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

Close an Application?

Hi
This might be a stupid question, but anyways:
I bought me a HTC Desire yesterday and im very happy with it.
Now i installed the Advanced Task Killer as i heard its a good app.
Now, every time i open something, like the SNESoid Player, or even my SMS(Messages), and the close it by pressing the Home or back button, i see afterwards in the Task Killer that its still running!?
So, how do i "close" an application, or is this just normal? It's pretty weird to me.
Thanks

This is one of the most asked and answered questions. Search and you shall find.

You probably used a WM device before Android I can imagine. Android OS handles all that stuff automatically, you shouldn't worry about apps not closing because when an app isn't used it isn't using either memory or CPU. When a new application opens and needs memory, the one(s) still running will close and give space for the new one.

As "ArtieQ" said it's not recommended to use a task killer.
But if you really need to stop a program you can use your native task manager, from "settings">applications>manage applications - then when the list of applications loads, you can press menu button and choose "filter" and then "running". Now when you choose an application from the list, it will show you information for it and an option to "force stop" it, that is to close it.

Thanks alot!
Well, i used a crappy iPhone 3G before..no multitasking you know

I was looking for an answer to this question and find something here but I am still a little bit confused : many applications that I have tested dont close if I press the home or the back button and they don't have any "quit" or "exit" command or menu entry. I was facing some battery issues with all these apps in the background. It's true that uninstalling some of them and force closing others in the app manager solved the issue but it is really not confortable to go in the app manager every time after using the phone to close the apps and save battery. I am wondering if an auto-close application exist in the market...

Advanced task manager has an autokill function within It's settings. It also has a desktop widget that you can press to kill apps when you want. You will probably want to add some of your apps to the ignore list though so notifications etc still work ok
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

hans moleman said:
Advanced task manager has an autokill function within It's settings. It also has a desktop widget that you can press to kill apps when you want. You will probably want to add some of your apps to the ignore list though so notifications etc still work ok
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I remember that installed somthing like advanced task manager and it ended up by eating my battery charge cause it was running all the time. I'll test this and report back.
Thanks for the tip

Instead of using a task manager/killer consider using 'autostarts' which is an app (paid) which allows you to stop apps starting automatically.
For example, maps gets started when you do almost anything and once started really eats your battery.
I've been using autostarts for a while now and would definitely recommended it for battery saving.

thanks for this tip iain2510

[Q] ? about the default browser

This might be a noob question but that's ok, I'm a smartphone noob.
I'm running CM6.1.1 and have the default android browser. Is there any where/way to set it up so that when you move from the open browser back to the "desktop" area that the browser actually closes?
It is driving me nuts to be on a site, hit the home key on the phone and then when I come back to the browser later I'm still on that last site I visited instead of the defined homepage for the browser. I can open the "window" key from the browser menu, close the current page & let it open a new widnow at my homepage and then go back to desktop, and I can of course force close under app management. Both options are a pita. I have to believe there is something I can set which will fully close the browser when I move away from it.
Help!

What you're doing is what I've been doing for ages (Menu > Windows > close all current windows then back out to home). I thought I remembered reading that with CM, you should be able to long hold the Back button to properly close an app, but I've never seen that done.

Yeah, I tried building a shortcut to the app manager but you can't build it far enough down. I don't want to just pull up the manager & then go through the selecting the browser & then force close.
I keep seeing something about "Task Killer". Maybe I can install that and build a shortcut that will just always kill the browser and make a habit of using that when I return to the desktop...

If you go to Settings>Applications>Development>Stop app via long press, you can kill the app by holding the back button. works great for me, hope it helps you .
-K

kelsec said:
If you go to Settings>Applications>Development>Stop app via long press, you can kill the app by holding the back button. works great for me, hope it helps you .
-K
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll be damned. I never saw this option and thought it was automatically built into CM6. To the OP: I just tested this and it does exactly what both oif us have been dieing for
Thanks kelsec.

np, glad i could help i always keep this option checked, it helps for those problem apps that quit responding or that game that just never closes.

