Develop Bugs

Google Android & Memory Management

Hello Android Gurus
I have bought Galaxy S (My first Android phone) 2 weeks ago and i have been experimenting with it since. I have noticed one thing regarding how android manages memory and its quite alarming.
When i start my phone I typically have around 160 Mb of RAM. As i load an application that requires 10 MB for example, the available RAM evidently drops to 150 MB but when I kill the application the RAM goes up but not to the previous level (e.g. goes up to 157).
little RAM is always lost as applications are opened and closed. This means that after a couple of hours of using the phone, the RAM goes down to 40 MB and the phone becomes REALLY laggy and you have to restart
The above behavior is typical of windows mobile, and that is exactly why i shifted to Android thinking it is better.
My questions to the android experts out there are the following:
1- Why is memory leaking like this. Such a behavior results in a phone with very bad user experience
2- Is this typical behavior of Android, if yes then i'd better sell my Galaxy S and look for an alternative OS
3- Is this due to TouchWiz by Samsung, if yes then i will wait for subsequent updates to see if this problem could be resolved by Samsung
4- Will the 2.2 Froyo update resolve this issue ?
I used to have an iphone 3gs before this one, and no matter how much you open or close applications, the UI is always smooth and responsive. The thing that made me really hate Apple and its products is their "Closed OS" that does not enable you to do much with your phone. That is why i moved to Galaxy S thinking it would give me a better experience
Thanks for your thoughts.

FREE RAM IS A WASTED RAM, golden rule of android.
Some time ago I did even a video so you can check what i'm talking about... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ewxuy12KuUA

Dexter666 said:
FREE RAM IS A WASTED RAM, golden rule of android.
Some time ago I did even a video so you can check what i'm talking about...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's an awesome video! I never knew the games looked so nice. I'm on a download spree because of that video now

Strange
Dexter666 said:
FREE RAM IS A WASTED RAM, golden rule of android.
Some time ago I did even a video so you can check what i'm talking about... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ewxuy12KuUA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is quite strange, the less RAM you have the more non-responsive the phone is and laggy.
Enough RAM has to be maintained to guarantee a smooth user experience.
If the phone requires 100Mb of RAM to run smoothly, then this much has to be maintained.
from my experience with the Galaxy S, there has to be atleaset 80 to 100 MB to maintain a somewhat smmoth interface.
Edit:
I also understand from your input that this is a Samsung problem, not an android problem, and that no matter how low the RAM is, the interface will always be smooth ??????

Mate, just one word - google.
There are about a billion articles online on android memory management, how to impoove it etc.

Dexter666 said:
FREE RAM IS A WASTED RAM, golden rule of android.
Some time ago I did even a video so you can check what i'm talking about... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ewxuy12KuUA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i dont understand how this shows anything? You are manually exiting each one of the games, forcing it to quit anyways. A better test is just to hit the home button, and continually load up the next game.

andy2na said:
i dont understand how this shows anything? You are manually exiting each one of the games, forcing it to quit anyways. A better test is just to hit the home button, and continually load up the next game.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This means that after a couple of hours of using the phone, the RAM goes down to 40 MB
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+red baloon on vid which says phone was used for >day, so "free" ram was <50MB, becouse browser etc. reserve some MBs for quick comming back.
And still was no problem to run anything I choose.

Dont quite understand..care to explain more? I'm getting puzzled abt this shortage of ram thingy. Some suggest to use task killer to free up rams while you say dont. But looking at your videos its fast..please explain. Thanks
Sent from my GT-I9000

Android handles the memory management itself. The moment it runs below certain amount of free memory it will start the kill apps. There is no need to run an app killer. Altho the default settings are not enough to provide a smooth experience. Check out the freememmanager app in the market to change the settings. As long as min 45 mb is free everything will run smooth.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

RADLOUNI said:
2- Is this typical behavior of Android, if yes then i'd better sell my Galaxy S and look for an alternative OS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is typical Android behavior. See ya later.
Really though, if you're killing tasks, then you're already taking horrible advice from people who haven't an inkling of an idea on how Android manages memory.

Keep in mind that your phone is only using 256MB of its total 512MB of memory. Once a newer kernel is released with himem the phone will use all 512MB.
Android's garbage collection can be set to be more aggressive which would sort of fix your issue by killing more background applications. However, you might as well wait for the newer kernel which will fix your problem anyway.

