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So I am reading the tips and tricks article - GREAT article by the way! - and I come upon the note stating to not use task killer (shown below in bold).
SHOULD I USE A TASK KILLER?
Absolutely not. You have the best OS and one of the best spec'd phones ever. You would be doing more harm than good. If you do have one, uninstall, reboot and let me know what you think!
In addition, even Google at Google I/O 2010 addressed app developers and asked them to no longer include "quit" or "close" as options within their apps. I think Andronica (another great android site) summed it up well with their article, found here.
XDA user iunlock created a thread with some good debate based off this sticky. You can read all the thoughts by clicking here. In short, the overwhelming majority agreed and some have commented on seeing an increase in performance after deleting their task killers. Awesome job guys.
That having been said, I went a day. Sure, it ran smooth, but my battery life stunk.
I'd like to hear from other users on the pros/cons of using a task manager on your Vibrant. Not trying to start a flame war, just wanting to hear thoughts other than my own (and the little voices that come from the ear piece of the phone )
Personally I am completely for it, as long as you are not killing off critical processes or apps that you use on a regular basis. Bottom line here - know what you're doing.
Feedback please?
I had the exact opposite reaction after getting rid of the task manager, battery life increased.
I kept ATK, battery life improved with it. If i play games and then hit the Home button which i always do. it stays running in background and kills the battery. Didnt really notice much of an impact with performance but my battery life increased
I use task manager. people can say what they want, but lowmemorykiller is designed to kill apps when the system needs memory. our phones have a lot of memory so they are capable of keeping so many apps open, if no one believes me download a task killer and just open it up to see how many apps are really running on your phone, its ridiculous, especially if you still have the bloatware. I don't necessarily use it because my phone bogs down from so many apps (that reason was back in the day with my g1) i do it because theoretically your battery life should go up. What's worse, a task killer running, or the last 20 apps you've used? All I know is my phone runs fine, smooth, and has battery life that I really cant complain about. It's hard to really tell what is correct though, I mean theres's hundreds of posts about the gps on our phone and mine launches up, finds my exact location within 30 seconds, and navigates perfectly. Got mine the day it came out, so ive really never worried about what other people have said, i just find out for myself. try both and see what you observe to be best.
I own(ed) a G1, Google Ion, myTouch, CLIQ, Behold II, Nexus One, myTouch Slide, GARMINfone, and Samsung Vibrant.
I have never used a task killer / manager on any of them and have never experienced lag on any of them.
My battery has also lasted from wake (9am) to bed (im usually in the bed by 11pm, sleep comes much later) on all of them and that includes at least 2 hours of stereo Bluetooth music. WiFi, GPS and Sync on all day. Bluetooth and brightness are managed as needed.
I'm no developer, but I have flashed my fair share of roms, and run plenty of tests. I don't know what is best, but I do know that they are NOT NECESSARY. Are they helpful or useful to you? Possibly. If you want to use one, have fun. I see no reason for me to start now...
EDIT: I also play a fair bit of SNESoid, GENSoid, and now PSX4droid....
Also, I don't have a car charger or office charger. I only charge overnight.
If you have to use a charger during the day, you blew it.
Task Mangers slow my phone down more. I don't use them.
joe.kerwin said:
I use task manager. people can say what they want, but lowmemorykiller is designed to kill apps when the system needs memory. our phones have a lot of memory so they are capable of keeping so many apps open, if no one believes me download a task killer and just open it up to see how many apps are really running on your phone, its ridiculous, especially if you still have the bloatware. I don't necessarily use it because my phone bogs down from so many apps (that reason was back in the day with my g1) i do it because theoretically your battery life should go up. What's worse, a task killer running, or the last 20 apps you've used? All I know is my phone runs fine, smooth, and has battery life that I really cant complain about. It's hard to really tell what is correct though, I mean theres's hundreds of posts about the gps on our phone and mine launches up, finds my exact location within 30 seconds, and navigates perfectly. Got mine the day it came out, so ive really never worried about what other people have said, i just find out for myself. try both and see what you observe to be best.
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Click to collapse
Android has a task killer built in to kill apps if memory is low automatically.
Couldnt enjoy my phone without one.
laristech said:
Task Mangers slow my phone down more. I don't use them.
Android has a task killer built in to kill apps if memory is low automatically.
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Click to collapse
I know, read. I referenced that in the first line. It's a low memory killer, my phone still has 100mb of memory available even with 15-20 apps open. I'd rather have those tasks not running if i've finished with them. Plus apps also reopen periodically by themselves, auto-kill on a 3rd party task killer will kill this as soon as the phone is sleeping, the build in task killer will not.
AndroidZ28 said:
I own(ed) a G1, Google Ion, myTouch, CLIQ, Behold II, Nexus One, myTouch Slide, GARMINfone, and Samsung Vibrant.
I have never used a task killer / manager on any of them and have never experienced lag on any of them.
My battery has also lasted from wake (9am) to bed (im usually in the bed by 11pm, sleep comes much later) on all of them and that includes at least 2 hours of stereo Bluetooth music. WiFi, GPS and Sync on all day. Bluetooth and brightness are managed as needed.
I'm no developer, but I have flashed my fair share of roms, and run plenty of tests. I don't know what is best, but I do know that they are NOT NECESSARY. Are they helpful or useful to you? Possibly. If you want to use one, have fun. I see no reason for me to start now...
EDIT: I also play a fair bit of SNESoid, GENSoid, and now PSX4droid....
Also, I don't have a car charger or office charger. I only charge overnight.
If you have to use a charger during the day, you blew it.
