Hi all,
One habit I've developed with the Captivate is using Advanced Task Killer to kill apps that otherwise would just be hanging out in memory. I do this probably because I'm anal retentive like that, but also with the thought that it save me battery life if I do.
This has led to two questions of mine (excuse the noobiness to Android if these have been discussed):
1.) Why do so many applications start automatically when the phone boots up? (browser, gallery, etc etc). Is there a startup ini somewhere I can edit to prevent this or do all the apps just wake up? It's easy enough to kill, but I find some of the apps that start up very odd.
2.) Over the course of the day, even with Autokill on and security set to "Low", eventually my memory is consumed and it only gets back to its full state until the phone is rebooted. After all obvious apps have been killed the memory usage will will go from ~170mb (after a reboot) to as low as ~130mb (at the end of the day). Does anyone know why that happens and if there is a better way to manage memory/apps?
Thanks.
I used to use task killers, but I have uninstalled them and just let android do its thing. The only reason I'll end a program is if the program has an exit function or has froze, which is rare. With this method I don't have any slowdowns and great battery life. On the flipside I don't install poorly developed apps. Thats just me though.
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I'm attempting to try to increase my battery life so it lasts longer than 12 hours (~13 seems to be my limit). (I'll admit I'm a bit jealous of those who can run the phone 24+ hours) Though it's somewhat painful, I'm shutting down most the programs I have running in the background. However there seems to be a number that like to restart even after I think I've disabled their startup, widgets, notifications, etc.
Is there a way to make sure programs that you install don't run? Or at least don't launch during start up? Perhaps something like msconfig in windows?
Thanks.
Raleran said:
I'm attempting to try to increase my battery life so it lasts longer than 12 hours (~13 seems to be my limit). (I'll admit I'm a bit jealous of those who can run the phone 24+ hours) Though it's somewhat painful, I'm shutting down most the programs I have running in the background. However there seems to be a number that like to restart even after I think I've disabled their startup, widgets, notifications, etc.
Is there a way to make sure programs that you install don't run? Or at least don't launch during start up? Perhaps something like msconfig in windows?
Thanks.
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Killing background tasks will only decrease your battery life. When an application goes to the background, it sits in memory but does NOT consume any CPU power. since the memory is in solid state, it requires no power to stay in that state. By constantly killing background applications, it will need to start up, reinitialize, and consume more power then if you had just left it alone. Also, long term performance will be negatively affected, even if you do expereince a small short term performance gain. the Android OS is designed at the core level to have applications behave this way, and modifying that behavior will make for a worse experience.
asrrin29 said:
Killing background tasks will only decrease your battery life. When an application goes to the background, it sits in memory but does NOT consume any CPU power. since the memory is in solid state, it requires no power to stay in that state. By constantly killing background applications, it will need to start up, reinitialize, and consume more power then if you had just left it alone. Also, long term performance will be negatively affected, even if you do expereince a small short term performance gain. the Android OS is designed at the core level to have applications behave this way, and modifying that behavior will make for a worse experience.
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Eh, this is the first I've heard this. I don't remember reading this in the various battery optimization guides.
Still is there a was to stop things short of uninstalling? For example, I want to stop using the Yahoo Mail app but don't want to install yet. I went through all the options I could to disable checking/notifications, etc but it still pops back into memory constantly.
I assume youve tried the obvious, turn off WiFi (3G) and screen when not actively using it?! Those are the big batt.-eaters
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asrrin29 said:
Killing background tasks will only decrease your battery life. When an application goes to the background, it sits in memory but does NOT consume any CPU power. since the memory is in solid state, it requires no power to stay in that state. By constantly killing background applications, it will need to start up, reinitialize, and consume more power then if you had just left it alone. Also, long term performance will be negatively affected, even if you do expereince a small short term performance gain. the Android OS is designed at the core level to have applications behave this way, and modifying that behavior will make for a worse experience.
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Documentation? As far as I have read an application does not go into any type of dehydrated state when running in the background / minimized. It can do anything it wants including using CPU cycles.
I do agree that most applications do not need to be killed with a task killer but leaving 3D games (for example) running in the background could hurt your battery. Also not all applications are progammed with ther same fore thought and skill level.
I get about 33% more runtime out of my battery using a task killer to kill specific applications that I know I do not want running in the background.
