Database Users

guide to control your battery and keep build smooth

There lot of interrogations and frustrations concerning slowdowns/battery drains on Android, sometimes not really fair.
You need to control your build and knowing what is going on into it, because most programs you install live from their own and can downgrade your stability and your battery performance.
A detailed guide is provided here in order to have a good battery drain with very smooth and reliable android experience on Hd2, gathering tips and advices users need to know when they come to this Os or want to improve it durably.
Following this guide, you will be able to have hundreds of apps into a super smooth, stable and battery friendly android build.
Most importantly, without transforming your smartphone into a dumbphone :
- Wifi and sync always on
- Mails checked every hour
- 148 applications installed (no I don’t need them all ;-) )
- 6 widgets running on the screen or in background (check screenshot) : Folder organizer, News, Facebook, Current widget, Powersnap, switch pro, pure calendar, pure grid calendar.
- In standby, it can last for 4 days :
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
- Smartphones are more and more looking like a laptop, so I consider that 5 or 6 hours with the screen alight is good.
The assumption is the battery drain can be affected by several factors:
1) Screen brightness.
2) Memory management if wrongly configured
3) Program launching in background if wrongly configured
4) Program updating in background if wrongly configured
5) Build and Kernel
6) Wm rom, radio, Sd card, Cpu in standby
7) Extras : Backups, customizing etc
Once you have the good utilities and understand how it works, it is easy to setup and need no more tweaks, unless you install new apps.
To keep a battery trace, current widget with logs and battery snap are mainly used.
1) Screen consumption
The screen battery consumption is huge when we use the phone. It was the same on windows mobile, and was to expect when buying it with that huge size.
Therefore, the screen brightness is an important factor to deal with.
In order to keep a good battery life when your phone is on, you need to keep your phone around 300 MiliAmpers or less. You have to keep in mind that a 75% brightness = 500Ma.
The best behavior is to keep your screen :
-25% brightness at home, with no sun.
-50% brightness mostly of the time
-75% and 100% brightness in very rare occasions with direct sun exposition.
In order to swich fast between this settings, and since we don’t have for now a functional kernel with auto brightness, using a brightness widget is recommended.
I personnaly use “Brighness level”, and launch it by swiping a dock icon into launcher pro.
Ps : Take care to not press 0%, or your screen will be completely dark. You can revert by guessing where the icons were, but it is tricky.
2) Memory management
In order to keep your hd2 fast and battery friendly, it is better to keep your phone with more than 200Mo free ram (when you are not using it).
There is a great free program for that, called task panel X. With it you can choose which program you want to close every time you put your phone in standby.
It is very important that you choose well the apps that need to stay in memory, and the others.
It is pretty simple: Keep the widget you use and system apps. Discard all the others by including them in the autokill list. It is a bit long to do if you have hundreds apps, but you have to do it only one time.
Example:
3) Programs launching automatically in background
You need to control the apps you install. Problem is that some programs are launched automatically into your memory at any time. I was surprised to see that programs that don’t need to be to stay in memory (when I don’t use them) launch by themselves at anytime. “Mabilo wallpapers” was the best (or worst) example.
You need an app to control that. I recommend “Startup Auditor”, and set carefully wich apps that can launch by themselves or not. Same as with task panel, just keep system apps and widgets. You can keep too your mail app. If you don’t use the Gmail app program, remove it from the list.
You will see into task panel that very few programs keeps running despite of that. You have to question yourself: “Ok this one is great to find new wallpapers, but it is constantly running in my memory and I don’t know why (suspicious) -> Do I really need it ?”
4) Programs updating in background
Programs that you authorize to launch automatically in your memory are often in order to update automatically things. (Mail, weather, facebook, tweeter etc…)
It is important that you know what they are, and where are located their update settings in order to not to waste uselessly your battery. Checking mails each hour or two hour is sufficient. Checking every 15mn cause obvious battery drains.
For most needs, manual updates for social apps or weather is sufficient, because it take only two seconds when you want to see them. If manual updating is not available, choose the longer updating interval (one day for example)
5) Builds
The following is based on my personal opinion; you are free to use and test every build you want.
First, i don’t recommend using sense builds due to personal bad experiments. I had crash and a lot of slowdowns, but most importantly it was battery draining due to all the htc third apps hard coded into. It is a build very hard to control.
I use and recommend a shubCRAFT 1.5 with stock Cyanogen mod 6 Final :
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=740963
Don’t forget to download the 1Go user data file in order to install more apps.
It’s a build very fast to boot, smooth, efficient and highly customizable. The kernel provided in it is good for now.
Launcher Pro is used here, very smooth and easy to customize.
6) Wm rom, radio, Sd card, Cpu
SetCpu can be usefull, depending on the kernel you are using. There is a lot of threads on it, the most important setting is to downclock your cpu at standby.
Sd card
There is some evidences that your sd card can drain your battery. If you follow this guide and still have battery drain, it can be the cause. Check into this post :
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=781433
I use a Kingston 16Go class 10 micro sdhc card with no issue.
Registry tricks :
I had before these regitry settings into windows mobile rom, no idea how it affect Android :
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=585729
Radio
I use 2.12.50.02_02
Ppp or rmnet
I don't have dataplans, so i can't tell about rmnet or ppp battery drains, but my suggestions to users who use it, is to activate it when you turn on your phone or every one hour, with a third app like Tasker.
SuperUser permissions
Polo735 suggest that, in rare cases, the superuser permissions program can be faulty and need te reinstalled, otherwise it drains your battery.
Symptoms are : When installing an app requiring superuser permissions, no pop up granting it appear.
See his post here
7) Extras :
If you like the screenshots design, it is the stock Shubcraft froyo framework with a custom black toolbar form manup revolution theme, compressed for speed. You can download it bellow and copy the file to /sdcard/Android/root/system/framework/ You have to set some custom colors into the cyanogens mod settings:
-Toolbar color in black
-Clock color in white
-Date and toolbar title in white.
Have fun !

Nice one, thanks!

Blame73 said:
Nice one, thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Happy to help

Sichroteph said:
I don't have dataplans...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is possibly the major reason of your low battery consumption...

