Database Info

Managing Memory

Hi all,
One habit I've developed with the Captivate is using Advanced Task Killer to kill apps that otherwise would just be hanging out in memory. I do this probably because I'm anal retentive like that, but also with the thought that it save me battery life if I do.
This has led to two questions of mine (excuse the noobiness to Android if these have been discussed):
1.) Why do so many applications start automatically when the phone boots up? (browser, gallery, etc etc). Is there a startup ini somewhere I can edit to prevent this or do all the apps just wake up? It's easy enough to kill, but I find some of the apps that start up very odd.
2.) Over the course of the day, even with Autokill on and security set to "Low", eventually my memory is consumed and it only gets back to its full state until the phone is rebooted. After all obvious apps have been killed the memory usage will will go from ~170mb (after a reboot) to as low as ~130mb (at the end of the day). Does anyone know why that happens and if there is a better way to manage memory/apps?
Thanks.

I used to use task killers, but I have uninstalled them and just let android do its thing. The only reason I'll end a program is if the program has an exit function or has froze, which is rare. With this method I don't have any slowdowns and great battery life. On the flipside I don't install poorly developed apps. Thats just me though.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

Task killers

Don't use them. I used advanced task killer and uninstalled it today my phone is faster, IV gotten more time off of a single charge, my phone has stoped randomly rebooting, and I have no lag in my keyboard any more. Test it outbfor your self droids don't need task killers...
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA App

Apps just wont die!

Its frustrating as well as annoying whenever i turn on task killer to see Skype, Picasa tool and Gmail running in the background. I have disabled autosync and i even kill the services to stop them, but they return from the grave after ~10 minutes or so....
Sent from my HTC Vision using XDA App

Thats part of android. It has applications in the background that were called on once, and it keeps them in the RAM. Once android recognizes that the process is no longer needed, it terminates it and frees up ram
ADR6300

Get Autostarts from the market. Similar to msconfig for Windows, it prevents apps from launching in the background and hogging memory & battery. It's only $1 and well worth it.
You can also "freeze" unused apps with Titanium Backup. Freezing an app hides it from android, effectively removing it. This is better than deleting the app, because if you freeze an app and your phone starts acting weird, just "unfreeze" that app and the phone will return to normal.
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA App

Those apps are not running in the background, they're only cached in RAM. As long as you don't launch them they'll stay asleep. They don't eat your battery, and they don't take RAM away from running apps that need it.
If your phone runs out of memory those dormant apps will be kicked out of RAM.
In Android empty RAM is wasted RAM. Task killers are a real waste of RAM and battery.

i also seem to have fring always in the background, is there any way i can stop this?

Is there any tasks killer app that really kills some annoying apps running on my device? I'm using 2.3.3, and the battery is drying like crazy

task killers are bad for you phone. they're not necessary, and they kill battery life. just saying

NoctMonster said:
i also seem to have fring always in the background, is there any way i can stop this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can tell fring not to autostart. The option is somewhere in the settings menu.
Android will still cache it in memory, especially if you use fring often. But if it is only cached it doesn't go online and it doesn't eat any battery power.
Same thing for almost all other apps. Just because Android loads them into RAM doesn't mean they're running.

Stop background apps?

Is there a way to stop certain apps like facebook, bluetooth, and maps from running in the background? I turned sync off on fb but its still in background all the time. As for the other 2 i barely use them so its annoying that they r suckin up my battery life.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using XDA App

Uninstall Facebook. Either use m.facebook.com or an alternative app. The devs don't know how to code android.
Sent from my pocket-sized, Linux-based computer using electromagnetic radiation... and Tapatalk.

I just started using FriendCaster for FB and I like it much better than the official FB app. You can even get battery friendly C2DM notifications instead of the constant polling crap that FB does.
For Bluetooth...why not just turn it off when you aren't using it? Slide the notification shade and turn it off from there. And for maps, can you elaborate? If it isn't using location actively, then it probably isn't using much battery, if any. Just because it's showing as running doesn't mean it's actually using any cycles.

shrike1978 said:
I just started using FriendCaster for FB and I like it much better than the official FB app. You can even get battery friendly C2DM notifications instead of the constant polling crap that FB does.
For Bluetooth...why not just turn it off when you aren't using it? Slide the notification shade and turn it off from there. And for maps, can you elaborate? If it isn't using location actively, then it probably isn't using much battery, if any. Just because it's showing as running doesn't mean it's actually using any cycles.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll check into Friendcaster cuz I know FB app sucks up a lot of battery. As for bluetooth, it isnt on. I literally have never used it, yet when I look in my task manager (ES TM) it shows this "BrcmBluetoothServices" and if I kill it, it just turns back on. Same goes for Maps and FB. I dont know if Maps uses a lot of battery, I was just trying to figure out why its always running in the first place. All My location and GPS services (VZW, Google, and Standalone) are shut off to save battery, and I just turn google back on when I need to use the gps (which is rare).

