Database Info

Memory leaks?

My Cappy starts with about 165mb of free RAM, but it quickly goes away as I use apps. I have Task Killer installed and set to kill apps every 30 minutes, but once I get down to about 90mb of RAM it is impossible to get anywhere near what I boot with free. I'm used to memory leakage on my WinMo phones, but this is way worse. I had CleanRAM on my Tilt 2 (from XDA) and it worked pretty good and allows scheduling. Is there a similar app for Android?

I'd get rid of Task Killer, you don't need it.

its not leaking memory...it handles memory differently than windows of yore....stop fretting about how much memory you have available and just reboot your phone once every few days....thats not needed, but if it makes you feel better to look at useless numbers...

Yeah you need to stop looking at this as either a windows pc or an old device (think g1). Get rid of the task killer and never look at how much free ram you have again. Its not important at all. I've had this phone for months and I literally have no idea how much ram it uses on average because I have never checked or cared. My phone has been running smooth since day one. Yours will too.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

Available RAM is a useless number? Having unused apps continue to run in the background is nothing to worry about?
Does anyone have anything usefull to respond with?

Miami_Son said:
Available RAM is a useless number? Having unused apps continue to run in the background is nothing to worry about?
Does anyone have anything usefull to respond with?
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If you look at Window 7, there is a concept called pre-fetch. This allows the OS to load the programs into memory based on past usage, and frequency of usage. This lets us open the program much faster, than fetch when requested. This info is loaded to memory, and kept there, until some other program comes in that needs more memory.
And just 'cos a program is present in RAM doesn't mean it would use CPU.
And, based on my observation of android, I see that I have close to 180 MB free when the phone boots up. But this quickly reduces to around 120-150 in less than an hour based on what I use. After like a day this I see that free RAM is about 80-120 MB. And even after 3-4 days of no reboots, the free memory is still present at the same 80-120 levels. I am not sure what kind of memory management android uses, but its very effective, and never caused any noticeable lag in the system.
And, I do not use any task killers, not free up RAM in task manager.

Your concerns are flawed in the fact that the Linux kernel handles memory different than what you are used to. Simply speaking, Linux keeps memory used by applications on need to basis. It keeps it loaded until something else needs to use it. It will take from something else at the required time. A system actually performs faster when there is less memory available because that means that applications are able to be recalled quicker. It's not like it can only load from what is left available.
You will also notice that many applications take up memory but are using 0 CPU. This speaks to the fact that it simply loaded into memory and not taking up resources required for other operations.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

Lot to learn about this Android, I see. So, why are there so many task killers on Market and other RAM-related programs if it is not important? Should I really not be concerned when I see a program I hardly use being shown as running on startup?

Miami_Son said:
Lot to learn about this Android, I see. So, why are there so many task killers on Market and other RAM-related programs if it is not important? Should I really not be concerned when I see a program I hardly use being shown as running on startup?
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When I got my android phone, the first thing I did was put up things like task killer, start up auditor, etc. But as weeks passed, I realized these were more of deteriorating performance, than improve it. So got rid of them. Android can handle itself.

Autokiller optimises memory by changing values in android rather than kills apps. I reccomemd it, definately makes the phone faster. Set it to agressive.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

Miami_Son said:
Lot to learn about this Android, I see. So, why are there so many task killers on Market and other RAM-related programs if it is not important? Should I really not be concerned when I see a program I hardly use being shown as running on startup?
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It started with the combination of old versions of android (think cupcake and doughnut) and phones like the G1. Older versions didn't handle ram as well as they do in eclair and up. If you combine this with the fact that those older phones had less ram, and likely didn't use any gpu acceleration (unsure of this though), then task killers and other programs were considered necessary to get a fluid feeling experience.
They are still in the market now for 2 reasons.
1. Because some people still have those old phones and still run old versions of android. (less likely)
2. Habit. If people are used to using them and tell others they are necessary because they've always worked, why would a developer pull his money making app from the market? (much more likely)

So when Pandora or Grooveshark freeze, which happens all the time, and leaves my phone utterly useless until they're done doing whatever it is they're doing, how is using a task killer to...kill the process...not useful? It's much faster than rebooting the phone. I also think it's much faster than going into each application's individual settings to use the 'force stop' command. Is there a different way to kill a stuck app other than these methods?

