Develop Bugs

"Don't keep activities" - anybody use it?

Love the phone but a few times the launcher has redrawn after exiting an app because of most likely memory issues. Anybody using this option? Assuming over time this would keep more memory free and reduce this issue. Any thoughts?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

mobilehavoc said:
Love the phone but a few times the launcher has redrawn after exiting an app because of most likely memory issues. Anybody using this option? Assuming over time this would keep more memory free and reduce this issue. Any thoughts?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is one of the reasons why I don't like that Google included these developer options pre-installed on this phone. They're developer options for a reason, we can install them if we need to.
This feature is designed so that developers can test their app to be sure that data is properly saved when is no longer in the foreground. For example, if a user receives a phone call or jumps to another app, the app needs to do what is necessary to save it's data. At times, Android can kill a process in the background. If the user plans to go back (perhaps they finished the phone call), they want to see what it is they were working on last. The developer is supposed to handle this case by rebuilding everything as it was before (to provide that seamless experience for the user when switching between apps).
This debug feature helps us test that it works.
For the average user, all you're really more likely to do is slow down your apps. As they will have to rebuild themselves when you resume them, and you may even open yourself to more quirky bugs (for those apps that didn't properly test the above scenario).
So please don't enable it unless you're doing it for development purposes. My 2 cents.
*EDIT* Here's a page from the Android Dev Guide justifying my explanation:
http://developer.android.com/guide/developing/debugging/debugging-devtools.html
Immediately destroy activities
Tells the system to destroy an activity as soon as it is stopped (as if Android had to reclaim memory). This is very useful for testing the onSaveInstanceState(Bundle) / onCreate(android.os.Bundle) code path, which would otherwise be difficult to force. Choosing this option will probably reveal a number of problems in your application due to not saving state. For more information about saving an activity's state, see the Activities document.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
(and yes, they used to call it "Immediately destroy activities")

Thanks. I turned it off. Did notice some bugs while on. I just wish with 1GB of RAM the launcher wouldnt have to reload. Hopefully things get better. Might just be my apps but it happens quite often when leaving the browser.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

mobilehavoc said:
Thanks. I turned it off. Did notice some bugs while on. I just wish with 1GB of RAM the launcher wouldnt have to reload. Hopefully things get better. Might just be my apps but it happens quite often when leaving the browser.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
weird.. how many widgets do you have on your launcher? the more widgets you have, the slower the launcher is.
Have you tried another launcher? The stock launcher has never been known for being fast and efficient, although I haven't had any issues with it (whereas I'm a LauncherPro fan on my other devices).

kwazi said:
weird.. how many widgets do you have on your launcher? the more widgets you have, the slower the launcher is.
Have you tried another launcher? The stock launcher has never been known for being fast and efficient, although I haven't had any issues with it (whereas I'm a LauncherPro fan on my other devices).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have quite a few Widgets but nothing too crazy I don't think. I use LauncherPro on my other devices as well but I love this new launcher so I'm going to stick it out. Like I said the most common task that causes the issue is when I'm using the web browser and then come out of it. Otherwise its been stable. I've noticed the same thing with Honeycomb on my Xoom so it might just be one of those things I have to put up with.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

i'm also noticing some redraw and occasional lag when hitting the home button.
I'm hoping that CM9's custom launcher will have an option to lock it in memory- that may increase the performance by a lot.
also when replacement launchers like go launcher start optimizing more for ICS those might be good options.

Have you tried converting your launcher into a system app? You'll need to use Titanium Backup Pro or something similar to do it for you, or simple copy the APK into your system/app folder... Really sped up my launcher!

shawnshine said:
Have you tried converting your launcher into a system app? You'll need to use Titanium Backup Pro or something similar to do it for you, or simple copy the APK into your system/app folder... Really sped up my launcher!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you see the date on this thread, almost 8 months old
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

95Z28 said:
Did you see the date on this thread, almost 8 months old
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
... and yet people still continue to discover the thread and benefit from it.
Thanks for clarifying the meaning of "Don't keep activities"

my razr xt910 cannot be counted upon to run smoothly with all the apps simultaneously running and forcing itself to go into reboot. i then fancied an iPhone single styled system (as compared to Android multi-talks) cuz iPhone looks robust and responsive. all the killer that claimed to do the job looked more of a farce and then when i stumbled upon the destroy activity i was like OMG. srsly b4 using it I've only got just inner 100mb of ram, after using it i have a whooping 400mb ram. UI appears faster and all. regarding the relaunching of apps and battery life being used up. i think I'll start to worry about it on a later date. what say any body. ooh yes to add on, even after i deleted 40 apps on my phone it still hanged like fcuked. i guess i can reinstall them back again and not have to worry about it. btw i can't seem to root my xt910 for nuts so i can't custom ROM it along with all other fanciful mods that i hear about what others did to their phones.

