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Task kill or no task kill?

i use advance task killer and set it to auto kill every hour...but ive been reading everywhere that people say not to use task killer. whats ur opinion on this?

Don't use them. Kick the habit. Get the monkey off your back. Go cold turkey. Just say no.

It's okay, in my opinion. The key is to use it safely (that means not using an auto kill). I use advanced task killer as well. I have the security set to High, and I have established an ignore list (for applications that need to remain open to provide me updates, like Gmail, Market, Clock - for alarms, Yahoo Messenger, etc). Setting the security to high ensures that processes aren't killed when you kill everything else. I put a widget on the homescreen that kills, when you select it. I kill everything whenever I put my phone down. In my experience, not using a TK gives me too much lag for my taste. I also noticed quicker battery drain without a TK. This is my personal experience and I strongly recommend doing a couple of days both WITH a TK and WITHOUT a TK. Remember, if you do continue using a TK, do so carefully. Review this article for a little more insight. Good luck

I use it and personally have noticed increase battery life. I set it to autokill every hour but i have left security at high and all the applications i need running plus widgets that need to keep updating, market, and alarm i have put on the ignore list. As long as you do this it should be helpful to you.

SiL3nTKiLL said:
i use advance task killer and set it to auto kill every hour...but ive been reading everywhere that people say not to use task killer. whats ur opinion on this?
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They are so many robot-lovers out there and they will claim Android is the best. They will tell you the OS is so advanced that you don't have to worry about the background processes. Well, don't just believe them. Try a task killer yourself and you'll find out if it's good for you.
For me, a task killer is definitely necessary.
(1) You need a task killer to kill those AT&T crappy processes. Things like AT&T hot spot, AT&T navigator will start automatically every time you start your phone. If you don't root your phone, you need to kill them manually. I've tested it, those stupid, useless processes drain your battery like crazy.
(2) To kill other auto-sync, auto-update apps. A lot of the app use background syncing or updating. If you don't configure them correctly, chances are they will run in the background and drain your battery.
I have used two different Android phones. Without task killer, I would probably have a battery for less than half of a day. With task killer, I can at least last a whole day.
PS, In case you didn't notice, I hate the way Android handles multitasking. I like the idea of letting the OS to handle background processes. But the job it is doing right now is just horrible.

This is my first android phone and i do no use a task killer. i started the first few days using one and then stopped after reading alot of things saying not to. i may try one again and use it only for things i do not want running

To task killer or not

I have read some good number of articles about using or not using a task killer on android phones, I am leaning at the moment to not having one (as i have not installed one and i have had my phone. For about a week or two now). I am extremely interested in hearing some opinions flrom my fellow xda members.
Thanks in advanced for some friendly debate over the issue
-Dave
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

There are already numerous threads about this. Do a quick research and you'll find lots of debates going on.
For example, http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=744101
What's your point to start a new one?

You only need it in emergencies. At first I used it often and decided I was just paranoid and uninstalled it. Device then worked more smoothly then when I was using it. You may get a little nervous about it saying that it only has 70M left, but that's not really true. Most of the apps that you exit out of don't get used by the CPU anymore and just sit in memory (not doing anything). When you launch another app, that applications gets moved out of memory and the new one gets active.
If you install a lot of 3 star apps (crappy apps) and notice that your battery is going low fast or phone getting hot, then use it as it is an emergency. Just try not to make it a habit.

Do not use a task killer unless an app is frozen! It only slows down your phone and causes bugs. Your apps have to reopen every time you want to use it, which only slows things down. It's also possible for apps to lose data because they get stopped prematurely.
Besides, freeing up ram won't make your phone go faster. If the ram isn't being used, then it's doing nothing at all. A phone with 500MB free would be just as fast as a phone with 20MB free.

I used advanced task killer for a while but uninstalled it because i couldnt come up with a set of tasks that i would always want killed.
Plus the purist in me doesnt like the idea of automatically terminating a thread without some kind of collaboration between the threads involved. How does task killer know that any given thread is at a good stopping point?
It seems that background tasks were not nearly as big a drain on battr life as having gps on all the time. Once I installed the power widget on my home screen toggling gps took care of that.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

First Android Phon App Killer question

Picked up the G2x the first day it came out. Definitely love it over my old Nokia N97. Being this is my first Android device I followed the advice of some friends and got the Android Task Killer (ATK) to help save battery life.
I know the battery life is having issues in general, but I'd like to do what I can.
When I open ATK and kill the running apps I notice that if I open it again a few minutes later all the apps are back running again, like FaceBook, AppPace, CarHome... and most of the bloatware T-Mo preinstalled on the phone.
Wasn't sure if it is normal for these tasks to keep running even after I kill them once or if I have something messed up.

