Multitasking is a joke on the One X! - AT&T, Rogers HTC One X, Telstra One XL

What in the world did HTC do to Android ICS mulitasking!? Apps seem to be completely removed from cache every single time they're closed for ~30 seconds. They also no longer re-open in the same state that you left them! If I leave the browser, it needs to reload the web page. If I leave a game, I need to start from the beginning. If I pause and exit Slacker radio for a minute, the app closes and I can't even resume my music with the headphones button! I need to re-open the app and start playing all over again.
With my old Galaxy Nexus I never had ANY of these issues and multitasking was clearly the best of any smartphone on the market. HTC has completely crippled this device and it's becoming more and more frustrating (push email notifications & sms notifications are a whole other mess). It seems HTC has created Sense to focus more on preserving battery than focusing on creating a good user experience. The first few days with the phone were great but as more and more of these "instances" pop up, this phone is beginning to seem less and less powerful and intuitive.

NextNexus said:
What in the world did HTC do to Android ICS mulitasking!? Apps seem to be completely removed from cache every single time they're closed for ~30 seconds. They also no longer re-open in the same state that you left them! If I leave the browser, it needs to reload the web page. If I leave a game, I need to start from the beginning. If I pause and exit Slacker radio for a minute, the app closes and I can't even resume my music with the headphones button! I need to re-open the app and start playing all over again.
With my old Galaxy Nexus I never had ANY of these issues and multitasking was clearly the best of any smartphone on the market. HTC has completely crippled this device and it's becoming more and more frustrating (push email notifications & sms notifications are a whole other mess). It seems HTC has created Sense to focus more on preserving battery than focusing on creating a good user experience. The first few days with the phone were great but as more and more of these "instances" pop up, this phone is beginning to seem less and less powerful and intuitive.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree, they're using very aggressive memory management.
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

mobilehavoc said:
I agree, they're using very aggressive memory management.
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So much so that multitasking seemed significantly more advanced on my iPhone 4S. This is supposed to be Android's strong suit!

Ya its not even like saved state. Its just a new icon for your previously opened apps.
This is one area where I wish I still had my gnex. HOwever everything else is better on this phone.

With root available, you can probably tweak this a bit with the likes of auto killer, or a similar min free tweaking app.

Music works fine, hell it even remember my last song and position played after a reboot, using htc music.

I made two videos of the problem:
If I just tried to copy and paste these links and make this post on my one x it would have never worked, would have kept reloading the page and forget everything I typed. Lol.

demarton said:
Music works fine, hell it even remember my last song and position played after a reboot, using htc music.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HTC Music is an HTC developed app so it's possible they tweaked their own app to work well. I listen to most of my music online and prefer Slacker radio which has been nothing short of a disaster with this device b/c of the multitasking issues.

demarton said:
Music works fine, hell it even remember my last song and position played after a reboot, using htc music.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does streaming google music play(app) work in the background ( while using navigation or a browser ) ?

With auto killer, i just tested, and i can keep 3 apps running in the memory. Try it out.
edit* scratch that, i tryed after a few minutes of inactivity, reloads.

I believe the reason they are using such aggressive memory management is because on the One X International Version Sense would constantly crash and you would see the "loading" screen.
Frankly I dont know which is more annoying...

dharani1234 said:
Does the music play in the background ( while using navigation or a browser ) ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Music works in the background for me while it's playing (even Slacker). But if I pause the music for a minute to go do something, it's impossible for me to begin playing from where I left off and I have to re-open the app and start playing a song from the beginning. It's very annoying.

spyz88 said:
I believe the reason they are using such aggressive memory management is because on the One X International Version Sense would constantly crash and you would see the "loading" screen.
Frankly I dont know which is more annoying...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh it still does that also, but it isn't a crash, it happens when you go back to the home screen, you just see "loading"
I am just hoping the phone is still fast and has good battery life once/if this is fixed.

wrxdrunkie said:
I made two videos of the problem:
If I just tried to copy and paste these links and make this post on my one x it would have never worked, would have kept reloading the page and forget everything I typed. Lol.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for portraying what I mean...but your issue is even WORSE than mine. If I switch back to an app THAT quickly it won't reload like that. For me, it has to be around 30 seconds.

Lets hope we get root soon. I'm sure some custom roms will cure this issue
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

Bigjim1488 said:
Lets hope we get root soon. I'm sure some custom roms will cure this issue
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Root is already possible since yesterday. Custom ROM is not possible until we get bootloader unlocked.

i'm guessing that's why my simiclock doesn't update after i don't touch my phone for a long period of time (overnight)

In the developer settings, there is an option to set the limit of background processes. The default is set to "standard limit." Does anyone know what this limit is, or if changing it to 4 processes might actually help?
Edit: just tried and it clearly does not help.
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

Try going to settings developer opinions and look under apps and make sure those settings are to your liking. It has a setting for turning off apps right away and how many apps can run in the background.
Edit: I keep on going in and out of apps trying this but unless I'm out for like 5 min its not making me start over Pandora. Try clicking and unclicking apps close right away.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

