Related
My friend just got the Captivate last week and we were discussing everything Android could do. I have been using Android for almost a year. I had the Hero and now the Evo. This has allowed me to learn how Android works. Especially how the operating system handles processes/apps.
The day he bought the phone, the ATT rep told him he needed a task killer and installed it for him. This really upset me because I have learned that this is not true due to the way Android handles programs and resources. Simply put Android assigns a number to each process running and starts killing off apps based on those numbers once it drops below a certain amount of RAM.
Task killers often do more harm than good.
Many new Android users have a Windows mindset when it comes to the operating system of the Captivate. You know if it is running it is sucking up resources and slowing everything down. With Android, even though it is listed as running in a task manager does not mean it is sucking up resources. It lies dormant for a while using little to no CPU. Some apps the need to run to keep your phone working correctly and getting those notifications. A lot of people complain that apps restart right after killing them. That is because the system was not done with them. So they restart using up more CPU and more battery. I hear a lot of people say that a task killer saves then more battery but I am still not quite sure how. Could be a poorly programmed app they have downloaded or stuff syncing too often that was causing the battery drain. I had a task killer the first week I had my Hero and once I removed it I saw better overall results.
If anyone would like more details, a developer and friend of mine has typed up a more detailed description of how Android manages its memory on its on. Here is the link. http://geekfor.me/faq/you-shouldnt-be-using-a-task-killer-with-android/
I hope this was educational and helpful because knowledge is power.
-Ken
Also, for those that are rooted, download an app called AutoKiller. It changes the factory values in which Android kills off apps so that they get killed off sooner. It has presents within the app. I keep mine at aggressive. For those who are not rooted, download Spare Parts and go down to the Process Manager and turn it on Aggressive. It does the same thing in a way as AutoKiller but seems to be much more aggressive at killing apps off. Too aggressive for my taste.
All grammar and spelling mistakes were done on purpose. Thx. ;P
Sent from my iPhone with the bigger Gee Bees.
Unless you have an application that is broken or improperly coded (like the Facebook app issue recently), you wont need a task killer ever.
MikeyMike01 said:
Unless you have an application that is broken or improperly coded (like the Facebook app issue recently), you wont need a task killer ever.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree, and if an app is crappy enough to need killing,i uninstall it (ie savvyshopper).
MikeyMike01 said:
Unless you have an application that is broken or improperly coded (like the Facebook app issue recently), you wont need a task killer ever.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would have to disagree to certain extent, with my ignorant and limited knowledge
Imma a call a teenzy weenzy bs too.
I have experienced memory ill effects with my captivate. I could have killed the few apps that I hadn't previously removed. A lil while later suffer some phone abnormalities that seem to vanish when I kill the proggies that started on their own, that weren't even previously killed. The ram would be sitting fat and happy at around 50 megs, until I kill the apps that I don't use. Out of the blue, my phone starts working normally after that.
The op is campaigning against these app killers but uses a proggy of the same variety, just a different flavor.
I didn't read the link, just basing myself on the 2 posts before mine.
a_fuegon said:
I would have to disagree to certain extent, with my ignorant and limited knowledge
Imma a call a teenzy weenzy bs too.
I have experienced memory ill effects with my captivate. I could have killed the few apps that I hadn't previously removed. A lil while later suffer some phone abnormalities that seem to vanish when I kill the proggies that started on their own, that weren't even previously killed. The ram would be sitting fat and happy at around 50 megs, until I kill the apps that I don't use. Out of the blue, my phone starts working normally after that.
The op is campaigning against these app killers but uses a proggy of the same variety, just a different flavor.
I didn't read the link, just basing myself on the 2 posts before mine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The app I mentioned does not work the same way as the others in the market. It literally changes system settings within Android so that apps are removed from memory sooner. As for misbehavng apps, uninstall them. Find a replacement. The Facebook app was a good example. But I just used an older version until the wakelock issue was resolved. Don't get me wrong in those rare cases a task killer will be a temp fix. However, once the phone is upgraded to 2.2, there will be a built in settings menu to access the running processes. Thus completely eliminating the need for a 3rd party task killer.
Sent from my iPhone with the bigger Gee Bees.
notasimpleway said:
Sent from my iPhone with the bigger Gee Bees.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Best sig ever.
I installed AutoKiller this morning. What's equally interesting is that the same author has an app called Autorun Killer. The following apps were starting up on their own:
AT&T Hot Spots
AT&T Navigator
Daily Briefing
Instant Messaging
Swype
ShopSavvy
The Weather Channel
WeatherBug
etc.