cnoevl21 said:
Is there a way to stop certain apps like facebook, bluetooth, and maps from running in the background? I turned sync off on fb but its still in background all the time. As for the other 2 i barely use them so its annoying that they r suckin up my battery life.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the way Android is designed.... its supposed to stay in memory for faster retrieval. Remember, the phone uses the same amount of power with full or empty memory... why not have some things loaded into memory for faster performance? Facebook only uses data and battery for the split second its syncing... that's it. If you have Bluetooth toggled off the radio is not on and using zero power. The Bluetooth app you see running is a service.... it too uses no power.
Remember, Linux environments such as Android are designed to run with services in the background to make the phone operate faster.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

das7982 said:
That's the way Android is designed.... its supposed to stay in memory for faster retrieval. Remember, the phone uses the same amount of power with full or empty memory... why not have some things loaded into memory for faster performance? Facebook only uses data and battery for the split second its syncing... that's it. If you have Bluetooth toggled off the radio is not on and using zero power. The Bluetooth app you see running is a service.... it too uses no power.
Remember, Linux environments such as Android are designed to run with services in the background to make the phone operate faster.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's true, if you check on task manager, you will see tons of apps are running as services, but using 0% cpu power. Android will take as much as memory as possible and only kill the app when it really in need of memory. All the apps that fitted into the reserved memory(before the low memory threashold) will make the apps launch faster and take less amount of time from the cpu. This is very smart design.

das7982 said:
That's the way Android is designed.... its supposed to stay in memory for faster retrieval. Remember, the phone uses the same amount of power with full or empty memory... why not have some things loaded into memory for faster performance? Facebook only uses data and battery for the split second its syncing... that's it. If you have Bluetooth toggled off the radio is not on and using zero power. The Bluetooth app you see running is a service.... it too uses no power.
Remember, Linux environments such as Android are designed to run with services in the background to make the phone operate faster.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Although this is true, the Facebook app is very poorly coded. It still continues to use CPU time after you've closed it (proof is in the "nice" load and wakelock). It uses much more than should be required for syncing-the Gmail app barely uses any time. Programs that are still loaded on RAM after closing is fine as long as they don't use the CPU.
The Facebook app goes through CPU cycles like I go through women.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using xda premium

Sorry for bringing up an old thread.. use SystemCleanup if you have root.. most of your battery problems will be gone.. use with CAUTION.. make nandroid before use..

problem masive battery drain

sou i bought my desire s for 6 months and i used it and daly use it vas ok calls messages games wi fi and when i go to sleep i put it on charger vith 15-20% of battery now for feiw days my battery drain is masive i just use it for feiw calls and messages i dont turn on wi fi or play games or something i set everithing on poversave but the problem is there and my phone is losing signal what sould i do???? im completly stock
sorry for my bad english

No no no. I already requested for your thread to be moved here. You should have just waited instead of opening up a new one again!
Sent from my Desire S using xda premium

Install better battery starts and check your wakelocks. Seeing is keeping your phone awake.
In the mean while post a screenshot of your battery usage
Sent from a Desire S waiting for Kernel 3 sources. WAKE UP HTC!!!!

if you're using 3g and your phone is losing signal then thats why. low signal strength will kill your battery as it constantly tries to find a new stronger cell and has to keep disconnecting switching to 2g then back to 3g etc. turn your wifi back on it uses less power than 3g

Try es task manager to stop stuff loading on boot as well. Used it on my ds and on the wife's sensation xe. Wife was getting big battery drain, would last a day after ics update, now it lasts 2
Sent from my HTC Desire S using XDA

Task Killer Misconceptions
So we’ve explained how android works, what it means by “running” apps, and how it automatically manages its own memory so you can stick to enjoying your phone, lets move onto dispelling some common misconceptions about android and the use of task killers:
“Task killers make my battery last longer” – FALSE!
Task killers actually do the opposite, they make your battery life shorter! Lets look at what exactly you are doing when you kill a task. You are completely removing it from memory. Ok, so compared to leaving it in memory you are expecting to save battery? No, whether or not that bit of memory is used by an app or is free, the same amount of battery is going to be used. You are actually reducing battery life because when you next go to use that app, you have to fully reopen it, this uses more memory than simply bringing it out of memory.
“Task killers make my phone run faster” – FALSE
Task killers cause your phone to become unstable and jerky. Killing processes is bad because a process may be shared between applications. When you kill it, you are causing disruption within the OS, forcing apps to reopen, to reopen a shared process.
“There is no exit button, thats why i use a task killer” – FALSE
There is no exit button because android was designed to never have the need for a user to close apps. If an app needs closing, android will do this itself.
or http://droid-den.com/android-guides/android-guide-should-i-use-a-task-killer/

@up you're right. But PCrepair was talking about a task manager to prevent some apps from starting at device boot. That's something different. Your really long quoted post was a little bit unnecessary..
Sent by my fingers to your head.

I don't agree with you. I am a fan of ES apps but Es Task Manager mainly purpouse is to kill tasks.
I don't know what's causing the OP's problem but i am 99% sure that a task manager/killer is not the solution.
And please try not to comment my posts context/quallity i don't want to start a flame but i am sure you are not proude of more than 30% of your posts.
Sent from my HTC Desire S

@uq the reason for the es app is to stop none essential apps starting on boot. I agree that task killers will drain battery quicker.
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