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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
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.
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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.
Ok so I was running an app to check on CPU speeds (unrelated research) when I noticed that this same app was saying I only had 340mb of RAM free...
This seemed a bit strange, considering this tablet has 3GB of RAM on board, and I'm not really running anything at the moment.
I went into the storage setting page, and looked at running processes, and it says that I am using 2.5GB of my RAM.
but... if I add up all the ram usage on all the running processes, it only adds up to about 500mb....
So what is using up the other 2gb?
If anyone has any suggestions, it'd be nice, as at the moment it seems I only have 1gb of usable RAM in this device...
EDIT:
Nevermind, I think I solved it... sort of. I found that the ram clearing button is in a different place than I remember, and I have managed to clear out some more space... though even after a full reset 1.5gb of ram is immediately being used. Seems a lot.
Though this is a stock rom etc so I suspect thats normal.
electrical tcfpain
nirurin said:
Ok so I was running an app to check on CPU speeds (unrelated research) when I noticed that this same app was saying I only had 340mb of RAM free...
This seemed a bit strange, considering this tablet has 3GB of RAM on board, and I'm not really running anything at the moment.
I went into the storage setting page, and looked at running processes, and it says that I am using 2.5GB of my RAM.
but... if I add up all the ram usage on all the running processes, it only adds up to about 500mb....
So what is using up the other 2gb?
If anyone has any suggestions, it'd be nice, as at the moment it seems I only have 1gb of usable RAM in this device...
EDIT:
Nevermind, I think I solved it... sort of. I found that the ram clearing button is in a different place than I remember, and I have managed to clear out some more space... though even after a full reset 1.5gb of ram is immediately being used. Seems a lot.
Though this is a stock rom etc so I suspect thats normal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You probably aren't using all 2.5GB for actual running programs.
Windows 7 does a great job of managing money. If it has any unused memory it will hold often used programs or data in memory in case it's needed. If a running program needs that memory it's quickly shifted. Otherwise when you reopen that program you recently closed, it may load quickly from memory rather than from the drive. I suspect Android does things similar.
Modern systems programmers consider "free" memory to be wasted, so they put it to the best use they can anticipate. That gives you the benefit of all memory as often as possible. If they only allowed the memory to be used for what's needed right now, your Note would only have about 1 GB memory, and would be considerably slower.
It's a little like having the cook wash your car while waiting three hours for the turkey to cook. You get both the turkey and the car wash.
jnichols2 said:
You probably aren't using all 2.5GB for actual running programs.
Windows 7 does a great job of managing money. If it has any unused memory it will hold often used programs or data in memory in case it's needed. If a running program needs that memory it's quickly shifted. Otherwise when you reopen that program you recently closed, it may load quickly from memory rather than from the drive. I suspect Android does things similar.
Modern systems programmers consider "free" memory to be wasted, so they put it to the best use they can anticipate. That gives you the benefit of all memory as often as possible. If they only allowed the memory to be used for what's needed right now, your Note would only have about 1 GB memory, and would be considerably slower.
It's a little like having the cook wash your car while waiting three hours for the turkey to cook. You get both the turkey and the car wash.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm guessing you mean android, not windows 7
Though I imagine both do the same thing lol
nirurin said:
I'm guessing you mean android, not windows 7
Though I imagine both do the same thing lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used Windows 7 as an example because I know how it works. Like you, I imagine Android 4.3 does the same thing.
I was wondering about this as well. On my Note 2, when I clean the ram, it will go to 480-500 / 1.75g on this tab, ext I could get is 1.33/2.75.......
I went through and turned off a lot of the apps, it helped free up a little bit.
Does anyone have a list of the apps that are safe to turn off?