Though it was more 320 out of 512
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

RADLOUNI said:
The above behavior is typical of windows mobile, and that is exactly why i shifted to Android thinking it is better.
My questions to the android experts out there are the following:
1- Why is memory leaking like this. Such a behavior results in a phone with very bad user experience
2- Is this typical behavior of Android, if yes then i'd better sell my Galaxy S and look for an alternative OS
3- Is this due to TouchWiz by Samsung, if yes then i will wait for subsequent updates to see if this problem could be resolved by Samsung
4- Will the 2.2 Froyo update resolve this issue ?
Thanks for your thoughts.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This has to do a lot with Android's garbage collector. The reason task-killers are not the best way to go, is because when you kill tasks a lot of the memory is not recovered (garbage collector does not work as it should). Android by default won't start killing apps until you get between 20-30MB of memory. For some reason, in the SGS, as you said, when ram drops below 70MB, the phone starts to feel pretty laggy; the best way to remedy this is to use applications like autokiller or minfreemanager, which require you to be rooted.
For a more in-depth explanation of how android kills processes see this http://andrs.w3pla.net/autokiller/details (from the developer of Autokiller).
I would like to know why the phone feels so laggy when ram drops below 70MB, from what I understand, this shouldn't be the case...

2- Is this typical behavior of Android, if yes then i'd better sell my Galaxy S and look for an alternative OS
--> No, this is not typical behavior of Android, i use my HTC Magic before Galaxy S, no lagging problem even the memory is lower than 15MB.

The galaxy S defaults are too low for when it starts removing apps from RAM, you need to root it and then install minfree manager or autokiller (which is not a task killer don't be deceived by the name)

Brantyr said:
The galaxy S defaults are too low for when it starts removing apps from RAM, you need to root it and then install minfree manager or autokiller (which is not a task killer don't be deceived by the name)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
doesn't solve the mystery because this is a non-issue on other android phones.
why do i need to keep 50-70mb free to get a smooth running phone where others can handle 30mb free without problems.

Goshh..thanks for simplified. Now ive removed the task killer..and stand firm by the android golden rules...cheers..
Sent from my GT-I9000

I noticed this same low ram behavior on my galaxy s. After boot the phone shows like 180 mb of ram free after a couple days the phone will drop down to 30 mb of ram all the while I'm killing apps running in the background with task killer.
The phone slows down significantly even after I kill everything.i thought android was supposed to circumvent these kind of low ram Issues.

inurb said:
I noticed this same low ram behavior on my galaxy s. After boot the phone shows like 180 mb of ram free after a couple days the phone will drop down to 30 mb of ram all the while I'm killing apps running in the background with task killer.
The phone slows down significantly even after I kill everything.i thought android was supposed to circumvent these kind of low ram Issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is.
And you're supposed to not be messing with how Android manages things cuz taskkilling screws it up.

reuthermonkey said:
It is.
And you're supposed to not be messing with how Android manages things cuz taskkilling screws it up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So you suggest that I not force close any apps using taskkiller and just let android 2.1 do it's thing with memory management?
When I had the phone for the first week without taskkiller installed, the device ran very slow after the first couple days of use. Your saying that the slowness will go away as android dishes out memory effectively?
I'll uninstall taskkiller and let the device run longer than a week and see if it ever speeds up. thanks

Galaxy S gaming performance

I thought SGX540 that's superior than iphone4 would run new games without any lags but for new games such as 9mm and let's golf 3 i've face many stutter on those games. I'd like to ask others that you have problem like me or not ? or maybe next time i'd go back to ios or waiting ice cream sandwich. Those games are smooth in iphone4 but not in galaxy s that has superior GPU.

I didn't play to 9mm and I just tested Lets Golf3, but yeah... it's not strange to have some small lags sometimes.
If gaming on the phone is very important for you I suggest to use samsung roms and not cm7 or miui.
And yeah, maybe you should have buy an iPhone, Android still can beat iOS when it comes to games

im currently on JVT.firmware
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

I notice the lags too. I strongly believe that the lags are caused primarily by low ram. On Froyo, I never had lags in games, and they were all super smooth. But on gingerbread, after a few hours of usage, the ram drops below 100mb, and the games will lag. The games don't lag on a fresh boot. Hence, the problem is not with the gpu, but with the fact that 512mb of ram is just not enough for gingerbread. If you want to remove the lags in games as well as in the phone interface, I recommend that you flash a 2.2.1 rom. ZSJPK was one of the best roms I've ever used.

