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

[Q] Why do applications autostart?

Here's a list of apps that are open when my phone is just turned on:
Paperdroid
Greed2
Market
NewsRob
Tasker
Google Mail
News
Wifi Manager
Gallery
Colornote
Footprints
Messages
Nimbuzz
Clock
twicca
Skebby
fring
FM Radio
Music
Stocks
Except a few system ones (Gmail, Messages..), why do apps open even if I never used them? Especially the HTC ones (Stocks, Footprints), they are really annoying apps I never opened.
Can this be solved somehow? It may not use resources or battery but I don't understand why I can't decide what to open.
It feels like the Windows system tray, bunch of stuff often stuck there autostarting with no way of removing it (if not by using 3rd party programs).

i was about to post the same question. Just dont understand why they start when i got my sync set to manual

totally agree that all these apps/services or whatever you call just annoying as they are started without user permission. Hv raised a similar thread some time ago, and Im not expert on such issues, but as far as I understand, the only way to get rid of them is -unfortunately- passing through root & custom roms.. No way out to stop them from being run automatically especially the Sense ones. However, acc to more advanced users or developers, they are not so "dangerous" in terms of battery consumption, nor any other impact on system as long as user do not activate and use them. For those which requires synching e.g. stocks, news, facebook, peep etc. it is enough to keep autosynch option disabled, thus it is no longer needing to think/care about them, that's it. But if the point is to ensure more room available in the internal memory, then -as said- the only solution is flashing rom with any 3rd party rom like cyanogen, modaco, defrost, ........
Me? still stuck with the official froyo on my unbranded, unrooted Desire (since April 13th)

iLHaNroID said:
totally agree that all these apps/services or whatever you call just annoying as they are started without user permission
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
when you download them you give them all the permissions they need, if you dont like the way a program behaves ..... simple dont download it

Wow that's helpful, simply don't download stock and peep and others.how come I did not think about it???
Sent from my HTC Desire using XDA App

it starts them, cause it has enough memory to cacche them.
so when you want to launch them, they open fast. simple as that.
when do people stop worrying about memory and all this. android handles that very well. no reason for watching memory and running programs even.

koichirose said:
Can this be solved somehow? It may not use resources or battery but I don't understand why I can't decide what to open.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Put simply, the reason why these start at boot is because they are set to receive the ACTION_BOOT_COMPLETED intent.
Allows an application to receive the ACTION_BOOT_COMPLETED that is broadcast after the system finishes booting. If you don't request this permission, you will not receive the broadcast at that time. Though holding this permission does not have any security implications, it can have a negative impact on the user experience by increasing the amount of time it takes the system to start and allowing applications to have themselves running without the user being aware of them. As such, you must explicitly declare your use of this facility to make that visible to the user.
Constant Value: "android.permission.RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bear in mind that 99.99% of Android users will never know that this has happened, or that these processes were started. So, if they want to use Stocks, Peep, or whatever, they don't need to make a conscious decision to have the app start automatically - it just does.
Whilst I'm sure Google could build in an official API to allow you to control this behaviour, it would only be of benefit to a very tiny minority of users.
Regards,
Dave

Thank you for the explanation.
All I want would be an option to disable autostart.
I found it in fring, for example, and would like to see other developers add this option as well.

The only bad impact you could have is that boot time could be a couple of seconds longer for every application that starts. Otherwise, that memory it occupies will be freed the second the system needs it and CPU-wise, those applications are staying idle in the background

koichirose said:
All I want would be an option to disable autostart.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here. Android has a slightly ridiculous amount of processes and apps running in the background all the time, and while they in theory shouldn't put a strain on the battery when they're not using the CPU, I'm beginning to think that they do since battery life on Android usually is awful, no matter how many precautions you take.

MapleDouglas said:
Same here. Android has a slightly ridiculous amount of processes and apps running in the background all the time, and while they in theory shouldn't put a strain on the battery when they're not using the CPU, I'm beginning to think that they do since battery life on Android usually is awful, no matter how many precautions you take.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
exactly, no matter how many precautions you make, so you are basically saying it doesn't matter how many apps are "running"... It makes no difference whether memory is used by an app or not.
Read this article to understand it better: http://www.droid-den.com/android-guides/android-guide-should-i-use-a-task-killer

le3ky said:
exactly, no matter how many precautions you make, so you are basically saying it doesn't matter how many apps are "running"... It makes no difference whether memory is used by an app or not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With "precautions" I wasn't referring to killing processes, but general battery saving precautions, many based on common sense. I agree that task killers never should be used, unless a specific app has frozen and is given you trouble. But you can just go to Android's own Applications screen for that.

