Database Users

[GUIDE] About Android and Optimizing Sony Xperia X10

Since Sony Xperia X10 is now running on 2.1, topics related to 1.6 is not mentioned here.
This thread are created based on compilation of other threads related to optimization, and meant as an entry point for user interested in optimization.
Understanding your Android
Just to put something short, so we can understand our Android and some points related to optimization better.
Android is an open source operating system owned by Google that is maintained by Android Open Source Project (AOSP). The operating system is based on modified Linux kernel, where most of the application is written in Java language and running on DalvikJVM.
Android do things differently than old generation OS like Symbian, and below is the explanation related to performance.
Unlike Symbian, Android designed to have as many as application loaded and running in the OS, it maintain list of least used application that will be unloaded when a requests for more memory is made when the free OS memory is already low.
These are the nature of JVM, where allocation and deallocation of memory is managed by garbage collector as doing things in bulk is faster then working with small chunks. So you don't have to be alarmed when you open a memory viewer application and see your Android is running on low memory. Freeing RAM with task killer is only momentarily, as you uses the phone again, the free memory will goes down again.
Android phones stores system application, data and files internally in NAND flash area and stores user data in internal memory storage or external storage such as SD cards. This memory is different than your operating sytem memory.
Operating system memory is memory allocated for the kernel, native application and most application you download from market. Installing a lot of application will not directly reduce free RAM, nor uninstalling or removing files will increase free RAM directly. Action such as removing ringtones, wallpaper and even Sony PC Companion ISO will not free your RAM
In general there are two type of android application. One is a standalone application that only run if you open the application, and the other one is running even you haven't open the application which called service.
By design, guideline and suggested practice, application should not continue to run lengthy processing when it get pushed to background via home button, back button or switching to other application; properly build application will just go idle. Which means you should be less paranoid about application eating you processing power.
But service is meant to run lengthy operation as they don't have user interface and runs in background. Some service meanth for pushing or pulling data from internet, reading your files and do processing like playing songs, or just doing something then update the widget just to make you happy. Unnecessary services are the things that you should be aiming if you want to optimize your Android.
General FAQ about Optimizing Sony Xperia X10 2.1
I just updated to 2.1 and my phone really feel slower than 1.6
Since you had been using 1.6 for quite some time, your SD card should have quite a lot of photo and media. Just after you updated to 2.1, and add your Google and maybe Facebook account, the new Face Recognition service is actually already starting to scans all your photo, then when your Google and Facebook contact arrived, it will try it best to match photo and contact. This new Face Recognition really kicks hard in your processor, then after a while your phone will be as fast and even better than old stock 1.6.
I still feel that the phone is slow, is there any simple and quick way to optimize
The simple and quick to optimize your phone instantly is by changing the 2.1 dalvikvm to JIT capable dalvikjvm. You can read and apply them by reading the thread referred below, but before you do that open the below link in background tab and please do read more first.
Android 2.1 OPTIMISER V002 by Jerpelea
2.1 Customizer v0.99.1 by ttxdragon
Both optimizer contains script that will erase your "junk/unused" application from your phone, be sure to read them first before executing. My suggestion is you apply JIT modification first, before going optimizing by remove your "junk/unused" application.
Please do remember that you have to Root your X10 first.
How to root the phone
You can root the phone using methods below.
OneClick z4root Android Application
SuperOneClick Windows Application
Is [INSERT APP NAME] here is save to remove?
By removing unused application, you will gain certain amount of performance gain. Below are the links with app list.
2.1 Customizer v0.99.1 by ttxdragon
Official List of Apps that Can be Removed from a 2.1 x10 by exekias
And still a lot more in other Sony Ericsson X10 forum section but those two is quite complete
And in case you forgot to make backup you can go to
2.1 System Apps - In Case You've Deleted Them by XperiaX10iUser
After doing all that my Quadrant Benchmark is still low
You should run Quadrant as least two or three time or until you get best score, the first one usually yield low score, because a lot of memory allocation process to Quadrant happening during the first run.

Tuning Utilities
Memory Usage - Application to see how much memory used by your application and services
Advanced Task Manager - Application to see is your application running on foreground, background or idle and its memory usage
Quadrant Standard - General benchmarking tools to see if your changes make improvement
Linpack - Processor benchmarking
Titanium Backup Pro - Back up application, the paid version can freeze your app rather then uninstalling it.
Fine Tuning Guide
About Widget, Application shortcut and Live Wallpaper
Even though widgets looks really good in your phone, some widgets required simple periodic process for updating its display, some have a full blown service running to support it. A very instant example that you can see in your phone is the Power Control widget and the new Status Switch widget.
Power Control widget update triggered by configuration change such as wifi on and off, while Status Switch widget which have a battery level is triggered by a running service. Just put Status Switch widget then go to Settings -> Application -> Running Services. Then you will see there a Status Switch Update service running in background to update the battery level.
By selectively put widgets on your home screen, you can gain extra processing and memory. Timescape widget is even worse, it have three service running to support it.
Application shortcuts also uses extra memory in your home screen app and your home screen app is usually system persistent, reducing number of shortcut will give extra RAM and reducing the required rendering process during scroll.
Live Wallpaper just as the name said looks really nice and require extra memory and process of course.
Tuning via build.prop
Some value can be added and modified into build to increase the performance of X10.
dalvik.vm.heapsize=32m
This will change the maximum memory size per application. If you decrease the value, smaller application starts faster, but big application like games will prone to crash, if you increase the value too much, smaller application takes longer to start, but big application will extra gain benefit from less garbage collecting.
Reference: Test: How changing the max amount of memory per VM Heap can effect your ROM (Cyanogen)
windowsmgr.max_events_per_sec=60
This will change the maximum number of touch screen gesture events per second, the bigger the value, the smoother the scrolling will be
There still some more build.prop tweaks that you can do, but not all of them will be processed by X10 as each device behave differently.