Wildcopper said:
This is possibly the major reason of your low battery consumption...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Na, I use data most of the and with it turned on I get between 7 and 10 mA in standby,
Nice thread was already using most fixes just different apps, any chance of a link for task panel x can't find it on market.
And like the brightness app, lol first thing I did was press 0%
Sent from my HTC HD2 using Tapatalk

Sichroteph said:
Happy to help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd recommend you give bangsters build a shot, according to shu8i's Twitter he's offline till October :-\ bangster us constantly updating and everything is pretty stable
Sent from my HTC HD2 using Tapatalk

whynot66 said:
Na, I use data most of the and with it turned on I get between 7 and 10 mA in standby,
Nice thread was already using most fixes just different apps, any chance of a link for task panel x can't find it on market.
And like the brightness app, lol first thing I did was press 0%
Sent from my HTC HD2 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try this link from your htc hd2, should bring you directly to the market :
market://search?q=pname:com.taskpanel

Sichroteph said:
Try this link from your htc hd2, should bring you directly to the market :
market://search?q=pname:com.taskpanel
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks but Not there for me :-( where are you based? Must need the market enabler
Sent from my HTC HD2 using Tapatalk

whynot66 said:
Na, I use data most of the and with it turned on I get between 7 and 10 mA in standby
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use data and get 5mA in standby (screen off).
If this was true, the 1230mAh battery should last 1230/5=246 hours in standby mode running Android, which is 10.25 days, right?
We all know this isn't true.
The battery consumption gadget is cute, but not precise

whynot66 said:
I'd recommend you give bangsters build a shot, according to shu8i's Twitter he's offline till October :-\ bangster us constantly updating and everything is pretty stable
Sent from my HTC HD2 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agree, it is a good build too. Cyanogen makes thing so smooth. I recommended Shubcraft, just because i have no drawback to say about it, but fortunately there are other builds we can use.

Wildcopper said:
I use data and get 5mA in standby (screen off).
If this was true, the 1230mAh battery should last 1230/5=246 hours in standby mode running Android, which is 10.25 days, right?
We all know this isn't true.
The battery consumption gadget is cute, but not precise
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Who's gonna leave there phone in standby for ten days to test it, infact who's gonna leave their hd2 in there pocket for 30minutes, fact is my data is on I've just been to my current widget log and for the last ten minutes (logging every 2mins) my usage was 4mA, 5mA, 3mA, 6mA, 4mA
So you tell me? Guess the current widget doesn't work
Is there any other battery widgets so I can run multiple ones and compare.results?
I left off charge last night for 8 hours while I slept and used 5% I think its pretty accurate reality.
Sent from my HTC HD2 using Tapatalk

Wildcopper said:
I use data and get 5mA in standby (screen off).
If this was true, the 1230mAh battery should last 1230/5=246 hours in standby mode running Android, which is 10.25 days, right?
We all know this isn't true.
The battery consumption gadget is cute, but not precise
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I made a simplier calculation. I lost 1% per hour, so 4 days in standby. maybe a more rigorous way. Current widget is not always very precise, but it can help a lot to trace possible battery drains.

whynot66 said:
Thanks but Not there for me :-( where are you based? Must need the market enabler
Sent from my HTC HD2 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I extracted the Taskpanel X apk from a titanium backup ... Don't know if it will work for you.

Sichroteph said:
I made a simplier calculation. I lost 1% per hour, so 4 days in standby. maybe a more rigorous way. Current widget is not always very precise, but it can help a lot to trace possible battery drains.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, that's more accurate. That's approximatively what I lose too. But it's definitely draining more than 5mA.
It's not THAT bad, but Windows Mobile is still way more energy efficient.
My guess is that there are some things that should be turned off but aren't, hardware wise, when the HD2 runs under Android.

Wildcopper said:
Yeah, that's more accurate. That's approximatively what I lose too. But it's definitely draining more than 5mA.
It's not THAT bad, but Windows Mobile is still way more energy efficient.
My guess is that there are some things that should be turned off but aren't, hardware wise, when the HD2 runs under Android.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's not the point of this thread. I am pretty sure this it is useful to new users because wm and android are obviously different to manage. I want to bring something rational here, talking about screen consumption and memory management. Not about "something" we can't see but drains.
I saw several windows mobile threads concerning battery life frustrations too, so it would be more constructive to make some real battery tests between this two Os. For now, what some users complains are just "feelings" for me.

Hey, I didn't want to belittle your thread, the OP is definitely useful
My point was, right now even with all tweaks, the situation is not really satisfying, and hopefully soon we won't need any tweaking anymore because the developers will have perfected the HD2 port.

One thing that may help some people:
Make sure that your phone is using superuser permissions correctly. A while back on an earlier build I installed setcpu and autokiller. I thought they were working correctly but my battery life was poor. I tried opening superuser permissions and it crashed. I uninstalled Superuser Permissions, then reinstalled. Now setcpu and autokiller work correctly and battery is very good.
There is no indication that these apps aren't working besides the "... granted superuser permissions" popup. If you don't know to look for that message you may not realize there is a problem.

polo735 said:
One thing that may help some people:
Make sure that your phone is using superuser permissions correctly. A while back on an earlier build I installed setcpu and autokiller. I thought they were working correctly but my battery life was poor. I tried opening superuser permissions and it crashed. I uninstalled Superuser Permissions, then reinstalled. Now setcpu and autokiller work correctly and battery is very good.
There is no indication that these apps aren't working besides the "... granted superuser permissions" popup. If you don't know to look for that message you may not realize there is a problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Never saw that problem before, nevertheless with no doubt it can help a lot.
Added in first post, thanks.

I know the task killer argument, but admit it, they still work..

So, I was just checking the downloads section on the market for new updates, and as u may know, previous purchases you made that aren't installed, stand out with their bright orange "Purchased" status at the bottom.
I bought Advanced Task Manager back when I had my Nexus One and found it very helpful. Against the suggestions of many who say to avoid task managers, I decided, "what the heck, let me try it again," because of all the great reviews the app was still getting. I opened it up, ended all of the apps running, and then started opening, closing and reopening apps again just to test for a difference.
I am shocked at how much of a performance improvement I was missing out on. The phone is running snappier than ever and I am very thankful for my 99 cent purchase. So, contrary to popular (belief?), this task manager/ task killer is doing a lot more good for me than any harm. I urge you guys (and girls?) to just give it a try.

Aspeds2989 said:
So, I was just checking the downloads section on the market for new updates, and as u may know, previous purchases you made that aren't installed, stand out with their bright orange "Purchased" status at the bottom.
I bought Advanced Task Manager back when I had my Nexus One and found it very helpful. Against the suggestions of many who say to avoid task managers, I decided, "what the heck, let me try it again," because of all the great reviews the app was still getting. I opened it up, ended all of the apps running, and then started opening, closing and reopening apps again just to test for a difference.
I am shocked at how much of a performance improvement I was missing out on. The phone is running snappier than ever and I am very thankful for my 99 cent purchase. So, contrary to popular (belief?), this task manager/ task killer is doing a lot more good for me than any harm. I urge you guys (and girls?) to just give it a try.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice. The JI6 update includes the addition of a task manager. I'm going to do some testing and see if I notice any differences.

trunkstar1 said:
Nice. The JI6 update includes the addition of a task manager. I'm going to do some testing and see if I notice any differences.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this is an ok one to use since it doesnt auto kill apps.