Miami_Son said:
My Cappy starts with about 165mb of free RAM, but it quickly goes away as I use apps. I have Task Killer installed and set to kill apps every 30 minutes, but once I get down to about 90mb of RAM it is impossible to get anywhere near what I boot with free. I'm used to memory leakage on my WinMo phones, but this is way worse. I had CleanRAM on my Tilt 2 (from XDA) and it worked pretty good and allows scheduling. Is there a similar app for Android?
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Click to collapse
Along with what everyone else said, remember that a memory leak is a LEAK, something that is continuously draining, not a one-time thing. So, if memory goes to 80MB free and holds, that's not a leak, that's simply memory that is being used. If free memory drops to 75, then 60, then 55, 50, 45, and so on, then you have a true leak to worry about.

Well, what we Windows Mobile users often also refer to as leaks is the bad habit of some apps to not release their memory when closed. For instance, a program that carves out 25mb of RAM when started and returns less then half of that when closed.

jaju123 said:
Autokiller optimises memory by changing values in android rather than kills apps. I reccomemd it, definately makes the phone faster. Set it to agressive.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
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Anyone else know much about "Autokiller"?

i used to use a task killer with my G1, and continued to do so with my captivate but i saw a few things like this: http://geekfor.me/faq/you-shouldnt-be-using-a-task-killer-with-android/ and decided to get rid of my task killers and my phone seemed actually a little faster and seemed my battery life increased.

matt310 said:
So when Pandora or Grooveshark freeze, which happens all the time, and leaves my phone utterly useless until they're done doing whatever it is they're doing, how is using a task killer to...kill the process...not useful? It's much faster than rebooting the phone. I also think it's much faster than going into each application's individual settings to use the 'force stop' command. Is there a different way to kill a stuck app other than these methods?
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Click to collapse
It is useful in those situations but realistically when people give that argument they are just looking for a reason to keep it. Android has the ability to kill tasks built in. If you're on 2.1 then yeah it's buried deeper in the menu but not a big deal. I can't imagine an app freezing enough to warrant having a task killer for. If you're on 2.2 it's much more easily accessible.
When we talk about task killers we're talking about people using them to kill open tasks that aren't causing issues simply to see more free ram available.

Memory management and closing apps

Hello.
I'm soon getting the Desire HD, and I wanted to clear some things up, regarding to multi-tasking, and how applications run in the background. This would be like a second edition of the other thread about closing applications, but more general.
I have read some parts of this, and things seem to make sense. You press the home button, and the app gets "stored" in the RAM.
However, when comparing this management of processes with the iPhone's; Why can't you close applications on Android the same way? Wouldn't it be a smart choice of they guys behind Android to make a similar way to really close apps (and thus "remove" the program from the RAM)?
What do you guys think?

I think you answered the question of why android multitask so much better. The desire HD will have more than enough RAM(768MB I think) for it to ever slow down or need a task killer. Haven't really needed a task kisller since RAM went above 256mb I haven't used one on any of my cuter t android phones. Except to monitor programs that are causing problems. System panel is a great one for monitoring you CPU and RAM usage
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA App

ksizzle9 said:
I think you answered the question of why android multitask so much better. The desire HD will have more than enough RAM(768MB I think) for it to ever slow down or need a task killer. Haven't really needed a task kisller since RAM went above 256mb I haven't used one on any of my cuter t android phones. Except to monitor programs that are causing problems. System panel is a great one for monitoring you CPU and RAM usage
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA App
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Awesome. I do not doubt this system at all, and it seems to be smart. My next question would then be; How much RAM does a typical application use? Does the RAM drain more power, when things are stored into it?

nunikasi said:
Awesome. I do not doubt this system at all, and it seems to be smart. My next question would then be; How much RAM does a typical application use? Does the RAM drain more power, when things are stored into it?
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The amount of RAM an application uses varies a lot, so there is no 'typical' amount, but Android has its own system of freeing up RAM as and when it needs it.
Power drain is not caused by how much RAM is in use at any one time, but by how much the CPU is used.
That is why with the DHD's generous amount of RAM you don't need to worry about task killers and freeing up RAM - instead you need to monitor things like screen use, wifi use, phone use, data uploading/downloading & syncing, GPS use, etc - the programs that use more resources will consume more power.