reservation for more article to go

Nice clean guide, should help newcomers. Good work!

synlar said:
Nice clean guide, should help newcomers. Good work!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, but i am quite depressed after reading it my self and found that i make a lot of typo. Had to revise and revise again.. lol.

Nice piece of work there Xeviro..

Can you post your build.prop please i cant find the windowsmgr.max_events_per_sec=60 one in mine.

Wolfbreak said:
Can you post your build.prop please i cant find the windowsmgr.max_events_per_sec=60 one in mine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That one you add by your self to you build.prop. If you look further in google, there still a lot of other build properties that you can set to Android.
There is another way to add and test build.prop instantly by using adb shell command "setprop key value" and "getprop key". Some property will take effect immediately, some require you to reboot.

How do you prove that the windowsmgr.max_events_per_sec=60 actually works? After applying that I tried input benchmark and it still showed 33hz.

ooidort said:
How do you prove that the windowsmgr.max_events_per_sec=60 actually works? After applying that I tried input benchmark and it still showed 33hz.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, i just checked, that for this build.prop property to take effect, you need to reboot the device first. I just test on my, giving 10 and 200 in value. With 10, the input benchmark showing less then 20hz most of the time, while with 200 it gives me 40hz+.
Also you can see if you scroll the app list with 10 and 200 value, you can see the difference.

xeviro said:
Ok, i just checked, that for this build.prop property to take effect, you need to reboot the device first. I just test on my, giving 10 and 200 in value. With 10, the input benchmark showing less then 20hz most of the time, while with 200 it gives me 40hz+.
Also you can see if you scroll the app list with 10 and 200 value, you can see the difference.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I definitely notice the difference between 10 and 200, but it still doesn't go above 33hz... Maybe it's the framerate cap doing it's thing?

xeviro said:
Thanks, but i am quite depressed after reading it my self and found that i make a lot of typo. Had to revise and revise again.. lol.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good write up! I was actually going to say something about the typos/errors, because I'm a jerk, but, you noticed them too, so I feel satisfied.
I hope people will read your little intro about RAM and realize a task killer's real purpose is to kill rogue services that kill battery.

xeviro said:
That one you add by your self to you build.prop. If you look further in google, there still a lot of other build properties that you can set to Android.
There is another way to add and test build.prop instantly by using adb shell command "setprop key value" and "getprop key". Some property will take effect immediately, some require you to reboot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But where do i need them to add? At Beginning or at End or Middle?

iead1 said:
Good write up! I was actually going to say something about the typos/errors, because I'm a jerk, but, you noticed them too, so I feel satisfied.
I hope people will read your little intro about RAM and realize a task killer's real purpose is to kill rogue services that kill battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please forgive my typo and grammars, i life in country where people simplify their way of communication. I cannot talk proper now. hahaha
Wolfbreak said:
But where do i need them to add? At Beginning or at End or Middle?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Anywhere

xeviro said:
Please forgive my typo and grammars, i life in country where people simplify their way of communication. I cannot talk proper now. hahaha
Anywhere
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If i add this to the end of my build.prop my phone does not accept SIM unlock code anymore .... ??
EDIT: Strange, second time it worked ... btw. what is the default value ?

Ive added dalvik.vm.heapsize=32m to see what diff it will make and well..
wow.. it killed my phone.
It will show sony ericsson on the screen when you turn it on and just stay there!
So yeah... how can i fix this?

It's bricked, you'll need to reflash the software!
:-(
OP- Great thread, thank you!
Post on my Rooted 2.1 X10i using Tapatalk Pro and Swype

Yeah i knida noticed...
fixed now but im not trying that heapsize thing again..

Anyone here have the original/untouched nordic build.prop? I'm really appreciate it if you share it here. ^_^
Sent from my Xperia X10i (2.1 and rooted) using XDA app

Seansmit17 said:
Ive added dalvik.vm.heapsize=32m to see what diff it will make and well..
wow.. it killed my phone.
It will show sony ericsson on the screen when you turn it on and just stay there!
So yeah... how can i fix this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seansmit17 said:
Yeah i knida noticed...
fixed now but im not trying that heapsize thing again..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its working correctly in my phone, and this heapsize settings is the most common one in android modding. you go check google and see the results.
I also attached build.prop from my phone.

[SOLVED] Swiftdroid is killing apps way too quickly. How to prevent this?