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Click to collapse
There's no way your g1 ever lasted 14 hours, let alone consistently with that usage. Either that or you dont understand how some of us use our phones. The only reason this must be such a debated topic is because there truly isn't much of a difference. Will your phone have a weeks worth of battery life with one? No. Without one? No. Users preference I suppose, but before i deleted bloatware, my telenav and slacker radio were always open and i honestly never even opened them to even check them out.
That having been said, I went a day. Sure, it ran smooth, but my battery life stunk.
I'd like to hear from other users on the pros/cons of using a task manager on your Vibrant. Not trying to start a flame war, just wanting to hear thoughts other than my own (and the little voices that come from the ear piece of the phone )
Personally I am completely for it, as long as you are not killing off critical processes or apps that you use on a regular basis. Bottom line here - know what you're doing.
Feedback please?
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Click to collapse
People will give all sorts of anecdotal evidence one way or another about this topic. Just keep in mind that anecdotal evidence won't answer the question. It's not a simple yes/no question either.
Here's the deal. *IF* you have errant tasks that are causing partial wake issues (running too much or too often when the phone is supposedly asleep), those applications will be the culprit for your bad battery life.
These are not likely to be core tasks of the OS, or OS bundled bloatware either...but they can be. When I had my Behold II and was running ADW.Launcher, for instance, I had to use a task manager to keep parts of Touchwiz from waking up and complaining about the UI not being front-and-center. And the reason WHY I used a task manager was a simple one. It was a core data task of the embedded software that could not be REMOVED.
The best solution to partial wake issues is to identify the tasks that are causing them, and GET RID OF THAT APP. In my very specific case above I was unable to do so, so a task killer had value.
The reason why task managers can be a very bad idea are legion. The Android OS runs a lot of interdependant tasks, and killing one seemingly innocuous task can and often will start a domino effect with other tasks that rely on them. It can even cause other dependant apps to eat 100% of cpu time during sleep cycles or at other times, and make your battery life mysteriously go to hell.
So far on this Vibrant, I've found no core tasks causing partial wake issues. Third party apps and widgets however, I've found quite a few that "wake up" and cause partial wake issues (i.e. they are spending too much time working and running when the phone is in "sleep" mode). Pure Messenger Widget being one of the nastiest I've tried lately.
What do I recommend? Use the built in battery statistics, and install the market app "Spare Parts". This combination will give you the ability to glean useful information about exactly what is running and what it's doing. There are other tools and whitelist managers that you could employ as well, but this is enough for me.
And even if you are running task managers and killers, you should be using the above to know whether what you are doing is a complete waste of time or even making matters worse.
When left to its own devices, Android 2.1 does a remarkably good job managing tasks and memory, PROVIDING THAT 3RD PARTY APPS ARE BEHAVING. Since we all run a very different set of 3rd party applications and widgets, it's no wonder that people are having battery life issues (great, bad, not so bad, etc..) all over the map.
I use Advanced Task Manager Pro and I love it. The close-all widget is great because it closes everything except what you have told it not to kill, and it kills itself to that is not running down your battery either.
joe.kerwin said:
There's no way your g1 ever lasted 14 hours, let alone consistently with that usage. Either that or you dont understand how some of us use our phones. The only reason this must be such a debated topic is because there truly isn't much of a difference. Will your phone have a weeks worth of battery life with one? No. Without one? No. Users preference I suppose, but before i deleted bloatware, my telenav and slacker radio were always open and i honestly never even opened them to even check them out.
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Click to collapse
I don't know what to tell you other than it did.
I am a pretty heavy user, but I do have fantastic coverage and work in a bright environment so brightness stays down. SetCPU works wonders.
I tested my Vibrant today. Came off the charger at 5:30am. It's now 10pm & my phone is freaking out for juice. I think my G1 could match this.
I'm constantly pulling from Gmail & Exchange (usually on Edge - poor reception in the office). I used GPS for about 10 min on the way home. Once home I started wifi. I turned it off an hour ago to play a few rounds of Let's Golf.
That's not terrible for such a badass smart phone, I think.
-bZj
_____
-sent from my Samsung Vibrant via XDAapp
I personally will only have a task manager installed for when I'm working on my game / app projects, as to make sure they properly close when exited or to kill them if something goes wrong (neverending looping media), so I don't have to reboot the phone.
I was using atk before my last factory reset. I've decided against it now though. I've also decided not to use any more web apps when I have a perfectly good browser. Just seems like a waste of resources to me and my phone is much quicker without them. That and launcher pro have made this feel like a different phone. I think the combination makes atk unnecessary.
If I decide to keep this phone I'll reroot and clean out all the crapware. I'd prefer to keep this phone well-maintained like my computer sip that a task killer would be mostly unnecessary.
Anyone used this app? I tried it and it boosted my memory from 123 mb to 180 mb.
i know "if you have free memory you're wasting it". but in my opinion this combined with advanced task killer will improve battery life a lot.
its on android market, just type memory booster
Lol I experimented with these kind of apps, my opinion is that they are pretty much pointless.
I simply tell things not to auto update and removed unused junk.
Did the trick for me.
Swyped from my rooted X10i using Tapatalk.
I'll bite. How will having more free memory improve battery life?
You don't need third party apps. You have to determine which app is eating your battery life. The only thing memory booster is doing is disrupting Android's memory management processes.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
if it could activate the full ram potential of the handset then it would be worth while but i dont see the point in the extra mem for app's.
Like I said I simply stop stuff auto updating and therefore save battery life as no apps are active, merely sitting in ram.
Swyped from my rooted X10i using Tapatalk.