Aspeds2989 said:
So, I was just checking the downloads section on the market for new updates, and as u may know, previous purchases you made that aren't installed, stand out with their bright orange "Purchased" status at the bottom.
I bought Advanced Task Manager back when I had my Nexus One and found it very helpful. Against the suggestions of many who say to avoid task managers, I decided, "what the heck, let me try it again," because of all the great reviews the app was still getting. I opened it up, ended all of the apps running, and then started opening, closing and reopening apps again just to test for a difference.
I am shocked at how much of a performance improvement I was missing out on. The phone is running snappier than ever and I am very thankful for my 99 cent purchase. So, contrary to popular (belief?), this task manager/ task killer is doing a lot more good for me than any harm. I urge you guys (and girls?) to just give it a try.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I second this, I use my phone a lot. ATK really helped me with my phone overall performance.

Strange, I quit using ATK and didn't notice any difference, except that my battery life increased because I quit opening up ATK every hour to kill programs.
If it works for you, cool, although if you're noticing performance drop, it's probably from running services, not applications.

I usually just press back on an app so that it closes, just out of habit. This should work just as efficiently as ATK?

richan90 said:
I usually just press back on an app so that it closes, just out of habit. This should work just as efficiently as ATK?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly!!!
Anyone with a JI6 base press the home button after redding this post and then enter the JI6 task manager. XDA & the market (among other apps) will constantly hit the cpu.
I think it's really up to the end user to be selective in the apps & services they choose to run. Make sure you are ending your apps correctly & uninstall apps with running services you don't use... Then all should be fine.

richan90 said:
I usually just press back on an app so that it closes, just out of habit. This should work just as efficiently as ATK?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea, I do that too to exit every app that allows it. However, there is still a lot of useless stuff running in the background that I never open (Media Hub, Visual Voicemail, TTS...), but that automatically starts up and uses memory, and ending those apps will significantly improve your phone's available memory. If you just try it you will see, you have nothing to lose by just trying it (there's a free version), but I'm not trying to convince anyone, I'm just saying..
Also, the convenience of just having that "end all running tasks" widget on the homescreen is worth it alone. With one click, your phone feels like like it just rebooted.
Btw, I am running Bionix's rom which is great.. This just keeps everything even smoother.

trunkstar1 said:
Nice. The JI6 update includes the addition of a task manager. I'm going to do some testing and see if I notice any differences.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The J16 task manager is the crappiest and least useful app they could put together. Every popular task manager on the market is miles ahead of it.
Here I took two screens at the same time to show how much the J16 manager leaves out..
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}

Aspeds2989 said:
ending those apps will significantly improve your phone's available memory. .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've never had an issue with memory. I don't think I've ever dropped below 60megs free, and it's usually around 100. I'm running Bionix 1.8 (Jac's Voodoo at 200/1200), have tons of widgets going, and I never see lag or low memory issues. I guess everyone's hardware is different though.

Kubernetes said:
I've never had an issue with memory. I don't think I've ever dropped below 60megs free, and it's usually around 100. I'm running Bionix 1.8 (Jac's Voodoo at 200/1200), have tons of widgets going, and I never see lag or low memory issues. I guess everyone's hardware is different though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea I never had a problem with the memory either, I just mentioned it because the app displays it. Either way, I do see an impact when ending all of the apps/processes that I don't use (even the ones that use barely any memory). Oh well. Whatever works for everyone.

finally someone that agrees with me, my battery lasts way longer by using ATK, also my vibrant is super fast and responsive compared to my friends vibrant with lagfix and all that, i also never have app problems with force closes or hangs and the ignore list is awesome to make sure you never kill needed apps like email and stuff. ATK is a must have. I do however dont recommend using the auto-kill feature, that caused problems for me.
PS: sometimes hitting back all the way till the app exits doesn't always close it

trunkstar1 said:
Nice. The JI6 update includes the addition of a task manager. I'm going to do some testing and see if I notice any differences.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The ji6 task killer is crap! It doest show al the running apps
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

ld006 said:
finally someone that agrees with me, my battery lasts way longer by using ATK, also my vibrant is super fast and responsive compared to my friends vibrant with lagfix and all that, i also never have app problems with force closes or hangs and the ignore list is awesome to make sure you never kill needed apps like email and stuff. ATK is a must have. I do however dont recommend using the auto-kill feature, that caused problems for me.
PS: sometimes hitting back all the way till the app exits doesn't always close it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea I'm not even using the auto-kill feature. I'm just using the "end all" widget every once in a while and it works wonders. Btw, I'm not the only one who agrees with you, about 90% of thousands of people who reviewed it on the market are praising it too

Alex530 said:
The ji6 task killer is crap! It doest show al the running apps
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You guys just don't get it don't you... your built in process manager is showing you ONLY active processes and services running... and the ad_ware type task/app killer crap is telling you that everything is running so you believe what the 3rd party app is telling you verses what your system is telling you... Now I see why these sleazy programmers used the internet and the fear of viruses and spyware, to make tons of money ....
" Click here to install our free spyware scanner "
then
" You have 456 possible spyware files on your system, please purchase to clean your computer now "
You guys remember those days?. Well some people still fall for these scams.... and now it has come to android in the form of task/app killers...
Not all the apps that are being reported by these task killers as running is actually running.... most of them are in idle mode , not doing anything , thus why the system ignores them THEY HAVE NO EFFECT ON THE SYSTEM, until they are called into action again...
This is why Google has chosen to stop apps from killing other apps in 2.2 and up , in other words if you have an app that is killing your battery , don't use a task killer to kill it, report it to the developer so they can fix it, if its an oem system app , then, they need to know that the crap that they put on the phone is killing the battery and you want it fixed....
People in here love to start threads about crap like "where's my froyo" or "I sold my vibrant" , not one was ever started with a list of battery draining apps that needs to be fixed....
The developer of ATK has gone as far as to call Google ' evil ', because Google won't allow them to use their app to kill other apps on Google's OS...

