Database Info

Low Available Memory

When my phone just started it is about 180, then it dropped to 90 after extensive use (20ish minutes).
That is even after using advanced task killer...
Anyone else experiencing this?

That's still plenty o' memory.
Keep in mind that there's a lot of folks getting good performance out of Droids, Milestones, etc, that have half the RAM (256) to start with, and hover around 20-30mb free in normal operation.

I was curious about this myself and was going to make a thread about it soon. Regardless of if it's enough free memory, I'm still a little confused as to where all my memory is going. When I close everything with TasKiller, I can get to about 175 MB of RAM free. I have a friend with an EVO that always gets well over 200 MB free, and I imagine that the HTC Sense UI would use a lot more memory than Launcher Pro (which is what I'm using)... but I could be wrong.

I can hit about 230 free after killing all tasks. I uninstalled all the ATT apps not sure if that had anything to do with it. I also use Touchwiz with only 2 Widgets accross 2 home screens.

maybe its android 2.1 that has a cap on the memory

Guys, a little piece of advice if you're new to Android. Don't sweat memory usage, if it's above 40mb free you're generally doing just fine.
And those apps that are using memory aren't using much if any CPU cycles or power, most are just cached in case you need them, and are wiped out of the cache if something else needs the memory.
On the other hand, if you're killing a lot of background tasks by reflex, those tasks are taking MORE time and power to reload again if they're no longer cached, plus there's the overhead of the Task Killer. It's especially bad if you have a Task Killer set to auto-kill apps, even more overhead as the task killer has to remain active to sniff for things to auto-kill.
Task Killers are the devil, and they're like crack. Just walk away.

labbu63 said:
maybe its android 2.1 that has a cap on the memory
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats what some people are saying. They said we should see more avail RAM when the 2.2 update comes out. Or if someone can do some kernel wizardry.
The specs on the box do not mention any amount of RAM. I would be unhappy if ATT only put in 256! I didn't look through the manual maybe it says in there.

Bjd223 said:
Thats what some people are saying. They said we should see more avail RAM when the 2.2 update comes out. Or if someone can do some kernel wizardry.
The specs on the box do not mention any amount of RAM. I would be unhappy if ATT only put in 256! I didn't look through the manual maybe it says in there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
im going to look into this more cause thats strange but i dont think you should worry much about the ram cause like it was said before if u have 40mb free ur still good

labbu63 said:
maybe its android 2.1 that has a cap on the memory
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Indeed that seems to be the case, many threads about the issue can be found elsewhere on xda or google. Also this technical article from google: developer.android.com/sdk/android-2.2-highlights.htm (I can't post links yet)

yep ur right says more mem support at near bottom http://developer.android.com/sdk/android-2.2-highlights.html
2.6.32 kernel upgrade
HIGHMEM support for RAM >256MB
so it seems cause of the kernel

Well that's interesting. So you're saying that no matter what, right now we're only accessing 256 MB of RAM? I hadn't heard that before about 2.1, but that would be cool if our RAM essentially doubled in 2.2 (along with the massive CPU speed gains seen).
Again, it's not so much being worried that I'm going to run out of memory. It's simply a discussion on what people think we should be seeing. I'm certain that I don't have enough running to use 300 MB of RAM, which is why the question was raised. So I think we have our answer now and can rest easy waiting for 2.2.
As for the task killers... I honestly am more worried about CPU cycles for things I've left in the background than RAM. I've noticed my phone basically hang for a few seconds every so often, and I can only assume that something in the background is causing it. I'm going to turn off auto kill and not kill tasks manually for a while and see if there is any difference during use.

labbu63 said:
im going to look into this more cause thats strange but i dont think you should worry much about the ram cause like it was said before if u have 40mb free ur still good
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
40? No. 40mb of free RAM is unacceptable with todays smartphones on the market. I own a Captivate as well as a Nexus One and my Nexus consistently has 200-250 avail RAM. However when they first released the phone they only released it with 256 avail making my phone normally read about 120- 130 avail RAM. Now its been opened up to the 512(unless it had already been rooted) and it is much quicker than before. I'm wondering if something similar has been done with this phone.

well if it does have more than 256 mb it will be able to recognize rest in 2.2 as you said about ur nexus one maybe its just that the software on the captivate thats showing less you never know just gotta wait till some dev figures it out hopefully not to long

My phone is reporting 325mb of RAM, so I'm not sure if this is the same kernel limitation. I would appreciate if anyone could enlighten me as to whether or not the full 512 I was under the impression this phone possessed will be available under 2.2.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

ttalaoc said:
My phone is reporting 325mb of RAM, so I'm not sure if this is the same kernel limitation. I would appreciate if anyone could enlighten me as to whether or not the full 512 I was under the impression this phone possessed will be available under 2.2.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's exactly the limitation being talked about. Yes, 512 will be available after 2.2.
Until then, don't worry about it. Don't install a task killer, they just waste your time worrying about it. The OS has built in levels of memory where it starts to kill off different types of apps from background idle, all the way up to foreground active if entirely necessary. It WILL kill the extra apps if you need the memory.

