I got into a little argument with my manager today because I told the customer that exiting an app stops the app from working since android is extremely efficient with multi tasking. As soon as the customer walked out he told me I was wrong and that a task killer was necessary to stop any data usage by the app. In this case it was the browser that was in question. I tried to explain to him that it's not needed but of course he pulled up an article from 2010 which I pointed out the data right away. So now I have to present to the team why I am right on Friday.
My question is.... As soon as you exit an app and go back to the home Page.... Will it stop its data consumption?
Yes it will . Although some app will still consume ram . But for data as in internet data yeah they will stop as u exit them unless they background enabled like Pandora .etc.
I might be wrong though ..
Sent from my LandLine
I'm inclined to agree. If set to work in background, app killer will start and stop it more therefore theoretically use more data then not using an app killer at all. Although I'm tired and may be way off base haha. Got rescued from the ocean today so I might be a little off lol
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2
I would say no, not all apps stop consuming data just because you aren't in them. If you have Facebook, Gmail, etc then you will still get notifications after backing out of them.
Sent from my SCH-R530U using Tapatalk 2
I think it would stop data, unless of course it has background data perms. Which I don't think the browser has. Also since froyo task killers have been outdated. Unless you are selling a phone with eclair your boss needs to get with the times there.
Sent from a strange blue box hurtling through time and space.
I can't believe it's more then halfway through 2012 and people still want to use task killers on current Android systems.
Windows conditioned people for some bad habits.
Wish I had the time to get into this now.
You won't have to search far for a landslide of proof why you are right.
http://www.droid-life.com/2011/06/02/revisiting-android-task-killers-and-why-you-dont-need-one/
Still over a year old but is more relevant that his sources.
Top comment from that article. I think its a good analogy.
Say you're out golfing, and you have a caddy carrying your clubs for you. You ask him for a driver, he has it right there with him and hands it over. Then, after you tee off, you ask him for a 5-iron and he's got that handy as well. A good caddy will even recognize what club you're probably going to want next, and have it out of the bag already to hand it to you as soon as you need it. That's how Android approaches memory usage - it keeps the things you're likely to need right there and ready so you can just pop it open immediately.
If you're using a task killer, it can't do that. It's essentially the same as if you were to tell your caddy to leave all your clubs in your car. Any time you want a new club, you hand him the old one, and he walks all the way back to the parking lot, puts it away and gets the new one. Worse, occasionally he'll try to be helpful and bring back a second club (say, your putter as you're getting close to the green), but you'll just tell him you didn't want the putter right now and send him all the way back to the car again. Meanwhile, you'll take your shot, and stand around at the green waiting for him to get back so you can hand him your 5-iron and tell him to go get the putter...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with the above statements on how task killers are not needed (or even helpful) on most Android OS phones, although does Sense 4 on the HTC One-X muck up the general explanations as to how our Android phones typically manage memory, perhaps?
That is, last I read Sense 4 would cause reloads of apps sent to the background - such as a browser, Maps, etc. - because those background tasks are apparently being killed by a kill-happy task manager.
- ooofest
A program in the background can be using data (syncing, streaming, etc) when you're not using it and killing it will stop the data usage. Not very complicated.
Imatoasta said:
A program in the background can be using data (syncing, streaming, etc) when you're not using it and killing it will stop the data usage. Not very complicated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Only programs with sync enabled such as Google apps and facebook which do not stop on exit. Sync means it will still sync personally at all times until you disable sync. So all in all exiting apps does no good anyhow. The memory handling makes that possible. If you want proof check the firewall. You can find a firewall application easily and it will show data usage and all that. Also most roms now show data usage internally. They will show minimal to no usage whatsoever if you have not done something.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda premium
jclendineng said:
Only programs with sync enabled such as Google apps and facebook which do not stop on exit. Sync means it will still sync personally at all times until you disable sync. So all in all exiting apps does no good anyhow. The memory handling makes that possible. If you want proof check the firewall. You can find a firewall application easily and it will show data usage and all that. Also most roms now show data usage internally. They will show minimal to no usage whatsoever if you have not done something.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A browser in the background can still stream. Not complicated.