(Q) Droid Charge ram 328 or 512?

Sorry if this question has been answered somewhere, but I searched and couldn't find a reliable answer. When I go to task manager, it always shows memory usage out of 328mb available. Everything I read prior to purchase indicated there was 512mb ram. If I'm going to be locked in contract for any extended period of time I definitely need more than 328. 512 is already low by today's standard, but 328mb is ridiculously bad. Anyone that knows the answer and a way to verify would be greatly appreciated as all the searches I do come up with both answers.
Thanks for the help guys.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk

In addition to the above mentioned issue... I frequently have 250+ out of the available 328 used even when task manager indicates no apps running. Is there that much going on in the background? In case this helps I'm running the ED2 debloated rom so I can't imagine how bad it would be if I still had all the bloat in there.
Thanks again for the input
Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk

The phone has 512MB total, with some of that allocated to the system that can't be used by apps. This memory goes to thinks like the GPU to give you that stellar video performance. Sucks that it can't be changed really, but that is how it's setup. I believe that we can get a few MB back from the system, but you won't get all of it back.

imnuts said:
The phone has 512MB total, with some of that allocated to the system that can't be used by apps. This memory goes to thinks like the GPU to give you that stellar video performance. Sucks that it can't be changed really, but that is how it's setup. I believe that we can get a few MB back from the system, but you won't get all of it back.
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Thanks a lot for the response. Makes me a lot more comfortable with holding on to this guy. There must be some serious bacground processes going. because I've yet to see anything lower than 180mb used (about 150 available) and that's with autokiller at extreme preset, which I normally wouldn't set so high...I just wanted to see if any additional mb's would free up.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk

Ok, android 101:
Android uses smart caching and background process management to keep your apps available and running smoothly. As such the more RAM you have free the more you are WASTING. This system is designed to run up to 99% RAM use before turning off any running apps/background processes.
Ever since android 2.2 it has been HIGHLY efficient at doing so. Using autokillers to keep RAM free is pointless, as most apps don't even use ANY CPU when in background, unless they perform background checks for things like is it your turn on words with friends, etc. Unless you have an app that uses too much background data like this (in which case I'd just get rid of the app...) then using killers is pointless, let the OS run the way it is designed to do. Ever since I listened to a ROM dev and stopped using task killers my battery life on my original droid has nearly tripled, and I'm overclocking it from 566 to 1200mhz!
Android is not windows 95, you don't need to hold its hand and make sure things are closed, doing so actually defeats the advanced features of the OS, decreases battery life in all but a very few cases, and increases your app startup times, keeps you from getting background updates properly, etc.

warriorprophet said:
Ok, android 101:
Android uses smart caching and background process management to keep your apps available and running smoothly. As such the more RAM you have free the more you are WASTING. This system is designed to run up to 99% RAM use before turning off any running apps/background processes.
Ever since android 2.2 it has been HIGHLY efficient at doing so. Using autokillers to keep RAM free is pointless, as most apps don't even use ANY CPU when in background, unless they perform background checks for things like is it your turn on words with friends, etc. Unless you have an app that uses too much background data like this (in which case I'd just get rid of the app...) then using killers is pointless, let the OS run the way it is designed to do. Ever since I listened to a ROM dev and stopped using task killers my battery life on my original droid has nearly tripled, and I'm overclocking it from 566 to 1200mhz!
Android is not windows 95, you don't need to hold its hand and make sure things are closed, doing so actually defeats the advanced features of the OS, decreases battery life in all but a very few cases, and increases your app startup times, keeps you from getting background updates properly, etc.
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I was always of the impression that an app such as autokiller differed from a standard task killer in that it modified the values at which android natively kills off processes vs me going in and manually closing an app (which i never do). I too have read articles that task killers are pointless and do more harm than good, but I always thought autokiller was a different sort of "tweak" if you will. I've even seen several devs promote that they've modified androids native memory management to be more aggressive, etc...which is what I thought autokiller accomplished. Autokiller simply seemed necessary to me with the Charge because I was experiencing lag and lockups even with a debloated rom and voodoo kernel. Clearly there could be several culprits to this this and I was simply testing out different fixes and seeing what the results were. Thanks for the heads up though...learn something new every day.

