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Hello Android Gurus
I have bought Galaxy S (My first Android phone) 2 weeks ago and i have been experimenting with it since. I have noticed one thing regarding how android manages memory and its quite alarming.
When i start my phone I typically have around 160 Mb of RAM. As i load an application that requires 10 MB for example, the available RAM evidently drops to 150 MB but when I kill the application the RAM goes up but not to the previous level (e.g. goes up to 157).
little RAM is always lost as applications are opened and closed. This means that after a couple of hours of using the phone, the RAM goes down to 40 MB and the phone becomes REALLY laggy and you have to restart
The above behavior is typical of windows mobile, and that is exactly why i shifted to Android thinking it is better.
My questions to the android experts out there are the following:
1- Why is memory leaking like this. Such a behavior results in a phone with very bad user experience
2- Is this typical behavior of Android, if yes then i'd better sell my Galaxy S and look for an alternative OS
3- Is this due to TouchWiz by Samsung, if yes then i will wait for subsequent updates to see if this problem could be resolved by Samsung
4- Will the 2.2 Froyo update resolve this issue ?
I used to have an iphone 3gs before this one, and no matter how much you open or close applications, the UI is always smooth and responsive. The thing that made me really hate Apple and its products is their "Closed OS" that does not enable you to do much with your phone. That is why i moved to Galaxy S thinking it would give me a better experience
Thanks for your thoughts.
FREE RAM IS A WASTED RAM, golden rule of android.
Some time ago I did even a video so you can check what i'm talking about... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ewxuy12KuUA
Dexter666 said:
FREE RAM IS A WASTED RAM, golden rule of android.
Some time ago I did even a video so you can check what i'm talking about...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's an awesome video! I never knew the games looked so nice. I'm on a download spree because of that video now
Strange
Dexter666 said:
FREE RAM IS A WASTED RAM, golden rule of android.
Some time ago I did even a video so you can check what i'm talking about... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ewxuy12KuUA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is quite strange, the less RAM you have the more non-responsive the phone is and laggy.
Enough RAM has to be maintained to guarantee a smooth user experience.
If the phone requires 100Mb of RAM to run smoothly, then this much has to be maintained.
from my experience with the Galaxy S, there has to be atleaset 80 to 100 MB to maintain a somewhat smmoth interface.
Edit:
I also understand from your input that this is a Samsung problem, not an android problem, and that no matter how low the RAM is, the interface will always be smooth ??????
Mate, just one word - google.
There are about a billion articles online on android memory management, how to impoove it etc.
Dexter666 said:
FREE RAM IS A WASTED RAM, golden rule of android.
Some time ago I did even a video so you can check what i'm talking about... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ewxuy12KuUA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i dont understand how this shows anything? You are manually exiting each one of the games, forcing it to quit anyways. A better test is just to hit the home button, and continually load up the next game.
andy2na said:
i dont understand how this shows anything? You are manually exiting each one of the games, forcing it to quit anyways. A better test is just to hit the home button, and continually load up the next game.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This means that after a couple of hours of using the phone, the RAM goes down to 40 MB
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Click to collapse
+red baloon on vid which says phone was used for >day, so "free" ram was <50MB, becouse browser etc. reserve some MBs for quick comming back.
And still was no problem to run anything I choose.
Dont quite understand..care to explain more? I'm getting puzzled abt this shortage of ram thingy. Some suggest to use task killer to free up rams while you say dont. But looking at your videos its fast..please explain. Thanks
Sent from my GT-I9000
Android handles the memory management itself. The moment it runs below certain amount of free memory it will start the kill apps. There is no need to run an app killer. Altho the default settings are not enough to provide a smooth experience. Check out the freememmanager app in the market to change the settings. As long as min 45 mb is free everything will run smooth.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
RADLOUNI said:
2- Is this typical behavior of Android, if yes then i'd better sell my Galaxy S and look for an alternative OS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is typical Android behavior. See ya later.
Really though, if you're killing tasks, then you're already taking horrible advice from people who haven't an inkling of an idea on how Android manages memory.
Keep in mind that your phone is only using 256MB of its total 512MB of memory. Once a newer kernel is released with himem the phone will use all 512MB.
