Develop Bugs

Why you don’t need a task killer app with Android.

http://androidspin.com/2010/05/25/why-you-dont-need-a-task-killer-app-with-android/
Why you don’t need a task killer app with Android.
Posted Posted by Cody Banks on 25th May 2010 Comments 5 comments
A lot of people have asked us what the best app is for killing tasks? Well, the answer is none of them. Sure there are some nice apps out there for killing tasks, but the fact is you just don’t need one with Android. In fact, most developers
won’t even look at your logcat file if they see you running a task killer app on your Android-based phone.
To clear things up about this, Google’s Android developers blog has finally put this debate to rest about why a task killer is unnecessary, as well as why there are certain services that run in the background all the time, I’m sure at one time or another you’ve seen them and asked yourself “Why do those services keep starting after I kill them?”. Below you can read about when applications stop.......
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

I've found no matter how many times it's said, someone will have an anecdote about how their phone became amazingly fast or they doubled battery life using one of these apps. People who want to use them will continue to do so. Don't trouble yourself.

It's nice to have one to kill the odd app that is messing up, but other than that I don't use one.

Aitese said:
I've found no matter how many times it's said, someone will have an anecdote about how their phone became amazingly fast or they doubled battery life using one of these apps. People who want to use them will continue to do so. Don't trouble yourself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the reason people say this is because it's actually true.
that's just the truth, maybe you should try using one and notice the difference.
I uninstalled mine for the first time yesterday to test the theory and today, my battery lasted a grand total of 4.5 hours. that's a whole 3 hours less than before.
and at the end of the day, when it's laggy and then use the TK, it really does clear things up.
still wish there was a way to make the battery last longer, it really does suck

samac92 said:
It's nice to have one to kill the odd app that is messing up, but other than that I don't use one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can do this from android... no need for an app.

Barff1984 said:
I uninstalled mine for the first time yesterday to test the theory and today, my battery lasted a grand total of 4.5 hours. that's a whole 3 hours less than before.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd say if you're only getting between 4.5 and 7.5 hours battery life, I'd say you've probably got a rogue app installed anyway.
Regards,
Dave

foxmeister said:
I'd say if you're only getting between 4.5 and 7.5 hours battery life, I'd say you've probably got a rogue app installed anyway.
Regards,
Dave
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree, taskkillers aren't battery savers they are drainers...
Have had my desire for a couple of days now (comming from a htc hero) and since I removed my taskmanager my desire has juice for about 1,5 days.
With taskpanel I hardly reached 24 hours... And I haven't noticed the device becoming slower...
I don't miss it and if I don't get any strange apps I won't ever install a taskmanager again...

well there are some apps which don't work properly.
Take the xda android app as example. it would sometimes just freeze, and there was no way to restart the app, no option for force close was provided by Android OS either.
In this case Android isn't doing anything, so you have to kill the process manually using
1. the default android feature
2. using a task killer.
I like the quick access to the advanced task killer over the notification area, therefore i use it.
People can tell me whole day long how ingenius Android is, and that it will do everything automatically. But i made very different experiences with some 3rd party apps, which needed some killing every now and then. The xda app is only ONE example of many.

Barff1984 said:
the reason people say this is because it's actually true.
that's just the truth, maybe you should try using one and notice the difference.
I uninstalled mine for the first time yesterday to test the theory and today, my battery lasted a grand total of 4.5 hours. that's a whole 3 hours less than before.
and at the end of the day, when it's laggy and then use the TK, it really does clear things up.
still wish there was a way to make the battery last longer, it really does suck
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The thing is I HAVE used them. Advanced Task Killer was the first app I installed on receiving my Desire...the phone became glitchy and buggy and laggy and it was horrible. I uninstalled ATK and all that stopped. It now NEVER slows down, and I'm getting well over 8hrs of use a day.
I suspect you have a buggy app, and THAT is what you need to find.
We need to stop giving bad app developers a feww ride by ignoring their bad code and just killing the process. Uninstall their app, give it a bad review and insist on using a rival app.