:beer:
Sent from my SM-P600 using Xparent Cyan Tapatalk 2
I have LTE version with Snapdragon and when I start the tablet, it uses about 890MB of 2,35GB available (yes, it has 3GB RAM, but graphic processor uses some of this RAM)... When it loads all apps to RAM (about 50 of them, we know android do this) and I start few apps(FB, Gmail, Chrome, Hangouts for example), I still use only about 1,3GB of RAM... So almost 1GB is still free
In Android having too much free ram is not a good thing. Let your apps use it, you don't have to worry about not having enough ram, OS manages it well for you.
ddavtian said:
In Android having too much free ram is not a good thing. Let your apps use it, you don't have to worry about not having enough ram, OS manages it well for you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
Android is a mobile OS which means that it can backup and restore not needed apps if necessary and the 3GB are only the runtime memory beside this it can use the whole internal memory for "running" apps. So long Android got enough memory it holds all apps in memory which speed up the whole device. Therefore it is positive that the Note use his whole 3GB memory and don't think that killing apps or free memory will be a good idea. It will slow your device and produce lags.
ddavtian said:
In Android having too much free ram is not a good thing. Let your apps use it, you don't have to worry about not having enough ram, OS manages it well for you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Elim said:
+1
Android is a mobile OS which means that it can backup and restore not needed apps if necessary and the 3GB are only the runtime memory beside this it can use the whole internal memory for "running" apps. So long Android got enough memory it holds all apps in memory which speed up the whole device. Therefore it is positive that the Note use his whole 3GB memory and don't think that killing apps or free memory will be a good idea. It will slow your device and produce lags.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They are both right. Android is based on linux. Linux uses ram very effectively to cache apps and data to speed up your system. When something needs ram it removes a different app or data from the ram to keep moving. It works totally different from Windows. Check out this article.
http://www.androidcentral.com/ram-what-it-how-its-used-and-why-you-shouldnt-care
Every day since Android came out someone asks this question somewhere... Is Google offline?
Sent from my SM-P605 using XDA Premium HD app
If you want to change how your ram is managed, and you have root, you can use the v6 supercharger or a simple minfree setting app. V6 is in the developer section of the general android forum on this site. I've found that m ram fills up from cached apps. V6 will let you auto clear however often you want.
Hi,
I own a G3 with 2 GB of RAM, like my previous Nexus 4.
In the N4, with CM-11 or AOSP, and with the same apps that I use in the G3, the free amount of memory was more than 1 GB all the time,
but in the G3 I have 300-400 MB since a few minutes of restart it, and only 500-600 just after the restart.
Any solution to this? Really is relevant?
Thanks!
bartito said:
Hi,
I own a G3 with 2 GB of RAM, like my previous Nexus 4.
In the N4, with CM-11 or AOSP, and with the same apps that I use in the G3, the free amount of memory was more than 1 GB all the time,
but in the G3 I have 300-400 MB since a few minutes of restart it, and only 500-600 just after the restart.
Any solution to this? Really is relevant?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Having also the almost same amount of free ram and for me, it pretty much sticks there, no matter how many apps are opened, sometimes there is a launcher redraw, but except of that i haven't faced any problems at multitasking.
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Tectas said:
Having also the almost same amount of free ram and for me, it pretty much sticks there, no matter how many apps are opened, sometimes there is a launcher redraw, but except of that i haven't faced any problems at multitasking.
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes, which most noticeable is in the redraw of the launcher, especially when closes the gallery app
bartito said:
yes, which most noticeable is in the redraw of the launcher, especially when closes the gallery app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This can easily be fixed though, with a third party launcher with persist in memory enabled.
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Tectas said:
This can easily be fixed though, with a third party launcher with persist in memory enabled.
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, but this really don't solves the issue. Only masks
bartito said:
Yes, but this really don't solves the issue. Only masks
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Click to collapse
Well, i must confess it's not a real issue to me, I'm using pretty many widgets and the only one i really notice it is the clock/weather widget, everything else is almost instantly back up.
But that's just me. For sure it will be way better when the first aosp roms come up, because of their way lower memory footprint.
Gesendet von meinem LG-D855 mit Tapatalk
Wait for CM11 come to our G3
Then compare the RAM usage
Sent from my LG-D855 using XDA Free mobile app
Free ram is wasted ram.
Android, or more specifically Linux doesn't use ram in the same way as Windows would, it retains things in memory so that you can quickly resume it when you need it (therefore having less impact on the CPU and battery).
Lennyuk said:
Free ram is wasted ram.
Android, or more specifically Linux doesn't use ram in the same way as Windows would, it retains things in memory so that you can quickly resume it when you need it (therefore having less impact on the CPU and battery).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But on this device it is not being managed properly. At least the launcher should be kept in memory without the user having to root and do it him/herself.
