Does Advanced Task Killer drain my battery even if I'm not using autokill or killing any tasks at all? Like if I just leave it there, will it still drain.
And one important question as well, if a AOL's notification icon appears in the status bar, but I don't see it on the running services list, is the app still running in the background?
Does anyone have bad battery by using WidgetLocker or Weatherbug? I can't tell what is usingy battery
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NekoNyapii said:
Does Advanced Task Killer drain my battery even if I'm not using autokill or killing any tasks at all? Like if I just leave it there, will it still drain.
And one important question as well, if a AOL's notification icon appears in the status bar, but I don't see it on the running services list, is the app still running in the background?
Does anyone have bad battery by using WidgetLocker or Weatherbug? I can't tell what is usingy battery
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok first, throw out ATK. the only reason you should use it is to kill a rogue app that has a bad memory leak, or is stuck in a race condition. and you can do this through the settings in any rom, so there is no need for an app.
Second, do you use an AOL app? if so then if it has an icon on the status bar then yes it is running and it has the ability to drain your battery. if its not showing up in the running services, then its not really running. its a neat trick where the app puts a notification in the bar then closes. and when you click it it reopens to where it was.
As for widgetlocker, i used it for a long time and if its setup right it shouldnt drain battery. it all depends on the widgets you have on both your lockscreen and your homescreen. widgets that use alot of battery will do so, while well written ones will not.
anyway, before i get too far off track. if you think a certian app is sucking your battery dry, use an application to freeze it, or just uninstall it and run the phone for a full charge cycle to see if it improves or stays the same. if it gets better, and you used the phone the same way, than that app is the culprit.
Klathmon said:
ok first, throw out ATK. the only reason you should use it is to kill a rogue app that has a bad memory leak, or is stuck in a race condition. and you can do this through the settings in any rom, so there is no need for an app.
Second, do you use an AOL app? if so then if it has an icon on the status bar then yes it is running and it has the ability to drain your battery. if its not showing up in the running services, then its not really running. its a neat trick where the app puts a notification in the bar then closes. and when you click it it reopens to where it was.
As for widgetlocker, i used it for a long time and if its setup right it shouldnt drain battery. it all depends on the widgets you have on both your lockscreen and your homescreen. widgets that use alot of battery will do so, while well written ones will not.
anyway, before i get too far off track. if you think a certian app is sucking your battery dry, use an application to freeze it, or just uninstall it and run the phone for a full charge cycle to see if it improves or stays the same. if it gets better, and you used the phone the same way, than that app is the culprit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh sorry I didn't mean AOL app I meant like any app that has a notification icon on status bar. And do you know any good apps to monitor what is using the CPU or causing the battery drain?
And I know ATK is not really needed, but does it still drain battery if you don't use autokill or kill any tasks?
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium
NekoNyapii said:
Oh sorry I didn't mean AOL app I meant like any app that has a notification icon on status bar. And do you know any good apps to monitor what is using the CPU or causing the battery drain?
And I know ATK is not really needed, but does it still drain battery if you don't use autokill or kill any tasks?
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i couldnt tell you if it does or not, but if it does not have a service or process running then its not hurting anything.
as for monitoring cpu or battery drain. i use a program called "System Tuner Pro" it costs money, but it tells you what apps are using how much cpu time in seconds. Any app like that will help, but its not a perfect system, it just helps point you in the right direction.
Last Note, the developer of "System Tuner Pro" is a good friend of mine, so i might be bias in using it
Klathmon said:
i couldnt tell you if it does or not, but if it does not have a service or process running then its not hurting anything.
as for monitoring cpu or battery drain. i use a program called "System Tuner Pro" it costs money, but it tells you what apps are using how much cpu time in seconds. Any app like that will help, but its not a perfect system, it just helps point you in the right direction.
Last Note, the developer of "System Tuner Pro" is a good friend of mine, so i might be bias in using it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just downloaded System Tuner Pro, its awesome. I have it on recording right now, hopefully it doesnt drain too much battery.
