Develop Bugs

ram after 4.1

After I updated my phone to 4.1 i'm only showing 1.56GB of ram in the task manager app. Has anyone else had this problem?

I did notice that I lost a large chunk of free ram... 4.0.4, I used to consistently have about 1 gig free, now I stay around 500-600 megs free

I've noticed this with any 4.1 rom with touchwiz and bloatware.
It's much better using a custom 4.1 TW rom (bacon!!) with some bloatware removed.
Sent from my SGH-I747M using xda app-developers app

I sent an email to Samsung just now. Let's see what they say.
Anyway, this is def. NOT natural. If you bring up a terminal console and type "free" you will see it state that your phone only has 1.5 gigs of ram.
I'm wondering of project butter is using 500 megs of ram to do the speedup we're seeing...
Response from Samsung 2012-12-6:
Dear ycavan,
Thank you for your inquiry. We understand that the RAM of your phone was reduced after the upgrade made on youe phone. We do apologize for the inconvenience that these issues might have caused you. Thank you for bringing to our attention the issue of your phone model missing. We will forward this information to the appropriate department.
The possible reason why RAM of your phone was reduced after the upgrade made on youe phone is because of the new application that is installed on the phone which is part of the enhancement.
Do you have more questions regarding your Samsung Mobile Phone? For 24 hour information and assistance, we offer our new FAQ/ARS System - Automated Response System at http://www.samsung.com/support.
It's like having your very own personal Samsung Technician at your fingertips.
We appreciate your continued interest in Samsung products.
Sincerely,
Mark
Technical Support
End Response 2012-12-6.
My take-away is that they did, in fact, use the extra 512megs for a new application that is part of the enhancement. My guess is butter.

Its most likely just the system using that RAM, like pretty much every android phone on the planet
Sent from my SGH-I747M using xda premium

Wow. Big difference. I'm seeing the same.
I never thought 2GB would get so low available so quick.

Who cares, really?
I'd rather have my 2Gb completely filled up as it's most likely just cached applications anyway.
If need be, this memory will be released anyway by Android's garbage collector.
On the other hand, history shows us that every new iteration of Android needs more RAM, so that's kinda expected.
My GS1 only has 512Mb which is more than enough if running Android 2.x (Eclair, Froyo & Gingerbread) but rapidly falls short RAM if running ICS.

HiKsFiles said:
Who cares, really?
I'd rather have my 2Gb completely filled up as it's most likely just cached applications anyway.
If need be, this memory will be released anyway by Android's garbage collector.
On the other hand, history shows us that every new iteration of Android needs more RAM, so that's kinda expected.
My GS1 only has 512Mb which is more than enough if running Android 2.x (Eclair, Froyo & Gingerbread) but rapidly falls short RAM if running ICS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
free memory is waisted memory for some. I disagree when it comes to devices using a battery. Processes use memory and battery life...
I hate to see apps running in background even when I didn't use them since the last reboot. Self running apps grabbing infos about me suck. If Google dont want to stop these behaviors then its time for a new OS.
My next phone ?: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oG3tLxEQEdg&feature=colike

Bagbug said:
free memory is waisted memory for some. I disagree when it comes to devices using a battery. Processes use memory and battery life...
I hate to see apps running in background even when I didn't use them since the last reboot. Self running apps grabbing infos about me suck. If Google dont want to stop these behaviors then its time for a new OS.
My next phone ?: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oG3tLxEQEdg&feature=colike
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You got it wrong.
Cached apps in memory do not actually run.
They are just left there so that they can start more quickly the next time you use them.

Bagbug said:
free memory is waisted memory for some. I disagree when it comes to devices using a battery. Processes use memory and battery life...
I hate to see apps running in background even when I didn't use them since the last reboot. Self running apps grabbing infos about me suck. If Google dont want to stop these behaviors then its time for a new OS.
My next phone ?: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oG3tLxEQEdg&feature=colike
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
RAM has to refresh whether it is used or not. The RAM has no idea if a particular bit is used or not.

The last ICS update also lowered the RAM to 1.59GB. I believe it has to do with how much RAM is assigned to the GPU. It is normal.

