Database Info

What the hell is wrong with the memory (RAM) usage on this phone?

Even my desire with latest htc sense and gingerbread I had at least 100mb free ram. With this phone I barely have 50mb free, the phone is slow, skinned launcher pro is laggy and when I try to see which app is eating so much, android system is at the top with ~70mb of usage. If I add all the other apps there I can't even reach 200mb in total, where is the rest of 300MB?
I assumed that aosp ROMs should be smooth and without problems, but my HTC Sense was way much more responsive!

Dunno but I have at least 465mb free on my SGS2

psp888 said:
Dunno but I have at least 465mb free on my SGS2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well that is great, but not really a helpful response. Still, nice phone you got there.

I'm not running Launcher Pro (yet), but with stock launcher I've got 151mb free.
I'm so pleased with the performance of the stock launcher in GB that I was afraid to switch to LP.
With all of these things though, there are so many variables that your mileage will differ greatly from everyone else's based on the # of apps, widgets, etc.
But right now, mine's humming right along.

756MB free on my NS4G

Myself, and others on the NS4G have all agreed, launcher pro hates this phone and runs terrible.. ADW is my preferred choice now.

I'm running ADW Launcher EX on my NS with 2.3.4 and I usually have around 145mb free. Gingerbread seems to be handling system resources well on my device, I rarely experience any lag. Are you rooted? If so you could do a full wipe and reinstall gingerbread fresh. That may straighten things out for you.

Are we talking about the same things here?
RAM = running programs
vs program storage?
The NS4G has 300mb of RAM with 1GB of program storage.
My NS4G averages 150mb of free RAM and storage hovers around 750mb.

I have about 174MB free ram on stock 2.3.4 if that helps.
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I've got about 130 free with stock rom/launcher.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA App

I don't think its a problem with this phone specifically, I think it has to do with gingerbread itself. As you can see in my sig (have to update it these days) I'm coming from an HTC Desire and if I ran an AOSP gingerbread ROM I was having the exact same issue with launcher pro. But the RAM memory was not there, I had above 100mb free all the time. Desire has the same amount of RAM as NS.
The free RAM displayed in running services is not accurate, if you want to see ur free RAM download quick sytem info or system info widget.
Here's a pic with my usage without browser running (just closed it, otherwise I would've had less then 50mb free):

On my NS4G, running the OpenSoju rom, and Launcher Pro, it is running like butter:

I think Gingerbread runs more like Windows 7 does on the PC.. If there is free RAM, it's going to use it to make the OS more responsive.. If demand rises for app or game usage it should (in theory) start freeing up RAM to compensate.

Exploring this further, there is definitely some conflicts of usage depending on what you use to view RAM.
Gingerbreads app management tells me I have 136M free.. While a system info app tells me 77M available.

I killed every single app I could see in quick system info and reached almost 150 mb free (for real, not the usage u see in running services) and even then launcher pro is laggy. When going into sense-like preview (pinch to zoom out) and sometimes even scrolling through screens it feels laggy, its certainly not as responsive as it was with my HTC Sense ROM on the HTC Desire.
ADW also feels laggy.
And I can confirm that froyo works just fine, this is a screw-up from google. And their launcher sucks!
Edit: Ok I removed all the 4x4 widgets and the phone is now ok, it runs fine. Apparently if you have a lot of widgets running on several home screens it will lag. Again, on froyo there is no such problem
I will try MIUI today and report back.

if you have a problem with memory handling try searching ANDmemory in xda. its still in beta but it does a pretty good job.

styckx said:
Exploring this further, there is definitely some conflicts of usage depending on what you use to view RAM.
Gingerbreads app management tells me I have 136M free.. While a system info app tells me 77M available.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you running a custom rom? I want that battery indicator.

djorijun said:
756MB free on my NS4G
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Talking about RAM not ROM

I limited to 3 screens for now, a main screen and 2 side ones filled with 2x2 launcher pro widgets. It feels much smoother now, but the RAM usage is still big.

psp888 said:
Dunno but I have at least 465mb free on my SGS2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then what are you doing in this forum dummy.