Imatoasta said:
A browser in the background can still stream. Not complicated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not necessarily. And yes it is more complicated. Their are variables to consider.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda premium
Related
I have read some good number of articles about using or not using a task killer on android phones, I am leaning at the moment to not having one (as i have not installed one and i have had my phone. For about a week or two now). I am extremely interested in hearing some opinions flrom my fellow xda members.
Thanks in advanced for some friendly debate over the issue
-Dave
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
There are already numerous threads about this. Do a quick research and you'll find lots of debates going on.
For example, http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=744101
What's your point to start a new one?
You only need it in emergencies. At first I used it often and decided I was just paranoid and uninstalled it. Device then worked more smoothly then when I was using it. You may get a little nervous about it saying that it only has 70M left, but that's not really true. Most of the apps that you exit out of don't get used by the CPU anymore and just sit in memory (not doing anything). When you launch another app, that applications gets moved out of memory and the new one gets active.
If you install a lot of 3 star apps (crappy apps) and notice that your battery is going low fast or phone getting hot, then use it as it is an emergency. Just try not to make it a habit.
Do not use a task killer unless an app is frozen! It only slows down your phone and causes bugs. Your apps have to reopen every time you want to use it, which only slows things down. It's also possible for apps to lose data because they get stopped prematurely.
Besides, freeing up ram won't make your phone go faster. If the ram isn't being used, then it's doing nothing at all. A phone with 500MB free would be just as fast as a phone with 20MB free.
I used advanced task killer for a while but uninstalled it because i couldnt come up with a set of tasks that i would always want killed.
Plus the purist in me doesnt like the idea of automatically terminating a thread without some kind of collaboration between the threads involved. How does task killer know that any given thread is at a good stopping point?
It seems that background tasks were not nearly as big a drain on battr life as having gps on all the time. Once I installed the power widget on my home screen toggling gps took care of that.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App
so i found out how to force close apps under settings but theres gotta be a better way.
for example lets say i have browser, market, and facebook apps open. all showing under the window selection button. after time i get a ton of windows there and i don't want all of them open. how do i close them selectively without going through all the settings menu crud?
some apps let me close from within, most don't though and leave me stuck with a ton of windows (apps) open.
What you are asking isn't necessary unless an application has malfunctioned. There is no other way to close applications other than using the force close button in settings. Android handles this itself -- if this doesn't satisfy you download a task manager.
I don't think there is a way yet.
What Google needs to do is make those preview windows in the multitasking bar long-pressable for a menu to be able to close them.
modru2004 said:
so i found out how to force close apps under settings but theres gotta be a better way.
for example lets say i have browser, market, and facebook apps open. all showing under the window selection button. after time i get a ton of windows there and i don't want all of them open. how do i close them selectively without going through all the settings menu crud?
some apps let me close from within, most don't though and leave me stuck with a ton of windows (apps) open.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is no need to manually close out apps. Since 2.1, Android has done an excellent job managing memory. It's been written many times (some directly from Google) that micromanaging your apps will actually hurt battery performance. You'll essentially be working against the system as opposed to helping it.
I am not sure if my task manager is working on this device. I use AutoKiller and when I killed task it doesn't appear as though anything closes. Can somebody confirm?
atoy74 said:
There is no need to manually close out apps. Since 2.1, Android has done an excellent job managing memory. It's been written many times (some directly from Google) that micromanaging your apps will actually hurt battery performance. You'll essentially be working against the system as opposed to helping it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
id like to point out thats NOT the issue.
the issue is the ton of windows you end up having to sort through unless you close them. its a quality of life thing, i don't like having unused unnecessary windows open that i have to sort through to get to the stuff i am using. its just bad form.
foldog22 said:
I am not sure if my task manager is working on this device. I use AutoKiller and when I killed task it doesn't appear as though anything closes. Can somebody confirm?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It will most likely not work until its rewritten. The way 2.2 and now 3.0 allow access is completely different then 2.1 and below. Plus as said about 200 million task there is 0 reason to run a task killer. If you wanna clear them out, even though there is 0 reason, reboot.
Okay, I get the memory management issue, but as the OP pointed out, I've got all sorts of icons in the "task bar area" (bottom right hand corner) that just sit there or keep coming back.
