Why you don’t need a task killer app with Android. - Desire General

http://androidspin.com/2010/05/25/why-you-dont-need-a-task-killer-app-with-android/
Why you don’t need a task killer app with Android.
Posted Posted by Cody Banks on 25th May 2010 Comments 5 comments
A lot of people have asked us what the best app is for killing tasks? Well, the answer is none of them. Sure there are some nice apps out there for killing tasks, but the fact is you just don’t need one with Android. In fact, most developers
won’t even look at your logcat file if they see you running a task killer app on your Android-based phone.
To clear things up about this, Google’s Android developers blog has finally put this debate to rest about why a task killer is unnecessary, as well as why there are certain services that run in the background all the time, I’m sure at one time or another you’ve seen them and asked yourself “Why do those services keep starting after I kill them?”. Below you can read about when applications stop.......
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I've found no matter how many times it's said, someone will have an anecdote about how their phone became amazingly fast or they doubled battery life using one of these apps. People who want to use them will continue to do so. Don't trouble yourself.

It's nice to have one to kill the odd app that is messing up, but other than that I don't use one.

Aitese said:
I've found no matter how many times it's said, someone will have an anecdote about how their phone became amazingly fast or they doubled battery life using one of these apps. People who want to use them will continue to do so. Don't trouble yourself.
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the reason people say this is because it's actually true.
that's just the truth, maybe you should try using one and notice the difference.
I uninstalled mine for the first time yesterday to test the theory and today, my battery lasted a grand total of 4.5 hours. that's a whole 3 hours less than before.
and at the end of the day, when it's laggy and then use the TK, it really does clear things up.
still wish there was a way to make the battery last longer, it really does suck

samac92 said:
It's nice to have one to kill the odd app that is messing up, but other than that I don't use one.
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You can do this from android... no need for an app.

Barff1984 said:
I uninstalled mine for the first time yesterday to test the theory and today, my battery lasted a grand total of 4.5 hours. that's a whole 3 hours less than before.
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I'd say if you're only getting between 4.5 and 7.5 hours battery life, I'd say you've probably got a rogue app installed anyway.
Regards,
Dave

foxmeister said:
I'd say if you're only getting between 4.5 and 7.5 hours battery life, I'd say you've probably got a rogue app installed anyway.
Regards,
Dave
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I agree, taskkillers aren't battery savers they are drainers...
Have had my desire for a couple of days now (comming from a htc hero) and since I removed my taskmanager my desire has juice for about 1,5 days.
With taskpanel I hardly reached 24 hours... And I haven't noticed the device becoming slower...
I don't miss it and if I don't get any strange apps I won't ever install a taskmanager again...

well there are some apps which don't work properly.
Take the xda android app as example. it would sometimes just freeze, and there was no way to restart the app, no option for force close was provided by Android OS either.
In this case Android isn't doing anything, so you have to kill the process manually using
1. the default android feature
2. using a task killer.
I like the quick access to the advanced task killer over the notification area, therefore i use it.
People can tell me whole day long how ingenius Android is, and that it will do everything automatically. But i made very different experiences with some 3rd party apps, which needed some killing every now and then. The xda app is only ONE example of many.

Barff1984 said:
the reason people say this is because it's actually true.
that's just the truth, maybe you should try using one and notice the difference.
I uninstalled mine for the first time yesterday to test the theory and today, my battery lasted a grand total of 4.5 hours. that's a whole 3 hours less than before.
and at the end of the day, when it's laggy and then use the TK, it really does clear things up.
still wish there was a way to make the battery last longer, it really does suck
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The thing is I HAVE used them. Advanced Task Killer was the first app I installed on receiving my Desire...the phone became glitchy and buggy and laggy and it was horrible. I uninstalled ATK and all that stopped. It now NEVER slows down, and I'm getting well over 8hrs of use a day.
I suspect you have a buggy app, and THAT is what you need to find.
We need to stop giving bad app developers a feww ride by ignoring their bad code and just killing the process. Uninstall their app, give it a bad review and insist on using a rival app.

Shahpur.Azizpour said:
well there are some apps which don't work properly.
Take the xda android app as example. it would sometimes just freeze, and there was no way to restart the app, no option for force close was provided by Android OS either.
In this case Android isn't doing anything, so you have to kill the process manually using
1. the default android feature
2. using a task killer.
I like the quick access to the advanced task killer over the notification area, therefore i use it.
People can tell me whole day long how ingenius Android is, and that it will do everything automatically. But i made very different experiences with some 3rd party apps, which needed some killing every now and then. The xda app is only ONE example of many.
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You can force close an app from Android. Menu > Settings > Applications > Manage Applications > Locate the app > open it and force stop.
Create a shortcut to manage applications short cut on your home screen if you like, then you'll only need to do this:
Open Manage Applictions short cut > Locate the app > open it and force stop. - This is just as simple as using a task manager shortcut.

TheOriginalKi said:
You can force close an app from Android. Menu > Settings > Applications > Manage Applications > Locate the app > open it and force stop.
Create a shortcut to manage applications short cut on your home screen if you like, then you'll only need to do this:
Open Manage Applictions short cut > Locate the app > open it and force stop. - This is just as simple as using a task manager shortcut.
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actually using the notification drawer is more comfortable for me. But this is just personal preference.

Yes-They might be useful to kill the occasional rogue app. but apart from that they are pretty pointless. Android does a good job of killing tasks itself.
Despite all the evidence to the contrary people many will continue to use them and use them indiscriminately. Still if they want generally poorer performance and reduced battery life surely that is their choice.

