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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Click to collapse
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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Click to collapse
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.

[Q] Memory (RAM) usage confusion

I have two Task Managers installed: "System Panel" and "Advanced Task Manager"
When I use the above two apps to check my free memory (RAM) available, it always shows around 75-100 mb remaining
When I use the stock app manager to check free memory, the value is always significantly higher - like 140-160 mb.
Does anyone know why there is discrepancy between the two readings? Which one shows the more accurate value?

sax1981 said:
I have two Task Managers installed: "System Panel" and "Advanced Task Manager"
When I use the above two apps to check my free memory (RAM) available, it always shows around 75-100 mb remaining
When I use the stock app manager to check free memory, the value is always significantly higher - like 140-160 mb.
Does anyone know why there is discrepancy between the two readings? Which one shows the more accurate value?
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Click to collapse
i dont know why there would be a discrepancy but you shouldnt use a task manager/killer on android 2.2+

slowz3r said:
i dont know why there would be a discrepancy but you shouldnt use a task manager/killer on android 2.2+
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Why not?

sax1981 said:
Why not?
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Click to collapse
Starting in Froyo, Android has become more efficient at it's own native memory management than past versions and Gingerbread continued that improvement. What this means is that if Android starts running low on RAM, it will start killing things itself and reclaiming/reallocating the memory without the need for a third party app. The other concern about using a TasKiller most people raise is that if you set it to autokill, system apps or other sort of apps that need to be run(such as Facebook widget, other kind of widgets, noLED, et al) will relaunch on their own causing the TasKiller to kill it again... relaunch... kill... relaunch... kill keep your CPU cycles at 100% and draining your battery quicker than it should be.
That being said, I still use a TasKiller on autokill with the screen off simply because I like to (and paid for the app, so dangit, I'm gonna use it! ). Once you have identified the apps that relaunch upon kill and set TasKiller to ignore them, the battery concern isn't an issue.

sax1981 said:
Why not?
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they changed the way android 2.2+ handles apps in the background so when the task killer kills an app it does more harm than good, mainly kill the hell out of your battery because android wants to start it back up again
Dont know the details but thats the jist of it

System panel is a must have. It's not used to kill all apps, just to monitor your phone and kill an out of control app.
To answer the question, the way android shares RAM between processes is very difficult to actually identify free RAM and which apps are using what. So some apps make the choice to display the free RAM differently, no way around it as there is no one "right answer" on each memory usage. I always go by system panel myself.

RogerPodacter / slowz3r / unremarked - Thanks for the info!

[Q] RAM observations

I have my Nexus S for over two weeks now, and I'm incredibly happy with it. Theming is a lot of fun, and you can do very cool stuff even without root and custom roms!
However, there is one (strange) thing I've noticed. It's about the RAM.
For your information: I use Go Launcher which has a tab in the App Drawer with running applications, and a button to close all (you can exclude certain apps). When I boot up my phone, I have 170-180 MB free RAM. The following programs (and widgets) are running in the background (I have excluded them from the close all list): Go SMS Pro (widget, notifications), WhatsApp (notifications), Lookout, Extended Controls (widget), Wiget Locker (I made it look like the MIUI lockscreen) and Clockr (widget).
There are two more apps that are on constantly, and those are the Miren Browser and PlayerPro. I don't know why Miren Browser keeps turning itself on. When I check how much MB it uses, it says 0,00 dB... As for PlayerPro, I use a widget called Phantom Music Control, a widget that hides itself when no music is being played. I also use it on my lockscreen. This widget controls PlayerPro, so that is probably why PlayerPro has to be running all the time (so that it can start up quickly when needed).
There are some Google apps that turn themselves on, like Gmail and Places, and they actually use RAM according to Go Launcher. I don't want them to be running, and synchronization is turned off with Gmail. When I want to know if I have mail, I open Gmail. It doesn't have to be running all the time. I've never used Places, and I never will use it, so I don't know why that has to be running all the time.
Every once in a while I hit Close All (with Go Launcher). However, I've noticed that over time my free memory keeps lowering. When I boot up my phone it is around 175 MB, but at the end of the day the free memory is 100 MB, 70 MB or even 50 MB, and yes, even after I've hit the 'Close All' button.
I know I don't use my phone very efficient, with programs like Go SMS, Widget Locker and that Music Control widget, and I will flash a custom rom later. My RAM memory will probably increase then (I've read something about Supercurio's kernel including a boost RAM management). It just bothers me that I don't have control over what programs are running (Gmail and Places), and that my free memory decreases over time. I haven't noticed any slow downs, I'm just worried. Or shouldn't I?