Hey,
I was using swiftdroid last two days and it appears to be killing all apps almost as soon as I quit it. I checked with Advanced Task Killer and it appears swiftdroid is trying to keep at least 45MB free even after I enabled 32MB swap with built-in VRAM.
This is very annoying. It keeps quitting facebook chat and IMO chat as soon as I switch to another app. I'm aware GT540 has very low memory but the thing is in stock, I didn't have any problem even though I didn't have VRAM/swap. I usually get around 25MB RAM free all the time and most apps stay in memory. I'm usually like able to launch the IM app, facebook app and still be able to use the browser or file expert or messaging app.
So, is there's a workaround? It's really annoying when it keeps quitting the IM app just like that!
Sorry for saying it's annoying. I know we get this for free and I shouldn't be complaining at all. It's just that it pissed me by quitting IM app, the only app I want to stay in the memory.

What version of Swiftdroid are you using
The latest one (M5), has improved RAM management a lot
And comes with better battery life, too

I got the same thing. Always 40-45mb free and apps being killed quickly. I'm on M5. Someone said that Joestone's AOSP is better in this aspect, but I didn't test it yet.

Mitalca:
I'm on M4. I downloaded M5 only today. I don't think it lacks good RAM management. It's just that its memory management settings have been tweaked to keep maximum possible amount of RAM free so that any new app will launch faster. Am sure there must be a switch to change it.
EazyLuke:
I don't really have any problems with stock 2.1. I checked out Joe's AOSP and swiftdroid. The only real advantage apart from speed is voice input. In Joe's AOSP, I couldn't get voice to work. In swiftdroid, it worked.

that's what I meant with RAM management
Maurik changed the settings on M5
mhoangtr said:
In M4 rom, lowmemorykiller setting is 6,8,16,20,32,40 MB so apps killed too fast.
If you want to keep apps longer, try set to 6,8,16,20,22,24 MB (this is default value of android).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But I don't know how can you change that setting in M4
Try M5, if it ain't working for you, go to Joe's

Mitalca said:
that's what I meant with RAM management
Maurik changed the settings on M5
But I don't know how can you change that setting in M4
Try M5, if it ain't working for you, go to Joe's
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
@Mitalca: That's the whole purpose of the post. I couldn't find the option where I can change 6,8,16,20,32,40 MB to 6,8,16,20,22,24 MB.
How do I change it?

You can change these values with e.g. this application https://market.android.com/details?id=com.lim.android.automemman&feature=search_result

I installed this app: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.rs.autokiller
It does the same thing.
I set the values to 6-8-12-18-20-20. Now I'll have to see if that brings an improvement.
EDIT: Tested it for a few minutes. And it seems to be an awesome improvement! I can switch from Facebook, Twitter and Browser, and everything is kept in memory, meaning these apps don't have to reload everything!
And it seems to be stable. I also use some of the "advanced system tweaks settings".

Thanks you guys.
XDA memebers. Useful as ever.
I'm gonna try both the apps and keep the app with slicker interface.

M5 isn't working.
Says assert failed when trying to flash via recovery.

Trys v6 SuperCharger!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=991276
It Works Perfectly on our GT540!

I found this problematic, too.
I installed M5 yesterday. Everything is great except this (and I don't like oversensitive accelerometer, but it's not urgent problem ).
Last night I listened Music player, and surfed via Miren. After two opened tabs, Music player shut down . After four opened tabs, phone rebooted. Factory widgets' widgets are useless with this agressive RAM menagment.
hash87 said:
You can change these values with e.g. this application https://market.android.com/details?id=com.lim.android.automemman&feature=search_result
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks man.
Works excellent .
EazyLuke said:
I installed this app: https://market.android.com/details?id=com.rs.autokiller
It does the same thing.
I set the values to 6-8-12-18-20-20. Now I'll have to see if that brings an improvement.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To bad - it want access to too much permissions.

Access to too much permissions? Use LBE Privacy Guard!

What permissions?
And by the way, I wrote a PM to Mur4ik and asked him to try this app out. Maybe he'll change the numbers for RAM-management in his next release if he thinks it's an improvement.

EazyLuke said:
What permissions?
And by the way, I wrote a PM to Mur4ik and asked him to try this app out. Maybe he'll change the numbers for RAM-management in his next release if he thinks it's an improvement.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are plenty of custom ROMs that use Mur4ik's config. It boils down to personal preference. Do you want newer apps to launch really fast or do you want certain apps to stay in memory all the time?
Multi-taskers would prefer to have all apps in memory while people who like doing one thing at a time or who use phone for gaming mainly would prefer Mur4ik's config which launches apps faster.
The best thing for Mur4ik is to include an option to change the memory management config depending on user.

After changing the numbers my apps don't really seem to open slower.
In my opinion Mur4ik could lower the numbers a little bit, to allow better multitasking, but still let new apps open fast (just my personal opinion).
But I don't say he HAS TO do that, just a suggestion, if he doesn't like it it isn't a problem at all, because everyone can simply adjust the numbers easily .