I only kill programs when I want my phone in standby because I know I won't be using it. Or with programs that can still run in the background and stay active when they shouldn't.
Other than that, don't be a frequent task killer. It's not an iPhone, it's an Android phone. As much as I loathe my Xperia X10 it's far better than an iTurd.
bongd said:
I only kill programs when I want my phone in standby because I know I won't be using it. Or with programs that can still run in the background and stay active when they shouldn't.
Other than that, don't be a frequent task killer. It's not an iPhone, it's an Android phone. As much as I loathe my Xperia X10 it's far better than an iTurd.
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Click to collapse
Way to try to prove your cool by trying to inject irrelevant crap into the discussion. Especially ****e you obviously know sweet fa about. You do realize that when you get down to the nuts and bolts the memory management is almost identical in iOS and Android? Only difference is how it's exposed to apps. My gf has my iPhone 4 now, trust me, calling it an iTurd just makes you look a bit special - and not in a good way either.
P.S. task killers made sense on phones like mt3g that were memory limited, when you went to launch a big app like gallery it popped up straight away if there was free ram - when memory was all spoken for, the system would have to kill a bunch a tasks, so it'd hang for a while before launching your app. Can't say I noticed the need for that on my X10.
rynoon said:
I'll bite. How will having more free memory improve battery life?
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Click to collapse
It isn't the free memory that saves battery. It's the applications being "killed" that otherwise would need some battery power as they lie in the background doing things. Even sleeping applications have some "attention" from the kernel and that will drain (slightly) on the battery too. Every drip-drop counts.
SysGhost said:
It isn't the free memory that saves battery. It's the applications being "killed" that otherwise would need some battery power as they lie in the background doing things. Even sleeping applications have some "attention" from the kernel and that will drain (slightly) on the battery too. Every drip-drop counts.
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Click to collapse
And every time you want to use an app, will have to be reloaded in memory wasting more power for that task.
Anyhow, do it your way ...
The rest of the world is just stupid.
This constant debate of whether app management apps work or not is really irrelevant. Some work, some don't. Just try and find that out.
Once I listened to posters here and decided not to use ATK because of the reasoning that Android is efficient by itself. Wrong. My battery kept draining fast. Once I started using ATK and modifying the program here and there, my battery's energy consumption actually slowed down and I can go through a whole day without charging. My settings? Put ATK on safe mode and auto kill every half hour, and ignore SE's own backup app (for some reason, killing SE backup caused a disruption with the data/signal for a second).
So for everyone, just try and see whatever is recommended works.
Exactly my point. I used to use atk with similar settings to yourself and experienced greater battery drain.
I get better results with my method.
We all use our phones in different ways so it follows we would experience differing results.
Swyped from my rooted X10i using Tapatalk.
I'm trying to figure out how some people drain the batteries so fast. I have my phone set up as a wifi accesspoint, I'm using bluetooth, autosyncing my gmail and calendar but still I get more than a full day use out of it. If I listen to music over a bluetooth headset constantly I can't last a day but the juice in my headset tends to run out faster.
I can't for the life of me figure out what people do. I'm not using any task killers or what have you but still get between 18 and 24 hours of heavy usage.
I was using a task killer before reading on here about how they are useless and whatnot. But I find my phone freezes up more now that I am not using it. The battery seems to be around the same. All I do is text and use facebook and it seems to freeze up when texting or typing half the time. I am kind of wondering if it's because I text so quickly..
Just to clear things up a bit:
Many applications out there are bad.
Applications that are some real heavy battery hogs, even when prefetched in the background.
Those bad applications keeps downloading adverts now and then, executing instructions while in the background, and so on. Those applications doesn't have any sleep/standby routines , or the routines are empty.
Some applications are so badly written, they're running at "full speed" no matter what. Those extremely bad applications keeps the CPU at full speed even when in standby mode.
A good sign of this is when the phone gets hot, even when not used. It's the CPU that heats up the device.
The programmers of these bad applications have no whatsoever experience with Androids "sleep and standby" functions and therefor left them empty or half-done.
This is why killing applications helps for some, and not for others.
It all depends if one got one or more "bad" applications installed.
And Android aren't too smart either. It'll just prefetch, to what it seems, a random bunch of applications.
For me Android prefetch apps I rarely use, and skips the applications I use everyday. Weird?
If one would keep the device clean and keep those bad applications out, (of which noone can tell if it's a bad app or not. There's nothing visibly wrong about them) one wouldn't need a separate task-killer. Or if EVERY single application out there where perfectly written, accordingly to the Android model.
So I am really angry at Android now, with all the issues and difficulties it is getting me through. Although visually and practically I still prefer it to iOS, there are some really annoying issues with it, that concern battery life/stability.
So there are apps that prevent your phone from sleeping, either leaves speaker on, or other BS. I have to close them every time I stop using the phone, to avoid a really stupid issue I had today. I recharged the phone 100% in the morning, later that day I went to check e-mails, sent a couple sms etc. and then I played this game called Pou, I left it running, the screen was off, but I didn't close it. Ended up with empty battery in 3 Hours.
This is ****ing ridiculous, what kind of smartphone is that, if it can't understand that I'm not playing games when the screen is off.
Is there at least a faster way to close all open apps, other than swiping from left to right 20 times every time you stop using the phone?!?!
What apps are causing the issue?
You're blaming the OS for the behavior of an app made by a bad developer. The vast majority of applications will not do that. iOS avoids that by limiting the cases in which an app is allowed to run in the background. You can argue that it's a superior solution for the end user, but it limits the ability for an app to actually do anything in the background.
