Develop Bugs

Task killer/battery life

Ok, so there are task killer threads that lead me to believe that they a are a waste of time by and large, and that android automatically sorts things out. Those same posts also point out that task killers are an extra drain on the battery having to start applications over again uses more battery than leaving something dormant in the background. These posts are not the thoughts of one person but unanimous to those threads. All very well, but then there are the battery saving threads that say to close down all applications that aren't being used to save additional battery??? Again this is the view of everyone in those particular threads, so is there any chance of getting the two camps to FIGHT! And then I can decide which I shall choose to do!
For info I currently have task killer and use it all the time and get a full days use out of my battery which is good because I cane the hell out of it! But If I could improve it that would be good. I have however this afternoon decided to not use task killer for a few days and see how I get on. But an explanation would be good from both sides.

I never use a task killer and get 2 or 3 days use out of of my Desire. No point in a war just use your Desire for a week without a task killer and then a week with. I am pretty sure you will just find the task killer slows things down and doesn't improve battery life. You will not find any of the ROM chefs using a task killer either!

HI
I was reading one of those posts this morning and decided to uninstall task-killer.I have to say that after half day of heavy use my device started to be so laggy it took contacts or calendar 5 seconds to open!then I checked running processes and pretty much everything I was playing with was still running.memory dropped to 10MB and device became unusable.cannot say battery use has improved.I think it was the same.
But my task-killer is back up and running.
I must say that I am new to Android.I was using WM for long time.I can cook my own ROMs so I am not a noob but I know very little about Android.so if anyone knows what could be the reason of this huge slowdown I will be grateful for explanation.
And one more thing that needs to be said...
My device is rooted and I am using a2sd too.

polystirenman said:
HI
I was reading one of those posts this morning and decided to uninstall task-killer.I have to say that after half day of heavy use my device started to be so laggy it took contacts or calendar 5 seconds to open!then I checked running processes and pretty much everything I was playing with was still running.memory dropped to 10MB and device became unusable.cannot say battery use has improved.I think it was the same.
But my task-killer is back up and running.
I must say that I am new to Android.I was using WM for long time.I can cook my own ROMs so I am not a noob but I know very little about Android.so if anyone knows what could be the reason of this huge slowdown I will be grateful for explanation.
And one more thing that needs to be said...
My device is rooted and I am using a2sd too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You may like to read this:
http://geekfor.me/faq/you-shouldnt-be-using-a-task-killer-with-android/

dhiral.v said:
You may like to read this:
http://geekfor.me/faq/you-shouldnt-be-using-a-task-killer-with-android/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well.i did read that before.that is why i do not understand why my phone was so slow.they are claiming that android should close apps by itself to reclaim memory.but in my case that wasn't true.everything was running and nothing was getting closed by system.

Here's another good read:
Google and Cyanogen comments imply task killer/manager apps are pointless
Both Dianne Hackborn and Cyanogen say Task Killers are useless, even developers of these apps concur. You should listen to them, I guess they understand juuust a little bit more than we do what Android is about.

pascanu said:
Here's another good read:
Google and Cyanogen comments imply task killer/manager apps are pointless
Both Dianne Hackborn and Cyanogen say Task Killers are useless, even developers of these apps concur. You should listen to them, I guess they understand juuust a little bit more than we do what Android is about.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i would like to believe it.i was so excited when i saw a post saying that i should get rid of task-killer.but as i wrote before after half day of heavy use(my phone is new so i play with it a lot :-D ) without task killer my phone was soooooo slow i couldn't use it anymore.today i had task-killer back on the phone and all day no slowdown what so ever.i don't understand that.i am starting to think it is related to A2SD and memory being relocated to SD card.

I also agree that taskkiller (the way it works for WM) is not good for android, because android has a better memory management...
but there is another flavour of taskkiller in the market... which are based on this:
How to configure Android's *internal* taskkiller
Unfortunately, your phone needs to be rooted before you can use that method.

If you worry about memory remember that the worst kind of memory is...free memory ! Because it's not being used. Obviously ram gets reclaimed and freed when it's needed.
As said in a couple more redundant threads, there might be a rogue app which you are better off closing because it stays in the background wrongly eating cpu cycles, but this is very very rare. Otherwise I think it's just the usual placebo effect...

andycted said:
If you worry about memory remember that the worst kind of memory is...free memory ! Because it's not being used. Obviously ram gets reclaimed and freed when it's needed.
As said in a couple more redundant threads, there might be a rogue app which you are better off closing because it stays in the background wrongly eating cpu cycles, but this is very very rare. Otherwise I think it's just the usual placebo effect...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you read the link in my previous post?