dan0zone said:
You guys just don't get it don't you... your built in process manager is showing you ONLY active processes and services running... and the ad_ware type task/app killer crap is telling you that everything is running so you believe what the 3rd party app is telling you verses what your system is telling you... Now I see why these sleazy programmers used the internet and the fear of viruses and spyware, to make tons of money ....
" Click here to install our free spyware scanner "
then
" You have 456 possible spyware files on your system, please purchase to clean your computer now "
You guys remember those days?. Well some people still fall for these scams.... and now it has come to android in the form of task/app killers...
Not all the apps that are being reported by these task killers as running is actually running.... most of them are in idle mode , not doing anything , thus why the system ignores them THEY HAVE NO EFFECT ON THE SYSTEM, until they are called into action again...
This is why Google has chosen to stop apps from killing other apps in 2.2 and up , in other words if you have an app that is killing your battery , don't use a task killer to kill it, report it to the developer so they can fix it, if its an oem system app , then, they need to know that the crap that they put on the phone is killing the battery and you want it fixed....
People in here love to start threads about crap like "where's my froyo" or "I sold my vibrant" , not one was ever started with a list of battery draining apps that needs to be fixed....
The developer of ATK has gone as far as to call Google ' evil ', because Google won't allow them to use their app to kill other apps on Google's OS...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dude, I used to be on your side of the argument too. I hadn't used a task killer on my Vibrant since buying it, because of all the anti-task-killer rhetoric out there.. But after seeing the benefits of it, I can't deny it. On my Nexus One, the task killer didn't make much difference after it was on 2.2 and that's why I uninstalled it.. Until we have 2.2 on here, it's a little early to call whether it'll be useless on here too after that upgrade. So, we'll have to wait to call that one, but for now.. On 2.1, it's pretty handy.

Aspeds2989 said:
Yea, I do that too to exit every app that allows it. However, there is still a lot of useless stuff running in the background that I never open (Media Hub, Visual Voicemail, TTS...), but that automatically starts up and uses memory, and ending those apps will significantly improve your phone's available memory. If you just try it you will see, you have nothing to lose by just trying it (there's a free version), but I'm not trying to convince anyone, I'm just saying..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This.
Isn't.
Windows.
http://lifehacker.com/5650894/andro...ed-what-they-do-and-why-you-shouldnt-use-them
Also, the convenience of just having that "end all running tasks" widget on the homescreen is worth it alone. With one click, your phone feels like like it just rebooted.
Btw, I am running Bionix's rom which is great.. This just keeps everything even smoother.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's because your phone practically DID reboot.
And guess what a computer does when it reboots?
It restarts every background process that it's been told to autostart, and maxes out your CPU, draining your battery quicker. Typically when those background apps show up as "running", they aren't even using CPU cycles, and are just sitting in memory, waiting for you to use them again. When you kill the services though, they use CPU cycles they otherwise wouldn't have used.
I can see where some people's usage patterns might not benefit by the way Android handles app management. If you feel like it makes your phone run faster, then more power to you.
What would probably be more effective would be to use an autostart manager, rather than a task killer. That way apps like Mediahub don't even load in the first place.

Sigh.... I've tried way too many times to help on this topic. Do what you want people.... nevermind the facts/logic.

There are so many misguided Android users in this thread LOL.
Listen, if you really want to see your phone fly, download autokiller which is a memory manager/optimizer. When you are memory gets below a certain point that you can designate (I would just stick to the presets though), it will start freeing up RAM beginning with empty apps. Empty apps are apps that just sitting in memory not doing anything or serving a function to the user. Then, based on priority, it will go down the list and start freeing up RAM in other places IF and only IF you still need it.
Next, download Autostarts. This will allow you to have those apps that you do not want to to start to, well, not start! This is way more effective than constantly killing them over and over, because guess what? Most of them will just start again because they were not finished doing what they were doing!
Finally, just uninstall the apps you do not want! I've uninstalled most of the bloatware from my phone that started including Media Hub, Amazon MP3, etc etc etc.
Wouldn't you think that Google, the folks that created Android, just might know what is best for their operating system?
PS: If you just use the back button to get out of an app, 99% of the time it will close. I GUARANTEE! Open up an app, hit the home button and go into the built-in task manager. It will be there. Go into the same app and press back instead. Task Manager? Empty. Try it with any app. It will work. So thus, if you just close the apps like they are supposed to be, you won't even have any that need to be closed using a task manager.
Edit: And once you close them with the back button, guess what? They won't reopen! Try it, even with things like messaging.

There are times when moving between home screens is slow, or opening the app menu or going back to the home is slow. This usually happens after opening lots of apps. Closing everything using ATK always speeds this up when it gets slow. Perhaps Android's tolerance for closing extra services is too low. To be honest there are a lot of apps that start their service when I don't want it. The media hub and Tel-Nav GPS would start themselves constantly even though I never used them.
I just ran a test, opening almost every app on my phone. Critics of Task Killers would probably say that Android will kill services and apps when I'm not using them, so I should probably expect very minor slowdown, but not very much at all. When I got around to opening Angry Birds and Air Control (2 games) they took 10-15 seconds to open, immediately after I killed all of the apps and services using ATK Angry Birds opened in less than a second. Coincidence? I think not!

Uptime and Loss of RAM

Greetings! I've read all about not using task killers and refrained myself from using one. But now i'm a bit confused with the efficiency of android RAM management. I simply can't use my Nexus S smoothly beyond 100 hrs of uptime. after which the 'running' tab usually shows >200mb ram used with roughly 50mb of free.
I understand the used RAM was supposed to keep the previously opened apps in cache for faster subsequent execution time. But thats not what going on under the hood, i suppose, after 3/4 days of uptime. When i view 'show cached process' from the 'running' tab, it barely lists the default launcher and 1/2 other apps whereas this menu usually shows more that 10 apps being cached after a fresh boot.
The horrible thing that starts to happen then, most of the apps start exiting as soon as i touch the back button. Nothing except the foreground app stays in the RAM and everything else get dumped out of it and reloads at next launch.
Whats keeping the RAM then, if there's no space for app caching after merely 100hrs of uptime?
I'm not sure but the whole thing has led me believe my system has a major memory leak somewhere. Or, as i've read that the Nexus S actually have quite a bit lees than stated 512mb ram available for user apps… but should i expect this to be normal behaviour? Then why google released this model with inadequate amount of ram in the first place? I'm rebooting my phone every other night to keep it smooth!
Please shed some light, feeling totally lost. I'm moderately heavy user and come from symbian background.
PS: my phone is factory installed stock 2.3.4 with default launcher and widgets since i purchased if 2 mnths ago. no root done yet.

The cached app list in normal Android settings is inaccurate. Try apps like SystemPanel Lite.
Android does take care of RAM usage perfectly usually. Are you saying that your phone gets slower over time? That is quiet impossible unless you got a faulty installation of Android.
Also the "back" button does mean "exit and don't cache" for some/many apps.