Shahpur.Azizpour said:
well there are some apps which don't work properly.
Take the xda android app as example. it would sometimes just freeze, and there was no way to restart the app, no option for force close was provided by Android OS either.
In this case Android isn't doing anything, so you have to kill the process manually using
1. the default android feature
2. using a task killer.
I like the quick access to the advanced task killer over the notification area, therefore i use it.
People can tell me whole day long how ingenius Android is, and that it will do everything automatically. But i made very different experiences with some 3rd party apps, which needed some killing every now and then. The xda app is only ONE example of many.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can force close an app from Android. Menu > Settings > Applications > Manage Applications > Locate the app > open it and force stop.
Create a shortcut to manage applications short cut on your home screen if you like, then you'll only need to do this:
Open Manage Applictions short cut > Locate the app > open it and force stop. - This is just as simple as using a task manager shortcut.

TheOriginalKi said:
You can force close an app from Android. Menu > Settings > Applications > Manage Applications > Locate the app > open it and force stop.
Create a shortcut to manage applications short cut on your home screen if you like, then you'll only need to do this:
Open Manage Applictions short cut > Locate the app > open it and force stop. - This is just as simple as using a task manager shortcut.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
actually using the notification drawer is more comfortable for me. But this is just personal preference.

Yes-They might be useful to kill the occasional rogue app. but apart from that they are pretty pointless. Android does a good job of killing tasks itself.
Despite all the evidence to the contrary people many will continue to use them and use them indiscriminately. Still if they want generally poorer performance and reduced battery life surely that is their choice.

Shahpur.Azizpour said:
actually using the notification drawer is more comfortable for me. But this is just personal preference.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How does that work. the notification draw is pretty much blank most of the time save for new message/downloads etc ?

has anyone actually tried to load up so many apps, so there's almost no memory left, so android kills other apps by himself? It's all excellent in theory, but never witnessed it in real life.

guys I had advanced task manager installed in my phone and my phone was laggy, and my battery was always down to 40-50% at the end of the day, but yesterday on someone's advice I removed ATM, and instantly i noticed the difference, there was no lag in the menus and everything was smooth, and today my battery was an astonishing 85 % remaining when i came back home, and I intentionaly used my phone more than usual. so at least one thing is sure that I will not be using any task manager.

matthoy said:
How does that work. the notification draw is pretty much blank most of the time save for new message/downloads etc ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
with advanced task manager you can see a small icon at the notification area (at all times). When pulling down the drawer you'll see an entry which says "advanced task manager".
just touch it and a list with current running apps will show up.

kamidadevil said:
guys I had advanced task manager installed in my phone and my phone was laggy, and my battery was always down to 40-50% at the end of the day, but yesterday on someone's advice I removed ATM, and instantly i noticed the difference, there was no lag in the menus and everything was smooth, and today my battery was an astonishing 85 % remaining when i came back home, and I intentionaly used my phone more than usual. so at least one thing is sure that I will not be using any task manager.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
there are way too many variables in this equation, as to just claim that ATM is responsible for hogging 30-40% battery power per day.
Of course it will have some kind of impact, just like other apps too. But i don't think that it will have a much bigger impact.

no, I dont think there are any variables involved in my case except ATM, I never use internet on mine phone during the day coz i always have internet access on my laptop, instead today I used wifi intentionaly just for testing battery and played asphalt which I normaly dont play during the work hours,

Here's a video from the Developer site that explains very well how Android manages Apps:
http://developer.android.com/videos/index.html#v=fL6gSd4ugSI
And if I really need to kill something (very rare!) then I use Task Tray Beta:
http://www.appbrain.com/app/com.stonedonkey.tasktray or find it in the Market.
This app is also great for seeing what 's actually running and what 's not anymore. And for switching to some App that you know is running, but in the default Android task switcher you can see only 6 apps.... and this will show all.

I tried out a few task killer but all they did was stop my alarm going off in the morning! I'm sure that's something I could have changed though.
I find the best way to keep my desire running nice and quick is to give it a reboot every morning on my way to work. Only takes a couple of minutes....give it a try...

Sense Roms/battery drain phenomenon. please explain

I've been trying to sort through some threads but I am not seeing a real definitive answer to this.
I recently switched over to the series III rom to give it a go from CM7 and last night at full charge I unplugged it just to wake this morning at 14% batter left. This is the identical issue I had with Myn's Roms. Myns I had a wake issue, this one showed 8 hours unplugged 1 hour wake which I played some Rio before sleeping lol. Still both same end result.
My question isn't so much how to fix it or improve it because that question HAS been beaten to death. I am just curious as to what makes the Sense Roms do this specifically. CM7 I was getting really good battery life leaving everything on.
Also, is there an app that actually monitors usage? I don't feel Spare Parts or the stock system reading is telling me everything I want to know about what's using my battery.

