Develop Bugs

Task Killer Apps, good or not???

I am a noob when it comes to android phones so anything will help! I have been told and pretty sure I read something about task killers being bad for your android phone??? Is this true? I currently use Advanced Task Manager free. Is this a good task manager? If not does anyone know of one thats better. I tried to search the forumn but was unable to find anything on this subject...I'm probably just searching wrong. Any knowledge will help!

Try searching the Q&A forum
Don't use task killers is the bottom line.
Use Google search to find out about google and task killers.

avoid them like the plague

Not. It's stepping on Androids toes. If you really need a kill an app (froze or its just using a lot of battery), you can do it in Android itself in Applications.

i noticed i acctually get more battery life with out a task killer, android will close out programs as it needs the memory any way so have had better performance with out it. the Sprint rep actually installed mine on my phone when i bought it so was suprised to learn all this at first but has long sense proven true

Been using Advanced Task Manager since I had my G1 and have not noticed any negative effects. The browser alone takes up a considerable amount of interal memory and does not close on exit. Task managers are good as long as you know how to use them and exclude system applications or user apps that you want to stay running like widgets and such. They may not improve battery life that much, but they help free up internal memory. However, if you're running a Froyo rom, they're pretty much useless until the app devs update the way they work. Froyo doesnt allow them to kill the app, just background data.

Here's some pretty clear literature on why you absolutely do not need them.

While I agree that a task killer is not needed it is not bad. I mean using one wont cause damage to your phone or anything. Some people get better battery with one and some get better battery without. I just avoid task killers because I had a bad experience. I use my phone as an alarm and one day it did not go off because I had killed the clock app. Ofcourse you can use a task killer and not have this problem by setting apps to ignore but after several weeks of not using it I noticed my battery is not better or worse so to each his own.
BTW I also used advanced task manager and thats a perfectly good task manager if you do decide to keep using it.

Best thing you can do is install and use it for a couple days to see if you like it. I have used one since my Droid and would not consider uninstalling. I notice an immediate improvement in the smoothness of my phone while using, and a noticeable choppiness when not using. Your mileage may vary, but I would give it a shot for yourself vs. just listening to others opinions.

87Octane said:
While I agree that a task killer is not needed it is not bad. I mean using one wont cause damage to your phone or anything.
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+1
If you kill a task and free up memory, Android just fills up that memory again with a program of its own choosing. If it needs the memory, it intelligently pulls programs out of memory on its own.

Task Killers and 2.2

So I upgraded to 2.2 with the downloadable rom yesterday and was wondering what is going on with the Task killers. I read on some of the comments for the app that on 2.2 task killers are not needed for some reason or another, can anyone confirm??

zackhow said:
So I upgraded to 2.2 with the downloadable rom yesterday and was wondering what is going on with the Task killers. I read on some of the comments for the app that on 2.2 task killers are not needed for some reason or another, can anyone confirm??
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Task killers were never needed and can actually do more harm than good. Plenty of information on that floating all over the net and here on the forums. With Froyo, they are definitely not needed, as it has improved memory management, which means it is better at figuring out what tasks to leave running and which ones to kill. Just let Android take care of tasks for you. If you do a factory reset and don't install a task killer, reboot every so often instead, you will see a great performance boost on any version of Android and better battery life. Task killers generally do nothing for battery life, as most tasks aren't using battery, only memory. The only time that tasks use battery most times is when they are actively accessing your location or using data. So just limit what apps can do those things in the background through their settings and you'll get great battery life without screwing up your system.

I guess I never really tested how my battery did without the task killer seeing how that was one of the first apps I got. I will agree that if i restarted my phone I saw a little performance/battery boost. Thanks for the tips, gonna remove the app.

Now I agree with superlinkx but DAMN if Sprint bloatware apps aren't up constantly on their own and running. Now i'm not talking about the basic stuff but Sprint Navigation (big one...try leaving Google Maps open and see what it does to your battery) plus a few of the others. I know it's cute to say Task Killers are irrelevant in Android...but I think that applies to Stock Android more so than a HTC Sense Android. I have a task killer setup to auto-kill safe all the sprint stuff when the screen is turned. I noticed a big jump in battery performance. Just my .02 though, every phone seems to be a bit different.