ANOTHER thread about this... There must be plenty of threads on this now, but I'll just once more give my impression.
Personally I have had HTC widgets like NEWS or MAIL or CALENDER hang or crash on me and I could not restart them unless I restarted the phone. In this case an app killer was ESSENTIAL. I don't believe you need to leave the app killer running always and kill every single task when your done, but its essential to have one installed so if a widget hangs (as has happened quite a few times on the Desire) you can kill the hung app without having to try a 5 hour shut down(another desire issue) and battery removal.
Also... after 2 days use of many apps and camera use and internet and youtube app etc, your internal RAM will be about 50mb available to programs. yes, android is supposed to kill stuff as it needs, and Im sure it does, but 50mb free memory compared to 150mb the lag is VERY obvious. So I do tend to kill tasks like camera and youtube etc if I have not used them in a day and my phone seem slaggy. the phone definetly runs faster then. Thats just a fact. So the internal android task killer is not as efficent as you'd like to think. Android 2.2 runs 450% faster than 2.1 so maybe then no lag will EVER be noticable. I'll still keep a task killer installed though in case widgets crash or hang.

I found my battery most efficient with this setup:
- Installed Advanced Task killer (free)
- Security level: High (it doesn't show system apps)
- I have put all frequently using apps on ignore list: ATK, Messages, BatteryTimeLite, Internet, Weather, Clock, Calendar (so Android manage with those apps)
- Auto kill Level: Safe
- Auto kill Frequency: 2 hours
With that setup battery lasts almost half time longer than without TK or with killing all apps when screen goes off. Also I don't have any force closes / lag.

Never experienced lag at 100 or 20 mb free.

mcgon1979 said:
but 50mb free memory compared to 150mb the lag is VERY obvious.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The amount of free memory doesn't necessarily have anything to do with lag.
As Android does not use virtual memory (unless you've hacked in swapper, which is a bad idea anyway), it will attempt to make best use of available memory which may mean keeping recently used items in memory, and thus "consuming" free memory. However, if those items are not actively processing, they should not be consuming CPU cycles and therefore consuming little to no power.
As far as a running system is concerned, having lots of free memory just means that it is being underutilized.
I don't kill tasks and my phone never lags - that's just a fact too!
Regards,
Dave

boge said:
I also agree that taskkiller (the way it works for WM) is not good for android, because android has a better memory management...
but there is another flavour of taskkiller in the market... which are based on this:
How to configure Android's *internal* taskkiller
Unfortunately, your phone needs to be rooted before you can use that method.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Using this method it is possible to make the native task killer a bit more aggresive. I did some experiments with this on the HTC Hero and it just might have improved speed slightly but at the expense of stability.
"Normal" task killers are completely pointless but if people want to use them why not? It they want to sacrifice both battery life and performance by using one surely that is their choice. Whatever the experts says will not convince them.
I suppose you could use one to kill the very occasional hung app. i.e. Once every few days, but most people seem to use them constantly and totally indiscriminately.

1. About Cpu: get a task manager with cpu monitoring and verify for yourself, frozen applications in background don't do anything.
2. About memory: If an application needs 10 MB it just uses 10 MB and couldn't care less if there are 11, 100, 1000 MB free. The only moment you COULD see a tiny slowdown is the instant it needs 20 and there are only 10 available, but the system is quite good in managing that, and freeing resources (there are six levels of memory cleaning which progressively remove unused applications from the background)
3. If you stop monitoring memory usage, stop worrying about the system, you'll find out it manages itself perfectly and you enjoy the phone a lot more.

Interesting article about installed apps and a battery.
http://blog.gsmarena.com/android-handsets-batteries-should-last-for-more-than-a-day-google-says/
"...Page accused the installed apps of causing the problems and claimed that software running in the background exhausts the battery quickly...."

Interesting article about installed apps and a battery.
http://blog.gsmarena.com/android-handsets-batteries-should-last-for-more-than-a-day-google-says/
"...Page accused the installed apps of causing the problems and claimed that software running in the background exhausts the battery quickly...."
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
as said in the post above, get a cpu monitoring task manager and see for yourself if you have something wrong. Personally I don't have any.
Also watch battery history which tells you if the phone doesn't manage to go properly to sleep (partial wake)
regarding that article, iphone users get way less battery time and they don't even have multitasking...
-------------------------------------
Ipad's dont have "Spell Check" thery have "Replace" built into Safarii adn it wokrs just fineq!!!

I personally installed auto memory manager, an app that configures android's internal task killer. Its not a task manager by itself, uses android's task manager. You can set the limits in MB for all the app categories android has.
I was using it in my hero as well and found it really useful. Before having it installed, after some time my free memory was ~50mb, thus my phone was sometimes lagging. Now its always above 100mb and no lag at all

Heres the age old question of using task killers on Evo

Has anyone seen any benefits in using task killers or managers on the Evo? Has it helped or made battery life worse ? Do we even need them with the Evo ?

in my experience the phone runs smoother if you keep running tasks to a minimum. i have an app called ES Task Manager and it comes with a widget that has one touch kill all. i hit that and turn off the screen when i'm not going to be messing with the phone for awhile.

