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Hello guys;
just received my phone yesterday and i have a question regarding open programs
does the back button until home screen close the program or it still run in memory?
some people advise the use of task killers to kill unwanted tasks to save battery
while others say that Linux is handling this automatically and using task killers is no use
some people claims that after they stopped using task killers their battery life was better
i am new the Android as i am an ex WinMo user so please enlighten me
Thanks for huge efforts guys
Yes, they are. Android does a poor job of managing tasks, even to the point it auto starts like everything in your phone and very few of them turn themselves off.
You can manually manage them in applications, running processes, but task killers are so much easier.
I have owned 3, and the one that is easiest to use, that I have never found a bug with is Advanced Task killer (Little green droid icon). The purchased version is expensive, but worth it as it gives you one click widget to kill tasks.
Advanced Taskiller is known for crashing the home screen and stopping vital system services requiring a reboot. I own the full, and I have no use for it.
Okay, let's see how many questions I can answer here....
First of all, using the back button does not close the program. Neither does the home button. Android does handle this natively, but it does so automatically. It doesn't matter how you exit a program, it stays running until it needs to close. Whenever too many apps are running, slowing the system down, it will close the older ones as needed. All automatically. Nice, huh?
Task killers let you do this more aggressively, or manually. You may want to do this if you want your system to be "extra" fast, or to save battery. Most of them have extra features, too, like switching to running apps, or uninstalling them, etc. Beyond that, you don't need it. Some people say that task killers actually drain battery, but in my experience, they help slightly. And they do improve performance slightly too--as long as you are smart about not killing the wrong apps. (HINT--if it's a widget or a background service, never kill it)
So really, it's up to you. Get a free one, or a trial, and try it out, see if it makes things better or worse. Just take into account the learning curve before you give up on it--you have to exclude widgets, background processes, and maybe a couple other apps, too... takes a bit of trial and error to figure out which apps get bugs when you kill them.
It's not necessary but highly recommended. I use Taskiller the paid version. I mainly use it to kill apps that start to have problems and to kill a lot of the apps that boot with the phone.
on G1: i use it every time i reboot, because on boot/startup, some apps open automatically that are not needed (e.g. maps, Documents To Go, alarm, etc.)
clears up a lot of memory
on Nexus One: not sure yet whether that's really necessary considering more RAM available
I use Advanced Task Manager purely because I bought it on my G1 and so thought I might as well. It has a kill-all widget (you can set exclusions of course) but I don't use that. I normally only use it to kill apps that I want to restart or just to monitor what apps are doing what.
I have tried running the phone without using it at all and using its automation feature to kill everything except widgets and background processes every 30 mins. I honestly didn't notice any battery life difference or performance except that abviously apps were slower to open if they'd been killed rather than when they were in the background.
In my opinion and based on anecdotal experiments, task killers are not necessary on the N1 and certainly nothing like as vital as they were on G1
system6 said:
Yes, they are. Android does a poor job of managing tasks, even to the point it auto starts like everything in your phone and very few of them turn themselves off.
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Click to collapse
Bull****. Prove your statement. This isn't Windows we're talking about. Android manages tasks and memory very well, if only people let it... but for some reason people can't understand that Android WILL automatically free memory AS NEEDED. Instead they open a task killer and **GASP** see open programs!! Autostarting certain apps is actually a good thing, since often those are the apps that people tend to use often, so they load very quickly. There is always some free memory with Android, and it never lets it get to a point where that drops to 0.
uansari1 said:
Bull****. Prove your statement. This isn't Windows we're talking about. Android manages tasks and memory very well, if only people let it... but for some reason people can't understand that Android WILL automatically free memory AS NEEDED. Instead they open a task killer and **GASP** see open programs!! Autostarting certain apps is actually a good thing, since often those are the apps that people tend to use often, so they load very quickly. There is always some free memory with Android, and it never lets it get to a point where that drops to 0.
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Click to collapse
+1. I dont use any task killers and have had no problems with speed or battery life.
uansari1 said:
Bull****. Prove your statement. This isn't Windows we're talking about. Android manages tasks and memory very well, if only people let it... but for some reason people can't understand that Android WILL automatically free memory AS NEEDED. Instead they open a task killer and **GASP** see open programs!! Autostarting certain apps is actually a good thing, since often those are the apps that people tend to use often, so they load very quickly. There is always some free memory with Android, and it never lets it get to a point where that drops to 0.
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Click to collapse
This.
I thought a task killer was necessary and went out and spent the dollar something on Advanced Task Killer. It made me feel "good" to know what I control what apps are open. But you know what? Ever since a factory reset, I have not put the Task Killer back on my phone and it's been about a week and a half if not more of letting android control my memory... And like uansari said... Android does a very good job of it.
I have not had to close any apps because of short memory. Android does a great job. Save your money.