[Q] Is adanced task manager good for our xt720?

I've seen a lot of debates abt whether advanced task manager is good for the phone or not but im not sure if it has a positive effect on our xt720 with very little ram, so does it make more sense to use advanced task manager?? Btw im talking abt the 2.1 version of xt720 not the dexter's froyo or anything else. any help would be appreciated!

Advanced task manager is an app and task killer. Although discussion is varied it is safe to say a majority of very computer literate people tend to think task killers are bad for your phone and actually cause more battery drain in the end.
It is important to know how android handles memory. When you open an app for example the browser, and then move to gmail android puts the browser in an idle state. If after that you open say google maps and your phone has no more free memory android will kill your first process the browser to make space. The apps which are idle take no memory resources and just sit there. Killing idle apps, which usually reappear as soon as they are killed drain more juice, and are slow to launch.
A better app to use is the Autokiller memory optimizer. It uses a script to change androids own parameters at boot. So you can specify at what ram you want android to kill the idle apps. It does not involve killing apps and lets android handle everything. Ive been using it for quite some time and my phone is snappy fast and has around 60-70MB ram free all the time. I use the strict settings anything about that free's too much ram. Ofcourse your phone needs to be rooted for this to work.

sohrab.naushad said:
Advanced task manager is an app and task killer. Although discussion is varied it is safe to say a majority of very computer literate people tend to think task killers are bad for your phone and actually cause more battery drain in the end.
It is important to know how android handles memory. When you open an app for example the browser, and then move to gmail android puts the browser in an idle state. If after that you open say google maps and your phone has no more free memory android will kill your first process the browser to make space. The apps which are idle take no memory resources and just sit there. Killing idle apps, which usually reappear as soon as they are killed drain more juice, and are slow to launch.
A better app to use is the Autokiller memory optimizer. It uses a script to change androids own parameters at boot. So you can specify at what ram you want android to kill the idle apps. It does not involve killing apps and lets android handle everything. Ive been using it for quite some time and my phone is snappy fast and has around 60-70MB ram free all the time. I use the strict settings anything about that free's too much ram. Ofcourse your phone needs to be rooted for this to work.
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Im trying the app now so far so good. After i put it in strict level, there is nothing else that i should be doing with the app rite? i can just continue with the normal use of my phone rite? thx a lot! oh and i already uninstalled advanced task manager.

Nopes, just use your phone as you would Use the lowest settings that make your phone feel fast. How much free memory are you getting now? Also reboot your phone once. I've used the strict settings makes my phone feel great lemme know how it works out for you.

You should also use milestone overclock to overclock your processor if you dont already. Its available on the market for free. I use 1 Ghz, 74 Vsel!

