Develop Bugs

[Q] Total memory less than 768 MB???

Can anyone explain the amount of RAM that this phone is suppose to have?
The specs for the phone lists 768 MB. However, the total memory that comes up is 617940 kB.
Thanks.

Bull Shot said:
Can anyone explain the amount of RAM that this phone is suppose to have?
The specs for the phone lists 768 MB. However, the total memory that comes up is 617940 kB.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
where are you finding this number? i am at 758 MB. since i have a bunch of apps installed, that would seem about right.

How are you guys getting so much free ram? When I check on Task Killer, whenever I kill all the apps I'm not using it usually shows 358 mb ... and programs I'm not using automatically keep running (i.e Maps).

hmm maybe im not checking the right place? i'm getting my 758 mb number from settings--SD and phone storage. the internal phone storage tells me 758mb.
on an unrelated note though, you shouldn't use task killers. they are considered by most to be more of a drain on your battery life as android is already setup to manage closing unused apps on its own.

Many people use the term "memory" to mean system memory as well as storage. I try to avoid calling system storage as "memory" and tend to use "storage" instead, or refer to the type of storage.
Total ram is around 768mb. Part of it is reserved (not sure why, possibly for filesystem caching) so around 603mb is available. For this platform that is a healthy chunk of RAM to work with. Even with my hefty usage I have ~126mb free.
Internal storage is something like 2gb, with it partially consumed by the Android install as well as NAND configuration adjustments for reliability which cause some of the storage space to be consumed through hardware (there's an excellent explanation of this somewhere, don't have a link handy), resulting in about 1.1gb being available. I have 103 apps installed, 523.5mb of the internal storage used, with 638.8mb available.
There was an excellent tool posted on xda (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1066060) called Android Optimizer that gives a lot of good information about memory, storage, cpu usage, etc. I'd recommend checking it out. It's not available on the market and it is a little buggy so use it with a bit of caution if you choose to use any of the optimization functions.

cool. thanks for the explanation nimdae!

There have been so, so, so many posts on this topic that I will not rehash them all here. Instead, I will ask a simple question: For what do you use all that free RAM?
Ask yourself that question, and be serious about it. I think you will find yourself uninstalling your task managers and memory optimizers before long.
Edit: to avoid unnecessary discussion, Watchdog is in fact neither of those, and I would highly recommend it as the only memory app you will ever need.
Edit 2: the total RAM displayed is the RAM that is actually available to be used by anything the user may want to run. As a poster earlier said, the system reserves a certain amount of RAM for its own use to keep important processes moving along. The reserved RAM is not available, and so doesn't appear in total RAM. Unless you want to uninstall the OS. Then you could have access to all 768 MBs.

I would like to reiterate why you should not use automatic task killers.
As of, I believe, Android 2.0, the garbage collection and memory management was significantly improved. However, this was not a new system in Android, it always existed.
How it works:
If you haven't noticed with Android, when you leave an app, it doesn't close it unless the app specifically does something to end the process. This is by design. Android allows the app to remain in memory. Frequently used apps will load faster with this design. A "task" that is not killed and is in the background ONLY consumes memory, it does not "run" (in Linux terms, the process is actually in a "stopped" state so the task can't do anything anyway). Only a "service" can run in the background. Most apps that have long running services have lightweight services.
If an application loads that requires more memory than is available, Android will examine backgrounded tasks for candidates to be killed to free up memory. This makes it so as many tasks as possible can remain in memory for better performance. In understanding this, you should know that if you have a large amount of memory, and memory usage is high, this is a GOOD THING. With the amount of memory in the I2, there is a lot of breathing space for this.
There is one other case where a backgrounded task will be killed: if it has been in the background for a certain period of time without being brought forward. Killing a task to free up memory to load another task can actually be a little cpu expensive (but not THAT much) so this can make it slightly easier.
Please note that backgrounded tasks WILL NOT contribute to battery drain. Only tasks at the front and services will. Killing your backgrounded calculator will do nothing for you other than free that small amount of memory it uses. Used memory does not contribute to extra battery drain as DRAM refreshes happen on ALL cells anyway.
Background services can also be made candidates for being killed. If an app needs more memory than can be made available by killing backgrounded tasks, then services become targets to be killed as well.
Automatic task killers cause a couple of problems. A less major problem is you lose that one benefit you get by keeping tasks in the background: performance. I don't just mean how fast it loads. If it can bring a backgrounded task to the front from memory rather than load from storage, you remove extra processing to load the app, including storage access, that contribute to higher battery drain. The other problem is a poorly configured task killer can break things like notifications.
Managing your services is always a good idea. Having a lot of services running means background processes that are capable of contributing to battery drain. Additionally, there are apps with misbehaving services (services that consume resources or use features they shouldn't). While I'm against automatic task killers, using something to monitor and manage services is a good idea. Just always keep in mind the implications for killing a service: it may affect a feature to an app that you would rather not impact.

