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So, after installing Task Manager and opening it I had 31 applications running in the background! Yup, you read that right, 31!!! I ended them all and started playing around. I would launch and app, hit the back button and then go into Task Manager and there it was, still running. I launched several applications hitting back aftewards and they were all still running. I even tried hitting home aftwards and still running. Oh, and I had some apps running twice!!! WTF!?!? Looks like I found a major flaw in the new 2.1 OS.
This is normal android behaviour.
Apps are only shut down when the phone runs out of memory, however if the app is not doing anyting it will be paused and not use any battery / cpu.
And since the nexus has 512MB RAM it can have a LOT of open applications
If it is a background app (like im) it usually has an exit button in the menu.
Apps always run on android if you don't end them with a task manager.
Ya, normal behavior. The app actually has to intentionally end itself when you press the back button for that to really end it. I wouldn't worry about it, though. Apps in the background tend to use very little RAM and CPU.
Not sure why people are freaking out about apps running in the background... This is normal and Android does an amazing job of freeing up memory by killing apps as NEEDED.
Hmmmm, guess I never looked at it that way. I do notice it gets a little sluggish when all of that is running in the background. I'm just used to my MT3G. I've NEVER seen that many apps running at once.
setzer715 said:
Hmmmm, guess I never looked at it that way. I do notice it gets a little sluggish when all of that is running in the background. I'm just used to my MT3G. I've NEVER seen that many apps running at once.
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Click to collapse
try two and two-thirds the amount of RAM and that would explain how you get so many apps running lol.
david1171 said:
try two and two-thirds the amount of RAM and that would explain how you get so many apps running lol.
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Click to collapse
Ha-ha, good point!!!
From my experience the apps never close it is set to idle and is stored in the phone memory therefore decreasing startup time and allowing for a better multitasking experience but on all other previous android devices there wasn't as much memory so only a few apps could run at a time before the memory would be needed so something would get closed.
You're used to having 37.5% of the ram the Nexus One has
Now here's the question: does having 31 apps open affect battery life?
Paul22000 said:
You're used to having 37.5% of the ram the Nexus One has
Now here's the question: does having 31 apps open affect battery life?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It depends on the applications. If they just sit quietly when suspended (in the background) and don't do anything, they will have no impact on battery life (because their threads will never schedule/run). If they continue to do work while in the background, that will have some impact, however, unless they hold a wakelock (something they need the "keep phone from sleeping" permission to do), they will have no contribution to battery consumption while the screen is off and no other apps/services hold wakelocks.
In short, "it depends."
The menu / settings / about phone / battery use panel tries to give you as much information as possible about what apps/services are consuming your battery.
martijnve said:
This is normal android behaviour.
Apps are only shut down when the phone runs out of memory, however if the app is not doing anyting it will be paused and not use any battery / cpu.
And since the nexus has 512MB RAM it can have a LOT of open applications
If it is a background app (like im) it usually has an exit button in the menu.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes. Traditional multitasking (WinMo, BlackBerry) phone OSes will not close an application (or program, on WinMo) until you tell it to close, or it decides to close itself. This is a resource hog, and results in the freezing up or running painfully slowly that we have come to expect from those devices. The iPhone always runs fast because it ALWAYS closes an app--no multitasking whatsoever--so it never runs out of resources and slows down. It "pauses" the app, then closes it, so when you open it, it resumes right where it left off, as if it were open the whole time. The downside is nothing gets done in the background--which is why awesome apps like Locale or Screebl won't run on iPhone. Android is the best of both worlds. It leaves apps running until it NEEDS to close them. When resources run tight, it pauses apps just like the iPhone, so it stays running fast, but as long as you don't overload the system, you can run background apps. And background services will stay running.
Paul22000 said:
Now here's the question: does having 31 apps open affect battery life?