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium
While recording it will, buy it also will show you EVERYTHING that is happening on your phone
Sent from my LG-P999 using Tapatalk
Klathmon said:
While recording it will, buy it also will show you EVERYTHING that is happening on your phone
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Click to collapse
Yeah I paid for the app. Do you know if the Maps app eats a lot of battery as well? Its always in the running services.
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium
There is a reason Maps is always running. When an app wants to get location data, it can call on GPS. GPS will return the distance from 3 (or more) satellites, various times, and latitude and longitude. This information is useless to the majority of apps that use it, so they will have to convert it to something useful (like nearby address or a city name).
Now, Google knew this, and instead of making each app that needs a city or address figure it out on its own (which would most likely be a slow, resource hungry process) Google made its Maps program open source. So now these apps can just make a call to the always running maps process and it returns an address, city name, nearby supermarkets, ect...
This app is also responsible for your phone being able to get a rough position without having GPS turned on, it gets WIFI data, Cell tower names, and various other things to figure out roughly where you are in the world. This lets apps like WeatherBug to get your city without ever using GPS.
So thats why its always running, and there is no need to try and kill it ever. Maps is a very well written program, and your better off just letting it do its thing. (if you try to fight it, it's probably going to win )
I do believe I have an answer to this. I found today that, after I finally sat down and finished rooting and flashing and installing and rebooting and updating and all the rest of the happy stuff that equals a much happier user, that ATK did infact drain my battery in an exponencial amount. Prior to that, it was ok. After running CM7, in about 2 hours it drained my battery almost to dead. Now, i work in radio shack, so I've had my phone on the charger and my battery was still dying. So in all haste, remove ATK!!!
jaywillsoul said:
I do believe I have an answer to this. I found today that, after I finally sat down and finished rooting and flashing and installing and rebooting and updating and all the rest of the happy stuff that equals a much happier user, that ATK did infact drain my battery in an exponencial amount. Prior to that, it was ok. After running CM7, in about 2 hours it drained my battery almost to dead. Now, i work in radio shack, so I've had my phone on the charger and my battery was still dying. So in all haste, remove ATK!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Also go here and read.
http://geekfor.me/faq/you-shouldnt-be-using-a-task-killer-with-android/
Klathmon said:
There is a reason Maps is always running. When an app wants to get location data, it can call on GPS. GPS will return the distance from 3 (or more) satellites, various times, and latitude and longitude. This information is useless to the majority of apps that use it, so they will have to convert it to something useful (like nearby address or a city name).
Now, Google knew this, and instead of making each app that needs a city or address figure it out on its own (which would most likely be a slow, resource hungry process) Google made its Maps program open source. So now these apps can just make a call to the always running maps process and it returns an address, city name, nearby supermarkets, ect...
This app is also responsible for your phone being able to get a rough position without having GPS turned on, it gets WIFI data, Cell tower names, and various other things to figure out roughly where you are in the world. This lets apps like WeatherBug to get your city without ever using GPS.
So thats why its always running, and there is no need to try and kill it ever. Maps is a very well written program, and your better off just letting it do its thing. (if you try to fight it, it's probably going to win )
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used system tuner to prevent maps from starting up and it doesnt show up in running services anymore. It seems like my battery is a lot better this way.
The only time I really use maps is for gps. I use gps, maps turns on and then when I turn gps off, maps doesnt run in the background anymore. That's the only reason why im keeping system tuner I have no other need for location service.
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium
And plus I don't see why Maps always needs to be running. When I need it for location services, then it could just start up then, no need to always keep it running, I really do believe it drains a lot of my battery.
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium
Related
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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
Sent from my HTC Magic using XDA App
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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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Click to collapse
Sent from my AOSP on XDANDROID MSM using XDA App
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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
Sent from my HTC Dream using XDA App
I got new Captivate two weeks ago and I didnt had any knowledge of Android before that. So as every noob does, I also got worried about my aweful battery and installed task killers. But I noticed that my phone started to lag. So after reading many articles and comments, I came to conclusion that I don't really need Task killer and Android is designed to stop all unwanted Apps itself (correct me if I am wrong here please)
So I thought to test something. I opened camera and then clicked back (not home key but back). The running apps in settings showed its not running, but in System Panel (as suggested by the author of one of the article) it shows Camera is still open but inactive.