Ram manager ??

So do you guys find it necessary to have a ram manager to free memory or no ?

No, ics have a good system to manage ram.

No. Creates more issues than it solves.

+1 for no. Watchdog has always been a must have for me, but it hasn't yet had to call out an app on my SGN.

No. Don't use automated tools to kill tasks and free up memory... in Android, free memory is wasted memory. You make your phone work harder when you interfere with its built-in memory management.

I kill running services that shouldn't be running... That allows for more RAM to be used by active applications.

EP2008 said:
I kill running services that shouldn't be running... That allows for more RAM to be used by active applications.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Users always feel they are smarter than the OS when it comes to killing processes. They are usually wrong.

adrynalyne said:
Users always feel they are smarter than the OS when it comes to killing processes. They are usually wrong.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Funniest thing I read all day and its true

adrynalyne said:
Users always feel they are smarter than the OS when it comes to killing processes. They are usually wrong.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes,I feel that having running SERVICES that I'm not using is a huge waste of memory and battery resources. Android is not smart in this regard.
For example, I use the amazon app store to check for free apps of the day ONCE a day. No need to have it run as a service all day, using up ram and CPU. Another example is pulse news reader. I want to go in the app, refresh the feeds, read them and exit, but the app remains running as a service for no reason. I also use a document scanner app which runs as a service when I'm not using it for no good reason. So, I kill the service.
To suggest that I'm wrong in doing this shows a lack of understanding of the issue at hand.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

EP2008 said:
Yes,I feel that having running SERVICES that I'm not using is a huge waste of memory and battery resources. Android is not smart in this regard.
For example, I use the amazon app store to check for free apps of the day ONCE a day. No need to have it run as a service all day, using up ram and CPU. Another example is pulse news reader. I want to go in the app, refresh the feeds, read them and exit, but the app remains running as a service for no reason. I also use a document scanner app which runs as a service when I'm not using it for no good reason. So, I kill the service.
To suggest that I'm wrong in doing this shows a lack of understanding of the issue at hand.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have no idea how android works and deserve to have your nexus confiscated.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using XDA App

EP2008 said:
Yes,I feel that having running SERVICES that I'm not using is a huge waste of memory and battery resources. Android is not smart in this regard.
For example, I use the amazon app store to check for free apps of the day ONCE a day. No need to have it run as a service all day, using up ram and CPU. Another example is pulse news reader. I want to go in the app, refresh the feeds, read them and exit, but the app remains running as a service for no reason. I also use a document scanner app which runs as a service when I'm not using it for no good reason. So, I kill the service.
To suggest that I'm wrong in doing this shows a lack of understanding of the issue at hand.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Android does not operate like windows. Apps listed as "Running" are actually only loaded in ram and are not using cpu cycles or battery power. Android loads them in ram in order for them to start/be available more quickly to the user. If Android needs more ram for a task, it will remove any thing it needs to in order to free up more ram. You are wasting battery power and cpu cycles by "killing" those apps/service. If you think of ram as a memory stick you will realize that once something is loaded there, it doesn't take any power to keep it there.
Good luck
Good luck

jordanishere said:
You have no idea how android works and deserve to have your nexus confiscated.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
System services should obviously not be messed with, but disabling autostarting services that you don't use is generally not a problem. It may take more power/time to start up apps that use those services (since they will have to be manually started), but if it's an app that you use infrequently it may be worth doing.
Intelligently tuning what services are allowed to autostart themselves is NOT the same as indiscriminately killing apps chasing after "free memory".
Personally, I wouldn't terminate services, but only modify which ones are allowed to automatically start up with the OS.

codesplice said:
if it's an app that you use infrequently it may be worth doing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is it worth doing when Android does this automatically?
Sent from my SGH-T989 using XDA App