I've disabled each of these from auto loading during each startup. It may or may not matter from an operational standpoint, but it makes me "feel" better. A control issue? "I'll tell you when to start!"
A tiny bit OT, but I thought it might be useful.
However, once the phone is upgraded to 2.2, there will be a built in settings menu to access the running processes. Thus completely eliminating the need for a 3rd party task killer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Android already has that in 2.1. Do you mean they are improving it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this is totally true
i definately had that windows mindset, but ive learned better
now i use watchdog light(monitors processes for high CPU usage rather than mem)
watchdog is designed around this idea, and i highly recomend it
on the other hand i still have atk to kill things at startup that i never use, like car home and desk home
k2snowboards88 said:
Android already has that in 2.1. Do you mean they are improving it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, yes. It is much better. I think the memfree settings are a little higher. Not sure.
Sent from my iPhone with the bigger Gee Bees.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Jack45 said:
I installed AutoKiller this morning. What's equally interesting is that the same author has an app called Autorun Killer. The following apps were starting up on their own:
AT&T Hot Spots
AT&T Navigator
Daily Briefing
Instant Messaging
Swype
ShopSavvy
The Weather Channel
WeatherBug
etc.
I've disabled each of these from auto loading during each startup. It may or may not matter from an operational standpoint, but it makes me "feel" better. A control issue? "I'll tell you when to start!"
A tiny bit OT, but I thought it might be useful.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use a paid app for that called AutoStarts. I like both. Let's you complete stop programs from starting not only at start up but even when a certain event happens. Such as for Sprint phones we have a navigation program that auto starts in the background when we get a text. I can see. Say we get an address and want to get directions, it will be ready to go. But it is not needed. So I disabled it. Other apps do this with other conditions. I like control over thinks so I feel you. Just be careful on what you disable. You can mess some things up. And some things will restart anyways because the system needs them.
Sent from my iPhone with the bigger Gee Bees.
dewt said:
Best sig ever.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just thought since I use the Evo this should be my signature.
Sent from my iPhone with the bigger Gee Bees.
MikeyMike01 said:
Unless you have an application that is broken or improperly coded (like the Facebook app issue recently), you wont need a task killer ever.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
XCacADCsadf
While I do not doubt any of the claims that android does not need a task killer, i did a little testing(not really testing, more comparing) since i have 2 captivates at my disposal...me and my wife's. My buddy stopped by with his iPhone 4 who thinks it is the fastest phone to ever be released. Now i know the android browser is just flat out faster than the ios browser since I've owned every one and returned the iPhone 4 for the cappy. He wanted to do a browser speed test so i agreed and we raced. I beat him 9 out of 10 times but just barely. It seemed like my captivate was being a little laggy and I'm running sre @ 1.2ghz with the ext4 lag fix. So i compared mine to my wife's bone stock cappy and hers beat mine by a little bit. So for ****s and giggles i redownloaded advanced task killer and killed about the 10 thing that were listed besides the things i wanted to run and bam, back to screaming speeds. Faster and snappier than my wife's cappy and even more faster than his iphone. So while I'm not sure if their absolutely necessary in my case it did make a noticeable speed difference.
di11igaf said:
While I do not doubt any of the claims that android does not need a task killer, i did a little testing(not really testing, more comparing) since i have 2 captivates at my disposal...me and my wife's. My buddy stopped by with his iPhone 4 who thinks it is the fastest phone to ever be released. Now i know the android browser is just flat out faster than the ios browser since I've owned every one and returned the iPhone 4 for the cappy. He wanted to do a browser speed test so i agreed and we raced. I beat him 9 out of 10 times but just barely. It seemed like my captivate was being a little laggy and I'm running sre @ 1.2ghz with the ext4 lag fix. So i compared mine to my wife's bone stock cappy and hers beat mine by a little bit. So for ****s and giggles i redownloaded advanced task killer and killed about the 10 thing that were listed besides the things i wanted to run and bam, back to screaming speeds. Faster and snappier than my wife's cappy and even more faster than his iphone. So while I'm not sure if their absolutely necessary in my case it did make a noticeable speed difference.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, you will notice once you get 2.2. Task Managers just won't work. They removed the command that they use to kill apps. They just restart. Restarting apps will mean more battery consumption. I was trying to educate because knowledge is power. Here is a really good explanation. http://www.tested.com/news/android-task-killers-are-deadheres-what-you-should-be-doing/923/ But if you feel it works, by all means, continue. I stopped using one back on my Hero running Android 1.5 and never looked back.