[Q] task killer....yea, or nah???

I had it on my first epic and liked it but some say to stay away from it, if i dont use it is there a better safer app or not to use 1 at all and manually stop programs. i c there is a paid and free 1. i guess the free 1 has adds but i didnt on mine??

Nabisco_12 said:
I had it on my first epic and liked it but some say to stay away from it, if i dont use it is there a better safer app or not to use 1 at all and manually stop programs. i c there is a paid and free 1. i guess the free 1 has adds but i didnt on mine??
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Leave it alone. Android 2.2 + manages tasks for you. Task killers cause instability. Just use the built in task killer on our phones.. (hold the home button and press task manager)

Yeah really shouldn't have to be killing things that often and if you do ever need to that's why there's a built in task manager.
qbking77 said:
Leave it alone. Android 2.2 + manages tasks for you. Task killers cause instability. Just use the built in task killer on our phones.. (hold the home button and press task manager)
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No matter what people say, there are programs that are not handled properly by Froyo's built in memory handler. If you use a task killer to kill autoreloading tasks (like MAPS for google navigation) then you are causing battery drain by you killing them and then them reloading. If you know what tasks are reloaders, then you can select them to be ignored by the task killer. Some programs hog phone RAM and do not release it like the stock internet browser. Knowing this, I use the Advanced Task Killer for Froyo to kill the browser and make more RAM available for other things.
So yes, use it BUT with proper knowledge of when and how.

Watchdog FTMFW (look it up on the market). Had their widget on my homescreen pretty much from the day I started using Android. Old-style task killers are BS.

If you use the back key or pre-designed exit key, you will close apps properly and they will only rarely reappear. It's part of the Andriod design.

kennyglass123 said:
So yes, use it BUT with proper knowledge of when and how.
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Yes, this is important. In general, don't use them, but some people don't code their apps right.
Typed by a man standing on a toilet, eating a bacon sammich.

Nay, but as stated some apps just suck, I always take the time to test the app...
Sent from my MyFrankenstein EC05OCE using XDAPA...

I will throw my 2 cents in here for good measure. As far as I can tell, my setup appears to get me generally better battery life than the rest of users, so I believe that qualifies me to comment .
I have used and tested Task Killers since I got my Epic, my first android phone, this passed November. Yes, I still use one. It's called Advanced Task Killer. It's free, and it's simple. As mentioned in a previous post, and by myself many times before, certain tasks will reload with impunity no matter what you do. Aside from freezing these services, which may result in instability in certain instances, you can't stop this. And continually causing them to restart will drain more battery rather than saving any. Which brings me to my main point:
NEVER USE AUTO-KILL! Simply use a task killer widget to "clean up" before you lock your phone, nothing more. If you use it in this way, like me, you'll see battery improvement. Just also ensure to set certain system services to the ignore list to avoid issues.

Cool thanks guys ur input helps alot!

If anything, best bet is a memory tweaker. like "autokiller memory optimizer." I'm sure thats what your looking for =) it's not a task killer.

i used a task manager/killer back in the G1 1.5 days but nowadays android does a much better job of managing memory so a task killer is really not needed anymore in my opinion.

I've used for months without any problems.. I don't kill the essential processes.. just the apps.

Web browsing is MUCH faster if I kill apps before going to the web. It gives more free RAM to cache pages.

Has anyone had any luck with Startup Auditor since Froyo? It doesn't seem to actually do anything when comparing the disabled programs in its list with what is "running" according to the phone Manage Apps setting.

rando991 said:
Has anyone had any luck with Startup Auditor since Froyo? It doesn't seem to actually do anything when comparing the disabled programs in its list with what is "running" according to the phone Manage Apps setting.
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I'll almost guarantee you that they are just restarting. Thats why taskkillers dont work in 2.2.x, because it just "restarts" them.
[sig]Typed by restless thumbs, that are too tired to help hold my bacon sammiches[sig]

Thanks, that's what I thought.

rando991 said:
Thanks, that's what I thought.
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Yeah, google removed the code for taskkillers in froyo.