Android's garbage collection can be set to be more aggressive which would sort of fix your issue by killing more background applications. However, you might as well wait for the newer kernel which will fix your problem anyway.
Though it was more 320 out of 512
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
RADLOUNI said:
The above behavior is typical of windows mobile, and that is exactly why i shifted to Android thinking it is better.
My questions to the android experts out there are the following:
1- Why is memory leaking like this. Such a behavior results in a phone with very bad user experience
2- Is this typical behavior of Android, if yes then i'd better sell my Galaxy S and look for an alternative OS
3- Is this due to TouchWiz by Samsung, if yes then i will wait for subsequent updates to see if this problem could be resolved by Samsung
4- Will the 2.2 Froyo update resolve this issue ?
Thanks for your thoughts.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This has to do a lot with Android's garbage collector. The reason task-killers are not the best way to go, is because when you kill tasks a lot of the memory is not recovered (garbage collector does not work as it should). Android by default won't start killing apps until you get between 20-30MB of memory. For some reason, in the SGS, as you said, when ram drops below 70MB, the phone starts to feel pretty laggy; the best way to remedy this is to use applications like autokiller or minfreemanager, which require you to be rooted.
For a more in-depth explanation of how android kills processes see this http://andrs.w3pla.net/autokiller/details (from the developer of Autokiller).
I would like to know why the phone feels so laggy when ram drops below 70MB, from what I understand, this shouldn't be the case...
2- Is this typical behavior of Android, if yes then i'd better sell my Galaxy S and look for an alternative OS
--> No, this is not typical behavior of Android, i use my HTC Magic before Galaxy S, no lagging problem even the memory is lower than 15MB.
The galaxy S defaults are too low for when it starts removing apps from RAM, you need to root it and then install minfree manager or autokiller (which is not a task killer don't be deceived by the name)
Brantyr said:
The galaxy S defaults are too low for when it starts removing apps from RAM, you need to root it and then install minfree manager or autokiller (which is not a task killer don't be deceived by the name)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
doesn't solve the mystery because this is a non-issue on other android phones.
why do i need to keep 50-70mb free to get a smooth running phone where others can handle 30mb free without problems.
Goshh..thanks for simplified. Now ive removed the task killer..and stand firm by the android golden rules...cheers..
Sent from my GT-I9000
I noticed this same low ram behavior on my galaxy s. After boot the phone shows like 180 mb of ram free after a couple days the phone will drop down to 30 mb of ram all the while I'm killing apps running in the background with task killer.
The phone slows down significantly even after I kill everything.i thought android was supposed to circumvent these kind of low ram Issues.
inurb said:
I noticed this same low ram behavior on my galaxy s. After boot the phone shows like 180 mb of ram free after a couple days the phone will drop down to 30 mb of ram all the while I'm killing apps running in the background with task killer.
The phone slows down significantly even after I kill everything.i thought android was supposed to circumvent these kind of low ram Issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is.
And you're supposed to not be messing with how Android manages things cuz taskkilling screws it up.
reuthermonkey said:
It is.
And you're supposed to not be messing with how Android manages things cuz taskkilling screws it up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So you suggest that I not force close any apps using taskkiller and just let android 2.1 do it's thing with memory management?
When I had the phone for the first week without taskkiller installed, the device ran very slow after the first couple days of use. Your saying that the slowness will go away as android dishes out memory effectively?
I'll uninstall taskkiller and let the device run longer than a week and see if it ever speeds up. thanks
After installed few apps to the new oppo find 7a, the memory in use constantly stay at over 1GB and only 300-400MB available. anyone else has the similar issue? even close all the recent apps doesn't seem to increase the memory available. is it ROM/OS related issue?
I got 1,23Go RAM used for 542Mo available after clearing recent apps.
This is a common misconception, but on Android unused memory is wasted memory. It's good to have that being used by Android daemons running in the background as it speeds up processes and user experience.
I'd say don't worry about.
seanpr123 said:
This is a common misconception, but on Android unused memory is wasted memory. It's good to have that being used by Android daemons running in the background as it speeds up processes and user experience.