These problems were fairly common when high end devices had 1gb ram but with a relatively light launcher and 2gb ram there is no excuse IMO.
Sent from my LG-D855 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
bobsie41 said:
But on this device it is not being managed properly. At least the launcher should be kept in memory without the user having to root and do it him/herself.
These problems were fairly common when high end devices had 1gb ram but with a relatively light launcher and 2gb ram there is no excuse IMO.
Sent from my LG-D855 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have had no issues with the launcher redrawing, I did have some minor lag when I was purely stock, but removing a few LG apps that I would never use has solved this.
Lennyuk said:
Free ram is wasted ram.
Android, or more specifically Linux doesn't use ram in the same way as Windows would, it retains things in memory so that you can quickly resume it when you need it (therefore having less impact on the CPU and battery).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How many times did you tell this chant allready^^
And sure you're true, but the well known (from the galaxy s3 at least, which is my former device) launcher redraw is based on the available amount of ram, the thing isn't really the "free ram" here, it's more the amount of ram that can be freed up on demand to load something new into it and the launcher redraw points into the direction, that there sometimes is a shortage, because the data of the launcher has to be released, because there wouldn't be enough ram for the new application. This isn't the big issue, the launcher has no priority at this point and it takes a big amount of ram, so it's understandable that the system releases it's memory if there is more demand than currently "free". So the current "problem" is less related to "free" ram, but the lack of ram persistance of the launcher, combined with the amount of usable ram for the user, which can lead to freeing the memory of the launcher more often. This would happen to every launcher without persistance at every amount of available ram tough some times, but the higher the available ram, the less often it will happen.
That's not an issue for me, like already said, but the point behind it is understandable to me.
I've noticed in the kernel settings that 600mb of Ram is being used as ZRAM. Could this be an issue?
Sent From My LG G3 Using Tapatalk
Lennyuk said:
Free ram is wasted ram.
Android, or more specifically Linux doesn't use ram in the same way as Windows would, it retains things in memory so that you can quickly resume it when you need it (therefore having less impact on the CPU and battery).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd still prefer to have 'free or wasted' RAM, at least you know you have some RAM spare plus apps do get killed faster and some don't retain all the information in the RAM (Asphalt 8 and other big games) and restart the app (when playing games and then browsing), but 3gb is doing fine for me
Tectas said:
How many times did you tell this chant allready^^
And sure you're true, but the well known (from the galaxy s3 at least, which is my former device) launcher redraw is based on the available amount of ram, the thing isn't really the "free ram" here, it's more the amount of ram that can be freed up on demand to load something new into it and the launcher redraw points into the direction, that there sometimes is a shortage, because the data of the launcher has to be released, because there wouldn't be enough ram for the new application. This isn't the big issue, the launcher has no priority at this point and it takes a big amount of ram, so it's understandable that the system releases it's memory if there is more demand than currently "free". So the current "problem" is less related to "free" ram, but the lack of ram persistance of the launcher, combined with the amount of usable ram for the user, which can lead to freeing the memory of the launcher more often. This would happen to every launcher without persistance at every amount of available ram tough some times, but the higher the available ram, the less often it will happen.
That's not an issue for me, like already said, but the point behind it is understandable to me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Launcher redraws are down to poorly coded apps, not the ram available on the device. Keeping more free ram is effectively just a dirty workaround to solving the issue that you are using a poorly coded app. Yes in this case its a stock app and there is little excuse for it, but it doesn't change the fact that it is the app at fault, not the devices ram. You shouldn't just keep throwing more ram at a device to counter the fact that people are not optimising their apps properly.
If the launcher had persistance then the device would probably be killing something else in its place, and I don't know about you but I like all my apps to work, I don't want any of them killed, therefore I would rather have a better coded app that meant that nothing needed to be killed. 2GB of ram is plenty for a device like this to cope just fine.
FYI - I removed LG's "voice" app and I have had plenty of free ram ever since.
Guys, stop blaming RAM management, it's done exactly as it should be done in Linux / Android. As Lenny said (multiple times) free RAM is wasted RAM. I'd rather see the phone use it. The problem, if there is one, is the launcher that doesn't handle "lack of free RAM" as it should. 3rd party launchers do that well (Nova for example), so LG is the one that needs to be blamed here. Having more free RAM would not solve the issue, only delay it.