Many custom ROMs build in a "kill all" button in the recent apps view. It's really not necessary though. You've identified an application that has this issue, so just make sure to kill that one app when you're done with it. Again, most applications won't have that problem.
raptir said:
You're blaming the OS for the behavior of an app made by a bad developer. The vast majority of applications will not do that. iOS avoids that by limiting the cases in which an app is allowed to run in the background. You can argue that it's a superior solution for the end user, but it limits the ability for an app to actually do anything in the background.
Many custom ROMs build in a "kill all" button in the recent apps view. It's really not necessary though. You've identified an application that has this issue, so just make sure to kill that one app when you're done with it. Again, most applications won't have that problem.
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Click to collapse
+1. I had just read a lot of silly things and ur comment relaxed me a bit. Blame a PHONE because some apps keep the phone awake... this is crazy, people should have a bit of experience before posting in this forum with so much arrogance.
This might help...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmvCpR45LKA
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4
badboy47 said:
This might help...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmvCpR45LKA
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4
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Click to collapse
That helped me so many times till I understood it....
The place to go, to get a definitive understanding of wakelocks is here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1179809&highlight=betterbatterystats
This is the thread for BetterBatteryStats, which is really all you need to troubleshoot why your device doesn't sleep enough.
Also, look at Greenify, which hibernates the apps you tell it to, a pretty unique trick.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2155737&highlight=greenify
And as a last suggestion (frowned on by the purists at the betterbatterystats thread, but I find it really useful) use DS Battery Saver Pro, which will switch off wifi and reconnect every 10 minutes, amongst other tricks.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2030696&highlight=ds+battery+saver
As an aside, I hear that iOS7 has impressed its user base with all sorts of hidden options which stop the phone resting, so maybe it's just a question of complexity . The good news is that, especially with the knowledge that is shared in betterbatterystats, it won't take you long to troubleshoot what your problems are, and the other 2 apps which will resolve your issues are pretty straightforward to use.
There are free versions I recall in the first post of these threads, I use the Pro version of DS Battery Saver since I prefer to configure my own profile.
Thank you everyone for replies.
I have not rooted the phone, so Greenify is no option for me, not really up to going through all rooting and ROM installing process in order to maybe succeed in solving the issue.
Specifically talking apps that leave speaker ON (It keeps hissing) and keeps phone awake, if you do not close them are following : Asphalt 8, Need For Speed Most Wanted.
The thing is I am not sure who to blame really, yes there are many apps that work normally and don't cause these issues, but then again why is the keeping the phone awake allowed in the first place, downloaded apps that would need to work that way should need special permissions. I understand there might be apps that want to keep ON/playing something after you have quit them, but if that's the case, then user should be able to deny certain permissions to prevent this from happening. The OS is complex enough, why not give even more options then or just this one at least.
Not sure how other people manage with this problem, I can't find anyone mentioning anything about Asphalt 8 and Android having this problem, people just deal with that they have battery draining to 0% in 5 hours? I know many people with smartphones 75% barely ever closes any programs from multitasker, most of them are iPhone users though. But how do they manage to live with their phone if they have this. I did manage to find people complaining about Pou draining battery, solution was to just uninstall the app, ridiculous.
I can't be the only one having these issues.
Well, the Android "style guide" has the back button as the exit function, so instead of leaving it running in the background, you may want to try backing all the way out.
It's been about a year since I played Asphalt (6 I think it was), but I vaguely remember it had an exit button which explicitly closed down the app.
Could be worth trying that. All the same, install the free xda edition of BetterBatteryStats (in the first post I think) and then look at the partial wakelocks, you'll quickly see what is stopping the phone sleeping.
paul c said:
Well, the Android "style guide" has the back button as the exit function, so instead of leaving it running in the background, you may want to try backing all the way out.
It's been about a year since I played Asphalt (6 I think it was), but I vaguely remember it had an exit button which explicitly closed down the app.
Could be worth trying that. All the same, install the free xda edition of BetterBatteryStats (in the first post I think) and then look at the partial wakelocks, you'll quickly see what is stopping the phone sleeping.
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Click to collapse
It really is like that, this fixes a small part of this issue! If you exit the game using the back button, the application closes the resource, but leaves it available at the multi task panel.
But, when I had iPhone, I could play the game, lock the screen, go home, for example, and continue where I left off, no battery drainage or anything. Only when you fill up the RAM memory it stops least recent processes.
Often it is very annoying to tap multiple times the back button (Sometimes even on screen you have to press quit multiple times (Quit current game & quit menu)) until you get to exit the application. And you can't continue where you left off, if you do that.
What the most bothers me about this is if I suddenly have something urgent and I don't turn off the application, my phone could drain a heavy amount of battery percentage till I remember to close them or check something on the phone/continue where I left off.
raptir said:
You're blaming the OS for the behavior of an app made by a bad developer. The vast majority of applications will not do that. iOS avoids that by limiting the cases in which an app is allowed to run in the background. You can argue that it's a superior solution for the end user, but it limits the ability for an app to actually do anything in the background.
Many custom ROMs build in a "kill all" button in the recent apps view. It's really not necessary though. You've identified an application that has this issue, so just make sure to kill that one app when you're done with it. Again, most applications won't have that problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
luiseteyo said:
+1. I had just read a lot of silly things and ur comment relaxed me a bit. Blame a PHONE because some apps keep the phone awake... this is crazy, people should have a bit of experience before posting in this forum with so much arrogance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Guys, this isn't the only issue with the OS. I had bad battery drainage from Wi-Fi & mobile network location setting also. I have various Google app problems, also with drainage, freezing and lag with Google Chrome, Google+ keeping phone awake. I would consider that as a property of Android OS, because the software was already installed when I got the phone. Chrome is the default and only internet browser in the beginning and it should work properly.