For example, I haven't listened to any music on my Xoom since yesterday morning, yet I've got an icon down there for Music and Rhapsody. Also, there's no way to clear some notifications.
There's got to be a way to at least clear out the notification isn't there?
you tap on the little icon music for example and you will see a little x on the right of it, click that and it closes it from the notification system
There is absolutely no reason to use a task killer or manually kill tasks. 2.2, 2.3, 3.0, etc. handle memory and tasks extremely well. In many cases, task killers will only cost you more battery and more slowdowns than letting tasks just run out and sit in memory. Unless you're seeing rogue or malfunctioning tasks in the background causing slowdowns, there is no need to kill them.
I do wish you could scroll through the recent running apps rather than only being able to access the latest 5, but spam closing background apps doesnt help at all.
arrtoodeetoo said:
I don't think there is a way yet.
What Google needs to do is make those preview windows in the multitasking bar long-pressable for a menu to be able to close them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
While I haven't used a task manager since I started learning how android actually works last year when starting to make apps, I can't help but want the same thing in honeycomb for malfunctioning apps. I think google left it out intentionally to discourage task-killing rampages by oblivious users.
Every time I read "you do not need to close apps" I want to scream. first hour of usage I had a second browser installed and it and the stock browser were conflicting with each other... all I wanted to do was a quick close of one of the browsers.
There are always a multitude of good reasons to want to close a background app. I completely understand the technical reasons why an app does not need to be closed, but from a user experience point of view, it should be made simple.
mjpacheco said:
Every time I read "you do not need to close apps" I want to scream. first hour of usage I had a second browser installed and it and the stock browser were conflicting with each other... all I wanted to do was a quick close of one of the browsers.
There are always a multitude of good reasons to want to close a background app. I completely understand the technical reasons why an app does not need to be closed, but from a user experience point of view, it should be made simple.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which is exactly why in my first post I said "...isn't necessary unless an application has malfunctioned" otherwise such a thing is barely necessary. And in your case, the classic "Settings > ....... > Force Close" would have easily sufficed.
So what you are saying is that a method to kill tasks is necessary, just not often. I, for instance, just had the xda app stuck on the splash screen. I killed it and restarted the app and all was good. There is a potential for harm if used over zealously but at times it would be nice if there was a more convenient way to close an app when necessary.
Applications do not always behave as they should so to say there is no need to kill am app is making a naive assumption that every android app is perfect.
Sent from my Xoom using XDA App
martonikaj said:
I do wish you could scroll through the recent running apps rather than only being able to access the latest 5, but spam closing background apps doesnt help at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oddly enough, if you turn to portrait, you get a few more. So, technically its not a hard limit on 5, but rather (literally) limited by space on the screen.
Anyone want to place a bet as to what rev we see scrollability?
Sent from my Evo using the XDA App
JanetPanic said:
So what you are saying is that a method to kill tasks is necessary, just not often. I, for instance, just had the xda app stuck on the splash screen. I killed it and restarted the app and all was good. There is a potential for harm if used over zealously but at times it would be nice if there was a more convenient way to close an app when necessary.
Applications do not always behave as they should so to say there is no need to kill am app is making a naive assumption that every android app is perfect.
Sent from my Xoom using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If this happens use the built in task killer, settings/applications/running tab.
Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk
bwcorvus said:
If this happens use the built in task killer, settings/applications/running tab.
Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did and it worked. As I said it would be nice to have a more convenient way of force stopping apps that are not behaving.
Sent from my Xoom using XDA App
Closing apps isn't necessary for two reasons.
1. Android does a good job at managing apps on its own.
2. You have 1GB of RAM to work with.
Sent from my HTC Vision using Tapatalk
Watchdog does a considerable job since it only lets you know when an app is misbehaving. And since being on 2.3 its barely given me any alerts. Perhaps further proving the awesome memory management.
Sent from my Xperia X10 using XDA App
delete please
Hello all,
Just wondering.
I know there's a load of task managers etc that kill apps, but:
Are there any apps that you can use to keep an app alive and not close in the background. e.g. If you press home, the built in memory manager won't kill it eventually.
Thanks.
If you are using a task killer this feature would be called "whitelist".
Thanks for your reply.
I'm not using a task killer, but android automatically kills tasks after a while if in the background.