On a related note, perceived lag might also comes from that: some people always close all open apps to free some RAM (for no reason), so restarting an app from scratch would indeed cause a small lag. If you keep them all in memory, perceived lag is reduced (not completely gone, but reduced a lot).
Lennyuk said:
Launcher redraws are down to poorly coded apps, not the ram available on the device. Keeping more free ram is effectively just a dirty workaround to solving the issue that you are using a poorly coded app. Yes in this case its a stock app and there is little excuse for it, but it doesn't change the fact that it is the app at fault, not the devices ram. You shouldn't just keep throwing more ram at a device to counter the fact that people are not optimising their apps properly.
If the launcher had persistance then the device would probably be killing something else in its place, and I don't know about you but I like all my apps to work, I don't want any of them killed, therefore I would rather have a better coded app that meant that nothing needed to be killed. 2GB of ram is plenty for a device like this to cope just fine.
FYI - I removed LG's "voice" app and I have had plenty of free ram ever since.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Protagoras said:
Guys, stop blaming RAM management, it's done exactly as it should be done in Linux / Android. As Lenny said (multiple times) free RAM is wasted RAM. I'd rather see the phone use it. The problem, if there is one, is the launcher that doesn't handle "lack of free RAM" as it should. 3rd party launchers do that well (Nova for example), so LG is the one that needs to be blamed here. Having more free RAM would not solve the issue, only delay it.
On a related note, perceived lag might also comes from that: some people always close all open apps to free some RAM (for no reason), so restarting an app from scratch would indeed cause a small lag. If you keep them all in memory, perceived lag is reduced (not completely gone, but reduced a lot).
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I didn't really blame the ram nor the ram management, as i said, it's the launcher taking that much ram, that's why it probably get's killed earlier than others and yes, sure, that's an optimization issue. I also didn't say the system does anything wrong with it, i just tried to point out why it acts that way regarding the launcher and I also didn't say that it really is free ram I'm talking about, but available ram (with which i meant ram available for userspace apps, not ram amount not used).
Also I've never said more ram would be the fix, i said it would just happen less, because that's simply how it works and also like i said, it's not an issue for me, because i'm aware why it acts that way and even when it get's killed, it's almost instant back up, i just said, i can understand that someone could be annoyed about it.
Protagoras said:
Guys, stop blaming RAM management, it's done exactly as it should be done in Linux / Android. As Lenny said (multiple times) free RAM is wasted RAM. I'd rather see the phone use it. The problem, if there is one, is the launcher that doesn't handle "lack of free RAM" as it should. 3rd party launchers do that well (Nova for example), so LG is the one that needs to be blamed here. Having more free RAM would not solve the issue, only delay it.
On a related note, perceived lag might also comes from that: some people always close all open apps to free some RAM (for no reason), so restarting an app from scratch would indeed cause a small lag. If you keep them all in memory, perceived lag is reduced (not completely gone, but reduced a lot).
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Click to collapse
I had much the same Ram usage on my Nexus 5. I've been looking at an app that shows what is actually using the Ram and at any given time there's only around 1gb in actual use, the rest is cached files. All pretty normal. Incidentally, I've turned the Zram off using faux clock as you really don't need it in a 2gb device and you get a very slight performance boost and battery increase with it off.
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I just rooted mine and froze a load of apps I do not use and its defo speeded it up having around 600-750mb free
You could always go into developer options and turn on strict mode that will kill everything as soon as you leave it .... It has to free up ram huh ......
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Epix4G said:
You could always go into developer options and turn on strict mode that will kill everything as soon as you leave it .... It has to free up ram huh ......
Sent from my SM-N900P using Xparent BlueTapatalk 2
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That would work You could also leave your phone switched off, to make sure it doesn't use any RAM at all
I'm still pretty new to Android so I don't know what is normal, but why does the system use so much RAM when it is supposedly doing nothing? On my 2GB model, after a reboot it says that 1.2GB are free, but this soon drops to 900MB and continues to drop to 500 or 600MB, even if all apps are closed. Is this something I should just ignore and trust that tge Android system knows best and uses RAM appropriately?
kanagawaben said:
I'm still pretty new to Android so I don't know what is normal, but why does the system use so much RAM when it is supposedly doing nothing? On my 2GB model, after a reboot it says that 1.2GB are free, but this soon drops to 900MB and continues to drop to 500 or 600MB, even if all apps are closed. Is this something I should just ignore and trust that tge Android system knows best and uses RAM appropriately?