[Q] ram issue ??

i know this was discussed before but i'm asking now after months and weeks of usage
is the device affected by the small amount of avilable ram ????
does this small amount of memory lead to lagging or reboating ??
i m going to get the device soon so i m worried about that issue

I wouldnt say it has a "small" amount of memory, just less than others.
I would consider myself a moderate user, I learned on WM5 and up to 6.5 to keep my unused apps down and my memory clear so I have not run into any problems here.
I have seen a few very brief frame drops in a game while something is going on in the background but it was very minimal and did not detract from my joy of the device.
The built in task manager does not accurately read the available ram as the advanced settings does which can be mis leading. Cleaning out of lot of running processes clears up even more. Sense eats a fair amount but I personally like it.
This is my first main Android experience and it has been nothing but a pleasure so far. Again I am a moderate user tinkering with a new to me OS. I email a lot, text a lot, read RSS regularly and surf the web a little bit. The rest is with the apps. Things have always loaded quickly and so far not crashed.

It has enough RAM. I had a MyTouch 4G for 8 months and now the Sensation, both have 768MB of RAM and neither phone has slowed or froze at all. A lot of phones only have 512MB of RAM.

honestly, if you need a gig of ram, you're either a dev who needs the resources, or your desktop PC is as cluttered as your closet/garage and cant be bother to clean it

xdafun4all said:
does this small amount of memory lead to lagging or reboating ??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what does "reboat" mean?

nccu_eagles said:
what does "reboat" mean?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
he means rebooting

People need to stop thinking of Android in terms of their Windows desktop or WinMo. It handles memory completely different. Android sees unused ram as a wasted resource. Android will free up more ram if it needs it. If you look in the notification area you may only see ~100mb free. Then look in the "running applications" tab under settings-applications and you may see well over 200mb available to android. That's because Android has cached about 100mb of data to make it readily available because Android knows there are some programs/processes you use a lot and by caching it in available ram you can access them quicker without slowdown. But this 100mb of pre-cached "stuff" android will kill if it needs additional ram. That's why it shows it as available in Android settings.
Take a look at the Pre-gingerbread running services menu, it actually used to spell out how much was unused and how much was in running services Android knows it can kill to free more memory if needed. A sign of your phone really running low on memory is if your phone has to re-launch Rosie every time you press the home screen. This happened a lot on early builds of Sense 3.0 on the G2 because the G2 just didn't have enough ram to run Sense 3.0. Your phone won't lag/stutter just because it's low on memory. In fact killing a lot of these pre-cached items will be the cause of your phone's apparent lag as your phone attempts to relaunch a process or service that you killed.
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thanks for reply , but in some videos i noticed that the device is too laggy !!!!
how can u explain this ????
i mean during multitasking like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKfbXqJbXZQ

xdafun4all said:
thanks for reply , but in some videos i noticed that the device is too laggy !!!!
how can u explain this ????
i mean during multitasking like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKfbXqJbXZQ
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its early software. Wait for an OTA or for it to be rooted and CID unlocked and then you will be able to remove Sense.
If I can say one thing about HTC, they support their phones much longer than ANY other company out there - hell they're one of the first to provide GB on a launch device - and they are also excellent about maintaining their own software (ie, Sense - the bloat hog on any Android or WinMo 6.5 device - as anyone can tell you, Sense 2.0 took at least 75MB of RAM to run - 3.0 has to be worse) so you can rest assured that your device will definitely speed up one way or the other.

but dont u think after all that it is a problem that the desire hd had more free ram than the sensation
i hope it can be solved with an update as i cant immagine it without sense :S

Go to a store and play with the phone....it's that simple. Watching a YouTube video about the phone can be misleading you have no idea what type if settings the guy was using
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA App

xdafun4all said:
but dont u think after all that it is a problem that the desire hd had more free ram than the sensation
i hope it can be solved with an update as i cant immagine it without sense :S
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have 220MB of RAM free and I'm running Scruff, A4A Radar, and a number of other apps in the background. Looking at my G2x, with the same apps running and NO Sense, I have 148MB free and the Sensation is not lagging like the G2x is.

Missing RAM?