So I am not sure who to blame, maybe the developers can't find a workaround from the problem, because the OS is not behaving correctly, and I don't think that it's inappropriate to blame also the OS, since even the default apps and settings have problems same as some apps do.
I have used Chrome daily since it was first released for Android and have never had any real issues with it. Occasionally it will give me a problem where I need to restart the app but that's probably about once a week. Google+ should only keep the phone awake if you have it set to upload your photos automatically, and even then there's a setting to force it to only do the uploads when on the charger.
I think the key issue is that you're used to an OS that does not involve any thought from the user. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but it's a distinctly different approach from Android. Apps are allowed to run when the phone is asleep because that can provide additional functionality. I'm sure you wouldn't complain if Pandora was playing music and thus running when the phone was asleep. And that would hit your battery hard. iOS only allows applications to run under very specific conditions, thus limiting what they can do but making sure you don't end up with any "runaway" applications. Android puts the responsibility on the developer to make their app handle battery life well and on the user to make sure they're using decent applications.
Things like the mobile network and WiFi location are used by Google Now to provide location-based data. If you would rather have the improved battery life, turn Google Now off. Some of us would rather have the functionality, but you have the option to disable it.
Keep in mind also that the Nexus 4 just doesn't get as good battery life as the iPhone 4 or newer.
raptir said:
I have used Chrome daily since it was first released for Android and have never had any real issues with it. Occasionally it will give me a problem where I need to restart the app but that's probably about once a week. Google+ should only keep the phone awake if you have it set to upload your photos automatically, and even then there's a setting to force it to only do the uploads when on the charger.
I think the key issue is that you're used to an OS that does not involve any thought from the user. I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but it's a distinctly different approach from Android. Apps are allowed to run when the phone is asleep because that can provide additional functionality. I'm sure you wouldn't complain if Pandora was playing music and thus running when the phone was asleep. And that would hit your battery hard. iOS only allows applications to run under very specific conditions, thus limiting what they can do but making sure you don't end up with any "runaway" applications. Android puts the responsibility on the developer to make their app handle battery life well and on the user to make sure they're using decent applications.
Things like the mobile network and WiFi location are used by Google Now to provide location-based data. If you would rather have the improved battery life, turn Google Now off. Some of us would rather have the functionality, but you have the option to disable it.
Keep in mind also that the Nexus 4 just doesn't get as good battery life as the iPhone 4 or newer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have never had a OS that I am fully satisfied with, that is normal, but I am always very aware for issues, always scanning for issues, I really hate that about myself, I am a perfectionist, I will not calm down until I get everything just the way I think it should be... So that makes up very difficult relations with any software I use, too bad for me.
Android apps do have more functionality, more freedom than iOS, and I very much appreciate that. BUT if that functionality results in 90% to 0% in 3 hours, when you forget to turn off 1 app after using it... please, I feel like it's a duty to take care of my smartphone, close app after you are done or the phone will die, and you will be left without a phone for the entire day.
I don't like that instability when you can make 1 thing wrong and it all goes to pieces, not when there are people using other phones with almost the same functionality and no problems like that.
No matter who I have to blame this on, I have this issue and it is because of Android & because of the developer of the app.
It's very sad, I really want Android to be more stable with this
Yukicore said:
It's very sad, I really want Android to be more stable with this
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There are hundred millions of Android users, we don't all gets wakelocks. I don't have this problem and my phone is stable. Once you are using Android, you are no longer special and pampered in a walled garden like iOS users.
If you have battery drain due to Google services, see here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2385843
I suggest doing a factory reset and not install crap apps like anything by Gameloft, just play them on Apple devices. If you gets a wakelock, make a shortcut on your desktop to Apps and check on what apps are running in the background, one of the app in the list could be the issue.
I know you don't want to root, but I suggest do it anyway and install Greenify, hibernate any apps you don't want autostarting when you boot up the phone. Watch out for apps that both runs in the background and ask for too many permissions. I know there is an app that limit the maximum app that can run in the background, but I don't know the name, you can set it in the phone's Developer mode, but it doesn't persist on reboot.
Maybe the difference is like moving from an automatic car (iOS) to a manual (Android).
At least before "multitasking" arrived to iOS, an app no longer in the foreground was effectively exited. Android's memory management is much more complex than that, and apps are kept in memory until a new app requires the RAM being held by a previous one.
There is a clear advantage to this since apps "reopen" instantly, but if you're not careful there could be continued drain from apps still open but not in the foreground.
Incidentally - I don't follow Apple closely - iOS7 has been slated by users for the scenario you describe, I believe!
Google's apps offer all sorts of wonderful location-based features, for which the phone inevitably needs to know its location. Coarse location (via triangulation of radio towers) is not a problem, but "fine" requires the GPS to be used, and that does drain the battery.
So you need to consider whether you want all that location based stuff from Google.
Wifi is also a big drain, and that is why I get my phone to switch on every 10 minutes via DS Battery Saver. The upside is that the phone sleeps regularly, but the downside is that Whatsapp messages etc don't arrive immediately.
As you can see, Android offers you the ability to choose to be uber-connected/always on, or to have a better battery consumption. Since each individual is different, you can choose what is important to you.
I just had that drain second time happening. I don't remember how I left that stupid game, but I ended up with 2% battery and phone turned off.
I think I exited using the back button. What the hell.