The older versions of android benefitted from a task killer.
Newer versions do not need one and using one can actually hinder performance.
Sent from my LG-P999

Some tasks stay running for notifications and stuff. Download OS Monitor and you'll see some of those apps don't consume any CPU.
Be sure to configure notifications and sync properly for some apps... like Facebook. I think the default is every hour which can be murder on a battery.
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA App

DeezNotes said:
Some tasks stay running for notifications and stuff. Download OS Monitor and you'll see some of those apps don't consume any CPU.
Be sure to configure notifications and sync properly for some apps... like Facebook. I think the default is every hour which can be murder on a battery.
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA App
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Task killers are really not useful with Android and hasn't been for a long while. Just because a task is "running" doesn't mean it's consuming any resources: battery, RAM, CPU. Android will properly manage these background tasks and task killers can end up using more battery than any tasks to do their thing. Especially with a high end phone like the G2x that has plenty of CPU and RAM, no need to bother with one, it will likely just make it worse.

KnitGnosis said:
Picked up the G2x the first day it came out. Definitely love it over my old Nokia N97. Being this is my first Android device I followed the advice of some friends and got the Android Task Killer (ATK) to help save battery life.
I know the battery life is having issues in general, but I'd like to do what I can.
When I open ATK and kill the running apps I notice that if I open it again a few minutes later all the apps are back running again, like FaceBook, AppPace, CarHome... and most of the bloatware T-Mo preinstalled on the phone.
Wasn't sure if it is normal for these tasks to keep running even after I kill them once or if I have something messed up.
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wow, in the exact same situation here! love my old n85, but its time had come. the multitasking implementation on symbian was amazing, but i guess android takes care of it for you I don't use a task killer, and i've rooted my phone and deleted all T-Mobile bloatware, so I'm not having any problems with random apps starting up for no reason.

There is a app called "Fast Reboot". It is a lot more beneficial than any task killer. It basically does what it says. It will reboot your device without your phone turning off.

Cool thanks for the information guys.

[Q]Do task killers benifit or hurt our sensations?

Theres an insane amount of discussion regarding the need for task killers on android 2.2+ since the newer versions of android have their own managing system for applications in the background. Most people are recommended advanced task killer before they leave their carriers store with their new phone.
My personal experience when using a task killer is it seems to speed up the phone a bit when used, makes my sensation home screen switching smoother etc. Without it, there seems to be a little lag after 15 minutes of decent use.
So whats the real deal ? Do they hurt your phone/battery life or improve it?

There have been many threads regarding task killers. Not just for sensation but android phones. They are worthless.
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA Premium App

The new phone manage memory pretty well but it doesn't hurt to keep a task killer on ur phone just to check once in a while what you have running. I dont have a task killer per say but I use the Go Launcher which in a tab displays all of the apps running, it gives me an option to lock the ones I wana keep running, so Ive check all of my everyday normal stuff, browser, phone, youtube facebook etc. and once in a blue moon I go and kill everything else by clicking one button.
Sense 3.0 stock gave me 80-100mb of free ram (running stock, normal everyday usage)
Go Launcher EX gives me 130-150mb free ram (running stock, normal usage)
Go Launcher tweeked settings and killing extra tasks gives me 190-250mb free ram
Now, that's a lot of free ram, saved cpu cycles and ultimately improved battery life. Thats the only real practical gain... battery life. i mean the phone powerful enough to run all of the tasks of a power user and then some so performance on my sensation is never an issue for me anyway. You load up crazy live wallpapers and 3D animations and such, yea sure it'll get sluggish but killing random tasks will improve the efficiency only by a small margin anyway.
Task killer is like a tune up, once in a while. Or u can just simply restart your phone like my GF does every once in a while.

mobileusman said:
The new phone manage memory pretty well but it doesn't hurt to keep a task killer on ur phone just to check once in a while what you have running. I dont have a task killer per say but I use the Go Launcher which in a tab displays all of the apps running, it gives me an option to lock the ones I wana keep running, so Ive check all of my everyday normal stuff, browser, phone, youtube facebook etc. and once in a blue moon I go and kill everything else by clicking one button.
Sense 3.0 stock gave me 80-100mb of free ram (running stock, normal everyday usage)
Go Launcher EX gives me 130-150mb free ram (running stock, normal usage)
Go Launcher tweeked settings and killing extra tasks gives me 190-250mb free ram
Now, that's a lot of free ram, saved cpu cycles and ultimately improved battery life. Thats the only real practical gain... battery life. i mean the phone powerful enough to run all of the tasks of a power user and then some so performance on my sensation is never an issue for me anyway. You load up crazy live wallpapers and 3D animations and such, yea sure it'll get sluggish but killing random tasks will improve the efficiency only by a small margin anyway.
Task killer is like a tune up, once in a while. Or u can just simply restart your phone like my GF does every once in a while.
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thanks man very helpful stuff