Shahpur.Azizpour said:
actually using the notification drawer is more comfortable for me. But this is just personal preference.
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How does that work. the notification draw is pretty much blank most of the time save for new message/downloads etc ?

has anyone actually tried to load up so many apps, so there's almost no memory left, so android kills other apps by himself? It's all excellent in theory, but never witnessed it in real life.

guys I had advanced task manager installed in my phone and my phone was laggy, and my battery was always down to 40-50% at the end of the day, but yesterday on someone's advice I removed ATM, and instantly i noticed the difference, there was no lag in the menus and everything was smooth, and today my battery was an astonishing 85 % remaining when i came back home, and I intentionaly used my phone more than usual. so at least one thing is sure that I will not be using any task manager.

matthoy said:
How does that work. the notification draw is pretty much blank most of the time save for new message/downloads etc ?
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with advanced task manager you can see a small icon at the notification area (at all times). When pulling down the drawer you'll see an entry which says "advanced task manager".
just touch it and a list with current running apps will show up.

kamidadevil said:
guys I had advanced task manager installed in my phone and my phone was laggy, and my battery was always down to 40-50% at the end of the day, but yesterday on someone's advice I removed ATM, and instantly i noticed the difference, there was no lag in the menus and everything was smooth, and today my battery was an astonishing 85 % remaining when i came back home, and I intentionaly used my phone more than usual. so at least one thing is sure that I will not be using any task manager.
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there are way too many variables in this equation, as to just claim that ATM is responsible for hogging 30-40% battery power per day.
Of course it will have some kind of impact, just like other apps too. But i don't think that it will have a much bigger impact.

no, I dont think there are any variables involved in my case except ATM, I never use internet on mine phone during the day coz i always have internet access on my laptop, instead today I used wifi intentionaly just for testing battery and played asphalt which I normaly dont play during the work hours,

Here's a video from the Developer site that explains very well how Android manages Apps:
http://developer.android.com/videos/index.html#v=fL6gSd4ugSI
And if I really need to kill something (very rare!) then I use Task Tray Beta:
http://www.appbrain.com/app/com.stonedonkey.tasktray or find it in the Market.
This app is also great for seeing what 's actually running and what 's not anymore. And for switching to some App that you know is running, but in the default Android task switcher you can see only 6 apps.... and this will show all.

I tried out a few task killer but all they did was stop my alarm going off in the morning! I'm sure that's something I could have changed though.
I find the best way to keep my desire running nice and quick is to give it a reboot every morning on my way to work. Only takes a couple of minutes....give it a try...

Related

What causes the Home Screen to crash?