I'd say don't worry about.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for the reply. it's just my OCD...i always wanna see more memory available than in use...
Just as Sean said, unused ram is useless ram.
It's all about access speed, the more data you store in ram the more content is quickly available.
Flash memory has an average transfer rate of 5 to 7mb/s while ram has an average transfer rate of several gb/s.
The difference in speed here is very noticeable and the main reason why recent android versions (or Linux in general) caches so much data in ram.
Long story short, the more ram is in use, the faster your phone gets.
400mb is basically the safety threshold that it keeps unoccupied just to be sure it has some left in case of an emergency (you trying to open content that isn't already cached).
Gesendet von meinem MI 2 mit Tapatalk
seanpr123 said:
This is a common misconception, but on Android unused memory is wasted memory. It's good to have that being used by Android daemons running in the background as it speeds up processes and user experience.
I'd say don't worry about.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If I don't reboot my Xperia Z for a few days it ends up with like 170mb of free ram and loses its power to multi task and the phone because laggy as hell lol >_>
That's a different issue I would say.
The services occupying the ram should give up caching memory once a newcomer requires ram.
This changes nothing about the fact that, if it's done right, caching is the way to go.
Probably a bugged software component rather than an broken ideal.
Sent from my X9006 using Tapatalk
MrColdbird said:
That's a different issue I would say.
The services occupying the ram should give up caching memory once a newcomer requires ram.
This changes nothing about the fact that, if it's done right, caching is the way to go.
Probably a bugged software component rather than an broken ideal.
Sent from my X9006 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
after 2-3 days of use, i find that the free (unused) RAM are actually not a problem, doesn't matter there is 300MB left or 600MB left, i can hardly tell the difference. but the most important thing is, the experience is very smooth and running well, no laggy. i'm actually very impressed. i think OPPO did a great job on managing background apps and optimizing user experience on the find 7a here!
I'm still pretty new to Android so I don't know what is normal, but why does the system use so much RAM when it is supposedly doing nothing? On my 2GB model, after a reboot it says that 1.2GB are free, but this soon drops to 900MB and continues to drop to 500 or 600MB, even if all apps are closed. Is this something I should just ignore and trust that tge Android system knows best and uses RAM appropriately?
kanagawaben said:
I'm still pretty new to Android so I don't know what is normal, but why does the system use so much RAM when it is supposedly doing nothing? On my 2GB model, after a reboot it says that 1.2GB are free, but this soon drops to 900MB and continues to drop to 500 or 600MB, even if all apps are closed. Is this something I should just ignore and trust that tge Android system knows best and uses RAM appropriately?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This must be the well-publicised Android 5.0.x memory leak.
DanielKennethRego said:
This must be the well-publicised Android 5.0.x memory leak.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Possibly, but my Memo Pad 7 seems much the same, and that's still on 4.4.2
If there is free memory then Android will let the apps sit in memory invisibly even after you have closed them - this way they will load faster next time you launch them. If the amount of free memory gets low Android will close some of those invisible apps. So that is normal, unless the amount of free RAM keeps decreasing while you do nothing with it - in that case there must be some bad memory leak.
In android, unused memory is kind of waste so system will allocate usage in a high percentage for efficiency.
DanielKennethRego said:
This must be the well-publicised Android 5.0.x memory leak.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
graphO said:
If there is free memory then Android will let the apps sit in memory invisibly even after you have closed them - this way they will load faster next time you launch them. If the amount of free memory gets low Android will close some of those invisible apps. So that is normal, unless the amount of free RAM keeps decreasing while you do nothing with it - in that case there must be some bad memory leak.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
xda_husky said:
In android, unused memory is kind of waste so system will allocate usage in a high percentage for efficiency.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
kanagawaben said:
Possibly, but my Memo Pad 7 seems much the same, and that's still on 4.4.2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is not a memory leak. All devices which are on papers 2GB are actually less than that. Take memory for example. My Nexus says 32GB but I get around 27GB. Same goes on with USB flash drivers/ pen drives.
Secondly, On Windows, you want to keep as much RAM available as you can so that programs have enough room to operate. When RAM fills up, Windows is forced to start using hard drive space as virtual RAM and hard drives are much slower than physical RAM.