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Click to collapse
I'm sure it does some, but with that monster of a CPU, and as little power as apps use when they're sitting in the background not doing anything, I'm guessing it is a negligible difference. But that's why I love Advanced Task Manager's auto-end feature.
i lol'd -----------__________----------------
When you have 31 applications running, is there a hardware key that you can press (perhaps with a third party software) to show those which are running, and to switch to anyone of them instantly without resorting back to the application menu? Also, does this same tool let you shut down an active tasks in order to conserver memory and battery life? I understand that a long press of the home key only shows the last 6(?) application launched but not necessarily the currently active tasks.
On my jailbroken iPhone, I'm used to be able to double click the home button to show all active tasks, and there I can switch to or terminate anyone of them. While running an application, I also have the option of long pressing the home button to end it directly so that it does not continue running in the background. If I do a normal home press, the application will continue running in the background, and I'm presented with a screen which lets me jumps to any of the desktop in order to launch new applications.
I hope I can have the same level of convenience here.
All of the applications in the backround are essentially in hibernation - it is part of the way Android manages the RAM. I think it's great.
I was messing trying to figure out which is the correct method to close apps, back and home do the same thing, holding HOME (i just found out) brings up a list of recently used apps, but i can't figure a way to properly close them. I have Advanced Task Manager to close them now and again but I don't want to keep it running all the time.
Is there any proper way if the app doesn't provide an exit function?
Because an app is on that list does not mean it is not closed. That list is just the history of the last 6 apps you used.
A lot of people say that you do not need to worry about whether or not an app is fully closed because the software manages that to ensure that it has enough free memory. I don't know enough to know whether that is correct or not.
peterc10 said:
Because an app is on that list does not mean it is not closed. That list is just the history of the last 6 apps you used.
A lot of people say that you do not need to worry about whether or not an app is fully closed because the software manages that to ensure that it has enough free memory. I don't know enough to know whether that is correct or not.
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Click to collapse
Yes, sorry, the apps I'm referring to are shown by the Advanced Task Manager, I merely found the Recent list when trying to find a way to exit apps.
I sometimes have 15-20 apps in there filling up my RAM even on startup things like Shop Savy will be there twice and Photoshop.com.
They, amongst others don't seem to provide options to prevent them starting at boot so I simply uninstalled them, but all the running apps do severely affect the performance when it's filling up.
I have been experiencing the same problem.
Advanced Task Manager lists a whole load of apps that start on bootup and each one of those doesn't have an option to disable this.
After a while (about 3 hrs or so) of using my Hero I am down to about 40mb of RAM which if I don't use Advanced Task Manager to kill unused apps my Hero begins to lag big time.
On the Android it is better to leave them resident in memory than stop them, unless they are 'background' processes and there is something wrong with them (a bug) making them slow down your phone.
Don't judge your Android on amount of free memory left; if anything, the the less memory left over the better as it means the memory is being used effectively to make it nice and speedy.
Processes aren't allowed to consume CPU cycles/consume battery/slow your phone down when they are not focused; the exception is background processes which need to keep going, like the music player etc. What's more, if an app is not focused then its state is preserved allowing your phone to free up its memory when needed; its memory effectively becomes 'cache' allowing it to restart quicker if it happens to have stayed in memory.
So don't worry about wiping an app from memory; for many apps there is simply no distinction between closing it and switching away from it; as soon as you switch away from it it's as good as closed; it's not slowing your phone down or taking up any memory that couldn't be freed instantly if needed, but if it is lucky enough to stay in memory it will re-open quicker.
On my experience, if you press the back button to exit an app, then the app is closed properly, running the code in the app that will release the memory and objects. This is the best way.
The only app it will not work on is the browser as the back button will send you back through the history.
Try it...
MercuryStar said:
On the Android it is better to leave them resident in memory than stop them, unless they are 'background' processes and there is something wrong with them (a bug) making them slow down your phone.
Don't judge your Android on amount of free memory left; if anything, the the less memory left over the better as it means the memory is being used effectively to make it nice and speedy.
Processes aren't allowed to consume CPU cycles/consume battery/slow your phone down when they are not focused; the exception is background processes which need to keep going, like the music player etc. What's more, if an app is not focused then its state is preserved allowing your phone to free up its memory when needed; its memory effectively becomes 'cache' allowing it to restart quicker if it happens to have stayed in memory.
