Develop Bugs

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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OR you can just let Android do all this for you...

cgrec92 said:
Geez, talk about missing the point...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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

Internal task killer Whitelist?? LWP Crashing / Hanging.

I've looked extensively for information on this, but haven't found anything of any use.
I've installed the Nexus S live wallpaper "Microbes" which runs perfectly well until something else is launched or the screen is locked.
I'm pretty sure the reason for this is that the built in task killer (if there is one??) in the OS is killing the running app, or something it's using.
I don't use any third party task killers
My question is: Is there a way to add the wallpaper app to a whitelist to ensure it stays alive during screen lock, I can't find this info anywhere
Thanks in advance.

I would like to give this a bump as well. While I don't have a Desire we are looking for the same thing.
We are in need of a whitelist or a Task Keep Aliver? Can I coin that?
I have tried many times to adjust VM Heap sizes and while it provides some relief the grand issue is that the aggressive task killing by the Android OS ruins special effects and transitions by making them have to recache or reload. So when using Go Launcher, the effect between screens works great after the second swipe and as long as nothing else is loaded. However, once that is not the case, you have to load it again and deal with a consistently jittery laggy effect.
I tried persistent options and keep home app in memory but they don't seem to provide enough relief.
Any ideas or assistance is appreciated.
I'm using a Samsung Fascinate with CM7 and an Asus Transformer with root ICS.

Yamthief said:
I've looked extensively for information on this, but haven't found anything of any use.
I've installed the Nexus S live wallpaper "Microbes" which runs perfectly well until something else is launched or the screen is locked.
I'm pretty sure the reason for this is that the built in task killer (if there is one??) in the OS is killing the running app, or something it's using.
I don't use any third party task killers
My question is: Is there a way to add the wallpaper app to a whitelist to ensure it stays alive during screen lock, I can't find this info anywhere
Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
so I'm trying advanced task killer right now. What I'm doing is creating an ignore list with everything I feel is relevant to add. I run it at startup and turn off the option of killing tasks. Hopefully this method will actually work.

[Q] keep apps active

Hi out there
I don't know if I am the only one with this "problem":
I always was wondering, why no (max 1 or 2) apps are active. Finding out by having a look on the stock widget which shows the active/running apps. Wondering why SGW always starts at the main page (weather information) when returning form reading an article at News & Weather-app. Or why I always have to restart opera when receiving or reading an whatsapp in between.
Mostly I'm using the home button.
Problem now is, that I want to upload some photos to synology disc station. I am using the synology app browsing to the desired folder. While selecting the picture to be uploaded SGW switches to picturegalery in order to choose the file. Hitting the file (selecting) SGW returns to initial screen from synology app where you have to give credentials. So the operation is broken and you have to start again and again unable to upload anything. Same when I use webbrowser.
I guess that SGW kills the synology task while in galery. Same that SGW kills News & Weather while reading article. And so on.
Any solution???
I'm running stock rom 2.3.6, rooted, with V6 supercharger at level 6.
Thanks in advance
holydiver

V6 SC will kill apps in RAM.....to recover for active apps!!
Long press on Home key should bring up list of 6 apps by default.....and you should be able to return to any app.
It works for me, even with Tapatalk....I will leave....Tap Home key....do something else on phone....then long press Home.....be back in a sec!!!! .....
I'm baaack!!!!!
Just checked my Gmail and returned here by long press Home and selecting Tapatalk....brought me straight back where I left off.....
That is my experience!!!
level 6??
Sent from my GT-I8150 using Tapatalk

long press on home button brings up the last 6 used apps. Does that mean they are still in RAM?
Why does the widget tell me there are no active apps?
Maybe its an bug (sorry feature ) from the synology app!?
holydiver

holydiver said:
long press on home button brings up the last 6 used apps. Does that mean they are still in RAM?
Why does the widget tell me there are no active apps?
Maybe its an bug (sorry feature ) from the synology app!?
holydiver
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It all depends if there is ram available.... if not, they will not be in RAM.....but you should get back to where you were in App.
Android is not Windows.....see this:
http://whirlpool.net.au/wiki/android
4. Task Management Android multi-tasks differently to a desktop OS such as Windows. This is to make better use of a phone's limited resources such as memory and battery. The part of an Android app that you generally open up and deal with (the graphical user interface, or 'Activities') don't multitask. If you press Home and open something else, the app you leave is frozen in memory and stops getting CPU time. Most apps on Android work this way, unfortunately including the stock browser which won't continue updating when you are away from it. Some apps use special threads of execution called 'Services' which always run in the background but don't interact with the screen. Start playing a song in the music player (or start a streaming radio app like Last FM) and hit Home to go do something else. The player interface (which may include a CPU-hungry equalizer visualization) freezes and won't do anything until you switch back into it. But the thread playing the music keeps running and your music keeps playing. Start playing a game and then hit Home. The game freezes and sits in RAM but doesn't take any CPU. You may read and respond to a text message then hold Home and select the game from the popup (or even open it from a shortcut in the launcher/on your desktop!). The game will resume from where it was. Start playing a game and then hit Home (again). The game freezes and sits in RAM. You can now open the browser and load a big webpage so that the phone runs out of RAM, forcing Android to dump your game from RAM. Later you hit Home to switch back into your game but it will restarts fresh, as though you weren't running it before. A variation on that last one: Some apps periodically save your state so they can return you to that instead of sending you right back to the beginning.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Also, not sure which version of V6 you are using..... this article is slightly outdated, but worth a read.
http://yagyagaire.blogspot.com/2011/10/v6-super-charger-complete-memory.html?m=1
Sent from my GT-I8150 using Tapatalk