Excellent explanation nimdae! Task killers are the devil.

On another note, my posts are getting too long...

nimdae said:
On another note, my posts are getting too long...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Everything is longer in Texas.

xgunther said:
Everything is longer in Texas.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's what s...no, that's too easy.
Move along, nothing to see.

Before I read this I was like a task Nazi. I killed my tasks often, but now I think I will just let them be. Nice write up BTW. Very informative.
Sent from my ADR6350 using XDA App

TB13 said:
Before I read this I was like a task Nazi. I killed my tasks often, but now I think I will just let them be. Nice write up BTW. Very informative.
Sent from my ADR6350 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Remember: I'm not saying don't manage things. Poorly behaving services are the #1 cause of high battery drain (at least on non-LTE devices), and this will be even more problematic when you overclock.

xgunther said:
Excellent explanation nimdae! Task killers are the devil.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried not using them and I get better battery life with them...I use it maybe 3 times a day after heavy multi tasking. It's to each their own..but I see results for it..like 5 extra hours.
Sent from my ADR6350 using XDA Premium App

knipp21 said:
I tried not using them and I get better battery life with them...I use it maybe 3 times a day after heavy multi tasking. It's to each their own..but I see results for it..like 5 extra hours.
Sent from my ADR6350 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you get that much extra, you have a misbehaving app. Better to get the app developer to fix it or find an alternative.

nimdae said:
If you get that much extra, you have a misbehaving app. Better to get the app developer to fix it or find an alternative.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True, I don't need to use it often though lol
Sent from my ADR6350 using XDA Premium App

I'm in Texas as well.
sent from a phone without root.

I use a task killer only to manually kill an app that freezes or something. Its easier than going to manage applications. I have the autokill disabled.
Sent from my ADR6350 using XDA Premium App

AngelsPunishment said:
I use a task killer only to manually kill an app that freezes or something. Its easier than going to manage applications. I have the autokill disabled.
Sent from my ADR6350 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
CyanogenMod (maybe other ROMs) have a feature to kill a frozen app by holding the back button (long press, whatever). However, this can also be an annoyance on systems where for unknown reasons it registers a long press on a tap (my eris did this a lot).

[Q] Memory management

Hi Arc Users,
Do you guys encounter low memory after long period of usage? It seems like the memory does not free up after using the phone for a long time. I mainly use the phone for FB, Camera and messaging.
When the phone hits like 50+MB ram or so it starts to slow down and if it goes lower than 40MB my home screen starts to lag and the app icons take a few secs to load every time i return to home screen. I'll usually reboot the phone but its quite a pain considering the boot timing for my phone is rather long, like close to 1 min.
What are the possible solutions? I've heard that advanced task killers are unnecessary for Gingerbread. If thats the case, how do I free up more memory or have better memory management for the Arc?
Am a first time android user, appreciate any advice from you guys
Thanks!

___________________
+1

Root is the solution. Delete apps and services which you do not use.
I haven't any problem either when free ram goes down to 30MB and i don't use a taskiller.

Just what are you doing when you run out of ram? Never did I run out of ram yet. Running ram hungry games will free up more what is needed as I experienced. When I return to homescreen, it takes a while (around 2 secs) because it will free up ram from the game, then load the homescreen launcher from start/scratch.