Streaker said:
I assume youve tried the obvious, turn off WiFi (3G) and screen when not actively using it?! Those are the big batt.-eaters
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I leave wifi on since I'm usually in range. It's more efficient than 3g right? I alway sleep the device when I'm done. I still have huge percentages on the screen when looking at the battery usage. I'm trying a completely black screen now.
Mainly your widgets and icons and stuff still cover large portions of it, so: a black screen will help, not but alot.
Also, to keep items in RAM, to the second poster... What do you think is keeping those items in RAM?
Ummm... It's the CPU.
Task Killers won't help you on RAM usage at all (Because Android will automatically shuffle them out if it has to, or so I've read... I've yet to hit max memory). Task Killers DO help you as far as battery use goes, though... Keeping the browser killed if you aren't using it, etc.
Bjd223 said:
Documentation? As far as I have read an application does not go into any type of dehydrated state when running in the background / minimized. It can do anything it wants including using CPU cycles.
I do agree that most applications do not need to be killed with a task killer but leaving 3D games (for example) running in the background could hurt your battery. Also not all applications are progammed with ther same fore thought and skill level.
I get about 33% more runtime out of my battery using a task killer to kill specific applications that I know I do not want running in the background.
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I should clarify. I guess the term I meant to use is "suspended." If a program is actively "running" in the background, it will use CPU cycles. But if you simply stopped using a program, say for example the xda app, and returned to your homescreen, the application stays "suspended" in the background and consumes no CPU cycles until you go back to it. Now services that are updating, such as email or SMS, will use CPU cycles in the background because they are still actively running. But if you want to conserve battery life you can simply disable the notifications from most of these programs.
asrrin29 said:
I should clarify. I guess the term I meant to use is "suspended." If a program is actively "running" in the background, it will use CPU cycles. But if you simply stopped using a program, say for example the xda app, and returned to your homescreen, the application stays "suspended" in the background and consumes no CPU cycles until you go back to it. Now services that are updating, such as email or SMS, will use CPU cycles in the background because they are still actively running. But if you want to conserve battery life you can simply disable the notifications from most of these programs.
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The app itself at that point may not be but the Android OS still does to maintain that suspended state.
I have some applications I rarely use or even some that I've never used but may want to in the future. I see absolutely no benefit in keeping these applications in the background. Further more, I've noticed a signficant drain on the battery when extra applications are running in the background. I'm sure it's not all of them, but I've yet to discover who exactly the culpit is. Right now I suspect it's the NPR app, perhaps due to data use?
The point is, there are perfectly good reasons to keep some apps in the background, and perfectly good reasons to kill others - or perferrably not have them start up at all unless I do it myself. Could be due to data usage (especially if you do not have unlimited data), could be due to concerns about excessive cpu usage. There really should be a clear method in which you can stop applications from opening on their own.
You can use the program "Autostarts" to keep applications from starting at startup. With it you can also prevent things from launching under a number of other situations. That might be what you are looking for. Just do a google search for the APK as I don't think it is in the market.
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Shuggins said:
You can use the program "Autostarts" to keep applications from starting at startup. With it you can also prevent things from launching under a number of other situations. That might be what you are looking for. Just do a google search for the APK as I don't think it is in the market.
Wouldn't tasker also help?
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To me, it's not a matter of "task killer or not", but rather when and where to use one. And I think it's simple: Don't bother, unless you suspect a specific app is doing something you don't want it to do in the background. Then, just kill that specific app and leave everything else alone. A Task manager that shows CPU% for each process can be handy for this as well.
I generally try to avoid killing tasks, but one night I had 50% battery on my phone and after about 2 hours or so I took it out of my pocket to make a phone call, and it was very hot and had about 12% of batter left -- something was running wild that shouldn't have been (I think it was Pandora, even though it was not currently playing any music!) So, background apps do occasionally run out of control, and you do need to occasionally kill them, but do it on an "as needed" basis.
Raleran said:
I'm attempting to try to increase my battery life so it lasts longer than 12 hours (~13 seems to be my limit). (I'll admit I'm a bit jealous of those who can run the phone 24+ hours) Though it's somewhat painful, I'm shutting down most the programs I have running in the background.