That's true. xD
If I were to suggest, I'd suggest to add the option to change these settings. Apps opening fast depends on what individual apps are in the memory and what new app you are opening.
For example, if you open Angry Birds while your memory is at 16MB, you certainly can't expect it to open fast.
On the other hand, if you open messaging app while memory is at 16MB, it certainly will open faster.
But, I really disliked the apps Swiftdroid had in the latest release. I had to get rid of the whole GO suit with Uninstaller for Root.

nibras_reeza said:
But, I really disliked the apps Swiftdroid had in the latest release. I had to get rid of the whole GO suit with Uninstaller for Root.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try M6, was released yesterday, it's completely clean! Only Tonepicker and QuickSettings are added.

SWEETTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!! xD

you could also try to put mur4ik rom in the kitchen and play with autokiller settings ...
this is michalak8 from android.com.pl (mike's froYo dev) looking for that magic 10 posts to post my rom) Could someone close the rom thread in development section - I would like to post it my self without google-translate bugs
mikegapinski

Made my g1 a LOT LOT faster

Hey. I am running froyo by lazlo. recently i had an idea to use development setting to kill activity immediately leave them and limit the app processes to 4. I am using lightning launcher as my main home launcher and increase vm heap to 48 and enabled JIT(sometimes its faster and sometimes slower) and enabled gpu rendering. Now my phone is flying. Apps open very fastly and according to taskkiller i have 50 mb free ram.
Bad Part. Multitasking is Dead. Sometimes playstore needs to be opened twice. mailing attachment takes longer because gmail is killed when gallery opens

buggatti said:
Hey. I am running froyo by lazlo. recently i had an idea to use development setting to kill activity immediately leave them and limit the app processes to 4. I am using lightning launcher as my main home launcher and increase vm heap to 48 and enabled JIT(sometimes its faster and sometimes slower) and enabled gpu rendering. Now my phone is flying. Apps open very fastly and according to taskkiller i have 50 mb free ram.
Bad Part. Multitasking is Dead. Sometimes playstore needs to be opened twice. mailing attachment takes longer because gmail is killed when gallery opens
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Questions:
How did you do this?
I found the settings for JIT enabling, but all the others are not in the standard FBL rom, unless it's REALLY hidden...

same here, cant find any of those settings except for jit and vm(my vm can only go to 32m), changing those 2 my first boot locked up on the home screen , 2nd boot started ok, dont c much change though, lazlo was pretty fast as it was, but after a while was laggy, backing it up and then using superwipe then restoring the backup seems to help

If I remember correctly, those options are in Gingerbread Roms, not FBL.

i got to the other setting using dev tools. i downloaded the apk from the Internet and the setting are there in the development setting in the app

buggatti said:
i got to the other setting using dev tools. i downloaded the apk from the Internet and the setting are there in the development setting in the app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That little bit of info would have REALLY helped.
From your OP, you made it sound like it was FBL without anything added.
TY. Will check it out.

I don't know what you got. The Development APK I have (from Android SDK) doesn't change vm size, or any or the other settings you have.
As I said, it ain't FBL.

cwwilson721 said:
I don't know what you got. The Development APK I have (from Android SDK) doesn't change vm size, or any or the other settings you have.
As I said, it ain't FBL.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used the build.prop to change the vmheap size. also there is an app to that too..enabled gpu rendering by adding debug.sf.hw=1 in build.prop. You can do that by using Bladebuddy app. Both the vmheap and bladebuddy are in the playstore
i enabled jit from extra settings menu in setting
the app limit and close app when user leave are in development setting menu in dev tools

buggatti said:
I used the build.prop to change the vmheap size. also there is an app to that too..enabled gpu rendering by adding debug.sf.hw=1 in build.prop. You can do that by using Bladebuddy app. Both the vmheap and bladebuddy are in the playstore
i enabled jit from extra settings menu in setting
the app limit and close app when user leave are in development setting menu in dev tools
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wheres the development settings and dev tools?

iEmDan said:
Wheres the development settings and dev tools?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's an app called Dev tools.
http://www.mediafire.com/?j6yye9803i00i2y

Lightning Launcher makes the phone a bit faster. You have to spend some time customizing your shortcuts. I use this and Autokiller and I'm pretty happy on Froyo by lazlo.

Is there any way to improve ram management on miui v7?

So yeah, I've been using nexus 5 prior I got this phone. It had 2 gigs of ram too. When I was getting RN2 I thought I won't face any ram related problems, but I was wrong. It feels like I have 1 gig of ram judging on phone's ability to keep apps in memory. Chrome is capable of keeping only 1 tab in memory, and not for a long time. I'm sick of seeing everything being reloaded every time I go back to it. Any thoughts on this?
PS
No need to tell me about 'lock' feature in recents, it's just useless.

I set up my own battery profile using the security app. Security - Battery - Battery Profiles. In here I changed the Clean Memory to never.
Sent from my Redmi Note 2 using Tapatalk

I use the default profile, and it already has 'never' option picked. And as far as I can judge, this features is meant to be an automatic task killer sorta. The device's problem is in poor ram management, 2 gigs of ram is simply not enough for it, which is kinda 'wtf', considering my nexus experience.