Relatively often I find when turning the Desire on I get a white spinning circle and the home screen has basically crashed. Most of the time this clears itself but sometimes it doesn't and I have to turn off/on the phone (* see below).
What background apps/services are known to do this? I'm pretty sure I'm killing something using Task Panel, I shouldn't be.
* I've found pressing the Search button and then accessing the People App (from the Phone option) clears the crash.
Thanks
If you're allowing any process to automatically kill other processes, you're asking for trouble. First disable that, its pointless and uses more resources/battery than it saves.
If you still have an issue with the home app locking up, in my experience its usually a badly written widget. If you have any widgets on your screens that aren't "original" I would start by getting rid of them and then re-adding one-by-one over time until you find the culprit. Check the comments/reviews of them too, if they're locking up the phone people will usually comment about it on the Market.
If that still hasn't fixed it, I'm not sure what else would be locking up the home app, my next suggestion would be a hard-reset to "clean up" and go from there.
foner78 said:
If you're allowing any process to automatically kill other processes, you're asking for trouble. First disable that, its pointless and uses more resources/battery than it saves.
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What do you mean? I use Task Panel, that kills apps/services. Is that what you mean? But I'm not using it to kill system services just :
BlueTooth share - I don't use Bluetooth, why does this still run?
Photos - HTC Photo App
Gallery - Nexus One Phto App
FM Radio
MyBackup Pro
3G Watchdog - Monitor data usage
ShopSavvy - Check prices elsewhere
Footprints - What a pointless app!
TrainTimes UK
Facebook App
These are killed when I put the phone in standby or I click Kill All.
I really don't see why most of these have to run, when I turn the phone on but there's no option to stop them doing it. I really don't need a lot of these running all the time!
I'd also think, if I kill an App and it's needed, it would just reload itself. So when the Home Screens re-loaded, it would be running again in the Task Manager but there's nothing there.
foner78 said:
If you still have an issue with the home app locking up, in my experience its usually a badly written widget. If you have any widgets on your screens that aren't "original" I would start by getting rid of them and then re-adding one-by-one over time until you find the culprit.
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The only widget I'm using that doesn't come with the HTC Desire is the HTC Notes widget. Thanks btw.
As foner78 has already suggested, I would try first try removing your task killer (TaskPanel) so as to eliminate it as the cause of your issue.
It is also worthwhile reading up on how Android manages processes/multitasks - good sources are here and here.
The Desire is my third Android phone, and whilst I've tried using task killers, I've come to the conclusion that leaving the OS to handle it itself is the best option.
Regards,
Dave
This is also my second Android phone.
I would definitely recommend you read the links posted by foxmeister to get a better understanding of processes/activites/services on Android and why you don't need to play any role in killing them.
The short version is... you have nothing to gain from killing processes in this way and you do risk having problems with your phone. Right now, you DO have a problem with the home app and you are randomly killing processes. Logically it makes sense to rule this out as the cause.
Got to be worth trying, surely!?
Thanks guys.
I removed Task Panel and put on Advanced Task Killer instead. Advanced Task Killer lets you filter out system services, so you can only kill Apps. Problem fixed.
bradavon said:
Thanks guys.
I removed Task Panel and put on Advanced Task Killer instead. Advanced Task Killer lets you filter out system services, so you can only kill Apps. Problem fixed.
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Geez, talk about missing the point...
Well I'm glad that you've got rid of the problem, though I would still urge you to stop ANY automatic process killing as that still leads to problems and has no advantage. There are many topics on here to explain why, and the links posted previously. Do yourself a favour and learn about android processes. Your understanding of processes from other systems such as Windows simply does not apply here.
Still, you can lead horse to water...
The explanation from the Android devs is quite nice and help understand how it works but in reality is not always like that.
If you use any task amnager to monitor the memory usage you will notice that overtime the OS will consume a lot of the memory to the point that will render the OS slower.
What i mean is that even if Android works perfectly managing the memory we cannot say the same about the applications we install.
I've used/tested pratically all the top 100 apps for Android and a LOT of them will not work as the devs say.
I know it is not an Android problem, but still from time to time you need to kill some of those apps manually.
My opinion is to not get rid of the task manager, but just stop the auto-killing process. Then if you notice some slow down on the system, use it to check what apps are holding back memory (after you have closed them for a while).
Once you found what application is giving problems, search an alternative because the one you are using is not developped correctly.
cgrec92 said:
Geez, talk about missing the point...
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I've not missed any point thank you. I asked for advice why the home screen was crashing and I was given it. I read that informative document over at Android HQ and now have a better idea of how Android memory management works.
It still means I want to be in control of the apps running on "my" phone. Some apps consume way too much memory (although as that document describes, that "usually" isn't a problem) and some connect with my phone's data connection way too often. It also annoys me Apps I never ever use still insist in running all the time, like the Stock Control App and Footprints (does anyone use that?). The latter seems to do more than it appears (usually if I kill it, it takes the home screen with it). I don't kill those two any more but it still annoys me they run.
It looks like Android is much, much better than Windows Mobile at App memory management but that too claimed to kill apps when memory was low. Except it never did.
Since "not killing" system services/apps my Desire's Home Screen hasn't crashed once. I see no harm in killing Third Party Apps, as Krpano says it can sometimes be necessary.
It's always really annoyed me Windows Mobile has no ethos of a simple "exit" button, so few apps have it. On Android I've yet to come across any app with an exit buton. Some apps say they have one but it merely hides the app to the background. We should be given the choice of exiting an app, when we're finished with it. Windows, Linux (correct me if I'm wrong) and MAC OS all have such a feature as default.
bradavon said:
I've not missed any point thank you. I asked for advice why the home screen was crashing and I was given it. I read that informative document over at Android HQ and now have a better idea of how Android memory management works.
It still means I want to be in control of the apps running on "my" phone. Some apps consume way too much memory (although as that document describes, that "usually" isn't a problem) and some connect with my phone's data connection way too often. It also annoys me Apps I never ever use still insist in running all the time, like the Stock Control App and Footprints (does anyone use that?). The latter seems to do more than it appears (usually if I kill it, it takes the home screen with it). I don't kill those two any more but it still annoys me they run.
It looks like Android is much, much better than Windows Mobile at App memory management but that too claimed to kill apps when memory was low. Except it never did.
Since "not killing" system services/apps my Desire's Home Screen hasn't crashed once. I see no harm in killing Third Party Apps, as Krpano says it can sometimes be necessary.
It's always really annoyed me Windows Mobile has no ethos of a simple "exit" button, so few apps have it. On Android I've yet to come across any app with an exit buton. Some apps say they have one but it merely hides the app to the background. We should be given the choice of exiting an app, when we're finished with it. Windows, Linux (correct me if I'm wrong) and MAC OS all have such a feature as default.
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OR you can just let Android do all this for you...
cgrec92 said:
Geez, talk about missing the point...
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That was a bit harsh my friend!
While I respect the point that it is YOUR phone and of course you can choose how you use it, we are simply offering you advice. Please don't take offence at this, but some of the things you say in your last post show us that you still do not understand Android processes.
I would just like to explain that very often when you see an app "running" in the background using a Task Manager, it is not actually running at all... by which I mean it is not consuming any CPU time. These apps are simply left resident in the memory so that they are quick to resume if/when you come to use them again. When memory is short and another task tries to grab some Android makes a decision about which of those applications you are least likely to use again soon and kills it. Literally kills it, erasing all traces from memory. This is of course totally transparent to the user.
On older Android phones the "cleanups" often resulted in pauses in the user experience and this is why I used a Task Manager on my G1. However the Desire has so much more memory and CPU time combined with the updated Android code that this all happens without you seeing it. I would suggest to you that the only reason you are aware of these apps in the background is because you have gone looking in a Task Manager which is giving you misleading information.
I don't recommend removing the Task Manager, it is useful when an App does "go bad", but I strongly recommend disabling all automated task killing. By running that you are using actual CPU time and battery resources, which has a greater impact on overall system performance than the resident background applications. You may disagree based on your PC or WinMo experience, but it simple is the case with Android which manages tasks and memory very differently to those.
The final point is... having 30MB of free memory on the device is no different to having 40MB free. As long as a process has space to load and run it the "free" space is irrelevant on these devices. When a process doesn't have space Android makes space by killing the background apps in the most efficient way possible.
I hope you'll consider my advice carefully and at least try it, you will have a better Android experience if you do, but of course if you choose to do things your way then I still hope you have a good experience with your Desire

[Q] Why do applications autostart?