So don't worry about wiping an app from memory; for many apps there is simply no distinction between closing it and switching away from it; as soon as you switch away from it it's as good as closed; it's not slowing your phone down or taking up any memory that couldn't be freed instantly if needed, but if it is lucky enough to stay in memory it will re-open quicker.
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Click to collapse
I understand how and why this should be true, but for me it doesn't seem to be, if my memory falls to less than 40 the phone becomes increadibly unresponsive, I get crashes and have to wait forever for it to do things like open the phone. Immediately after killing all with advanced task manager it goes back to normal.
barryallott said:
On my experience, if you press the back button to exit an app, then the app is closed properly, running the code in the app that will release the memory and objects. This is the best way.
The only app it will not work on is the browser as the back button will send you back through the history.
Try it...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have tried both methods, more often than not though, back doesn't seem to do much either, I have experimented with free RAM and using back or Home, it seems the Home certainly isn't the correct way to do it, but back doesn't work very often either, maybe people aren't coding their apps properly to respond to the back button as an exit method?
this is the never ending discussion whether task manager make sense for android or not.
i'm one of those who say: definetly YES! USE TASKMANGER.
I understand that Android works in a way that taskmanager shouldnt be needed because it handles the tasks on its own, but sadly the concept just doesn't seem to work.
When my ram fills up i can cleary see that the device is getting slower, even just opening apps takes more than 5 seconds. After closing some apps the hero is fast again.
now i don't care whether ANDROID is the reason or some POORLY programmed background apps, because the outcome for me as a user is the same. I#m using advanced task manager and im very happy with it, whenever Android starts to slow down i close the open and unneeded apps, and everything is fast again...don't know how people can claim that Android does handle task management perfectly on its own.
Shahpur.Azizpour said:
this is the never ending discussion whether task manager make sense for android or not.
i'm one of those who say: definetly YES! USE TASKMANGER.
I understand that Android works in a way that taskmanager shouldnt be needed because it handles the tasks on its own, but sadly the concept just doesn't seem to work.
When my ram fills up i can cleary see that the device is getting slower, even just opening apps takes more than 5 seconds. After closing some apps the hero is fast again.
now i don't care whether ANDROID is the reason or some POORLY programmed background apps, because the outcome for me as a user is the same. I#m using advanced task manager and im very happy with it, whenever Android starts to slow down i close the open and unneeded apps, and everything is fast again...don't know how people can claim that Android does handle task management perfectly on its own.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The point is, Task manager of any kind is another 3rd party app taking up more memory, and quite frankly on such a high end phone i shouldn't have to worry about this problem. I noticed another thread about changing the values at which the internal task manager kills apps etc, if it becomes more of a problem i'll look into this method of fixing it.
alias_neo said:
The point is, Task manager of any kind is another 3rd party app taking up more memory, and quite frankly on such a high end phone i shouldn't have to worry about this problem. I noticed another thread about changing the values at which the internal task manager kills apps etc, if it becomes more of a problem i'll look into this method of fixing it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes, in theory we shouldn't worry about tasks in the background, but in reality as you said, the device WILL slow down. so there is no other way around than closing apps manually and defining apps to be kept alive by the 3rd party task manager.
changing values for the internal task manager sounds like something which would only work on a rooted device, but im not sure...
Hi
Ive just got this app (really to save myself some battery time)
On launching for the first time it presents me with a whole bunch of stuff including my clocks
Now i'm sure this maybe a pretty dumb question but if i kill the htc clock App will that stop the time and weather updating correctly? (i have my weather set to update hourly) and also if i kill any app like K-9 or Peep (that i have an update schedule set for) will it stop that schedule till i manually launch the app again or will it auto launch when it reaches the sheduled update time?
Sorry for the (potentially) stupid questions
Cheers
The only thing you're going to achieve with using a task killer, is lowering performance and causing even worse battery drain. If that's what you want to do, fine, but otherwise, I wouldn't bother if I were you.