Pou is known to kill your battery.
http://forums.androidcentral.com/google-nexus-4/253092-media-server-draining-my-battery.html
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20130606043957AA9Tq7N
Since it's a virtual pet game the developer probably did not code it to close when you hit the Back button, so you need to kill it through Recent Apps. Or just uninstall it.
raptir said:
Pou is known to kill your battery.
http://forums.androidcentral.com/google-nexus-4/253092-media-server-draining-my-battery.html
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20130606043957AA9Tq7N
Since it's a virtual pet game the developer probably did not code it to close when you hit the Back button, so you need to kill it through Recent Apps. Or just uninstall it.
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Click to collapse
This is bad... Now it is developers fault, but why on earth should Android OS allow this kind of behavior on any app... This is not a simple background service, this was running fully when the screen was off. 2-4 hours is the screen on time averagely I get, 3.5 hours without screen on, it's damn fast draining.
Yukicore said:
This is bad... Now it is developers fault, but why on earth should Android OS allow this kind of behavior on any app... This is not a simple background service, this was running fully when the screen was off. 2-4 hours is the screen on time averagely I get, 3.5 hours without screen on, it's damn fast draining.
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Click to collapse
We've already been through this. You're fine with your phone's music player running in the background when the screen is off, right? It's the exact same behavior, just that Pou uses more resources and has no reason to be running. Apple puts heavy restrictions on what an app can do in the background (playing music being one of the only exceptions). Google leaves it up to the developer and user to manage it.
If you think that is a problem with the OS, I really recommend you go back to the iPhone. Not being mean or anything, but you clearly either do not understand the differences in philosophy between the two operating systems or you understand it and prefer the iOS way.
raptir said:
We've already been through this. You're fine with your phone's music player running in the background when the screen is off, right? It's the exact same behavior, just that Pou uses more resources and has no reason to be running. Apple puts heavy restrictions on what an app can do in the background (playing music being one of the only exceptions). Google leaves it up to the developer and user to manage it.
If you think that is a problem with the OS, I really recommend you go back to the iPhone. Not being mean or anything, but you clearly either do not understand the differences in philosophy between the two operating systems or you understand it and prefer the iOS way.
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Click to collapse
You said that user and developer can manage resources of apps, how can a user manage them? Can I fix this specific problem myself somehow?
[HOW-TO][NEWBIE GUIDE] Optimize & proper set up your Galaxy S6 Edge (stock firmware)
As I've read across this forum and on several specific threads related to usage, battery life and so on, as well as discussing with some of my friends having a S6 or S6 Edge, I realized that most of the people don't really know how to properly set up their phones or how to use them efficiently.
OK, I get it, this is a fancy phone, not every owner is a developer or tech guy so it might be that many choose it based on the looks and don't really know how to optimize it...then they start complaining about different things like lag or battery drain not knowing that most of the problems are caused by miss-usage or improper setup. Of course there are bugs too, nothing is perfect. Of course there are many firmwares available and some are market or carrier dependent so some features or settings might be missing from some of them or even work differently.
What I will try here is to provide some guidelines and tips for setting up various things on the phone in order to maximize it's battery life and for a better usage. I will also make some recommendations based on my experience, tests and usage that might not apply to everyone. Use common sense and logic to apply similar settings in your particular case. Don't come screaming that you made that or that and now something is not working.
And YES, I know there are similar guides like this posted over the Internet and I'll probably make similar recommendations here too but I couldn't find such a guide here on XDA that is particular to this phone (if there is a better one than you might as well ignore mine).
All these things I'll describe below are applicable to any STOCK, NON-ROOTED 5.1.1 firmware and won't break warranty or your phone.
Now that was a long (and maybe unneeded introduction) but I thought to write this for everyone...let's start.
Model No.: SM-G925F
Android: 5.1.1 r2 (LMY47X)
Baseband: G925FXXU2QOI7
Kernel: 3.10.61-5672012
Build date: Fri Sept 4 2015
Carrier: Orange RO
DISPLAY
First I would like to say some words about the display. We have a great display, high resolution and it is most likely the biggest battery drain factor. There are two major things about it that you should keep in mind and will help you to get a better battery:
1. It's AMOLED...that means that the black pixels on it will consume no power because are not lit. Studies showed that even if not completely black, AMOLED displays use less energy if the displayed picture is darker compared to a lighter one.
2. The brightness level. Most people use it on "auto" or high level settings and this will be a major drain factor.
You can drastically lower the battery drain caused by your screen by selecting as much as possible dark (black) backgrounds and/or themes. There are some nice ones available in the Theme Store (my favorite is the Dalkomm Coffee Theme), that make most screens and menus dark/black. Also choosing a dark wallpaper for lockscreen/homescreens will help.
Don't use screen brightness at maximum...never. You don't need that in 99% of the cases. Also you won't probably need the automatic setting either since most of the people are spending most of the time indoors (either at work or home). A low manual setting will be fine most of the time, I have it set up at about 20% and only need a brighter one when going out. At that time I just tap on "auto" and it'll increase based on ambient light level. So you don't even need to tweak it alot every time. Find a low manual setting that's fine for your eyes and just tap on "auto" when you go out in sunlight.
CONNECTIVITY
Another battery drain factor is your multiple connection/radios features. In most cases you use just several: Mobile Data, WiFi, GPS/location and BT (when applicable). That means you should turn off all the others you don't use...NFC or BT (when not connected to a headset or car-kit or not listening to music). I don't listen to music and don't have a BT headset so I mostly not using BT (just when I'm in my car) and almost never use NFC so I have both disabled and I enable them only when needed via the Quick Settings.