Here's a list of apps that are open when my phone is just turned on:
Paperdroid
Greed2
Market
NewsRob
Tasker
Google Mail
News
Wifi Manager
Gallery
Colornote
Footprints
Messages
Nimbuzz
Clock
twicca
Skebby
fring
FM Radio
Music
Stocks
Except a few system ones (Gmail, Messages..), why do apps open even if I never used them? Especially the HTC ones (Stocks, Footprints), they are really annoying apps I never opened.
Can this be solved somehow? It may not use resources or battery but I don't understand why I can't decide what to open.
It feels like the Windows system tray, bunch of stuff often stuck there autostarting with no way of removing it (if not by using 3rd party programs).
i was about to post the same question. Just dont understand why they start when i got my sync set to manual
totally agree that all these apps/services or whatever you call just annoying as they are started without user permission. Hv raised a similar thread some time ago, and Im not expert on such issues, but as far as I understand, the only way to get rid of them is -unfortunately- passing through root & custom roms.. No way out to stop them from being run automatically especially the Sense ones. However, acc to more advanced users or developers, they are not so "dangerous" in terms of battery consumption, nor any other impact on system as long as user do not activate and use them. For those which requires synching e.g. stocks, news, facebook, peep etc. it is enough to keep autosynch option disabled, thus it is no longer needing to think/care about them, that's it. But if the point is to ensure more room available in the internal memory, then -as said- the only solution is flashing rom with any 3rd party rom like cyanogen, modaco, defrost, ........
Me? still stuck with the official froyo on my unbranded, unrooted Desire (since April 13th)
iLHaNroID said:
totally agree that all these apps/services or whatever you call just annoying as they are started without user permission
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when you download them you give them all the permissions they need, if you dont like the way a program behaves ..... simple dont download it
Wow that's helpful, simply don't download stock and peep and others.how come I did not think about it???
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
it starts them, cause it has enough memory to cacche them.
so when you want to launch them, they open fast. simple as that.
when do people stop worrying about memory and all this. android handles that very well. no reason for watching memory and running programs even.
koichirose said:
Can this be solved somehow? It may not use resources or battery but I don't understand why I can't decide what to open.
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Put simply, the reason why these start at boot is because they are set to receive the ACTION_BOOT_COMPLETED intent.
Allows an application to receive the ACTION_BOOT_COMPLETED that is broadcast after the system finishes booting. If you don't request this permission, you will not receive the broadcast at that time. Though holding this permission does not have any security implications, it can have a negative impact on the user experience by increasing the amount of time it takes the system to start and allowing applications to have themselves running without the user being aware of them. As such, you must explicitly declare your use of this facility to make that visible to the user.
Constant Value: "android.permission.RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED"
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Bear in mind that 99.99% of Android users will never know that this has happened, or that these processes were started. So, if they want to use Stocks, Peep, or whatever, they don't need to make a conscious decision to have the app start automatically - it just does.
Whilst I'm sure Google could build in an official API to allow you to control this behaviour, it would only be of benefit to a very tiny minority of users.
Regards,
Dave
Thank you for the explanation.
All I want would be an option to disable autostart.
I found it in fring, for example, and would like to see other developers add this option as well.
The only bad impact you could have is that boot time could be a couple of seconds longer for every application that starts. Otherwise, that memory it occupies will be freed the second the system needs it and CPU-wise, those applications are staying idle in the background
koichirose said:
All I want would be an option to disable autostart.
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Click to collapse
Same here. Android has a slightly ridiculous amount of processes and apps running in the background all the time, and while they in theory shouldn't put a strain on the battery when they're not using the CPU, I'm beginning to think that they do since battery life on Android usually is awful, no matter how many precautions you take.
MapleDouglas said:
Same here. Android has a slightly ridiculous amount of processes and apps running in the background all the time, and while they in theory shouldn't put a strain on the battery when they're not using the CPU, I'm beginning to think that they do since battery life on Android usually is awful, no matter how many precautions you take.
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Click to collapse
exactly, no matter how many precautions you make, so you are basically saying it doesn't matter how many apps are "running"... It makes no difference whether memory is used by an app or not.
Read this article to understand it better: http://www.droid-den.com/android-guides/android-guide-should-i-use-a-task-killer
le3ky said:
exactly, no matter how many precautions you make, so you are basically saying it doesn't matter how many apps are "running"... It makes no difference whether memory is used by an app or not.
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With "precautions" I wasn't referring to killing processes, but general battery saving precautions, many based on common sense. I agree that task killers never should be used, unless a specific app has frozen and is given you trouble. But you can just go to Android's own Applications screen for that.
Is there a free way to stop applications from starting up?
This can be accomplished with a cheap app Autostarts, but I would rather not pay.
i'm trying the trial of startup manager, blocks some but not all. looks like it just kills the process once it's started tself. gonna get rid, and just use the task manager i have now.
it doesnt matter if it only makes a small difference, it's (for me anyway) about control, no different that on the PC
i have plenty of RAM in my PC but i wont allow every single program to have something start itself at bootup. it;s annoying. that's why i use msconfig to kill em.
that's what we need for android.
I don't know of other programs, but autostarts works quite well, and it's not that expensive, as I recall.
snudel said it all: stop worrying about memory.. i was a long time iphone user. on iphone memory is a nightmare.. soh on desire i was all the time fc'ing app's, them i notice the problem wasnt memory os the great number of opened apps, but me.. now they run on background, open fast, the mem management is awesome, they dont seen to utilize any noticeable amount of battery.. so, before changing the system, try changing yourself..