The issue definitely needs addressing, and I'm sure it's not a "what was HTC thinking" situation so much as a bug that they'll fix.
I've noticed the issue myself, but it hasn't annoyed me to the point of complaining. Maybe it's better on my phone. It'll almost certainly depend on what background services you have running. By that, I mean GMail, Email, Twitter/Facebook updates, playing music. Also, some apps seem to handle multitasking pretty well. NFS Hot Pursuit was obviously coded to accommodate Android multitasking, as I can quit it, check my email/twitter, maybe browse a website, and when I go back to NFS, it's on the pause screen and I can pick up the race where I left off.
Different processes receive different priorities as far as Android memory management go. If you're playing music (in HTC Music, Play Music, PowerAmp, etc,) then Android recognizes that this app is actively doing something, even if you consecutively load up every other app on your phone. You can go back to the music app and it won't have to reload anything. That's just an example. Other apps can do this too, as long as the programmers coded it right. I'm guessing NFS Hot Pursuit does this as I've never had a problem with it.
Of course, none of that excuses the poor multitasking, since the gnex seems much better at it. (And I'm assuming you people who have tried both have been running virtually identical apps on each phone.)
I don't know a ton about memory management and multitasking in Android, so I could only speculate as to where the problem really lies. Could be that Sense takes up too much memory (surprise surprise!), could be that HTC made the memory management too agressive, could be weird other things that I don't even know about, such as some sort of time-out for background apps.
I'm going to do some playing around and let you know if I can find any ways to improve it easily.