I used to use Advanced Task Killer (ATK) and loved it until one day my phone would not work whatsoever. It kept force closing HTC Sense and I had to do a hard reset last week. It was very upsetting and the sprint technician said the task killer was to blame.

I agree. I switched from Advanced Task Killer to ES and it's great. Really helps out battery and smoothness. I can get about 12-16 hours per charge when doing that with normal use.

What's ES?
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

I use Damage Control 3.2.2.1 with its built in killer set at 150 MB with Advanced Settings Part 2 Laptop_OOM activated and JIT. Banned everything except Facebook.
Then I use autostarts to stop programs from starting up at boot, speeding up boot time and using less power.
Credits go to TheBiles.
I can usually get about a day and a half of regular use before I reach 10%.

Best tip? Don't use any task killers..
At most use autostarts and thats it.

b1indsided said:
What's ES?
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have become an believer in task killers - I use ES ( search market for: estrongs )
Increased battery life and smoothness, just make sure to not have it kill the HTC processes and you'll be good

b1indsided said:
What's ES?
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Estrongs task manager

Task killers are a bad idea on Android. It's best to just let the OS do its own memory management. The only reason to use a task killer is as a last resort for a rogue app or something like that.
There's a thread about this around here with a detailed explanation as to why this is true and how memory management works in Android. I can't copy and paste because I'm sending this from my phone. And I'm lazy.
Autokiller and autostarts are probably the only two apps that make sense to use and this is to enhance management, not override the built in management like task killers do.
Sent from my HERO200 using XDA App

Ugh this is why I hate the debate.
Some people say use it... some people say Android's memory management is fine.
My ATK usage is simple. I close programs that I do not use and won't start any FC's.
So basically after I'm done playing a game, I use ATK to close out of it.
I leave most things open unless it's like Sprint Zone or something.

I decided to be less lazy for once.
http://geekfor.me/faq/you-shouldnt-be-using-a-task-killer-with-android/
Sent from my HERO200 using XDA App

simply put, if you have any linux experience you'll realize why task killers aren't neccessary like in a windows mobile platform device.

I use ATK. As far as battery life, I haven't seen an increase or decrease, but the phone runs smoother and sometimes an app gets stuck, so I kill that sob off.

Use Autostarts only. It is a permission manager--not a task-killer.
-------------
Sent from my HTC EVO 4G using Tapatalk Pro.

mgraham361 said:
I decided to be less lazy for once.
http://geekfor.me/faq/you-shouldnt-be-using-a-task-killer-with-android/
Sent from my HERO200 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That article is bogus. If you analyze the evidence and the conclusion presented there, it's a non sequitur.

Your mom is a non-sequitur.
That article is a total sequitur xD
You need to be more explicit.
Sent from my Evo 4G

I tried ATK since the BB Mobile guys were pushing hard for you to install it before you even left the store with the phone. I gave ATK an honest try, and experimented with most of the settings. At the end of the test, I found that ATK didn't really help me. That being said, my battery life is much better now since I moved for the rooted stock image to Fresh 0.3.

myersn024 said:
I tried ATK since the BB Mobile guys were pushing hard for you to install it before you even left the store with the phone. I gave ATK an honest try, and experimented with most of the settings. At the end of the test, I found that ATK didn't really help me. That being said, my battery life is much better now since I moved for the rooted stock image to Fresh 0.3.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Heh, BB Mobile reps always act like they're experts. These guys know less than the average XDA forum reader. They'll have you think otherwise though!

As much as I disliked the idea of not managing my own processes, be it by manually killing them or with some automatic thresholds, after some reading, I decided to let Android handle things as it was designed to do.
To satisfy my itch for being "in control", I downloaded (from the market, for free) an app called MinFreeManager, which allows for you to tweak the parameters for Android's memory management. I also read a suggestion from Flipz to use AutoStarts to better control what apps are starting, and when. AutoStarts basically lists events within Android and allows you to toggle if an app should run or not.
That said, I've noticed my Evo has been very smooth and responsive. I periodically open TaskKiller to see how much available memory there is and to be nosy. The truth is that apps do clean up and are disposed of properly by Android. Give it a shot for a few days. What's the harm?

Task Managers/killers

Hello,
I recently upgraded from a hero which wad heavily tweaked thanks to this forum.
Now that I have tweaked the DHD to use evolution HD (great btw), I have a question about task managers etc.
People have said the built in management is much better etc etc. But how does it know when I have finished with a program? If it does not have an exit now button in the app will it effectively keep running? I used to use task killers just to kill everything after I have playing with the phone. Is this not needed?
Thanks for reading!
Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk

just leave it then
as you've got an DHD, you've really got enough RAM
so: if another process needs ram and nothing is left atm, android closes the one you left "running" some time before, etc..
don't use task killers...the integrated android "feature" does its work..for sure!
DN41

JLneonhug said:
People have said the built in management is much better etc etc. But how does it know when I have finished with a program?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
because you haven't used it for a while
JLneonhug said:
If it does not have an exit now button in the app will it effectively keep running?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
in the back ground yes, until the resources are needed
JLneonhug said:
I used to use task killers just to kill everything after I have playing with the phone. Is this not needed?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No it's not and this is where the problem arises, if android thinks an app is required, it will respawn it after you have killed it using uneccessary cpu cycles, and it will do this repeatedly every time you kill the process. As long as you haven't got a rogue process eating all the cpu cycles when it shouldn't task killers are not required.

