Develop Bugs

Should You Use a Task Killer?

Decided to write an article about task killer use, mainly because of so many people being surprised that i do not recommend it, after their so called techy friends told them they need one, I'll post the opening paragraph with a link to the rest of it.
Task killer, one of the most prominent words within the android world. One that causes many arguments and confusion, well today lets see if we can put it all to rest.
I am constantly surprised when talking to new android owners that come to me with questions about their "faulty" phone and "poor-performing" battery, to discover that one of the first apps they installed was a task killer. Even more surprised when I dig deeper and ask why, with one of the top responses being because their "techy" friend said its a vital app. First things first, anything vital will be a core part of the the operating system. If google required that a task killer be a core part of their os, they would have included an easy way to kill apps, end of. Also, if your "techy" friend told you to download an task killer, please, ignore any advice from them in the future, you will regret it if you don't.
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Android Guide: Should I Use a Task Killer - Droid Den

You start off by saying you don't need one and then you say you do and even recommend one!
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

themikeyboosh said:
You start off by saying you don't need one and then you say you do and even recommend one!
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
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maybe you should read it again more carefully the paragrah your on about was simply laying out some reasons why you may need a task killer

themikeyboosh said:
You start off by saying you don't need one and then you say you do and even recommend one!
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
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system panel is not a task killer mate, its a tool to help you identify bad apples. That is the reason for that apps existence, just ask its dev.

I read yr thread. I'm not so experienced in the systems. But i think this thread is following a good logic, and the systems at the end are all about logic.....
So, first thing i do after finish reading was killing the task killers.
Thanks again for the post.
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

Excellent article mate keep up your good work.
Many many people are brainwashed by many misleading reviews on Google in to thinking they need a task manager but this article explains nicely why they dont.
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

System panel is a good solution. Try also power tutor, if it works with your phone

AndroHero said:
maybe you should read it again more carefully the paragrah your on about was simply laying out some reasons why you may need a task killer
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No no, I've read it, it's plain as day. You've just said it again.
le3ky said:
system panel is not a task killer mate, its a tool to help you identify bad apples. That is the reason for that apps existence, just ask its dev.
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Does it kill tasks? Need I go on.....It doesn't matter how you jazz it up "pal" there's no denying it can be used to kill tasks.

removed

themikeyboosh said:
Does it kill tasks? Need I go on.....It doesn't matter how you jazz it up "pal" there's no denying it can be used to kill tasks.
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lol? Do you honestly not understand?
There are apps out there that are coded badly.
In order to remove those apps you first need to id them.
SystemPanel helps you find out which app is causing a problem.
Then you may uninstall that app.
Nothing about using it as a task killer in there.
Does that help? I could try to put it in simpler terms if not.

I only use a task killer when I want to run some benchmarks shortly after having played around with resource-intensive apps like games.Other than that only as mentioned in the article,to trace and kill bad or frozen apps.Any other use is only harmful.

Very good article. It should be sticked.
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

I don't use a task killer with my HTC Desire. But back in the day with 1.5 and 1.6 I needed a task killer. Now 2.1 or higher doesn't need one.

for sure, higher memory and more efficient android definitely does not need one.

"Android is smart enough to recognise when it is running low on available memory, and will start to close those apps that it deems are low priority."
Then pls tell me why after opening more and more apps my desire gets slower as it is running out of memory, and after killing them with task killer except for the one im using its running smoothly again. I would love to stick with the android solution, but its just not working out...
Rooted Desire S-Off running latest Redux Rom (Gingerbread)

At first I thought a task killer was making my battery life longer - but I tried it again a couple of months after using Android - just to see if it impact battery life and found no difference - or not noticable anyway on day-to-day use.

Thanks for this, very informative. Defo should be a sticky

Apps keeps reloading and doesnt close

Hello there ive got a real problem i dont know if its accutually a problem my SGW apps doesnt close even ive used task killers and keeps reloading in the task managr and eats too much ram how i can fix this cause its really annoying me
Sent from my GT-I8150 using XDA

What is the apps called ?
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andynroid said:
What is the apps called ?
Sent from my GT-I8150 using xda premium
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well most of apps i run facebook , messenger , even task killers ... seems weird to me .. the problem is when i kill these apps it kees reloading into the ram and uses you know large amount of it