I never had a need for task killers with any of my Android phones!

bobzoz said:
thanks man very helpful stuff
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NP, also in my opinion an efficient custom rom will do wonders for the Sensation... can't wait for the s-off update from HTC.

dubie76 said:
There have been many threads regarding task killers. Not just for sensation but android phones. They are worthless.
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA Premium App
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they are not worthless if used correctly

I use the stock task manager and watchdog. Helps my battery alot
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4G using XDA Premium App

Confusion
I'd stay away from 3rd party task managers if possible. Especially on a phone running 2.3+. The ones given will most likely handle task killing in a more appropriate manner, instead of just bringing things to a complete halt, which can be detrimental for some apps.
There does seem to be a discrepancy between the two task managers on the sensation, though. Like posted above, with general usage and sense the HTC provided task manager shows about 80-100mb free. However, I had a habit of going into settings>applications>running services to see how much RAM was available (stock 2.3 way of task killing - habit I picked up from my Nexus S) and it normally lists it somewhere around 200mb free.
I'm not sure which is more accurate, but I'm betting on the longer method, since it's in the core of gingerbread. Plus, on every past phone I've had if it went below 80mb I would see some significant lag whereas this isn't the case on the sensation. My Nexus S on average had around 120-150mb free, and the sensation has 256mb more RAM. I know sense is a ram hog, but max I see it taking up is 150mb, so 200mb of total free space seems about right.

I beta-test a LOT of apps, and when they hang or otherwise cannot be killed off, a task manager/killer does the job faster than thumbing through the menus to do it. I only use it judiciously, however..to resolve a specific app.

c19932 said:
they are not worthless if used correctly
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This is correct. It's an often debated topic, but I've seen the benefits in battery life and data usage when using an app like Autostarts and wise use of a task killer. Till the Sensation is 100% rooted, Autostarts can only be used to a limited extent. But with full use of Autostarts, my use of a task killer is limited, though still worth having.
Here's a portion of a good discussion on the topic and posted by a recognized Android developer who knows the deal.

Yup. Autostarts is a must-have for anyone who wants a longer battery life.
and task killers are extremely useful once you have excluded all the appropriate apps. My mom is smartphone-illiterate, and sometimes she would open random apps by mistake. With a task killer she could end all those process with 1-click before her phone becomes more chaotic (and of course, I excluded all the appropriate apps to begin with)

Task killers Vs manual force close?

Hi all, ive had my play for a few months now and im having problems with battery life as most seem to have had at some point. Ive tried a bigger battery but it turns the phone into something from the 90s lol....so i then tried some task killers but ive noticed they seem to kill a few tasks, then 5 mins later the tasks have started themselves up again so i spend my time going in and out of the task killer hitting optimise which is a total pain and im thinking pointless? Ive heard these newer builds of android manage tasks anyway but i think there are still some tasks/processes i could do without... My question is, would it just be better to uninstall the task manager and then manually force close tasks/processes i dont need and if i do do this will they stay closed/killed till i manually open them again or reboot, or will they automatically restart themselves? Im mainly talking about preloaded stuff i dont need like timescape and data monitor and other battery eating rubbish.
Rooting is an option but now being on 2.3.3 and awaiting 2.3.4 it seems like alot of agro just to clear some running bloatware (downgrading to uk generic firmware 2.2 then gingerbreak then upgrading then removing bloatware then reinstalling removed bloatware for every update, sigh)... If the damn tasks would just stay closed im sure my battery would last a bit longer...
So any difference force closing tasks manually vs task killers and would it help with battery life?
This is a great phone with 2 flaws one is battery life the second is small internal memory... Rooting seems to help fix these problems from what i have read. Why cant sony release a small app/program to let us clear the bloatware without the hassle of rooting.
This has turned into more of a rant, whoops!
Any ideas...?
Sent from my R800i using XDA App