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Unless the background process is syncing data, it won't eat your battery. So instead of wasting your time, you should focus on other energy hogs. Things like screen brightness, bluetooth, wifi, and gps.
Shuggins said:
You can use the program "Autostarts" to keep applications from starting at startup. With it you can also prevent things from launching under a number of other situations. That might be what you are looking for. Just do a google search for the APK as I don't think it is in the market.
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I installed Advanced Task Killer from the Market. It lets you kill all running applications including itself.
durrence
jsmith8858 said:
To me, it's not a matter of "task killer or not", but rather when and where to use one. And I think it's simple: Don't bother, unless you suspect a specific app is doing something you don't want it to do in the background. Then, just kill that specific app and leave everything else alone. A Task manager that shows CPU% for each process can be handy for this as well.
I generally try to avoid killing tasks, but one night I had 50% battery on my phone and after about 2 hours or so I took it out of my pocket to make a phone call, and it was very hot and had about 12% of batter left -- something was running wild that shouldn't have been (I think it was Pandora, even though it was not currently playing any music!) So, background apps do occasionally run out of control, and you do need to occasionally kill them, but do it on an "as needed" basis.
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Or an auto-killer would've killed it before it killed your battery by 38% lol
Task Killings are bad, mmmkay...
Slightly off topic:
To help conserve battery power,
Use an all black desktop background since the black areas dont use battery power.
Hmm, people in this thread have said a few things that I haven't heard or seen much before. Specifically that killing apps could decrease battery life. When I first downloaded advanced task killer I tended to kill most things. I slowly backed off and now I've been watching what launches and what tends to come back and not kill those (mail apps, widgets, performance watchers, etc). The second is that not having a black background doesn't necessarily improve battery life. Makes sense considering I have icons everywhere on my screen.
@Shuggins - Thank you! That's exactly what I was looking for. I've downloaded it but now I have to, er charge my battery a bit before I can take a close look at it.
@jsmith8858 - Are you running setCPU? A couple days ago I noticed my battery running pretty hot. I stopped using setCPU and the battery cooled down a lot. I've used setCPU since them without the heat issue so I'm not sure what was going on.
Well during todays iteration I ran for about 12 hours (typical). I had a couple short phone calls, 2 email accounts syncing as well as other bg syncing processes. I did eat up 30% in an hour messing with a game. I'd probably have 13-14 hours if I didn't play anything (but if I didn't what's the point of the phone . Still, as much as I love it the screen is killing me. Guess there's nothing to do about it though (usually brightness is all the way down, turn it off when I'm not using it, using a darker background). I didn't kill any of my background processes today. I'm going to set up that Autostarts program and start auto-killing various programs tomorrow.
You can try using autokiller and art it to extreme, but I don't recommend this
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I just noticed that if I repeatedly press to kill apps, it always frees some space - there is never 0bytes freed, even if I press it twice within the same second. I don't know much about android's architecture, but in software programs that indicates a memory leak somewhere. Is this the same?
im not an expert either but from what i've read, i believe its because when you kill apps with the app killer, some apps are restarted (such as necessary ones that the phone needs to run) and that causes some memory to be used again.
dont worry too much about killing apps in android, if apps aren't being used and are in the background, it is suspended and doesn't use the cpu. memory is cleared when needed automatically
Yea some apps just restart. Thats why if you close out all your apps and go back in a few seconds later, some are open again.
No big deal. I also use Go Launcher with its app killer tab in the program menu.
Alright, cool. Just wanted to know.
Is there a way to stop certain apps like facebook, bluetooth, and maps from running in the background? I turned sync off on fb but its still in background all the time. As for the other 2 i barely use them so its annoying that they r suckin up my battery life.
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Uninstall Facebook. Either use m.facebook.com or an alternative app. The devs don't know how to code android.
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I just started using FriendCaster for FB and I like it much better than the official FB app. You can even get battery friendly C2DM notifications instead of the constant polling crap that FB does.
For Bluetooth...why not just turn it off when you aren't using it? Slide the notification shade and turn it off from there. And for maps, can you elaborate? If it isn't using location actively, then it probably isn't using much battery, if any. Just because it's showing as running doesn't mean it's actually using any cycles.
shrike1978 said:
I just started using FriendCaster for FB and I like it much better than the official FB app. You can even get battery friendly C2DM notifications instead of the constant polling crap that FB does.