Android (and Windows for that matter) has great memory management, but it's mostly a problem of rogue apps that don't sleep properly. I have Advanced Task Manager, and I've noticed with the Nexus One I see more "applications" running (like Launcher) that didn't show up on my G1 (running Enom's 1.6 before I got my N1). I found that I had to block a bunch of apps to keep them from being closed, and I got a couple of weird bugs that seemed to stem from closing apps. One of them was this problem with the audio not be routed properly to my BT or wired headset when connected. I use the task manager much more sparingly now, and only kill apps when they act up.
I really wish we had "Cards" like the Pre, so we could always know exactly what was open. Plus, the ability to "alt-tab" (swipe back and forth) is a million times better than this "hold home button" crap. Sigh. Need better alt tabbing.
while i do not disagree that Android does a ok (yes, ok! just that...) job to manage tasks & processes, I disagree that it opens or keeps open apps that are necessary or frequently used. That's not Android that does it, it's the apps that tell it to do it.
for instance (as i mentioned a few posts up), everytime i boot, it opens "Documents To Go"... an app i most infrequently use, almost never, but like to have in case i have to review a doc or excel sheet on the go.
It doesn't have to open on startup, it is not frequently used, but it still opens on start up.
so yes, i do use task killer, on startup. but i use it sparingly thereafter
shmigao said:
while i do not disagree that Android does a ok (yes, ok! just that...) job to manage tasks & processes, I disagree that it opens or keeps open apps that are necessary or frequently used. That's not Android that does it, it's the apps that tell it to do it.
for instance (as i mentioned a few posts up), everytime i boot, it opens "Documents To Go"... an app i most infrequently use, almost never, but like to have in case i have to review a doc or excel sheet on the go.
It doesn't have to open on startup, it is not frequently used, but it still opens on start up.
so yes, i do use task killer, on startup. but i use it sparingly thereafter
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That's fine... so Document to Go opens at boot, along with other apps. My point is that as you start opening other apps, and Documents to Go stays latent, it will get closed automatically as other apps demand memory. I'm not directing this specifically at you, shmigao... just responding to a concern a lot of people seem to have. Apps automatically opening at startup is common and don't cause a performance decrease.
I have yet to experience any slowdowns on my N1, and I never use the task killer that's built into Astro.
i use "automatic task killer" free from the market and my phone runs fine. I dont even have to think about it, because it clears memory when phone goes to sleep. I think it was more needed on htc magic than nexus.
uansari1 said:
Bull****. Prove your statement. This isn't Windows we're talking about. Android manages tasks and memory very well, if only people let it... but for some reason people can't understand that Android WILL automatically free memory AS NEEDED. Instead they open a task killer and **GASP** see open programs!! Autostarting certain apps is actually a good thing, since often those are the apps that people tend to use often, so they load very quickly. There is always some free memory with Android, and it never lets it get to a point where that drops to 0.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly.
I stopped using task killers on my N1 because it cause more problems and hosed my battery faster. I haven't used it in almost two weeks, and the phone is smooth and the battery lasts a lot longer.
No need for task killers on the N1, IMO.
uansari1 said:
Bull****. Prove your statement. This isn't Windows we're talking about. Android manages tasks and memory very well, if only people let it... but for some reason people can't understand that Android WILL automatically free memory AS NEEDED. Instead they open a task killer and **GASP** see open programs!! Autostarting certain apps is actually a good thing, since often those are the apps that people tend to use often, so they load very quickly. There is always some free memory with Android, and it never lets it get to a point where that drops to 0.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HA! Tell me how you really feel....LOL. I have tested my wifes G1 and my old MyTouch and found it gave me about 30% more battery time.
Yes it will auto close programs when it needs the resources, just like a Palm pre, but running processes are just that.....RUNNING.
uansari1 said:
Bull****. Prove your statement. This isn't Windows we're talking about. Android manages tasks and memory very well, if only people let it... but for some reason people can't understand that Android WILL automatically free memory AS NEEDED. Instead they open a task killer and **GASP** see open programs!! Autostarting certain apps is actually a good thing, since often those are the apps that people tend to use often, so they load very quickly. There is always some free memory with Android, and it never lets it get to a point where that drops to 0.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am perfectly happy with android managing my open applications and I have no concerns about RAM. My primary problem is that I am given *no* way to actually close an application if I really want to. An open application could still be polling, syncing, or updating and if I don't want that anymore how can I close it without the application developer explicitly coding an option for me to do so?
(an) Automatic task killer gives me the peace of mind that I can close applications that I use only once in a while and start with a clean slate every time I unlock the device.
I am not one of those users who places every single program there and requires a minimum amount of free ram, but I do have it cleaning up programs that have no business staying resident.
Wouldnt it by wise to use the "ignore" list many of these apps have.
That way you can have your frequenly used apps always able to quick load and the ones that you never use killed off.
I understand that Android has good memory management but I dont see the point of having some apps sitting there when I have no intention of opening them up on a regular basis.
Wow! Such heated debate over something so simple!
This isn't Android 1.0 or 1.5 or even 1.6(pretty darn good at auto closing)... this is Android 2.1 on 1ghz w/512mb RAM! The auto scaling of the CPU and the auto task closing is very, very, very good! There is no need for a task manager unless you want to use it to close something very specific because you want it closed NOW!