[Q] Applications Running in Background

What about Applications running in Background ?
I've installed a program called "ZDBox", it's very useful to make you keep tracking of the memory issues, running apps and some other cool controls.
I can see that some apps are still running although I've closed them and even killed them but they come back to run again which is very weird to me...
I surfed the internet and googled some articles talking about this and a conclusion was made that linux-based system like Android (is it really Linux-based ?) isn't affected by such running apps as they aren't really running, they are just on standby...
I'm really confused and just wanted to share this with you so we may all share our experiences in this !!!

I'm also facing smiler kind of problem.please give suggestions..

I don't really know, but some articles are saying that it's nothing consumed, but sometimes i can see that more than 100 MB are freed up from memory when i use the "Kill All" option !!!!!!!!
I'm really confused because of this tooo !!!!

use advanced task killer. It has an auto kill feature (2-10-15 mins..anything you want) and ignore list also. kill levels (safe, aggressive, crazy).
Its a good app to free up running memory

ravijokhun said:
use advanced task killer. It has an auto kill feature (2-10-15 mins..anything you want) and ignore list also. kill levels (safe, aggressive, crazy).
Its a good app to free up running memory
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Thanks mr. Fido for this but the issue i'm thinking of is it worth to have an automatic killing working in the background ? I mean it is still using extra resources, I think we should look for a method to kill it once and forever....I'll keep searching and will reply here if i find anything interesting, if you came over something useful, I'll be happy to know it as well

does not use much resources to have an auto task killer

koki-tytnII said:
What about Applications running in Background ?
I'm really confused and just wanted to share this with you so we may all share our experiences in this !!!
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Android start up unfinished processes and I don't see any sense of killing running services. What it gives to you? Makes anything more smooth? No. If any application will need more memory, android will automatically finish old and unused processes. So, what's the sense using task killers? Especially, when they killing processes like market, sms, etc.

ADvanced Task killer question?

So when I go in and kill selected Apps in advanced Task Killer, I go to apps and look at running processes/apps it still shows those apps that i killed in ATK in there and running??? Any idea why?????

Because task killers have been useless since froyo. Your phone will keep apps running that are needed for certain operations and kill off unused apps automatically. Task killers can do more harm than good.

metalfan78 said:
Because task killers have been useless since froyo. Your phone will keep apps running that are needed for certain operations and kill off unused apps automatically. Task killers can do more harm than good.
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Thanks,
Uninstalled

Yea, try it for awhile without it. It was a hard habit for me to break too. Android is good at memory management, and it takes cpu and battery power to restart apps and processes that you kill.

metalfan78 said:
Yea, try it for awhile without it. It was a hard habit for me to break too. Android is good at memory management, and it takes cpu and battery power to restart apps and processes that you kill.
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whats best app for battery use? People say better battery stats but when I have used it, i have found it to show not that good of info.

bpdfs said:
whats best app for battery use? People say better battery stats but when I have used it, i have found it to show not that good of info.
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im disabled everything I can and still Think battery life suckssss,

Task Killers are pretty much useless now. They were helpful on froyo devices but not anymore. I recommend uninstalling it and use the task manager that comes with the phone (hold home button down then select task manager)

if these things are so bad why do they have such high ratings? is thete not a good battery saver app out therr?

I just wanted to keep it stock, flashed my epic so many times was trying to leave this phone alone lol... but it seems battery drains more then the epic. annoying.......
is juicy defender worth it?

bpdfs said:
if these things are so bad why do they have such high ratings? is thete not a good battery saver app out therr?
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iPhones have good ratings too.

Juice defender works because it handles things a little differently for the most part. Juice defender manages things that consume power (bluetooth, mobile data, wifi, nfc, screen brightness, etc) whereas ATK (and task killers in general) try to kill unused processes (which is detrimental as Android likes to keep things in memory because it just works better/more efficiently by keeping oft-used programs in memory). So yes, they might kill some of the apps that would suck a little juice running in the background, but the power needed to get those apps running again cancels any savings out.
Long story short -- juice defender still works, but ATK and other task killers are bad.