Since you are rooted, why don't you install AutoKiller? Give it a chance and delete ATK. Trust me. Set it to aggressive. And run another test. You will never have to manually kill apps again. Well, unless you have a rogue app. Msg me if you need some help.
Sent from my iPhone with the bigger Gee Bees.
I am hearing mixed opinions about task managers on android. I know technichally they are unnessary on froyo but if used correctly can they boost performnace and more inportantly battery life? Say I leave a game like angry birds running in the backround will it hurt my battery life or slow down my phone? Would i be better off going to a task manager and just killing it or leave it running and android take care of it. Also I would like to know if using a task manager like this would acually be hurting my battery life/performance becuase of force closing games that I dont want running in the backround.
Im using a droid 2 and running froyo and i have not rooted the phone.
Thanks for any replies.
They do not boost performance or save battery. in fact, they use MORE battery. Dont use one, ESPECIALLY with Froyo. The only time I use one, is if an app is acting up, freezing, etc. Otherwise, dont use it.
Ok thank you. That is suprising to me becuase naturally i assumed if more memory was taken up the phone would not run as well. But thanks again and I think im going to just uninstall it
Try Watchdog lite.
Yes, I Swyped it from my Galaxy 3
I would like to know what are your guys readings of RAM usage. Mine sits around 240MB/339MB
Is that high or normal? I do have quite a bit of widgets on different home screens so I dont know what the baseline is. Please share your results.
Good topic I was wondering this myself ...
Average ram I have is about 128MB free out off 339MB
Sent from my SGH-T959V using XDA App
179mb out of 339
Sent from my SGH-T959V using XDA App
moshe22 said:
179mb out of 339
Sent from my SGH-T959V using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, running widgets? maybe I should modify my running apps.
fknfocused said:
Wow, running widgets? maybe I should modify my running apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No widgets running at the moment though.
Sent from my SGH-T959V using XDA App
Task MAnagers!?!?!
I'm not sure if i am 100% right about this maybe won of the senior members who does know can enlighten us on this...
But I remember reading somewhere that task managers some times can hurt your phones RAM usage. I don't use one anymore unless it comes stock. and then I rarely find a reason to open it on mine. In standby I am running around 80-100 with 200-300 of freem RAM so with the SGS4G i don't think i will find a reason to use more than the stock utilities. I somtimes will installl a tool to monitor the RAM to see what I'm usin but every once in a while I go through and uninstall anything I don't need right away. I figure ussually being in good internet coverage I can always put something back.
So does anyone else know about wether or not the "Task Manager" could actually be a tantric in some cases?
moshe22 said:
No widgets running at the moment though.
Sent from my SGH-T959V using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So widgets are the ram hog on this phone? I have been constantly clearing ram in the task manager to help with speed. I only run clock, battery, and calender widgets on my device. Are they enough to boost me all the way to 240+ even after a RAM clearing? Considering the age of this thread is this still the case with new ROM's that are starting to roll out? I'm still stock, and very noob to android devices, but the urge for mods is growing given the positive responses to them.
http://m.lifehacker.com/5650894/and...ed-what-they-do-and-why-you-shouldnt-use-them
Very good article about task killers
Sent from my SGH-T959V
Bassmanjames said:
So widgets are the ram hog on this phone? I have been constantly clearing ram in the task manager to help with speed. I only run clock, battery, and calender widgets on my device. Are they enough to boost me all the way to 240+ even after a RAM clearing? Considering the age of this thread is this still the case with new ROM's that are starting to roll out? I'm still stock, and very noob to android devices, but the urge for mods is growing given the positive responses to them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, this is def not the case anymore. I sit around 200MB free. Ever since cwm's final release the doors opened for us. Go get some love
sent from my not so stock SGS4G
You shouldn't have to worry too much about RAM usage. A lot of it used by the OS. But yeah widgets does lower it and whatever app you're using. But I hope you don't resort to using task killers just to save 50mb's of RAM. It's there for use and shouldn't be looked at too much.
Mine shows about 400/626, but haven't noticed any big difference in battery drain when it's at 300/626.
Simple answer....everything hogs ram. The best way to tell what's worse is settings » applications » manage applications and watch your ram usage when you have certain things running. You will notice what is hogging more than others.
sent from the pits of hell (from an sgs4g)
Thank you for the info everybody. Been ruinning just fine all day with the ram almost maxed out, hard to break that task manager habit though lol. Goona keep reading before I root-flash-mod need to make sure I get it right the first time.