Precisely my need for it as well. Specifically apps like the Facebook app that randomly seems to not want to connect. Force closing it and relaunching was my work around, until now

How do you prevent the stock task manager from automatically closing important apps

How do you prevent the stock task manager from automatically closing important apps like: Web?? I'm tired of going back to my browser to find that everything i was just doing has disappeared.

Stock task manager doesn't automatically kill apps unless you tell it to...

Well after using other apps, something is ending the Web browser. When I go back to the browser it opens back at whatever homepage i have set in the browser.

No replies...? I guess Android users are content with this type of sloppy design.

That's not the task killers fault, my Sensation 4G did the same thing. When the browser closes itself to default home page, did you have multiple windows opened in the browser?

Wow just cause no one answered you right away doesnt mean you gotta get all snotty.
Btw im surfing the web I will then proceed to reopen my web browser leaving off at the last page I was on.
How I do it ... I don't press the back button. I press home and select the app from there.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium

hazard99 said:
Wow just cause no one answered you right away doesnt mean you gotta get all snotty.
Btw im surfing the web I will then proceed to reopen my web browser leaving off at the last page I was on.
How I do it ... I don't press the back button. I press home and select the app from there.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No op its correct, if you leave the Web browser and go of and do enough tasks that require enough ram, your browser will get booted and you'll lose all your tabs. I've tried using a 3rd party browser like opera but I believe opera will close as well if the ram is demanded, Android is just designed this way.Android central wrote a good article about this.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using Tapatalk

mettleh3d said:
No op its correct, if you leave the Web browser and go of and do enough tasks that require enough ram, your browser will get booted and you'll lose all your tabs. I've tried using a 3rd party browser like opera but I believe opera will close as well if the ram is demanded, Android is just designed this way.Android central wrote a good article about this.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
LOL, I knew my earlier comment would get a good response! Interesting, I'm gonna go try to find that article.

If you pressed "back" button then of course you told the browser to quit...
Don't press "back", press "home".

513263337 said:
If you pressed "back" button then of course you told the browser to quit...
Don't press "back", press "home".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dude, your wrong. Read post #7.

Im serious aslong as i dont press back im ok . I know its how android works but i guess i never leave the browser alone
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium

I was looking the other night for an option in the web app because i noticed it to. For some reason it closes out of your websites whenever you exit the program unlike the vibrant and other android phones i have had.

when ever you exit meaning you press the back button?

hazard99 said:
when ever you exit meaning you press the back button?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try this: Exit the browser by pressing the Home button, then go play a couple games, check your email, browse through your settings, watch a couple of videos on youtube etc. etc. (you get the point) If you do enough things on the phone that uses a certain amount of Ram then POOF if you go back to the browser, everything will be gone (whatever webpage you were browsing and all your tabs that were open will be gone!) This is unacceptable and I hope there will be a fix, cause I really love this phone.

Close all?

What's a good app or way to close all apps at once?
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app

mario24601 said:
What's a good app or way to close all apps at once?
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Press the Home button.

irishtexmex said:
Press the Home button.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol apps dont close when you press the home button smart one. and op if you click the multi-window button(the one on the right of home button) you can swipe them all away really fast but dont really know about all at once

FaDeGFX said:
lol apps dont close when you press the home button smart one. and op if you click the multi-window button(the one on the right of home button) you can swipe them all away really fast but dont really know about all at once
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes was hoping for an all close at once type app. Had that on iPhone thought might have something similar.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app

There are 3rd party app killers in the play store. Check there...
There was a stock task manager...but I guess Google removed it for JB
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app

