Develop Bugs

[Q] Free ram after some use?

I only have about 100-150 mb free ram after a days of use, is this normal?

Roybenz said:
I only have about 100-150 mb free ram after a days of use, is this normal?
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That depends.... have you checked your running programs to see what's running?

This is normal and good. Free memory in itself is well just a waste.
As long there is free memory which isn't needed otherwise the kernel will try to hold already used things (loaded data, loaded apps) in memory so that they are faster available (which also means less battery use) when needed again. When a process needs memory it can drop some of this cached data.
So instead of having a lot of free memory all the time it tries to make always good use of the 2 GB.

Roybenz said:
I only have about 100-150 mb free ram after a days of use, is this normal?
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Whats the point of having 2GB of RAM, when the system dont use it?

I see. Thanks for explaining
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda premium

Im a ram clearing addict I cant help myself when I see alot of ram is being used I have to hit that clear ram button. I have heared that ram in android works differently to windows and that by having programs ready in the ram its supposed to keep things running more quickly. But I find games and just the general phone feels faster when more ram is free. It must be my imagination ;-/
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xda app-developers app

The more ram you get, the more the programs are using the RAM. It is normal. When you use a task killer program to kill those tasks, you will release the RAM back.
However, if you find out there are not much free RAM after you kill the tasks, then, it would be a memory leak.

High RAM usage?

I've noticed on my e975 EU version even with 0-1 apps open the ram free is only 1gb... Other phones have far more ram available including my previous nexus 4. Anyone else notice this? I often find with quite a few apps open I only have 2-300mb free

I've never seen less than 500mb free but its true. Never more than 1gb.

I checked earlier with 0 apps running it was at almost 1gb used.. what on earth is using almost 1gb!? If phones with only 1gb can use less than that on jelly bean.. why does this phone use so much?

According to ram usage i am using approx 400mb, task manager says im using 800mb. Maybe 400mb is reserved for system? This is on stock rom with only a few apps installed.
Keep in mind free ram is wasted ram. Free ram is like having a fast car and only using first gear. Still curious to know where it all ram is used nontheless.
Sent from my LG-E975K using xda premium

I get what your saying with 'Free ram is wasted ram' but when you run out of ram.... things will start to stutter.
Having a few apps open to find you only have like 300mb left is insane.
I've had phones with only 1gb ram before and with lots of apps open they are using like 700mb/1000mb... it's almost like this phone is going 'Oh I have 2gb available so i'm just going to chomp up 1gb for the sake of it and leave you with 1gb left....'

If you're root use an app called "Greenify". Simply hibernate the apps that don't use adding to the list of the app, then add the widget to hibernate the app that you added (all except whatsapp, twitter in my case). In addition I use a tasker manager (don't added to greenify) and add a widget too, that combination gave me 1,2 gb free using a lot of widgets

Im stock un-rooted.
I only have 2 widgets on my home screens, 1 is the standard world clock and the other is play music. Tried removing both and it barely made a dent...

kalo88 said:
Im stock un-rooted.
I only have 2 widgets on my home screens, 1 is the standard world clock and the other is play music. Tried removing both and it barely made a dent...
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That's weird, only 900 mb free?? Mmmm, try using advanced task manager from the play store (I don't remember if root is needed), that will free you more memory. But in the 900 doesn't mean that the phone will be heavier, backward the used ram is exploited to make the Optimus lighter

Seems odd eh...

I also have 600 - 700 MB of RAM when I do not use anything.
There are just icons on my homepage, and a calendar widget (stock one).
At this case, It gives me 600-700 MB of free RAM. I always use "clear RAM" button. But why it gives us so limited free ram?
I used to use 4X HD with 1GB of RAM. There were 350-400 MB free which almost same with this optimus g?
Can someone explain this situation?
Or I think we need a new update. or CM10.1

It just feels like the phone is using up too much or isn't optimised properly.
As said above, phones with only 1gb available use about 3-500mb... Our phone with 2gb available seems to use about 900mb-1gb with nothing running. It's like it's gone 'Oh there's twice as much free so I'll just use twice as much...'