I have been running ATK constantly since I got my Captivate a couple days ago. Not really concerned with memory usage as much as battery life. So far I get one full day of use before recharge, but I expect that to go up once I stop turning on the screen every few minutes to play with it. Can auto task killing negatively affect battery life?

[Q]How much ram you have available?

On my phone i can get at least 175mb of ram free. For some weird reason my phone says in total of ram i have 576mb. But the specs online says its 768mb of ram. My gf myTouch 4g (non-slide) has more ram available than my slide. I will like to know your phone's ram? how much you have free?

Mine says the same thing. My guess is it has dedicated some ram as video memory.
Sent from my myTouch_4G_Slide using XDA App

tevroc said:
Mine says the same thing. My guess is it has dedicated some ram as video memory.
Sent from my myTouch_4G_Slide using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes
sonicjam said:
On my phone i can get at least 175mb of ram free. For some weird reason my phone says in total of ram i have 576mb. But the specs online says its 768mb of ram. My gf myTouch 4g (non-slide) has more ram available than my slide. I will like to know your phone's ram? how much you have free?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The OS itself reserves RAM for the GPU/Camera/Driver files like radio/cell/etc...
On Sense 3.0 a lot of RAM is used for sense to function since it has extended features compared to Stock/vanilla. You can use the task manager in the status/notification bar to close some apps but not all will be closed...There are background services and some apps that stay in RAM so that they can open faster later on...If you're phone is rooted then you can use the supercharger link in my sig to at least help with the available RAM issue and gain speed if that's an issue. I have a MT4G and I get more Free Ram than you when using the MT4GS's ROM or even the sensation's ROM too. Mines is normally around 200+. Please go in to settings->Manage apps->And look at running services

Yeah this is my 1st Android and I'm learning a lot about it. I am wondering if anyone else has the same space of ram. Man I wished it was 1gb of ram that would be awesome.
Sent from my myTouch 4g Slide.

sonicjam said:
Yeah this is my 1st Android and I'm learning a lot about it. I am wondering if anyone else has the same space of ram. Man I wished it was 1gb of ram that would be awesome.
Sent from my myTouch 4g Slide.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Low Ram is not a bad thing, this means android is caching files for faster access things later, this way that RAM is being used up. Most android phones have 512MB or less, imagine if you had that much on this phone, the EVO3D doesn't have as much as you would think available, as you know it also has Sense 3.0 . Your RAM issue can be addressed by closing active apps via the task manager as I had said before, or going directly into settings-->manage apps-->services or the options mentioning running apps.

I see what you mean it makes sense to me. So i'm good then.

It sucks!!
I hard reset my phone because my nephews install too much crap on it...and all i have free ram is 180-183....??? Is that what everyone gets??
For some reason, my friend's 4g Slide (khaki color) has more ram when I do a hard reset....

I have 177mb free with no applications running. 575mb total

The phone as shipped runs way to many background programs. I was never over 200mb free. I rooted my phone and have stripped out a ton of useless apps. I now see 400mb free when the phone starts but it usually ends up with ~350mb free.

If I kill EVERYTHING except a couple of processes (weather, beautiful widgets, wpclock, sense) i can get 235mb of free ram.
It honestly doesn't matter, the phone still performs great with less than 100mb free ram.
Edit: The HTC task manager says 174mb free, w/no apps running. ATK on the other hand, shows a tons of things that are running that don't need to be
My Account
Amazon Appstore
Google+
GMail
Elixir
Maps
Music
Notes
Video Chat
Twitter
I kill everything and get 220mb free ram.

raduque said:
If I kill EVERYTHING except a couple of processes (weather, beautiful widgets, wpclock, sense) i can get 235mb of free ram.
It honestly doesn't matter, the phone still performs great with less than 100mb free ram.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you think it runs great now try running it with the useless junk stripped out. It is easily 30-50% faster.

banzairx7 said:
If you think it runs great now try running it with the useless junk stripped out. It is easily 30-50% faster.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have deleted most everything that it came with (except a few things I would use anyway) and it really didn't change much except that I get more unused ram when I hit "kill selected apps" in ATK

[POLL] RAM consumption test request

It looks like KJ3 ROM on captivate uses more RAM that KH3. To confirm this can I reuest guys to post their RAM usage for KH, KI and all KJ versions. Please use TaskManager to clear memory and note the base RAM......it may not be accurate but will give an idea. In my experience KH3 runs around 170 MB and KJ3 is at 230 MB.
Thanks for any input

im on a kj3 rom using about 230 myself.