blizzard1017 said:
I've been trying to sort through some threads but I am not seeing a real definitive answer to this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll see if I can be definitive for you....
I recently switched over to the series III rom to give it a go from CM7 and last night at full charge I unplugged it just to wake this morning at 14% batter left.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My guess is that you have a wakelock issue and if you are using baseband 2.15.00.11.19 in conjunction with PRI 1.90_003 I'm willing to bet that is the culprit. Downgrading the PRI to 1.77_003 takes care of it, by the way.
This is the identical issue I had with Myn's Roms. Myns I had a wake issue, this one showed 8 hours unplugged 1 hour wake which I played some Rio before sleeping lol. Still both same end result.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See the above response
My question isn't so much how to fix it or improve it because that question HAS been beaten to death. I am just curious as to what makes the Sense Roms do this specifically.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wish I had an answer for you as to why that is. I can only assume that synchronizing with email, weather, social networks, etcetera could be major factors.
CM7 I was getting really good battery life leaving everything on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had bad battery life with CM7
Also, is there an app that actually monitors usage? I don't feel Spare Parts or the stock system reading is telling me everything I want to know about what's using my battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
SystemPanel Lite & aLogcat are very helpful. With aLogcat, there is realtime monitoring and you should pay attention to anything displayed in RED repeatedly.

hahaha thanks for the definitive break down.
I have downgraded to 1.77 and it's still pretty bad. Again, not really looking for solutions but more of a reason as to WHY the difference.
thanks for the app suggestions.

blizzard1017 said:
I've been trying to sort through some threads but I am not seeing a real definitive answer to this.
I recently switched over to the series III rom to give it a go from CM7 and last night at full charge I unplugged it just to wake this morning at 14% batter left. This is the identical issue I had with Myn's Roms. Myns I had a wake issue, this one showed 8 hours unplugged 1 hour wake which I played some Rio before sleeping lol. Still both same end result.
My question isn't so much how to fix it or improve it because that question HAS been beaten to death. I am just curious as to what makes the Sense Roms do this specifically. CM7 I was getting really good battery life leaving everything on.
Also, is there an app that actually monitors usage? I don't feel Spare Parts or the stock system reading is telling me everything I want to know about what's using my battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
blizzard1017 said:
hahaha thanks for the definitive break down.
I have downgraded to 1.77 and it's still pretty bad. Again, not really looking for solutions but more of a reason as to WHY the difference.
thanks for the app suggestions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're very welcome and I'm sorry I couldn't be more helpful. Enjoy your weekend, my friend...

One more app suggestion for ya--
Watchdog
It monitors apps and processes and alerts you if one goes rogue on you eating up your battery. I have found that in conjunction with system panel to be a great monitoring system.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App

If you can do it, because I don't know how yo use your phone, turn all your data off unless you actually need it.
I do this now, since I found out I can go 2-3 days without a recharge, if I don't need one. I don't use data much, anyhow, except my weather widgets and the times I go on my browser

My usage consists of call text and facebook lol. The clock widget has weather so that too I suppose. Never use 4g. Maps on rare occurrence.
Is there a simple button for data? Without going to settings every time?
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA Premium App

If you never us 4 g try miui. I consistently get 20 hours of use regardless of what I have turned on. Good luck!
blizzard1017 said:
My usage consists of call text and facebook lol. The clock widget has weather so that too I suppose. Never use 4g. Maps on rare occurrence.
Is there a simple button for data? Without going to settings every time?
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA Premium App

I like miui standalone apps but the whole iphone-esque layout I cannot stand.
I like sense. If it was an issue with I NEED battery I would go back to cm7. I would rather go beyond adjust your pri, and disable half your phone and see if there is a specific reason sense roms go all Monica lowinski on your battery. Haha
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA Premium App