WiFi
WiFi should also be properly setup otherwise it'll have impact on battery. It was incorrectly assumed or considered that keeping WiFi on all the time will drain battery faster. That was proven in different tests that's not true and in fact keeping WiFi on all the time won't make a big difference and in some cases was even better than to turn it off/on. I think is something similar with the car engines that suck more fuel when started that when running at idle. The major power drain is not when WiFi is running while is not connected to any network, but when the WiFi radio is powered up. When is on and not connected, it's going into a lower power state so the battery consumption is negligible.
I had a case with one of my friends that had WiFi setup to turn off when display was off...wrong choice, he got about 30% battery drain overnight because instead of having it connected to his home WiFi, the phone was using his 4G/LTE connection to make all the background sync/updates. That was eating his battery and also his data plan. After setting WiFi to "always" his overnight drain lowered to as little as 2-3%.
In some regions/carriers there are 2 other settings that were proven to help battery life: WiFi calling and VoLTE. I don't have either of them but based on different articles and what people say, they surely help with that so don't forget to turn them off if you don't use these features.
You might also want to try turning off "Always allows scanning" and "Smart network switch". I have the second turned off but I keep on the first one. Basically the first option tell the Location service to use WiFi for locating the device even if WiFi is switched off (by the on/off switch) so that means the radio is active. Second option should make you switch faster from WiFi to mobile data in case the WiFi signal is not strong enough or fluctuating. In my country there are plenty of WiFi hot-spots and they have mostly good connections so I don't use this feature.
GPS
Well here the opinions are split but I am currently having it ON all the time and Location Service is set to "high accuracy". I personally haven't noticed such a major difference with or without it so I preferred to let it on as it is used by many apps or services. You can try to set Location to "wifi and cell only" but don't think that will bring you a major benefit.
RUNNING APPS/PROCESSES
Well this is an important one. I've initially started to turn off/disable/uninstall everything I don't need or use. This can be done mostly from the Settings - Applications - Application Manager or if you want to go further, you can install Package Disabler Pro from PlayStore, about which I'll detail later.
Now why we should do that? There are lots of apps, processes and background services running on our devices that take care about all the things we do on the device. The problem is that ALL are using resources: processor time, memory, space and so on. In the end these are translated for a user in LAG or battery drain. Of course we cannot kill everything and I learned long time ago that installing Task or memory managers on Android it's the worst thing you can do. Android it's smart enough to take care better about it's resources and processes (at least to a certain point) and keep killing a certain process won't give you more battery life but will eat more of it in the end,
What I wanted to say is you shouldn't start disabling, killing or blocking everything cause you might end up with an unstable or not properly working phone (case in which only a factory reset might help). First of all look at the ALL tab in Application Manager and try to identify what you don't need or use. For example I'm certainly not using some things like: music, books, news feeds, Samsung's keyboard (I use SwiftKey), the TouchWiz launcher (I use Nova), health services or whatever, S-Voice, S-Health, S-Finder, I don't have any smartwatches so I don't use any Gear processes, fancy device wake-up functions (like wave gestures) or animated wallpapers either.
So after all considerations above, you decided that you can safely disable some apps/processes. All good but you'll quickly learn that some of them cannot be disabled via Application Manager (the "disable" button is grayed out). Now what? Well here comes handy that Package Disabler Pro that I've told you about in the beginning. That app is able to disable ANY apps/processes on your phone, including those that are protected and cannot be disabled via the normal way (and yes it can do that without being rooted). The downside of it is that you must be careful what you choose to disable not to have something that is needed for the normal functionality or the apps you're currently using. The app has also a backup/restore function (via an xml file) for saving the list with apps you have disabled and easily import them back after a factory reset for ex. I've added to this thread my list of disabled apps as it is exported by the application (just unzip and copy the file on the root of your internal memory and it can then be imported in the Package Disabler app)
Another important thing is WHAT apps you're using. I know that socializing and social networking are some of today's most trendy things but keep in mind that some of the apps used for that are not so well made. An example could be the Facebook app/messenger which are reported to drain alot of battery. RSS feeds, news feeds, multiple weather apps or widgets, all contribute to battery drain and lag. Don't install several apps/widgets for the same purpose (like several calendar apps or weather apps). Each will take resources and won't have an added value. Want to use another weather app/widget than the one coming with the phone? Fine, install it...but don't forget to uninstall/disable the built in one or others that do the same thing. Same goes for keyboard for ex; I use SwiftKey for years and got used with it. For me it's better than any keyboard that Samsung might put on the device, therefore I've disabled the standard Samsung keyboard. I also don't like TouchWiz launcher and use Nova that offers me much more flexibility so...I've disabled both the "easy" and "regular" TouchWiz launchers. I went to the point that I've even disabled the different embedded font types, you have 5 of them and I doubt someone uses more than one at a time.
So as you all can see it's not only a matter of setup but also a matter of usage. When you have a device you have to use it properly otherwise it'll not perform as you expect. Imagine a car that has a manufacturer fuel consumption value of 5.5 liters/100 Km....that's under certain conditions not on ANY type of driving. Fly with 200+ km/hr on a highway and I'll guarantee you won't have 5.5 liters/100 km consumption. That doesn't mean the manufacturer has lied or mislead you. Same goes with a phone, if you don't know how to use it and optimize it, you'll have a bad experience.
I work in the IT industry for years and I mostly laugh when I hear someone advising somebody to reinstall the operating system to solve a problem. Same goes for "factory reset" for a phone. Yes, this method works some times but that won't solve the root cause of an issues if you're using it the same way. After several days it'll perform as bad as before and you'll just say that "factory reset" did nothing. Of course it didn't...YOU have to do something different, not the phone.