Actually I agree my phone gets slow after time. I have to reset then after that it flys aagain
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

I noticed this problem as well, and i had read about it before, there are more people noticing it.
Maybe it happens only when you have too much stuff installed and running, if you are not a power user you might not notice it.
I think the android memory management is lacking here and the launcher app should be more robust, but the issue could also be solved if we had more memory.
I have 200+ apps installed in my nexus, some of them have services that run in the background automatically (and some of them didn't even have to, like some games and apps) and this uses memory.
I have around 15 or 20 apps always running as services, this uses 150mb+ memory. If i close any of these they will just start again in a few seconds automatically. The only way to stop this (my ns is not rooted) is if i uninstall them.
So, after a while, the most noticeable effect is that the launcher gets more sluggish and lagging. if i force close all apps it's smooth again, but only for a while. Also after i run a heavier app (like a game) and close it the launcher will restart/reload.
The workaround i found is to uninstall some of the apps/games that run as services until things get smoother again, but i don't want to give up most of them so i have to put up with a bit of sluggishness.

rentaric said:
The cached app list in normal Android settings is inaccurate. Try apps like SystemPanel Lite.
Android does take care of RAM usage perfectly usually. Are you saying that your phone gets slower over time? That is quiet impossible unless you got a faulty installation of Android.
Also the "back" button does mean "exit and don't cache" for some/many apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah.... my phone gets slow over time, kind of. Let me explain it...
after a fresh boot, i can browse, email, check facebook, make calls, send sms and then come back to browser to find my last loaded page still there. but after 2/3 days of up time, whenever i leave a foreground app and go somewhere else, it gets killed. the worst case i faced was, from the google search app, after inputting my query, it had to close itself before opening the browser to perform the search. it gets that bad.
during these times i usually face a slight delay and jittery animation while opening each app. and the cached processes usually shows only the launcher occupying ~30mb of space and 1 or 2 other very small apps. it appears, because of lack of RAM the system also stops caching the usual number of processes.
i've also thought that my installation could be faulty. i'm using it purely stock for the first few months to get the hang of the way android works. what bothers me, without even rooting it, how can can it get faulty. i even did a factory reset after taking it out of the box.
I'll monitor the situation with the SystemPanel Lite and report back. Thanks for the reply.

temp9300 said:
I noticed this problem as well, and i had read about it before, there are more people noticing it.
Maybe it happens only when you have too much stuff installed and running, if you are not a power user you might not notice it.
I think the android memory management is lacking here and the launcher app should be more robust, but the issue could also be solved if we had more memory.
I have 200+ apps installed in my nexus, some of them have services that run in the background automatically (and some of them didn't even have to, like some games and apps) and this uses memory.
I have around 15 or 20 apps always running as services, this uses 150mb+ memory. If i close any of these they will just start again in a few seconds automatically. The only way to stop this (my ns is not rooted) is if i uninstall them.
So, after a while, the most noticeable effect is that the launcher gets more sluggish and lagging. if i force close all apps it's smooth again, but only for a while. Also after i run a heavier app (like a game) and close it the launcher will restart/reload.
The workaround i found is to uninstall some of the apps/games that run as services until things get smoother again, but i don't want to give up most of them so i have to put up with a bit of sluggishness.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This sounds exactly like what i'm facing. thanks for the input. I've also lost my launcher once after exiting the browser with several tabs open.. had to click the home button and then launcher again to get icons back on it. This usually doesn't happen after first 10-15 hrs but after several days of uptime.
I respect the way android tries to manage RAM automatically even by re-spawning the apps if it thinks they needed to be kept cached even after a force close from default task manager. With this kind of supreme automatic power comes huge responsibility of managing it well. It should count for every bits of data (concurrent garbage collection system?). But somehow it appears the ram management system is failing to count some of it and letting parts of the RAM go un accounted for.
I have like 30 apps installed from market with roughly 5 of them having active background process running. And I believe and hope this shouldn't be enough to take the android RAM management system down only after a few days of uptime.
Thanks again for the reply.

I'm going to try "auto memory manager" i read about in other thread as a way of forcing a minimum amount of free ram a bit higher than standard Android does.
It's one more service using memory but if does what is supposed to, maybe at least the launcher will stay more responsive.
The mild setting is too close to default so i have created a custom that looks roughly between mild and agressive.
I'll report back later.

the phone gets horribly slow when the RAM drops to below 50 Mb free
in which point i always have to use task killer to kill them all, and it's fast again until it again reaches less than 50 Mb RAM
another thing i noticed is that with very heavy high quality pictures/icons loaded to customize the launcher it will slow down the performance
instead if the whole launcher theme is less than 2 Mb or less then the phone also works very fast.

AllGamer said:
the phone gets horribly slow when the RAM drops to below 50 Mb free
in which point i always have to use task killer to kill them all, and it's fast again until it again reaches less than 50 Mb RAM
another thing i noticed is that with very heavy high quality pictures/icons loaded to customize the launcher it will slow down the performance
instead if the whole launcher theme is less than 2 Mb or less then the phone also works very fast.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
...and its unfortunate that i'm hitting the 50mb free RAM barrier with the stock launcher in only 3/4 days of uptime, regularly. why does the default app kill option let the memory go below 50mb then, if this can potentially hamper performance? and i'm not talking about any android phone here, but google's own Nexus flagship.
i remember reading a blog post by an android engineer explaining the merits of memory management by the OS and how task killers only worsen the situation. could they possibly optimize the OS ram management for light to moderate use and expected the heavy users to root and manage it on their own by tinkering the free mem settings? what else could explain the situation?
i wonder how things are with other skinned androids with similar hardware configuration if a Nexus is having tough time behaving well even with its trimmed software package. and i consider myself as only a moderately heavy user.

the memory cleanup isn't perfect in Android.
As much as everyone likes to say that Google tells you not to use task killers or any thing and that Android can take care of itself, every nice ROM out there plays with the minfree settings.
Fact is Android isn't perfect.
I know this from a 256MB device. We set it to it could boot with 30mb free. You could do maps and stuff, but a day later Maps would crash left and right because you ran out of memory. Even if it said 30mb free still in About phone.
The same with the Nexus S. Stock settings allow little free memory. I saw this in CM7. It gets slow after a day. A reboot fixes it all.
I suggest tweaking the minfree values or something so you can get decent performance. Fact is that performance will drop off a bit with up time, but at least if you tweak your minfree settings it should last a LONG time without needing to reboot.