Related

So what are the issues with One S right now

I have Samsung Hercules (sgs2 for TMO) for sometime now and though there is plenty to love about that phone, I don't like the audio quality on it. To those of you thinking I must be a snobbish audiophile kind...no I'm not that, far from that, I have $30 IEMs and there is big difference when I switch from mp3 player to the phone. I've tried DSPs and EQs, it still is not good enough. I had HD2 before that and I didn't feel that much of difference going from mp3 player to phone. Now judging by gsmarena review, it seems One S has pretty excellent audio and I'm thinking of change.
Biggest deal breaker however for me is non-expandable storage on One S, but I think I can manage with 16GB. Which brings me to my first question, how much space is available to user out of this 16gb on the phone ?
What are the other major/minor issues on this phone worth mentioning (i dont care about non removable battery).
My Ville is just fine but some people have issues with theirs.
You get 2GB for apps and about 10GB for your "SD card". It's really not a huge deal. I use Spotify and Google Music so I don't have to keep much on the phone anyways.
Sounds just fine by the way.
This phone doesnt have many problems. It is probly tmobile's best right now
Sense 4 is nice and not too bloaty, camera is speedy, and this phone is lightning fast
However, it does like to get hot when I play games
keevinluong said:
This phone doesnt have many problems. It is probly tmobile's best right now
Sense 4 is nice and not too bloaty, camera is speedy, and this phone is lightning fast
However, it does like to get hot when I play games
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeh I noticed this too when playing games, but it keeps on going without problems. I think this is normal, it has to much power under the hood
Beats audio kick ass ...
Sent from my HTC VLE_U using Tapatalk 2
I had a Galaxy SII for a while the beats audio system blows that phones whole audio system out of the water
Sent from my HTC VLE_U using XDA
One gripe I have is why my facebook calendar doesn't display the correct time when synced with my calendars on my phone. I had an event tonight at 8 that was correct on facebook (central time zone) but it was being displayed an hour ahead for 9 PM.
Another gripe I have is the screen itself. The pentile display looks grainy.
My third gripe is that it randomly rebooted three times now when I was leaving work. I was listening to music I had pinned to listen offline from google music. My phone is connected to my work wifi, but when it switches to the regular cell network while listening to google music, it reboots. I am not streaming music with google music, its already been pinned to listen offline.
Fourth gripe is related to google music and HTC's music player. When I pin songs to play while offline, I don't know why HTC's music player doesn't recognize them. So I can't use them to make ringtones unless I have them loaded onto my phone.
Gripe number 4.5 is that this phone doens't support FLAC files. I am just getting into this file format, tho, so its not a big deal.
Fifth gripe is that I wish the app drawer had the same swipe effect that the galaxy nexus has where if you swipe it to the side, the next group of apps comes from the back to the front.
Sixth gripe is I don't know why but when my my phone is plugged into my speakers and I get a notification like a text or an email, for some reason it interrupts the music and the notification sound plays through the speakers. I'll have to experiment with this some more, tho.
Seventh gripe is all the t-mobile bloatware. Yes, I can root it if I really wanted to, but I'm too lazy.
Eighth gripe is swype. Doesn't install because of the 3-dotted menu button that appears that makes swype think the resolution is less than it really is. And the native HTC Swype keyboard blows.
With all that said, BEATS AUDIO IS SOO RAD!! Except I haven't really found an equalizer. But I only listen to my music through google music, so I don't know. Also, the sound through the speaker is so crisp and clear!
AND it is very very fast and snappy! The camera is SO fast. I haven't shot any videos with it yet, but just a few pictures.
As for all my gripes, I reckon that there are some fixes for some of them. I am considering getting a galaxy nexus to see how it compares and then sell whichever one I don't like. I looked at a galaxy nexus today at the store, tho, and while it was a demo unit that keeps the screen on all the time, there was still bad bad burn in. Anyway, I hope that helps you out a bit.
Only issues ive had are really minor bugs. Like when i play temple run it sometimes lags out even though i cleared the ram and cleared any running apps. i disabled everything tmobile put on the phone but it doesnt matter cause their **** keeps popping up -_- will have to root i guess.
biggest thing with my particular phone was the call quality. it SUCKED. everyone i heard on my phone sounded really buzzy and shaky. waiting on a replacement. i really have had no real issues except for random crap that happens due to apps and stuff and limitations on certain apps. its a really good phone =) i love it. just need to get used to its length is all.
adamhlj said:
Eighth gripe is swype. Doesn't install because of the 3-dotted menu button that appears that makes swype think the resolution is less than it really is. And the native HTC Swype keyboard blows.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i noticed the htc keyboard has a stock swype in it while u type which kinda bugs me a lil bit since i don't mess with swype too much . .makes it feel kind of a lag while u just one key type it
You can turn that feature off. Just go to settings>language and keyboards>HTC Sense Input> and turn off trace keyboard if you already haven't.
adamhlj said:
Fourth gripe is related to google music and HTC's music player. When I pin songs to play while offline, I don't know why HTC's music player doesn't recognize them. So I can't use them to make ringtones unless I have them loaded onto my phone.
Gripe number 4.5 is that this phone doens't support FLAC files. I am just getting into this file format, tho, so its not a big deal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It wont see the files because Google Music puts a .nomedia file in the folder that it downloads the music files to. DoubleTwist is able to see past that and allows you to play the downloaded files. It might have FLAC support too, not sure.
adamhlj said:
Eighth gripe is swype. Doesn't install because of the 3-dotted menu button that appears that makes swype think the resolution is less than it really is. And the native HTC Swype keyboard blows.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Annoying, but nothing to do with HTC, the Swype guys need to update their app
ive got swype working on mine.. With and without the 3 dot menu..
I just installed it from a TB backup which i had from my sensation...
works flawlessly.. So it is supported
adamhlj said:
One gripe I have is why my facebook calendar doesn't display the correct time when synced with my calendars on my phone. I had an event tonight at 8 that was correct on facebook (central time zone) but it was being displayed an hour ahead for 9 PM.
Another gripe I have is the screen itself. The pentile display looks grainy.
My third gripe is that it randomly rebooted three times now when I was leaving work. I was listening to music I had pinned to listen offline from google music. My phone is connected to my work wifi, but when it switches to the regular cell network while listening to google music, it reboots. I am not streaming music with google music, its already been pinned to listen offline.