But there is no NEED for it, especially on the Nexus One. All it will do, if used regularly, is decrease battery life (yes, decrease, because it takes a lot more CPU power to open up an app than it takes to hold that program in the RAM's cache). As well, it will slow down your Android experience... Hero users found this one out, at least smart ones did, that the best way to keep it zipping along was to not use a task killer, except for media rich apps like youtube, music player, video player.
On a G1 running a Hero ROM, slightly different story in terms of speed, it was beneficial for several reasons; 1. Android 1.5 doesn't have nearly as good auto task management as 2.1. 2. A G1 used almost all of it's RAM to boot up the Hero ROM, and thus the auto settings were no where nearly as agressive as they would need to be.
But we are not talking about a G1 running a Hero ROM... we are talking about a Nexus One running stock Android 2.1...
If the OP, or anyone, wants a task killer, get Astro file manager, and use that. Kill the select few apps that you really want to when you get done, but don't bother getting an auto killer that messes with the already amazing job Android 2.1 and the Nexus One do!
it can be useful... i use it to close certain app that autostart or keep running in the background and use the GPS franticly trying to get a location
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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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Click to collapse
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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Click to collapse
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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Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
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.
This is obvioulsy my first android device and although cool. its a lot to get use too. I am used to having a taskmanager to close any open applications or ones running in the background. How do you to that with the Droid X? Everytime i opened an app, i just hit the home button and assume it closed. How do you close a program or an running app? Sorry if its a dumb question
You can download an app manager from the market. However, you probably don't even need to worry about that since the processor can more than likely handle the open apps. The android os is pretty good at managing your apps for you. Some people even say that the app manager messes the phone up.
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA App
thank you...i'll just keep it the way it is then and assume the app closes when i exit to the home screen.
Another question for all the Droid X users. Is there a way to remove that little green droid that give you tips on the home screen. He is as annoying as the paperclip dude in microsoft word
nevermind...i just had to drag it down into the waste basket. i did try it before, must just not have draged it far enought donw before
Just to tell you, btw, apps in Android are notified when they get minimized so they can release resources. So say you're in a game, and you hit home, the game knows that you aren't playing anymore, so it's not just sitting on the menu eating resources.
microdot said:
nevermind...i just had to drag it down into the waste basket. i did try it before, must just not have draged it far enought donw before
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Click to collapse
All that does is remove it from the home screen, it doesn't kill the app.
nindoja said:
All that does is remove it from the home screen, it doesn't kill the app.
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Click to collapse
i understand, i just wanted to have it off the homescreen....maybe replace it with a nice digital clock widget.
Another winmo convert like myself? Just laughing as this is what I was doing all day yesterday.
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA App
Two recommended Task Managers are TasKiller (I use) and ATK / Advanced Task Killer (my wife uses). Both are spoken highly of around here.
x.v_ said:
Just to tell you, btw, apps in Android are notified when they get minimized so they can release resources. So say you're in a game, and you hit home, the game knows that you aren't playing anymore, so it's not just sitting on the menu eating resources.
Click to expand...
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Sorry so are you saying that android automaticaly kills the program when you exit out or say hit home? If so is apps like taskkillers really necessary and why do people have them?
No, task killers aren't necessary, and generally people only have them because they don't know any better. Having loads of free memory will do nothing to increase your performance because most apps don't require much, and the very reason Android keeps them in memory is to reduce loading times. Unused RAM is wasted RAM. Android will automatically kill old tasks if it needs to free up memory, so trying to micromanage and preemptively kill tasks yourself is a waste of time and will only make your experience worse. Poorly designed "automatic" task killers from the Market can even decrease your battery performance, so be wary.
I may fall into the "don't know any better" crowd since this is my first android phone, but I'd had the voice recognition app lock up on me a few times and using the task killer to end the app and restart it was the only way I could get it running again.
Unless you have any way I could have done that, it seems to me that task killer has its uses.
You can kill tasks and services from stock Android's Applications menu under Settings.
microdot said:
Sorry so are you saying that android automaticaly kills the program when you exit out or say hit home? If so is apps like taskkillers really necessary and why do people have them?
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Click to collapse
Because whoever builds the ROMs for these phones thinks that having built in apps you never use running in the background is a good idea.
DroidX for instance launches a whole bunch of apps on boot you are not using, no need to have them tying up memory.
Even some relaunch themselves in the background when other apps are opened.
So to answer your question, the default ROMs that ship with the phones are generally sloppy. You dont NEED a task killer but it helps speed up the device.
Its like getting a cheap HP or Dell computer from Best Buy, they load it up with some much crap you have to re-image or uninstall all the software you dont need.
You can't unfortunately uninstall the programs that are locked by the ROM.
The only app manager I use is System Panel from the Market. I only used it before on my Eris to monitor memory and battery life. I use it on my X now for informational purposes, because the X is so much faster than the Eris was, which I loved by the way.
Tl;dr its good for monitoring, but above posters are right, mostly unnecessary.
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA App
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...
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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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Click to collapse
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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