Dont listen to people who say "uninstall your task manager it's not needed" its absolute crap, yes it is true that android's own internal memory manager does a great job on its own and yes having a task manager that kills task on some kind of schedule is just a waste of battery and resources, but if you need to run any kind of task that is resoure heavy it's imperative to have a task killer to free up some memory or that task could take forever. its also useful for playing demanding games ect. thats just my opinion anyway

ghostofcain said:
No it's not and this is where the problem arises, if android thinks an app is required, it will respawn it after you have killed it using uneccessary cpu cycles, and it will do this repeatedly every time you kill the process. As long as you haven't got a rogue process eating all the cpu cycles when it shouldn't task killers are not required.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thats just not true, my device usually has around 110-150mb of free ram when idol, if i use a task killer i can get around 300mb of free ram, if i dont touch my device, it will stay at over 280mb indefinitely untill i start using apps again .......

NO TASKILLERS!!!!!....They mess up with your system + drain your battery + will leave you posting more on xda.....

AndroHero said:
thats just not true, my device usually has around 110-150mb of free ram when idol, if i use a task killer i can get around 300mb of free ram, if i dont touch my device, it will stay at over 280mb indefinitely untill i start using apps again .......
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which benefits you how? Android isn't windows it doesn't run smoother because it has huge reserves of memory sat around unused, yes if you kill everything and leave your phone on idle it may well free up a huge amount of memory, but start using it and it will respawn important processes. For the undecided her'e some further reading Lifehacker, geekforme, Androidspin, Infoworld, talkandroid, tested and the last word to Google.

Even Windows doesn't run smoother if there's lot of unused RAM. Even though the makers of those RAM "optimization" tools will tell you different. RAM is there to be used. Free RAM is like having your money in a sock under your bed instead of getting interest from it.
On my DHD Android will start killing background apps when the free RAM drops below 40 MB. And what more do you need? Why is 150 mb free RAM better than 40 mb free RAM? If an app needs more than 40 mb the missing RAM will be freed up almost instantly. I doubt anyone will notice. And almost no apps use 40+ RAM anyway.
And to those that are absolutely convinced background tasks eat their battery. That's wrong in 95 % of all cases as well. A background app that does nothing also uses no CPU = almost zero battery usage. So no harm done. And a background app that does something mostly does so because you the user told it to do so. What eats battery is the display, setting the brightness to 25 % or so really help. But that's offtopic...

ghostofcain said:
Which benefits you how? Android isn't windows it doesn't run smoother because it has huge reserves of memory sat around unused, yes if you kill everything and leave your phone on idle it may well free up a huge amount of memory, but start using it and it will respawn important processes. For the undecided her'e some further reading Lifehacker, geekforme, Androidspin, Infoworld, talkandroid, tested and the last word to Google.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah i understand that, but what im saying is SOME application and games (av suites, emulators eg psx4droid and fpsce, games like dungeon defnders ect) they generally require more ram to operate than the minimum android will leave free, so in thoes curcumstances, it is usefull to have a task killer to free up enough ram for thoes tasks to run optimally, i did a experiment the other week, and it took my av suite 17 minutes to do a full scan with no memory optimisation and 11 minutes to run after using a task killer, are you seriously telling me using a task killer once or twice a day will use more battery than leaving the phone scanning for an extra 6 minutes? also all these sites you quoted, i agree having a task killer on a scheduled auto-kill basis is a waste of time or battery, but people came to the conclusion not to use task killer 12-18 months ago when there were very few high powered devices and resource heavy tasks, now there are more and more apps that require a large amount of ram to run optimally..

AndroHero said:
yeah i understand that, but what im saying is SOME application and games (av suites, emulators eg psx4droid and fpsce, games like dungeon defnders ect) they generally require more ram to operate than the minimum android will leave free, so in thoes curcumstances, it is usefull to have a task killer to free up enough ram for thoes tasks to run optimally, i did a experiment the other week, and it took my av suite 17 minutes to do a full scan with no memory optimisation and 11 minutes to run after using a task killer, are you seriously telling me using a task killer once or twice a day will use more battery than leaving the phone scanning for an extra 6 minutes? also all these sites you quoted, i agree having a task killer on a scheduled auto-kill basis is a waste of time or battery, but people came to the conclusion not to use task killer 12-18 months ago when there were very few high powered devices and resource heavy tasks, now there are more and more apps that require a large amount of ram to run optimally..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah but 12-18 months ago 512mb ram was a dream for most of us. I don't think the main issue with task managers is extra battery usage it's the unexplained anomalys with programs FC'ing or plain not working because some automated task killers has over zealously shutting down important services

ghostofcain said:
yeah but 12-18 months ago 512mb ram was a dream for most of us. I don't think the main issue with task managers is extra battery usage it's the unexplained anomalys with programs FC'ing or plain not working because some automated task killers has over zealously shutting down important services
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
exactly, when people started saying dont use task killers, devices had very little ram, but on the other hand applications required very little ram, things have moved on now, and with more powerfull devices come more powerfull applications, and although i agree with having a task killer on an auto-kill schedule is a waste of time, i think its useful to have one for thoes time you want to run a resource hungry app, but you know like they say YMMV