Fourth gripe is related to google music and HTC's music player. When I pin songs to play while offline, I don't know why HTC's music player doesn't recognize them. So I can't use them to make ringtones unless I have them loaded onto my phone.
Gripe number 4.5 is that this phone doens't support FLAC files. I am just getting into this file format, tho, so its not a big deal.
Fifth gripe is that I wish the app drawer had the same swipe effect that the galaxy nexus has where if you swipe it to the side, the next group of apps comes from the back to the front.
Sixth gripe is I don't know why but when my my phone is plugged into my speakers and I get a notification like a text or an email, for some reason it interrupts the music and the notification sound plays through the speakers. I'll have to experiment with this some more, tho.
Seventh gripe is all the t-mobile bloatware. Yes, I can root it if I really wanted to, but I'm too lazy.
Eighth gripe is swype. Doesn't install because of the 3-dotted menu button that appears that makes swype think the resolution is less than it really is. And the native HTC Swype keyboard blows.
With all that said, BEATS AUDIO IS SOO RAD!! Except I haven't really found an equalizer. But I only listen to my music through google music, so I don't know. Also, the sound through the speaker is so crisp and clear!
AND it is very very fast and snappy! The camera is SO fast. I haven't shot any videos with it yet, but just a few pictures.
As for all my gripes, I reckon that there are some fixes for some of them. I am considering getting a galaxy nexus to see how it compares and then sell whichever one I don't like. I looked at a galaxy nexus today at the store, tho, and while it was a demo unit that keeps the screen on all the time, there was still bad bad burn in. Anyway, I hope that helps you out a bit.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. Sounds like some digging around on facebook/phone settings should change that, I can't see it being off by an hour with no fix..
2. Eh, yeah from up close you're right, this was a gripe from before the phone was even released. I guess I don't mind cause I use my phone more for business not multimedia..while it is slightly noticeable, its still a great screen. Some will notice/care more than others.
3. Havent had this happen personally but I have read other people experiencing the same thing. Since its a known issue I'm sure HTC will release a fix (or an XDA Rom cook)
4. Move files from .nomedia to a different (music) folder on your device.
4.5. Not uncommon for a phone to not support flac by default, search for flac in android market there's plenty of free and paid options to use.
5. That's the default android launcher, because you're running sense its a different app drawer. Download Apex launcher for an AOSP style launcher (you will loose Sense widgets, but it will seem more like Galaxy Nexus).
6. The notification you're getting is from Beats, its a little red B icon. Just letting you know its 'enhancing' your sound. Don't know if you can change this...
7. Yeah tons of crap on this thing..no choice but root. It's pretty easy, most time is spent downloading the files. Rest is a piece of cake. (Note you will have to factory reset to unlock bootloader from HTC, so you will loose everything. Make sure you backup first if you do this).
8. Root, install Noble Rom or mod in development forum to remove dots.
Overall there are fixes and workarounds for most of it, or atleast will be soon. If you like the nexus flash an AOSP Rom and stick with the HTC metal build IMO, unless the screen is that big of a deal, then Nexus.
Good luck, let me know if I helped at all
Sent from my HTC One S using XDA
my biggest gripe is that it is terrible at multitasking. Often times I will be doing simple tasks like browsing the web and I will press the home button and the phone has to reload the home screens. It is very annoying. The phone is pretty snappy but my old Samsung vibrant never had such problems with multitasking. I think it must be sence being so heavy.
Sent from my HTC VLE_U using XDA
joshnichols189 said:
My Ville is just fine but some people have issues with theirs.
You get 2GB for apps and about 10GB for your "SD card". It's really not a huge deal. I use Spotify and Google Music so I don't have to keep much on the phone anyways.
Sounds just fine by the way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Decided not to go with One S. 10gb is too low, since my offline gps software eats almost 4gb leaving only 6gb for me. I'll stick with sgs2 and wait for next best thing..Thanks guys..
BTW all the other issue if any, seems to be on software side which would be fixed already with custom roms or may be fixed soon..HTC has done a good job this time..but too bad they had to leave out SD card and only give 10gb of usable space on phone. If they are claiming 16gb they should have alteast made sure that user has access to 15gb of space especially when there is no option to expand
technically it is 16gb.. 1.7 gb for the ROM, 2.5gb for the apps, 10.5gb left for the user..
however i do think it was a sneaky decision, It should be 16gb left AFTER the space for ROM and apps.
azzledazzle said:
technically it is 16gb.. 1.7 gb for the ROM, 2.5gb for the apps, 10.5gb left for the user..
however i do think it was a sneaky decision, It should be 16gb left AFTER the space for ROM and apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Every company does this. It isn't HTC specifically.
Sent from my HTC VLE_U using xda premium
I've had mine almost a week now and only had a few small issues.
1: Swype, which has already been mentioned
2: Pandora isn't working for me. It will play a song, start the next song and about 5 seconds in it skips on its on. Plays the next song completely then repeats. I have an email into the dev on it. (If anyone else has had this issue or knows whats causing it, I would be eternally grateful, im an addict)
3: Google music locked my phone up for about 5 minutes the other day while listening in my car.
4: Misc apps not being supported yet (but its to be expected on a newer version of the software)
My only other issue is that I'm just not a huge fan of sense, but atleast 4.0 is tolerable for now until an official release of cyanogen comes out.
tgtoys said:
4. Move files from .nomedia to a different (music) folder on your device.
Sent from my HTC One S using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That would be a bad workaround IMHO. For a start, there is no folder named .nomedia - there are many multiples of folders where Google Music store the files, and each one will have a .nomedia file in there. Plus, moving the files out would possibly make Google Music re-download the offline files etc. Causing duplication of space used and the need to repeat the process in its entirety if you wanted to pull more files down.
Sent from my HTC One S using xda premium
Phone is great, ive had a couple of random reboots and twice where it says its preparing sim!?
overall fantastic phone, some moan about the screen its not up to the one x screen but its far better than the sensation screen with the mods they have done, battery life has been a major bonus for me easily get a full day from it. As other say its very snappy, my friend has a one x and on most things weve tested in real use terms there is no obvious difference in performance.
Best phone i've had bar none.