[Q] startup apps

hey all
another question for me today...
my g2 has been slowing down quite a bit lately. almost ready to root. but first i wanted to see if i can deal with this a bit longer.
first things first, i've read plenty of posts and articles, even a thing from cyanogen himself i believe that said that taskkillers are worthless in the android operating system. that being said, according to an app i just installed called "startupcleaner2.0" i have 42 apps loading at startup. my g2 takes almost 5 minutes to boot. some of these apps are of course required apps and system things, things that i absolutely need, but then there are things like, "CardioTrainer," an app i've never even used but would like to check out sometime, or "G4" which i see no reason why it should need to run until i run it myself, or "HootSuite" which I don't even use (I just use the separate facebook and twitter apps) but just haven't gotten around to uninstalling yet.
i have plenty of space left on my sd card, and really don't want to uninstall all these extra apps because i'd like to try them at sometime, and if i don't like them then delete them (and some apps like for example, G4, i REALLY don't want to install cause i do use them, just see no reason for them to start at startup). so, should i actually make use of this StartUpCleaner2.0 and have it stop these apps from running? or is it the same situation as the supposedly useless (and potentially bad for your phone taskkillers) where it's sort of counterproductive to the way android is meant to be managed?
thanks for your input. it just seems lame that with all this space there should be a limit to the amount of apps i can have installed for my phone to run good. but if that really is the case i'll uninstall some (i just did a sweep of like 20 apps/games i never used). if not, then i'll give this StartUpCleaner2.0 a try and stop pretty probably half of these things from starting at startup.
thanks!
Dave
anyone? would love to find out about this.
polarbearmc said:
anyone? would love to find out about this.
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All I can say is: Read this: http://geekfor.me/faq/you-shouldnt-be-using-a-task-killer-with-android/ And for what is worth; thats the truth, the only truth and nothing but the truth there is about this subject.
P.S. You may always thank me afterwards when you have concluded that installing a app killer did not help you in any way improving your battery life.
You might use watchdog or titanuim backup to freeze those apps so they can't run at all while still leaving them installed. That's what I'd do, or use a startup/autorun manager.
I use Autorun Manager since I use the apps, just don't want them running at boot because like you pointed out, it increases boot times.
you know i think that is one of the things i had read telling me not to use task killers which is why i stopped using them. but there's still the fact that my phone is sluggish now with lots of apps installed in a way that it wasn't when i first got it. and i refuse to believe it's sluggish just from "having them installed" even if i'm not using them ... if that's the case, then android REALLY doesn't do a great job of shutting down tasks and whatnot on its own...
also i wasn't considering using a task killer exactly, it was something to stop apps from running at startup in the first place. especially apps that i simply don't use at all but apparently are loading.
HLeenders said:
All I can say is: Read this: http://geekfor.me/faq/you-shouldnt-be-using-a-task-killer-with-android/ And for what is worth; thats the truth, the only truth and nothing but the truth there is about this subject.
P.S. You may always thank me afterwards when you have concluded that installing a app killer did not help you in any way improving your battery life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use the Autostarts app for the same thing, disabling apps on startup. It can help with boot times a little, but honestly it doesn't make too much of a difference. One of the problems now is that many apps that start on boot don't show up in Autostarts and other autorun manager type apps, so you can't control their boot priority. I think this started in 2.3.
And yes, don't use a task killer with Android. I used to use one a while back, and it made absolutely no difference in battery life or performance. In fact, it made some apps a lot slower to restart. That was with my old Cliq. Ever since I've had my G2 I haven't used one.