Yeah, sgx540 is better than the 535 use in iphone 4, but it's all about drivers and optimisations. And we can't deny that Apple is doing a wonderfull job with iOS.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using xda premium

disclaimernotice said:
I notice the lags too. I strongly believe that the lags are caused primarily by low ram. On Froyo, I never had lags in games, and they were all super smooth. But on gingerbread, after a few hours of usage, the ram drops below 100mb, and the games will lag. The games don't lag on a fresh boot. Hence, the problem is not with the gpu, but with the fact that 512mb of ram is just not enough for gingerbread. If you want to remove the lags in games as well as in the phone interface, I recommend that you flash a 2.2.1 rom. ZSJPK was one of the best roms I've ever used.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
indeed, i also think the lags are caused by lack of ram...
when you move the camera around in the game it sometimes hangs and when the textures are in RAM, you can continue playing without fps drops or lag
a tip before you start playing:
- root your phone and install "autostarts" to disable all crap which boots up with android
- reboot phone
- after booting go to task manager and cleanup ram
- go to settings => applications => active services and kill unnecessary processes. (for example, when you close the facebook app, it still keeps running as a service, sometimes almost using 50MB ram)
i reduced lag in 9mm alot with the method above...

Is there a custom rom that has a very low ram consumption? that would fix this issues

Simplicitiy is very good!

alwo1303 said:
Simplicitiy is very good!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
how many ram does system take with that rom?

For games playing, 2.2.1(JSD) is a Must!

titooo7 said:
I didn't play to 9mm and I just tested Lets Golf3, but yeah... it's not strange to have some small lags sometimes.
If gaming on the phone is very important for you I suggest to use samsung roms and not cm7 or miui.
And yeah, maybe you should have buy an iPhone, Android still can beat iOS when it comes to games
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
... what? You're suggesting Samsung over CM7/MIUI when you want more performance? Are you trying to troll or something?
_breez_ said:
indeed, i also think the lags are caused by lack of ram...
when you move the camera around in the game it sometimes hangs and when the textures are in RAM, you can continue playing without fps drops or lag
a tip before you start playing:
- root your phone and install "autostarts" to disable all crap which boots up with android
- reboot phone
- after booting go to task manager and cleanup ram
- go to settings => applications => active services and kill unnecessary processes. (for example, when you close the facebook app, it still keeps running as a service, sometimes almost using 50MB ram)
i reduced lag in 9mm alot with the method above...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Reboot my phone. Clear memory with task manager. Kill active services... just to game? Why not just close some apps? Common sense, people. It's a brilliant thing.
lpalvaro said:
Is there a custom rom that has a very low ram consumption? that would fix this issues
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, it's called V6 Supercharger Script. It's like a ROM, but it's actually just a script... and you can run that script on whatever ROM you want. What it does, is it lets you pick a number. That number decides how much free RAM you'll have. Then, like magic, you just have it.
There hasn't been a single piece of good advice in this thread...

upichie said:
Yes, it's called V6 Supercharger Script. It's like a ROM, but it's actually just a script... and you can run that script on whatever ROM you want. What it does, is it lets you pick a number. That number decides how much free RAM you'll have. Then, like magic, you just have it.
There hasn't been a single piece of good advice in this thread...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't use supercharger with semaphore kernel, and CF bigmem settings (98 mb) doesn't solve the performance issue.

lpalvaro said:
Is there a custom rom that has a very low ram consumption? that would fix this issues
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, custom roms, even so called simple and bare ones, use more ram than stock roms. I recommend ZSJPK 2.2.1, which has about 180mb of ram on boot, and an average of 120-140mb or ram after two days' usage.

lpalvaro said:
I can't use supercharger with semaphore kernel, and CF bigmem settings (98 mb) doesn't solve the performance issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then you do it without the script. What's the problem here? I have over 2,000 games on my phone. And no, that wasn't a typo. None of them lag.