Browser "Refresh" question

Hey guys just recently got my AT&T One X, and I am having this annoying "problem" on my browser. Most of the times when I leave the browser then I go back in it it refresh the page instead of staying like when I left the page. This happen on my iPhone when I have to many tabs open or runs too many apps. Most of the apps on my ONE X are not running and coming back from the lock screen and going into the browser the "page" refresh by itself. Pretty annoying for me plus it uses more data. Just wondering if anyone is having this issue. I also tried the "Dolphin browser" and it happen on this browser too.
On a side note I have the Galaxy Note GT7000 and the above issue rarely happen, but on the ONE X this issue happens let say 7 out of the 10 times do something or go back to the browser.
What browser are you using? This happens for me as well but only in chrome beta, I assumed it was a chrome software problem. When I use dolphin HD this does not happen.
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2
It's not a browser issue but multitasking. Apparently when we multitask on the one x it refreshes the apps. I don't know if this is a feature or a bug.
Sent from my HTC One X using XDA
karan1203 said:
It's not a browser issue but multitasking. Apparently when we multitask on the one x it refreshes the apps. I don't know if this is a feature or a bug.
Sent from my HTC One X using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The real issue is the one x has murdered multitasking somehow. I use 3 apps. email, chrome (or internet), and mail. sometimes another or 2. after a few minutes the one x kills those processes and when I relaunch the app is has to load. There is some VERY screwy stuff going on.
beaups said:
The real issue is the one x has murdered multitasking somehow. I use 3 apps. email, chrome (or internet), and mail. sometimes another or 2. after a few minutes the one x kills those processes and when I relaunch the app is has to load. There is some VERY screwy stuff going on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm glad I'm not alone, it's really bad on the One X especially with chrome. I can't answer a google talk and switch directly back without a full page refresh.
Not to mention the fact that the switcher is horribly implemented and shows almost no information.
PeterHTC said:
I, too, had the "loading" issue every time I closed an app and went back to my home screen.
Here's the solution, although, it works for MOST and not ALL people.
Go to Settings=>Developer Options, and scroll down to the section entitled "Apps."
The first entry should be "Don't keep activities."
Make sure this is UNCHECKED. If it's already UNCHECKED, check it and reboot, and then go back in and UNCHECK it and reboot.
It solved my "Loading" problem immediately..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I saw this in another thread, does anyone want to try it?
I'm guessing this is one of the ways HTC is trying to save battery life. Is this similar to how the iPhone does it?
mbaran said:
I saw this in another thread, does anyone want to try it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Doesn't work. I tried it last night.
Cryosx said:
I'm guessing this is one of the ways HTC is trying to save battery life. Is this similar to how the iPhone does it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, it's actually worse than iPhone here.
Sent from my HTC One X using XDA
This is actually with the stock browser. I also tried Dolphin browser and it is happening as well.
Happens to me also. It doesn't multitask at all, yesterday I was trying to type something into the phone keypad and the numbers I entered kept disappearing when I'd come back to the app. The browser reloads all the time and I downloaded every browser from the market, all of them did it. One thing I loved about wp is that tabs wouldn't reload even weeks later.
wrxdrunkie said:
Happens to me also. It doesn't multitask at all, yesterday I was trying to type something into the phone keypad and the numbers I entered kept disappearing when I'd come back to the app. The browser reloads all the time and I downloaded every browser from the market, all of them did it. One thing I loved about wp is that tabs wouldn't reload even weeks later.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We have the same issue but some people here don't have this problem, only by using Chrome.
glad someone else noticed this.. there is almost no true multi-tasking that is happening.. this has to be a bug. I tried the developer option above, didn't change anything.
Went back to the store to play with the DEMO and tried all 3 phones and the problem is there. This is a big software issue, to me is pretty annoying. It is a great phone but this is not good for me. To bad this phone can't be rooted to run a different ROM!! Dammit AT&T!!!!
Fixed the multi tasking problem a little bit and now the browser doesn't refresh as much as before.
You have to go to developers option and under apps make sure background is unchecked. If it's already unchecked,check it, restart , uncheck , restart.
Most apps won't refresh now including browser.
Credit to the guy in the bugs thread.
Sent from my HTC One X using XDA
karan1203 said:
Fixed the multi tasking problem a little bit and now the browser doesn't refresh as much as before.
You have to go to developers option and under apps make sure background is unchecked. If it's already unchecked,check it, restart , uncheck , restart.
Most apps won't refresh now including browser.
Credit to the guy in the bugs thread.
Sent from my HTC One X using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
under developers options and apps theres a "background processes limit" but not just background that can be checked/unchecked...
Don't keep activities. That's what you have to check and uncheck.
My fault I should have checked for exact name.
Sent from my HTC One X using XDA
karan1203 said:
Don't keep activities. That's what you have to check and uncheck.
My fault I should have checked for exact name.
Sent from my HTC One X using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yea that defaults to unchecked. and i just tried checking it, backing out, going back in and unchecking it and so far i'm not noticing any difference but we'll see what happens...
Are we absolutely sure it's downloaded again? Or is the DOM of the page simply refreshed? Meaning while minimized, perhaps everything is hidden to improve performance...Then when you come back to it, everything is put back on the page.
Do we know additional data is used and the page is completely downloaded again?
I've seen this too and it just looked like a page refresh and it loads back instantly for me. So I assumed it was purely visual (either by design or by accident). However, it could have also just as easily downloaded everything again very quickly...
tom_m said:
Are we absolutely sure it's downloaded again? Or is the DOM of the page simply refreshed? Meaning while minimized, perhaps everything is hidden to improve performance...Then when you come back to it, everything is put back on the page.
Do we know additional data is used and the page is completely downloaded again?
I've seen this too and it just looked like a page refresh and it loads back instantly for me. So I assumed it was purely visual (either by design or by accident). However, it could have also just as easily downloaded everything again very quickly...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well isn't the fact that games don't resume where you left them further proof that it's not actually "multitasking" its just starting the app again. it just happens in the browser's case to remember what page you were on. on an ipad for example you can have 20 games open and they all resume exactly where they were when you switch back to them... i think its a multitasking issue with either this phone or android 4.0 in general (i haven't used any other 4.0 phones, just 2.3 on back, so i'm not sure about that)