this works great after patched my phone never gets slow
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1111145
just an FYI if you try it dont use the CWM version doesn't work on NS for some reason at least it didn't for me
just manually move with root-explorer and set perm to 777 and enjoy
edit
OP not rooted this requires root

dmo580 said:
the memory cleanup isn't perfect in Android.
As much as everyone likes to say that Google tells you not to use task killers or any thing and that Android can take care of itself, every nice ROM out there plays with the minfree settings.
Fact is Android isn't perfect.
I know this from a 256MB device. We set it to it could boot with 30mb free. You could do maps and stuff, but a day later Maps would crash left and right because you ran out of memory. Even if it said 30mb free still in About phone.
The same with the Nexus S. Stock settings allow little free memory. I saw this in CM7. It gets slow after a day. A reboot fixes it all.
I suggest tweaking the minfree values or something so you can get decent performance. Fact is that performance will drop off a bit with up time, but at least if you tweak your minfree settings it should last a LONG time without needing to reboot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for the informative reply. i've started to get the point about the situation. maybe a little more RAM would've delayed this kind of clogging but at its current state our little green robot simply isn't mature enough to carry the load we're putting on its shoulder. it that case i would accuse google of spreading the word that manual intervention isn't necessary. thats simply misleading. they way they've programmed the stock rom appears to be optimum for light use only.
anyway, i guess re-adjusting the minfree values require root, right? i should better start reading up on rooting then.

demo23019 said:
this works great after patched my phone never gets slow
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1111145
just an FYI if you try it dont use the CWM version doesn't work on NS for some reason at least it didn't for me
just manually move with root-explorer and set perm to 777 and enjoy
edit
OP not rooted this requires root
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i'm thinking of learning about rooting now. i like android for everything else it does and this particular device got me hooked with its unusual and clean look, and i don't wanna give up on it easily. but i think i'll have to gather up a lot of knowledge from this forum pages before i can attempt something like you've described.
thanks a lot for the solution anyway. i'll try it as soon as i feel comfortable with my understanding of android internals.

its not really that complicated just a script file you put into /system/etc/init.d with Root Explorer and set full permissions with root explorer and reboot and it starts working and if you dont like or dont want to sue anymore you simply delete the file.
but yea get rooted definitely worth it and you will gain more knowledge

temp9300 said:
I'm going to try "auto memory manager" i read about in other thread as a way of forcing a minimum amount of free ram a bit higher than standard Android does.....
I'll report back later.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well, things didn't exactly as i had planned, the test with memory optimizer was going ok but i only did for a day.
After that, i managed to sell my Nexus and went for an SGS2!
So far no lag/sluggishness issues and i have installed most of what i had in the NexusS, this phone has 2 important advantages, it has double the ram (so it should take longer to fill) and also it's faster which might compensate.

demo23019 said:
this works great after patched my phone never gets slow
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1111145
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dun use the script if you're running netarxhy, mathkid95;16006240 or trinity kernel. It will just made you worst. Oh yea, and also dun use it on Brainmaster miui rom
Sent from my Google Nexus S using XDA Premium App

window7 said:
Dun use the script if you're running netarxhy, mathkid95;16006240 or trinity kernel. It will just made you worst. Oh yea, and also dun use it on Brainmaster miui rom
Sent from my Google Nexus S using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
really?? but simms22 use auto memory manager too.. so i think we can still use the script with trinity kernel

king23adrianc said:
really?? but simms22 use auto memory manager too.. so i think we can still use the script with trinity kernel
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
auto memory manager and the script are two different things. honestly, i havent tried the script because auto memory manager works for me. ive been setting it higher than the aggressive setting lately btw...
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As a developer I've had to deal a lot with Android's memory management. Simply put, Google is correct in saying that Task Killers do more harm than good. Android is pretty smart about clearing memory.
However, a lot of apps and even some basic framework level calls cause memory leaks, which the garbage collector can't clean. So the only solution is a device reboot.

window7 said:
Dun use the script if you're running netarxhy, mathkid95;16006240 or trinity kernel. It will just made you worst. Oh yea, and also dun use it on Brainmaster miui rom
Sent from my Google Nexus S using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use matrix, and worked fine on netarchy when i was testing.
and Brainmaster MIUI ROM already has script so yea dont need with his ROM also he provides trinty kernels on his ROM page so if trinity had issues with ram script i dont think he would be providing download links to use with his ROM

[APP]Bitdefender Tune-Up [06.06.2012]

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Bitdefender Tune-UP
Description:
Bitdefender Power Tune-Up BETA puts control back in your hands.
Optimize your Android device for maximum performance, battery economy, and controlled data traffic.
Device Clean-up
Gain extra storage by removing unnecessary cache and temporary files from your device’s internal storage, as well as from external memory cards.
3G Traffic Monitoring
Make sure you don’t get overcharged by carefully monitoring 3G data usage, setting up thresholds, and receiving notifications when limits are reached.
Battery Saving Modes
Save precious battery life by switching to the predefined “Battery Saver”, or create your own custom profile for even more flexibility.
Battery Consumption
Be constantly informed of your available talkor standby time. You’ll also be able to quickly view and stop the processes that are eating your CPU and RAM.
Battery Widget
Install the Power Tune-Up widget to keep an eye on your remaining battery time .
We're in Beta…
Our team has worked hard to make our app run as smoothly and bug-free as possible. Should you discover any issues with the app, simply let us know!
Read this post for update: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=24528286&postcount=9
----
Hey, There's More!
You can also secure your Android with Bitdefender Mobile Security & Antivirus--featuring a free on-demand & on install malware scanner, app audit, premium Web security and anti-theft safeguards. Available for free, right here on the Android Market - http://cl.ly/EUOF
Download:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bitdefender.tuneup
Screenshots:

Wow bro it looks very useful!
Nice and modern interface!! I must try it!