Try freeze build in apps, root first, then use titanium backup or link2sd

If you're using MIUI, there's nothing you can do to lower RAM used by the system and get more RAM available for your apps. I personally clear my apps before use, but the apps I got start fast and are mainly utilities. The only app I lock is School Assistant because it warns me of my classes and exams at University.

sxeMonster said:
So yeah, I've been using nexus 5 prior I got this phone. It had 2 gigs of ram too. When I was getting RN2 I thought I won't face any ram related problems, but I was wrong. It feels like I have 1 gig of ram judging on phone's ability to keep apps in memory. Chrome is capable of keeping only 1 tab in memory, and not for a long time. I'm sick of seeing everything being reloaded every time I go back to it. Any thoughts on this?
PS
No need to tell me about 'lock' feature in recents, it's just useless.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi.
Im on Xiaomi.eu 5.10.16 with Google Now launcher. No problem having a lot of tabs open in Chrome.
Its smooth and stable. No ram issues. No better or worse than my Nexus 5.
My experience is that using task killers etc only making things worse. We better leave ram management to the os alone
Thanks
Knievel.

Well, I don't use any task killer or something. I just experience ram shortage symptoms.

Kinda late, but eh...
It's not really RAM shortage, but MIUI's asinine memory "optimization". It basically kicks any apps (even active ones!) from RAM after a while. I've been foaming at the mouth blaming my media player for simply disappearing mid-song randomly without any error messages, when I stumbled over the "memory optimization" setting in developer options. Looking around on the net brought me here. Disabled that sucker, rebooted, no disappearing apps anymore. The phone feels as smooth as it did before, so the usual low memory killer settings work. Tweaked them a bit using kernel adiutor and I'm more than happy. You could also try this in addition, but I wasn't able to get it to run smoothly - apparently an exception. Idle RAM usage fell significantly, though.

Crim Soukyuu said:
Kinda late, but eh...
It's not really RAM shortage, but MIUI's asinine memory "optimization". It basically kicks any apps (even active ones!) from RAM after a while. I've been foaming at the mouth blaming my media player for simply disappearing mid-song randomly without any error messages, when I stumbled over the "memory optimization" setting in developer options. Looking around on the net brought me here. Disabled that sucker, rebooted, no disappearing apps anymore. The phone feels as smooth as it did before, so the usual low memory killer settings work. Tweaked them a bit using kernel adiutor and I'm more than happy. You could also try this in addition, but I wasn't able to get it to run smoothly - apparently an exception. Idle RAM usage fell significantly, though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're talking about 1 or 2 ?

One, memory optimization. Disabling two, MIUI optimization, is a bit overkill, since it also removes the recent tasks management.

Crim Soukyuu said:
... since it also removes the recent tasks management.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are a thousand and one apps that do that.

@Crim Soukyuu Task manager doesn't dissappear - it can be re-assigned to any button by going into Settings - Additional Settings - Buttons

DarthJabba9 said:
There are a thousand and one apps that do that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But why would you want to use them instead of the built-in one? If you disable MIUI optimizations, you might as well use an un-mutilated AOSP/CM ROM.
jajk said:
@Crim Soukyuu Task manager doesn't dissappear - it can be re-assigned to any button by going into Settings - Additional Settings - Buttons
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I based my statement on what DarthJabba9 said in the Skinny Pro thread:
DarthJabba9 said:
Disable "Turn on MIUI optimization" in the developer options (if you have enabled developer options). After this, you will have to close down recent apps manually (I use "RecentTask" from the Play Store).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In any case, to get rid off the symptoms @sxeMonster was having, it's enough to disable "Memory optimization" in the developer options.

maow425 said:
I set up my own battery profile using the security app. Security - Battery - Battery Profiles. In here I changed the Clean Memory to never.
Sent from my Redmi Note 2 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can confirm the clean memory setting is a major reason for poor battery life,
I've set it to never and my battery life is much better.
Regards
---------- Post added at 05:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:57 PM ----------
Crim Soukyuu said:
One, memory optimization. Disabling two, MIUI optimization, is a bit overkill, since it also removes the recent tasks management.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's correct, no need to disable MIUI optimisation.
Memory optimisation option is basically Zram,
I've got it disabled, too.
Haven't had any ram issues and it can still keep a dozen or so apps on the background before android starts killing them.
Regards

Crim Soukyuu said:
But why would you want to use them instead of the built-in one? If you disable MIUI optimizations, you might as well use an un-mutilated AOSP/CM ROM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Non sequitur. MIUI optimizations are not the only (or even the main) difference between MIUI ROMS and AOSP/CM ROMs.

Sequitur or non sequitur, you haven't answered my question - why would I want to disable MIUI optimization instead of only memory optimization?

Crim Soukyuu said:
Sequitur or non sequitur, you haven't answered my question - why would I want to disable MIUI optimization instead of only memory optimization?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your question was "But why would you want to use them instead of the built-in one?" The answer is "This is a very small price to pay for removing MIUI optimization". Disabling memory optimisation may do the deal for you - but it did not solve all my problems.