EP2008 said:
Yes,I feel that having running SERVICES that I'm not using is a huge waste of memory and battery resources. Android is not smart in this regard.
For example, I use the amazon app store to check for free apps of the day ONCE a day. No need to have it run as a service all day, using up ram and CPU. Another example is pulse news reader. I want to go in the app, refresh the feeds, read them and exit, but the app remains running as a service for no reason. I also use a document scanner app which runs as a service when I'm not using it for no good reason. So, I kill the service.
To suggest that I'm wrong in doing this shows a lack of understanding of the issue at hand.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you basically proved what he said was true

I agree with using "Autostarts", it's one of my fav apps and cuts down on startup time and certain apps like to be triggered for all kinds of rediculous things. Once again though I think it is counterproductive to use automated task killers. Watchdog will alert you of apps running away with your ram and battery, but does not just auto kill all random apps. As far as the Amazon AppStore, I agree that it can be very malicious with RAM if it wants to be even when just checking the FAOTD in the mornings, on my Atrix I would get constant alerts from Watchdog for Amazon AppStore. On my SGN however I have yet to recieve ANY alerts for ANY app yet from Watchdog, this leads me to think there is better optimization going on with ICS or the Nexus than I had with Gingerbread and Atrix.
Is there any reason not to use AutoStarts or WatchDog? They are not auto killing apps at all. And I am requesting a "real" technical explanation not just you opinion or a "think of it like.." story, those are useless to me and offer no explanation.

jordanishere said:
Is it worth doing when Android does this automatically?
Sent from my SGH-T989 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Eh, usually there's not much benefit to be had - but preventing a service from auto starting when you might not use its app for the entire time Android is booted won't cause any problems. You're essentially "freezing" the service while still allowing it to be used on demand .

WiredPirate said:
I agree with using "Autostarts", it's one of my fav apps and cuts down on startup time and certain apps like to be triggered for all kinds of rediculous things. Once again though I think it is counterproductive to use automated task killers. Watchdog will alert you of apps running away with your ram and battery, but does not just auto kill all random apps. As far as the Amazon AppStore, I agree that it can be very malicious with RAM if it wants to be even when just checking the FAOTD in the mornings, on my Atrix I would get constant alerts from Watchdog for Amazon AppStore. On my SGN however I have yet to recieve ANY alerts for ANY app yet from Watchdog, this leads me to think there is better optimization going on with ICS or the Nexus than I had with Gingerbread and Atrix.
Is there any reason not to use AutoStarts or WatchDog? They are not auto killing apps at all. And I am requesting a "real" technical explanation not just you opinion or a "think of it like.." story, those are useless to me and offer no explanation.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I relied upon autostart tuning and Watchdog on my N1, but haven't experienced a real need for either on the SGN. Not necessarily a technical response, but just my experience.

Wow, the ignorance on XDA is staggering.
A RUNNING SERVICE is not the same as a cached app or background process.
Why the heck would anyone want 3 or 4 running services in the background when they don't need them running?
Right now, I have the logmein service using 26mb, Amazon app store using 38mb, pulse taking up 43mb and I'm NOT using these apps. They are running as services and using ram, battery and cpu.
Continue to defend Android and all its flaws. The user doesn't always have to accept how poorly some things function.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

EP2008 said:
Right now, I have the logmein service using 26mb, Amazon app store using 38mb, pulse taking up 43mb and I'm NOT using these apps. They are running as services and using ram, battery and cpu.
Continue to defend Android and all its flaws. The user doesn't always have to accept how poorly some things function.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Less an Android flaw and more related to how developers wrote those apps. Otherwise I think we are in agreement though.

codesplice said:
I relied upon autostart tuning and Watchdog on my N1, but haven't experienced a real need for either on the SGN.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
why?
10char

[Q] Way to prevent Facebook from starting?

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

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

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

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

Just download romtoolbox, go on autostart and disable it

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

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

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

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

Snapdragon(TM) BatteryGuru

Anybody tried this app from the appstore?
Would like to know how true is this app.
Sent from my HTC One using xda premium

Friedtofux said:
Anybody tried this app from the appstore?
Would like to know how true is this app.
Sent from my HTC One using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
used it - froze up my phone , un installed

The reviews on play store are quite mixed, some claim doubling the battery. Others say worsen.
Sent from my HTC One using xda premium

Tried it wasn't impressed. I prefer green power to it.
Sent from my PantechP8010 using xda app-developers app

what this is app does is reduce bakground and hence will help you if you experience unexplained standby drains, once it's done learning your most used apps, it will control background activity sync
so yes you will notice great improvements if you you have lots of accounts draining your standby times

I currently am on day 6 using the app (actual use, its not including the 2 days of hiding in background watching me). Haven't really noticed a huge difference but I probably get another hour or so of battery life.
I think the trial was pretty lame. After it finally got the thing to start, I like how you can block apps from refreshing in the background. The list is not very big however and I am curious as to what other apps do the same thing but have more options.
All in all, I'd give it a thumb up as it is not hurting my phone's performance and a little battery savings
Sent from my LG-LS970 using xda app-developers app

I have used this snapdragon app, their is a thread about it somewhere, i removed it as it was giving me thousands wakelocks with the app, i used wakelock detector to see them.
John.