Here's why:
Android's memory management is nothing like Windows Mobile. Applications you've finished with are MEANT to stay in memory until they really are completely finished with, and just because YOU aren't using them, doesn't mean the phone has. If they've been inactive long enough, or some other program needs the RAM, Android will tidily close them down.
If you close them prematurely, then Android will have to load them back up again, so that whatever was using said program's services, can continue to function. This noticeably affects phone performance, and puts an extra load on your battery. Do you REALLY want to do that?
I'm not using any task killers, and my phone runs great, and battery is up to 2.5 days.
Hmm interesting, i might try that, im killing all instantly and repeately, thanks for the tip
FloatingFatMan said:
The only thing you're going to achieve with using a task killer, is lowering performance and causing even worse battery drain. If that's what you want to do, fine, but otherwise, I wouldn't bother if I were you.
Here's why:
Android's memory management is nothing like Windows Mobile. Applications you've finished with are MEANT to stay in memory until they really are completely finished with, and just because YOU aren't using them, doesn't mean the phone has. If they've been inactive long enough, or some other program needs the RAM, Android will tidily close them down.
If you close them prematurely, then Android will have to load them back up again, so that whatever was using said program's services, can continue to function. This noticeably affects phone performance, and puts an extra load on your battery. Do you REALLY want to do that?
I'm not using any task killers, and my phone runs great, and battery is up to 2.5 days.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats correct.
I installed it on the phone, and the battery was empty the same night
Uninstalled it, and all works fine now.
Greetz.
would an app like task panel work?
you can add apps that are system apps etc to the ignore list and have apps such as games on the force to kill list or is it just best not to have any task killer apps installed at all?
its strange that there are so many task killer apps and its bad to run on your device. There must be some reason as to why there is an app for this purpose?
ragmanchu said:
would an app like task panel work?
you can add apps that are system apps etc to the ignore list and have apps such as games on the force to kill list or is it just best not to have any task killer apps installed at all?
its strange that there are so many task killer apps and its bad to run on your device. There must be some reason as to why there is an app for this purpose?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They exist, because people think memory management on Android works like it does on Windows Mobile. It doesn't, and never has. Think if it like the so called "memory manager" tools you can get for XP that claim to be able to free all your RAM and speed up your system... Every single one of them is nothing but a placebo designed to part you from your cash, and often end up CAUSING problems, just like task killers on Android do.
Avoid them.
FloatingFatMan said:
They exist, because people think memory management on Android works like it does on Windows Mobile. It doesn't, and never has. Think if it like the so called "memory manager" tools you can get for XP that claim to be able to free all your RAM and speed up your system... Every single one of them is nothing but a placebo designed to part you from your cash, and often end up CAUSING problems, just like task killers on Android do.
Avoid them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Guess thats a good enough reply lol
task killers can work fine, but you need to know what is running and what is using it.
for example, if you have the music widget on the homescreens, then the music player process will be opne in the background.
likewise friendstream will keep people, facebook and twitter open in the background.
if you kill those processes, they will just get opened again.
As long as you are careful, using task managers will not decrease battery life, you just need to know how to use them properly. randomly killing everything in the background is NOT the way to do it.
and you should never close clock if you want your alarm clock to actually go off!!
Might be worth making a list of what apps should be ignored and what apps can be forced killed?
When i had an app killer installed, i used to only force kill games and sat nav apps, the rest i asked it to ignore but after reading this thread, i decided to delete the app killer app =)
Ive put a bunch of stuff like clock, weather, Peep and facebook etc on the ignore list and have used the task killer to only kill off frivolous apps like Spark (for xbox friends) streamfurious, photos etc...Nothing Major!
I unhooked my phone from the power at 7:30 am on the 13th April, its now 16:36 on the 14th april and it still has 30% of the juice left, and i always have wifi and mobile data connection on too...phone is always left on with facebook connecting ever 4 hrs and peep once a day and mail set for every 2 hrs (besides which i do check and update them manually a couple of times a day)
I'll try all this without task killer installed and test how long the phone can run before charging
As you say, it could well be a combination of the battery coming up to speed and a placebo effect.
However, surely it cant do more harm than good to kill an app like Spark !