I will refer you to the following which is in response to issues that have been raised here.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/redmi-note-2/development/b-skinny-pro-t3347906/page9#post66369078

I disabled a few things given by @jajk , I think the most important one for multi tasking is the battery saver, it closes apps and restricts backgroud activity.
Not only that but too much crap is held in memory by miui.
Get disable service and disable:
InCallUI - CallRecordingRemoteService
Security - SecurityCenterAnalyticsService + SecurityCenterService + PowerSaveService --- it still works just not held in memory
Settings - MiuiWifiService + ObserverService ---- Wifi still works
GooglePlayServices - I disabled a few things I don't need and everything works for me except Gmail account sms verification, I had to put in the code manually.
Default SMS app stays in memory for some reason, I disabled it and using google messenger, just gotta disable wearable service
If disabled it breaks SMS, just disable SmsReportService, SMS works that way. Also in settings disable auto download MMS.
I'm getting 600-700 free ram and apps stay in cache much longer. Outside of settings it reaches 800 Free memory + all apps still in cache
Screenshots: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/a7lq8k5jzo2htcc/AAByd8UBFR4AKAiS9Rcg-dWTa?dl=0

I would prefer better memory management than High Free Memory, because Linux is good already with Memory Management.
Sent from my Redmi Note 2 using XDA-Developers mobile app

How to disable/adjust the background task limit?

My background with android is long and rocky.
A long time ago in a galaxy far away, I had a Samsung Galaxy S, then a S2.
I can remember a Google Nexus phone in there somewhere.
Then at some point I switched over to Windows Mobile for many years.
A couple of hears ago I came back to android with a Samsung Galaxy S8+ and I hated it.
Recently I upgraded to a OnePlus 6T McLaren and here I am.
I had been expecting to see android happily use up 7, 8 or even 9GB of ram before the background task manager would begin to kill tasks.
Except that I seldom saw android use much more than 5GB of ram.
And worse, background tasks were being killed on a regular basis.
Widgets would stop working overnight, or even in just a few hours.
Spotify would close while a playing a playlist.
A quick search on XDA reveals that many users believe that Android will just use up as much ram as your phone has.
However, that is simply not true.
And so, I began my quest to have Android use as much ram as the phone could provide.
In my case, 10GB.
- I understand that there is an inherent trade-off between keeping background apps running and battery usage. I can live with extra battery usage in exchange for keeping my widgets running or Spotify running for an entire playlist.
- I realized very quickly that in order to achieve the results that I was looking for that the phone would have to be rooted. So rooting was one of the first things that I did.
Step 1.
I started with the basic stuff that a quick google search would provide;
- Settings -> Battery -> Battery Saver (off)
- Settings -> Battery -> Adaptive Battery (off)
- Settings -> Battery -> Battery Optimization -> widget app (don’t optimize)
- Settings -> Battery -> Battery Optimization -> Spotify (don’t optimize)
- Settings -> Battery -> Battery Optimization -> Advanced Optimization -> Deep Optimization (off)
- Settings -> Battery -> Battery Optimization -> Advanced Optimization -> Sleep standby optimization (off)
- Settings -> Apps -> Widget app -> Battery -> Background Restriction (app can use battery in background)
- Settings -> Apps -> Spotify -> Battery -> Background Restriction (app can use battery in background)
This helped but not enough to make the widgets or Spotify usable.
Step 2.
I supposed that my specific background tasks that I wanted to keep running were being killed because of the many other apps that were running in the background.
I searched for and found Tomatot DeBloater scripts for the Oneplus 6.
Excellent! Just what I was looking for.
I chose the Tomatot-Debloater-OOS-Light-2.3.zip and installed it.
This helped some more but not enough to make the widgets or Spotify usable.
Step 3.
I realised that there were still some apps running in the background that I didn’t use or want.
So I used Titanium Backup to freeze the following apps;
- Calendar
- Calendar Storage 9
- Contacts (O+)(I replaced with google contacts)
- Dashboard
- Drive
- Face Unlock
- Gboard
- Gmail
- Google
- Google partner setup 9
- Google play music 8
- McLaren AR
- Messaging (O+)(replaced with google messaging)
- OK google enrollment 9
- Oneplus system 1
- Youtube
Perfect! These apps were no longer competing for phone resources with the apps that I wanted to run.
This helped some more but not enough to make the widgets or Spotify usable.
This did make the phone feel faster and smoother.
The phone is much more responsive and fluid to my input.
This made me realize that the apps were being closed not due to a lack of phone resources, but a background task manager being aggressive.
Presumably for battery saving purposes.
I changed my focus to adjusting that background task manager.
Step 4.
Enable the recent screen ‘LOCK’ on the widget app and Spotify.
This didn’t do anything for me.
Everything that I’ve read on it says that it just stops the task from being killed when you click on kill all tasks.
The lock doesn’t lock the task from being killed by the background task manager.
Step 5.
Further google searching led me to believe that the OEM kernel was limiting background tasks.
I choose ElementalX-OP-3.09 and the EX Kernel Manager.
I had to read a lot of google university material to make any sense of the settings in here.
I’m not sure that I fully understand even now.
Eventually, I ended up with the following settings;
Memory
- Adaptive Low Memory Killer (disabled)
- dirty ratio (20)
- dirty background ratio (5)
- min free kbytes (12398)
- vfs cache pressure (100)
Memory -> Low Memory Killer
- apply on boot
- Foreground app (72mb)
- Visible apps (90mb)
- Secondary server (108mb)
- Hidden apps (200mb)
- Content Providers (587mb)
- Empty apps (783mb)
This helped a lot.
This almost made the phone usable to the state that I wanted.
But the widget and Spotify would still stop running overnight and by morning the apps would have to be reopened to get them to run again.
At least the apps would run most of the day without being killed.
Still not the behaviour that I expected from a phone with 10GB of ram.
Ram usage was still not going much over 5.5Gb even if I opened up many apps at once.
Can I ever get ram usage up to the 10Gb that I have?
Step 6.
The last thing that I tried yesterday afternoon was to increase the background task limit in the build.prop.
ro.vendor.qti.sys.fw.bservice_limit=5 (changed it to 60)
ro.vendor.qti.sys.fw.bservice_age=5000 (changed it to 10000)
Yes, I know that I am on PIE and there isn’t supposed to be any effect.
No, I don’t know yet if this had any effect.
I am hopeful.
The widget app didn’t close last night, but Spotify did.
I am getting closer!
This is the best that I could do on my own without asking for help.
So here I am posting my question and asking for help.
How do I get the apps that I want to run to not be killed by the background task manager?
OR
How do I get the phone to use the 10GB of ram?
I feel that I am missing something.
With any luck, one of you smarter persons will be able to point it out to me.
As an aside from all of these changes the phone feels very smooth and fluid.
Except for apps closing that I don’t want to, this phone is a great experience and a pleasure to use.
Apps that I want to run are staying open much longer then before I started.
It’s now just an overnight issue.
And getting the phone to use over 6Gb of ram.
I would suggest that I am 90% happy with it now.
KERNAL: ElementalX-OP6-3.10
ROM: STOCK OOS 9.0.11
PHONE MODEL: 6013 O+6T McLaren