What about the AOSP custom Roms ...is the ram usage is same on that kind of Roms too?
Sent from my LG-P500 using xda app-developers app

No clue, i'm 100% stock unrooted Maybe someone will know.
My nexus 4 was far better at ram usage than my optimus g mind you. No matter what it never used more than 1.2gb

I think the Lg UI(stock firmware) is a memory hungry ...i suggest to try AOSP roms with lg skin :thumbup:
Sent from my LG-P500 using xda app-developers app

Using cm10.1 and have always about 1.4gb free, and this is more than enough for everything.

Y, stock rom have a crazy high ram usage, now im on PA and got 1.2gb free.

My doubt would be if, on stock rom, you get many slowdowns when you experience this high RAM usage. For me (who doesn't still have a LGOG, but is seriously thinking of buying one), it's the thing that matters most - if the lack of free RAM results in worse usage.
Otherwise, most efforts could do more harm than good - a task killer that kills an app which will restart seconds later is wasting RAM and battery instead of saving them.
I'd give priority to greenifying unruly apps you need often and freezing apps you rarely/never need but won't/can't uninstall (with Titanium Backup, or any other app that can freeze system apps) - always making sure you're not freezing some system app that will bring your phone to its knees. With this well configured, I'd say a task killer would only bennefit those of you that rarely use your phone. Everyone who often takes it out of their pocket and updates Facebook/Twitter or plays games should let Android take care of itself, as it will keep in memory the apps you've been using the most - as it should.

Don't use task killer apps, they aren't good for Android. Maybe something like a LMK Manager but you need root to change lmk.

kalo88 said:
It just feels like the phone is using up too much or isn't optimised properly.
As said above, phones with only 1gb available use about 3-500mb... Our phone with 2gb available seems to use about 900mb-1gb with nothing running. It's like it's gone 'Oh there's twice as much free so I'll just use twice as much...'
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M$ Windows does the same thing - if you have 2GB it uses only the half, if you have 8GB is use nearly 3,5-4GB. I think it preloads a few things including the most common used apps in memory perhaps?

Whats using all of our ram?

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

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

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

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

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

nrage23 said:
Android is based on Linux. Android and Linux both run better when they use as much ram as possible. If you Google Android ram usage you can find a couple of interesting articles about this.
Sent from my SM-P600 using XDA Premium HD app
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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.
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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.
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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.

Using a lot of RAM... for some reason?

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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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+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.
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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.
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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.

Can you lower the ram usage?

Hi there,
I have the ZF2 with 4GB of ram. After a couple of days of usage, it seems impossible to lower the ram usage below 1.8GB even when I clear the cache of all apps.
However, when I restart the device, my ram usage is below 1GB.
I have uninstall or disabled every app I could without rooting. & I don't want to root now.
Nonetheless, I would like to keep the ram usage of my device as low as possible (2GB of ram use seems a lot to me, especially when I have one or two apps open)
Did you find a tricks or ways to keep 2gb or more ram free at all time ?
Thank you.

Simply, there is no clear way and those numbers are normal. The best memory management is with native linux, not yet available on zenfone 2.

What's the point of always having 2gb of free ram? RAM is completely useless if you aren't using it.

yumms said:
What's the point of always having 2gb of free ram? RAM is completely useless if you aren't using it.
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It's not a question of useful or useless. It's a question of is it possible and if yes, how.

Yes, keep the phone in deep sleep with all apps closed and disable everything in autostart , better yet, you can just power off the device
p.s: not even custom roms will run that low, I had cm12.1 with lg g3 3gb ram, I disabled basically everything and phone will still boot with at max 2gb free ram, maybe 2.2gb if you start killing launcher and sytem apps lol
4Gb ram with 2.2-3Gb free Ram is plenty for a cellphone. Its even plenty for a desktop unless you run hard core 3d games like crysis.
The lowest I have seen is 150Mb/1Gb usage with Nexus 7 v1 tablet yet it was hell slow. Note that the more Ram you have, the more the system will use it and cache in it. This will increase apps loading speed since they are directly loaded from Ram vs local storage.
I would love to have an app that lets you select what to cache in Ram, e.g. large high-resolution PDFs that take forever to open and load :crying: I have 300-800Mb PDFs that will take 1 min just to open.

Indeed, an option to decide what to cache would be great.
Can we expect less usage and caching with the 5.1 update or with a custom Rom?
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