Develop Bugs

Background-ed app eating CPU resources!

Hi,
We all knew that we should not use task killer to kill apps, because when we hit the back button, the app will not active anymore ... but it will still occupy some memory (RAM).
When Android OS needs more RAM it will remove in-active apps to free some.
Related article: http://geekfor.me/faq/you-shouldnt-be-using-a-task-killer-with-android/ (GOOD READ)
We should not panic when we see a huge list of apps when we start task killer.
Ok, got it there ...
Now, I installed this app called Quick System Info (FREE):
http://www.cyrket.com/p/android/org.uguess.android.sysinfo/
Which you can use to see what kind of processes are still running or apps that are still occupying RAM. It could show you the amount of RAM and CPU resources that are being used by each app.
So, I went to the Quick System Info -> Processes, hit the "menu" button -> Preferences and set like this:
- Update Speed = Low
- Show Memory Usage [checked]
- Show CPU Usage [checked]
- Sort by = CPU Usage
- Direction = Descending
Go back and watch ...
Surprisingly, I saw "Market" app is eating 1% CPU resources once in a while ... again and again ...
Hey, I thought it (Market app) is suspended in the background? I don't have it active, I pressed the back button when I finished with it.
Why is it eating 1% CPU from now an then in the background?
Obviously, this will drain battery power for something that I don't need.
Any thought?
I am now wondering if I install other kind of process monitoring app, and see if the suspended Quick System Info is also eating CPU resources

Why should we not use task killers? I`ve used them on android for the last year otherwise like you say background tasks use resources slowing up the system.
Obviously dont close any system important apps but I`m always closing down background apps that I no longer require.

1% every now and again? I really wouldn't worry about that to be perfectly honest. The impact on battery life will be incredibly small, so much so I doubt you'd even notice if you weren't watching it like a hawk.
By far the biggest drain on battery life remains all of the wireless stuff (wifi, bluetooth and 3G internet) followed closely by the screen itself. Turn those off when not in use and the miniscule drain of suspended tasks won't be an issue.
I'm sure if Google thought suspended tasks would be an important factor in battery drain they would've designed it differently to start with.

Read this article
http://geekfor.me/faq/you-shouldnt-be-using-a-task-killer-with-android/
paulruk said:
Why should we not use task killers? I`ve used them on android for the last year otherwise like you say background tasks use resources slowing up the system.
Obviously dont close any system important apps but I`m always closing down background apps that I no longer require.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

It does every minute or so, and so far I found only this app (Market).
I just found out this morning before went to work, so I don't have time to inspect more.
Too bad I cannot see CPU TIME (the amount of time the process took 100% of cpu resources).
Noiz said:
1% every now and again? I really wouldn't worry about that to be perfectly honest. The impact on battery life will be incredibly small, so much so I doubt you'd even notice if you weren't watching it like a hawk.
By far the biggest drain on battery life remains all of the wireless stuff (wifi, bluetooth and 3G internet) followed closely by the screen itself. Turn those off when not in use and the miniscule drain of suspended tasks won't be an issue.
I'm sure if Google thought suspended tasks would be an important factor in battery drain they would've designed it differently to start with.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

that 1% would be it occasionally checking in with the market to see if any updates have been released for the programs you have installed, so that it can give you a notification when the update is released.
i would imagine that is what it is anyway.
and yes, 1% every so often is negligible, and if you killed just that process, i doubt you would notice any difference.

gogol said:
Surprisingly, I saw "Market" app is eating 1% CPU resources once in a while ... again and again ...
Hey, I thought it (Market app) is suspended in the background? I don't have it active, I pressed the back button when I finished with it.
Why is it eating 1% CPU from now an then in the background?
Obviously, this will drain battery power for something that I don't need.
Any thought?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am not sure about this..
Have you noticed that you will get a notification if there is an update to application that is installed in your phone?
I think the marketplace doesn't have a push notification yet. So it periodically will check whether there is any update to the installed application.

Allright, that might be it ... the Market is checking for apps aupdate.
And most probably 1% is not much (I don't know how to measure this and translate it to battery life time). 1% every minute ... hmmm
1 hour of 1% cpu per minute = X % of battery life.
If we have N processes?
N = email check, weather check, friendstream check, RSS check, whatnot check

I`ll give you an example why I use a task killer.
Sometimes I use an app that goes online every few minutes and notifies me of any updates. I can 100% be certain this app even when in the background uses enough cpu to cause the phone to slowdown. Dont ask me why, maybe bad programming but this is the exact reason why I need a task killer to get rid of it.
Once its gone the phone is fine again. it happends on a few apps I own, so when I finish with them, I kill them.
I wouldnt recommend a task killer that kills everything, you just need to be selective.