[BATTERY]Tips for better battery life

Here i would be presenting a thread in which i will be talking about how to get the most of your battery on our beautiful phones. It is a fact that at this moment of time battery is not that great on the HOX. But hopefully with the tips that i will present here, shall help people get the max out of their battery till we have some custom kernels drop our way. So without further or do i present a few things that you can do to get the most out of your battery.​​​​
Tips for better battery life​
1) Touch screen sounds and lock screen sounds untick them from Settings-Sound. That causes the audio_out1 wakelock and unfortunately it is here as well on the HOX and drains battery like hell. So untick those so you do not get that massive wakelock
2) If you are using stock rom and have not rooted yet you can use this option to disable bloatware. Go into settings-apps and go into all. There you can select the applications you want to disable. What that does it will not unistall them but freeze them like TB does for rooted phones. It will remove them from the background and from your app screen to. Pretty nice feature if you ask me. Mainly disable your carrier apps and the google ones as well like Play Books, Play Movies and Play Music if you do not use them. Just a small addition to be added thanks to (pnnorth)- If there have been any play store updates to the app, you will need to uninstall the update before it will show the option to disable the app (eg facebook)
3) If you are using Titanium Backup(i always recommend to get the Pro version) you can uninstall those apps or freeze them if you like. For me i personally would uninstall them as they do not have any use for me.
4) If you are at home and you want to browse the net on your phone always make sure you use Wifi. It is a no brainer that wifi drains less battery than 3G. So always have your mobile data in settings as off and just use wifi. When you are out and about though make sure you have wifi off and use your mobile data on your phone instead. Because if you have wifi on as well it will try and scan for the available networks it can pick up and that causes drainage on your battery. Have that off when you go out.
5) Regarding brightness. Make sure you either have it on low settings or auto. It is a fact that if you have max brightness for your display that is a battery killer as well. Settings-display-brightness and just adjust from there.
6) Regarding task killer apps or battery saving apps like Juice Defender i recommend to stay away from those. Those apps consume more battery than they are suppose to be saving. Regarding task killers it is NOT recommended to kill apps because Android does that for you anyway. Just make sure you the application that you use, you always use the back button to exit the app or just go into multitask and swipe it away.
7) If you are rooted make sure you fully charge your phone and then in recovery or from Leedroid tweaks if you are using that make sure you wipe battery stats. That always helps as well.
8) Regarding sync your accounts. Now i have mine on autosync. From reading around having to sync your email account and facebook and twitter and whatever account you have syncing that drains battery. Now you can do two things. One either set the option to have those on manual sync or if you do not use facebook then uninstall it. But to be honest i have everything on autosync and still get good battery so it is down to user preference really. But for those interested go into settings-accounts and sync and adjust to your choosing.
9) Switch to gsm/2g only instead of wcdma/3g in settings >mobile network >Network Mode. Specially if you're not planning to use any 3g internet/mms features. (thanks to Gdelrosario)
10) Try to avoid ad supported apps. A research showed that in apps where there is adds, 70% of the power use comes from downloading and managing those adds to your screen. 30sec use of an app that uses adds, might drain your fully charged battery 0.35%-0.70%. Research link found here (thanks to Tont0)
11) Settings > Developer options > Windows animation scale > "Animation is OFF".
12) Mentioned this above but will re-post here again with a bit more detail. (thanks to AndroidGX) If you have multiple mail accounts, turn off auto-sync feature to refresh them manually. Settings > Accounts & sync > Auto-sync : [UNTICK]
Note: this will works also for any app like Facebook, Twitter, Beautiful Widget, etc..
13) Disabling the options for louder ringtone when inside a pocket and stopping the ringtone when picking up the device might also help. (thanks to Hardstuffmuc)
14) Settings > Wi-Fi > Advanced > Keep Wi-Fi on during sleep : "Only when plugged in". That way wifi will not be on all the time and that means saving bit of juice in the process
LINKS:​
*Link to the thread for BetterBatteryStats is below. Please install that app as it will help you to identify what app consumes your battery when you have screen off.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1179809
*Another great thread to have a look at is the Rom Cleaner by Patrics83. What it does it basically gives you this option : Will remove as much as possible without breaking HTC Sense Launcher and Widgets! This is the best way to come close to a no-sense ROM and still use HTC Sense!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1589949
That is it for now. I will be updating this thread when i come across more battery saving tips. For now if anyone has anymore please post them and i will add them to the OP and give a thanks to you by adding your name next to the tip.
Was going to compile a list of apps that are safe to disable (for non-rooted users) and what to freeze uninstall (for rooted users). But since there is Rom Cleaner thread by Patrics83 as i have stated above you are probably best to go to his thread here where you can use his script and follow the guide on OP. This is script is for rooted users.
There also you can find a list of applications that is safe to disable for all those who are non rooted. Settings-apps and then go into all apps. As pointed out in first post tip 2 first if the application you are trying to disable has been updated first uninstall the updates and then disable the app
That is it for now more will follow
6) Regarding task killer apps or battery saving apps like Juice Defender i recommend to stay away from those. Those apps consume more battery than they are suppose to be saving. Regarding task killers it is NOT recommended to kill apps because Android does that for you anyway. Just make sure you the application that you use, you always use the back button to exit the app or just go into multitask and swipe it away.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is not a task killer. Also the apps are not aktive in backgraound, they are hibernatet. If you want to kill a task go to task manager.