Hey guys,
I just got my brand new Nexus S yesterday from a Mobilicity store, and I just noticed that after using it for a day, in the Application Settings --> Running Services menu in system preferences, it says that I have used 179 MB used and 116 MB free, that only equates to 295 MB of total RAM. I thought this phone had 512 MB of RAM installed ... what happened to the rest of my RAM ?
Does Android reserve like 200+ MB of RAM for the OS itself ? Personally I disabled the Live Wallpaper as it eats up resources.
Software I do have running in the background right now are: RealPlayer, Trillian, LiveProfile, Skype, Maps, Swype.
Thanks,
deltatux

deltatux said:
Does Android reserve like 200+ MB of RAM for the OS itself ? Personally I disabled the Live Wallpaper as it eats up resources.
deltatux
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes it does, that's normal for OS based phones...i think you prolly have more programs running because the best amount of ram to have is around 200...

shad0wboss said:
Yes it does, that's normal for OS based phones...i think you prolly have more programs running because the best amount of ram to have is around 200...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think they should have a much better memory displayer ... like in KInfo on KDE which lists, free, reserved and used.
Without that, I was like, wtf happened to my 512 MB RAM? lol.
Thanks,
deltatux

get a terminal emulator app. Type in "free"

asb123 said:
get a terminal emulator app. Type in "free"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any suggestions on good ones, there's like a billion of them on the Android Market.
Thanks,
deltatux

deltatux said:
I think they should have a much better memory displayer ... like in KInfo on KDE which lists, free, reserved and used.
Without that, I was like, wtf happened to my 512 MB RAM? lol.
Thanks,
deltatux
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
go to the main phone settings, applications, manage applications, running.. its the native/stock task manager.
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simms22 said:
go to the main phone settings, applications, manage applications, running.. its the native/stock task manager.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ye I was originally quoting that screen but the main issue is that I believe that its memory manager should show total free, total used and reserved spaces than just listing what isn't reserved.
Personally I thought my dealer shorted me out by selling me one with less than 512 MB RAM, then I came up with the possibility that it's just OS reserved which has now been confirmed.
If I was not very tech savvy I would have gone back and say, wtf happened to the rest of my memory? It could have been shown better or had an advanced view.
deltatux

deltatux said:
Ye I was originally quoting that screen but the main issue is that I believe that its memory manager should show total free, total used and reserved spaces than just listing what isn't reserved.
Personally I thought my dealer shorted me out by selling me one with less than 512 MB RAM, then I came up with the possibility that it's just OS reserved which has now been confirmed.
If I was not very tech savvy I would have gone back and say, wtf happened to the rest of my memory? It could have been shown better or had an advanced view.
deltatux
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
look at the bottom of that screen, it does show free ram vs used ram.
also, a lot of ram goes into nfc, not just the os. ive been with the ns since the first week of the year, and i havent had any issues with not having enough ram. also, theres an app called free memory manager(by angry squirrel) that you can use to set the native task killer, so that youll have more free ram more often. here are my settings at the moment, they are very aggressive..

simms22 said:
look at the bottom of that screen, it does show free ram vs used ram.
also, a lot of ram goes into nfc, not just the os. ive been with the ns since the first week of the year, and i havent had any issues with not having enough ram. also, theres an app called free memory manager(by angry squirrel) that you can use to set the native task killer, so that youll have more free ram more often. here are my settings at the moment, they are very aggressive..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can't seem to find that app on the Android Market... any links to what you're talking about?
deltatux

deltatux said:
I can't seem to find that app on the Android Market... any links to what you're talking about?
deltatux
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it shows up on my market. heres the direct link https://market.android.com/details?id=com.lim.android.automemman
if in the market app it shows not found, try the link in the desktop browser.

[APP] YAMC - yet another memory cleaner

https://market.android.com/details?id=lovetere.yamc
Free up memory space in your phone and boost its performance!
Unlike other apps, YAMC kills running processes as the system does after low memory warning.
Instructions:
- click on Clean to free up memory without exit from the app,
- click on Yamc! to clean up memory exiting from the app.
When to use:
- when you use your smartphone for a long time;
- when you feel that system is slower.
FREE version is ad-supported.
FULL version specific features are:
- widget,
- no ads,
- just one permission required for killing the processes.
https://market.android.com/details?id=lovetere.yamc
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Versione 1.0.3.3 released.
Changelog:
- italian translation
- new context menu showing process options

just to move up this conversation!

marlove said:
https://market.android.com/details?id=lovetere.yamc
Free up memory space in your phone and boost its performance!
Unlike other apps, YAMC kills running processes as the system does after low memory warning.
Instructions:
- click on Clean to free up memory without exit from the app,
- click on Yamc! to clean up memory exiting from the app.
When to use:
- when you use your smartphone for a long time;
- when you feel that system is slower.
FREE version is ad-supported.
FULL version specific features are:
- widget,
- no ads,
- just one permission required for killing the processes.
https://market.android.com/details?id=lovetere.yamc
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Up!!!