Is there a free way to stop applications from starting up?
This can be accomplished with a cheap app Autostarts, but I would rather not pay.

i'm trying the trial of startup manager, blocks some but not all. looks like it just kills the process once it's started tself. gonna get rid, and just use the task manager i have now.
it doesnt matter if it only makes a small difference, it's (for me anyway) about control, no different that on the PC
i have plenty of RAM in my PC but i wont allow every single program to have something start itself at bootup. it;s annoying. that's why i use msconfig to kill em.
that's what we need for android.

I don't know of other programs, but autostarts works quite well, and it's not that expensive, as I recall.

snudel said it all: stop worrying about memory.. i was a long time iphone user. on iphone memory is a nightmare.. soh on desire i was all the time fc'ing app's, them i notice the problem wasnt memory os the great number of opened apps, but me.. now they run on background, open fast, the mem management is awesome, they dont seen to utilize any noticeable amount of battery.. so, before changing the system, try changing yourself..

[Q] should I use task killers?

I have about 68mb free on ram and I noticed that useless apps are still running (e. g. Facebook, office suit, and other useless apps). I try to force stop them via settings but they still turn on by them selfs. Also, I think this is the reason why my battery does run out quick since theres apps runnimg in the background. Should I get a task killer e

No.
Using a task killer is like playing god, let the phone kill the app.
And anyway, apps usually start again and consume more ram after you have killed them.
Sent from my Xperia Play using Tapatalk 2

TwilightLoz said:
I have about 68mb free on ram and I noticed that useless apps are still running (e. g. Facebook, office suit, and other useless apps). I try to force stop them via settings but they still turn on by them selfs. Also, I think this is the reason why my battery does run out quick since theres apps runnimg in the background. Should I get a task killer e
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Keiran is spot on. Try un-installing apps you don't use (be careful with system apps) and you can also stop apps from running at boot with something like Autorun Manager
Remember to make a nandroid backup before you do anything, just in case it goes wrong

TwilightLoz said:
I have about 68mb free on ram and I noticed that useless apps are still running (e. g. Facebook, office suit, and other useless apps). I try to force stop them via settings but they still turn on by them selfs. Also, I think this is the reason why my battery does run out quick since theres apps runnimg in the background. Should I get a task killer e
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No! Free RAM is wasted RAM.
Sent from my HTC Desire S using xda premium

Task killers do more harm than good

Facebook and other apps will start anyway after "killing" them, maybe itz time for root and delete those apps from autorun?
Wybazgrane za pomocą Neo V w tapatalk 2.

I feel that the reason you use the task manager is only to fully quit programs/games which you KNOW will just eat up memory for no good reason, and won't reload and take up more memory. I've done this when using apps such as OnLive, where I want to kill the program compeletely so it doesn't freeze my game when I exit out. Yah, I could have ust quit the program completely, but sometimes things come up and..... I also use it to kill processes which OBVIOUSLY are causing the phone to hang. In short, I use it as a KILL command and I make sure to use it sparingly. I think of it as a super force quit option. If you think of a task manager as that, then you should be fine with one. I understand that people think that having almost no RAM free is the right way to go, and I somewhat agree, but I feel that there are times when you should free up the ram so you can replace a bad thing with a good one. I don't want my browser, whcih is lagging all over the place for some reason to take away ram from my game, my keyboard, or my voice recognition (I use it a lot). Nope, I could be better served killing the browser completely and instead loading up some programs I use more freqently, or perhaps just reloading the browser in general.

Beez thats what I meant. I just want to use it to only disable the autorun. Is there app that does that? My phone is rooted.

There's an app called Android Assistant that has an option to disable apps from starting up on boot, and so does Rom Toolbox. Rom Toolbox has a lot more options, but Android Assistant is easier to use.

I like using the Autostarts app. It costs a buck but it works wonderfully at removing programs/processes from boot

[Q] How to disable apps from running in RAM

Hi,
I've been using CM9beta2 on my Wonder for a while.
Now my phone it's starting to get too laggy so I'm trying to free up as much RAM as possible (having around 50MB available doesn't seem enough!).
However, many apps are always running, even though I disabled everything I could in the settings.
For example, google maps keeps regularly eating 5-10MB RAM, sometimes google Play too, etc...
Is there a way to keep apps out of RAM?
How do you do it?
The only solution I find otherwise, is to get the apk, and install apps when you need them, then uninstall them immediately...