How bad is multitasking issue?

Hello,
I'm considering purchasing One X but after reading so many posts about multitasking issues I have serious doubts. I can not really check this since it takes time to see the issue but how if I don't use Sense (use alternative launcher like GoLauncher, will I still have this issue or Sense is bigger then just laucher itself.
artisticcheese said:
Hello,
I'm considering purchasing One X but after reading so many posts about multitasking issues I have serious doubts. I can not really check this since it takes time to see the issue but how if I don't use Sense (use alternative launcher like GoLauncher, will I still have this issue or Sense is bigger then just laucher itself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sense is bigger than the launcher. Sense affects a lot of the core phone's features can can't be removed with just a launcher. In this particular case, Sense affects memory management, as well as the actual multitasking app itself.
Let's put it this way. If you're playing a game like say... Radiant Defense (awesome game, btw) that takes a while to complete a level and you get a text message... switching to the messaging app will actually cause the game to close. Now you can use the "multitasking" app to go back to the game, but the game will reload. It will not leave off where you left it.
If that sounds like something that would bother you a lot... I'd avoid the phone. HTC has even said that this is a core Sense 4 FEATURE, not a defect. So they won't be fixing it.
Personally don't think this really warrants a new thread, you probably should have just asked in the ongoing discussion on this.
Haven't tried an alternate launcher yet, so I can't comment on that. But as to the basic question of "how bad" the issue is, I think it depends greatly on how you use your phone, and what you expect from it. Obviously, HTC expects most people to be okay with it, or they wouldn't have tweaked it this way. Only had the phone for a few days, but so far the memory management doesn't seem much different from how the HTC Flyer does it, and I've been fine with that (having owned it since June 2011).
Like posted above, Sense is more than just a launcher. The multi-task changes are likely deep in the kernel.
To me, it is not a big deal. I don't like anything running in the background anyway. And for that matter, the number 1 app in the past a typical Android user uses is Auto Task killer which serves the exact same purpose as the new Sense 4.0. I suspect a lot of those Auto Tasker kill users now also the ones who complain about HTC's feature.
Either way, the biggest problem is with Android itself. There isn't any uniform way to inform OS that an app requires to remain running in background (unless you created a service) can be kept that way. And there is no way for an app that doesn't do anything in the background to be suspended without using any system resources. For later, both iOS and WP7 have much better implementation.
For many years now, I use Google Listen as my podcast player everyday. It works in most times while in the background but a lot of occasions, this app will be closed by OS while I'm listening to the podcast. This behavior is the same on couple different Android phones (samsung and now HTC One X). So, if google's own app can't even stay alive in background in various Android phones, it speaks volume that multi-tasking is a over-hyped feature. What HTC did is not necessary bad to everyone. For example, my Samsung phones (SGS, SGS2 and GTab 10.1) doesn't auto kill bakcground tasks (still kills my GListen) but they all lags badly from time to time.
For what it worth, I can use Google Listen in the background while running Google Nav app in the fore ground for a few hours without problem (other than occasionally Listen get closed for no reason).
I have had mine for 2 weeks and only knew about a "problem" from reading these threads.
In all in how you use it. First reply answered it best
ricktat said:
I have had mine for 2 weeks and only knew about a "problem" from reading these threads.
In all in how you use it. First reply answered it best
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed. The only app I use for streaming in the background is subsonic, which functions just fine.
Also I have the very very slight annoyance that games have to completely reload if you exit them and don't switch back very very quickly. So if I get a phone call and go right back to game it's fine, but if I go web browse or something else and go back the game has to reload. This is mitigated somewhat by the raw speed of the phone, as game loading doesn't take very long (unless the game is a ****ty port like PvZ).
To avoid confusion, lets just keep this conversation with the ongoing one here. Thanks.
Thread closed.