Thanks for the replies, it makes sense now.
Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk

How do I stop apps auto opening

The title is basically the question, im fed up of alot of programs auto opening on my android phone, it takes battery and is slightly annoying receiving notifications off apps i dont really care about such as the NFL game tells me about small things in the NFL, im in the UK, i dont care.
If you argue that it doesnt take alot of battery currently have 117mb free ram, (2 secs later) killed all my selected apps now have 201mb free so im using 80mb of ram on apps im not using. Ive made 2 or 3 phone calls today no more than 30 mins long altogether and ive lost 55% of my battery since about midday, which is when i unplugged the phone.
And I think all these apps are the problem so how can I stop them from auto opening, please help

Search the market for startup cleaner
Sent from my A101IT using xda premium

yusuo said:
If you argue that it doesnt take alot of battery currently have 117mb free ram
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
More free RAM doesn't really equate to longer battery life or lower power consumption.

Better search for auto starts, this asp shows you the conditions an asp can turn back on and you can bin it off, Facebook for example had like 8 conditions, from full to medium battery life, on charge and change in network....... Use it
Sent from my HTC Desire using xda premium

rootSU said:
More free RAM doesn't really equate to longer battery life or lower power consumption.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's still no reason for most of this apps to use RAM. Apps like facebook and skype shouldn't be actice without user permission. Without login they are complete useless.
I'll try Startup Cleaner, thx.

It's how android works and what RAM is for. There is always a reason.
Sure if someone doesn't use Facebook, it should be uninstallable, but its not and its not causing any harm
Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk

The problem isn't that apps start when I turn on the phone its that even after i use task manager to close they keep reopening and use over 100mb of ram, earlier I checked and only had 78mb ram available.
This must have an effect on battery to some degree i want to kinda ban certain apps from running in the background unless i specifically tell them to

RAM doesn't use more power, the more its used, no.
You don't need a task killer. You do not need to obsess about RAM. Forget about RAM and enjoy your phone
Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk

rootSU said:
RAM doesn't use more power, the more its used, no.
You don't need a task killer. You do not need to obsess about RAM. Forget about RAM and enjoy your phone
Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for you reply but its not really an answer its more of a contradiction, what I was asking is how to I stop apps from auto starting and eating up RAM, regardless of how long the phones been on

...and I'm telling you its a pointless, unecessary waste of time. Also it is not possible. Autostarts as already mentioned is the closest you'll get
Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk

I also turned off the autorun permissions of a lot of apps, for 2 reasons: 1) a device that is smooth sooner after booting, using less cpu cycles/power. 2) preventing Sense from reloading due to RAM shortage and have smooth multitasking.
1) Android loads a bunch of apps to the RAM that have the autorun permission, until it thinks it is "enough" and useful to you. No matter how many apps you have installed, the amount of free RAM is always about the same, just the number of "unwanted" apps in the RAM differs. Removing the autorun on boot permissions prevents the loading of unnecessary apps that will immediately be removed from the RAM the moment you start the browser/a game, saving cpu cycles=power. So for me there is no point in loading them in the first place, because I am never going to use them (right away). I want the apps that don't to any syncing loaded on demand.
2) I hate slow multitasking and I hate it even more when Sense reloads because it got kicked out of the RAM after each time I press HOME.
I use 3G Watchdog (~12MB RAM), Unlock with Wifi (~8MB), Whatsapp (~15MB), Handcent SMS (~18MB), Droidstats (~13MB), Extended Controls (~12MB), Battery Monitor Widget Pro (~13MB). Okay, I maybe could delete some of them, but these app are "OK" to me, because I use them actively or just need a background service to operate normally.
With Gemini I disabled apps like Facebook, a screenshot tool (just load when I want to make a screenshot..), various public transport planning tools, etc from autostarting.
No joy moment: after using the Facebook app (market version), it may take up 50+ MB and it will not be closed when I start another RAM intensive app, because it is a high priority service. Result: Sense gets kicked out of the RAM. Or, when the situation is somewhat less critical: multitasking is as good as unusable: switching between apps makes them load over and over again, because app2 kicks app1 out of the RAM and vice versa, causing unnecessary lag. Therefore: when I am done with facebook, I close it, then STAY the hell closed It may only autostart when it receives a push message. In that case it is nice to have FB already in RAM when I tap the notification.
Why do even some games have background services, or the Engadget app, or .. , or... all eating precious RAM. And yes, I know, once IN the RAM they eat no battery, but they DO eat battery when the app loads itself back in the RAM when it thinks it needs to, after it got kicked the moment I decided to so something else.
Hmm, spent way too much time to try to explain my frustration Oh and by the way, I have a Legend, but the basics are the same of course.