So my question is, do these inactive but open apps consume bettery or affect performance?
My question may sound stupid, but I am really concerned about my battery not lasting more than 10 hrs.
If they use a lot of data and have constant updates then yes, they will consume a significant amount of battery. A moderatly simple app that is open but doesnt require data nor act frequently wont use a lot of battery at all. I still use a task killer, as android doesnt automatically "kill" on its own. You can avoid a lot of trouble by just turning off your mobile network when youre not using it; thats a great battery saver in general... good luck
Sent from my FroyoEris using XDA App
hilerc said:
You can avoid a lot of trouble by just turning off your mobile network when youre not using it; thats a great battery saver in general... good luck
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for replying...
I have tweek to trun off my 3g and its never on. But at work I use Wifi to listen to online radio on my phone. So do I have to kill apps like TweetDeck, Facebook and Gmail, with Task killer? Even though I have disabled auto sync for these accounts.
Did a search but found nothing substantial on this:
Does anyone notice their Google Maps is constantly running? And I don't mean in the cached menu. It's running in the "used" column (left column of the "Running" apps screen.
I'm certain Latitude is off, in fact, I unchecked all the location update options and then signed out of Latitude.
What's causing Maps to constantly stay open? Even after I close it and Stop it from the Running apps menu, it reappears moments later by itself.
Anyone know a definitive answer as to why?
onthecouchagain said:
Did a search but found nothing substantial on this:
Does anyone notice their Google Maps is constantly running? And I don't mean in the cached menu. It's running in the "used" column (left column of the "Running" apps screen.
I'm certain Latitude is off, in fact, I unchecked all the location update options and then signed out of Latitude.
What's causing Maps to constantly stay open? Even after I close it and Stop it from the Running apps menu, it reappears moments later by itself.
Anyone know a definitive answer as to why?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The answer I gave to someone asking about Task Killers earlier today in another thread pretty much answers your concerns here. I'll quote it below.
In addition to the explanation of why you shouldn't worry about killing apps I'll add that on my phone Maps is also always running, but it's not sucking up any resources I need (like juice or cpu) so I don't care that it's "running"...and neither should you unless you see it misbehaving.
Android's memory manager has decided that Maps is one you'll need or want running, so it's going to keep re-loading it until something else with a higher priority takes its place.
If you really just can't stand that it's running or it's affecting performance of the phone, there's a root-required app in the Market called AutoStarts, which let's you mark apps as not being allowed to start automatically under a particular situation. You could use that to mark Maps as not able to start on bootup or whatever, but be aware, Android will just load up a different app to fill up that unused memory space...
distortedloop said:
In Android, free memory is wasted memory. People not knowledgable in how Android manages memory think that they're accomplishing something by killing tasks in the hopes of freeing up memory. It doesn't work that way.
Android has a threshold of what amount of free RAM should be maintained, and then does its best to fill up the remaining RAM with apps and stuff you might want to use later; it's like pre-loading your stuff so it loads faster.
The irony of people using task killers to free memory up to "improve performance" and "save battery" is that in most situations they're doing just the opposite. If you kill an app with a task killer, Android will frequently just re-open it in the background to frill up that empty memory space back to its thresholds, thus using up more cpu and juice to reload it.
There are apps or even terminal commands (for root) that let you change that threshold number, and on other devices (2.2 and lower) for me, tweaking that number did sometimes make the phone feel snappier, but it was real trial and error to get it right. I haven't felt the need for it on the Gingerbread Nexus S.
If you're interested in trying something like that, check out AutoKiller Memory Optimizer. Don't let that name fool you, it's a poorly named app, this is NOT a task killer app, it's just a GUI interface to the minfree settings that tell Android's own memory manager what thresholds to use.