blizzard1017 said:
My usage consists of call text and facebook lol. The clock widget has weather so that too I suppose. Never use 4g. Maps on rare occurrence.
Is there a simple button for data? Without going to settings every time?
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're on koni's elite III? Does that come with come with '4g' as one of the toggle widgets in the notification pulldown? If so, you can modify that so that 'mobile data' (3g) toggle will replace the 4g toggle. (if you don't want to do that, you can put a widget on your homescreen by going to add a widget, then scrolling down to 'settings'. Once you hit settings, you'll be presented with more options, 'mobile network' will toggle your 3g on and off at will)
If you do want to modify the pull down toggle, and you have Root Explorer, or another root level file explorer, it can easily be done. I don't think koni's III comes with a widget.txt file already, so you'll need to make one. I'll upload the one I use, which toggles GPS, Brightness, airplane mode, mobile data, flashlight, and sound, so you can use that as a reference, or modify it to you're liking. Once you have widget.txt made how you want it, you need to put it in /system/customize. You can do that using root explorer, or
adb remount
adb push widget.txt /system/customize
adb reboot
here's a list of what you can add to the notification pulldown toggles (6 at a time) And here's a link to the original thread, by JsChiSurf. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=836721&highlight=notification+toggles
(don't forget to pipe delimit them): Spelling must be exact, capitals matter. No spaces, and use | to separate them.
Code:
toggleAirplane
toggleAutoRotate
toggleBluetooth
toggleBrightness
toggleFlashlight
toggleGPS
toggleLockScreen
toggleMobileData
toggleScreenTimeout
toggleSleepMode
toggleSound
toggleSync
toggleWifi

HipKat said:
If you can do it, because I don't know how yo use your phone, turn all your data off unless you actually need it.
I do this now, since I found out I can go 2-3 days without a recharge, if I don't need one. I don't use data much, anyhow, except my weather widgets and the times I go on my browser
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Disabling "Always On Mobile Data" is helpful. When you're not actually surfing the net or using data, it'll sleep saving you battery usage.

THere is a widget for data on Koni's three. Long press your screen/widgets/settings/mobile network and you'll get the data widget.

@k2buckly that's some great info, I appreciate it. Will hit the thanks button when I get on my pc. Gives me a new tinker project lol.
As well as others.
So my question still stands but I think we have established the culprit. Mobile data. Now what makes the sense roms so prone to mobile data usage vs other roms causing accelerated drain?
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA Premium App

Go search in the Mik rom thread about IQAgent and IQRD. Google them as well. IQAgent is a nasty app Sprint uses to log information about you that they shouldn't be doing.
People are deleting them wirh root explorer or freezing them with TB and having some luck. I deleted them and it really helped my battery life. At least check in to it.

Batman58 said:
Go search in the Mik rom thread about IQAgent and IQRD. Google them as well. IQAgent is a nasty app Sprint uses to log information about you that they shouldn't be doing.
People are deleting them wirh root explorer or freezing them with TB and having some luck. I deleted them and it really helped my battery life. At least check in to it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This app makes it a pain but I will. Essentially I would like to get enough tweaks and info to make one thread possibly a sticky for this issue.
This seems like the similar issue of the vibrant. We had to freeze all the drm, functions because they were always talking to samsung for verification. Regardless of having licensed products or not.
I would like to get to a point where we can get these wonderful sense roms to be basically fully functional with respectable battery life. Maybe just my own opinion but I don't think its right we have to essentially disable our phones down to being no better than an old flip phone.
I don't mind doing the research and leg work either. Im a year late on the evo so I need something to do haha.
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA Premium App

To go along with all the other handy advice. Here are some simple steps and explanations on how to help battery drain.
http://androidforums.com/1383478-post1.html
Read up and take some or all of it and try it out...

madflasher said:
To go along with all the other handy advice. Here are some simple steps and explanations on how to help battery drain.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice, some pretty good info in there,.

madflasher said:
To go along with all the other handy advice. Here are some simple steps and explanations on how to help battery drain.
http://androidforums.com/1383478-post1.html
Read up and take some or all of it and try it out...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is the holy grail of what i was looking for. I am sure it was in the 1000+ page thread somewhere but I never found anything that explained the CDMA radio usage. I always found "turn off data". No offense to those who posted, the help was appreciated but I was just looking further into it then most do. I am more of a "why" person then a "i don't care just fix it" person.
As I said I am about a year behind on having an Evo so some of this info is DEEP into some searches.
Excellent read, I am going to try these out and have watchdog and system panel going. Before this read I have my phone pretty close to the 1% idle, I doubt I'll maintain that but it's close to satisfactory.