I don't know about the rest, but you shouldn't be concerned about free memory.
Android is designed in a way that all programs keep running (sleeping actually) in the background even when you don't use them at the moment. They are automatically killed when the system needs memory for something else. Any program that is sent to the background (e.g. by pressing back or home) can be killed by the system at any time and is (should be) ready for it.
Basically, the less free memory you have, the better. That means that many of the apps you use are running and you can return to them without delay.
There are some articles floating around the web about the architecture of android and process/application life cycle. They explain that better then me, and in more detail.

cgi said:
I don't know about the rest, but you shouldn't be concerned about free memory.
Android is designed in a way that all programs keep running (sleeping actually) in the background even when you don't use them at the moment. They are automatically killed when the system needs memory for something else. Any program that is sent to the background (e.g. by pressing back or home) can be killed by the system at any time and is (should be) ready for it.
Basically, the less free memory you have, the better. That means that many of the apps you use are running and you can return to them without delay.
There are some articles floating around the web about the architecture of android and process/application life cycle. They explain that better then me, and in more detail.
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First of all, thanks!
So I don't have to be afraid of any slow down? And what about Gmail and Places turning themselves on every time, even if I don't use them?
And why does the free memory decrease over time, but increases again when I turn off and boot up my phone?

Androyed said:
So I don't have to be afraid of any slow down? And what about Gmail and Places turning themselves on every time, even if I don't use them?
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More like the opposite: your RAM is being put to good use.
When your PC get's low on RAM it will start swapping and trashing around. Your smartphone has no swap and is optimized for it. If it get's low on RAM, it will just kill some stuff in the background. All this happens without you noticing anything (if the app is programmed correctly).
I don't know about Gmail and Places. Most likely they are running because they registered broadcast receivers or something.
Androyed said:
And why does the free memory decrease over time, but increases again when I turn off and boot up my phone?
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Every app is running in its own dalvik virtual machine process. Since creating a new VM process is expensive (in terms of processing time), the VM processes are reused to some degree. One app is unloaded, the new one is loaded.
There is more stuff going on behind the scenes, of course. There are likely some spare VMs sleeping in the background waiting for an app to use them.
However, the heap (dynamically allocated memory of a process) of a VM can only grow and never shrink (don't ask me why). So after a few apps or so a VM process is restarted, too.
To come back to your question: When your device boots up, only the processes needed for boot are running. That will be the launcher, some widgets and so on. So basically, this is the moment with the most free RAM. However, this is also when your device is slowest, because every new app you launch has first to be loaded into memory and executed.
While you use your device, many of the apps you used will be kept around in the background, so when you start them again, they will reappear instantly, because the whole "create vm process --> load app from storage --> execute and initialize app" chain has already happened.

"Free memory is wasted memory."
When you open an app, the system loads it into ram. When you close it, the system should not bother to remove it from ram because there is a good chance you will use that app again and having it pre-loaded makes it open significantly faster.
Just because ram is "used" doesn't mean it can't be re-allocated for something more important.
That being said, it is entirely possible that some of your apps have memory leaks. Does it get worse after two days, or three days?

d-h said:
"Free memory is wasted memory."
When you open an app, the system loads it into ram. When you close it, the system should not bother to remove it from ram because there is a good chance you will use that app again and having it pre-loaded makes it open significantly faster.
Just because ram is "used" doesn't mean it can't be re-allocated for something more important.
That being said, it is entirely possible that some of your apps have memory leaks. Does it get worse after two days, or three days?
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I turn my phone off every evening, so I don't know. It's not a problem by any means, I'm just curious.
I've left my RAM alone today, and I didn't noticed any slow down. It was on 110 MB free RAM when I left it alone, and when it was at 35 MB RAM, I decided to hit the close all button (there was no slow down btw). Guess what? My RAM went back up to 140 MB! Not as much as when I boot my phone up, but it's still strange: when I hit close all when the free RAM is very low, I get more free RAM then when I hit close all when my free RAM is around 100 MB (I only get 5 or 10 MB free RAM extra then).
Thanks by the way, good first post!

Memory clearing widget?

Hey guys, just looking to see if an app exists.
I use SuperBox to 'clear/free' my memory. I like to keep it at around 230MBs free at all times or so. My question is this: is there an app that exists that does this same thing, in a one-click widget form? Someting I can set as a 1x1 icon on one of my screens to just tap and it will clear the memory? That would be quite convenient, as right now I need to open up SuperBox, navigate to the Memory pane, then click 'Clear Memory'.
Thanks for the suggestions!

es taskmanager.
By default it will clear all apps in the list except a few which are hidden.
You can unhide apps/services by accessing the options menu.
You can also set a kill list only, so when you tap the widget it will only kill apps in your kill list.
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.estrongs.android.taskmanager&feature=search_result

Clearing memory doesn't really help your phone to much, it's just gonna restore in a second.
You can create shortcuts to your memory clearing App
Sent from my R800i using XDA App