I think I have found a fix for the multitasking! (Video inside)

Hello guys. Sorry if I come off as a noob here but I have been browsing this forum for the past couple of weeks. I have been specifically looking for a fix for the htc multitasking issues. But even with the suggestions given by users, I still could not find a fix that solved the multitasking issue. However, after much tweaking and playing with minfreemanager, sense, and task manager, I think I have found a fix (or a least a temporary fix) for the multitasking issue on the HOX. Here's a quick video I made to demonstrate this.
(dot) youtube (dot) com/watch?v=FeOZtvlK08c&feature=g-upl
As you can see in the video, I am able to scroll through multiple apps without any of them closing/restarting as they normally would have on the phone with stock settings. Although not perfect, the multitasking on the HOX has become much better, and almost perfect (at least for how I believe most users would be multitasking). I can make a phone call, go back to my web browser without the browser refreshing. However, I will warn you now, with this method, the phone will freeze up/slow down occasionally (however, I have found this to only happen when using apps that utilize a lot of memory or when browsing the youtube desktop website).
1) First you'll need to download minfreemanager (many of you reading this probably already have this installed). You can get this app in the play store. However, you'll need to have your phone rooted.
2) Download advanced task manager, find the apps (such as games, browsers, etc.) that you use consistently and put them in the ignore list. Then put autokiller on and regular kill on and set the regular kill frequency to 1 minute.
3) Go to minfreemanager and set all values to 0.
4) Reboot your phone.
5) Go back to minfreemanager and reset the values to 0 and apply those settings once again.
6) Have fun with significantly improved multitasking!
Like I said, the multitasking is not perfect, however, for most users, this improved multitasking will suit you well enough to not get you frustrated. Again, if you do not want to have to deal with occasional lag/freezing, then do not use this method. However, if you want improved multitasking, this method works.
But keep in mind that I am a noob still so if there anything that is not good with my settings, please let me know. Im not a tech genius and am only trying to improve everyone's user experience with this phone.
Lilshaun said:
Hello guys. Sorry if I come off as a noob here but I have been browsing this forum for the past couple of weeks. I have been specifically looking for a fix for the htc multitasking issues. But even with the suggestions given by users, I still could not find a fix that solved the multitasking issue. However, after much tweaking and playing with minfreemanager, sense, and task manager, I think I have found a fix (or a least a temporary fix) for the multitasking issue on the HOX. Here's a quick video I made to demonstrate this.
(dot) youtube (dot) com/watch?v=FeOZtvlK08c&feature=g-upl
As you can see in the video, I am able to scroll through multiple apps without any of them closing/restarting as they normally would have on the phone with stock settings. Although not perfect, the multitasking on the HOX has become much better, and almost perfect (at least for how I believe most users would be multitasking). I can make a phone call, go back to my web browser without the browser refreshing. However, I will warn you now, with this method, the phone will freeze up/slow down occasionally (however, I have found this to only happen when using apps that utilize a lot of memory or when browsing the youtube desktop website).
1) First you'll need to download minfreemanager (many of you reading this probably already have this installed). You can get this app in the play store. However, you'll need to have your phone rooted.
2) Download advanced task manager, find the apps (such as games, browsers, etc.) that you use consistently and put them in the ignore list. Then put autokiller on and regular kill on and set the regular kill frequency to 1 minute.
3) Go to minfreemanager and set all values to 0.
4) Reboot your phone.
5) Go back to minfreemanager and reset the values to 0 and apply those settings once again.
6) Have fun with significantly improved multitasking!
Like I said, the multitasking is not perfect, however, for most users, this improved multitasking will suit you well enough to not get you frustrated. Again, if you do not want to have to deal with occasional lag/freezing, then do not use this method. However, if you want improved multitasking, this method works.
But keep in mind that I am a noob still so if there anything that is not good with my settings, please let me know. Im not a tech genius and am only trying to improve everyone's user experience with this phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Out of curiosity, are you running 1.82? I've had lock-up issues using minfreemanager on 1.73, but apparently they it performs better on 1.82, so I wasn't sure if that might be the cause of your freeze-up/slowdowns.
Silellak said:
Out of curiosity, are you running 1.82? I've had lock-up issues using minfreemanager on 1.73, but apparently they it performs better on 1.82, so I wasn't sure if that might be the cause of your freeze-up/slowdowns.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I'm running the 1.73 firmware.
check your available ram now and tell us what it is please
equlizer said:
check your available ram now and tell us what it is please
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
175 M. When not using the browser around 220.
You're definitely on to something, way better than anything I have tried so far... I did have a lock up a minute ago though, could be unrelated though... More testing to come.
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2
I've seen other reports that just being on 1.82 and using the "Minimal" or "Default" settings in Memfreemanager is enough to significantly improve the multitasking, so this might be a bit of overkill. Still, your hard work is appreciated
[email protected] said:
You're definitely on to something, way better than anything I have tried so far... I did have a lock up a minute ago though, could be unrelated though... More testing to come.
Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 Did as you said except for reboot and so far all Is well. Have to see how this effects battery but the multitasking is getting better.
multitasking works much better...but the phone became so laggy when i went back to home screen...takes 1 minute to pull down the notification curtain... I have reversed it now.
Thanks for the good work nevertheless!
men onsuserv
fobfusion said:
multitasking works much better...but the phone became so laggy when i went back to home screen...takes 1 minute to pull down the notification curtain... I have reversed it now.
Thanks for the good work nevertheless!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What apps were you running when the slow down occured?
What apps did y'all add to the ignore list? Like all Widgets and stuff?
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium
jason.hamilton said:
What apps did y'all add to the ignore list? Like all Widgets and stuff?
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I put games, my web browser, and a couple other apps I don't want closed in the background while using on my ignore list. Anyone else having success worn this method.
I used the default setting on min free, it definitely seems to have improved the kill off time. My Chrome now stays open significantly longer than it used to, although it still dies faster than it did on my Atrix. A few slowdowns on 1.7, but no hard crashes yet.
Im not sure if it was due to this, but after applying this my phone froze at the lock screen and had to reboot.
Suggestion for anyone facing constant slow downs or lock ups, try using the mild setting for minfreemanager and see if that makes a difference. Currently testing with those settings.
Just use Rom Toolbox and use a preset in memory management. It requires root and it basically fixes the refreshing problem.. you can then tweak it the way you want
Sent from my HTC One X using XDA
fielddb said:
Just use Rom Toolbox and use a preset in memory management. It requires root and it basically fixes the refreshing problem.. you can then tweak it the way you want
Sent from my HTC One X using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wouldn't this do the same function as using minfreemanager.
This is a million times better than what I was having to deal with
vioalas said:
This is a million times better than what I was having to deal with
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Has this method helped you?
One more quick aid. If you're still dealing with constant slow downs or lag, download cpu tuner from google play. It's free. Use the performance setting and the phone will become much quicker.