RAM in android is SUPPOSED to be used... free RAM is wasted RAM.

studacris said:
RAM in android is SUPPOSED to be used... free RAM is wasted RAM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
only true if the ram is taken by cache not some unknow process/bloatware.

erbsmokah said:
im on a kj3 rom using about 230 myself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, erbsmokah for your input.

studacris said:
RAM in android is SUPPOSED to be used... free RAM is wasted RAM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, but if you follow peoples comments on KJ3, like I am doing, KJ3 is using a much larger RAM amount, AND when further customized by adding apps, live wallpapers etc, is actually SLOWING the phone considerably. This making the phone real sluggish........which is new for a android ROM......??
EDIT: would you mind sharing your ROM and RAM?

arda99 said:
only true if the ram is taken by cache not some unknow process/bloatware.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with this especially on the KJ3......Something is different in what is running in the background, and I hope I can investigate if this turns out to be true for other people.

I agree and went back to fatsy ki rom and it stays faster longer without lag.
I also monitor free ram and once it gets below 40, it lags badly, over 50 it flies.
I think this phone really needed 1 gig like the gs2
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using xda premium

electroau said:
I think this phone really needed 1 gig like the gs2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1, if the captivate had more ram, I'd still be using it.

Simba501 said:
+1, if the captivate had more ram, I'd still be using it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 I myself am willing to agree..........if this RAM usage is a consensus on KJ3 then maybe the cappy is reaching its last usable ROM update? This is important to know......
EDIT: Of course, since this a leak release, then ATT/Samsung are fooling around with this build........., and maybe come back to normal on next leak ?? As a captivate owner, I would like to know what life my phone has as a "advanced" device........

chappatti said:
Yes, but if you follow peoples comments on KJ3, like I am doing, KJ3 is using a much larger RAM amount, AND when further customized by adding apps, live wallpapers etc, is actually SLOWING the phone considerably. This making the phone real sluggish........which is new for a android ROM......??
EDIT: would you mind sharing your ROM and RAM?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Fusion x beta kj3 267mb Ram used ATM. But no lag whatsoever.
If you find that the ram does get bogged down just on this firmware version then perhaps the lmk settings in the kernel aren't as aggressive, which would be easily fixed by SOURCE CODE.

studacris said:
Fusion x beta kj3 267mb Ram used ATM. But no lag whatsoever.
If you find that the ram does get bogged down just on this firmware version then perhaps the lmk settings in the kernel aren't as aggressive, which would be easily fixed by SOURCE CODE.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Point well taken........
But due you expect LMK to let ~100 MB slip by? It seems a little too much, since the limit on cappy is about 370 (usable). I would think we so much consumption LMK would kick in earlier?????

My KJ3 is using 227 MB. Free memory is ~50 MB. It lags significantly at times. However, I used Auto Memory Manager and set the Android internal task killer to "aggressive" and it keeps ~100 MB free an there is not lag at all now. I haven't noticed (yet) that apps get killed prematurely, which could be an issue with this setting. I'm using the Samurai 1.2 kernel overclocked to 1.252 GHz (no Voodoo lag fix). Other than the occasional black screen on the Gallery, my Captivate has been running pretty fast and seems to have as good a battery life as I remember ever having.
Edit #1: I don't think Auto Memory Manager is needed with Samurai 1.2. This kernel is tweaked already. I set Auto Memory Manager back to default settings, uninstalled it, then re-installed the kernel.
Here's another tip, move all of your apps from the internal SD card to phone memory. Having them on the SD card cause significant lag, crashing, and rebooting for me.
Edit #2: I switched to Pinnacle 1.3 with the latest Boog's kernel, and my KH3 is using 329 MB (the same as KJ3 I was using before (I must have made a typo above when I claimed 227 MB on KJ3 (I verified this before I switched to KH3/Pinnacle)). What governs how much RAM is used? Does it really make any difference? Free memory makes a huge difference in lag, however.