Same here but my Arc works fine, even with 30-40MB RAM, so it isn't a real problem.
But it would be nice from SE to make 400-450MB of the 512MB RAM available for the user.
Sent from my LT15i using XDA Premium App

Flo95 said:
But it would be nice from SE to make 400-450MB of the 512MB RAM available for the user.
Sent from my LT15i using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What? That is a completely pointless excercise if you understand how ram is handled by the os.
You need to root and remove bloat, check ya settings etc to get better performance. I found letting things constantly access the network was a juice eater, I don't want fb to check every 4 seconds, I update it when I want to read it lol
I use a task manager, but only because I like to see what is running and using resources. I rarely actually kill any apps, just occasionally a few things I rarely use. Even then it fills the space with other stuff.
:edit: sorry flo95, that sounded a bit crappy, no bad attitude was intended.
Sent from my LT15i using XDA App

This is the solution...https://market.android.com/details?id=com.lim.android.automemman&feature=search_result
not a task killer... a memory manager that enhances googles memory management.

mariolouis said:
Just what are you doing when you run out of ram? Never did I run out of ram yet. Running ram hungry games will free up more what is needed as I experienced. When I return to homescreen, it takes a while (around 2 secs) because it will free up ram from the game, then load the homescreen launcher from start/scratch.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do not play games with my Arc. I just used facebook, MSN, Camera and messaging occasionally throughout the day. Medium usage.
It runs smoothly for several days but maybe after a week or two, the RAM starts to get low.
im_iceman said:
This is the solution...
not a task killer... a memory manager that enhances googles memory management.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! Working so far... will monitor after a week or so.

Try a cache cleaner also will free up some space for ya
Sent from my LT15i using XDA Premium App

I use battery guard as a task killer. It comes with a widget where you can see the available amount of ram.
I'm happy about it. Though a lot of people say a task killer doesn't help I have no negative experience using this one... and I never go below 130 ram.
I still think it does help to close tasks that otherwise keep running in the background... But I'm new on android so I could be wrong.

Hey guys
Have you tried this script
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1111145
maybe this can help w/o having to install apps or task-killers. Should work on Xperia Arc but I don't guarantee it.

That script seems to do basically the same thing as auto memory manager.. (per my previous post..)..
PS.. I currently have mine set to aggressive.

[Ask]Hiw i can Optimize my RAM

Hi i want to ask
How to optimize my phone RAM i use v6 supercharger but my ram is still 163mb
I use 4 messenger Catfizz,Line,yahoo,facebook
Thanks before:beer::beer:
Sent from my GT-S5360 using xda premium

Use adrenaline engine
Sent from my GT-S5360 using XDA

Technically, it's hard to tell the difference performance-wise. Android does it's own memory management, but also it won't hurt anyone if you try RAM tweaks and see the result for yourself.

Chamiakas said:
Technically, it's hard to tell the difference performance-wise. Android does it's own memory management, but also it won't hurt anyone if you try RAM tweaks and see the result for yourself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
remove facebook, yahoo, and all other apps that runs on the background,
even if you have v6, the apps still runs in the memory
no matter what ram tweak you do if you have background hog memory apps and due to the limitation of our device you shall fail

deathnotice01 said:
remove facebook, yahoo, and all other apps that runs on the background,
even if you have v6, the apps still runs in the memory
no matter what ram tweak you do if you have background hog memory apps and due to the limitation of our device you shall fail
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did not quite get that you said there, but I didin't encounter a single problem due to low RAM. Of course it can be because I don't usually run a lot of apps at once.

Thx but i very loves facebook app
Sent from my GT-S5360 using xda premium

if you are much conscious about ram then never use and go product they are the hogger beast
check every app's ram consumption then you their alternative with less ram consumption
if you love ics keyboard, then there are 2, one uses about 10 mb and other uses about 20 mb

Chamiakas said:
I did not quite get that you said there, but I didin't encounter a single problem due to low RAM. Of course it can be because I don't usually run a lot of apps at once.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
even if you don't run the app, they actually run on the background doing things you don't know, consuming your battery and your ram

Death notice can u make a theme for M.U.R v2 with blacksense?thanks
:beer::beer::beer::beer:
Sent from my GT-S5360 using xda premium

deathnotice01 said:
even if you don't run the app, they actually run on the background doing things you don't know, consuming your battery and your ram
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, thats true, but the RAM is meant to be cached (fully used) for quickly launching the desired application.