Wow! Now that's awesome! Always loved BitDefender. But I have to ask myself...
Most carriers are offering data packages well beyond 2 GB of data and now a day’s WIFI points are pretty much all around... is it really needed to watch your 3G data?
Going along the line of battery saving this looks like it's aimed at the more savvy user then plain Jane right? I can't see the day to day teen/young professional really caring about battery management since that now a day’s teenagers/young professional are the forces whom are using Smartphone’s more heavily for communication, socializing. So really the battery saving feature would be more aimed at the more savvy users.
Battery consumption? Well last time I checked with whatever you’re doing on your phone you'll be using battery life. It would be better to inform people of application that can be removed/not required and offer solution to remove them. It would help remove a bunch of carrier branded application from starting instantly when the phone boots and it would allow for less CPU cycles and memory usage. Along the line of memory usage since Android is running a top of a Linux kernel, the last time I checked Linux using nearly a 90% to 100% of the available memory to balance effectively the usage of the user.
Battery widget got to love some of them... but last I check the widget would actually consume some of the CPU cycles and memory usage so really why would we add that besides having it for convenience?
Just thought I'd point interesting things out of it. But nonetheless GREAT APP!
m0fizor said:
Bitdefender Tune-UP
Description:
Bitdefender Power Tune-Up BETA puts control back in your hands.
Optimize your Android device for maximum performance, battery economy, and controlled data traffic.
Device Clean-up
Gain extra storage by removing unnecessary cache and temporary files from your device’s internal storage, as well as from external memory cards.
3G Traffic Monitoring
Make sure you don’t get overcharged by carefully monitoring 3G data usage, setting up thresholds, and receiving notifications when limits are reached.
Battery Saving Modes
Save precious battery life by switching to the predefined “Battery Saver”, or create your own custom profile for even more flexibility.
Battery Consumption
Be constantly informed of your available talkor standby time. You’ll also be able to quickly view and stop the processes that are eating your CPU and RAM.
Battery Widget
Install the Power Tune-Up widget to keep an eye on your remaining battery time .
We're in Beta…
Our team has worked hard to make our app run as smoothly and bug-free as possible. Should you discover any issues with the app, simply let us know!
----
Hey, There's More!
You can also secure your Android with Bitdefender Mobile Security & Antivirus--featuring a free on-demand & on install malware scanner, app audit, premium Web security and anti-theft safeguards. Available for free, right here on the Android Market - http://cl.ly/EUOF
Download:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bitdefender.tuneup
Screenshots:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Would be nice to know if the battery feature actually works or is any better than say juice defender or if the 3G monitor is better than any other out there because id of thought using an all in one would be worse because of space required and if using an app thats small would the features not work so well think this one needs to be tested against others before saying its a brilliant app it might just work ok compared to some think its test time for me or anyone else willing to try this on several devices

I need a download link not for the market

Look promising..will try 4 sure...

NIC
Will try for sure

I'm trying it right now and it seem good and functional!!!!!!!!!!!

Hello,
One month and 45.000 installs later Bitdefender's Power Tune-Up, our favorite Android performance and battery optimizing mobile app has matured out of BETA.
We're releasing the latest build now, including the latest improvements and fixes.
It's localized in English, French and Portuguese, with additional languages soon to follow.
The team is proud for Power Tune-Up to have been nominated one of the fastest growing apps in Bitdefender history. Here's big thank you to all the people involved.
If you haven't downloaded Power Tune-Up yet (but we doubt you haven't), it's available on Google Play:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bitdefender.tuneup
We'll keep you posted on the product's roadmap and metrics. We have cool new features in the pipeline.
Power Tune-Up now offers:​Battery Saving Modes
Save precious battery life by switching to the predefined “Battery Saver”, or create your own custom profile for even more flexibility.
Battery Consumption
Be constantly informed of your available talk or standby time. You’ll also be able to quickly view and stop the processes that are eating your CPU and RAM.
Battery Widget
Install the Power Tune-Up widget to keep an eye on your remaining battery time .
Device Clean-up
Gain extra storage by removing unnecessary cache and temporary files from your device’s internal storage, as well as from external memory cards.
3G Traffic Monitoring
Make sure you don’t get overcharged by carefully monitoring 3G data usage, setting up thresholds, and receiving notifications when limits are reached.
Thank you,
Bitdefender Team

Extreme RAM usage at least once a day

Hi,
Since I purchased it, my new Moto G5 Plus started acting weird at times, usually once a day with the battery getting nearer to 30%. RAM Usage shoots up, reaching critical levels quickly, and making the phone literally unusable. Only a reboot fixes the issue, and the phone gets as snappy as usual once this is done.
I was lucky enough to screenshot the RAM usage just before the reboot. Two times of three, due to the RAM issue, the screenshot wouldn't even get saved, or it would get covered by FC messages.
I'm aware of how Android RAM management works, I know that unused ram is wasted ram, but this is beyond any limit and does not need any clarification or dismission. Is it a problem of the firmware, the phone, or the OS in general? The model is the European (compass-less, with NFC) 32 GB/3GB variant, bootloader unlocked without root (just booted in TWRP without flashing once, but the issue was present before). Any ideas?
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Just got the US 32gb/2gb variant today. I'll keep an eye on the memory and let you know if i see anything. Nothing yet but would expect it more on my lower memory model. Not sure how much variance there really are in these devices yet either.
Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using Tapatalk

Hello mate! I'm facing a same problem even after flashing a NPN25.137-35 ON 3GB indian Varaint! Hope Motorola will figure out and fix this in next update! Pls see my thread : https://forum.xda-developers.com/g5-plus/help/ram-usage-apps-t3582585

Same issue on NA retail version. Frustrating.
I'm experiencing the same issue on my freshly reinstalled NA potter stock ROM.
After doing some research, it seemed that for some G5+ owners out there, enabling automatic night mode in System UI Tuner was the cause of the excessive RAM usage and lag. There's a reddit thread about this called moto_g5_plus_ram_issue but I am unable to post link.
Unfortunately, that was not the root cause for my phone, since I never enabled that feature. I even found it, enabled it, and disabled it just to make sure. Still having to reboot phone at least once a day when it reaches 3.4/3.6 GB RAM usage. Otherwise, the lag causes the phone to be unusable.

2 GB variant here, no issues.
I usually close recent apps too, but i guess you did so too and the ram usage is still high..
I get 80% RAM usage and 704MB free RAM, leaving the system using only 642MB and the apps 517MB. So there is a problem in your device, have you tried custom ROM's? Or you may prefer staying stock in case you have to send your device to repair.
Also, at least in my variant, there is no "Automatic NIght Mode" in system UI tuner, not in stock at least

Qwilava said:
Hi,
Since I purchased it, my new Moto G5 Plus started acting weird at times, usually once a day with the battery getting nearer to 30%. RAM Usage shoots up, reaching critical levels quickly, and making the phone literally unusable. Only a reboot fixes the issue, and the phone gets as snappy as usual once this is done.
I was lucky enough to screenshot the RAM usage just before the reboot. Two times of three, due to the RAM issue, the screenshot wouldn't even get saved, or it would get covered by FC messages.
I'm aware of how Android RAM management works, I know that unused ram is wasted ram, but this is beyond any limit and does not need any clarification or dismission. Is it a problem of the firmware, the phone, or the OS in general? The model is the European (compass-less, with NFC) 32 GB/3GB variant, bootloader unlocked without root (just booted in TWRP without flashing once, but the issue was present before). Any ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm experiencing this too. Android OS is the app that is the problem. It takes up a freaking 2GBs of RAM!