task killers as you all should know are not healthy for android phones. linux pools memory. it manages it on its own.
Here's a good article on this: Android Task Killers Explained: What They Do and Why You Shouldn’t Use Them
In Android, processes and Applications are two different things. An app can stay "running" in the background without any processes eating up your phone's resources. Android keeps the app in its memory so it launches more quickly and returns to its prior state. When your phone runs out of memory, Android will automatically start killing tasks on its own, starting with ones that you haven't used in awhile.
The problem is that Android uses RAM differently than, say, Windows. On Android, having your RAM nearly full is a good thing. It means that when you relaunch an app you've previously opened, the app launches quickly and returns to its previous state. So while Android actually uses RAM efficiently, most users see that their RAM is full and assume that's what's slowing down their phone. In reality, your CPU—which is only used by apps that are actually active—is almost always the bottleneck.
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Thus, killing all but the essential apps (or telling Android to kill apps more aggressively with the "autokill" feature) is generally unnecessary. Furthermore, it's actually possible that this will worsen your phone's performance and battery life. Whether you're manually killing apps all the time or telling the task killer to aggressively remove apps from your memory, you're actually using CPU cycles when you otherwise wouldn't—killing apps that aren't doing anything in the first place.
In fact, some of the processes related to those apps will actually start right back up, further draining your CPU. If they don't, killing those processes can cause other sorts of problems—alarms don't go off, you don't receive text messages, or other related apps may force close without warning. All in all, you're usually better off letting your phone work as intended—especially if you're more of a casual user. In these instances, a task killer causes more problems than it solves.
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Task killers are useless on anything newer then android 2.1. All they'll do is break some apps. I haven't used these on my phones and don't have issues. If your phone is slow its due to a rogue app.
Edit: somehow missed Norflynns post. That link sums it up perfectly.
Sent from my R800i using XDA App

^^^ What they said
It's ok to have a task manager to keep an eye on processes and kill troublesome ones, but no point in constantly killing all your processes.

automatic boot up apps

Hello!
Another question I have is that; When I use the app "all in one tool" I discovered that I can increase boot up speed by disabaling some start up apps, I dont have a problem that it takes 2 min and 30 sec to boot up my device but I was suprised of how many apps that automatically starts up. What does it even mean when a app starts up when I am not useing it? is it running in the foreground and draining RAM? For instance I have a game called Blood and Glory that starts up when booting "apparently"
So My question is should I disable them all? The "all in one tool" divides the apps into "user" and "system" so I think I should leave the system apps alone.
Also can you permenatly kill select apps so it only runs when I use them? Seems like when I kill select 38 apps to leave RAM space they all start up again a few minutes later.

Stammis said:
Hello!
Another question I have is that; When I use the app "all in one tool" I discovered that I can increase boot up speed by disabaling some start up apps, I dont have a problem that it takes 2 min and 30 sec to boot up my device but I was suprised of how many apps that automatically starts up. What does it even mean when a app starts up when I am not useing it? is it running in the foreground
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No.
and draining RAM?
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Click to collapse
RAM is not drained, only taken up. That's a good thing, actually -- free RAM is wasted RAM! (At least as far as apps are concerned I actually use, see the next point).
For instance I have a game called Blood and Glory that starts up when booting "apparently".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You could disable games from starting up -- I like my RAM taken up with useful apps.
So My question is should I disable them all?
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Click to collapse
I wouldn't recommend that because...
The "all in one tool" divides the apps into "user" and "system" so I think I should leave the system apps alone.
Also can you permenatly kill select apps so it only runs when I use them? Seems like when I kill select 38 apps to leave RAM space they all start up again a few minutes later.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
...Android has a very good memory management prcoess, and if you kill these apps, you will use battery in doing so and a few seconds later use up some more battery to restart them. Endless cycle. Winner: no one, except for the power company; loser: you, in all probability, thanks to worse memory management and worse battery life.
TL;DR: stay away from 'task killers', and in this case only kill games.

MartyHulskemper said:
No.RAM is not drained, only taken up. That's a good thing, actually -- free RAM is wasted RAM! (At least as far as apps are concerned I actually use, see the next point).You could disable games from starting up -- I like my RAM taken up with useful apps. I wouldn't recommend that because......Android has a very good memory management prcoess, and if you kill these apps, you will use battery in doing so and a few seconds later use up some more battery to restart them. Endless cycle. Winner: no one, except for the power company; loser: you, in all probability, thanks to worse memory management and worse battery life.
TL;DR: stay away from 'task killers', and in this case only kill games.
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Thank you for the fast and detailed respons, I have one question left, will uninstalling apps make my device faster? I have alot of apps that I dont use but I keep around becasue I might use them someday, accordning to "all in one toolbox" I have 13% or 135mb memory left of my RAM, is that well whitin the margin so to say?

Stammis said:
Thank you for the fast and detailed respons, I have one question left, will uninstalling apps make my device faster? I have alot of apps that I dont use but I keep around becasue I might use them someday, accordning to "all in one toolbox" I have 13% or 135mb memory left of my RAM, is that well whitin the margin so to say?
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It probably won't make your tablet faster, except for boot up time maybe. It doesn't matter that much how much ram you have "left". The Android OS will kill unused processes when other apps are requiring more ram.
Like Marty said: Free ram is wasted ram.
That said: The more apps you have installed, and if you have automatic updates enabled in Play Store, the more often your work/play on the tablet will be interrupted/slowed down by downloading updates. One solution is to disable automatic updates and another strategy could be the Greenify app.
I don't believe in task killers, they often seem to cause more problems than they solve. Greenify takes a gentler approach by hibernating processes and has a very small memory footprint.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk HD

+1 on berndblb's response! Uninstalling apps doesn't really make your tablet faster, and only reclaims device storage space if they're HUGE... The usual few MB here and there do not really add up into something significant unless you have dozens of apps and games installed you could do without.