Best way to optimize RAM for starters is to monitor your background, cached and running processes well. First, freeze stock background running bloatware using TB. Mainly DRM content (some say it messes with ringtones and stuff but I never experienced that), wsynclmps, syncmIDs, maps (unfreeze it only when needede), software update(this really doesnt help and is waste of RAM+space), pico TTS , TTS service(these two are for voice to text conversion and are literally not much used), samsung account(is waste compared to play store), two email ones (use gmail app these dont help much), social hub , samsung push service.Choose adrenaline engine if you want multi tasking and v6 if you want more free ram.You can mix both of them but its risky and needs some scripting skills to remove the conflicts they make and highly NOT recommended.

Chamiakas said:
Well, thats true, but the RAM is meant to be cached (fully used) for quickly launching the desired application.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
completely agree with this one. less ram is not alway a good news in android system since it has unique RAM management. for quick acces and less RAM r/w some of app is stored in RAM's cache. SGY's default ram setting is already good enough for multitasking and gaming option. if you want a better performance in your device you don't need lesser RAM. instead of it you need a better memory and app management.

Thnks i use lessly ram now 121
Sent from my GT-S5360 using xda premium

Whats using all of our ram?

I have been trying to figure out why the Note has so little of the 3 gb of ram available at any given time. After a fresh boot, I might have 1.3 - 1.5 available, but that quickly disappears.
I have frozen all unnecessary apps with Titanium Backup, yet after launching just a few apps, I'll be down to 300 mb or so. Looking at the active applications list in task manager, the apps listed are nowhere near to adding up to over a gb of ram.
Tablet seems to be performing fine, I'd just like to know where the ram is going and why. Especially when tablets with 2 gb of ram seem to have much more free at any given time.
Sent from my SM-P600 using Tapatalk

i am with you on this issue. would like to find out for my self as well! constantly having to clear ram.
youtube, gmail, and browers = 2.1 gb / 3 gb ...
what the heck?
i constantly have to go back and clear apps, this is such a let down because my htc one could load much more than this, and every1 knows, htc one is no where near the spec of note 2014..

I'm not rooted but I noticed the same thing with the ram, I thought rooting and freezing some Samsung apps, specially Knox stuff, would free up a lot of ram. I'm starting to think that it's not a big deal and Android frees up ram as needed before it starts to get laggy (of course it's not perfect). I think lag issues are somewhere else and not so much in freeing up more ram. Don't you feel anyway that your note is a lot faster after rooting and freezing those apps? As far as I know most rooted users feel that way...(?)
Sent from my SM-P600 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

I have rooted mine about two weeks ago then froze all sort of junk listed in here and some other I identified mysefl. Now my used ram remains around 500 clean and around 700-800 when I open few apps. So guys the secret is getting a lot of useless apps frozen especially knox stuff.

greyhulk said:
I have been trying to figure out why the Note has so little of the 3 gb of ram available at any given time. After a fresh boot, I might have 1.3 - 1.5 available, but that quickly disappears.
I have frozen all unnecessary apps with Titanium Backup, yet after launching just a few apps, I'll be down to 300 mb or so. Looking at the active applications list in task manager, the apps listed are nowhere near to adding up to over a gb of ram.
Tablet seems to be performing fine, I'd just like to know where the ram is going and why. Especially when tablets with 2 gb of ram seem to have much more free at any given time.
Sent from my SM-P600 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Android is based on Linux. Android and Linux both run better when they use as much ram as possible. If you Google Android ram usage you can find a couple of interesting articles about this.
Sent from my SM-P600 using XDA Premium HD app

nrage23 said:
Android is based on Linux. Android and Linux both run better when they use as much ram as possible. If you Google Android ram usage you can find a couple of interesting articles about this.
Sent from my SM-P600 using XDA Premium HD app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup, stuff is kept in the RAM as much as possible to increase performance. As soon as an app requires more RAM than is available, the system moves apps from the RAM as required. Clearing the RAM only increases the time it takes to start an app next time.