Thanks for your reply. I do try to keep recent apps cleaned up periodically, but yes, this has been an issue since I bought the phone. I watch Android OS go from 800 MB of RAM usage at first reboot up throughout the day to 2.7 GB, until there's about 200 MG free RAM. That's when the lag hits and phone sometimes spontaneously reboots.
I did actually try flashing the unofficial Lineage 15.1 ROM, but my SIM (Sprint) wasn't recognized when I booted, so I shied away from messing with it further. Still pretty new at this. Might try again when I feel up to redoing phone. Haven't been able to use TWRP to make a backup because it doesn't see the internal SD card, so would have to start over completely...
M1810 said:
2 GB variant here, no issues.
I usually close recent apps too, but i guess you did so too and the ram usage is still high..
I get 80% RAM usage and 704MB free RAM, leaving the system using only 642MB and the apps 517MB. So there is a problem in your device, have you tried custom ROM's? Or you may prefer staying stock in case you have to send your device to repair.
Also, at least in my variant, there is no "Automatic NIght Mode" in system UI tuner, not in stock at least
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

No such thing here. The only 3 apps I keep running are Chrome, WhatsApp and XDA. I do occasionally use other apps but I swipe them when I'm done with them. Here are some screenshots.
PS: If you're wondering why my nav bar buttons are closer, that's coz I used the OP5T nav bar mod which was posted in XDA news a couple of days ago, no root needed tho

Swiping away unneeded apps helps, but RAM was still overused overnight
Hey psychopac, since your post, I have started being much more diligent than before about swiping away apps that I'm done using. It has made a noticeable difference, so thank you. The phone's been lag free.
However, there still seems to be a problem with RAM usage when I'm not actively maintaining it. Last night, I went to sleep with about 750 MB of free RAM, but this morning it dropped back down to 165 MB. I just had Hangouts, Messages, Settings, and Firefox in recent apps open.
For now I'll keep on swiping away apps, since it's much easier to do that than to mess with another ROM or reboot when it lags too badly.
psychopac said:
No such thing here. The only 3 apps I keep running are Chrome, WhatsApp and XDA. I do occasionally use other apps but I swipe them when I'm done with them. Here are some screenshots.
PS: If you're wondering why my nav bar buttons are closer, that's coz I used the OP5T nav bar mod which was posted in XDA news a couple of days ago, no root needed tho
Click to expand...
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---------- Post added at 03:06 PM ---------- Previous post was at 03:01 PM ----------

Okay, so another tip. I have disabled some Google apps that I don't use. They include: Duo, Google Play Movies & TV, Motorola Notifications (the recently added one) and Google app (search).
And one important one which a lot of people might not agree with but it should make a difference on low RAM devices. Out of the three apps I most commonly use, instead of pressing home button, I press back key till I'm on the home. What (I think) that does is it closes the app and frees some memory if not all taken by that app. Now I may be wrong here. Please feel free to correct me. But if that's how it really works, then you can save just a bit more battery than when you keep all the apps that you actively use in the background by pressing home button to minimize all go directly to home without pressing back.
Again, feel free to correct as I may be wrong. Or not? But personally, that's what I do. Some of you may think that what I do closes the app and when I switch back to it, it reloads again which some may think is equal to swiping away an app and opening it again after some time so that it reloads everything from the ground up instead of picking up from where you left off when you just press home button and that app goes into the background but is still working and resumes from the point where you left when you open it again.
So,
1. I always close all the tabs when I'm not using chrome.
2. I always close XDA app (not XDA labs) by pressing back till I'm on the homescreen also because it's better this way as whenever I open it, it loads up new info so I don't have to refresh everything.
You can also see which apps are using exactly how much memory but going into the Settings>Apps>Your app>Memory and keep a check
Opinions?

Hey psychopac, I've been trying your tips to use the back button to close out of the apps, then swiping apps away from recent, as well as disabled the system apps that I don't use.
Still reaching 97% RAM usage on a daily basis.
It looks like what is using the most RAM is Android OS. It will go up from 1.2 GB to 2.6 GB or higher over the course of the day. That seems to push the phone over the edge.
psychopac said:
Okay, so another tip. I have disabled some Google apps that I don't use. They include: Duo, Google Play Movies & TV, Motorola Notifications (the recently added one) and Google app (search).
And one important one which a lot of people might not agree with but it should make a difference on low RAM devices. Out of the three apps I most commonly use, instead of pressing home button, I press back key till I'm on the home. What (I think) that does is it closes the app and frees some memory if not all taken by that app. Now I may be wrong here. Please feel free to correct me. But if that's how it really works, then you can save just a bit more battery than when you keep all the apps that you actively use in the background by pressing home button to minimize all go directly to home without pressing back.
Again, feel free to correct as I may be wrong. Or not? But personally, that's what I do. Some of you may think that what I do closes the app and when I switch back to it, it reloads again which some may think is equal to swiping away an app and opening it again after some time so that it reloads everything from the ground up instead of picking up from where you left off when you just press home button and that app goes into the background but is still working and resumes from the point where you left when you open it again.
So,
1. I always close all the tabs when I'm not using chrome.
2. I always close XDA app (not XDA labs) by pressing back till I'm on the homescreen also because it's better this way as whenever I open it, it loads up new info so I don't have to refresh everything.
You can also see which apps are using exactly how much memory but going into the Settings>Apps>Your app>Memory and keep a check
Opinions?
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Click to collapse

5xonlineage said:
Hey psychopac, I've been trying your tips to use the back button to close out of the apps, then swiping apps away from recent, as well as disabled the system apps that I don't use.
Still reaching 97% RAM usage on a daily basis.
It looks like what is using the most RAM is Android OS. It will go up from 1.2 GB to 2.6 GB or higher over the course of the day. That seems to push the phone over the edge.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As you said it yourself that Android OS is using most of the RAM, at this point I'd do a reboot if I were you just to see if it helps or not. BTW, how much memory is Android OS taking? Are you on the latest 1st Jan Patch?

Reboot helps but not for long
psychopac said:
As you said it yourself that Android OS is using most of the RAM, at this point I'd do a reboot if I were you just to see if it helps or not. BTW, how much memory is Android OS taking? Are you on the latest 1st Jan Patch?
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Click to collapse
Rebooting helped but only for about 18 hrs. Android OS starts out using about 700 MB but goes up to at least 2.6 GB before the day is done. That's while closing apps and swiping them away...
I actually am back on Lineage 14.1 so didn't get to try the Jan patch. RAM usage is much better, hovering around 1.6 GB/3.6 GB.

5xonlineage said:
Rebooting helped but only for about 18 hrs. Android OS starts out using about 700 MB but goes up to at least 2.6 GB before the day is done. That's while closing apps and swiping them away...
I actually am back on Lineage 14.1 so didn't get to try the Jan patch. RAM usage is much better, hovering around 1.6 GB/3.6 GB.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm surprised that Android OS is taking almost more than half the entire RAM space. This is wierd because if you're actively maintaining your recent apps, this shouldn't happen at all