That is a perfect example for using task killer
What I wrote in the first post is about using task killer to just kill apps without knowing anything.
In the past, I just select all and KILL ... Then the HTC Sense got reloaded
I was scared it could corrupt my phone ... lol.
paulruk said:
I`ll give you an example why I use a task killer.
Sometimes I use an app that goes online every few minutes and notifies me of any updates. I can 100% be certain this app even when in the background uses enough cpu to cause the phone to slowdown. Dont ask me why, maybe bad programming but this is the exact reason why I need a task killer to get rid of it.
Once its gone the phone is fine again. it happends on a few apps I own, so when I finish with them, I kill them.
I wouldnt recommend a task killer that kills everything, you just need to be selective.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Yes thats a bit extreme killing everything.
I`ve also used startup auditor in the past. That stops some apps loading at startup , for example footprints, never use it so I kill it before it gets a chance to load up. Have to be careful what you limit though as some tasks are used by others.

That Startup Auditor is interesting, does it work as expected?
Or you encountered some quirks or issues with it?
Yeah, I don't quite like with the way Android startup (or HTC?), for example: FM radio ... it also started automatically after reboot.
paulruk said:
Yes thats a bit extreme killing everything.
I`ve also used startup auditor in the past. That stops some apps loading at startup , for example footprints, never use it so I kill it before it gets a chance to load up. Have to be careful what you limit though as some tasks are used by others.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

gogol said:
That Startup Auditor is interesting, does it work as expected?
Or you encountered some quirks or issues with it?
Yeah, I don't quite like with the way Android startup (or HTC?), for example: FM radio ... it also started automatically after reboot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seems to work fine, not sure what help it is though hehe, in terms of speed/memory savings. I stop the radio , bluetooth,google talk and footprints. But I also use it to start some apps automatically.
I found this list of what you can/can`t disable. You can still run them after startup, just they wont load automatically when you start the phone.
safe
Google Partner Setup
Network Location (if not using apps which need geolocation regularly. ie. Gmaps, GeoTag, etc.)
Bluetooth Share (if not using BT device)
Email (if not using email service other than Gmail)
Messaging (if using 3rd party sms app, ie. Handcent SMS. or if infrequent texter)
Calendar (if calendar is not used regularly)
Calendar Storage (if calendar is not used regularly)
Voice Dialer (if not used)
Google Talk Service (if GTalk is not used regularly)
Maps (if GMaps is not used regularly)
unsafe
Clock
Media Storage
Android System
Gmail Storage
Sync Feeds
Dialer
System Updater (not sure about this one)
My Uploads (not sure about this one)
Download Manager (not sure about this one)

Tips on Improving Battery Life and Speed

I see lots of posts around the Interwebs complaining about battery life on smartphones (specifically Android ones, since I don't hang out on sites that are aligned with evil Apple), so I decided to consolidate my knowledge for people with Slide's to improve their battery life.
DISPLAY
This uses about 80% of the power according to battery use on auto-brightness. On a bright day I can read the screen at about 1/5 position on the brightness bar which cuts down heavily on the battery use.
There's not much else we can do to cut down on screen power usage, so moving on.
CPU
This one requires SetCPU, I strongly urge you to buy it from the Market (it's just a few bucks IIRC) and supports the AWESOME dev. If you're cheap just go download it from that link.
Once you have it you'll want to set up profiles! So click profiles, check the box next to the Sleep profile and choose 480,000/480,000 with ondemand scaler! I have no idea if it actually changes anything but the placebo effect is nice. Next back out of that and set the CPU governor to performance. What this does is clock the CPU to 600mhz constantly instead of scaling between 480mhz and 600mhz as the additional power is needed. It cuts down on choppiness while barely increasing the amount of battery required (in my experience the Slide tends to jump up to 600mhz when I'm not doing anything anyway).
Sync
Turn auto-sync off or set the sync intervals to the highest number possible (once a day I believe). It takes power and most of the time doesn't download anything important. If you really need some data just go and hit Sync Now and, well, it syncs.
Autostarts
There is this nifty little paid application in the market (costs like $1.25 or something) that you absolutely need: Autostarts
Basically applications launch when triggers are triggered, alot of these are pointless and just take up RAM and power.
These are what I have disabled:
After Startup
{Any 3rd party apps that aren't widgets}
Calendar Storage
Download Manager
Voice Dialer (unless you, yaknow, use it)
Maps
Mail
Calendar
HTC Media Uploader
My Account (unless you like the power alerts that take up power!)
Connectivity Changed
Download Manager
My Uploads
HTC Media Uploader
Genius Button
Media Mounted
My Uploads
Application Installed
Voice Dialer (wtf?)
Pico TTS (sem-wtf?)
Application Removed
Voice Dialer
Application Replaced
Maps (lolwut?)
Autokiller
There's an app called Autokiller, it changes the internal task killer's settings as to when to tell an app to shutdown (at stock settings this is almost never).
I use the moderate preset, but you may want to increase it if you never want to have to manually kill a task. Note that this method tells apps to cleanly shut down so data is saved (such as the page you are on in the Browser)
Additional Settings
In Mobile Networks set to GSM only (no 3G)
Turn GPS and WiFi off when not in use
Turn always on data off
Use a silent or vibrate alert method instead of sound alerts
Turn off your screen whenever you can
If you flashed ENG-BUILD flash the updated RADIO!!!!!!!
Protips
Do several battery cycles every 6 weeks (Charge to 100%, discharge to 0%, charge 2 hours past green LED while phone is off)
Espresso is heavy duty stuff, use a non-sense ROM for additional speed
Charging via USB takes significantly longer than charging via AV
Live Wallpapers will use lots of battery
Use wallpapers formatted at 480x320
Limit the amount of widgets you have to around 5 (unless they are from the same app, like Beautiful Widgets) they constantly refresh and do their thing in the background
I learned most of this thanks to enatefox's guide which I modified to suit the Slide, a coffee fueled mind, and general observations. If you have anything to contribute please let me know and I'll add it!