App killer

Cyanogenmod 10.1 has a button on the multitasking menu to do that. But it's kinda pointless except to clear the list of recently used apps. Android, if my understanding is correct, automatically fills the memory with tasks so killing apps is worse than pointless since you're just causing the system to prioritize unused background processes over the ones that you use more often.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

irishtexmex said:
Press the Home button.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should listen to this guy. I know you're coming from a different OS, so you aren't aware of how Android deals with memory. The system is very good at multitasking. Apps that have been idling in the background will be pushed out and won't consume resources or ramp up your CPU. By killing those apps, you force the system to have to reload and process resources necessary to start the app. Android will keep enough of the resources to quickly fire up the app, but restrict activity so that your battery is pretty much unaffected.
An analogy if you need it: Android will bookmark and close whatever you were reading. That way, you can move the book around or leave it on the shelf and quickly pick it up and continue from the last page you were on. You are requesting that the system instead just closes the book, and buries it in a box with other books, and which is located in the attic. It takes more resources to find the book and locate the page again. Just let Android do its thing. Any popular dev will tell you the same thing.
TL;DNR - Don't use a task killer, you will get far better battery life and performance if you let the system deal with system resources.
FaDeGFX said:
lol apps dont close when you press the home button smart one. and op if you click the multi-window button(the one on the right of home button) you can swipe them all away really fast but dont really know about all at once
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't listen to this guy. He used the phrase "smart one," which I haven't heard since I was in elementary school (and I thought it was un-clever and uselessly sarcastic then). He also thinks that swiping away apps from the recents menu kills them. This is not how Android works. AOKP devs will not implement a recents menu that actually does let you swipe to kill apps because it's a useless feature that does more harm than good (zero benefit, actually). Just trust that your system knows how to handle its resources.
TL;DNR - Swiping away apps from the recents menu doesn't kill them. Stop trying to kill apps; only do so if they're unresponsive.

If u really want it, aokp has this feature
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2

reboot?

Hung0702 said:
You should listen to this guy. I know you're coming from a different OS, so you aren't aware of how Android deals with memory. The system is very good at multitasking. Apps that have been idling in the background will be pushed out and won't consume resources or ramp up your CPU. By killing those apps, you force the system to have to reload and process resources necessary to start the app. Android will keep enough of the resources to quickly fire up the app, but restrict activity so that your battery is pretty much unaffected.
An analogy if you need it: Android will bookmark and close whatever you were reading. That way, you can move the book around or leave it on the shelf and quickly pick it up and continue from the last page you were on. You are requesting that the system instead just closes the book, and buries it in a box with other books, and which is located in the attic. It takes more resources to find the book and locate the page again. Just let Android do its thing. Any popular dev will tell you the same thing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Let's say I start loading a web page and quickly jump to another app before it's loaded, then when I return to Chrome the page is ready and waiting. Doesn't this imply that apps are not just simply bookmarked and closed, but may remain active in the background? I am asking, not saying btw.

1234568 said:
Let's say I start loading a web page and quickly jump to another app before it's loaded, then when I return to Chrome the page is ready and waiting. Doesn't this imply that apps are not just simply bookmarked and closed, but may remain active in the background? I am asking, not saying btw.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Foreground apps are told that they are no longer in view, but are allowed to keep running if they wish. The OS will stop them if the memory is needed - which with 2GB is not very often on the nexus 4!

So Hung0702 was wrong on the last page when he said:
Apps that have been idling in the background will be pushed out and won't consume resources or ramp up your CPU
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It seems as though background apps can use resources and may have a negative impact on battery. Now I have got to the bottom of this I also want a clear all button!

1234568 said:
So Hung0702 was wrong on the last page when he said:
It seems as though background apps can use resources and may have a negative impact on battery. Now I have got to the bottom of this I also want a clear all button!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, they can keep using resources in the background. However, they will usually not keep the cpu awake unless they have an actual background service, so they will not stop the device from sleeping. As far as I know this is not enforced, but most apps will release the wakelock when told to pause by the OS (because the app is now hidden). This means they shouldn't have much impact on battery life.
You can see what is currently running by going to Settings -> Apps and select the Running tab. The recent apps list is not the same - most will have actually closed when you hid them.