On the moon our weekends are so advanced they encompass the entire week
Samsung and Tmo set many bloatware to run ALL the time and hogs RAM
via Linda file manager and auto memory manager (which tweak's android's memory management, not a standard task killer), i saw many apps that always run (many with priority equals to android system and the phone app) such as "wifi calling, visual voice mail, my account, qik, device management, drm, etc.
not everyone use these apps and they take up precious RAM and tiny amount of CPU cycles.
worse, however, is how the phone keeps loading unused, unaccessed, unwanted apps into memory (been weeks since I used pandora, yet it keeps getting reloaded into memory).
from clean boot, I get 150mb free. after a week, I get 45-55mb. This causes memory manager to kill off app as soon as you switch away and alot of stutter (dont you hate it when your browser gets killed)
Dont know if theres a fix for this. I tried tweaking the OOM parameters but it doesnt seem to work on this phone. Samsung probably tweaked something that broke this.
Ok so I was wondering about couple of things about the 2.2.1 and about task killing I know some ppl say not to have it. But some say they like using task killer. Does 2.2.1 have a task killer built in? What are some tools to use to kill off the task I did have advance task killer on my phone and it seemed like it helped out a lot even the battery life. Is it really just a personal thing to have.
Staticpunk84 said:
Ok so I was wondering about couple of things about the 2.2.1 and about task killing I know some ppl say not to have it. But some say they like using task killer. Does 2.2.1 have a task killer built in? What are some tools to use to kill off the task I did have advance task killer on my phone and it seemed like it helped out a lot even the battery life. Is it really just a personal thing to have.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What you want to do is, if you feel you're having issues and you aren't sure what app might be causing them, is get something like Watchdog, which tells you how much CPU each app is using, and optionally will alert you when an app crosses the line of acceptable amount of CPU usage. You can kill the problematic app at that point, in Watchdog.
Other than that, task killers should be avoided. They cause problems.
As far as built-in, it's not an condoned activity to be killing apps whimsically, so I would say that it's not built-in in the sense that I think you're talking about.
You can force stop apps by way of settings>manage applications, if you really must.
Inspired Ace 1.0.1¦ XDA Premium
cool..I have been reading about the pros and cons about task killer. I mean idk also I see a lot of ppl talk about the battery life and an app called juice defender. Didnt know how good that really is reviews seem 50/50.
Android will kill apps as it needs to, Linux kernel has this built in. No task killer will be as efficient or effective as what you already have.
When you kill apps with a task killer, most are gonna restart, which is gonna waste more battery. Let the kernel do its thing, you'll be fine
Staticpunk84 said:
cool..I have been reading about the pros and cons about task killer. I mean idk also I see a lot of ppl talk about the battery life and an app called juice defender. Didnt know how good that really is reviews seem 50/50.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A lot of people use juice defender. It's not really a task manager, more of a hardware battery usage manager.
I thought about it, but battery life isn't something that causes me that much of a problem, and a lot of the things it does I do anyway, so...
The custom rom I use improved battery life over stock, and I just manually keep things off/turned down while not in use, plus, I'm used to throwing my phone on the charger before I go to bed anyway... It lasts me through the day, so...
Inspired Ace 1.0.1¦ XDA Premium
di11igaf said:
Android will kill apps as it needs to, Linux kernel has this built in. No task killer will be as efficient or effective as what you already have.
When you kill apps with a task killer, most are gonna restart, which is gonna waste more battery. Let the kernel do its thing, you'll be fine
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To add to what dilligaf said, if he doesn't mind. Generally apps only consuming battery when they using your cpu, when you aren't using an app (the easiest way to explain it) it goes into a dormant state, but remains on your ram so it doesn't have to load the entire app the next time you open it.
Which is why watchdog is recommended.
cool I'll look into that also on a different note I see ppl talk about the side load update and att not knowing anything about it and calling up and having it push to them. Question is what the update for and is the same as side loader wonder machine?
also about my email not being so instant I see the settings for peak time and off peak time
Staticpunk84 said:
cool I'll look into that also on a different note I see ppl talk about the side load update and att not knowing anything about it and calling up and having it push to them. Question is what the update for and is the same as side loader wonder machine?
also about my email not being so instant I see the settings for peak time and off peak time
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The ATT sideloading update enables "unknown sources" in settings, allowing you to sideload at will on a non-rooted, stock phone.
The wonder machine, though I've never used it personally, sideloads an app on a per app basis, on an otherwise sideloading-disabled non-rooted phone.
In other words, to have to run it every time you want to sideload an app.