It just blocks apps from syncing if you use your phone auto sync on all the time so it's not like greenify which completely stops background process of a specific app until you open it. If you don't keep auto sync on then it's a waste of time and makes battery even worse.

It's a placebo, don't use it.
Sent from my HTC One using xda premium

No, it is not a placebo. Yes, it does block apps from syncing in the background. So what? You guys are missing the point.
They are not claiming to possess some magical powers that will double your phone's battery life. The main difference from this app and similar others in the market, is their learning algorithm. It learns from "watching" you use your phone for a couple of days and then controls what is going on in the background to help you save battery without you doing much on your end. It's actually a pretty genius idea. I'm trying it out for the first-time (thanks OP for mentioning this app) and will post back with my results later this week. I'm not expecting wonders, but maybe I'll learn a thing or two about my daily use that I might be able to incorporate into my setups.

I would really appreciate you get back to use with your results, i pulled the plug after a couple of hours because of the high number of wakelocks.
John.
akarol said:
No, it is not a placebo. Yes, it does block apps from syncing in the background. So what? You guys are missing the point.
They are not claiming to possess some magical powers that will double your phone's battery life. The main difference from this app and similar others in the market, is their learning algorithm. It learns from "watching" you use your phone for a couple of days and then controls what is going on in the background to help you save battery without you doing much on your end. It's actually a pretty genius idea. I'm trying it out for the first-time (thanks OP for mentioning this app) and will post back with my results later this week. I'm not expecting wonders, but maybe I'll learn a thing or two about my daily use that I might be able to incorporate into my setups.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

No problem. Honestly, people freak out too much about wakelocks. You can have 50 simple events waking your device that will consume 10% of a single wakelock event from another app. Google's new play services that have been announced at I/O are wakelock-fiends, but surprisingly, their effect on battery life is very minimal.
Basically, it's about quality and not quantity of the wakelock that matters.

akarol said:
No problem. Honestly, people freak out too much about wakelocks. You can have 50 simple events waking your device that will consume 10% of a single wakelock event from another app. Google's new play services that have been announced at I/O are wakelock-fiends, but surprisingly, their effect on battery life is very minimal.
Basically, it's about quality and not quantity of the wakelock that matters.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Indeed, 1500 wakelocks but less than two minutes awake time.

It doesn't work. plain.and.simple.
Sent from my HTC One using xda app-developers app

A rep from HTC told me the battery Guru was bad and would mess up the phone

I was wondering if itll affect instant messaging app, like whatsapp.
Will I still receive the messages instantly or battery guru will refresh my whatsapp periodically based on my usage?
Sent from my HTC One using xda premium

installed it. doesn't work. after a few weeks, installed it again, still doesn't work. it seems to just kill running apps. not great if you use whatsapp or viber, you won't be receiving any messages with the battery guru on.

I'm using this but I don't feel that the battery is very good anyway. Is this app working just like greenify?
Sent from my HTC One using xda app-developers app

[APP] Greenify

I AM NOT TAKING CREDIT FOR THIS APP. I am simply posting this up because I do not see it up here and it's definitely an app everyone should use. Its easy to use. The app tells you what apps run in the background and let's you "hibernate" them so that they do not run unless you open them your self. I myself plus others that told me about the app have seen much improvement with battery life using this app. All credit goes to OASIS FENG. The app is completely free. There is a donate version so if you feel that the dev did a good job which imo he did you can purchase the donate version. One tip is do NOT hibernate any sms app or apps you like to receive notifications for because they obviously need to run in background for that to work.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/...e=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_term=greenify
Sent from my SGH-T889 using Tapatalk 2

Absouletly a must have
I agree with you 100%. This app is purely amazing. I've tested it for 3 days now since I rooted my phone and I can tell you that my battery has more than double its life. With moderate to light use I don't have to charge it for 2 days and 1 hour. Not possible on stock without this app. Putting the apps into Hibernation really works.