I like this one!
Bought the full version, and it is as simple and clean as I want it to be.

oleerik said:
I like this one!
Bought the full version, and it is as simple and clean as I want it to be.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks!
new update available for the full version, now is possible to configure a periodic cleaning.
https://market.android.com/details?id=lovetere.yamc.full

so is this just a auto killer?

efan3719 said:
so is this just a auto killer?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
actually it is an automatic memory cleaner!

Up!

marlove said:
actually it is an automatic memory cleaner!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What's special about this app compared to Auto Task Killer and the likes?
I mean automatic memory cleaner? What does it do? I've read the info and I don't quite get it to be honest...

MrEzzzkiel said:
What's special about this app compared to Auto Task Killer and the likes?
I mean automatic memory cleaner? What does it do? I've read the info and I don't quite get it to be honest...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello,
Usually this kind of app allocates all the free memory available to trigger the OS low memory system.
This way the running apps are closed by OS itself according low memory system policies.
There are a lot of articles around the net explaining the android memory system and why Task Killers should not be used to free memory.
You can start with this article:
http://lifehacker.com/5650894/android-task-killers-explained-what-they-do-and-why-you-shouldnt-use-them
I use FMR Memory Cleaner that does the same.
Best.

martinsjt said:
Hello,
Usually this kind of app allocates all the free memory available to trigger the OS low memory system.
This way the running apps are closed by OS itself according low memory system policies.
There are a lot of articles around the net explaining the android memory system and why Task Killers should not be used to free memory.
You can start with this article:
http://lifehacker.com/5650894/android-task-killers-explained-what-they-do-and-why-you-shouldnt-use-them
I use FMR Memory Cleaner that does the same.
Best.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
YAMC uses another method to free up the memory: each app receives a message from the OS to be closed. The way the running apps are closed is safe and it preserves the system's performance.

Just bought the app to support further development, looks promising!

I'll also be trying this one out to see if it might improve my phones speed and feel...
It sounds like a good idea and after reading about the android way of using ram I regret buying ATK back in the day...
Thx!

I guess I bought the app instead of just trying it... Seems very promising... Thank you!

MrEzzzkiel said:
I guess I bought the app instead of just trying it... Seems very promising... Thank you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for buying YAMC!
I configured the periodic cleaning interval to 30 minutes and I noticed a longer battery life. what do you think about it?

martinsjt said:
Hello,
Usually this kind of app allocates all the free memory available to trigger the OS low memory system.
This way the running apps are closed by OS itself according low memory system policies.
There are a lot of articles around the net explaining the android memory system and why Task Killers should not be used to free memory.
You can start with this article:
http://lifehacker.com/5650894/andro...ed-what-they-do-and-why-you-shouldnt-use-them
I use FMR Memory Cleaner that does the same.
Best.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e
As i know its should be only bad when you use an autokill function and not if you tap a kill widget. Btw I'm still looking for an app that can kill services too...
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e

marlove said:
thanks for buying YAMC!
I configured the periodic cleaning interval to 30 minutes and I noticed a longer battery life. what do you think about it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I like it... Nice and simple UI... Easy to use... It's a good buy!

MrEzzzkiel said:
I like it... Nice and simple UI... Easy to use... It's a good buy!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thank you very much!

Up!!!

How To Guide ***CLOSED*** Samsung: How to KEEP apps in the BACKGROUND!