[Q] How to kill or close apps in HTC One X

Hi Guys,
I've noticed that when i "remove" (flick upwards) an app from Recent Apps, it does not really kills/closes that app. I know i can go to Task Manager and kill that app. My question is that is there any way (settings) that enables "Kill" of the app when i remove it (using upward flick) from the Recent Apps.
I tried looking up for this but was not successful hence a new thread (i was somewhat sure someone must have ask for it already).
Thanks

veerm said:
Hi Guys,
I've noticed that when i "remove" (flick upwards) an app from Recent Apps, it does not really kills/closes that app. I know i can go to Task Manager and kill that app. My question is that is there any way (settings) that enables "Kill" of the app when i remove it (using upward flick) from the Recent Apps.
I tried looking up for this but was not successful hence a new thread (i was somewhat sure someone must have ask for it already).
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I dont believe that there is a setting where you can change that. If you want to kill an individual app, use the task manager but in general, there is really no need to be killing all of your apps - the Android OS is designed to have apps sitting there not closed (and the HOX has 1gig of RAM so your shouldnt see any slow down anyway!).
Some custom ROMS for other devices do have a setting where you can set longpress backbutton to kill the app that you are in. Havent seen this in any One X roms yet but im sure it will come

It has been written many times before but can't be said enough, task killers isnt helping the system at all! Android OS itself controls the ram memory and closes the apps that isnt used in case of running out of memory
Skickat från min HTC One X via Tapatalk 2

App killers are phone killers!!1
Even if you force close the app, it may reopen immediately. some apps do this on their own. you dont need to worry about it.
the phone will prioritise the currently running app over cached or paused apps when it needs to. this is an autonomous feature (you don't have any control over it)
I stopped using App Killers and found performance/battery-life/usability to be exactly the same.
remember, Android has your back.

Megabunny said:
Even if you force close the app, it may reopen immediately. some apps do this on their own. you dont need to worry about it.
the phone will prioritise the currently running app over cached or paused apps when it needs to. this is an autonomous feature (you don't have any control over it)
I stopped using App Killers and found performance/battery-life/usability to be exactly the same.
remember, Android has your back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah but those apps are open and fill up almost whole 1GB RAM and when somone wants play game it is laggy cos not enough ram ..
Even when am broqsing internet is so laggy ..
But when u not doing with mobile it doesnt drain battery cos cpu is idle 99%

gifton1 said:
the HOX has 1gig of RAM so your shouldnt see any slow down anyway!).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well you will see slow down because it's an HTC One X..somehow HTC have managed to reduce the performance of a quad core processor to something that resembles a dual core device...juttering and slowing down..hogging all the RAM and re-drawing the launcher constantly
well done HTC. This the last time you're getting my money.

Megabunny said:
...
the phone will prioritise the currently running app over cached or paused apps when it needs to. this is an autonomous feature (you don't have any control over it)
...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True, however, the priorization is all wrong. When I send my browser to the background just to open an email for an address, most of the times the browser gets closed.
So, when I revert to the browser it has to start all over.
When I look in taskmanager, I see many programs that should be closed before closing the browser, because the browser was the lastest used application.
I would love to have more control over the dumb task closer of the HOX! For instance:
- really close applications that have been in the background for at least a certain amount of time (so games can have more memory without stutter!)
- close applications in reverse order of latest used instead of used most memory
- try to leave at least a certain amount of memory free (and let ME choose this amount)
So, when many tell that task killers are not needed they are only right for non-HOX devices. In other words, the HOX task killer that works automagically has serious issues preventing us to multi-task!

Bright.Light said:
- try to leave at least a certain amount of memory free (and let ME choose this amount)
!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
linux caches stuff in memory to make it quicker when you do want it. unused ram is wasted ram. it is not like windows.

Apps closes when re-opened

Sorry for the vague title.
When apps that require additional data (GTA III, Spectral Souls, ect) are downloading, I find that I need to keep them running in the foreground.
If I open GTA III, let it start downloading data, switch to home and do other stuff, then switch back, the app immediately closes and I have to resume the download by relaunching the app.
I am not familiar with downloading data for apps so I am not sure if this is expected behavior or if there is some issue with my tablet.
Thank you in advance.

I have experienced the same issue.
Also even when I play a game and go to the home page to look at something and try and get back after a few minutes the game restarts.
Its as if multitasking does not work or the applications are being killed.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium

One of new features in jelly-bean is closing non used apps automatically instead of keeping them in ram
like android does normally, to controll dfault system behaviour in this case go to setting/developer options/keep activities, this may be causing problems, from developer point of view every app should be killed when user quits is., and android activity life cycle was sometimes real pain in the ass, especially in case of porting apps from other platforms.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app

Thank you for the response. But this is not true multi tasking then. And what is the default standard limit mean? Thank you.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium

i think in the setting u can delay this?? not sure where but im sure i saw something like that...