check general, few threads there on this .. it seems the development section is the hot spot around here..

an APN widget will do wonders, or even juicedefender.
i disable APN until I need it. screen is about 30% always. after everything i do i lock the screen.
on a normal days use (1-2hr phone calls, 30-50min of browsing the net, a ton of text messaging, and streaming slingbox) I'll have about 60% battery by 10pm.

great guide. thank you.
does autostart continually kill those processes? I ask because that long list of bloatware you listed is what is irritating me on my slide and even when I force kill them all they restart themselves every 5 minutes. I have taskilller set to kill them and they come back like the herp constantly.

skullkandy said:
great guide. thank you.
does autostart continually kill those processes? I ask because that long list of bloatware you listed is what is irritating me on my slide and even when I force kill them all they restart themselves every 5 minutes. I have taskilller set to kill them and they come back like the herp constantly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Autostarts does not 'kill' processes, it disables them from running when certain triggers are triggered.
For example if SpywareApplicationOVER9000 runs everytime an application is installed, and you disable it in Autostarts, then it will not run when an application is uninstalled
ArizonaDomer said:
an APN widget will do wonders, or even juicedefender.
i disable APN until I need it. screen is about 30% always. after everything i do i lock the screen.
on a normal days use (1-2hr phone calls, 30-50min of browsing the net, a ton of text messaging, and streaming slingbox) I'll have about 60% battery by 10pm.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you write up a quick how to for Juicedefender?

Battery Consumption Too High

Hello Guys and Gals,
Its been awhile since i have been on here. But i have been very satisfied with my Note4. However. It had come to a point that carrying 4 batteries with me to make it through the day was too much.
Here i am . Finally upgraded to the 8+ and overall. I am very dissapointed.
So. i would like some input on what changes you have done, as well as apps running, how much you use the device, your daily connections. and so on.
i have:
Bluetooth always on, connected to my Gear S2
Location services always on
I am a big social media junky, on FB, and IG, not too much of Snapchat.
I use Line to talk to my group that i game with
I play Transformers Earth Wars, about 15 minutes at a time a few times a day.
Do not use bixby
Screen display is set at Amoled Cinema, HD resolution, auto brightness is turned off stays between 30-60%
Very Rarely use WiFi
Google apps do not auto Update
USB Debugging
3 gmail accounts linked, sync is off
Anything else just ask,
So after my 8hr shift of work, my phone is at about 40%, my Note4 on would almost make the whole day, i would get to about 20%, then i would switch batteries.
I am not happy with the battery. Just seems like for no reason it is draining.
Comment below, let me know your setting, impressions, and so on.......... Maybe im doing something wrong and dont realize it.