This is not true for Android.
Android’s operating system has its own native handler for assigning RAM to apps and making sure that all of it is being used in the most optimal way. In fact, Android purposely tries to keep apps loaded into RAM for better performance. RAM is fast, remember? On mobile devices, every bit of speed is critical for a good user experience, so keeping apps in RAM is actually a good thing. So regardless how much your RAM is shown, it wouldn't affect your user experience unless the apps installed in your phone are more than RAM can handle at a time which means either update your phone with more RAM or uninstall your apps that you do not use!
Hnk1 said:
It is not a memory leak. All devices which are on papers 2GB are actually less than that. Take memory for example. My Nexus says 32GB but I get around 27GB. Same goes on with USB flash drivers/ pen drives.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is not what OP is saying, at all.
DanielKennethRego said:
That is not what OP is saying, at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The OP says that the memory decreases over time. If you read my post again, i simply said as you more applications are loaded over time, the memory starts to decrease! This is what causes the memory to decrease and if you could use a bit of logic, you could have easily come to the conclusion
Hnk1 said:
The OP says that the memory decreases over time. If you read my post again, i simply said as you more applications are loaded over time, the memory starts to decrease! This is what causes the memory to decrease and if you could use a bit of logic, you could have easily come to the conclusion
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
...And that is not what I quoted in my reply, is it?
DanielKennethRego said:
...And that is not what I quoted in my reply, is it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sometimes it's good to swallow some pride and in that there's more dignity. I explained everything from bits and pieces and I'm sure OP can conclude it unlike you.
Do not hesitate to quote me for any query. Always welcomed
Hnk1 said:
It is not a memory leak. All devices which are on papers 2GB are actually less than that. Take memory for example. My Nexus says 32GB but I get around 27GB. Same goes on with USB flash drivers/ pen drives.
Secondly, On Windows, you want to keep as much RAM available as you can so that programs have enough room to operate. When RAM fills up, Windows is forced to start using hard drive space as virtual RAM and hard drives are much slower than physical RAM.
This is not true for Android.
Android’s operating system has its own native handler for assigning RAM to apps and making sure that all of it is being used in the most optimal way. In fact, Android purposely tries to keep apps loaded into RAM for better performance. RAM is fast, remember? On mobile devices, every bit of speed is critical for a good user experience, so keeping apps in RAM is actually a good thing. So regardless how much your RAM is shown, it wouldn't affect your user experience unless the apps installed in your phone are more than RAM can handle at a time which means either update your phone with more RAM or uninstall your apps that you do not use!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I must say, although most of what you say is true, having less free ram absolutely does have a negative effect on user experience. My browser tends to crash, non-intensive games face lag spikes and the general UI stutters. Is this due to Android or Asus' tweaks to Android doing a poor job at managing ram? I don't doubt that in a perfect scenario with a perfect OS, what you said holds true.
I've not had good experience with the RAM so far. My browser tabs fall out of memory more than my cheap 1GB phone. It's rather disappointing. Even just switching between 2 or 3 tabs and going back to a tab after a few seconds and it's already fallen out.
aloy99 said:
I must say, although most of what you say is true, having less free ram absolutely does have a negative effect on user experience. My browser tends to crash, non-intensive games face lag spikes and the general UI stutters. Is this due to Android or Asus' tweaks to Android doing a poor job at managing ram? I don't doubt that in a perfect scenario with a perfect OS, what you said holds true.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
damian5000 said:
I've not had good experience with the RAM so far. My browser tabs fall out of memory more than my cheap 1GB phone. It's rather disappointing. Even just switching between 2 or 3 tabs and going back to a tab after a few seconds and it's already fallen out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes as I mentioned before, if the apps which are preloaded are more than RAM can handle, you'd surely see a lag but killing background apps wouldn't be of much help either unless your RAM memory has too many preloaded apps already which is affecting performance of your phone. If you are rooted, apps like greenify / titanium can hibernate / freeze apps which take up memory and usually this helps in better user interface but again many other argue the opposite.