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This must be the well-publicised Android 5.0.x memory leak.
DanielKennethRego said:
This must be the well-publicised Android 5.0.x memory leak.
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Possibly, but my Memo Pad 7 seems much the same, and that's still on 4.4.2
If there is free memory then Android will let the apps sit in memory invisibly even after you have closed them - this way they will load faster next time you launch them. If the amount of free memory gets low Android will close some of those invisible apps. So that is normal, unless the amount of free RAM keeps decreasing while you do nothing with it - in that case there must be some bad memory leak.
In android, unused memory is kind of waste so system will allocate usage in a high percentage for efficiency.
DanielKennethRego said:
This must be the well-publicised Android 5.0.x memory leak.
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graphO said:
If there is free memory then Android will let the apps sit in memory invisibly even after you have closed them - this way they will load faster next time you launch them. If the amount of free memory gets low Android will close some of those invisible apps. So that is normal, unless the amount of free RAM keeps decreasing while you do nothing with it - in that case there must be some bad memory leak.
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xda_husky said:
In android, unused memory is kind of waste so system will allocate usage in a high percentage for efficiency.
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kanagawaben said:
Possibly, but my Memo Pad 7 seems much the same, and that's still on 4.4.2
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It is not a memory leak. All devices which are on papers 2GB are actually less than that. Take memory for example. My Nexus says 32GB but I get around 27GB. Same goes on with USB flash drivers/ pen drives.
Secondly, On Windows, you want to keep as much RAM available as you can so that programs have enough room to operate. When RAM fills up, Windows is forced to start using hard drive space as virtual RAM and hard drives are much slower than physical RAM.
This is not true for Android.
Android’s operating system has its own native handler for assigning RAM to apps and making sure that all of it is being used in the most optimal way. In fact, Android purposely tries to keep apps loaded into RAM for better performance. RAM is fast, remember? On mobile devices, every bit of speed is critical for a good user experience, so keeping apps in RAM is actually a good thing. So regardless how much your RAM is shown, it wouldn't affect your user experience unless the apps installed in your phone are more than RAM can handle at a time which means either update your phone with more RAM or uninstall your apps that you do not use!
Hnk1 said:
It is not a memory leak. All devices which are on papers 2GB are actually less than that. Take memory for example. My Nexus says 32GB but I get around 27GB. Same goes on with USB flash drivers/ pen drives.
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That is not what OP is saying, at all.
DanielKennethRego said:
That is not what OP is saying, at all.
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The OP says that the memory decreases over time. If you read my post again, i simply said as you more applications are loaded over time, the memory starts to decrease! This is what causes the memory to decrease and if you could use a bit of logic, you could have easily come to the conclusion
Hnk1 said:
The OP says that the memory decreases over time. If you read my post again, i simply said as you more applications are loaded over time, the memory starts to decrease! This is what causes the memory to decrease and if you could use a bit of logic, you could have easily come to the conclusion
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...And that is not what I quoted in my reply, is it?
DanielKennethRego said:
...And that is not what I quoted in my reply, is it?
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Sometimes it's good to swallow some pride and in that there's more dignity. I explained everything from bits and pieces and I'm sure OP can conclude it unlike you.
Do not hesitate to quote me for any query. Always welcomed
Hnk1 said:
It is not a memory leak. All devices which are on papers 2GB are actually less than that. Take memory for example. My Nexus says 32GB but I get around 27GB. Same goes on with USB flash drivers/ pen drives.
Secondly, On Windows, you want to keep as much RAM available as you can so that programs have enough room to operate. When RAM fills up, Windows is forced to start using hard drive space as virtual RAM and hard drives are much slower than physical RAM.
This is not true for Android.
Android’s operating system has its own native handler for assigning RAM to apps and making sure that all of it is being used in the most optimal way. In fact, Android purposely tries to keep apps loaded into RAM for better performance. RAM is fast, remember? On mobile devices, every bit of speed is critical for a good user experience, so keeping apps in RAM is actually a good thing. So regardless how much your RAM is shown, it wouldn't affect your user experience unless the apps installed in your phone are more than RAM can handle at a time which means either update your phone with more RAM or uninstall your apps that you do not use!