On latest MIUI and i have ~200 MBs of free memory!
Sent from my I897 using xda premium

Surely not that much... M on miui too n the lowest I get is 80,otherwise I am up there at 130ish... But then I have a crapload of services in the background. But yes, I do get 200 when I clear memory.
Sent from my cell phone. DUH

Anyone else TOTAL RAM decreasing?

Hi everyone,
I notice my TOTAL RAM (not used RAM) is gradually decreasing. For example, my total RAM started at 1.79, then went to 1.69, not at 1.59. Is this normal? Why is it decreasing? What can I do to increase to total RAM back to out of box (or close thereto) of 1.79?
Thanks for your help.

Uhhh I just checked mine and I have 1.56 wtf. I swore it was 1.79 before I switched to jb tw.

Actual ram available on this device is 1.6gb on touchwiz...aosp roms might be slightly more.

kench33 said:
Uhhh I just checked mine and I have 1.56 wtf. I swore it was 1.79 before I switched to jb tw.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly. I know my S3 started at 1.79 out the box. Now at 1.59. Although I've rooted my phone previously, I unrooted my phone and am now back o stock. Any help to get total RAM back up is appreciated.

kdubs71 said:
Exactly. I know my S3 started at 1.79 out the box. Now at 1.59. Although I've rooted my phone previously, I unrooted my phone and am now back o stock. Any help to get total RAM back up is appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haven't you accepted OTA's since you first had this phone? The small difference in ram missing is likely because of newer firmware updates similar to, for example, the missing internal storage of your 16GB or 32 GB that is dedicated to TW. Couldn't the same hold true for ram since we don't get a full 2 GB out of the box? If you've used Odin to return to stock and your available ram hasn't changed to what you remember it was at, there's likely no getting that back.
My max has been at/around 1.62 GB of ram FWIW.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app

Mine is also 1.59. If everyone the same it being used by new OS/firmware. If you are even close to using it all need to kill some apps running apps.. I have 200+ apps on mine and still only using half of it.

SlimSnoopOS said:
Haven't you accepted OTA's since you first had this phone? The small difference in ram missing is likely because of newer firmware updates similar to, for example, the missing internal storage of your 16GB or 32 GB that is dedicated to TW. Couldn't the same hold true for ram since we don't get a full 2 GB out of the box? If you've used Odin to return to stock and your available ram hasn't changed to what you remember it was at, there's likely no getting that back.
My max has been at/around 1.62 GB of ram FWIW.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I've accepted OTAs. Currently on VRLHE. Not sure what happened to RAM. Just don't like to see it going down like this. maybe future OTAs will help.

They are obviously reallocating it somewhere, maybe the gpu?

1630 ram here on AOSP.
Couple things, touchwiz hogs up a lot of ram, so if you are on a touchwiz rom you WILL have less ram. AOSP roms use far less ram, so if your on AOSP you'll have a lot more (hence me having 1630). Free ram is wasted ram as well, if its not being used then its being wasted. And finally as updates come things can be relocated to other places, just because you can't see it doesn't mean its not there and not doing something helpful

kdubs71 said:
Hi everyone,
I notice my TOTAL RAM (not used RAM) is gradually decreasing. For example, my total RAM started at 1.79, then went to 1.69, not at 1.59. Is this normal? Why is it decreasing? What can I do to increase to total RAM back to out of box (or close thereto) of 1.79?
Thanks for your help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think I have noticed the same thing efore

Just a question, why are we concerned with "only" having 1.59gb of ram? Is that not enough to run with? I mean damn most phone that come out the same time had 1gb. I see wanting to know whats using it but I wouldn't be worried about running out. Haha
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda premium

droidx2.3.3 said:
Just a question, why are we concerned with "only" having 1.59gb of ram? Is that not enough to run with? I mean damn most phone that come out the same time had 1gb. I see wanting to know whats using it but I wouldn't be worried about running out. Haha
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed. 2 gigs of ram (1.6x actual ram) is more than enough ram. The reason why so many phones now that have 1gig of ram run slow is because so much of that ram is used by Sense, touchwiz, motoblur, etc which slows everything down. That's why AOSP is nice to have as an option because you get so much more actual ram to use thats not being sucked up by manufacturer skins. Getting 2gigs is a huge plus solely because of the touchwiz UI, because if we only had 1gig like the international version we'd be stuck with things appearing to run slower than they should.

