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] RAM question for the Epic 4g

When I launch the running programs widget, and then click on summary it lists RAM and storage for program and sd card.
My question is where it shows my RAM, mine says 274MB/325MB. Does that mean I am using 274MB of my 325MB?, or does that mean I have 274MB left of the 325MB?
My running programs widget says there are no programs running also.

Slovak65 said:
When I launch the running programs widget, and then click on summary it lists RAM and storage for program and sd card.
My question is where it shows my RAM, mine says 274MB/325MB. Does that mean I am using 274MB of my 325MB?, or does that mean I have 274MB left of the 325MB?
My running programs widget says there are no programs running also.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
274MB is how much your phone is using. Go to Settings>Applications>Running services and close all services you don't use. Then go to Settings>Applications>Manage applications, hit the menu button and change to running apps. Now you can close the stuff that is stealing your RAM. Personally, I use process manager widget(free) for this. Its like the Samsung widget but 1x1 and much more info on it. And it let's you kill all apps except the excluded ones, very handy IMO.
Sent from my never been rooted, always stock eclair Epic.

What is safe to close in both locations? The ones I know I can close like google talk I know, but there are some I have no idea what they even are.

Just start killing stuff and see if it causes a problelm for you. There isn't very much that is unsafe to kill, and if something causes a problem, just restart the phone.

DiGi760 said:
Just start killing stuff and see if it causes a problelm for you. There isn't very much that is unsafe to kill, and if something causes a problem, just restart the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed kill stuff til you kill something that you need. Then restart
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

[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.

[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.