The best advice I could give is this...If you want a "Sense" based rom, I would recommend MikFroyo. The community has gotten so big, that he now has his own site themikmik.com. The reason I feel this is the best rom, is because everything is repacked, cleaned, optimized, and tweaked to the max...which makes for basically, the fastest Sense rom experience you could possibly have. There are also plenty of theme's, if your not one for the stock look (I actually am).
If you don't already use a custom Kernel, I would recommend netarchy-toastmod. His Kernel's have always been great for me, and with SBC charging too. I just ignore the SBC scare tactics. I've been using SBC since it came out, and have not had one single issue.
But the best answer to the "Why?" I could give you, is...USAGE. Unless there is and actual software/hardware issue your having, then all that's left to blame is your usage. Radios that are on, the signal strengths of them, monitoring software in use, and just simply...how much you use it. Which brings me to another point...it's cool to use stuff like Watchdog, or System Panel to see if there are issues, but after that I would recommend getting rid of them, as they themselves eat battery. I'm not saying the destroy your battery...just that they use it. And the more you have running...the more it gets used. The only "active" monitoring software I use is Battery Monitor Widget. It is probably the best app to monitor your battery/usage that exists.
I have never "downgraded" anything on my phone, always update my PRL & Profile, and have not ever had a software/hardware related issue. Then again, I don't flash much...I just stick with the things that work great.

You better try Azrael X v.40 rom, it give you a long battery live and also after you unplug your phone it takes a long time to start seeing any change on you battery status icon. I tried different roms and this one has everything working,my make concern about roms is "battery life" and speed. Also with this rom I always have wifi on, use wireless network as location, Background data on, auto sync on,exchange push mail on, weather sync on, and live wallpaper on. so far that's my setting and I can go through the day with a single charge. (I'm not doing advertising on this rom, I just want to let other know about how good is in Battery life.

[BATTERY]Tips for better battery life

Here i would be presenting a thread in which i will be talking about how to get the most of your battery on our beautiful phones. It is a fact that at this moment of time battery is not that great on the HOX. But hopefully with the tips that i will present here, shall help people get the max out of their battery till we have some custom kernels drop our way. So without further or do i present a few things that you can do to get the most out of your battery.​​​​
Tips for better battery life​
1) Touch screen sounds and lock screen sounds untick them from Settings-Sound. That causes the audio_out1 wakelock and unfortunately it is here as well on the HOX and drains battery like hell. So untick those so you do not get that massive wakelock
2) If you are using stock rom and have not rooted yet you can use this option to disable bloatware. Go into settings-apps and go into all. There you can select the applications you want to disable. What that does it will not unistall them but freeze them like TB does for rooted phones. It will remove them from the background and from your app screen to. Pretty nice feature if you ask me. Mainly disable your carrier apps and the google ones as well like Play Books, Play Movies and Play Music if you do not use them. Just a small addition to be added thanks to (pnnorth)- If there have been any play store updates to the app, you will need to uninstall the update before it will show the option to disable the app (eg facebook)
3) If you are using Titanium Backup(i always recommend to get the Pro version) you can uninstall those apps or freeze them if you like. For me i personally would uninstall them as they do not have any use for me.
4) If you are at home and you want to browse the net on your phone always make sure you use Wifi. It is a no brainer that wifi drains less battery than 3G. So always have your mobile data in settings as off and just use wifi. When you are out and about though make sure you have wifi off and use your mobile data on your phone instead. Because if you have wifi on as well it will try and scan for the available networks it can pick up and that causes drainage on your battery. Have that off when you go out.
5) Regarding brightness. Make sure you either have it on low settings or auto. It is a fact that if you have max brightness for your display that is a battery killer as well. Settings-display-brightness and just adjust from there.
6) Regarding task killer apps or battery saving apps like Juice Defender i recommend to stay away from those. Those apps consume more battery than they are suppose to be saving. Regarding task killers it is NOT recommended to kill apps because Android does that for you anyway. Just make sure you the application that you use, you always use the back button to exit the app or just go into multitask and swipe it away.
7) If you are rooted make sure you fully charge your phone and then in recovery or from Leedroid tweaks if you are using that make sure you wipe battery stats. That always helps as well.
8) Regarding sync your accounts. Now i have mine on autosync. From reading around having to sync your email account and facebook and twitter and whatever account you have syncing that drains battery. Now you can do two things. One either set the option to have those on manual sync or if you do not use facebook then uninstall it. But to be honest i have everything on autosync and still get good battery so it is down to user preference really. But for those interested go into settings-accounts and sync and adjust to your choosing.
9) Switch to gsm/2g only instead of wcdma/3g in settings >mobile network >Network Mode. Specially if you're not planning to use any 3g internet/mms features. (thanks to Gdelrosario)
10) Try to avoid ad supported apps. A research showed that in apps where there is adds, 70% of the power use comes from downloading and managing those adds to your screen. 30sec use of an app that uses adds, might drain your fully charged battery 0.35%-0.70%. Research link found here (thanks to Tont0)
11) Settings > Developer options > Windows animation scale > "Animation is OFF".
12) Mentioned this above but will re-post here again with a bit more detail. (thanks to AndroidGX) If you have multiple mail accounts, turn off auto-sync feature to refresh them manually. Settings > Accounts & sync > Auto-sync : [UNTICK]
Note: this will works also for any app like Facebook, Twitter, Beautiful Widget, etc..
13) Disabling the options for louder ringtone when inside a pocket and stopping the ringtone when picking up the device might also help. (thanks to Hardstuffmuc)
14) Settings > Wi-Fi > Advanced > Keep Wi-Fi on during sleep : "Only when plugged in". That way wifi will not be on all the time and that means saving bit of juice in the process
LINKS:​
*Link to the thread for BetterBatteryStats is below. Please install that app as it will help you to identify what app consumes your battery when you have screen off.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1179809
*Another great thread to have a look at is the Rom Cleaner by Patrics83. What it does it basically gives you this option : Will remove as much as possible without breaking HTC Sense Launcher and Widgets! This is the best way to come close to a no-sense ROM and still use HTC Sense!
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1589949
That is it for now. I will be updating this thread when i come across more battery saving tips. For now if anyone has anymore please post them and i will add them to the OP and give a thanks to you by adding your name next to the tip.