I'm basically looking for an app that will bypass this, for apps I choose.
Get an app called WatchDog. It's a task killer that doesn't mindlessly kill your apps (Which actually waste more battery for those apps that instantly reboot.) and you can whitelist apps.
Got watchdog, but this doesn't do what I need. I need the option/ability to be able to keep an app in the background indefinitely, unless I choose otherwise.
I think I may have found the answer in another post. Paul22000 has stated that it's built into Android and the only way around this may be to get it built into a custom ROM.
It might help if you explain which app and why, there may be another way.
Sent from my Desire HD using XDA Premium App
To cut a long story short. I'm trying to build an app in app inventor that stays alive, but it's not possible within app inventor, so I'm trying to find a work around.
Right on... But why do you want too create an app that never shuts down? Have to ask because I am a little intrigued here
Sent from my ADR6400L using XDA Premium App
So that it works properly
it will work properly its just that android will close it if it feels it is using to much memory in the back round some of my apps stay on all day as long as it doesnt consume to much space
evilstewie23 said:
it will work properly its just that android will close it if it feels it is using to much memory in the back round some of my apps stay on all day as long as it doesnt consume to much space
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But what if I don't want android to close it...? I simply want android to ignore it.
Just Me said:
But what if I don't want android to close it...? I simply want android to ignore it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think that's possible. If Android decides that you app needs to be closed (e.g. cause it's idle, eats too much memory, etc.) it'll shut it down, no matter what.
You can try to build your app as a service, as services run in the "background" and are less likely to be killed by Android.
This is not possible in App Inventor, which is why I'm looking for a work around.
Haven't found a solution?
I'm trying the same thing. My Optimus 2x kills Opera and Spotify faaar too fast. Common use case: Surf->Home->Send text message->open Opera, then it has to be restarted, not loaded from memory. I'm using AutoKiller now, which is supposed to be able to keep apps alive if I manually set a variable in it (oom), but it's very temporary so I'm guessing it doesn't work too well.
frunns said:
Haven't found a solution?
I'm trying the same thing. My Optimus 2x kills Opera and Spotify faaar too fast. Common use case: Surf->Home->Send text message->open Opera, then it has to be restarted, not loaded from memory. I'm using AutoKiller now, which is supposed to be able to keep apps alive if I manually set a variable in it (oom), but it's very temporary so I'm guessing it doesn't work too well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree....
I use Dolphin Mini, and if I receive a phone call, just about every single time I go back into Dolphin Mini, it has to reload. Even if I only had one or two tabs open. It's really frustrating... This happens on my EVO 4G, I hope the Epic Touch 4G doesn't have this issue (or any devices with higher ROM storage).
I looking for a solution to..
My situation: When driving in my car I run 3 apps Copilot, FlitsNav and MySpeed.. Copilot is usually my foreground app.. FlitsNav is an app that should pop up when I'm near mobile speedcams.. Sometimes it gets killed by android (even though the icon stays present in the taskbar)
any suggestions on keeping it alive? (I though about restarting the app every 5mins or so with tasker.. haven't tried yet)
If you have root, try the v6 supercharger
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium
That I'd one thing I actually miss from the iPhone. I'd keep apps open all the time and they would look the same when I opened them a week later. In Android my apps tend to shut down and I have to navigate back to where I was, open tabs again, etc. Can be annoying.
verrox said:
If you have root, try the v6 supercharger
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks, I'll have to do some reading before I'll try that one..
verrox said:
If you have root, try the v6 supercharger
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is hit or miss and 90% of the time its miss
IV seen a couple forum's we're people go back and forth about task killers, ( manly about whether or not you need them)
It seems like the argument against it is that the android system already kills apps. And most of the programs and apps constantly try to restart (draining you're battery)
But the argument for it. Is that the android O/S lets way to many apps run. And keeps them in memory, before it actually starts killing them.
But from what I can tell it doesn't look like any of the arguments were 'rom' or even 'phone' specific.
What do you Guy's think?
Are you for, or against auto killers?
And why?
Do you think they make a difference?
Do they drain your battery?
If you do use them. "Which ones do you use"? And y?
(Let the arguments begin) I'm interested to know what you guys think?