Hey guys,
in case you are not happy with the default One UI apps background management, you can check this solution. In a nutshell, there is a Memory Guardian module part of Good Guardians, that allows the user to switch from default to the so called "quick switching mode" that somehow reduces the aggressive background app killing, i.e. app refresh.
Moderator Edit: YouTube link removed due to violation of XDA external links policy.
I have tested this with following apps:
- Spotify
- Mixcloud
- Instagram
- Snapchat
- Tiktok
- Youtube
Some other users tested this with Waze and other apps and it seems that it works.
What is the idea? Well imagine you are browsing through insta and you find a nice post that you d like to check, but then something else pops up and you switch to another app. Then after you are back to your app (in this case insta) One UI would "refresh" the app, meaning that it will reload it, and you will lose your "last state", i.e. imagine refreshing the app or close/opening it.
Download Samsung Good Guardians from the Store ► https://bit.ly/3yGFUms
Download Samsung Good Guardians for a manual install ► https://bit.ly/3yOehYD
It is also supposed to work with some of the heavy games, test it and let me know if you apps refresh is a bit better (i.e. not refreshed so much) or ... no difference at all.
I have tested this on my S22U with 12G of RAM but I guess it should have a better impact for 8 GB and lower RAM configs.

Appreciate the find!
I have 8gb version and apps are staying open much better now

billmurray1004 said:
Appreciate the find!
I have 8gb version and apps are staying open much better now
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice to hear that! Can you let us know which apps did you test? Also - how much of VRAM (Virtual RAM) do you use?
I makes a bit of difference on my 12GB version so I assumed that it would be even better/bigger impact on 8GB and less.
Strangely enough this function is not very popular, was almost not able to find much info around. The whole Good Guardians tools are widely underestimated and they pack a few good tricks.
Thermal Guardian for example can let you adjust the thermal threshold of your phone, so it can potentially tolerate a bit more heat where battery life is exchanged for better peak performance and hopefully also sustained.

velqn said:
Hey guys,
in case you are not happy with the default One UI apps background management, you can check this solution. In a nutshell, there is a Memory Guardian module part of Good Guardians, that allows the user to switch from default to the so called "quick switching mode" that somehow reduces the aggressive background app killing, i.e. app refresh.
Moderator Edit: YouTube link removed due to violation of XDA external links policy.
I have tested this with following apps:
- Spotify
- Mixcloud
- Instagram
- Snapchat
- Tiktok
- Youtube
Some other users tested this with Waze and other apps and it seems that it works.
What is the idea? Well imagine you are browsing through insta and you find a nice post that you d like to check, but then something else pops up and you switch to another app. Then after you are back to your app (in this case insta) One UI would "refresh" the app, meaning that it will reload it, and you will lose your "last state", i.e. imagine refreshing the app or close/opening it.
Download Samsung Good Guardians from the Store ► https://bit.ly/3yGFUms
Download Samsung Good Guardians for a manual install ► https://bit.ly/3yOehYD
It is also supposed to work with some of the heavy games, test it and let me know if you apps refresh is a bit better (i.e. not refreshed so much) or ... no difference at all.
I have tested this on my S22U with 12G of RAM but I guess it should have a better impact for 8 GB and lower RAM configs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
il try this thanks, HTRACK is always closing after 5 or more apps overtake it in the que

velqn said:
Nice to hear that! Can you let us know which apps did you test? Also - how much of VRAM (Virtual RAM) do you use?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So...I just sort of excluded all apps for the most part to test. They stay in ram longer but still hit a point where they refresh. Using 8gb vram but haven't seen ram usage above 6gb or so yet

gav83collins said:
il try this thanks, HTRACK is always closing after 5 or more apps overtake it in the que
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can HTRACK be further tweaked, perhaps from dev options? I remember seeing something for background processes, like a limitation factor setting.

billmurray1004 said:
So...I just sort of excluded all apps for the most part to test. They stay in ram longer but still hit a point where they refresh. Using 8gb vram but haven't seen ram usage above 6gb or so yet
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, it`s not a silver bullet, but still some positive impact.

velqn said:
Can HTRACK be further tweaked, perhaps from dev options? I remember seeing something for background processes, like a limitation factor setting.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah there is but only upto 4 processes I sometimes have many any more apps open at once, anyway I'm trying it now and here are some screens if you wanna attach to op and il delete from this post once you add them
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update, i must say this app so far has seemed to keep my HTTrack running great in the background, it ha certainly made a difference, i did have it set "unrestricted" in the app settings/battery setting before and that didnt help, this app now works even with the app power settings set to "optimised"

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