However, im no Phone Genius so im sure someone will soon tell me that im completely wrong
But so far so good....like i said, ill test things without task killer installed
I've stopped using the task killer now and my battery life has improved very noticably.
oursoul said:
I've stopped using the task killer now and my battery life has improved very noticably.
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Click to collapse
im not so sure about this.
im using a task killer when i want to close the browser or something using internet, as we all know internet drains a lot of battery and even if the browser or market is in the background it still probably has some active connections = draining battery
cez10 said:
im using a task killer when i want to close the browser or something using internet, as we all know internet drains a lot of battery and even if the browser or market is in the background it still probably has some active connections = draining battery
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you want to close fast the browser or any app, you should have a try at taskOS and launch it with the search key whenever you want...
Binned this app in favour of Juice defender, my new battery saving app of choice, seems to be working as it should too...nice
profete162 said:
If you want to close fast the browser or any app, you should have a try at taskOS and launch it with the search key whenever you want...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
but then that works pretty much like a task killer
can anyone correct me about the apps i.e. browser using internet while not active(in background) is this true or not? of course having the sync/updates turned off
Task killers can be handy for those times when apps seem to have crashed but aren't forcing close. for example, i've had times where ebuddy just doesn't want to even try to sign in. Task kill it. Try again. all is well. And last my internet browser wouldn't let me click any buttons. Again, killed it - restarted - all is ok.
I've had to use such an app countless of times due to unwanted/unneeded apps running, hanging FCs and black screens, checking/closing net related or sensor using apps, and numerous times when 300KB apps wouldn't install citing 'low memory' when I have more than 70MB free, but it was the RAM being near full causing FCs in apps like Market, and halting the installs. I only use Androids built-in TaskPanel widget for this though. Everything routine is set over to the ignore list so that I don't accidently hit and close that (single hit closes the app). Additionally I use this app to check and to switch to an opened application that is running (when it's not in the recent list).
Sent from my HTC Desire using the XDA mobile application powered by Tapatalk
profete162 said:
If you want to close fast the browser or any app, you should have a try at taskOS and launch it with the search key whenever you want...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is the route I've taken naturally. I'm using jkAppSwitch on my longpress search key, mainly used for switching but can be used to kill problem apps.
Full task killers are being proven to be useless on the Desire.
I would recommend using an app that monitors the cpu usage(watchdog etc.). This way your can see which apps put a drain on your phone.
Thank you for the information. But I do notice a considerable improvement in battery power with Advanced Task Killer.
I hope someone can provide me an answer.
Hi,
I don't think this is limited to my device so I am asking here. Are you guys really able to multitask on your devices? On mine I start the web browser then I switch over a couple of apps and when I try to go bqck to the browser it gets launched all over again. Of course it remembers all the pages I have opened but they get reloaded. The same happens to other apps all the time. That drives me crazy. I installed an app called System Panel that I used to have on my HTC Desire and it shows that there are a lot of background services running and out of 700 megs of RAM it's only 50-80 free memory. Among those running apss there are services of widgets that I have never used like AP widget, world clocks, Yahoo finance, samsung hubs and etc. That's insane that such stuff occupies memory while apps that I really use gets killed so eagerly. Is there any way to improve on this behavior? My HTC desire seems to handle more apps at once than my GalTab :O
Marcin
Sent from my GT-P7500 using Tapatalk
I'm with you about the browser. So irritating that pages are reloaded when you leave the browser. I put starburst ROM on mine so I'm not sure if that took care of the RAM issues, but the reloading browser is pure fail. (BTW- I use dolphin for pad and it's the same).
I guess it's more a matter of the OS killing background apps to retain memory than the app behavior.
In Android an app(it's called an Activity) cannot forbid the operating system from killing it when the OS decides to. An app can only gets notified about the event of being killed to persist its state to be able to restore it later. And the browser does that.
What the problem really is here is that because of a lot of bloatware(including background services of Samsung hubs, Yahoo widget, Associated Press widget) running in background the OS is not having enough memory to keep the user apps runinng. So soon afther an app is put into background it gets killed to make space in memory for other apps.