Now I apologize for the long post and I do hope that at least some will learn to better manage their devices and to understand what they're doing not just running certain commands or procedures blind. Both S6 and S6e are great devices but we should learn how to properly use them in order to benefit the most from them...otherwise we just come here asking for help or mumbling about what crap devices they are.
Thank you, I will check to see if I get an improvement on the standby battery drain.
Your part about not setting the screen to Auto is flawed. You mention that we are mostly indoors, and you don't need a brighter screen for that. Auto mode also knows that and sets the brightness lower. It already does automatically what you do manually.
Tnx. And yes....keeping screen at 20% brightness and just switching to auto when in outdoors works great for the battery life.
ArmedandDangerous said:
Your part about not setting the screen to Auto is flawed. You mention that we are mostly indoors, and you don't need a brighter screen for that. Auto mode also knows that and sets the brightness lower. It already does automatically what you do manually.
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Click to collapse
Not quite, I've tested it. If you're on "auto" and use a lower setting on the slidebar, in a dark room the screen is too dark, you'll have to turn off "auto" and the manual brighteness set on the same level will be much higher than on auto.
Now if you have such good eyes and you're able to use "auto" in all cases with the slider at 20% that's good for you...unfortunately I am not so that's why I use it as I've described. The point is that "auto" mode consumes MORE battery regardless of how it's set, than a lower 'manual' mode. So I preffer to have it like this than to use auto all the time.
Thanks for the awesome guide. I'll start disabling some useless processes and see how my battery life is working. Anyway without much editing the battery of S6Edge is pretty good. I can use it a whole day and still 19% remaining. As a comparison I wasn't able to do it with my S3 having to recharge it 2 or even 3 times at day.
Again, thanks for the guide!
Enviado desde mi SGS6e mediante Tapatalk
So I broke my old Note 4 that I used at work. I'm now dusting off my daughter's old S7 Edge to use that, upgraded to latest firmware, used CCSW to disable all what I consider crapware, and now I have a question. Since this is running Oreo the battery and data optimization is not as complex as what we have recently (my "weekend" phone is a Note 10 running Android 11), so should I still use Greenify to control my running apps or is the battery optimization in Oreo is good enough without the need for an "extra" app running in the background to control that. I appreciate everyone's opinion!
Lol, that app and a 3rd party launcher were the prime suspects in 2 back to back boot loops on my N10+ Never again.
Not sure about Oreo but power management always causes issues in Pie including poor battery life.
I simply close app when done with them and Android does fine.
Any apps that don't behave under those terms I deal with on a case by case basis. Some are uninstalled or temporarily/permanently disabled.
Google Framework, Play Services and Playstore are habitual offenders.
Play with it and see what's using the battery, go from there. Maybe it will behave better than you expect.
blackhawk said:
Lol, that app and a 3rd party launcher were the prime suspects in 2 back to back boot loops on my N10+ Never again.
Not sure about Oreo but power management always causes issues in Pie including poor battery life.
I simply close app when done with them and Android does fine.
Any apps that don't behave under those terms I deal with on a case by case basis. Some are uninstalled or temporarily/permanently disabled.
Google Framework, Play Services and Playstore are habitual offenders.
Play with it and see what's using the battery, go from there. Maybe it will behave better than you expect.
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Click to collapse
Thx for the reply. Yes, besides CCSW to disable apps that either I consider crapware or apps that I use rarely, I don't use Greenify or other "battery saving" apps on my Note10. I feel that Pie and above has way better management options for apps that previous Android releases. If I close all my apps on "recents" and reboot my phone and let it sit there overnight I get only a 2-3% drop in my battery. That tells that battery is well managed.
Now for this old S7 on Oreo well I dont have many options in the apps settings besides the battery optimization switch. That's why I'm debating if I should use Greenify or not to have better control of apps that I really dont want running on the background but still want to receive notifications when they arrive.
mrrobc97 said:
Thx for the reply. Yes, besides CCSW to disable apps that either I consider crapware or apps that I use rarely, I don't use Greenify or other "battery saving" apps on my Note10. I feel that Pie and above has way better management options for apps that previous Android releases. If I close all my apps on "recents" and reboot my phone and let it sit there overnight I get only a 2-3% drop in my battery. That tells that battery is well managed.
Now for this old S7 on Oreo well I dont have many options in the apps settings besides the battery optimization switch. That's why I'm debating if I should use Greenify or not to have better control of apps that I really dont want running on the background but still want to receive notifications when they arrive.
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Click to collapse
I reboot my 10+ every few days or if it acts up... no reboot in 3-5 days can do that
At night I simply close all open apps although I do that throughout the day as well. I use Device Care to do clean ups every 2-3 days. Other than clearing the system cache that's about as much system maintenance as I do.
I also police the download folder daily and once a month scan with Malwarebytes. A very low maintenance, clean running system.
Greenify worried me as it wasn't seamless or fast and running at boot up means it had the capability to boot loop the device. If I never see another boot loop it won't be missed...
Maybe on an older OS you would see tangible power savings but it didn't do much for me on Pie.
In the end, tracking the power hogs down and dealing with them on a case by case basis did.
I run with Google play Services disabled 98% of the time now. It nets me about 2%@hr better battery life.
mrrobc97 said:
I feel that Pie and above has way better management options for apps that previous Android releases.
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Click to collapse
On my N10+ ruunong on Pie, all Device Care power management toggles are turn off except for fast charging.
The power mode is always set to "Optimize".