Some of apps such as messenger will run in background to push notifications to your phone whenever chat(for messenger) or facebook notifications is available .
Thats why even if you kill the apps, it will automatically run again.
And as far as i know, you cant choose not to run those apps in background, but you can choose not to enable notifications for some apps (such as facebook), hope that will stop those apps from running in background .
Sent from my GT-I8150 using XDA

diedo said:
well most of apps i run facebook , messenger , even task killers ... seems weird to me .. the problem is when i kill these apps it kees reloading into the ram and uses you know large amount of it
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Number one thing to remember....Android is Linux....not Windoze..
So things which cause problems in Win environment, such as Apps/Programs hogging resources, are not a problem in Android......
if system needs memory for a task or app, it simply kills whatever us unimportant or not currently in use....
and takes Ram it needs for new process.
Most Android purists frown on the use of Task Killers.....
in fact CM devs will not take a problem on board if you are using a TK.
Having said that, memory management can be improved....
try V6 SuperCharger.....search XDA for thread......
Also, dome interesting reading here:
http://mobworld.wordpress.com/2010/07/05/memory-management-in-android/
Sent from my GT-I8150 on Lanzarote Canary Vacation using Tapatalk

irishpancake said:
Number one thing to remember....Android is Linux....not Windoze..
So things which cause problems in Win environment, such as Apps/Programs hogging resources, are not a problem in Android......
if system needs memory for a task or app, it simply kills whatever us unimportant or not currently in use....
and takes Ram it needs for new process.
Most Android purists frown on the use of Task Killers.....
in fact CM devs will not take a problem on board if you are using a TK.
Having said that, memory management can be improved....
try V6 SuperCharger.....search XDA for thread......
Also, dome interesting reading here:
Sent from my GT-I8150 on Lanzarote Canary Vacation using Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
well man i know the differences of these two operating system and over the ram use you know what it cause lots of hangs ... plus task killers do nothing and about that memory management article i've already read a bunch of them long time ago ... but i'll try the solution of disabling notifications and see what will happen .. thanks for your great follow bodies

diedo said:
well man i know the differences of these two operating system and over the ram use you know what it cause lots of hangs ... plus task killers do nothing and about that memory management article i've already read a bunch of them long time ago ... but i'll try the solution of disabling notifications and see what will happen .. thanks for your great follow bodies
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Well if you know do much you should know that:
killing auto-start apps/tasks is futile
turning off sync/notifications is an obvious solution for apps like Gmail, G+, FB, etc.
I made a suggestion which would help with memory management, but you seem to know everything anyway!!
other than that, I have difficulty understanding what exactly you are asking or saying!!
Sent from my GT-I8150 on Lanzarote Canary Vacation using Tapatalk

Killing apps..

I found some articles on net talking about harmful influences when using task killers apps.
I'm using SlimICS at the moment and I want to know if when I use the killing button that I've added on my navigation buttons harms my phone as the task killers do..
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus while relaxing..

Don't kill apps unless you have a misbehaving one that's adversely affecting your phone.
The OS can manage apps and memory so much better than you ever could.

martonikaj said:
Don't kill apps unless you have a misbehaving one that's adversely affecting your phone.
The OS can manage apps and memory so much better than you ever could.
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Click to collapse
Just to add: If you have a misbehaving app, don't bother killing it. Just uninstall it. It's not worth the trouble.

These task killers and memory optimizers are really good for lower end devices that have little memory. I used them on a phone that only had 356MB of RAM and only run at about 30-40MB free. A better way to address these issues is to run the V6 Supercharger script on a rooted device.
As for the GNex, why do you need to run task killers? You're not having memory performance issues, are you?

netbuzz said:
These task killers and memory optimizers are really good for lower end devices that have little memory. I used them on a phone that only had 356MB of RAM and only run at about 30-40MB free. A better way to address these issues is to run the V6 Supercharger script on a rooted device.
As for the GNex, why do you need to run task killers? You're not having memory performance issues, are you?
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Yep. On my old ZTE Blade I really did feel a significant difference in smoothness after killing off some apps, so I don't entirely agree with the notion that you should never ever even consider doing it (which seems to be what some people advocate), but on the GNex there doesn't seem to be a need for it unless a specific app is misbehaving. I don't know if that's just because of the more powerful hardware or if it's also because of the much improved OS (I imagine it's both), but there you go.

JaiaV said:
Just to add: If you have a misbehaving app, don't bother killing it. Just uninstall it. It's not worth the trouble.
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This. I use watchdog to monitor rogue apps. Engadget was s repeat offender so it had to go.
As mentioned the OS does a great job on its own.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

You need nothing more than to swipe apps away when you're done with them in the multitasking window, which doubles as a task manager of sorts.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

MikeyMike01 said:
You need nothing more than to swipe apps away when you're done with them in the multitasking window, which doubles as a task manager of sorts.
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Again, why even bother? The OS handles this just fine.