Was going to compile a list of apps that are safe to disable (for non-rooted users) and what to freeze uninstall (for rooted users). But since there is Rom Cleaner thread by Patrics83 as i have stated above you are probably best to go to his thread here where you can use his script and follow the guide on OP. This is script is for rooted users.
There also you can find a list of applications that is safe to disable for all those who are non rooted. Settings-apps and then go into all apps. As pointed out in first post tip 2 first if the application you are trying to disable has been updated first uninstall the updates and then disable the app
That is it for now more will follow

6) Regarding task killer apps or battery saving apps like Juice Defender i recommend to stay away from those. Those apps consume more battery than they are suppose to be saving. Regarding task killers it is NOT recommended to kill apps because Android does that for you anyway. Just make sure you the application that you use, you always use the back button to exit the app or just go into multitask and swipe it away.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is not a task killer. Also the apps are not aktive in backgraound, they are hibernatet. If you want to kill a task go to task manager.

lokiderelb said:
This is not a task killer. Also the apps are not aktive in backgraound, they are hibernatet. If you want to kill a task go to task manager.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Juice Defender=Battery Saving App = Not so much of a battery saving app
And Maps, and even facebook are active in the background my friend. by disabling them you are kinda like freezing them anyway. And yes if you read above if you want to kill a task or terminate an app i did mention that you can do that through Task manager. Or even by going into multi tasking app and swiping the one that you do not use anymore exits the app my friend
Trust me i done my research before posting this thread. But i am also open to correcting something if i am wrong.

Just a small addition to point 2) - If there have been any play store updates to the app, you will need to uninstall the update before it will show the option to disable the app (eg facebook)
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

pnnorth said:
Just a small addition to point 2) - If there have been any play store updates to the app, you will need to uninstall the update before it will show the option to disable the app (eg facebook)
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Done added that to the OP. Thanks mate..Hopefully this thread will come to some use to people.

Nice effort. I wouldn't take it as gospel tho'. But plenty to try and see what works for you.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

I already made another thread posting this one, but as I noticed there is one where to gather some common tips, I might as well add it here.
Try to avoid ad supported apps. A research showed that in apps where there is adds, 70% of the power use comes from downloading and managing those adds to your screen. 30sec use of an app that uses adds, might drain your fully charged battery 0.35%-0.70%.
Here is the link for the research http://www.androidauthority.com/ad-suported-android-apps-battery-drain-65716/

Very good thread. I tend to do most of what is mentioned anyway. As soon I got the phone I was busy tweaking the settings so that I could get the maximum power out of the battery. I'm not considered a heavy user anyway so it typically lasts 2-3 days.

you can also add to switch to gsm/2g only instead of wcdma/3g in settings >mobile network >Network Mode
specially if you're not planning to use any 3g internet/mms features

Cheers guys...Any tips that we can get i can add them all to the OP so that way we can have one thread which has everything. That way no need for clutter of threads regarding on how to improve battery life people can come here and read and discuss. Thank you guys i really appreciate your help