Dwnload an app called internet commander from the market. It shuts off the internet when your screen turns off but still let's you get calls and texts. I've got my phone , rooted of course, clocked to 710 and my battery will last for days.
Sent from my Eris using xda premium

I just re read your post, that won't help with apps but it will help save battery. And when you turn your screen on the internet kicks right on instantly. Good luck
Sent from my Eris using xda premium

yusuo said:
The problem isn't that apps start when I turn on the phone its that even after i use task manager to close they keep reopening and use over 100mb of ram, earlier I checked and only had 78mb ram available.
This must have an effect on battery to some degree i want to kinda ban certain apps from running in the background unless i specifically tell them to
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The guys here have already suggested you use a certain program from the Market. Have you tried it?
Regarding the whole RAM consumption issue, Android has its own built-in memory management system that ensures that there's always enough RAM for an app whenever it needs it, even if the memory manager shows like 40 MB free. Basically it "ejects" all background, unused apps, from memory making room for the foreground app which needs it most. If for some reason you need to fiddle with that, you can try using the V6 Supercharger script. I find it suitable for my needs but YMMV. It's completely reversible, so if you don't like it you can uninstall it just like that.
P.S. - I agree with rootSU, the ammount of free RAM has nothing to do with battery consumption. If you suspect that an app is draining your battery, check Android's battery statistics to find the culprit.

TVTV said:
Regarding the whole RAM consumption issue, Android has its own built-in memory management system that ensures that there's always enough RAM for an app whenever it needs it, even if the memory manager shows like 40 MB free. Basically it "ejects" all background, unused apps, from memory making room for the foreground app which needs it most. If for some reason you need to fiddle with that, you can try using the V6 Supercharger script. I find it suitable for my needs but YMMV. It's completely reversible, so if you don't like it you can uninstall it just like that.
P.S. - I agree with rootSU, the ammount of free RAM has nothing to do with battery consumption. If you suspect that an app is draining your battery, check Android's battery statistics to find the culprit.
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I respectfuly disagree. Android built in ram management is just silly. If I open xda app for example (it could actually be any app for that matter), reply to a few posts, read a few more and close it, why does it need to stay in ram? It reloads anyway when I run it again after I've closed it (using the back button or the actual exit command in the app itself). Why does the camera app need to stay in the background after I just shot a few photos and closed it? Because I may or may not use it again in some time? It's rediculous. And the whole theory that ram management doesn't require any power/cpu usage, how do you guys think all those apps get killed? Android will power?! No, kernel scans all running apps and kills the ones based on built in heuristics so it also reads them first. So that doesn't require any power/battery? Awesome if it's true! Although I wouldn't bet on that. And all this fuss just because you may or may not launch the same app sometime during the next day/week/month/year or it'll eventually get killed? Now that's just plain stupid. I get apps that need services like widgets, push notifications etc. but random apps like root explorer, xda app, titanium, youtube etc. which are opened specificly by the user shouldn't be in ram just for the sake of it after they're closed. I closed it, meaning I don't need it anymore. And I don't need the kernel to scan all apps and running services every time I launch an app so it could provide the free ram that app needs. Consumes cpu time, battery, i/o ... every piece of hardware actually just to free some ram that shouldn't be occupied in the first place. Every app that I ever opened on my phone got loaded almost instantly and that's just after phone had been booted. So after that it should stay in ram so I could open it in a blink of an eye instead of instantly? That's just funny.
Anyway, I'm just thinking out loud so don't flame me immediately. There probably are apsects of it that I didn't mention here or am not aware of. And I'm not saying that I'm right and you guys are wrong, I'm just saying what I know and think about this subject.
-. typewrited .-

PlayPetepp, while it might be true that the OS allocates (thus use) some resources to memory maintenance, the impact on battery life is negligible. In the Android OS, apps in memory are ordered according to priority and state, so the OS always knows which apps to kill first if it needs to make room in RAM, without much of a hassle. The only bad consequence of this system seems to be the fact that once the memory fills up, the launcher may lag or even be evacuated from memory. But, as i've mentioned in my previous post, there are ways to prevent that, either via scripts or, if you know what you're doing, via editing system files.