Right understand this. There is no point closing apps or using task killers in android. It makes no sence. This isnt windows, android handles ram in a totally diffrent way to windows, In windows the more free ram you have the faster the pc/phone right? well it's the oposite in android, the less free ram the better, It means android is managing it's own workload, unlike windows application are split into 2 catagories, Applications and process, Now android can have an application running in the background but it will freeze the active process if your not using it, It will keep the ram that application is using a keep it save, so when you relaunch the app it's fast and smooth, Kill the app and you may reclaim the ram but you have to wait for the application to reload and restart. I think life hacker tells it better then me. Read this!
"Android Task Killers Explained: What They Do and Why You Shouldn’t Use Them
Android task killers improve your phone's performance while also boosting battery life—or at least that's the much-debated promise. Here's a look at how task killers actually work, when you should (or shouldn't) use them, and what you can do instead.
A task killer is an app from which you can (sometimes automatically) force other apps to quit, the hope being that the fewer apps you have running in the background, the better your Android's performance and battery life will be. Not everyone agrees with this premise, though. The argument about whether task killers are effective rages all over the internet: Android forums are full of threads with constant bickering and conflicting anecdotal experience, making it difficult for most users to make sense of the situation.
Below, I'm going to dig into the truth about Android task killers: that apart from maybe some older phones, Android manages tasks fairly well on its own, and how task killers present quite a few problems. I'll also take a look at the rare occasions when they're useful, and offer some alternatives you should try to improve your phone's performance and battery-life quirks.
Before we dive in, here's a quick overview of how Android handles process management by default.
How Android Manages Processes
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.
Why Task Killers Are (Usually) Bad News
Apps like Advanced Task Killer, the most popular task killer in the Market, act on the incorrect assumption that freeing up memory on an Android device is a good thing. When launched, it presents you with a list of "running" apps and the option to kill as many as you want. You can also hit the Menu button to access a more detailed "Services" view, that lists exactly which parts of each application are "running", how much memory they take up, and how much free memory is available on your phone. This set-up implies that the goal of killing these apps is to free up memory. Nowhere on the list does it mention the number of CPU cycles each app is consuming, only the memory you'll free by killing it. As we've learned, full memory is not a bad thing—we want to watch out for the CPU, the resource that actually slows down your phone and drains your battery life.
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.
What You Should Do Instead
That said, not all apps are created equal. Many of you have used task killers in the past and actually found that after freeing up memory, your phone works a bit better. It's more likely that this is because you've killed a bad app—one that was poorly coded, and (for example) keeps trying to connect to the internet even when it shouldn't. Any performance increase you experience is more likely because you killed the right app, not because you freed up loads of memory (or, in many cases, it's just placebo). Instead of killing all those apps, find out which ones are actually causing the problems. If you really know what you're doing, you may benefit from using a task killer to stop the one or two inefficient-but-loved apps on your phone.
Note, however, that this is still a contested notion. A lot of developers (including ROM builder extraordinaire, Cyanogen) will not even look at your bug reports if you're using a task killer. In this humble blogger's opinion, your best bet is to stay away from regular task killer usage entirely. If you absolutely have to have that one battery-killing app on your phone, though, kill away—just be aware that when you experience a recurring Android bug later on, the task killer may be at fault. Of course, you can just stop using it to determine whether that is or isn't the case.
With task killers firmly in the better-off-without box, there are still a number of other things you can do to fill the void, improving your performance and battery life:
Watch for Runaway Processes: Previously mentioned Watchdog is a slightly different kind of task killer, in the sense that instead of telling you your phone's out of memory and it's time to go on a task killing spree, it alerts you when the occasional app starts eating up CPU for no reason. You can then kill the app with Watchdog and get on with your day (though honestly, at that point, I usually just reboot my phone). If it happens often with the same app, however, you may want to move on to the next step.
Uninstall Bad Apps: Worse than the occasional, one-time runaway app is the poorly coded, always-eating-CPU app. If you find (with Watchdog or through some other method) that a particular app seems to drain CPU and battery life whenever it's running, confirm your suspicions by uninstalling it and seeing what happens. If an app is causing problems on your phone, you're probably better off without it.
We advocate rooting Android devices a lot at Lifehacker, but that's because it really is as useful as everyone says it is. You can over- and underclock your phone with SetCPU, install custom ROMs that noticeably improve performance and battery life, and use the ever-useful, crapware-thwarting Autostarts utility to stop apps from starting up on your phone in the first place. Honestly, with one-click rooting apps like previously mentioned Universal Androot available for most phones, rooting only takes a few minutes to do, and you'll be much happier for it.
Update: Many of you also mentioned the root-only app Titanium Backup, which will help you get rid of the pre-installed crapware that comes on most phones, which are one of the worst offenders of phone lag. Thanks to all of you that sent this in!
Seriously, Use the Power Control Widget: This may sound ridiculously obvious, but if you aren't already using some form of the Power Control widget, you should. The things that drain the most battery on any smartphone are Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and your screen. Turn them off when you don't need them and you'll find that you can eke out considerably more battery life.
Charge Your Phone: Even more obvious yet rarely heeded advice: Charge your phone often. This isn't as hard as it sounds for most people. While you're sometimes stuck going out for 14 hours with no place to charge your phone, the majority of us spend our days in our homes, our offices, and other places rife with electrical outlets. Buy a few extra chargers and place them strategically around your home, car, and office. Whenever you're sitting around at home or working away at your desk, you can use that time to dock your phone and give it some extra juice without worrying about battery or performance drains. Before I upgraded to Android 2.2, my battery life was pretty awful, but just having a charger in my car and next to my computer made a huge difference in how often I got the dreaded "low battery" message."