HiKsFiles said:
Who cares, really?
I'd rather have my 2Gb completely filled up as it's most likely just cached applications anyway.
If need be, this memory will be released anyway by Android's garbage collector.
On the other hand, history shows us that every new iteration of Android needs more RAM, so that's kinda expected.
My GS1 only has 512Mb which is more than enough if running Android 2.x (Eclair, Froyo & Gingerbread) but rapidly falls short RAM if running ICS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I only care because of my past experience: the more apps I load, the more memory gets used, and the slower it runs. I tend to use a log of apps. Memory was a struggle on the ole' Captivate.
I want this phone to perform good for a while.

ewingr said:
I only care because of my past experience: the more apps I load, the more memory gets used, and the slower it runs. I tend to use a log of apps. Memory was a struggle on the ole' Captivate.
I want this phone to perform good for a while.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well then just close off some apps, I've never had a problem memory on this phone at all yet
Sent from my SGH-I747M using xda premium

My ram dropped to 1.59 since before Jellybean
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda premium
---------- Post added at 09:31 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:29 PM ----------
Actually my first s3 when it released had 1.89 of ram but I sold it. This one I bought on black Friday only has 1.59
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda premium

I'm curious what the International phones have since they only started with 1g
Sent from my SGH-I747M using xda app-developers app

If you dont want any back ground processes go to the developer options and limit the number of background processes
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda premium

killed all for ground apps TouchWiz UI uses up 2gb of ram?

So this is pretty crazy and weird but I killed all the apps running in the background and it says I'm using up 2.07gb of Ram how is that possible?

gator9422 said:
So this is pretty crazy and weird but I killed all the apps running in the background and it says I'm using up 2.07gb of Ram how is that possible?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why does it matter? There is a ton of memory in this phone, and the OS manages it very, very well. You don't need spare memory. This isn't Windows, you won't run out of memory. It stores what it thinks it needs in RAM and keeps it there for quick access. It uses all the memory all the time (or at least it should). One of the things that prevents lag is to have the stuff loaded and ready at a moments notice.
Its a question of how the OS runs, not how much memory its taking. I would prefer if they hid that stat all together, then people would stop fixating on it, and loading efficiency killing memory manager apps.
Much like running defrag on a modern hard drive (they are supposed to be fragmented, they work better and faster that way) Android is supposed to run 90-95% used memory.. ALL THE TIME. Its the way its designed, and it works better that way.

One of the biggest misconceptions on all of XDA is about used RAM in a phone. People are always saying "OMG, there is only 500mb of unused RAM on my phone, it's going to slow down to a crawl!".
Just to be clear and hopefully people will understand it....unused RAM is wasted RAM. It does NOT have anything to do with slowing your phone down or anything like that. If there is 1gb of free RAM on your Note 4, that's totally fine.
Android manages RAM very well, don't stress. That's actually way more than it needs. You can only have 200mb of RAM free and your phone would still run fine. It's the way it's supposed to work. We have more than enough RAM in this phone.
I just hope this misconception will finally go away. I see at least a few RAM threads in every device forum.

It doesn't matter to me it's just the fact that I don't have any apps open and TouchWiz itself uses up 2gb of Ram to me that's a lot js

gator9422 said:
It doesn't matter to me it's just the fact that I don't have any apps open and TouchWiz itself uses up 2gb of Ram to me that's a lot js
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It truly is a misconception. Android, windows, nix, any OS, for that matter. You would want too see your RAM being utilized. I would prefer to have my RAM used than not used at all because any unused RAM is a wasted RAM. This is also same with CPU. Unutilized cores are wasted cores. When writing software, one of the best practices is to learn how to use the memory to its full potential. You would want necessary stuff in RAM because using them when needed is faster if they are already loaded in memory than reinitializing the modules again and again every time for use. As far as memory location, RAM still provides the fastest. This is why in many companies that used gigabytes of data in their databases, a common practice in databadse engine technology is that they would actually load entire gigabytes of frequently accessed tables in memory for extremely fast access.
In short, don't worry

Thank you for the replies like they say you learn something new everyday. I appreciate the input

I'm more curious to know how the system manages to use more RAM every year with every new device released. Are there really that many more new features every year where they gobble up RAM?

gator9422 said:
Thank you for the replies like they say you learn something new everyday. I appreciate the input
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/definition/cache-memory

Techweed said:
I'm more curious to know how the system manages to use more RAM every year with every new device released. Are there really that many more new features every year where they gobble up RAM?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My first computer had 512 mb RAM and it was fine at the time. Of course, with newer releases, they develop more features. With more features, more modules are created to support those features. Hence, more RAM usage.