Are you using Asus Browser ? If yes, I'd suggest to use chrome as your default browser because Asus Browser is not only slow but also it drains a lot of battery. This has been proven extensively and even reviewed on different websites including gsmarena.
Basically Nexus provides pure Android interface which every manufacturer tweaks a bit according to their own needs. Usually this tweaking means more memory usage(Ram) by system UI. This is one reason that Samsung's touch wiz lags a lot on lower end phones but the same hardware runs smooth without touchwiz. The reason is Samsung has lots of tweaks in system UI .
Some browsers conserve memory by only keeping the tab used in memory and rest are loaded when you switch them. They aren't preloaded but usually this option is available in settings to preload pages which would use more memory.
I have preordered the device with 4gb so I'm afraid I can't compare your device with mine in this regard.
Kindly tell me which browsers are you using so I can comment further
Hnk1 said:
Yes as I mentioned before, if the apps which are preloaded are more than RAM can handle, you'd surely see a lag but killing background apps wouldn't be of much help either unless your RAM memory has too many preloaded apps already which is affecting performance of your phone. If you are rooted, apps like greenify / titanium can hibernate / freeze apps which take up memory and usually this helps in better user interface but again many other argue the opposite.
Are you using Asus Browser ? If yes, I'd suggest to use chrome as your default browser because Asus Browser is not only slow but also it drains a lot of battery. This has been proven extensively and even reviewed on different websites including gsmarena.
Basically Nexus provides pure Android interface which every manufacturer tweaks a bit according to their own needs. Usually this tweaking means more memory usage(Ram) by system UI. This is one reason that Samsung's touch wiz lags a lot on lower end phones but the same hardware runs smooth without touchwiz. The reason is Samsung has lots of tweaks in system UI .
Some browsers conserve memory by only keeping the tab used in memory and rest are loaded when you switch them. They aren't preloaded but usually this option is available in settings to preload pages which would use more memory.
I have preordered the device with 4gb so I'm afraid I can't compare your device with mine in this regard.
Kindly tell me which browsers are you using so I can comment further
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Using Chrome. That's the whole point of having more memory, so they don't have to be reloaded when switching.
If I had 10 tabs open and switching back and forth over a long period of time, this is understandable. Not 2 or 3 tabs and switching between two tabs within 10 seconds. Defeats the entire purpose of having 2GB of RAM. The same thing happens switching between apps. Many of them fall out of memory within just a few seconds of switching back and forth. My 1GB phone does better than this. Something to do with whatever memory management Asus has set up.
damian5000 said:
Using Chrome. That's the whole point of having more memory, so they don't have to be reloaded when switching.
If I had 10 tabs open and switching back and forth over a long period of time, this is understandable. Not 2 or 3 tabs and switching between two tabs within 10 seconds. Defeats the entire purpose of having 2GB of RAM. The same thing happens switching between apps. Many of them fall out of memory within just a few seconds of switching back and forth. My 1GB phone does better than this. Something to do with whatever memory management Asus has set up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I understand your frustrations and it could be Asus related buy I think this is how chrome operates generally so it's the browser in my opinion. I suggest you use dolphin browser (not mini version) because it usually preloads pages on my devices and it is fast as well but I usually use it for flash support only. I prefer opera classic (now opera) on my phone with chrome . On my tab, I use chrome only. It always works for me and it's Asus made. Tell me what you think of it after using it a bit . I like chrome for its sync support which is very simple and helpful.
Hnk1 said:
Yes as I mentioned before, if the apps which are preloaded are more than RAM can handle, you'd surely see a lag but killing background apps wouldn't be of much help either unless your RAM memory has too many preloaded apps already which is affecting performance of your phone. If you are rooted, apps like greenify / titanium can hibernate / freeze apps which take up memory and usually this helps in better user interface but again many other argue the opposite.
Are you using Asus Browser ? If yes, I'd suggest to use chrome as your default browser because Asus Browser is not only slow but also it drains a lot of battery. This has been proven extensively and even reviewed on different websites including gsmarena.
Basically Nexus provides pure Android interface which every manufacturer tweaks a bit according to their own needs. Usually this tweaking means more memory usage(Ram) by system UI. This is one reason that Samsung's touch wiz lags a lot on lower end phones but the same hardware runs smooth without touchwiz. The reason is Samsung has lots of tweaks in system UI .