Added the new tips to the OP. Thanks

Qn: Are all battery saving apps not actually saving battery then? (E.g. Juice Defender)

NoobTerminator said:
7) If you are rooted make sure you fully charge your phone and then in recovery or from Leedroid tweaks if you are using that make sure you wipe battery stats. That always helps as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
wiping battery stats is done when reaching 100% charge and holds nothing but the useage of apps and does nothing to calibrate or improve battery life.
heres a quote to back this up.
Deleting this file will basically wipe your battery usage reports, which is done anyways automatically when the phone is fully charged (hence you'll see a clear list when you reach a full charge). "Deleting it is not going to do anything to make your more device more fantastic and wonderful".
http://pocketnow.com/android/deleting-androids-batterystatsbin-wont-grant-more-jiuce

junialum said:
Qn: Are all battery saving apps not actually saving battery then? (E.g. Juice Defender)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i will be honest with you. When i had my galaxy s2 and i had juice defender on that drained more battery than it was suppose to be saving. I could find you posts from users and kernel developers that i know from the s2 forums that advice against it. It is down to you to try and test but from my own testings i would advice against using them

NoobTerminator said:
i will be honest with you. When i had my galaxy s2 and i had juice defender on that drained more battery than it was suppose to be saving. I could find you posts from users and kernel developers that i know from the s2 forums that advice against it. It is down to you to try and test but from my own testings i would advice against using them
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply. My question was more general. Do you mean that there are no good battery apps?

How can we tel which apps support ads? I keep getting notifications in my status bar from random sites how can I stop that.
Thank you
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA

treebill said:
wiping battery stats is done when reaching 100% charge and holds nothing but the useage of apps and does nothing to calibrate or improve battery life.
heres a quote to back this up.
Deleting this file will basically wipe your battery usage reports, which is done anyways automatically when the phone is fully charged (hence you'll see a clear list when you reach a full charge). "Deleting it is not going to do anything to make your more device more fantastic and wonderful".
http://pocketnow.com/android/deleting-androids-batterystatsbin-wont-grant-more-jiuce
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True. You do have a point. but also on the other hand there has been people that saying by wiping battery stats that deletes the battery history makes everything start fresh as you mentioned above. What i am trying to get maybe it works maybe it does not. But one thing i know from my own experience by deleting those battery stats did help a bit on my battery. Hence why i posted that in the OP.
junialum said:
Thanks for the reply. My question was more general. Do you mean that there are no good battery apps?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Like i said mate. In general i have not bothered with battery apps. For me they eat more battery than they are suppose to be saving. If you follow my guide and also search on xda to find more threads like mine most will say that battery apps really do nothing..But it is down to you at the end of the day.

Mzhaze3 said:
How can we tel which apps support ads? I keep getting notifications in my status bar from random sites how can I stop that.
Thank you
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is easy to figure out. Most of the times it will be all the free apps in the market. If you are rooted install ADaway and that will install the hosts on your phone and will block those ads.

I'm not rooted lol
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA

Snapdragon(TM) BatteryGuru

Anybody tried this app from the appstore?
Would like to know how true is this app.
Sent from my HTC One using xda premium

Friedtofux said:
Anybody tried this app from the appstore?
Would like to know how true is this app.
Sent from my HTC One using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
used it - froze up my phone , un installed

The reviews on play store are quite mixed, some claim doubling the battery. Others say worsen.
Sent from my HTC One using xda premium

Tried it wasn't impressed. I prefer green power to it.
Sent from my PantechP8010 using xda app-developers app

what this is app does is reduce bakground and hence will help you if you experience unexplained standby drains, once it's done learning your most used apps, it will control background activity sync
so yes you will notice great improvements if you you have lots of accounts draining your standby times

I currently am on day 6 using the app (actual use, its not including the 2 days of hiding in background watching me). Haven't really noticed a huge difference but I probably get another hour or so of battery life.
I think the trial was pretty lame. After it finally got the thing to start, I like how you can block apps from refreshing in the background. The list is not very big however and I am curious as to what other apps do the same thing but have more options.
All in all, I'd give it a thumb up as it is not hurting my phone's performance and a little battery savings
Sent from my LG-LS970 using xda app-developers app

I have used this snapdragon app, their is a thread about it somewhere, i removed it as it was giving me thousands wakelocks with the app, i used wakelock detector to see them.
John.