upichie said:
Reboot my phone. Clear memory with task manager. Kill active services... just to game? Why not just close some apps? Common sense, people. It's a brilliant thing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
because android automatically closes apps when RAM is low and services always keep running in the background, whether you need them or not.
why would you let a service use your ram when you don't even need it? THAT is common sense.

bigmem kernel may help? its what i use

upichie said:
... what? You're suggesting Samsung over CM7/MIUI when you want more performance? Are you trying to troll or something?
Reboot my phone. Clear memory with task manager. Kill active services... just to game? Why not just close some apps? Common sense, people. It's a brilliant thing.
Yes, it's called V6 Supercharger Script. It's like a ROM, but it's actually just a script... and you can run that script on whatever ROM you want. What it does, is it lets you pick a number. That number decides how much free RAM you'll have. Then, like magic, you just have it.
There hasn't been a single piece of good advice in this thread...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Learn some manners, people here are just trying to help. Have you actually tried the two games mentioned in op, you tell us you have 200 games installed is 9mm and lets golf included in these?
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

I've rolled back to froyo and now without apps in the background i0ve about 140mb of ram used, and now 9mm goes smooth. I'm not moving from froyo any more.
Also, now the battery lasts in 6 hours of screen usage, and with jvt only 4 hours

_breez_ said:
because android automatically closes apps when RAM is low and services always keep running in the background, whether you need them or not.
why would you let a service use your ram when you don't even need it? THAT is common sense.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you even use an Android phone?
leroys said:
Learn some manners, people here are just trying to help. Have you actually tried the two games mentioned in op, you tell us you have 200 games installed is 9mm and lets golf included in these?
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are they though? When I help someone out, I tell them correct information. If I don't know the correct information, I don't tell them anything. Why? Because incorrect information is worse than not helping at all. Few people in this thread have given remotely acceptable advice. No one needs to do a 3-step process, including rebooting your phone, just to play games; likewise, no one needs to downgrade to Froyo in order to game either.
I have Let's Golf! 3D installed currently, but I don't have the most recent revision of 9MM—although I have played it in the past. I have my phone's CPU and GPU overclocked, like I'm sure many of us do here, and I can play both without noticeable lag. I didn't have to reboot my phone to play them. I didn't have to uninstall apps to play them. I didn't have to flash an entirely new ROM to play them. And I certainly didn't need to stand on one leg with the phone above my head to play them.
Bad advice is just bad.

upichie said:
Do you even use an Android phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I posted what helped reducing lag in 9mm on my phone.
if you don't need the help i posted, that's too ****ing bad. the fact this topic was started shows people are facing the same problem with lack of usable ram memory for 9mm.
looks like you have some sort of magic phone with unlimited amounts of ram memory that never lags
the reason why i told him to reboot his phone is because ram usage is much less in most cases, right after booting up.
and btw, next time do some more effort instead of posting one line if my information is not correct

How do I stop apps auto opening

The title is basically the question, im fed up of alot of programs auto opening on my android phone, it takes battery and is slightly annoying receiving notifications off apps i dont really care about such as the NFL game tells me about small things in the NFL, im in the UK, i dont care.
If you argue that it doesnt take alot of battery currently have 117mb free ram, (2 secs later) killed all my selected apps now have 201mb free so im using 80mb of ram on apps im not using. Ive made 2 or 3 phone calls today no more than 30 mins long altogether and ive lost 55% of my battery since about midday, which is when i unplugged the phone.
And I think all these apps are the problem so how can I stop them from auto opening, please help

Search the market for startup cleaner
Sent from my A101IT using xda premium

yusuo said:
If you argue that it doesnt take alot of battery currently have 117mb free ram
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
More free RAM doesn't really equate to longer battery life or lower power consumption.

Better search for auto starts, this asp shows you the conditions an asp can turn back on and you can bin it off, Facebook for example had like 8 conditions, from full to medium battery life, on charge and change in network....... Use it
Sent from my HTC Desire using xda premium

rootSU said:
More free RAM doesn't really equate to longer battery life or lower power consumption.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There's still no reason for most of this apps to use RAM. Apps like facebook and skype shouldn't be actice without user permission. Without login they are complete useless.
I'll try Startup Cleaner, thx.