Tomorrow I may try making this change to the build.prop file;
ro.vendor.qti.sys.fw.bservice_enable=true to false
Don't know if it will help or not.

Wow dude, interesting read, i will sign up for notifications from this thread hoping you get your answer because i have the exact same problem but with my work app, throwing it all out of whack and making me a target to big fines (in the $1,000's) and potentially reducing my marketability!
The attached screenies are from before i realized that the app getting killed in the background is what causes the problem (I've left it in the foreground HOURS a few times and it works perfectly!)

UPDATE:
Good news!
I seem to have solved my issue.
Time will tell for sure though.
But this morning and all day today, Spotify and the widget app have been running without closing.
AND I have seen memory usage up to 6.8GB used.
Here are the further steps that I took;
- ro.vendor.qti.sys.fw.bservice_enable=true (changed it to false)
I didn't really notice much of a change.
But then I noticed that perhaps the limit of 60 tasks was not high enough.
I seem to have that many apps open and limiting to just 60 may be an issue.
- ro.vendor.qti.sys.fw.bservice_limit=60 (changed it to 120)
THIS!
This seemed to have worked for me.
All apps seem to be open and be staying open.
Today I got a message/warning from android telling me that the widget app is consuming the battery in excess but I ignored the warning and android did not close the app or stop the widget from running.
I will keep an eye on the phone for the next few days to confirm that this actually solved my issues.
My next step will be to see what effect if any this has had on my battery usage.
I am curious to see if it's all that bad...

geeksquad2 said:
UPDATE:
Good news!
I seem to have solved my issue.
Time will tell for sure though.
But this morning and all day today, Spotify and the widget app have been running without closing.
AND I have seen memory usage up to 6.8GB used.
Here are the further steps that I took;
- ro.vendor.qti.sys.fw.bservice_enable=true (changed it to false)
I didn't really notice much of a change.
But then I noticed that perhaps the limit of 60 tasks was not high enough.
I seem to have that many apps open and limiting to just 60 may be an issue.
- ro.vendor.qti.sys.fw.bservice_limit=60 (changed it to 120)
THIS!
This seemed to have worked for me.
All apps seem to be open and be staying open.
Today I got a message/warning from android telling me that the widget app is consuming the battery in excess but I ignored the warning and android did not close the app or stop the widget from running.
I will keep an eye on the phone for the next few days to confirm that this actually solved my issues.
My next step will be to see what effect if any this has had on my battery usage.
I am curious to see if it's all that bad...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice find, I checked my build.prop and found this. No wonder my apps are killed
Code:
#ifdef VENDOR_EDIT
#[email protected] modify for app memory
ro.vendor.qti.sys.fw.bservice_enable=true
ro.vendor.qti.sys.fw.bservice_limit=5
ro.vendor.qti.sys.fw.bservice_age=5000
#endif/*VENDOR_EDIT*/
EDIT: I see a lot of custom ROM's have "ro.vendor.qti.sys.fw.bg_apps_limit=60" to the build prop, I wonder if that going to make a difference

