memory leak found in android l.
the important thing to now is how android manage ram. when you open an application it is loaded in the ram. whether you close the application or let it run on the backround android does not clean the memory occupied by the application until it has to. android LMK (low memory killer) clean the ram memory occupied by a program denpending on the priority id of the app. for example system apps (system ui) has lowest priority so LMK never kills that app. other apps have different priority. an application that runs in the backround (facebook messenger or whatsup) have lower priority than a game so when android need more ram it will empty the ram occupied by the game first and if there is more need for ram it will later empty the ram occupied by the backround app.
Long story short android will handle the ram as it sees fit. unlike windows, android will keep the memory full so apps can be launched faster. the problem is that android l has memory leak so you need to reboot your device every few days if you feel it starts to have some lags.
apps like task killers do more harm than good in terms of performance or lags. also facebook and facebook messenger are very badly written apps so they will consume a lot of memory. also antiviruses (especially cm security) are responsible for lags and memory leaks.
hope i helped you somehow understand android and find your problem (if there is one)
P.S. sorry for the long post!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is why Google needs to give us an extended power menu. I understand they say it shouldn't be necessary under normal circumstances, but I consider every single nexus update to be a beta, of sorts...and we all know how buggy betas can be from time to time. They're very unpredictable, and you never know if you'll need to reboot. Saying it's simply never necessary for something that is basically beta is just plain egotistical as hell.

hp420 said:
This is why Google needs to give us an extended power menu. I understand they say it shouldn't be necessary under normal circumstances, but I consider every single nexus update to be a beta, of sorts...and we all know how buggy betas can be from time to time. They're very unpredictable, and you never know if you'll need to reboot. Saying it's simply never necessary for something that is basically beta is just plain egotistical as hell.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
my philosophy is that when you buy a nexus device, because it is a very simple os without the good stuff that lg/sammy or any other oem android manufacturer put on their phone(i am refereeing to the shortcuts power menu or toggles and other things that make your life easier and not the whole change of the os like touchwizz) you have to root so you can do your own small changes as you see fit (and fortunately for me i live in europe where there is a European law that states that you have the right to do whatever you want to the software of your device an be eligible to waranty).
So if you root your device you can do everything you want. for me on kit kat it was xposed and gravity box. on android l, yesterday i installed simple aosp.
In my opinion pure android with a twist is the way to go! and of course a custom kernel for better battery life and ad free for no ads!!
P.S. a quote by a fellow nexus user: A nexus without root is like an angel without wings

ttheodorou said:
my philosophy is that when you buy a nexus device, because it is a very simple os without the good stuff that lg/sammy or any other oem android manufacturer put on their phone(i am refereeing to the shortcuts power menu or toggles and other things that make your life easier and not the whole change of the os like touchwizz) you have to root so you can do your own small changes as you see fit (and fortunately for me i live in europe where there is a European law that states that you have the right to do whatever you want to the software of your device an be eligible to waranty).
So if you root your device you can do everything you want. for me on kit kat it was xposed and gravity box. on android l, yesterday i installed simple aosp.
In my opinion pure android with a twist is the way to go! and of course a custom kernel for better battery life and ad free for no ads!!
P.S. a quote by a fellow nexus user: A nexus without root is like an angel without wings
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do have root access and a custom kernel, but I prefer the nexus factory images, and the only system change I want is an extended power menu. Have you ever actually looked for an odexed version of an extended power menu flashable zip??? Don't waste your time. The last one I saw myself was for Nexus S. It can be done, but it never IS done. Stuff like that I could almost definitely do myself, but I just don't have the time anymore to sit down and read how to do it, actually do it, test it, etc. I haven't done any android dev at all in a few years and I'm rusty as hell, not to mention how much things have changed for android in the last two years.