So the OS doesn't need to scan anything as it keeps everything in memory again? Seems like an endless loop. Open, sort, kill if needed, reopen, sort again, kill ... to what end, constant unneccessary multitasking that user is unaware of? I really don't see any benefit of that system and am only seeing the downsides. I mean, who needs every app they ever run remain in ram even if they close them after using? And then opening another app and "waiting" for whatever needs to be closed to get it running. Sure you can mess with the scripts (init.d, init.rc, etc.) but the underlined conditions stay the same. I hope I'm making sense here. Or am I fighting against windmills.
I just figured out that I strayed from the topic of this thread so won't be continuing this discussion if it's considered offtopic.
-. typewrited .-

Stop looking for excuses for poor multitasking in Sense 3+ roms

erklat said:
Stop looking for excuses for poor multitasking in Sense 3+ roms
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Hello again nice to see you here
Here's an interesting article on what I was talking about. Sense 3.5 doesn't need that many mbs of ram to work smoothly. After booting and setting everything up I have 150+ mb free. That should be enough for decent multitasking but all those apps not getting killed when you close them are eating too much. Can anyone explain in detail what hidden app, perceptible app, backup app and heavy_weight app means? I've been googling this for a week and can't find any decent explanation.

@PlayPetepp - I think i have already said (in my previous post) that the OS does indeed use some resources for managing the memory, but they are negligible in terms of their impact on battery life. IMHO, the only thing a 3'rd party memory manager (task killer) WILL do is improve lanuncher responsiveness (lag) as the lag does increase when free RAM drops under a certain limit. Thus used wisely, a task killer can improve responsiveness, but battery life... very little, in rare cases (it does the opposite, most of the time).
Regarding the so called "memory slots", here's an excerpt from this article:
FOREGROUND_APP: This is the application currently on the screen, and running
VISIBLE_APP: This is an application that is open, and running in the background because it's still doing something
SECONDARY_SERVER: This is a process (a service that an application needs) that is alive and ready in case it's needed to do something
HIDDEN_APP: This again is a process, that sits idle (but still alive) in case it's needed by an app that's alive and running
CONTENT_PROVIDER: This is apps that provide data (content) to the system. HTC Facebook Sync? That's a CONTENT_PROVIDER. So are things like the Android Market, or Fring. If they are alive, they can refresh and provide the content they are supposed to at the set interval. If you kill them, they can't of course.
EMPTY_APP: I call these "ghosts." They are apps that you have opened, but are done with them. Android uses a unique style of handling memory management. When an activity is ended, instead of killing it off Android keeps the application in memory so that opening them again is a faster process. Theses "ghost" apps use no battery or CPU time, they just fill RAM that would be otherwise empty. When this memory is needed by a different application or process, the RAM is flushed and made available for the new app. To satisfy the geekier people (like myself) Android does this by keeping a list of recently used apps, with the oldest apps in the list given the lowest priority -- they are killed first if RAM is needed elsewhere. This is a perfect way to handle 'ghost' processes, so there's no need to touch this part
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[Q] RAM is at 2GB of 3GB ??

I have noticed that im using up 2gb of ram. But i have only downloaded a few apps. No games. All the stuff i had before. My old phone was a little over 1gb total. Is this normal. Does the phone uses a lot of ram out of the box. Im thinking of rooting just so i can free up some ram. Not sure if that is possible. Im coming from a galaxy and very happy with this d851 g3.
Anyone having a memory problem ? Issues? What can i do?

Android always runs while using up as much ram as possible. Thats normal, if your phone had 8gb of ram, most likely it would also be using most of it up.

Makes app switching faster.......

All that bloatware runs in the background contributing to a high ram usage

nohcho said:
All that bloatware runs in the background contributing to a high ram usage
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Not completely true. I disabled most of the T-Mobile and LG crap on this phone and it's still using the same amount of RAM. It's Android's memory management.

I bet if the Android team could go back in time in the early days of system development they would have probably removed the ability to see free ram. So many people get caught up in free ram when the phone is using the available ram to the best of its ability.

Windows does alot of the same as well. Even though if you go into task manager it shows free if you actually look at your system resourses it shows alot of it is taken.

Unused RAM is wasted RAM.

Not sure about the whole 2g for 3gb thing but your system need all the rams it can use to keep your phone running smoothly. If you use ram cleaner (so they are call) you will notice your phone goes through a gitter before it it can pick up again. You look 5 minute later, its like you never clean anything.
and tmobile is surely 3g

Free RAM is wasted RAM.

Android uses RAM differently from say Windows. Android will use as much ram as available and when it needs more, it will free it up as needed. This is normal.

So yea i installed greenify and it made a **** load of a difference because i have like 40 games and a load of other apps. I have less than 1.5 gigs used now. And my phones way smoother and batterylife is good again
Sent from my LG-D851 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

brolic925t said:
So yea i installed greenify and it made a **** load of a difference because i have like 40 games and a load of other apps. I have less than 1.5 gigs used now. And my phones way smoother and batterylife is good again
Sent from my LG-D851 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
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Don't worry you're about to see that battery life drop like a rock. Constantly killing apps will kill your battery fast. Greenify is a nice app if you have a crap phone but your G3 was made the way it is for a reason. What you think is smooth and fast is actually hurting your phone. Don't believe me, Google it and do some research. I do not recommend anyone using any format of task killer or ram optimizer on a phone that is current with the times.