Although, that doesn't necessarily "kill" background apps. There is a box in "developer settings" that, if you check it, will kill any application after using it. I haven't tried it out but it may just work.
Sent from my GummyNex!

LocoTSX said:
Although, that doesn't necessarily "kill" background apps. There is a box in "developer settings" that, if you check it, will kill any application after using it. I haven't tried it out but it may just work.
Sent from my GummyNex!
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I'm pretty sure that's as bad as using a task killer.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

Ntavelis said:
I found some articles on net talking about harmful influences when using task killers apps.
I'm using SlimICS at the moment and I want to know if when I use the killing button that I've added on my navigation buttons harms my phone as the task killers do..
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus while relaxing..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
even cyanogenmod has a kill app button, i dont think it does anything to your phone.

IMO the only useful reasons to kill a background app are if it's wasting your battery, bandwidth, or it's some kind of logger. In those cases you're better off just uninstalling it. Android is designed to keep things in memory to save start-up time and related battery drain, and so you have the benefit of the task-selector button. It knows when to clear enough memory to keep your foreground app and you happy. Task killers are holdovers from the days when they were useful.
galaxy nexus (gsm) / cm9 / trinity @ 1.4GHz

I learned a long time ago that in Android/Linux free RAM is wasted RAM.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

Ics/jb does not need app killers if you press the recent app key and swype it left or right the app gets killed
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium

martonikaj said:
Again, why even bother? The OS handles this just fine.
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No, not really. And if it were "bad" they wouldn't put it into Android. You should swipe them away when you're done with them.
I Am Marino said:
I'm pretty sure that's as bad as using a task killer.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2
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Click to collapse
There's nothing bad about closing apps you're done with.
What's bad is the auto task killers.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

MikeyMike01 said:
No, not really. And if it were "bad" they wouldn't put it into Android. You should swipe them away when you're done with them.
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No it really does nothing positive to swipe apps away when you're done with them. As the poster a couple above me said, free RAM is wasted RAM. The OS will keep everything in order. You're unnecessarily micromanaging your apps when you swipe them away. Your phone just works harder and for longer re-opening apps over and over again when you kill them manually.
Your RAM is powered and draining battery whether its full of apps or not. It's in your best interest to let the OS fill up your RAM (all the way up to about 90% full) and let it kill things as necessary when you load an app that needs more than is available. The OS will handle it. I know everyone has it engrained in their minds from using Windows for so long to keep as much RAM free as possible, but its just not the case in Android anymore.

martonikaj said:
No it really does nothing positive to swipe apps away when you're done with them. As the poster a couple above me said, free RAM is wasted RAM. The OS will keep everything in order. You're unnecessarily micromanaging your apps when you swipe them away. Your phone just works harder and for longer re-opening apps over and over again when you kill them manually.
Your RAM is powered and draining battery whether its full of apps or not. It's in your best interest to let the OS fill up your RAM (all the way up to about 90% full) and let it kill things as necessary when you load an app that needs more than is available. The OS will handle it. I know everyone has it engrained in their minds from using Windows for so long to keep as much RAM free as possible, but its just not the case in Android anymore.
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Click to collapse
Whatever you want to believe. I'm not going to waste my time on convincing you.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus

MikeyMike01 said:
Whatever you want to believe. I'm not going to waste my time on convincing you.
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Click to collapse
Hah alright.

[Q] Way to prevent Facebook from starting?

Hello everyone,
By reading your helpful posts, I have rooted my Xplay, removed all the bloatwares, installed Link2SD and Autostarts.
This way I've been able to save lots of ram and my Play starts really quickly and has improved its performances.
However,
however,
however...
This bloody facebook won't stop launching by itself: task killer cannot handle it, Autostarts cannot manage to prevent it from starting by itself. Went into the settings of the app to remove all notifications, but still, it's always there, in the running programms, taking between 20 and 50mb of precious RAM.
I suffer randomly from lags in demanding games and I suspect that's because of Facebook working in background...
Do you have another solution than simply removing it? Indeed, Xperia play is a great gaming device indeed, but it's also a great smartphone, and I want to enjoy it with its full potential. Facebook is part of it and the official app offers more possibility than the non-official ones, usually limited to some basic options.
I just want it to stay closed until I decide to launch it and use it by myself... And not in my back...
Thanks for your help!