It's how android works and what RAM is for. There is always a reason.
Sure if someone doesn't use Facebook, it should be uninstallable, but its not and its not causing any harm
Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk

The problem isn't that apps start when I turn on the phone its that even after i use task manager to close they keep reopening and use over 100mb of ram, earlier I checked and only had 78mb ram available.
This must have an effect on battery to some degree i want to kinda ban certain apps from running in the background unless i specifically tell them to

RAM doesn't use more power, the more its used, no.
You don't need a task killer. You do not need to obsess about RAM. Forget about RAM and enjoy your phone
Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk

rootSU said:
RAM doesn't use more power, the more its used, no.
You don't need a task killer. You do not need to obsess about RAM. Forget about RAM and enjoy your phone
Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for you reply but its not really an answer its more of a contradiction, what I was asking is how to I stop apps from auto starting and eating up RAM, regardless of how long the phones been on

...and I'm telling you its a pointless, unecessary waste of time. Also it is not possible. Autostarts as already mentioned is the closest you'll get
Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk

I also turned off the autorun permissions of a lot of apps, for 2 reasons: 1) a device that is smooth sooner after booting, using less cpu cycles/power. 2) preventing Sense from reloading due to RAM shortage and have smooth multitasking.
1) Android loads a bunch of apps to the RAM that have the autorun permission, until it thinks it is "enough" and useful to you. No matter how many apps you have installed, the amount of free RAM is always about the same, just the number of "unwanted" apps in the RAM differs. Removing the autorun on boot permissions prevents the loading of unnecessary apps that will immediately be removed from the RAM the moment you start the browser/a game, saving cpu cycles=power. So for me there is no point in loading them in the first place, because I am never going to use them (right away). I want the apps that don't to any syncing loaded on demand.
2) I hate slow multitasking and I hate it even more when Sense reloads because it got kicked out of the RAM after each time I press HOME.
I use 3G Watchdog (~12MB RAM), Unlock with Wifi (~8MB), Whatsapp (~15MB), Handcent SMS (~18MB), Droidstats (~13MB), Extended Controls (~12MB), Battery Monitor Widget Pro (~13MB). Okay, I maybe could delete some of them, but these app are "OK" to me, because I use them actively or just need a background service to operate normally.
With Gemini I disabled apps like Facebook, a screenshot tool (just load when I want to make a screenshot..), various public transport planning tools, etc from autostarting.
No joy moment: after using the Facebook app (market version), it may take up 50+ MB and it will not be closed when I start another RAM intensive app, because it is a high priority service. Result: Sense gets kicked out of the RAM. Or, when the situation is somewhat less critical: multitasking is as good as unusable: switching between apps makes them load over and over again, because app2 kicks app1 out of the RAM and vice versa, causing unnecessary lag. Therefore: when I am done with facebook, I close it, then STAY the hell closed It may only autostart when it receives a push message. In that case it is nice to have FB already in RAM when I tap the notification.
Why do even some games have background services, or the Engadget app, or .. , or... all eating precious RAM. And yes, I know, once IN the RAM they eat no battery, but they DO eat battery when the app loads itself back in the RAM when it thinks it needs to, after it got kicked the moment I decided to so something else.
Hmm, spent way too much time to try to explain my frustration Oh and by the way, I have a Legend, but the basics are the same of course.

Dwnload an app called internet commander from the market. It shuts off the internet when your screen turns off but still let's you get calls and texts. I've got my phone , rooted of course, clocked to 710 and my battery will last for days.
Sent from my Eris using xda premium

I just re read your post, that won't help with apps but it will help save battery. And when you turn your screen on the internet kicks right on instantly. Good luck
Sent from my Eris using xda premium

yusuo said:
The problem isn't that apps start when I turn on the phone its that even after i use task manager to close they keep reopening and use over 100mb of ram, earlier I checked and only had 78mb ram available.
This must have an effect on battery to some degree i want to kinda ban certain apps from running in the background unless i specifically tell them to
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The guys here have already suggested you use a certain program from the Market. Have you tried it?
Regarding the whole RAM consumption issue, Android has its own built-in memory management system that ensures that there's always enough RAM for an app whenever it needs it, even if the memory manager shows like 40 MB free. Basically it "ejects" all background, unused apps, from memory making room for the foreground app which needs it most. If for some reason you need to fiddle with that, you can try using the V6 Supercharger script. I find it suitable for my needs but YMMV. It's completely reversible, so if you don't like it you can uninstall it just like that.
P.S. - I agree with rootSU, the ammount of free RAM has nothing to do with battery consumption. If you suspect that an app is draining your battery, check Android's battery statistics to find the culprit.