Some browsers conserve memory by only keeping the tab used in memory and rest are loaded when you switch them. They aren't preloaded but usually this option is available in settings to preload pages which would use more memory.
I have preordered the device with 4gb so I'm afraid I can't compare your device with mine in this regard.
Kindly tell me which browsers are you using so I can comment further
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Using Firefox, I read about the stock browser issues before getting the phone.
Clearing ram using the built in booster appears to help with performance, although it could be a placebo, and it's certainly less pronounced than on my previous phone with only 1GB of ram.
I have greenify'd/frozen a lot of apps, including some of the Asus bloatware. No comment on improved performance though.
Overall, I'm happy with the performance but low ram still seems to bother me, although such scenarios are rare.
aloy99 said:
Using Firefox, I read about the stock browser issues before getting the phone.
Clearing ram using the built in booster appears to help with performance, although it could be a placebo, and it's certainly less pronounced than on my previous phone with only 1GB of ram.
I have greenify'd/frozen a lot of apps, including some of the Asus bloatware. No comment on improved performance though.
Overall, I'm happy with the performance but low ram still seems to bother me, although such scenarios are rare.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you are more worried about RAM that is left in your memory rather than actual performance. This can happen especially if you had very high expectations from this phone. According to ASUS, this is a midrange phone on their website. Not a flagship if you are hoping!
I suggest check the performance by installing some heavy graphic games and see if it lags or not. I am sure that would be the best way to find out!
Good Luck!
The browser pages redrawing is almost certainly the lollipop memory leak. I don't have a zenfone 2 yet, but my nexus 7 had this problem up until the release of 5.1, so hopefully Asus updates to that soon.
i notice when i uninstalled clean master..my ram always on 1 gb free unlike before it stays at 650..700 free...notice my phone is even faster now
TOT_tomdora said:
The browser pages redrawing is almost certainly the lollipop memory leak. I don't have a zenfone 2 yet, but my nexus 7 had this problem up until the release of 5.1, so hopefully Asus updates to that soon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Correct, thank you for finally making that point clear as it's the main reason, which clearly isn't Asus' fault.
pato2015 said:
i notice when i uninstalled clean master..my ram always on 1 gb free unlike before it stays at 650..700 free...notice my phone is even faster now
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
An ironic, yet awesome find pato!:thumbup: Be sure to relay this to the other places on the net that you're involved with that pertains to the Zenfone 2.
Sent from the Ace's MB865 using Tapatalk
My last phone, the G3, has 3 GB of RAM. The G3 runs Lollipop perfectly. The S6 edge has 3 GB of RAM and there's never any of it. I understand that there's a very aggressive low memory killer but it is ridiculous that a top of the line phone needs to reclaim my podcast app or Audible while they're playing. There should be a ton of free memory and a ton of cached apps in it but the memory is full and there is nothing cached. I've never been so frustrated with a phone. I spend a lot of time sighing at it when it does something stupid. Anyway, if anyone knows where this mysterious memory is being used, please chime in.
There are suspicions that it could be related to the touchwiz launcher, try a different launcher just for the heck of it and see how it goes.
Pp.
gunslingerfry said:
My last phone, the G3, has 3 GB of RAM. The G3 runs Lollipop perfectly. The S6 edge has 3 GB of RAM and there's never any of it. I understand that there's a very aggressive low memory killer but it is ridiculous that a top of the line phone needs to reclaim my podcast app or Audible while they're playing. There should be a ton of free memory and a ton of cached apps in it but the memory is full and there is nothing cached. I've never been so frustrated with a phone. I spend a lot of time sighing at it when it does something stupid. Anyway, if anyone knows where this mysterious memory is being used, please chime in.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi gunslingerfry,
I was just reading about this on forbes. Here is what their author says to explain the poor memory usage and how to fix it "What should happen is RAM used by apps and services is released when those apps and services are not in use. Instead it is not being released which means each new app or service has to eat into additional memory until there is no more available, at which point the slowdowns and crashes begin.