For Bluetooth...why not just turn it off when you aren't using it? Slide the notification shade and turn it off from there. And for maps, can you elaborate? If it isn't using location actively, then it probably isn't using much battery, if any. Just because it's showing as running doesn't mean it's actually using any cycles.
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I'll check into Friendcaster cuz I know FB app sucks up a lot of battery. As for bluetooth, it isnt on. I literally have never used it, yet when I look in my task manager (ES TM) it shows this "BrcmBluetoothServices" and if I kill it, it just turns back on. Same goes for Maps and FB. I dont know if Maps uses a lot of battery, I was just trying to figure out why its always running in the first place. All My location and GPS services (VZW, Google, and Standalone) are shut off to save battery, and I just turn google back on when I need to use the gps (which is rare).
cnoevl21 said:
Is there a way to stop certain apps like facebook, bluetooth, and maps from running in the background? I turned sync off on fb but its still in background all the time. As for the other 2 i barely use them so its annoying that they r suckin up my battery life.
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That's the way Android is designed.... its supposed to stay in memory for faster retrieval. Remember, the phone uses the same amount of power with full or empty memory... why not have some things loaded into memory for faster performance? Facebook only uses data and battery for the split second its syncing... that's it. If you have Bluetooth toggled off the radio is not on and using zero power. The Bluetooth app you see running is a service.... it too uses no power.
Remember, Linux environments such as Android are designed to run with services in the background to make the phone operate faster.
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das7982 said:
That's the way Android is designed.... its supposed to stay in memory for faster retrieval. Remember, the phone uses the same amount of power with full or empty memory... why not have some things loaded into memory for faster performance? Facebook only uses data and battery for the split second its syncing... that's it. If you have Bluetooth toggled off the radio is not on and using zero power. The Bluetooth app you see running is a service.... it too uses no power.
Remember, Linux environments such as Android are designed to run with services in the background to make the phone operate faster.
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That's true, if you check on task manager, you will see tons of apps are running as services, but using 0% cpu power. Android will take as much as memory as possible and only kill the app when it really in need of memory. All the apps that fitted into the reserved memory(before the low memory threashold) will make the apps launch faster and take less amount of time from the cpu. This is very smart design.
das7982 said:
That's the way Android is designed.... its supposed to stay in memory for faster retrieval. Remember, the phone uses the same amount of power with full or empty memory... why not have some things loaded into memory for faster performance? Facebook only uses data and battery for the split second its syncing... that's it. If you have Bluetooth toggled off the radio is not on and using zero power. The Bluetooth app you see running is a service.... it too uses no power.
Remember, Linux environments such as Android are designed to run with services in the background to make the phone operate faster.
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Although this is true, the Facebook app is very poorly coded. It still continues to use CPU time after you've closed it (proof is in the "nice" load and wakelock). It uses much more than should be required for syncing-the Gmail app barely uses any time. Programs that are still loaded on RAM after closing is fine as long as they don't use the CPU.
The Facebook app goes through CPU cycles like I go through women.
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Sorry for bringing up an old thread.. use SystemCleanup if you have root.. most of your battery problems will be gone.. use with CAUTION.. make nandroid before use..
Hi,
First of all, this is a task killer question, and I know it has been preached again and again that task killers should not be used, which I do agree but need more clarification. I've googled and still can't find the answer to my question.
Current Phone : Huawei P9 Lite
Current Protected Apps Setting : Nova Launcher, Whatsapp, Inbox, Amplify, Greenify
So Huawei phones has this Phone Manager which is essentially a Task Killer and Memory Cleanup Utility to me.
To ensure that an app doesn't got killed after screen off, I need to add that app to be "Protected"
We all know that killing an app and have it restart/reload when being opened is bad(extra battery drain)
Hence my question:
Does killing an app, for example Chrome or Facebook, stops all it's background process after screen off? and thus stops battery use from that app? Previously before using Greenify, I have had incidences whereby Chrome kept my phone awake for the night if I didn't kill it.
Does this incident happens to you? As in, you trust android to manage memory, but having those app behind in background would simply just gives it a chance to run and keep your phone awake, such as Google Now, Maps(This! is notorious.....)
Looking to have 0.5% battery drain overnight if that is possible..