It just blocks apps from syncing if you use your phone auto sync on all the time so it's not like greenify which completely stops background process of a specific app until you open it. If you don't keep auto sync on then it's a waste of time and makes battery even worse.

It's a placebo, don't use it.
Sent from my HTC One using xda premium

No, it is not a placebo. Yes, it does block apps from syncing in the background. So what? You guys are missing the point.
They are not claiming to possess some magical powers that will double your phone's battery life. The main difference from this app and similar others in the market, is their learning algorithm. It learns from "watching" you use your phone for a couple of days and then controls what is going on in the background to help you save battery without you doing much on your end. It's actually a pretty genius idea. I'm trying it out for the first-time (thanks OP for mentioning this app) and will post back with my results later this week. I'm not expecting wonders, but maybe I'll learn a thing or two about my daily use that I might be able to incorporate into my setups.

I would really appreciate you get back to use with your results, i pulled the plug after a couple of hours because of the high number of wakelocks.
John.
akarol said:
No, it is not a placebo. Yes, it does block apps from syncing in the background. So what? You guys are missing the point.
They are not claiming to possess some magical powers that will double your phone's battery life. The main difference from this app and similar others in the market, is their learning algorithm. It learns from "watching" you use your phone for a couple of days and then controls what is going on in the background to help you save battery without you doing much on your end. It's actually a pretty genius idea. I'm trying it out for the first-time (thanks OP for mentioning this app) and will post back with my results later this week. I'm not expecting wonders, but maybe I'll learn a thing or two about my daily use that I might be able to incorporate into my setups.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

No problem. Honestly, people freak out too much about wakelocks. You can have 50 simple events waking your device that will consume 10% of a single wakelock event from another app. Google's new play services that have been announced at I/O are wakelock-fiends, but surprisingly, their effect on battery life is very minimal.
Basically, it's about quality and not quantity of the wakelock that matters.

akarol said:
No problem. Honestly, people freak out too much about wakelocks. You can have 50 simple events waking your device that will consume 10% of a single wakelock event from another app. Google's new play services that have been announced at I/O are wakelock-fiends, but surprisingly, their effect on battery life is very minimal.
Basically, it's about quality and not quantity of the wakelock that matters.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Indeed, 1500 wakelocks but less than two minutes awake time.

It doesn't work. plain.and.simple.
Sent from my HTC One using xda app-developers app

A rep from HTC told me the battery Guru was bad and would mess up the phone

I was wondering if itll affect instant messaging app, like whatsapp.
Will I still receive the messages instantly or battery guru will refresh my whatsapp periodically based on my usage?
Sent from my HTC One using xda premium

installed it. doesn't work. after a few weeks, installed it again, still doesn't work. it seems to just kill running apps. not great if you use whatsapp or viber, you won't be receiving any messages with the battery guru on.

I'm using this but I don't feel that the battery is very good anyway. Is this app working just like greenify?
Sent from my HTC One using xda app-developers app

An app that acts as a launcher for Split Screen?

I hate the way Google has implemented Split Screen as I am a user who kills all their recent apps frequently as I feel it affects battery life. Why couldn't Google adopt Samsung's latest design layout for Split Screen?
Is there an application available which makes it more similar to Samsung or LG's Split Screen experience.

kalinskym said:
I am a user who kills all their recent apps frequently as I feel it affects battery life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You realize that actually makes battery life worse, right?

josephcsible said:
You realize that actually makes battery life worse, right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
removing it from recent apps by swiping right? I hate keeping apps such as Facebook opened in the background or Chrome.

kalinskym said:
removing it from recent apps by swiping right? I hate keeping apps such as Facebook opened in the background or Chrome.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does it really drain battery life quicker by killing them from recent apps

kalinskym said:
removing it from recent apps by swiping right? I hate keeping apps such as Facebook opened in the background or Chrome.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
kalinskym said:
Does it really drain battery life quicker by killing them from recent apps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, doing that hurts battery life. The reason is that keeping an app on memory doesn't use any extra battery, and having to restart a killed one does.

josephcsible said:
Yes, doing that hurts battery life. The reason is that keeping an app on memory doesn't use any extra battery, and having to restart a killed one does.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Even Facebook? I should keep Facebook open in the background rather than having it closed. How many apps do you typically have opened when you go to recent apps view?

A few apps do leave stuff running, but Doze and App Standby will take care of that for the most part. That way is nicer to the battery since it suspends the processes rather than killing them, so they don't have to reinitialize when you do reopen the app.