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Click to collapse
I must say, although most of what you say is true, having less free ram absolutely does have a negative effect on user experience. My browser tends to crash, non-intensive games face lag spikes and the general UI stutters. Is this due to Android or Asus' tweaks to Android doing a poor job at managing ram? I don't doubt that in a perfect scenario with a perfect OS, what you said holds true.
I've not had good experience with the RAM so far. My browser tabs fall out of memory more than my cheap 1GB phone. It's rather disappointing. Even just switching between 2 or 3 tabs and going back to a tab after a few seconds and it's already fallen out.
aloy99 said:
I must say, although most of what you say is true, having less free ram absolutely does have a negative effect on user experience. My browser tends to crash, non-intensive games face lag spikes and the general UI stutters. Is this due to Android or Asus' tweaks to Android doing a poor job at managing ram? I don't doubt that in a perfect scenario with a perfect OS, what you said holds true.
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damian5000 said:
I've not had good experience with the RAM so far. My browser tabs fall out of memory more than my cheap 1GB phone. It's rather disappointing. Even just switching between 2 or 3 tabs and going back to a tab after a few seconds and it's already fallen out.
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Yes as I mentioned before, if the apps which are preloaded are more than RAM can handle, you'd surely see a lag but killing background apps wouldn't be of much help either unless your RAM memory has too many preloaded apps already which is affecting performance of your phone. If you are rooted, apps like greenify / titanium can hibernate / freeze apps which take up memory and usually this helps in better user interface but again many other argue the opposite.
Are you using Asus Browser ? If yes, I'd suggest to use chrome as your default browser because Asus Browser is not only slow but also it drains a lot of battery. This has been proven extensively and even reviewed on different websites including gsmarena.
Basically Nexus provides pure Android interface which every manufacturer tweaks a bit according to their own needs. Usually this tweaking means more memory usage(Ram) by system UI. This is one reason that Samsung's touch wiz lags a lot on lower end phones but the same hardware runs smooth without touchwiz. The reason is Samsung has lots of tweaks in system UI .
Some browsers conserve memory by only keeping the tab used in memory and rest are loaded when you switch them. They aren't preloaded but usually this option is available in settings to preload pages which would use more memory.
I have preordered the device with 4gb so I'm afraid I can't compare your device with mine in this regard.
Kindly tell me which browsers are you using so I can comment further
Hnk1 said:
Yes as I mentioned before, if the apps which are preloaded are more than RAM can handle, you'd surely see a lag but killing background apps wouldn't be of much help either unless your RAM memory has too many preloaded apps already which is affecting performance of your phone. If you are rooted, apps like greenify / titanium can hibernate / freeze apps which take up memory and usually this helps in better user interface but again many other argue the opposite.
Are you using Asus Browser ? If yes, I'd suggest to use chrome as your default browser because Asus Browser is not only slow but also it drains a lot of battery. This has been proven extensively and even reviewed on different websites including gsmarena.
Basically Nexus provides pure Android interface which every manufacturer tweaks a bit according to their own needs. Usually this tweaking means more memory usage(Ram) by system UI. This is one reason that Samsung's touch wiz lags a lot on lower end phones but the same hardware runs smooth without touchwiz. The reason is Samsung has lots of tweaks in system UI .
Some browsers conserve memory by only keeping the tab used in memory and rest are loaded when you switch them. They aren't preloaded but usually this option is available in settings to preload pages which would use more memory.
I have preordered the device with 4gb so I'm afraid I can't compare your device with mine in this regard.
Kindly tell me which browsers are you using so I can comment further
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Click to collapse
Using Chrome. That's the whole point of having more memory, so they don't have to be reloaded when switching.
If I had 10 tabs open and switching back and forth over a long period of time, this is understandable. Not 2 or 3 tabs and switching between two tabs within 10 seconds. Defeats the entire purpose of having 2GB of RAM. The same thing happens switching between apps. Many of them fall out of memory within just a few seconds of switching back and forth. My 1GB phone does better than this. Something to do with whatever memory management Asus has set up.
damian5000 said:
Using Chrome. That's the whole point of having more memory, so they don't have to be reloaded when switching.