Theres no way to remove the bloatware without root access. I rooted my xplay yesterday using the new zergrush method, you dont need to downgrade or anything you just type in a bunch of stuff in the command promt and its done.

Just to add on to AndroHero's post. In short, Task Killers actually REDUCE your battery life. Just leave it alone, turn off bluetooth and wifi, etc when youre not using them, keep your text message conversations low, and your email inbox clear. Thats about all you can do.
Also the battery life may be related to your coverage area. My phone will last all weekend at home, but is dead in 8 hours at my office due to all the interference and poor cell service coverage, its always searching for signal.

Very interesting thank you for the detailed explanation and tips. Im gonna remove my task killer and try watchdog if i can, to keep an eye on my cpu. I am also going to look into rooting my phone, its just the constant android updates and horror storys of rooted phones with removed bloatware bricking after OTA thats putting me off.
I can understand how having an app in memory ready to go keeps your phone quick (in the same way a cookie in your browser cache makes a page load faster?) but if the app is monitoring data or connecting to the net then they are using some cpu and need to be terminated or stopped from starting. It looks like the only way to do this is to root and then as said in your post ill beable to stop them starting up in the first place.
Thanks again for your time and info
Sent from my R800i using XDA App

b4d5h0t said:
Very interesting thank you for the detailed explanation and tips. Im gonna remove my task killer and try watchdog if i can, to keep an eye on my cpu. I am also going to look into rooting my phone, its just the constant android updates and horror storys of rooted phones with removed bloatware bricking after OTA thats putting me off.
I can understand how having an app in memory ready to go keeps your phone quick (in the same way a cookie in your browser cache makes a page load faster?) but if the app is monitoring data or connecting to the net then they are using some cpu and need to be terminated or stopped from starting. It looks like the only way to do this is to root and then as said in your post ill beable to stop them starting up in the first place.
Thanks again for your time and info
Sent from my R800i using XDA App
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Rooting is not going to do this for you. Rooting WILL allow you to remove apps that have no use to you whatsoever. But apps, even ones you aren't using are still going to behave like this. Not only that, but those actions are part of what keeps them snappy. And if you kill them, all you would be doing is making it harder and slower to run them when you need to as it will do all those things you wanted it to not do while it was in the background. That drains the battery more. The path you are following with this isn't gonna solve your problem. Android manages its memory on its own better than any of us can.
As I mentioned about coverage area, for example do you have poor service where you are? If you have WiFi keeping it on will prevent the phone from searching for data service which will help.

b4d5h0t said:
Very interesting thank you for the detailed explanation and tips. Im gonna remove my task killer and try watchdog if i can, to keep an eye on my cpu. I am also going to look into rooting my phone, its just the constant android updates and horror storys of rooted phones with removed bloatware bricking after OTA thats putting me off.
I can understand how having an app in memory ready to go keeps your phone quick (in the same way a cookie in your browser cache makes a page load faster?) but if the app is monitoring data or connecting to the net then they are using some cpu and need to be terminated or stopped from starting. It looks like the only way to do this is to root and then as said in your post ill beable to stop them starting up in the first place.
Thanks again for your time and info
Sent from my R800i using XDA App
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You may also want to try a minifree manager like autokiller in the market. Rather that acting like a task killer, it can edit androids built in process manager you can change how much ram is allocated to background and foregrounds apps and also how much memory android cache's, the cache is the minium amount of ram that android allows to be free, you could set it to 150mb if you wanted, then android will never let your free ram go lower than 150mb.
Sent from my R800i using Tapatalk

Nice one ill look into it
Sent from my R800i using XDA App

Just let Android manage itself, My Xperia play will last an entire day with a lot of use such as wifi, Bluetooth and other things.