TVTV said:
Regarding the whole RAM consumption issue, Android has its own built-in memory management system that ensures that there's always enough RAM for an app whenever it needs it, even if the memory manager shows like 40 MB free. Basically it "ejects" all background, unused apps, from memory making room for the foreground app which needs it most. If for some reason you need to fiddle with that, you can try using the V6 Supercharger script. I find it suitable for my needs but YMMV. It's completely reversible, so if you don't like it you can uninstall it just like that.
P.S. - I agree with rootSU, the ammount of free RAM has nothing to do with battery consumption. If you suspect that an app is draining your battery, check Android's battery statistics to find the culprit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I respectfuly disagree. Android built in ram management is just silly. If I open xda app for example (it could actually be any app for that matter), reply to a few posts, read a few more and close it, why does it need to stay in ram? It reloads anyway when I run it again after I've closed it (using the back button or the actual exit command in the app itself). Why does the camera app need to stay in the background after I just shot a few photos and closed it? Because I may or may not use it again in some time? It's rediculous. And the whole theory that ram management doesn't require any power/cpu usage, how do you guys think all those apps get killed? Android will power?! No, kernel scans all running apps and kills the ones based on built in heuristics so it also reads them first. So that doesn't require any power/battery? Awesome if it's true! Although I wouldn't bet on that. And all this fuss just because you may or may not launch the same app sometime during the next day/week/month/year or it'll eventually get killed? Now that's just plain stupid. I get apps that need services like widgets, push notifications etc. but random apps like root explorer, xda app, titanium, youtube etc. which are opened specificly by the user shouldn't be in ram just for the sake of it after they're closed. I closed it, meaning I don't need it anymore. And I don't need the kernel to scan all apps and running services every time I launch an app so it could provide the free ram that app needs. Consumes cpu time, battery, i/o ... every piece of hardware actually just to free some ram that shouldn't be occupied in the first place. Every app that I ever opened on my phone got loaded almost instantly and that's just after phone had been booted. So after that it should stay in ram so I could open it in a blink of an eye instead of instantly? That's just funny.
Anyway, I'm just thinking out loud so don't flame me immediately. There probably are apsects of it that I didn't mention here or am not aware of. And I'm not saying that I'm right and you guys are wrong, I'm just saying what I know and think about this subject.
-. typewrited .-

PlayPetepp, while it might be true that the OS allocates (thus use) some resources to memory maintenance, the impact on battery life is negligible. In the Android OS, apps in memory are ordered according to priority and state, so the OS always knows which apps to kill first if it needs to make room in RAM, without much of a hassle. The only bad consequence of this system seems to be the fact that once the memory fills up, the launcher may lag or even be evacuated from memory. But, as i've mentioned in my previous post, there are ways to prevent that, either via scripts or, if you know what you're doing, via editing system files.

So the OS doesn't need to scan anything as it keeps everything in memory again? Seems like an endless loop. Open, sort, kill if needed, reopen, sort again, kill ... to what end, constant unneccessary multitasking that user is unaware of? I really don't see any benefit of that system and am only seeing the downsides. I mean, who needs every app they ever run remain in ram even if they close them after using? And then opening another app and "waiting" for whatever needs to be closed to get it running. Sure you can mess with the scripts (init.d, init.rc, etc.) but the underlined conditions stay the same. I hope I'm making sense here. Or am I fighting against windmills.
I just figured out that I strayed from the topic of this thread so won't be continuing this discussion if it's considered offtopic.
-. typewrited .-

Stop looking for excuses for poor multitasking in Sense 3+ roms

erklat said:
Stop looking for excuses for poor multitasking in Sense 3+ roms
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello again nice to see you here
Here's an interesting article on what I was talking about. Sense 3.5 doesn't need that many mbs of ram to work smoothly. After booting and setting everything up I have 150+ mb free. That should be enough for decent multitasking but all those apps not getting killed when you close them are eating too much. Can anyone explain in detail what hidden app, perceptible app, backup app and heavy_weight app means? I've been googling this for a week and can't find any decent explanation.