If I had 10 tabs open and switching back and forth over a long period of time, this is understandable. Not 2 or 3 tabs and switching between two tabs within 10 seconds. Defeats the entire purpose of having 2GB of RAM. The same thing happens switching between apps. Many of them fall out of memory within just a few seconds of switching back and forth. My 1GB phone does better than this. Something to do with whatever memory management Asus has set up.
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Click to collapse
I understand your frustrations and it could be Asus related buy I think this is how chrome operates generally so it's the browser in my opinion. I suggest you use dolphin browser (not mini version) because it usually preloads pages on my devices and it is fast as well but I usually use it for flash support only. I prefer opera classic (now opera) on my phone with chrome . On my tab, I use chrome only. It always works for me and it's Asus made. Tell me what you think of it after using it a bit . I like chrome for its sync support which is very simple and helpful.
Hnk1 said:
Yes as I mentioned before, if the apps which are preloaded are more than RAM can handle, you'd surely see a lag but killing background apps wouldn't be of much help either unless your RAM memory has too many preloaded apps already which is affecting performance of your phone. If you are rooted, apps like greenify / titanium can hibernate / freeze apps which take up memory and usually this helps in better user interface but again many other argue the opposite.
Are you using Asus Browser ? If yes, I'd suggest to use chrome as your default browser because Asus Browser is not only slow but also it drains a lot of battery. This has been proven extensively and even reviewed on different websites including gsmarena.
Basically Nexus provides pure Android interface which every manufacturer tweaks a bit according to their own needs. Usually this tweaking means more memory usage(Ram) by system UI. This is one reason that Samsung's touch wiz lags a lot on lower end phones but the same hardware runs smooth without touchwiz. The reason is Samsung has lots of tweaks in system UI .
Some browsers conserve memory by only keeping the tab used in memory and rest are loaded when you switch them. They aren't preloaded but usually this option is available in settings to preload pages which would use more memory.
I have preordered the device with 4gb so I'm afraid I can't compare your device with mine in this regard.
Kindly tell me which browsers are you using so I can comment further
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Using Firefox, I read about the stock browser issues before getting the phone.
Clearing ram using the built in booster appears to help with performance, although it could be a placebo, and it's certainly less pronounced than on my previous phone with only 1GB of ram.
I have greenify'd/frozen a lot of apps, including some of the Asus bloatware. No comment on improved performance though.
Overall, I'm happy with the performance but low ram still seems to bother me, although such scenarios are rare.
aloy99 said:
Using Firefox, I read about the stock browser issues before getting the phone.
Clearing ram using the built in booster appears to help with performance, although it could be a placebo, and it's certainly less pronounced than on my previous phone with only 1GB of ram.
I have greenify'd/frozen a lot of apps, including some of the Asus bloatware. No comment on improved performance though.
Overall, I'm happy with the performance but low ram still seems to bother me, although such scenarios are rare.
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Click to collapse
I think you are more worried about RAM that is left in your memory rather than actual performance. This can happen especially if you had very high expectations from this phone. According to ASUS, this is a midrange phone on their website. Not a flagship if you are hoping!
I suggest check the performance by installing some heavy graphic games and see if it lags or not. I am sure that would be the best way to find out!
Good Luck!
The browser pages redrawing is almost certainly the lollipop memory leak. I don't have a zenfone 2 yet, but my nexus 7 had this problem up until the release of 5.1, so hopefully Asus updates to that soon.
i notice when i uninstalled clean master..my ram always on 1 gb free unlike before it stays at 650..700 free...notice my phone is even faster now
TOT_tomdora said:
The browser pages redrawing is almost certainly the lollipop memory leak. I don't have a zenfone 2 yet, but my nexus 7 had this problem up until the release of 5.1, so hopefully Asus updates to that soon.
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Correct, thank you for finally making that point clear as it's the main reason, which clearly isn't Asus' fault.
pato2015 said:
i notice when i uninstalled clean master..my ram always on 1 gb free unlike before it stays at 650..700 free...notice my phone is even faster now
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An ironic, yet awesome find pato!:thumbup: Be sure to relay this to the other places on the net that you're involved with that pertains to the Zenfone 2.
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