I would be disappointed if its NOT beeing used...
Sent from my GT-I9300 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

delanvital said:
Yup, stuff is kept in the RAM as much as possible to increase performance. As soon as an app requires more RAM than is available, the system moves apps from the RAM as required. Clearing the RAM only increases the time it takes to start an app next time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
People are used to Windows needing free ram and do realize that Linux is a completely different animal altogether.
Here is the article for those that want to understand the ram usage.
http://www.androidcentral.com/ram-what-it-how-its-used-and-why-you-shouldnt-care
http://www.linuxatemyram.com/

Okay, guys. Disclaimer: I'm an IT professional and the Mobility expert for my company. I know how the RAM is used and why. I'm just curious as to what is using it. Especially in comparison to the Nexus 10, which has 2/3 of the RAM and has approximately the same amount available at any given time.
I wasn't looking for assurance that this is how it's supposed to work. I'm curious as to what you guys think is actually filling it up. Since I have disabled most unnecessary processes and only run a few apps at any given time, I can't see why so little is free.

greyhulk said:
... I'm curious as to what you guys think is actually filling it up. Since I have disabled most unnecessary processes and only run a few apps at any given time, I can't see why so little is free.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The objective of good android RAM management is to keep RAM full of the the highest priority apps. This enables faster and smoother response. The apps that are in RAM on your device will be different than on someone else's device. If you are curious about how android decides what put in RAM and what to take out, do a google search on "android process lifecycle"

if you're concerned about ram usage go to dev settings and change the "Limit background processes" to something more you liking.

Low memory!

How much FREE memory do you guys have when in normal usage (with browser, Facebook, whatsapp, tapatalk open..)??
Here I usually get 200 free, so I constantly have to free memory (it goes from 200 to 450, but few minutes later, it will be the same thing).
Help, anyone??

I usually have 1.1 gb free with kakao, whatsapp and basic apps running in the background. I close Facebook as I leave it, Facebook is a big memory hog.

I have about 900-1.1 gb used
Sent from my LG-E986 using xda app-developers app

Damn, 4-5 times my free memory!
I think I will reset the phone and reinstall everything again..
Any other hints??

artssa said:
Damn, 4-5 times my free memory!
I think I will reset the phone and reinstall everything again..
Any other hints??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Look at what is running. It sound like something is running in the background that is sucking up the memory. If you do a reset and re-install of everything, before you find out what is causing the memory problem you may be right back to square one.

TheMighyLoki said:
Look at what is running. It sound like something is running in the background that is sucking up the memory. If you do a reset and re-install of everything, before you find out what is causing the memory problem you may be right back to square one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with this, when your talking free "ram" as shown in the task manager , it is what is running at the time, not what is installed?
In my system i have not seen the "ram" ammount drop below about 350m ever.

Usually ranging between 200-400 free. Usually if I close the browser and clear my task manager, I can get higher. The thing is, why would you want all that unused? If your battery isn't being drained and your phone isn't lagging, you should be good to go.
Sent from my LG-E980 using xda app-developers app

Hmm!!!!!
only 200 MB free??
I have 500-700 free everytime!!
well, even if it is only 10 MB free, you should not worry about it(its a smartphone), until it affects performance of battery life!
to check whats eating up your RAM, go to settings>>general tab>>apps>>running tab!
you can also go to battery settings to check the most power hungry apps!
or you can install DU Battery Saver!

PsykoGeek said:
I agree with this, when your talking free "ram" as shown in the task manager , it is what is running at the time, not what is installed?
In my system i have not seen the "ram" ammount drop below about 350m ever.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
PsykoGeek ram or memory is what I was talking about but that also includes the apps or software that is installed on the phone also If the underline problem is not found first, anyone can do a factory reset and re-install the app and there is a very high percentage that it will come back.
I would look at the app that I have downloaded and start to turn them off one by one and see which one could be the culprit. After you found one or two, see if you can live with out them.

High RAM usage is actually a good thing on Android unless you use a lot of emulators like I do. On PC, low RAM is good, but on here the more RAM that's used the better it is. Makes opening apps much faster. What would be killing the battery is an app keeping your device awake even when the screen is off.
Sent from my 4.4 Sphinx LG-E980

??????
Neroga said:
High RAM usage is actually a good thing on Android unless you use a lot of emulators like I do. On PC, low RAM is good, but on here the more RAM that's used the better it is. Makes opening apps much faster. What would be killing the battery is an app keeping your device awake even when the screen is off.
Sent from my 4.4 Sphinx LG-E980
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Let me first say my Ram is usually around 350. But now I have a question, how is low ram a good thing and I am not trying to start anything I just like to learn more about the Andriod OS. I have use Wndows OS for year and it was always, like you said, bad to have low ram. So what has Adroid done to reverse that?
Again just trying to understand.

With 7 apps open.
Sent from my LG-E980 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app