@PlayPetepp - I think i have already said (in my previous post) that the OS does indeed use some resources for managing the memory, but they are negligible in terms of their impact on battery life. IMHO, the only thing a 3'rd party memory manager (task killer) WILL do is improve lanuncher responsiveness (lag) as the lag does increase when free RAM drops under a certain limit. Thus used wisely, a task killer can improve responsiveness, but battery life... very little, in rare cases (it does the opposite, most of the time).
Regarding the so called "memory slots", here's an excerpt from this article:
FOREGROUND_APP: This is the application currently on the screen, and running
VISIBLE_APP: This is an application that is open, and running in the background because it's still doing something
SECONDARY_SERVER: This is a process (a service that an application needs) that is alive and ready in case it's needed to do something
HIDDEN_APP: This again is a process, that sits idle (but still alive) in case it's needed by an app that's alive and running
CONTENT_PROVIDER: This is apps that provide data (content) to the system. HTC Facebook Sync? That's a CONTENT_PROVIDER. So are things like the Android Market, or Fring. If they are alive, they can refresh and provide the content they are supposed to at the set interval. If you kill them, they can't of course.
EMPTY_APP: I call these "ghosts." They are apps that you have opened, but are done with them. Android uses a unique style of handling memory management. When an activity is ended, instead of killing it off Android keeps the application in memory so that opening them again is a faster process. Theses "ghost" apps use no battery or CPU time, they just fill RAM that would be otherwise empty. When this memory is needed by a different application or process, the RAM is flushed and made available for the new app. To satisfy the geekier people (like myself) Android does this by keeping a list of recently used apps, with the oldest apps in the list given the lowest priority -- they are killed first if RAM is needed elsewhere. This is a perfect way to handle 'ghost' processes, so there's no need to touch this part
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Click to collapse

[Q] Foce Developer Options

Hey guys,
I like to have the developer option "max background processes" set to 2. It kind of disables multitasking a bit, but it keeps like 1000mb ram available which keeps my phone nice and fast.
Only problem is, I have to re-enable this everytime I reboot my device, which isnt terrible, but its not as smooth as Id like it to be.
I also do this on my tf201.
Just wondering if theres anyway to force those settings to stay on.
Thanks,
Super

superostrich said:
Hey guys,
I like to have the developer option "max background processes" set to 2. It kind of disables multitasking a bit, but it keeps like 1000mb ram available which keeps my phone nice and fast.
Only problem is, I have to re-enable this everytime I reboot my device, which isnt terrible, but its not as smooth as Id like it to be.
I also do this on my tf201.
Just wondering if theres anyway to force those settings to stay on.
Thanks,
Super
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Using ram does not slow your phone down, unless it is using cpu cycles and if it is then it is either a bad app or is running still.

Randomacts said:
Using ram does not slow your phone down, unless it is using cpu cycles and if it is then it is either a bad app or is running still.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But as with any computing system, if you are taking up all the ram with background processes, your phone is going to run like 's***'

superostrich said:
But as with any computing system, if you are taking up all the ram with background processes, your phone is going to run like 's***'
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't been able to slow down my AT&T SGS III even when I try I can't use 2gigs of ram.
In unix/linux unused ram is wasted ram. Often stuff will use *if coded properly* extra ram if there is lots of extra to use.

Randomacts said:
I haven't been able to slow down my AT&T SGS III even when I try I can't use 2gigs of ram.
In unix/linux unused ram is wasted ram. Often stuff will use *if coded properly* extra ram if there is lots of extra to use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah. I see. I know that its better to have ram in use, than not too. But I was finding that I would have 300-400mb free, and my phone ran like crap. Put on the limited background processes to 2, and it ran a lot smoother.
Do you have any idea to keep that kept on after reboots?

