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?
Click to expand...
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?
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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

Still laggy after usb debugging enabled

Hi all,
I have had my DHD for abit over a month now and love it, although it is very laggy now. The camera is attrocious (order of 10 seconds or more to take a photo), the contacts list takes about the same amount of time to load up. In general opening apps etc. is very slow.
This is after i have already enabled usb debugging.
Is there some way i can work out whats causing this lag? and fix it? its extremely annoying and dissapointing.
I already have a couple of task killers that clean the cache and kill apps every 20 min or so.
Any help is much appreciated.
Cheers

I'm by no means an expert, but I do know (from experience and reading on here) that using task killers is the dumbest idea ever on Android.. Not only does it not make any sense, as Android manages the ram better than any task killer is able to, it also sucks battery and is actually often the source of MORE lag..

DelLoce said:
I'm by no means an expert, but I do know (from experience and reading on here) that using task killers is the dumbest idea ever on Android.. Not only does it not make any sense, as Android manages the ram better than any task killer is able to, it also sucks battery and is actually often the source of MORE lag..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree. However, I find that running a task kill right before attempting to shoot 720P video removes the occasional stutter-bug with afflicts the DHD from time to time.

Don't keep task killers on auto mode . Use it when required
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA Premium App

solution:
uninstall all of the task killer apps
let android do the task killing itself

What about stopping an app from starting up at boot can anyone recommend anything?
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA Premium App

which processes cause the lag?
Very often such a lag may be caused by a process running wild. Please use a task manager to verify which task uses a suspicious amount of CPU! There are plenty of them, I can recommend SystemPanelLite by NextApp as a start.
Please take into consideration that Android is designed very efficient and aware of low memory conditions (and the DHD has over 750 MB!), and that it should not be reasonable to use a task killer at all, despite the situations where a certain task has gone insane, which has to be killed then.
Best regards,
arpy

I stopped my DHD's lag when I stopped using live wallpapers. Seems to have done the trick for now.
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA Premium App

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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Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
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.

AutoKiller Memory Optimizer

Anyone using it on the Atrix?
For those unfamiliar with this application and think it's just another "Task Killer", please read:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=622666
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=5861010

Tikerz said:
Anyone using it on the Atrix?
For those unfamiliar with this application and think it's just another "Task Killer", please read:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=622666
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=5861010
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I havent' used it on my atrix before
but I screwed up my captivate with it before and it would cause me to have continuous bootloops until I got rid of the app
can't comment on the atrix though....plenty or RAM for me on the atrix

Dont use task killers on the Atrix! Watchdog is a much better choice!

WiredPirate said:
Dont use task killers on the Atrix! Watchdog is a much better choice!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That isn't a task killer if you've read or used of before
Sent from my blurry atrix using telepathy and Tapatalk

droid_does said:
That isn't a task killer if you've read or used of before
Sent from my blurry atrix using telepathy and Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
Read my post again. Thats my point exactly. Here Ill say it for you again try to keep up.
Dont use task killers on the Atrix. Instead, use Watchdog. watchdog is a much better alternative to task killers.

WiredPirate said:
Read my post again. Thats my point exactly. Here Ill say it for you again try to keep up.
Dont use task killers on the Atrix. Instead, use Watchdog. watchdog is a much better alternative to task killers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
and I'll say it again....did you even read the thread linked in the OP?
FYI I do use watchdog

lol This is a task killer. It may not be in an app form, but its designed to kill tasks before (the Atrix thinks) they have to be killed. To me runaways are the only tasks needed to be killed. And Autostarts keeps apps from opening automatically on boot. My atrix never lags, maybe after a few days and I do a reboot.? I still say task killers are no good. But to each his own, hopefully those apps dont just open back up defeating the purpose for you.

Autokiller is not a task killer. It doesn't actually kill anything. It just tweaks the threshold of when Android thinks or "the Atrix thinks" certain types of processes should be terminated. It's done when memory is low and doesn't kill running processes like a third-party task killer app does.
http://geekfor.me/faq/autokiller/
Anyways, I just remembered about it after being away from Android for a year. Used it with the Hero and EVO 4G before and it worked great. Trying to find the best settings for the Atrix...

WiredPirate said:
lol This is a task killer. It may not be in an app form, but its designed to kill tasks before (the Atrix thinks) they have to be killed. To me runaways are the only tasks needed to be killed. And Autostarts keeps apps from opening automatically on boot. My atrix never lags, maybe after a few days and I do a reboot.? I still say task killers are no good. But to each his own, hopefully those apps dont just open back up defeating the purpose for you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No... simply no. You read that age old "task killers er bad mmkay" nonsense a looong time ago. I know what your thinking of and its usually referring to task killers with a "kill all" button. Pressing such a button is useless because as you state some apps you kill will boot back up thus eatingcpuandnotreallysavingbattery.... blah blah. Well if you kill games and other such things (rogue apps) they don't just pop back up.
Last but not least autokiller isn't even a task killer... it has one built in but so does Android. But I'm sure someone already said that.
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App

Tikerz said:
Autokiller is not a task killer. It doesn't actually kill anything. It just tweaks the threshold of when Android thinks or "the Atrix thinks" certain types of processes should be terminated. It's done when memory is low and doesn't kill running processes like a third-party task killer app does.
http://geekfor.me/faq/autokiller/
Anyways, I just remembered about it after being away from Android for a year. Used it with the Hero and EVO 4G before and it worked great. Trying to find the best settings for the Atrix...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Autokiller is great all tho the stock settings allow for much more memory to be allocated to the foreground app and background app. Using anything but will give better battery but I find nothing is as smooth as the stock settings. However check out the advanced tweaks for some goodies ( sdcard speedup, battery tweaks, etc) do NOT use the io scheduler tweak as it sent my phone into bootloop and I never investimagated. Good luck
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App

ChongoDroid said:
Autokiller is great all tho the stock settings allow for much more memory to be allocated to the foreground app and background app. Using anything but will give better battery but I find nothing is as smooth as the stock settings. However check out the advanced tweaks for some goodies ( sdcard speedup, battery tweaks, etc) do NOT use the io scheduler tweak as it sent my phone into bootloop and I never investimagated. Good luck
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the feedback! I tried IO scheduler and also got a bootloop.

There are multiple -task killer good/ task killer bad- arguments on the forums. We dont need another one so Im not going to respond to your claim of task killer good. Anybody that wants to can search and find the info and decide for themselves.
Nobody ever said autostarts is a task killer! Really, its true! ^^read for yourself^^ it was never said or implied.

ChongoDroid said:
do NOT use the io scheduler tweak as it sent my phone into bootloop
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Tikerz said:
I tried IO scheduler and also got a bootloop.
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rofl
I can see that any further replies will be a waste of my time, on to new threads. Goodbye.