^Wow, I think my first PC might have had 512 kb of RAM.

fbauto1 said:
My first computer had 512 mb RAM and it was fine at the time. Of course, with newer releases, they develop more features. With more features, more modules are created to support those features. Hence, more RAM usage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's true but with Kit Kat we were supposed to get a leaner running OS so that it would run on even old devices with minimum RAM. And I don't see how Touchwiz by itself could add 1 GB of RAM usage between the Note 2 and Note 4.

I would disagree on wanting all the ram to be being used... On previous rooted phones I have had (GS2, GS3, GSA4) getting rid of bloatware/useless apps eating up my ram made it much more responsive and fluid when opening new programs while significantly increasing battery life. Seems people just spew the bull**** marketing lines of Google across the internet and expect people to take it as truth. User experience is what is important, and getting rid of the garbage on any android version will make it faster. Not a difficult concept to understand.

rcracer_tx said:
I would disagree on wanting all the ram to be being used... On previous rooted phones I have had (GS2, GS3, GSA4) getting rid of bloatware/useless apps eating up my ram made it much more responsive and fluid when opening new programs while significantly increasing battery life. Seems people just spew the bull**** marketing lines of Google across the internet and expect people to take it as truth. User experience is what is important, and getting rid of the garbage on any android version will make it faster. Not a difficult concept to understand.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is no bull**** here. Attend college and find out.
It is proven practice to use RAM
My source:
Myself with 15+ years as a software engineer

^^^This man speaks the truth. In my final year of my degree in software development and RAM utilization is common practice. User experience is different for everyone and what you "feel" is faster may or may not be an improvement.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using XDA Free mobile app

I think the goal of debloating should be to reduce the use of cpu by unwanted applications and reducing the amount of RAM taken up by them so that other applications may be cached instead. Whenever I debloat I start with watching applications that load and try to trim of the ones I know I don't need at all. I then move onto greenifying applications that run or cache themselves that I'll rarely use. Never in this process do I try to maximize free memory since doing so means applications that are not cached will take longer to launch. Im not sure if this is the right philosophy but it seems effective to me.

fbauto1 said:
There is no bull**** here. Attend college and find out.
It is proven practice to use RAM
My source:
Myself with 15+ years as a software engineer
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I already have two degrees from a major big 12 university. And do a good amount of IT work for the business I work at. If you think that having your ram eaten up by programs you never use is good practice, maybe you need to re-evaluate the school you got your education. Using your logic our computers should be faster when they are full of **** running in the background... That's asinine. Full AND EFFICIENT utilization of ram is proven practice, not filling up ram full of bloatware.
muzzy996 said:
I think the goal of debloating should be to reduce the use of cpu by unwanted applications and reducing the amount of RAM taken up by them so that other applications may be cached instead. Whenever I debloat I start with watching applications that load and try to trim of the ones I know I don't need at all. I then move onto greenifying applications that run or cache themselves that I'll rarely use. Never in this process do I try to maximize free memory since doing so means applications that are not cached will take longer to launch. Im not sure if this is the right philosophy but it seems effective to me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well said, I agree. I guess I didn't make the distinction of when freeing up ram being eaten up by crap that will never be opened, What I mean is that cached memory being freed up is then able to be used by apps that I actually use. If over 2gb out of 2.92gb is being used all the time, (with the vast majority being eaten up by bloatware and the rest just being the base OS/UI) then that is not efficient utilization of ram. If you have to kill cached programs constantly and then load the new program you begin using, its going to take longer than having that program already having everything cached. In most times this is only milliseconds difference, but the fluidity of the transition is important to many as it is a significant factor in user experience. Who wants a phone that lags whenever a user input is made?