UPDATE:
I am a silly goose.
I broke a cardinal rule while troubleshooting.
I may have had a few too many wobbly pops and made two changes at a time, thus when change was affected, I was unable to determine properly which change caused the affect.
The rule is, "only make one change at a time when testing".
Yes, all of my apps stay open all the time.
I am getting the behaviour that I was looking for.
However it wasn't necessarily changing the build.prop bgservice_limit from 60 to 120 that did it.
Let me back up a bit.
Earlier I had suggested that locking an app to the recent screen didn't do anything for me, and that in my reading it only locks the app from being killed by you when you try to close it manually.
However in reading up on the oneplus framework-res.apk I found a reference to an oneplus whitelist of apps that will never be killed, and a reference to the recent screen app lock that suggests that oneplus will add a locked app to the whitelist and not kill it.
In the course of a single day, I had inadvertently edited the build.prop and locked the widget app to the recent screen thus breaking the one change at a time rule.
So the next morning and the following days when all apps were staying open I attributed it to changing the build.prop not realizing that it could also have been the app lock.
Last night I realized my mistake.
I unlocked the widget app from the recent screen and went to bed.
When I woke up this morning the widget app was not running for the first time in days.
Also the notifications that I was receiving about the widget app consuming excessive battery have stopped.
It would appear that I was wrong in my earlier observations regarding the app lock mechanism.
It appears to be very useful for keeping apps running all the time.
Did changing the build.prop have any affect on keeping apps open?
Maybe?
I have noticed that my battery life has gone for a complete ****.
I can barely get 24 hours out of the phone.
Worse is that it doesn't matter if the screen is on or not, battery usage remains the same.
i.e. with the screen off and the phone put down, battery life appears to be used at the same rate as when the phone is in use.
I had expected the battery life to be not as good, but I didn't expect it to go to for a **** that badly.
There must be a balance between aggressive app management and acceptable battery life.
The phone didn't display this behaviour until I changed ro.vendor.qti.sys.fw.bservice_enable=true to false.
I think that today I will change ro.vendor.qti.sys.fw.bservice_enable= back to true and observe the battery tomorrow.

kantjer said:
Nice find, I checked my build.prop and found this. No wonder my apps are killed
Code:
#ifdef VENDOR_EDIT
#[email protected] modify for app memory
ro.vendor.qti.sys.fw.bservice_enable=true
ro.vendor.qti.sys.fw.bservice_limit=5
ro.vendor.qti.sys.fw.bservice_age=5000
#endif/*VENDOR_EDIT*/
EDIT: I see a lot of custom ROM's have "ro.vendor.qti.sys.fw.bg_apps_limit=60" to the build prop, I wonder if that going to make a difference
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think that ro.vendor.qti.sys.fw.bservice_limit= and ro.vendor.qti.sys.fw.bg_apps_limit= are essentially the same thing, except for android versions.
ro.vendor.qti.sys.fw.bg_apps_limit= is for Android 7: Nougat and below.
ro.vendor.qti.sys.fw.bservice_limit= is for Android 8: Oreo and above.
Someone more knowledgeable than me should chime in here though.

Do you think any of this could have to do with the way the phone keeps disabling push in Gmail? (Every other day I need to set my O365 exchange in Gmail back to push because it automatically changes to the default of checking every 30 mins.)

Any conclusion?

Did you guys manage to solve this issue please by editing the build prop?

Latest smurf kernel rc14b seems to have solved the RAM management issue. I haven't had any apps closing in background since using it.

thank you for the thread!

What did you find in the end?
How did you set this ?
ro.vendor.qti.sys.fw.bservice_enable=true
ro.vendor.qti.sys.fw.bservice_limit=5
ro.vendor.qti.sys.fw.bservice_age=5000

So what's the verdict on the buildprop edits? Do they make a difference?
I notice that sometimes my on-going weather notification doesn't update, or gets killed off. I also have an app that controls rotation per app, and that also seems to stop doing it's thing after a while.

Just want to share. If you are rooted with Magisk, try appsystemizer module. System apps don't get killed by oneplus as aggressively. Tried it with accubattery and it works.

I am so glad I stumble across this, I just want to say, changing
ro.vendor.qti.sys.fw.bservice_limit=5 to 120
ro.vendor.qti.sys.fw.bservice_age=5000 to 10000
Keep apps in ram for much longer then original! For me the battery life is unaffected, might even be better.

scloss84 said:
I am so glad I stumble across this, I just want to say, changing
ro.vendor.qti.sys.fw.bservice_limit=5 to 120
ro.vendor.qti.sys.fw.bservice_age=5000 to 10000
Keep apps in ram for much longer then original! For me the battery life is unaffected, might even be better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Also want to solve this issue.
On which OOS Version you are? (i am on 10.3.1)
Does this really work in newer OOS Versions?
I have read elsewhere that those settings dont work on newer versions, sadly, cant find the thread/source.
thx
pOpY

popy2006 said:
Also want to solve this issue.
On which OOS Version you are? (i am on 10.3.1)
Does this really work in newer OOS Versions?
I have read elsewhere that those settings dont work on newer versions, sadly, cant find the thread/source.
thx
pOpY
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm actually Oneplus 6, OOS 9.0.9.
I also read that it doesn't work on Android 10 because magisk doesn't mount /system in Android 10, but there is a magisk module workaround that you can use. And hopefully magisk will update in the near future to fix that. Just google "Android 10 can't edit build.prop" and you'll find heaps of info.

This is what I have in my build.prop file and it seems to help. I have Oreo it works great on my phone I don't know about later versions of Oreo.
ro.vendor.qti.sys.fw.bservice_enable=true
ro.vendor.qti.sys.fw.bservice_age=5000
ro.vendor.qti.sys.fw.bservice_limit=5
ro.sys.fw.bg_apps_limit=64