lokiderelb said:
This is not a task killer. Also the apps are not aktive in backgraound, they are hibernatet. If you want to kill a task go to task manager.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Juice Defender=Battery Saving App = Not so much of a battery saving app
And Maps, and even facebook are active in the background my friend. by disabling them you are kinda like freezing them anyway. And yes if you read above if you want to kill a task or terminate an app i did mention that you can do that through Task manager. Or even by going into multi tasking app and swiping the one that you do not use anymore exits the app my friend
Trust me i done my research before posting this thread. But i am also open to correcting something if i am wrong.
Just a small addition to point 2) - If there have been any play store updates to the app, you will need to uninstall the update before it will show the option to disable the app (eg facebook)
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2
pnnorth said:
Just a small addition to point 2) - If there have been any play store updates to the app, you will need to uninstall the update before it will show the option to disable the app (eg facebook)
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Done added that to the OP. Thanks mate..Hopefully this thread will come to some use to people.
Nice effort. I wouldn't take it as gospel tho'. But plenty to try and see what works for you.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium
I already made another thread posting this one, but as I noticed there is one where to gather some common tips, I might as well add it here.
Try to avoid ad supported apps. A research showed that in apps where there is adds, 70% of the power use comes from downloading and managing those adds to your screen. 30sec use of an app that uses adds, might drain your fully charged battery 0.35%-0.70%.
Here is the link for the research http://www.androidauthority.com/ad-suported-android-apps-battery-drain-65716/
Very good thread. I tend to do most of what is mentioned anyway. As soon I got the phone I was busy tweaking the settings so that I could get the maximum power out of the battery. I'm not considered a heavy user anyway so it typically lasts 2-3 days.
you can also add to switch to gsm/2g only instead of wcdma/3g in settings >mobile network >Network Mode
specially if you're not planning to use any 3g internet/mms features
Cheers guys...Any tips that we can get i can add them all to the OP so that way we can have one thread which has everything. That way no need for clutter of threads regarding on how to improve battery life people can come here and read and discuss. Thank you guys i really appreciate your help
Added the new tips to the OP. Thanks
Qn: Are all battery saving apps not actually saving battery then? (E.g. Juice Defender)
NoobTerminator said:
7) If you are rooted make sure you fully charge your phone and then in recovery or from Leedroid tweaks if you are using that make sure you wipe battery stats. That always helps as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
wiping battery stats is done when reaching 100% charge and holds nothing but the useage of apps and does nothing to calibrate or improve battery life.
heres a quote to back this up.
Deleting this file will basically wipe your battery usage reports, which is done anyways automatically when the phone is fully charged (hence you'll see a clear list when you reach a full charge). "Deleting it is not going to do anything to make your more device more fantastic and wonderful".
http://pocketnow.com/android/deleting-androids-batterystatsbin-wont-grant-more-jiuce
junialum said:
Qn: Are all battery saving apps not actually saving battery then? (E.g. Juice Defender)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i will be honest with you. When i had my galaxy s2 and i had juice defender on that drained more battery than it was suppose to be saving. I could find you posts from users and kernel developers that i know from the s2 forums that advice against it. It is down to you to try and test but from my own testings i would advice against using them
NoobTerminator said:
i will be honest with you. When i had my galaxy s2 and i had juice defender on that drained more battery than it was suppose to be saving. I could find you posts from users and kernel developers that i know from the s2 forums that advice against it. It is down to you to try and test but from my own testings i would advice against using them
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply. My question was more general. Do you mean that there are no good battery apps?
How can we tel which apps support ads? I keep getting notifications in my status bar from random sites how can I stop that.
Thank you
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA
treebill said:
wiping battery stats is done when reaching 100% charge and holds nothing but the useage of apps and does nothing to calibrate or improve battery life.
heres a quote to back this up.
Deleting this file will basically wipe your battery usage reports, which is done anyways automatically when the phone is fully charged (hence you'll see a clear list when you reach a full charge). "Deleting it is not going to do anything to make your more device more fantastic and wonderful".
http://pocketnow.com/android/deleting-androids-batterystatsbin-wont-grant-more-jiuce
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True. You do have a point. but also on the other hand there has been people that saying by wiping battery stats that deletes the battery history makes everything start fresh as you mentioned above. What i am trying to get maybe it works maybe it does not. But one thing i know from my own experience by deleting those battery stats did help a bit on my battery. Hence why i posted that in the OP.
junialum said:
Thanks for the reply. My question was more general. Do you mean that there are no good battery apps?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Like i said mate. In general i have not bothered with battery apps. For me they eat more battery than they are suppose to be saving. If you follow my guide and also search on xda to find more threads like mine most will say that battery apps really do nothing..But it is down to you at the end of the day.
Mzhaze3 said:
How can we tel which apps support ads? I keep getting notifications in my status bar from random sites how can I stop that.
Thank you
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is easy to figure out. Most of the times it will be all the free apps in the market. If you are rooted install ADaway and that will install the hosts on your phone and will block those ads.
I'm not rooted lol
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA

Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ Battery Saving Tips

A phone even with killer looks and amazing features still needs a descent battery backup to support it all. In past we've seen that a few tricks here and there always tend to increase battery life. Usually that includes disabling a few apps or features. This thread is for specifically targeting such tips & tricks and sharing it all so that S6 Edge+ can live upto its expectations..
1. To start with, lets get to the list of bloatwares that can be safely disabled.
If any of you own the AT&T version, here's a list you can disable:-
AT&T Apps:-
AT&T FamilyMap
AT&T Hot Spots
AT&T Live
AT&T Locker
AT&T Mail
AT&T Mobile Locate
AT&T Mobile Transfer
AT&T Navigator
AT&T Ready2Go
AT&T Smart Wi-Fi
Drive Mode
Caller Name ID
Mobile TV
Plenti
Smart Limits
Yp (Yellow Pages)
Other Apps:-
S Voice
Amazon (I prefer the playstore version for frequent updates)
Amazon Kindle
Device Help
Live Weather (Yahoo)
Lookout
Theme Store
Visual Voicemail
2. Refrain from using any free application that has embedded advertisements. They tend to run threads in background to load adds and thus degrade the app performance and used data (so naturally consume more power too). Either buy add-free version or find an alternate app for same purpose and without adds.
3. Disable notifications from social media/news apps like Facebook, Twitter, Tapatalk, etc. Although, the phone wouldn't be that smart if all the notifications are disabled, however, keep them at bare minimum. Not everybody would be interested in notifications from all the apps, so spend some time analyzing through all the installed apps and their settings to turn off the notifications for the apps you do not need to get notifications for. There are several apps that keep sending notifications and running a thread in background which again checks internet to load the notification content. An example would be games like Candy Crush or Clash Of Clans.
4. Turn off "Send Usage Statistics" or "Help Improve the app performance", "Participate in improvement" etc settings from the app which sends data from your device from time to time which acts as a survey to improve the performance of the app. Although this is a necessary option for a developer, however, if you do not care about your granular contribution towards further development of the app, try deselecting such options while setting up new apps.
5. Refrain from using external Memory Management Apps and RAM Cleaners. They tend to run heavy background services to detect memory usage and kill applications. Trust me, you would be better without them.
6. Try using black wallpaper and lock screen. Also, always select Dark Mode if any app has theme section. This makes the pixels produce less brightness and considerably save more battery.
7. Keep GPS Location off when not using any navigational/location based apps. When the GPS is ON, there are some apps that tend to acquire a GPS Lock even though they can work without it. Keeping GPS Off will not allow such apps to request for GPS Lock. GPS Locking is a battery draining process.
8. You can use certain tools like Greenify, WiFi Automatic, etc. to automatically manage application states or phone wireless to save some additional battery. Use these only if you are lazy like me. Otherwise you can always manually turn on/off wifi/bluetooth/nfc etc etc. Also, there are tools (like Juice Defender) which can enable/disable data connective at a frequent interval which results in really good power conservation without loosing push notification.
With applying most of these settings, I'm getting 6-7 hrs of screen on time very easily even when I've downloaded 1+ GB data and 40 minutes of video chat (hangout). Not to mention the usual gaming and application usage.:cyclops:
I hope that helps. I'll keep adding if I get any (without root).
Reserved for future use!
.....
apurva.giri said:
A phone even with killer looks and amazing features still needs a descent battery backup to support it all. In past we've seen that a few tricks here and there always tend to increase battery life. Usually that includes disabling a few apps or features. This thread is for specifically targeting such tips & tricks and sharing it all so that S6 Edge+ can live upto its expectations..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tweak brightness.
I believe rooting a phone can improve its battery life. This method works for almost all devices.
st8chic said:
I believe rooting a phone can improve its battery life. This method works for almost all devices.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm sure you mean rooting and installing all sorts of battery saving items/tweaking.
Marely rooting wouldn't bring any difference to battery life for sure!
Just tweak brightness, make sure you getting good signal and use WiFi when available, don't leave Abby of the radio on unless not using it and that shall be good I guess
Sent from my SM-G900H using XDA Free mobile app
How can you disable those apps. I'm on T Mobile but we have our share of T Mobile bloat. Would love to disable a bunch of them without customizing my files lol
edo101 said:
How can you disable those apps. I'm on T Mobile but we have our share of T Mobile bloat. Would love to disable a bunch of them without customizing my files lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just long press the app in the app drawer and drag it up to where it says disable.
WizeGuyDezignz said:
Just long press the app in the app drawer and drag it up to where it says disable.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What is an app drawer lol?
edo101 said:
What is an app drawer lol?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's the icon on the lower right corner of the screen that says "Apps". Once you get in there find the app that you want to disable. Long press the icon of the app and drag it to the upper left corner of the screen where it says "Disable". Then when the "Disable" word lights up red just release the app into there.
Check out my screenshot for an example.
WizeGuyDezignz said:
It's the icon on the lower right corner of the screen that says "Apps". Once you get in there find the app that you want to disable. Long press the icon of the app and drag it to the upper left corner of the screen where it says "Disable". Then when the "Disable" word lights up red just release the app into there.
Check out my screenshot for an example.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Got it!, and Thanked. I'm actually on a Note Edge on 5.0, just moved back down to 4.4.4, it doesn't show up as disable.
hiteshonline said:
Tweak brightness.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tweak brightness is its pmajor problem.......
Thanks for the listing. I love the new design than S6 edge, hopefully it will last longer as well...
Please tell me a solution if any one knows:
I open facebook and after some time i close this application by click on list tasks soft key and close it. Immediately when I go into setting > application manager > running apps I still see a facebook process running. Technically i guess this should be gone i guess and hence any idea how to clean these which i guess can improve battery life.
Update: If I have notifications turned on in facebook then yes it can still run some process even after I close it in Apps Tab but I see the same with Samsung Music Player i.e after I close it I still see a thread in "Running" Apps.
vravik said:
Please tell me a solution if any one knows:
I open facebook and after some time i close this application by click on list tasks soft key and close it. Immediately when I go into setting > application manager > running apps I still see a facebook process running. Technically i guess this should be gone i guess and hence any idea how to clean these which i guess can improve battery life.
Update: If I have notifications turned on in facebook then yes it can still run some process even after I close it in Apps Tab but I see the same with Samsung Music Player i.e after I close it I still see a thread in "Running" Apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
These kind of apps do tend to run a background process to check for updates. Closing the app doesn't necessarily mean that the processes will close. And I'm not even sure even if you turn off all the notification services of an app, all the related processes will close for sure, it depends. Also, if you are using apps like facebook etc, do not worry much about the battery life if you have turned off the background data usage and notification services. It will have very minimal impact, almost negligible!
on Tmobile version, Its not possible to disable Tmobile apps or smasung's own bloat. What a sigh!
taranfx said:
on Tmobile version, Its not possible to disable Tmobile apps or smasung's own bloat. What a sigh!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Package disabler pro app disables everything you want!
No root needed
Dvanzutphenkann said:
Package disabler pro app disables everything you want!
No root needed
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes it does. Came across this thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/note5/general/guide-bloating-touchwizzing-note-5-t3184563 does a good job on mine so far. It disabled around 30 app and i feel it did make a difference. I use the default XML attached
ShyamSasi said:
Yes it does. Came across this thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/note5/general/guide-bloating-touchwizzing-note-5-t3184563 does a good job on mine so far. It disabled around 30 app and i feel it did make a difference. I use the default XML attached
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Out of all those 30 apps you disabled did you lose any functionality?

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