And as far as I know killing thresholds for available memory are set to around 56 MB. And this happens to be around how much free memory is available for most of the time. So it makes any app put in background to be killed almost immediately. This makes the OS that is supposed to have an edge over iOS in terms of multitasking to be in fact able to run a single app at a time
And ifor example my HTC desire that runs vanilla Android 2.3.4 (Oxygen) seems to run with close to 200 MBs (out of 576MB built in according to the specs) of free RAM during normal operation. I do not use any task killers or any similiar tools. This makes the OS to easily handle multiple apps in background.
So, the question becomes: "how do we [permanently] kill all those background bloatware processes?"
freeze them with titanium backup
U guys realize it only reloads browser pages if u back out or hit the home button right? X the tabs out and ur browser will not do this
The only app that ever shows me the low memory msg is logmein ignition
Sent from my GT-P7510 using XDA Premium App
This is not really what we are talking about here. Try it this way. Open any page in a browser. GMail for instance. Log in and leave it this way. Now open the task switcher and go to some other app (e.g. Tapatalk). Navigate through some other apps and then select the task switcher and try to go back to your browser. You will notice that it was shut down silently and now it's started again. All previously open pages will be reloaded at this point. On my HTC Desire using the same scenario I end up with a web browser screen restored with the already open page not being reloaded. It even remembers what part of the page I scrolled down to.
bandit_knight said:
This is not really what we are talking about here. Try it this way. Open any page in a browser. GMail for instance. Log in and leave it this way. Now open the task switcher and go to some other app (e.g. Tapatalk). Navigate through some other apps and then select the task switcher and try to go back to your browser. You will notice that it was shut down silently and now it's started again. All previously open pages will be reloaded at this point. On my HTC Desire using the same scenario I end up with a web browser screen restored with the already open page not being reloaded. It even remembers what part of the page I scrolled down to.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So the honeycomb memory management system is doing its job and freeing up memory when the browser is in the background idle. You are complaining?
bluskye said:
So the honeycomb memory management system is doing its job and freeing up memory when the browser is in the background idle. You are complaining?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, it does not really. I just rebooted my device and noticed that now I can switch between tasks without having the one that I've just put into background immediatelly killed. Also after the reboot there is around 300 MB of free RAM compared to 50 MB thad I had after a few days of use. Also the entire device feels way more snappy now. Doesn't it look like a memory leak?
I have not seen this problem - can have many things running and still have close to 100mb memory free. Doesn't seem to have got worse from a few weeks usage, either. But I have noticed some running processes that I have never even opened, which is strange. Solution is definitely to root and then freeze the things you don't need, but personally I am not going to do this as my memory seems fine. You could try taking off certain widgets and not running certain programs after reboot to see if one thing in particular causes a big memory drain. Social Hubs? I have never even opened this as it caused a mess on my Samsung phone.
You are using app 'A' , you press home key, you are back on home screen, app 'A' stays in RAM as is then you open another app or do something else and again open the same app, there it loads quickly (blazing fast as everybody claims) no micro lag even, with same status, where you pressed home key. If I check the CPU uses for good apps it's always 0 %, means app is in suspended state, if app is in background and consumes CPU, task manager suspends it(my observation).
This is how iOS does it, no back key. You keep on opening apps and when needed, multitasking makes room, there you notice a micro lag ALSO in iOS.
Now on Android, you get same behavior as above if you don't use back key, you can really compare smoothness with iOS and only micro lag when RAM should be freed.
Try it with 'whatsapp' for example, you will see it.
Of course back key is needed but not for all the apps and that's where it differs with iOS and creates confusion of lags. Well many people don't care micro or mini lag but the point is why not to have a mechanism on apps, that either app should go in suspended state when back key pressed (same as home key) or app must quit(resource hog apps or games).
It doesn't require user attention to press home key or back key but checks if in what status app should be put in.
I hope I am correct and not missing something major here. Now I am getting used to pressing home key on some apps with my own conscious and think about lag questions everywhere.
Your opinion please. I just want to clear my concept about it.
and yes about battery life, please keep that aside for a moment.