2.21.401.10 and still multitasking issue?

So, I've heard the new update 2.21.401.10 still has the well known limited multitasking issues (see YT videos for One X, it's the same for us: http://www.youtube.com/results?sear...0.0.0.119.352.3j1.4.0...0.0...1ac.R68YKWQ8QnE )?? Is it true? How can we persuade HTC to keep standard Android multitasking?
I've also heard the audio issues (crackles, trashed sounds, some micro-stutters sound-related. You can easily notice this with games, f.e. Pinball Arcade or Mame4Droid etc. Won't hear these problems on GS2 and other Android phones) are still there too, so the audio driver is still the same.
Should I go back to GS2? Multitasking problem is very important for me...
I don't have issues with sound now, never have. A lot of games ether aren't compatible completely (gta 3), and others are just trash audio. If you want to test audio run a GOOD mp3 file, if it crackles its your phone....
Sent from my HTC One S running Axiom S
the multitasking of the one X and S isnt' bugged, it is in this way for a choice of HTC. Basically the system doesn't left completly open apps but it freeze them which is almost the same of restart the app from zero more or less. This is because HTC want to keep some resources free to have a more fluid sense experience.
Anyway if you have an unlocked device you can flash this script http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=27318828#post27318828 that should give you real multitasking and leave the cool HTC interface ( the task manager ) to swith from an app to another. I would try it but I don't want to unlock my device at the moment.
none of the scripts work. wait till developers will fix it on kernel level. no other solutions here.
HTC One S via XDA
hexaae said:
So, I've heard the new update 2.21.401.10 still has the well known limited multitasking issues (see YT videos for One X, it's the same for us: )?? Is it true? How can we persuade HTC to keep standard Android multitasking?
I've also heard the audio issues (crackles, trashed sounds, some micro-stutters sound-related. You can easily notice this with games, f.e. Pinball Arcade or Mame4Droid etc. Won't hear these problems on GS2 and other Android phones) are still there too, so the audio driver is still the same.
Should I go back to GS2? Multitasking problem is very important for me...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with hexaae. It's worth nothing having a super-fluid UI if it means killing your opened browser when you try to live it in background. You just can't browse between browser and email: how is this supposed to be called multitasking??
I really believe this choice of HTC's is senseless... On a smartphone with 1GB of RAM...
Edit1: by the way, what is the "background processes limit" option in "development options" supposed to do? Possible values are 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, default.
Edit2: would it be an idea to make a poll and see how many people would be interested in this?
mannequin said:
none of the scripts work. wait till developers will fix it on kernel level. no other solutions here.
HTC One S via XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
why do you say that it doesn't work? On the thread some guys has reported that it works!
light_n_roses said:
why do you say that it doesn't work? On the thread some guys has reported that it works!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It worked for me, problem was the battery started draining like crazy. Which got me thinking, the reason HTC did this was battery life. Nothing else. Sense was still just as smooth for me, but apps would multi task like I used to, but my battery would last less than half as long. So I went back to stock and am getting decent battle life again.
Sent from my H1S using XDA Premium.
MadJoe said:
It worked for me, problem was the battery started draining like crazy. Which got me thinking, the reason HTC did this was battery life. Nothing else. Sense was still just as smooth for me, but apps would multi task like I used to, but my battery would last less than half as long. So I went back to stock and am getting decent battle life again.
Sent from my H1S using XDA Premium.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well this is quite natural, you should manually clear everything once that you put the phone on stand-by ( and here the cool HTC task manager interface lack of a " close all" button ) or if you don't want to do this you can put task killer widget on the home that kill everything by a tap. Anyway this would kill also the background process not started by you which is not good so HTC should really put a "close everything" button on task manager interface so we can kill just recent apps opened by the user and not from the system.
Sent from my HTC One S using xda app-developers app
it works for about "10 minutes". all script "fixes" are nothing more than a placebo.
mannequin said:
it works for about "10 minutes". all script "fixes" are nothing more than a placebo.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is not true. Yes, the multitasking is not stock quality... but the scripts do have a noticeable effect that improves performance (assuming you have enough free memory).
mannequin said:
it works for about "10 minutes". all script "fixes" are nothing more than a placebo.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this shouldn't be a script ment to improove performance, this should be something that it works or not, an off/on ...
light_n_roses said:
Well this is quite natural, you should manually clear everything once that you put the phone on stand-by ( and here the cool HTC task manager interface lack of a " close all" button ) or if you don't want to do this you can put task killer widget on the home that kill everything by a tap. Anyway this would kill also the background process not started by you which is not good so HTC should really put a "close everything" button on task manager interface so we can kill just recent apps opened by the user and not from the system.
Sent from my HTC One S using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It lacks the close all option because it is not needed. You dont have to close any apps unless they are something that need to be operating all the time like music player when it is playing songs or navigator and stuff like that. There is no difference for your batterylife whether you clear the "recent apps" list or not. And its called "recent apps" for a reason because it means that it has nothing to do with the fact is that application actually running or not. It has always being like that in android. It just makes it easier to jump between apps.
Using task killers and such only increases battery usage since the app it has closed needs to be loaded again when you use it the next time instead of it being just unfreezed from the memory.
HTC has set the automatic killer which kills apps on the background when running out of memory way too aggressive when you compare that to how it works on vanilla ICS or even older HTC phones running android 2.2 or 2.3.
However the latest update made multitask way better for One S. And Iam talking about the one which updatet android version to 4.0.4. Now you can jump between many apps without the fear of them closing immediately so Iam very happy with that now and it works as its should be.
Paqu1 said:
However the latest update made multitask way better for One S. And Iam talking about the one which updatet android version to 4.0.4. Now you can jump between many apps without the fear of them closing immediately so Iam very happy with that now and it works as its should be.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've read comments by users who installed latest update and still have the limited multitasking issue (I'm waiting for the OTA update in Italy). Are you saying instead this has been "fixed"...?
Moved To Q&A​
Please post all questions in the Q&A section​
hexaae said:
I've read comments by users who installed latest update and still have the limited multitasking issue (I'm waiting for the OTA update in Italy). Are you saying instead this has been "fixed"...?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well its working fine for me. I can now jump between 4-6 fairly light programs and 2-3 heavier ones without the previous app always closing like before the update.
Paqu1 said:
Well its working fine for me. I can now jump between 4-6 fairly light programs and 2-3 heavier ones without the previous app always closing like before the update.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually I still don't know because I do not have the last updated, I'm waiting that it goes online on automatic update.....
Hope you are right!
Paqu1 said:
Well its working fine for me. I can now jump between 4-6 fairly light programs and 2-3 heavier ones without the previous app always closing like before the update.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please can you test this?
Open Google in the stock browser and type in something to search (but don't start searching!)... then switch between other apps and finally go back to the browser. Does it still reload and delete your input text?
I'm going to test the script now. Available memory is not an issue for me, as I removed Sense and am running Nova Launcher. My available memory usually sits around +230, ranging from 170-270. Haven't seen it drop below that. As for battery life, as long as you actually use the HTC multitask button and kill the apps that you don't want to go back to, the battery shouldn't really be affected, or at least the only effect will be a result of the apps that you actually want running, so it's a trade off, right? Keep in mind that means not killing the processes that will be automatically restarted by Android (ie using an auto task killer, or some pre Froyo type apps), only user apps that you recently launched and are now killing.
tgtoys said:
As for battery life, as long as you actually use the HTC multitask button and kill the apps that you don't want to go back to, the battery shouldn't really be affected, or at least the only effect will be a result of the apps that you actually want running, so it's a trade off, right? Keep in mind that means not killing the processes that will be automatically restarted by Android (ie using an auto task killer, or some pre Froyo type apps), only user apps that you recently launched and are now killing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh god, didn't I just explained this few post earlier? You dont have to do any of that since it DOESNT have any impact to your battery life. Go ahead and test it if you dont believe me.
hexaae said:
Please can you test this?
Open Google in the stock browser and type in something to search (but don't start searching!)... then switch between other apps and finally go back to the browser. Does it still reload and delete your input text?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, I just did what you asked. After doing that with the default browser I was able to jump between Dolphin HD which had two tabs open, youtube app and chrome without any of them closing. And I even went to home screen between them. I think thats pretty good compared how it worked previously. Because then often it was enough if I just jumped to homescreen and then right back the previous app to make it close.
Confirmed.
Official stock ROM, via OTA, ver. 2.31.401.5... and there IS multitasking, finally! Task manager is much more conservative (around 70-80% of cases) with executed apps in the multitasking-history-menu...
Yes, also the browser now won't reload pages if you switch to the mail app for a moment and go back...
~200MB free mem.

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