There's another one I used to use MinFreeMgr or something like that, but I can't find a link.
And finally, there are limited times that killing tasks is beneficial, one would be if you have an app that's run amok and won't exit on its own. I'm sure there are others, but it's usually a good idea to avoid that practice.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sometimes it happens to me, but a reboot solves this issue.
Thanks Distorted for the explanation. A few more questions:
How come if Google feels it's necessary to keep it open, it's not in the Cache menu? They feel they have to keep it up and running? It can't be cached? Why? I'm mostly just curious about this.
Secondly, also for curiosity's sake, how much percentage does Maps show in your Battery Usage menu? It shows about 2% for me, and that's without actually using it. I'm guessing the 2% is just from running by itself.
It's not detrimental to my performance or my battery (2% is small), but I'm justu wondering why it needs to stay open, and what others' readings are in terms of batt. usage.
I've never noticed Map in my battery statistics as something listed. It's been running all day since I responded earlier, and not there.
2% may or may not be an issue, it depends on what else is used up. And remember, that 2% doesn't mean it used 2% of your total battery charge, it means it's used 2% of what's been used so far.
You lost me with cache menu; not sure what you mean there.
I just peeked at Maps in the Applications/Running apps again. If you click on it in there, it shows 1 process and 1 service. It looks like the service is the "network location services". I'm just wild guessing now, but perhaps it's related to having "use wirelss networks" or use "GPS satellites" enabled in Location & Security menu of Settings. Try turning those off and seeing what happens.
Also, you know that in the battery history screen, you can tap on anything that's listed there and it will give you more details on a new screen? Could you tap that on yours for Maps and see what it actually says? Maybe show a screen shot if you can capture one.
Sign out of latitude that's what is using it.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
leerobson99 said:
Sign out of latitude that's what is using it.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
He said in his first post that "I'm certain Latitude is off, in fact, I unchecked all the location update options and then signed out of Latitude."
I'm curious what other locations aware apps or activities he might have enabled.
When you go to the Running Applications screen, if you click on the lower right of the screen (somewhere near the "Ram" or "200 MB free" indicator) it'll switch to the cache screen.
Anyway, after a night's full battery charge, Maps no longer shows in the Battery Usage screen, but if it shows up there again, I'll click on it and share more info. I do have "Use Wireless Networks" checked, so perhaps that's the culprit? GPS is unchecked. I only check it when I need to use Maps or Navigation. But I'm not running any location update apps.
But again, it seems it's not doing anything detrimental to my CPU or battery, so this is more of a curiosity's sake. Will report if I find anything new.
onthecouchagain said:
Thanks Distorted for the explanation. A few more questions:
How come if Google feels it's necessary to keep it open, it's not in the Cache menu? They feel they have to keep it up and running? It can't be cached? Why? I'm mostly just curious about this.
Secondly, also for curiosity's sake, how much percentage does Maps show in your Battery Usage menu? It shows about 2% for me, and that's without actually using it. I'm guessing the 2% is just from running by itself.
It's not detrimental to my performance or my battery (2% is small), but I'm justu wondering why it needs to stay open, and what others' readings are in terms of batt. usage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have noticed it running also after I do a reboot but usually after a few hours the system usually moves it to the cache menu. I have tried to force stop the process but it will usually come back a little later. I noticed the same thing with the android market.
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.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using XDA App
Uninstall Facebook. Either use m.facebook.com or an alternative app. The devs don't know how to code android.
Sent from my pocket-sized, Linux-based computer using electromagnetic radiation... and Tapatalk.
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.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using XDA App
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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.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
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.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
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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.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
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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.
Sent from my SCH-I510 using xda premium
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..
I know I've made a few posts about this in the past, but now I've learned a few things since then.
I know the battery isn't the greatest on the infuse (no rom that I'm using atm..) but would like to get the most juice out of my device that I can. I have root access and currently use the apps "battery calibration" and "no-frills CPU control" which I set my cpu at a relatively low frequency to help keep juice.