Uninstall Facebook.
Use site on mobile or on pc.
May sound "stupid", but its the best way
Sent from my Xperia Play using xda app-developers app

To be honest the official facebook app for our phones is rubbish, Constant pointless updates what don't fix any bugs, eats up your phone memory plus ram,
Just remove it with X-plore if you have Root
Sent from my R800i

Or try autostarts it's an app that lets u disable apps...im testing it at the moment with facebook

Just download romtoolbox, go on autostart and disable it

Actually, I've disabled Facebook and its extensions with Autostarts, but still, it remains and continues launching automatically! So I've just frozen it with link2SD and installed Friendcaster instead. So annoying!

cippi21 said:
Or try autostarts it's an app that lets u disable apps...im testing it at the moment with facebook
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does this app work with non rooted phones?
Sent from my R800i using xda premium

Very freakin' simple. FREEZE IT.
I easily get near 200MB+ free RAM with FB frozen.
Use the mobile site via your browser instead. It's way better and faster anyway.

Growling Clover said:
Does this app work with non rooted phones?
Sent from my R800i using xda premium
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Click to collapse
Nope

How Long Before You Need A Soft Reset?

How long does your OG Pro go before it starts to feel laggy and unresponsive to make you need to reboot the phone?

With the use of the Task Manager Widget, Which lets you optimize the RAM and then keeping the Recent Apps empty , I'm going to have to say.. Never.
BUT, As a rule of thumb, I will Restart the phone after I have installed an App and have all the start up "work" for that App accomplished.

I don't ever feel the need to reboot..I don't run any task managers or anything.

I restart almost twice a day. It's a bad habit from my iPhone days of 2 years ago. I've done it with every android phone I own and it has become an OCD thing now. Trying to quit but it's hard.
Sent from my LG-E980 using xda app-developers app

Dear lord, That must have been tough times.

Oh it was. Never again. After posting that, j got an email from xsellize(an iPhone site I used to be a part of 2-3 years ago), asking me to come post on the forums so they can have traffic. Lol.
Sent from my LG-E980 using xda app-developers app

Jammol said:
Oh it was. Never again. After posting that, j got an email from xsellize(an iPhone site I used to be a part of 2-3 years ago), asking me to come post on the forums so they can have traffic. Lol.
Sent from my LG-E980 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I disabled all of the bloatware, as well as many of the Google stuff I do not use, and it made a world of difference in the overall performance of my device. Combine this with the task manager set to reclaim memory every 12 hours and I am good to go. My original lag issues are now gone.

I never reboot my device except when applying some sort of mod. It's never ever laggy.
I've also read that the Android development community strongly recommends not using any kind of task managing app. This is not Windows. Android is smart about managing it's memory on it's own.

borgib said:
I never reboot my device except when applying some sort of mod. It's never ever laggy.
I've also read that the Android development community strongly recommends not using any kind of task managing app. This is not Windows. Android is smart about managing it's memory on it's own.
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Click to collapse
LG provides a task manager widget that refreshes the memory. I wonder what issues that causes, if any.

I use it and I dig it.
Task Manager Widget, Then click the Circle Arrow and my RAM goes up.
My old HTC Vivid would go an 8 hour shift and need a charge, BAD! This OGP was at 80% battery with the same usage.
:hugsphone:

Fyi- The LG task manager clears memory by default every 12hrs.

MrDSL said:
Fyi- The LG task manager clears memory by default every 12hrs.
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Really? Wheres that stated? how do i check the internal setting for that? I'm stock btw
---------- Post added at 09:41 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:39 AM ----------
Sharpshooterrr said:
How long does your OG Pro go before it starts to feel laggy and unresponsive to make you need to reboot the phone?
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Click to collapse
I have only needed to reboot the phone when my iPad wont recognize the hotspot feature. Other than that i don't get lag or need to reboot. i do however CLEAR RAM if it drops below 800MB free. Just to stop running apps from draining my battery.

erwaso said:
Really? Wheres that stated? how do i check the internal setting for that? I'm stock btw
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just launch task manager from the app drawer...click on menu then settings..
The default options are to auto clear memory every 12hrs.. All of which can be changed.

MrDSL said:
Just launch task manager from the app drawer...click on menu then settings..
The default options are to auto clear memory every 12hrs.. All of which can be changed.
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Click to collapse
THe only options are "sort by" and "help" ...
EDIT: Wait, i forgot i'm in the PRO forum lol. That might be the issue haha

erwaso said:
THe only options are "sort by" and "help" ...
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Click to collapse
Sent from my LG-F240K using xda premium

dont think i've ever restarted it for being laggy. only when i try a new mod or occasionally after installing an app

341 hours ago.
I think the wifi was acting up so I rebooted two weeks ago.

I use the built in one. You can set the time frame for it to clear the ram for optimal performance. I have it set for every hour. No lag what so ever since I got this phone.