Well your first problem is all the social media apps, pretty much all of them just destroy battery life. When your not using those apps I would put them to sleep.
You need to monitor which apps are draining the battery. You can do this through the stock device mait. app. Once you find out which apps are causing the drain we can go from there.
I use standard mode, screen on WQHD, sync always on, all data no wifi, screen at 50 % or higher. No social media apps, I use the browser for those.
Here's some screen shots of battery life, this is and average battery cycle, I have reached over 9hrs of Screen on time (SOT) and 1.5 days in previous cycles.

Quickvic30 said:
Well your first problem is all the social media apps, pretty much all of them just destroy battery life. When your not using those apps I would put them to sleep.
You need to monitor which apps are draining the battery. You can do this through the stock device mait. app. Once you find out which apps are causing the drain we can go from there.
I use standard mode, screen on WQHD, sync always on, all data no wifi, screen at 50 % or higher. No social media apps, I use the browser for those.
Here's some screen shots of battery life, this is and average battery cycle, I have reached over 9hrs of Screen on time (SOT) and 1.5 days in previous cycles.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ill try that. i close my apps out as soon as im done, but im guessing that isnt enough anymore. Thanks for the info. Just was hoping to get away from the charger, but it seems that will not happen.

primus123 said:
ill try that. i close my apps out as soon as im done, but im guessing that isnt enough anymore. Thanks for the info. Just was hoping to get away from the charger, but it seems that will not happen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Believe it or not sometimes that consumes more battery life having to open the app every time vs just letting it run in the background. Probably not true with social media apps but it's worth a try. You may also want to try a package disabler app from the play store to disable apps you don't use that run in the background. I use BK package disabler.
Sent from my SM-G955W using XDA-Developers Legacy app

Quickvic30 said:
Believe it or not sometimes that consumes more battery life having to open the app every time vs just letting it run in the background. Probably not true with social media apps but it's worth a try. You may also want to try a package disabler app from the play store to disable apps you don't use that run in the background. I use BK package disabler.
Sent from my SM-G955W using XDA-Developers Legacy app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, i may give that a shot.
Thanks,

How to prevent apps from getting killed

Hi all,
I'm running several apps that should run all the time (AdGuard, Network Speed Meter) or for a long time (speed trap warner,...) but OxygenOS kills them after a certain period. Some of them restart automatically, some don't. Of course all of these apps are 'not battery optimized'. Is there any chance to prevent OxygenOS from killing them?
Are there custom ROMs that can overcome this problen?
I'm on the latest OxygenOS Pie Beta, but the behavior was similar on Android O...
Thanks a lot,
W

Did you try locking the app via recents menu?

Thank for the info, didn't know that.
Unfortunately it doesn't help, Adguard and the network monitor don't appear in recents. The speed trap warner automatically starts and stops when I'm in the car, i don't want to open recents manually every time.

Battery - Battery optimisation - Don't optimise

safwankatharudheen said:
Battery - Battery optimisation - Don't optimise
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is not changing anything,e ven with disable battery disabled, even with adaptative battery disabled.

I have the same problem. I have not found any solution whatsoever. This is really frustrating. I've made sure apps aren't optimized. Advanced optimization is disabled. Developer options background limit is at standard. I've pinned the apps in recent apps and it still happens. Apps get killed all the time.
For example,
1. I use Google Fit to start tracking a run. Within 10 minutes of tracking, the app is closed and workout not tracked. Its not even like i touched the phone and opened other apps during this.
2. I have VoIP account setup in the default dialer. Calls come through only 50% of the time cause the dialer is closed.
3. YouTube Music, constantly gets closed if i simply pause the music. Within 2 minutes, the app is closed.
4. Trying to transfer 15GB of files through Explorer app from phone to file server, never succeeds if i don't watch the app and keep the screen on.
5. Plex gets closed and therefore my photos don't auto backup with the phone is plugged in.
This is absolutely ridiculous! Why the hell a phone with 8GB of RAM is killing apps is beyond me!
Custom ROM on the same phone, like Lineage OS, no issues. Can have optimization on, battery manager on and all. In fact, battery life is better on custom when its not killing the apps! Seems to be the only solution until OOS can stop killing apps so aggressively.