The only half solutions at present are a) to hit the ‘Close All’ button in the multitasking card menu to dismiss all apps to try and claw some memory back, or b) to reboot the device. Interestingly the latter is expected to have helped keep the issue under the radar in reviews as performance testing is always done from a fresh boot."
So it sounds like you are sort of out of luck for now, but I am sure there will be some update that fixes the issue shortly.
I'm experiencing this myself but apps that I reopen from the multitask window have to reload and I lose where I was previously.. Very annoying to say the least.
Sent from my SM-G925T using Tapatalk
PanchoPlanet said:
There are suspicions that it could be related to the touchwiz launcher, try a different launcher just for the heck of it and see how it goes.
Pp.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I never use the TW launcher because I don't enjoy using it. I use Action Launcher. It's very lightweight.
Goldmeyer said:
Hi gunslingerfry,
I was just reading about this on forbes. Here is what their author says to explain the poor memory usage and how to fix it "What should happen is RAM used by apps and services is released when those apps and services are not in use. Instead it is not being released which means each new app or service has to eat into additional memory until there is no more available, at which point the slowdowns and crashes begin.
The only half solutions at present are a) to hit the ‘Close All’ button in the multitasking card menu to dismiss all apps to try and claw some memory back, or b) to reboot the device. Interestingly the latter is expected to have helped keep the issue under the radar in reviews as performance testing is always done from a fresh boot."
So it sounds like you are sort of out of luck for now, but I am sure there will be some update that fixes the issue shortly.
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Goldmeyer, this doesn't explain why it's 75% utilized on boot but with no running apps (according to the smart manager app). I've tried the build.prop tweaks posted around here and there is a significant difference. Smart manager reports there are dozens of apps being pre-loaded on boot (which is normal, this is what we want!) but with the same 75% utilized. Those tweaks tended to lag the device after a couple hours, which may be a manifestation of what the Forbes article is referring to. So I guess the thing I don't get, and maybe a better understanding of what the dha/lmk values that are being tweaked would help, is what is currently allocating all that excess memory? Is TW just allocating ridiculous amounts of memory to make sure it runs smoothly? Is Android hoarding it for its own uses? And if so, how can any device with less than 3 GB of ram possibly function on Lollipop?
On a much more technical note, I understand that running 64 bit means using a little more ram. Addresses are twice the size and integers will be twice the size but that doesn't explain 2.3 GB. It shouldn't be loading the entire system partition into ram.
I can live with the Nexus 5X' relative sluggishness when compared to the Nexus 5, but what really stops me from doing my work is the phone killing apps when I switch between them.
Example: I may be filling out a form on a website in Firefox for Android. I need to look up a word in the dictionary, so I switch over to the dictionary and look up the word. When I switch back to Firefox, the application has obviously been killed, as it reloads the page.
Example2: I'm listening to the Audio version of the Economist via the Economist app. The speaker mentions a certain placename and I open the Google Maps app in order too find where it is on the map. Suddenly the audio will stop playing - the app has been killed.
The above gets considerably worse when switching between more than two apps and is really hindering my work and productivity.
Now this almost never happened on the Nexus 5, which also only had 2 GB of RAM. So is it the power saving feature of the Nexus 5X kicking in? Is there a way to stop it from happening?
Marshmallow simply has very bad RAM management from what I've seen. I used to have the Nexus 5 too and as you said, multitasking was a very good experience on it (especially on Kitkat). Google's OS takes more of the phone's resources after each update (with no major new features or improvements). Marshmallow looks exactly the same as Lollipop, except for the tiny feature of apps permissions, and the Now on tap that I barely use (same for Android pay which I'm sure most of Nexus 5x owners won't even be able to use it outside the US). So I still don't understand why they had to jump so fast to a new version of Android while Lollipop still had a ****load of bugs that need fixing, they could've worked more on Lollipop to perfect it first then give us Marshmallow after 2 years maybe, we're not in a hurry.. I just hope they don't stop again at Marshmallow 6.1/6.2 or something and introduce Android N *sigh*
Sounds like you have more user installed apps with constantly running background services installed that the phone can comfortably handle with 2GB memory.