My phone is drained throughout my day, even without use. I believe it primarily happens because my data (mobile network) consumes it. I know apps such as "juice defender" are great at reducing idle drainage because it shuts off your network connection while in idle to save battery. However, I have used this application in the past and after a few days of use, it shuts off my mobile connection altogether.
My question is, if I were to use this application again and my mobile network were to malfunction, would I be able to change my apn to regain my network connection? In the past I had to reset my phone to regain connection, which isn't really worth using if that's the only solution.
Or are there any other battery saver apps worth using??
Thanks
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using xda app-developers app
Dr_Nacho said:
I know I've made a few posts about this in the past, but now I've learned a few things since then.
I know the battery isn't the greatest on the infuse (no rom that I'm using atm..) but would like to get the most juice out of my device that I can. I have root access and currently use the apps "battery calibration" and "no-frills CPU control" which I set my cpu at a relatively low frequency to help keep juice.
My phone is drained throughout my day, even without use. I believe it primarily happens because my data (mobile network) consumes it. I know apps such as "juice defender" are great at reducing idle drainage because it shuts off your network connection while in idle to save battery. However, I have used this application in the past and after a few days of use, it shuts off my mobile connection altogether.
My question is, if I were to use this application again and my mobile network were to malfunction, would I be able to change my apn to regain my network connection? In the past I had to reset my phone to regain connection, which isn't really worth using if that's the only solution.
Or are there any other battery saver apps worth using??
Thanks
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using xda app-developers app
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A bit more information is needed before a specific course of action can be recommended. How much battery life are you using in an average 24 hour period? Also, what version of Juice Defender(beta, free, plus, ultimate) are you using, and what specific settings are you utilizing. It is a very customizable program after all. You might look into Battery Indicator Pro, which estimates your total remaining battery life based on your level of usage. I would also recommend CPU spy, which, if your device is rooted, will show the percentages that your device is running at various CPU levels.
If you turn off all the locational stuff, turn off 'update my current location' in Navigator, and set your CPU gov to conservative, you might get better battery life. I've not had any lasting luck with any of the battery saving apps. In the end, I decided to buy a couple of Anker batteries from Amazon just in case I have a bad battery day... Also some of the battery saving mods work, but I'm not sure about applying them to ICS and JB ROMS. I haven't tried!
Battery life is what you make of it..
Anything running in the background will drain the battery.. email constantly checking for new messages, twitter, Facebook, GPS, WiFi if no connection is found, etc..
Anything that makes the phone process even while the screen is off is going to kill a battery..
What ROM are you using? Some ROMs have better life than others..
How much are you actually using the phone?
What's the brightness set at?
Have you tried changing the processor and slowed it down?
Lots of information that is missing is helpful..
Its powered by Jellybeaned AOKP!
I know apps such as "juice defender" are great at reducing idle drainage because it shuts off your network connection while in idle to save battery
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Some have good luck with these, others don’t. I prefer to try to adjust settings myself.
I believe it primarily happens because my data (mobile network) consumes it.
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How about putting a widget on your homescreen to toggle data on/off. Keep it on only when you need it. I go a step further, I use Tasker to automatically turn my data off every time my screen times out (because that means I’m not using it... I can restart my data later with my widget when I need it). Maybe that’s extreme, but I’m not just watching my battery.. I’m managing my limited data plan.
My phone is drained throughout my day, even without use.
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It may be that you have wakelocks keeping your phone awake when it’s supposed to sleep. One way to see this is (in GB or above) Settings / About-Phone / Battery Use...then click on the small graph at the top... should expand it to a large graph with traces along the bottom including Awake and Screen On. If you have long periods of time where phone is awake while screen is off, that’s a wakelock problem. A good program to troubleshoot that is Better Battery Stats. If nothing else, follow the instructions in the first post in the BBS thread linked below, and then post a dump to the end of that BBS thread (the developer and a lot of other knowledgeable people follow that thread and will help you interpret results):
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1179809
Thru use of BBS, I found that Google Maps is one that was keeping mine awake and I think someone else on the forum reported the same. If that program (Maps) is causing problems, you can disable it from auto-starting on boot using Gemini Manager. It will still be available when you need it, just take a few seconds longer to load the first time after boot. Then need to reboot to stop it from causing wakelocks after use (there may be other easier ways, but this works for me).