rcracer_tx said:
Well said, I agree. I guess I didn't make the distinction of when freeing up ram being eaten up by crap that will never be opened, What I mean is that cached memory being freed up is then able to be used by apps that I actually use. If over 2gb out of 2.92gb is being used all the time, (with the vast majority being eaten up by bloatware and the rest just being the base OS/UI) then that is not efficient utilization of ram. If you have to kill cached programs constantly and then load the new program you begin using, its going to take longer than having that program already having everything cached. In most times this is only milliseconds difference, but the fluidity of the transition is important to many as it is a significant factor in user experience. Who wants a phone that lags whenever a user input is made?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is interesting that the vast majority of 2GB of your RAM is being using by bloatware. Between the Touchwiz function for turning off unneeded apps and Android's algorithms for determining what should be kept in memory, I find that "bloatware" apps (i.e., app I don't use) are practically non-existent in RAM...at least for me. That said, even if you still have 0.92 GB free, Android is not likely to decide it needs to kill an existing process to accommodate another program.

rcracer_tx said:
I already have two degrees from a major big 12 university. And do a good amount of IT work for the business I work at. If you think that having your ram eaten up by programs you never use is good practice, maybe you need to re-evaluate the school you got your education. Using your logic our computers should be faster when they are full of **** running in the background... That's asinine. Full AND EFFICIENT utilization of ram is proven practice, not filling up ram full of bloatware.
Well said, I agree. I guess I didn't make the distinction of when freeing up ram being eaten up by crap that will never be opened, What I mean is that cached memory being freed up is then able to be used by apps that I actually use. If over 2gb out of 2.92gb is being used all the time, (with the vast majority being eaten up by bloatware and the rest just being the base OS/UI) then that is not efficient utilization of ram. If you have to kill cached programs constantly and then load the new program you begin using, its going to take longer than having that program already having everything cached. In most times this is only milliseconds difference, but the fluidity of the transition is important to many as it is a significant factor in user experience. Who wants a phone that lags whenever a user input is made?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are comparing RAM utilization to bloatware?
Where did you get your degrees, eBay?

fbauto1 said:
You are comparing RAM utilization to bloatware?
Where did you get your degrees, eBay?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No... he's not. Read it again. His point is that programs he doesn't need utilizing ram is bad.
We're playing a game of semantics here. He is working the angle that the original posts saying 'using ram is good' isn't true if it is crap that is using it.
Silly discussion at this point as both sides are correct based on the parameters of their view point.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A

High RAM Usage

So I have noticed that my RAM usage is almost always over 2GB and I find it pretty strange as to why it is, I am using the stock ROM and it has been tweaked a bit but that shouldn't affect my RAM right?
Picture for reference

I think its pretty normal for Android to do that, keeps things in RAM so apps open faster. I use greenify to close a bunch of things and usually running around 1.2GB free ram. Don't think it matters I am doing it more for battery life.
What are you using to get RAM to display in recent apps, and for circle battery icon?

Ahh fair enough, I know my old N3 only used about 1.5GB, LG G4 tweakbox app

anybody else getting serious lag and ram being used up

I know unused ram is wasted ram, but I'm constantly at 90% ram and it's causing the phone to lag and stutter to the point its unusable unless I reboot then I'm good. Just wanted to see if anybody was going through the same thing or if I have a rouge app up to something.

I've noticed that myself.. That is why I have debloated my phone without root. I have also notice the biggest user of the ram is the Android OS 1.3 Gb.

Joe199799 said:
I know unused ram is wasted ram, but I'm constantly at 90% ram and it's causing the phone to lag and stutter to the point its unusable unless I reboot then I'm good. Just wanted to see if anybody was going through the same thing or if I have a rouge app up to something.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here. It's a typical LG thing. Their Android mods are slick and lovely, but they're far from lightweight.
I moved from a Sony XZ1 Compact to a G7, and it is generally a significantly slower, laggier experience. With the Sony it would generally use less than 2gb of RAM at the outset. I could come back to an app a week later and it'd still be open. With this G7 I think it's rare to see it under 3gb consumption, and every time I open the camera I'm evicted most other apps from memory.
Then there's the lag! I thought a years newer flagship tech would have minimized the LG lag experience, but no.
Also no, at least for T-Mobile uS G7, no root, no AOSP and official device trees. I am made of regret, definitely never another LG, and Sony for me from here on out.