Neverendingxsin said:
Agreed. 2 gigs of ram (1.6x actual ram) is more than enough ram. The reason why so many phones now that have 1gig of ram run slow is because so much of that ram is used by Sense, touchwiz, motoblur, etc which slows everything down. That's why AOSP is nice to have as an option because you get so much more actual ram to use thats not being sucked up by manufacturer skins. Getting 2gigs is a huge plus solely because of the touchwiz UI, because if we only had 1gig like the international version we'd be stuck with things appearing to run slower than they should.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know the feeling about the laggy feel of not enough ram. I came from a droid x with only 512mb. Most times it wad bearable but others it was an annoyance.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

I wondered this same thing, but with no other phones to compare to. But yes, I'm down to 1.59GB as well
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app

Leaky Ram

Hey Guys,
I am relatively new to the world of Android being an IOS man until I took the plunge and got this cracking little Nexus.
One thing I have come across is how I seem to be losing RAM over about a period of an hour or so. On a restart my RAM reads about 1.3gb free. After some time it goes to 900mb free. I have APPs like Advanced Task Manager freeing up RAM every hour but thought that someone may have come up with a software tweak or solution that may stem the flow.
I am running a rooted with standard ROM and ElementalX Kernel.
Cheers
Jason

jasonst165 said:
Hey Guys,
I am relatively new to the world of Android being an IOS man until I took the plunge and got this cracking little Nexus.
One thing I have come across is how I seem to be losing RAM over about a period of an hour or so. On a restart my RAM reads about 1.3gb free. After some time it goes to 900mb free. I have APPs like Advanced Task Manager freeing up RAM every hour but thought that someone may have come up with a software tweak or solution that may stem the flow.
I am running a rooted with standard ROM and ElementalX Kernel.
Cheers
Jason
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
using apps that use ram to then try free it up try remove these type of apps and check after a few hours

jasonst165 said:
Hey Guys,
I am relatively new to the world of Android being an IOS man until I took the plunge and got this cracking little Nexus.
One thing I have come across is how I seem to be losing RAM over about a period of an hour or so. On a restart my RAM reads about 1.3gb free. After some time it goes to 900mb free. I have APPs like Advanced Task Manager freeing up RAM every hour but thought that someone may have come up with a software tweak or solution that may stem the flow.
I am running a rooted with standard ROM and ElementalX Kernel.
Cheers
Jason
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats not a issue , not in android the less free ram you have the better.. if you search google you'll know and also dont use any app killer.

There's really no need to use apps to free up ram. We got 2gb of ram
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

Free ram is wasted ram, don't use any stupid task killers and forget about it
//Nexus 5//Nexus 4//HTC WFS//

So remove those APPs and it runs better with less RAM.
The revers of what Im used to :silly:

jasonst165 said:
So remove those APPs and it runs better with less RAM.
The revers of what Im used to :silly:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You could check RAM usage on iOS? (Genuine question, not a poke at Apple )

Always let android handle itself. I have used android since the HTC G1 and android keeps getting better and better managing itself. Don't use apps that help with the android system. They make it harder for the managing to do what it has to do. Let android do it.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

A memory leak is when a single app (or multiple apps) leak into memory. This would mean if you look in RAM, app1 is using 10MB. Then an hour later app1 is using 40MB, then an hour later, app1 is using 100MB. Its only a leak if the particular app is grabbing more memory and never releasing it.
What is described here is just RAM being used, which as already covered by everyone else, is a good thing
-----------------------
Sent via tapatalk.
I do NOT reply to support queries over PM. Please keep support queries to the Q&A section, so that others may benefit

As posted, let Android manage the RAM. It has become quite the mature operating system over the past few years. It will know when to remove an app from RAM when it needs to free some up.
As a general point of why you basically want less free RAM: RAM uses the same amount of power whether you have 2gb free or 1 byte free. The entire stick is powered on. When you cold-boot an app, it spins up the CPU to do what it needs to do to load it into memory (compile it in the case of a JIT compiler, etc). After you do what you want to do in that app, it's fine to keep in RAM. Again, that RAM is going to either be useful, or sit there empty, doing nothing. The advantage happens when/if you want to access that app in the future. If you offloaded it, the CPU has to spin up again (which uses power) and load it into memory. If it's still in memory, it just looks at the pointers in memory and addresses it. And this is where Android has matured and knows how to handle itself: when you leave all your apps open, open another one, and reach your RAM limit, Android knows which app to offload. I don't know the exact formula, but I'm betting time last accessed is a huge (heck, it could be the only; I simply don't know) factor.
And as @rootSU mentioned, this is all assuming normal behavior. If you do actually have a memory leak, that is bad, but you are describing normal RAM usage.