After using the memory app, I have also 60-70mb free oh and I also use milestone overclock my settings are 1ghz 62vsel. What are the advantages of increasing the vsel value?
Sent from my Milestone XT720 using XDA App

I find that having a higher vsel keeps the system more stable during memory intensive tasks. Also I found no difference in battery life thats why I use the stock presets. Before I used 56 vsel 1 ghz but when I opened up the camera or something the system would hang and reboot. Try it out, its also much faster

More vsel actually drains the battery faster. From my experiance and recomnendations I found out that 1Ghz @ 66vsel is my optimal setting.
About ATK and Autokiller memory optimizer - crap! I preffer Running service and Manage application to deal with programs if I need to, but I mostly let Android decide for himself. My phone always have around 60MB free memory and ROM is fast and very responsive.
Also you may wanna try JuceDefender. Awesome app which saves you battery and clears RAM, if you are not feeling comfortable doing it yourself.

eSu.Matix said:
More vsel actually drains the battery faster. From my experiance and recomnendations I found out that 1Ghz @ 66vsel is my optimal setting.
About ATK and Autokiller memory optimizer - crap! I preffer Running service and Manage application to deal with programs if I need to, but I mostly let Android decide for himself. My phone always have around 60MB free memory and ROM is fast and very responsive.
Also you may wanna try JuceDefender. Awesome app which saves you battery and clears RAM, if you are not feeling comfortable doing it yourself.
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Umm, I think you're confusing autokiller memory optimizer with the normal task killers. Look it up, it isnt a task killer but changes androids native application management parameters. Which ROM are you on?
Also ive used ultimate juice for sometime. It doesnt clear RAM, it just toggles your data and wifi according to options you set. I also noticed that without juice defender my phone works just as much so dont know how much that helps.
Battery calibration after new ROM flash has always made my battery meter more accurate and lasts longer.

I very well may and I apologize for that.
Actually I use recovery mode options to set the aggressiveness of the running service and I'm more than satisfied.
Sent from my XT720 using XDA App
P.S. StealEpicBlue with some little tweaks from me (few deleted system apps).

eSu.Matix said:
I very well may and I apologize for that.
Actually I use recovery mode options to set the aggressiveness of the running service and I'm more than satisfied.
Sent from my XT720 using XDA App
P.S. StealEpicBlue with some little tweaks from me (few deleted system apps).
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Click to collapse
How did you do that. I am running steelblue also and can always tweak it more. Is it through Androidiani recovery that you set the aggressiveness. I might start a thread tomorrow about all the things Androidiani does and how to use them. Haven't been able to find too much on it, but I know alot of people use it.

Available RAM Dilemma on the Droid Charge

I'm currently running EP1F Debloated with Gummy Charged
The phone typically says that, out of 312MB of accessible RAM, there is 60MB or less of free RAM.
i'm running GO Launcher EX, and on it's RAM meter, it's almost always in the Red (signifying that it's almost Maxed out in available RAM)
is this normal?
of course, any time i quit all open applications, the usuals always reload, but then sometimes odd programs will run in the background (i.e., netflix, google+, music, amazon appstore, picasa, ustream, etc). These are programs that I haven't even loaded or ran. they just like to load themselves up and run in the background. so because of this, my available Free RAM tends to sit at 39-55MB. that seems VERY low to me. and may be the reason why my phone tneds to bog down a bit and lag every now and then, when i'm going from app to app.
I know EP1F doesn't have voodoo lagfix yet (like it did on EE4), but this unusually high consumption of RAM seems odd to me.
does anyone have any input on this?
appreciate it

If you havent ran, and don't run those programs just get rid of them

no no no... I definitely run them. but it's probably a few times a day, sporadically.
but i don't need them to be running in the background, hogging RAM. whereas, i'm totally fine with an app like Gmail to always be running, since i check that all the time.

I use Autokiller Memory Optimizer, set to "optimal" preset. It's not a task killer, it just changes Androids settings to close programs at different trigger points. Keep some free ram and keeps the system from bogging down.
I also use Autostarts, which disables programs from starting up at startup or for other notifications that are set. Some programs still start themselves but it helps.

Why do you want free RAM? Unused RAM is doing nothing for you, Used is holding a program ready to launch so it's faster and needs less CPU to launch. Ideal RAM usage is 100% because the system will automatically make room for a new program to run.
Have you ever gotten a message that an app can't launch due to low RAM? Using RAM doesn't mean using CPU or battery. It just means ready to run faster.
Sent from my (currently) stock Verizon Fascinate ed04 using XDA App.