This phone has given me the least amount of issues with lag and freezes out of any phone I've had. I do a lot of gaming on here and rarely have an issue. I try to install as much as possible on my SD card, I don't know if that would make a difference with RAM usage, and I don't leave a bunch of apps running in the background.

Need suggestions Most free Ram custom rom.

Previos time I used Redmi Note 4 (Mido). That phone are 3gb varient. That phone in i flashed epicMiui custom rom. That rom are used my ram storage only few 1gb/1.3gb Ram. That rom are my best choose for that issue. All time ram storage 1.4gb are always free. That phone camera are just osame:good:
But,
Now I am used Redmi note 5. There I tested many custom rom. All the custom ROM are most ram storage drained. Like there are free ram storage are only 700mb to 900mb.
So,
I need A miui based rom.
That are i am used daily draivers. That are mostly free my ram 1.4 to 1.5gb. Sugeested me please...
Nb: sorry my bad english.

You don't need that much free RAM. Android is pretty good at managing memory by itself, and 4GB are plenty for a good experience.
Really, flash any ROM that suits your needs

Nazmul.i404 said:
Previos time I used Redmi Note 4 (Mido). That phone are 3gb varient. That phone in i flashed epicMiui custom rom. That rom are used my ram storage only few 1gb/1.3gb Ram. That rom are my best choose for that issue. All time ram storage 1.4gb are always free. That phone camera are just osame:good:
But,
Now I am used Redmi note 5. There I tested many custom rom. All the custom ROM are most ram storage drained. Like there are free ram storage are only 700mb to 900mb.
So,
I need A miui based rom.
That are i am used daily draivers. That are mostly free my ram 1.4 to 1.5gb. Sugeested me please...
Nb: sorry my bad english.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why would you need free unused ram?

iuliusdeblobbis said:
You don't need that much free RAM. Android is pretty good at managing memory by itself, and 4GB are plenty for a good experience.
Really, flash any ROM that suits your needs
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But there is a catch. MIUI is very aggressive in killing background apps. At first I through that 3gb of ram is not enough and that's the reason why multitasking is so bad. The phone wasn't keeping even 3 apps in ram. Now when I'm using aosp based ROMs I no longer have such issues.

0dium said:
Why would you need free unused ram?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bcz,
Low ram storage make my phone lezy and so slow.

Nazmul.i404 said:
Bcz,
Low ram storage make my phone lezy and so slow.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats not how android works. This is not microsoft windows. Android frees up ram whenever its needed. Miui based roms have more free ram because it has very aggressive background control, but that doesnt mean its good. You cant multitask because it just kills every background app.

Incogn said:
Thats not how android works. This is not microsoft windows. Android frees up ram whenever its needed. Miui based roms have more free ram because it has very aggressive background control, but that doesnt mean its good. You cant multitask because it just kills every background app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 on this.
MIUI has such an aggressive memory management because killing apps in the background gives an impression of better battery life. This results in less RAM usage, which is great marketing towards people who don't know how Android works :/

iuliusdeblobbis said:
+1 on this.
MIUI has such an aggressive memory management because killing apps in the background gives an impression of better battery life. This results in less RAM usage, which is great marketing towards people who don't know how Android works :/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But it does have excellent battery life despite it being a bloated and heavy pig.

peter-k said:
But it does have excellent battery life despite it being a bloated and heavy pig.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have same battery performance with Pixel Experience as i did with stock rom or masik. Only difference being, with PE i can actually multitask without constantly getting my apps closed in the background. That, and not having to worry about some notifications arriving late. Apart from these 2 things i actually quite like MIUI unlike most users here.

This is is rom. That are i Fond,
Always free 1.4/1.6 ram...it perfect for daily driver used.
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/mobile/folders/1pv3WMBJyJmadpTkkSRCvPTjR0RG0Ak-6