Having the "unknown sources" (sideloading) setting enabled on the phone, which is normally hidden, either by way of ATT's recent update, or by rooting (the most widely used technique here on XDA), frees you of the need to run wonder machine each individual time you want to install a non-market app.
Inspired Ace 1.0.1¦ XDA Premium
ah ok I thought thats what it did.. I still have not seen my update I go in to the settings and about phone click for updates and its saying everything is up to date and I have wait like 24 hrs later lol
Title says it all. I know with froyo on Samsung phones the devs at sdx said it wasn't useful at all,but with HTC's phones,you see the apps running in the statusbar (I'm running gingerbread,inspired ace BTW) but my question is,will the task killer be useful? I quit using it a long time ago after I noticed a few of my phones battery life slowly getting worse. Any ideas?
Sent from my Inspire 4G using XDA Premium App
Those are just shortcuts to your recently opened apps. I'm not a big fan of task killers, they seem to make my phone run like crap.
Please have a look at Android Memory Management to get an overview of how android memory management works, be it on any device.
U can use task killer judicially to kill any stray apps.
Well see I kinda knew all that which is why I quit using them,but there's something that's eating the battery up and I deleted all my apps that synced huge amounts of data in the background besides Facebook. Contract killer was one app,after I deleted it I noticed a whole extra 2 hours of battery life each day. No lie. But if I could let go of sense,I'm sure battery would be better but it just wouldn't make sense to have such a great phone without its cool features
Sent from my Inspire 4G using XDA Premium App
I used to use task killers all the time. After getting my inspire I decided to stop using them. I have noticed no difference in performance other then the random freezes and small issues of that nature went away. I would say your on the right track just try and figure out what apps are causing the trouble. Then go into the settings of your apps that sync data to set the sync less frequently. That should help with your issues.
brd912 said:
Well see I kinda knew all that which is why I quit using them,but there's something that's eating the battery up and I deleted all my apps that synced huge amounts of data in the background besides Facebook. Contract killer was one app,after I deleted it I noticed a whole extra 2 hours of battery life each day. No lie. But if I could let go of sense,I'm sure battery would be better but it just wouldn't make sense to have such a great phone without its cool features
Sent from my Inspire 4G using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You don't have to remove sense, just make it quit syncing. See my thread about it for currentwidget log proof.
The only app killer worth even thinking about putting on your phone is, watchdog/watchdog lite. It monitors for stray apps that hog the cpu and run your battery down, other then that they shouldn't be used, no task killer is going to be as efficient as the android operating system itself.
Install "Battery History for GB". This lets u see battery usage in more detail.
E.g., I noticed there was an instance where the GPS sensor was not turned off even after I quit the program GPS status. Though this was a stray instance, I would not have known this without this program. And for this specific issue, only a reboot was the answer.
mudknot2005 said:
The only app killer worth even thinking about putting on your phone is, watchdog/watchdog lite. It monitors for stay apps that hog the cpu and run your battery down, other then that they shouldn't be used, no task killer is going to be as efficient as the android operating system itself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I second this. For what it's worth..
Yup. Watchdog for the gross stuff. Elixer has a nifty widget I use in conjunction to easily be notified how many apps are consuming resources and easily FC....I made a 21 icon control panel from elixer widgets that only takes up half a screen to monitor n toggle stuff...that dev has resource management in mind....
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA App
I use ATK but no way am I going to set it to auto kill tasks. I only use it when I notice my phone starts slowing down and being laggy and I have it set to kill only the tasks that do NOT automatically open themselves up again immediately (ie gmail, messaging, maps, pandora, etc). I use it to kill things that are just sitting around pointlessly IF I'm noticing my phone slowing down (just to reiterate ). Hope this helps someone
Yeah I decided to just let the phone do its thing. I just flashed a new Rom and battery life already seems 10 times better.
Sent from my Inspire 4G using XDA Premium App
nhshah7 said:
I use ATK but no way am I going to set it to auto kill tasks. I only use it when I notice my phone starts slowing down and being laggy ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As others said, let Android do it's thing regarding task and memory mgmt and - if you are still concerned - use watchdog.
ATK and other task killers are brilliant battery hogs - mine lasts at least 2h longer since I removed them.
Totally agree task killers are worthless and can cause apps to not work
bigdaddy818818 said:
Totally agree task killers are worthless and can cause apps to not work
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's if you use them incorrectly and kill apps that automatically reopen. That's what kills the battery. Killing an app that you used 3 hours ago that's still running in memory is actually helpful, etc...
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA Premium App