[.::MDT::.] said:
Hi,
I've been using CM9beta2 on my Wonder for a while.
Now my phone it's starting to get too laggy so I'm trying to free up as much RAM as possible (having around 50MB available doesn't seem enough!).
However, many apps are always running, even though I disabled everything I could in the settings.
For example, google maps keeps regularly eating 5-10MB RAM, sometimes google Play too, etc...
Is there a way to keep apps out of RAM?
How do you do it?
The only solution I find otherwise, is to get the apk, and install apps when you need them, then uninstall them immediately...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi... see the 3rd post of this link , you will have your solution with an app call Auto Killer Memory ------>http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1884479

sgilmans said:
Hi... see the 3rd post of this link , you will have your solution with an app call Auto Killer Memory ------>http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1884479
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ji.sonu said:
[...]
5. Download and Install Use Auto Killer Memory Optimizer Pro 7 (Here it is), when install pick a preset 'Extreme' or 'Ultimate' depend on your games requirement. Your Ram will always free and it will kill automatically un-use apps
[...]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, but... wouldn't Auto Killer Memory use more battery (or RAM) than having the apps running?
I mean, having smth that checks every few minutes running apps and that closes them... then they reopen again, and the Auto Killer closes them again, and so on... doesn't seem the best solution!
Am I wrong?
Tx.

[.::MDT::.] said:
Thanks, but... wouldn't Auto Killer Memory use more battery (or RAM) than having the apps running?
I mean, having smth that checks every few minutes running apps and that closes them... then they reopen again, and the Auto Killer closes them again, and so on... doesn't seem the best solution!
Am I wrong?
Tx.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It really depend , but I try it and actually getting better result .
With CM9 rom there is a way to disable the apps that you don't need , just go to setting menu, chose manage apps, click the apps that you don't use , and click disable . But you have to make sure the apps that you disable WILL NOT effect other apps that in use . :silly:

Hi...there are two ways to do what you want to do....
The first is as you say to delete and re install the apps as you need them.....
The other way is to NOT delete them, but to FREEZE them. (This is the better option, and the option that I use) there are several apps that will do this, titanium backup (paid app) and Gemini app manager (free) to name two.
I use Gemini and it does EXACTLY what you are asking. You have to be rooted in order to use either of the apps I mentioned....but if you're using a custom rom, I guess you already are. Both apps are available in the Play Store, and there's an online tutorial on how to use Gemini....just Google it.......
Hit thanks if this helped
CM9....I don't have to...I just......can

[Q] Boost Ram/Disable Auto Start App's

Looking for a App that does as above without taking up much memory in the background whilst doing so. I trialed Smart Booster app and it allowed me too disable auto start for apps I don't need and hibernate others etc but sorta felt like the app itself drain my battery just as much as the apps that were auto starting. Thanks in advance

It's not free, $1.49. But it's worked for me in the past. Personally don't think it will be very useful on this device.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.elsdoerfer.android.autostarts

illmatters said:
Looking for a App that does as above without taking up much memory in the background whilst doing so. I trialed Smart Booster app and it allowed me too disable auto start for apps I don't need and hibernate others etc but sorta felt like the app itself drain my battery just as much as the apps that were auto starting. Thanks in advance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why do you want free RAM? Free RAM is wasted RAM. Android doesn't need you to constantly clear the RAM. It's actually bad to do that because you need to use more CPU power to recompile the whole app when you open it again until we fully switch to ART which pre-compiles all apps.
Also Android by design will dynamically close apps to make room if it needs more RAM than you have available. Plus not clearing it will safe battery because the CPU will run less cycles when you use apps.
That's just my opinion, however I'm sure you have a reason as to why you wan to clear the RAM. I just thought it was with mentioning the above in case you didn't know.

Pilz said:
Why do you want free RAM? Free RAM is wasted RAM. Android doesn't need you to constantly clear the RAM. It's actually bad to do that because you need to use more CPU power to recompile the whole app when you open it again until we fully switch to ART which pre-compiles all apps.
Also Android by design will dynamically close apps to make room if it needs more RAM than you have available. Plus not clearing it will safe battery because the CPU will run less cycles when you use apps.
That's just my opinion, however I'm sure you have a reason as to why you wan to clear the RAM. I just thought it was with mentioning the above in case you didn't know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Reason = Battery Drain. I don't use the Radio, EVER. So why is it showing in android os in the battery settings? Just like quite a few other processes sitting in that long ass list. That's why I ask.

illmatters said:
Reason = Battery Drain. I don't use the Radio, EVER. So why is it showing in android os in the battery settings? Just like quite a few other processes sitting in that long ass list. That's why I ask.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why don't your freeze them with titanium backup if you are rooted?

Pilz said:
Why don't your freeze them with titanium backup if you are rooted?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Might just do that, thanks. I see LG Suite is using a lot. I dunno why though, that's fine If I freeze also? Requires $5.99. Gonna have to deal with it for a while, ive donated over $30 just today..

illmatters said:
Might just do that, thanks. I see LG Suite is using a lot. I dunno why though, that's fine If I freeze also? Requires $5.99. Gonna have to deal with it for a while, ive donated over $30 just today..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's a free version if the app that allows you to freeze apps still, but it won't let you do batch operations if I remember correctly.