Do I think the phone has issues. yes. When using it the apps don't close when ram is needed. Only fix is a reboot or kill the app but at times that does not work

Jammol said:
Don't worry you're about to see that battery life drop like a rock. Constantly killing apps will kill your battery fast. Greenify is a nice app if you have a crap phone but your G3 was made the way it is for a reason. What you think is smooth and fast is actually hurting your phone. Don't believe me, Google it and do some research. I do not recommend anyone using any format of task killer or ram optimizer on a phone that is current with the times.
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Don't worry Jammol doesn't know what he is talking about. Greenify doesn't hurt battery life and performance like a task killer because isn't a task killer. It is completely different. I agree that task killers should be renamed to battery/phone performance killers but Greenify is very different.
First of all it requires your phone to be rooted. Assuming that it is, it uses special permissions from the rooted device to essentially freeze the app unless it is opened by the user. For example, I use facebook but only casually. I look at it once every other day or so but have noticed that the push notifications and messenger uses a lot of battery because it does a partial wake everytime it pushes a update which activates the internet and cpu.
The solution is to "Greenify" the app. The app still loads normally when I open it up although, because it is not in the ram, it likely takes slightly longer to load. Once it is opened, I can use it like normal and I get push notifications again until my phone's screen goes off. Once the screen goes off, facebook and all the apps that I "Greenify" are flushed from the memory and are banned/essentially frozen until I launch the respective app again. The only drawback to this is that you essentially never get push notifications for the apps but it saves a lot of battery if you pick the apps that you don't care much about/rarely use.
So greenify does work really well. Today my phone had 17% left. I it had 16+ hours of battery time total. I got 4.25 hours of SOT with sync on (with 3 email accounts getting push notifications plus other apps), GPS high accuracy, LG health automatically recording my exercise, and 1 hour of navigation with Waze. Basically I used my phone how I wanted and didn't micromanage my battery usage throughout the day at all.
I used 3 battery saving tools. 1. ART 2. Greenify and 3. Custom Kernel V002 from KAsp3rd. These three are very powerful together.
I hope that helps someone!

ART

CAP3r5 said:
Don't worry Jammol doesn't know what he is talking about. Greenify doesn't hurt battery life and performance like a task killer because isn't a task killer. It is completely different. I agree that task killers should be renamed to battery/phone performance killers but Greenify is very different.
First of all it requires your phone to be rooted. Assuming that it is, it uses special permissions from the rooted device to essentially freeze the app unless it is opened by the user. For example, I use facebook but only casually. I look at it once every other day or so but have noticed that the push notifications and messenger uses a lot of battery because it does a partial wake everytime it pushes a update which activates the internet and cpu.
The solution is to "Greenify" the app. The app still loads normally when I open it up although, because it is not in the ram, it likely takes slightly longer to load. Once it is opened, I can use it like normal and I get push notifications again until my phone's screen goes off. Once the screen goes off, facebook and all the apps that I "Greenify" are flushed from the memory and are banned/essentially frozen until I launch the respective app again. The only drawback to this is that you essentially never get push notifications for the apps but it saves a lot of battery if you pick the apps that you don't care much about/rarely use.
So greenify does work really well. Today my phone had 17% left. I it had 16+ hours of battery time total. I got 4.25 hours of SOT with sync on (with 3 email accounts getting push notifications plus other apps), GPS high accuracy, LG health automatically recording my exercise, and 1 hour of navigation with Waze. Basically I used my phone how I wanted and didn't micromanage my battery usage throughout the day at all.
I used 3 battery saving tools. 1. ART 2. Greenify and 3. Custom Kernel V002 from KAsp3rd. These three are very powerful together.
I hope that helps someone!
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Out of curiosity, how are you using art with xposed? Greenify uses the xposed framework.
Sent from my LG-D851 using XDA Free mobile app

Harmtan2 said:
Out of curiosity, how are you using art with xposed? Greenify uses the xposed framework.
Sent from my LG-D851 using XDA Free mobile app
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I am not using xposed. Greenify works just fine for me without xposed. If you want some of the more advanced and experimental features, you need xposed but the basic functionality does not require it..

CAP3r5 said:
I am not using xposed. Greenify works just fine for me without xposed. If you want some of the more advanced and experimental features, you need xposed but the basic functionality does not require it..
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Aww that man's sense. I want to ruin art, I just don't want to give up my xposed features lol.
Sent from my LG-D851 using XDA Free mobile app

Harmtan2 said:
Aww that man's sense. I want to ruin art, I just don't want to give up my xposed features lol.
Sent from my LG-D851 using XDA Free mobile app
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I know what you mean! This is just the latest skirmish in the never ending war between features and battery/performance. I can't wait for Android L to come out because this particular battle will end (xposed will support android L which uses ART exclusively) but the war will rage on..