superostrich said:
Ah. I see. I know that its better to have ram in use, than not too. But I was finding that I would have 300-400mb free, and my phone ran like crap. Put on the limited background processes to 2, and it ran a lot smoother.
Do you have any idea to keep that kept on after reboots?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your issue is not your "ram" is the fact you got some ****ty apps probally taking a lot of CPU cycles.
To check what app this is *best time to check for your issue would be when your phone starts to be slow*
Hold the home button and then click task manger. From there go to Applications on the very left *probably the default place it puts you*
You can see the CPU usage on that page..
If anything is above 0% it might be what is casing the issue. If you want you can post a screenshot of that page and we can see if there are any known bad apps there.

improve gnex performance?

i have a feeling this phone is starting to show its age. it seems whenever i install more than 100 apps on this phone it just becomes laggy as hell. to the point where right now the keyboard doesn't even open until 10 seconds later and phone constantly make weird noises when using tune in radio or youtube. the phone is also so slow that it can't even run temple run 2 or any of the games that came out recently. im using xylon rom with trinity kernel for those wondering. i honestly cannot use this phone anymore without having to do a factory reset every month just to stop the lag.
this could be a sign that its time to get a new phone but for now is there anyway to improve performance at all? i already am using the fastest trinity kernel and i have tried multiple roms and all of them seems to lag after hitting 100 apps mark which is ridiculous.

Have you made sure that the phone is not running out of memory as that is what usually causes the slow problems...I too have a 100+ apps and little or no lag. Try a different kernel and Rom maybe u could also tweak the processor speeds and stuff to get your desired performance...
If I helped hit thx
«««««««CYANOGENMOD 10.1 and FRANCO KERNEL»»»»»»»»»

Flash stock factory ROM and do a full wipe.
If you want later then flash custom ROM which is "STABLE".
Then make sure you have enough free memory on your Nexus's internal memory to avoid the lags.
You actually can't improve your Nexus's performance any other way, tweaks speed up very much..
I have over 60 apps installed (usually apps that I need) and some games..
I have 1.4 GB free memory on My Nexus and I use some cleaner apps to get more free space and I don't have any lags..
I use stock ROM that I've modified and stock default kernel..

The hardware slows primarily because of software (apps). Once the hardware fails, it fails.
Check and reign in the number and frequency of apps that sync, update and or check in.
Are you syncing an email client and or keeping them on the device rather than say the Exchange server?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

kudoboi said:
i have a feeling this phone is starting to show its age. it seems whenever i install more than 100 apps on this phone it just becomes laggy as hell. to the point where right now the keyboard doesn't even open until 10 seconds later and phone constantly make weird noises when using tune in radio or youtube. the phone is also so slow that it can't even run temple run 2 or any of the games that came out recently. im using xylon rom with trinity kernel for those wondering. i honestly cannot use this phone anymore without having to do a factory reset every month just to stop the lag.
this could be a sign that its time to get a new phone but for now is there anyway to improve performance at all? i already am using the fastest trinity kernel and i have tried multiple roms and all of them seems to lag after hitting 100 apps mark which is ridiculous.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have 276 apps on my Nexus and (perceived) performance is better than ever using XENON HD Stable-4.0 and the Franco kernel r364. For the latest update of the ROM, I decided to risk a dirty flash. I seem to have gotten away with it. Performance "feels" excellent, whatever that is worth. My last factory reset was about 2 months ago.
The ROM and kernel have a variety of performance tweaks. I wish there was a way to benchmark performance in a controlled fashion. I hate feeling and perception in the performance department.
On the new ROM, WiFI performance is now solidly pegged at my account's limit of 30 MBs. It was all over the map before, although I realize that many factors affect the Speed Test app.
The "seeder" app helped a lot for my device in reducing lag. The overall community is sharply divided about the effectiveness of the seeder: YMMV. Its worth trying, though. I've been using it for about 6 weeks. Other than the Google Play Store updates, I don't have lag any more. Before the seeder, I felt like you -- the phone was almost unusable.
Regarding the device feeling dated, this ROM supports the expanded desktop and the pie. Wow, the phone feels new again. No kidding.

smtom said:
The hardware slows primarily because of software (apps). Once the hardware fails, it fails.
Check and reign in the number and frequency of apps that sync, update and or check in.
Are you syncing an email client and or keeping them on the device rather than say the Exchange server?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also observed that the apps that run sync/update/check in were slowing down the phone. Check for apps that have daemons associated with them. Decide whether its worth having.