Another program (Power Tutor) was helpful to me to see programs that were consuming unusual amount of battery although not necessarily thru wakelocks. In my case Dolphin Browser HD was occasionally drawing very high power even when that program was not actively in use.
electricpete1 said:
I found that Google Maps is one that was keeping mine awake and I think someone else on the forum reported the same. If that program (Maps) is causing problems, you can disable it from auto-starting on boot using Gemini Manager. It will still be available when you need it, just take a few seconds longer to load the first time after boot. Then need to reboot to stop it from causing wakelocks after use (there may be other easier ways, but this works for me).
Another program (Power Tutor) was helpful to me to see programs that were consuming unusual amount of battery although not necessarily thru wakelocks. In my case Dolphin Browser HD was occasionally drawing very high power even when that program was not actively in use.
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So how can I stop maps to running in background? only rebooting the device is the only option?or is there any other option?
TIA
atrix4nag said:
So how can I stop maps to running in background? only rebooting the device is the only option?or is there any other option?
TIA
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Just to provide more details on my previous post (not sure if it's answering your question):
I followed instructions here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=29420959&postcount=7059
In particular, I installed the free program "Gemini Apps Manager". That allows you to stop programs from auto-loading at boot.
So I used the program to stopp Google Maps from auto-loading at boot.
That stopped a large chunk of my wakelocks, as long as I don't manually launch Google Maps.
If I do manually Google Maps, then those wakelocks come back, and to get rid of them I have to reboot.
I don't use Maps that often (only when I go on trips), so it's not a big problem for me to reboot when I'm finished with my trip to help keep my battery use low.
It may also be possible to kill it from the list of applications at Settings/Applications/ManageApplications and killing botht the application and the process...but I'm not sure if it will stay killed that way... haven't tried. I know some applications have hooks that make it hard to get rid of them once they're launched.
But (if you haven't already), I think it's a good idea to use BBS to find out what programs are causing problems on your phone. You may have other apps causing lot bigger problems than Maps. And it certainly may be the case that a program that acts up on one phone can be fine on another phone due to differences in the way the user configures the application settings and the phone settings (along with other possible differences in application version, ROM used, etc etc).
electricpete1 said:
Just to provide more details on my previous post (not sure if it's answering your question):
I followed instructions here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=29420959&postcount=7059
In particular, I installed the free program "Gemini Apps Manager". That allows you to stop programs from auto-loading at boot.
So I used the program to stopp Google Maps from auto-loading at boot.
That stopped a large chunk of my wakelocks, as long as I don't manually launch Google Maps.
If I do manually Google Maps, then those wakelocks come back, and to get rid of them I have to reboot.
I don't use Maps that often (only when I go on trips), so it's not a big problem for me to reboot when I'm finished with my trip to help keep my battery use low.
It may also be possible to kill it from the list of applications at Settings/Applications/ManageApplications and killing botht the application and the process...but I'm not sure if it will stay killed that way... haven't tried. I know some applications have hooks that make it hard to get rid of them once they're launched.
But (if you haven't already), I think it's a good idea to use BBS to find out what programs are causing problems on your phone. You may have other apps causing lot bigger problems than Maps. And it certainly may be the case that a program that acts up on one phone can be fine on another phone due to differences in the way the user configures the application settings and the phone settings (along with other possible differences in application version, ROM used, etc etc).
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Thanks for your detail explanation. My main question was how can close the app without restarting? i feel my major battery drain is from dolphin browser, befor dolphin i used opera, even that has the same problem. Most of the time, if I dont open dolphin, my phone battery is good, but once I open it, it drains battery. So i am looking for soemthing simple which does, without rebooting the device.
Any way thanks for your help.