Check the memory stats in Settings - if the average over all the time options is 1.6GB or above used then your phone is going to struggle and cached apps are going to be getting cleared out when switching regularly. Look down the list particulary for apps running close to 100% of the time with a big RAM fingerprint. Also check running services in developer settings to get an idea of what is running a service all of the time.
Once you've identified the worst offenders make that difficult decision - is the apps utility worth it for the impact on performance. Consider reporting the memory use to the developer, particularly if it's much lower after a reboot and increases over time. Plenty of playstore apps ship with clear memory leak issues.
Other than that the other option is reasonably regular reboots to keep the system fresh and clear out any memory leaks.
thanks for the suggestion. Well here's the top 5:
Android operating system 524 MB
Wechat 156 MB
Firefox 117 MB
System UI 105 MB
Android system 99 MB
Clearly it's mostly the system using all resources. Firefox and Wechat, sure, I find them rather essential to my life, but together they don't even use as much as the OS.
Thing is, I can't remember this happening on the Nexus 5.
Sounds like you may have some apps using up a lot of your memory. I haven't been seeing any redraws with my apps, even 24+ hours of sitting in the background. The other day I was switching between gaming, streaming a live sporting even, and text messaging and the phone didn't drop a beat despite the game alone using 600MB of RAM.
Are those the average RAM or peak?
that's what shows up when I get the details of the RAM usage through settings
still this never happened on the Nexus 5, at least I can't remember
Yeah, I have a hard time believing it's the apps. I never had this issue come up in my Moto X 2013 (also 2 GB of RAM) using the same apps. We're seriously talking about one app open, switching to another app. No reason switching back to the first app should have everything reload.
Unless by "some apps," you mean that they have somehow not been optimized for Marshmallow in some way or other. But the apps simply running a process? A smartly-made OS (Lollipop, KitKat) will know "Hey, we have to kill something to free up RAM? Why don't we kill an app that hasn't been used in a while?" and a less-smartly-made OS (perhaps Marshmallow...?) will think "Hey, we have to kill something to free up RAM... why don't we kill the app the user just used?"
And there are two figures there - average and peak - which are those?
If there are the averages rather than peak then both Firefox and Wechat have got a problem.
---------- Post added at 06:42 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:34 AM ----------
Marshmallow and Lollipop low RAM behaviour is pretty much identical and quite aggressive (the OS tries to preserve quite a chunk of free memory which is uses on the sly as a display buffer), KitKat was less aggressive.
I don't have any problem multitasking on my Nexus5x, but then again for the apps I've got when I check the memory tab I'm normally averaging 1.2-1.4GB used and 400-600MB average memory free so there is plenty of space for the OS to gracefully cache and uncache processes. If the phone is normally running at 1.5GB-1.6GB used and 200-300MB then the LMK is going to be kicking in frequently. It kicks in at around 250MB free on a Nexus5x.
It was the default setting, i.e. average. HM ok good to know. It's happening quite often when listening to the Economist too. Which is really bull****, it should treat it as audio playing. Why would Android kill your music.
I agree music players don't get the priority they should, although that particular 'bug' at least gives a clear symptom that lack of free RAM is an issue, if not the cause of the issue e.g. the OS, to many running services from user apps, or a particular user app with memory leak issues.
I came to the Nexus5x from a 1GB Moto G where it was almost impossible to keep background music running in combination with navigation after Lollipop without uninstalling pretty much everything else user installed and have got used to monitoring the RAM footprint and behaviour of apps as a result.
I've suffered the problem once since I've had the Nexus5x and that was due to the music player (Soundcloud) being a memory hog (120MB+) with it's background music player service coupled with a memory leak in the driving app I was testing at the time - Automate - it was peaking at 460MB use.
I'm not so precious about what is installed now but anything that wants to run a constant service either has to be tiny when running that service or absolutely fundamental to my use of the device.
I find this to be the worst problem .We want to kill our apps like we are use to.Switching between email and chrome is horrible especially when you have to start your application all-over again (submission request) Hopefully some XDA member will figure out how to solve this issue. For now I am testing DEVELOPER OPTIONS allow running
apps in background ? Anyone know what the default value is??