Thanks
I will give it a try for a few days.... will see..
Thanks dude,try it. may be there is an chance of improvement.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
With the current state of apps, it shouldn't be necessary to exit apps at all. The home button should suffice. I really don't know how memory efficient Android was back in 1.5-2.0, but currently it works pretty well.
I believe the back button should only be used to navigate within apps, but not to exit apps. It is "in theory" not necessary if the app is properly developed.
A lot of apps stay in ram even if you exit them with the back button.
Interesting post. I have a habit of killing all apps lol, for fear that some will drain my battery life (some definitely do, ie. words with friends!)
Download the App "System Panel" from the Android Market.
It's free and it lets you know how much ram and CPU your apps are currently eating up...
Sent from my MB860 using xda premium
Only thing I have noticed is that not all aplications stay in memory after I press Home.
For example when I open dialer (phone.apk) and then press Home button, next time I start it it starts extremely fast.
But if I leave the phone for a while (not starting anything, about 100mb of free ram) and then start the dialer again it starts slower again (it does not stay in cached proccesses).
voodoofox said:
Only thing I have noticed is that not all aplications stay in memory after I press Home.
For example when I open dialer (phone.apk) and then press Home button, next time I start it it starts extremely fast.
But if I leave the phone for a while (not starting anything, about 100mb of free ram) and then start the dialer again it starts slower again (it does not stay in cached proccesses).
Click to expand...
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That's because some RAM used by the Dialer process is being claimed by the OS to do something else. Even if the phone is sleeping, it could be claimed.
The Android system tries to maintain an application process for as long as possible, but eventually needs to remove old processes to reclaim memory for new or more important processes. To determine which processes to keep and which to kill, the system places each process into an "importance hierarchy" based on the components running in the process and the state of those components. Processes with the lowest importance are eliminated first, then those with the next lowest importance, and so on, as necessary to recover system resources.
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Yeah I know but I am not sure why is the system killing processes even when there is at least 80mb of free memory (and I mean free, everything that's left after you deduct services and other cached processes).
Unless when the phone is sleeping the OS takes up absolutely all free memory to do something...however that sounds like a lot of memory to be taken whatever the system is doing especially while the phone is not awake...
There is also a rule from Android intelligence,remove the process which has not been used for long time,so that OS can do prevent on demand swapping.
These are features for solid RAM management and multitasking but comes at cost of app start/reload smootness.
iOS multitasking in concept looks junky by app suspend machnism but at user expr. it serves good.
I would say, RAM is filled up anyways but keep core apps always there and backkey used only for navigation.
I keep on reading app developers remarks on site like stackoverflow,just to see where from os point of view SGS can't overcome mini lag at core apps.
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I also tried to reproduce the scenario where phone or dialer lagged (or removed from cached process) after pressing home key while in dialer and kept phone idle for long time.
Yes it happens, but I tell you when, I had ~100 MB free, started dialer, pressed home key, left phone idle for more than an hour or so, then I checked phone was removed from cached process and starting it was bit slow (although backkey not used) but at the same time I checked my RAM was filled up upto ~278 so only had 50 MB available.
It seems like Android fills the RAM (I think not sure: with frequent used apps, depends user to user what he uses more) upto 90% and 10% always left empty.When I try to fill it I never crossed 285 mark, it came back to same ~278 level automatically(yes I was using smaller apps to fill it).
All,
If you get time, please share your expr. I am trying to learn something here and may be I am getting things wrong.
I am believing that back key power is not utilized in favor of user experience and there is a room for improvement.
Have you had a chance to check out that "System Panel" App I recommended?...
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for me home button = minimise & multitask, back button = close
bundi22 said:
for me home button = minimise & multitask, back button = close
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I know it has been a while but any updates on the issue.
I wonder, would it be possible to force close all processes not necessary to run fundamental services (call, sms receiving) when using resource hog apps like heavy games?
Something like: "if app requires more than 80% of CPU for 5 seconds non-stop and occupies more than [put value here] of RAM, THEN close all unnecessary processes (even system ones) and keep them closed till app shut down"
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