M3drvr said:
I have the same problem. I have not found any solution whatsoever. This is really frustrating. I've made sure apps aren't optimized. Advanced optimization is disabled. Developer options background limit is at standard. I've pinned the apps in recent apps and it still happens. Apps get killed all the time.
For example,
1. I use Google Fit to start tracking a run. Within 10 minutes of tracking, the app is closed and workout not tracked. Its not even like i touched the phone and opened other apps during this.
2. I have VoIP account setup in the default dialer. Calls come through only 50% of the time cause the dialer is closed.
3. YouTube Music, constantly gets closed if i simply pause the music. Within 2 minutes, the app is closed.
4. Trying to transfer 15GB of files through Explorer app from phone to file server, never succeeds if i don't watch the app and keep the screen on.
5. Plex gets closed and therefore my photos don't auto backup with the phone is plugged in.
This is absolutely ridiculous! Why the hell a phone with 8GB of RAM is killing apps is beyond me!
Custom ROM on the same phone, like Lineage OS, no issues. Can have optimization on, battery manager on and all. In fact, battery life is better on custom when its not killing the apps! Seems to be the only solution until OOS can stop killing apps so aggressively.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My app is not killed when i lock it in the switch app menu

There's a whole website regarding that issue on several devices, maybe it helps: dontkillmyapp(dot)com/general#user-solution

Question WTF s22 battery optimization

Hello guys,
i've reinstalled from scratch my s22 to try to boost my battery performance. Installed the last update and all the apps that i need. First battery cycle 6 hours and half of SOT yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!
But than comes the crappy part :/ after a full charge from zero with phone in shut down mode i've turned on it and.... almost 4 hours of sot.
WHHHHHHHHHHHHHHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!
Anyone have found the same problem?!?
How can it be possible to go from 6.30 to 4 with the same type of use?!?
DAMN S22!!!

All Samsung's need to be optimized for best performance. 4 hr SOT means you're burning up that battery too!
Turn off all global power management ie adaptive battery. Find the power hogs and deal with each on a case by case basis.
Cloud apps including Google backup.
Keep display brightness on manual and below 50% when possible.
Disable Google, Samsung, app and carrier feedback. Turn off Google Firebase.
Get rid of all installed social media trashware.
Try temporarily disabling Google play Services and see if this helps much; Google backup, Gmail and Playstore are dependencies.
Manually close out apps like Brave browser that insist on running in the background.
Use tap on AOD.
Kill wifi if you don't need it.
Turn off locations when not needed.

blackhawk said:
All Samsung's need to be optimized for best performance. 4 hr SOT means you're burning up that battery too!
Turn off all global power management ie adaptive battery. Find the power hogs and deal with each on a case by case basis.
Cloud apps including Google backup.
Keep display brightness on manual and below 50% when possible.
Disable Google, Samsung, app and carrier feedback. Turn off Google Firebase.
Get rid of all installed social media trashware.
Try temporarily disabling Google play Services and see if this helps much; Google backup, Gmail and Playstore are dependencies.
Manually close out apps like Brave browser that insist on running in the background.
Use tap on AOD.
Kill wifi if you don't need it.
Turn off locations when not needed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just turned off Adaptive Battery and now the phone is just flying through the apps. Yes, Twitter and co. can still have the occasional hick-up, but it is now significantly improved. I was about to sell the Ultra and already got an iPhone 13 Pro Max, but this is quite literally a game changer. Thank you, my man. Time to get the iPhone back to the store.

I haven't heard of the Brave issue. It doesn't seem to run in the background on my phone. And I don't know why it would if Chrome doesn't. Can you point me to a thread or something about Brave? I use it on all my PCs everyday and quite like it. And on my Kindle Fire, where running background apps are usually very apparent. Have I just not noticed on my phone for some reason?
blackhawk said:
All Samsung's need to be optimized for best performance. 4 hr SOT means you're burning up that battery too!
Turn off all global power management ie adaptive battery. Find the power hogs and deal with each on a case by case basis.
Cloud apps including Google backup.
Keep display brightness on manual and below 50% when possible.
Disable Google, Samsung, app and carrier feedback. Turn off Google Firebase.
Get rid of all installed social media trashware.
Try temporarily disabling Google play Services and see if this helps much; Google backup, Gmail and Playstore are dependencies.
Manually close out apps like Brave browser that insist on running in the background.
Use tap on AOD.
Kill wifi if you don't need it.
Turn off locations when not needed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

cuvtixo said:
I haven't heard of the Brave issue. It doesn't seem to run in the background on my phone. And I don't know why it would if Chrome doesn't. Can you point me to a thread or something about Brave? I use it on all my PCs everyday and quite like it. And on my Kindle Fire, where running background apps are usually very apparent. Have I just not noticed on my phone for some reason?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It does on my Note 10+/Pie. I can see it doing it on the firewall. So I close it out when not using it. May be just my configuration. Lol it doesn't need run at startup permissions.
Otherwise it's bulletproof, which is why I use it.
No malware ever slipped through it as it and the the N10+ are configured. It's been well tested...