Sent from my G2X.
Rocking stock CM 7.2.0-RC1
Do not use them. The Android OS is very good at knowing what to keep in memory and what not to. You want your memory to be full pretty much all the time (unused memory is wasted memory), and the OS will swap data out to your internal storage (or SD card?) when necessary.
Think about it: Do you have auto-task-killer for Windows or Mac OS? Of course not. The OS manages memory very well.
Now, I *may* kill a task that has a memory leak or is taking up gigantic amounts of memory for no reason (as I would on Windows using the Task Manager), but I'll only do that on an app-by-app basis, and it usually results in my uninstalling the crappily-written app.
So no, "auto" task killers are worthless.
Android continues to run random crap in the background for no reason. Crappy programing. I have had mixed results with various task killers. It is a shame that Google can not get their stuff together. They have the resources to do it correctly, so it leads me to the conclusion it is intentional.
Why the hell does Maps need to run all the freaking time? It's ridiculous. Is ICS any better than Gingerbread? I hope it is. That would be a worthy reason to upgrade, but for the short time I tried an ICS rom it still ran tons of crap for no reason at all other than google wants it to run.
Hopefully one day someone will come out with an efficient OS. Until then we are stuck trying to implement workarounds to Google's crap programing.
ok, ill try to explain this
Android and windows operating systems are very different in the way they handle memory useage.
In windows, when you open a program the program allocates a chunk of memory that it can use, it then tells the system to give it more if it needs it, and it gives it back when it dosent. Once the program is closed all of this memory is 'forgotten' instantly and cannot be recovered, so when you restart the program you are starting it over like new. (one exception being programs that stay running in the background after you close the window)
In android, this is all handled much MUCH MUCH more efficiently.
Android apps are made up of processes and services. A process is a foreground window that you interact with. Unless you hit the back key to exit out of the program, it is simply paused. Once paused a process can use NO CPU!! none at all! ZERO! It is still kept in memory so that if you want to go back to the app, or you restart it later, and its still in memory, the phone will spend less time, CPU power, and battery power relaunching it from the start. if the phone begins to run low on memory it starts closing these programs. id say 90% of the time closing a paused process is so fast, and takes so little resources that you cant tell when its happening, even if you watch really closely for it.
The problem with apps using battery in the background is android Services.
Services are different from processes. services have no UI, the user cannot interact with them directly at all, and they should only contain code that is needed to run in the background. When you exit an app through its own menu, it shuts down its own services, unless it believes that they are needed still. These processes can run in the background for as long as they want... to a point. if android needs the memory for something else, and its already killed every process that's not running, it will start killing unused services.
Services are the main thing that separate android from the IOS. Android can multi-task, and services are the way that it does it. The reason that these can suck the battery dry is because of bad programming by the app creator. If your facebook app wants to sync your pictures, it will keep a service running to do that, perhaps using GPS, Network, and SD card data the whole time. Its the app's fault, not android's.
For example:
If your playing music, and you want to go to another playlist, a service is the part of the program reading the song off the SD card, downloading album art, and playing it over the headset. while the process is showing you all this and letting you pick another playlist. if you press your home key in the middle of a song, the process is paused, so the UI can no longer use CPU power, however the service is still running, still playing music. when you stop the music and then close the app, a WELL PROGRAMMED music app will stop its service, then pause its UI. 10 minutes later you want to play music again, so you reopen the app only to find that it is exactly the way you left it! all ready and waiting for you to hit play. this is because while it was paused, it was not using battery or cpu power, but was still stored in the RAM. when you reopened it, the OS just reads all this ram and 'un-pauses' the program for you.
Finally just because an app has a process, does not mean that it is drinking your battery power by the megawatt! Some services are just there, waiting for something, using little to NO cpu power. For example your SWYPE and Android Keyboard services are running constantly. however they are not using much battery power at all. the services are only there listening for android to shout that it needs a keyboard, at which point the service runs the paused process.
one last thing, the reason google maps runs in the background is because something on the phone wants location data. (could be the fact that you checked 'share anonymous data about my location with google' or the fact that you want your weather service to update based on your location, or any other 100's of things) While any program can access GPS data, the numbers you get back are latitude and longitude. This is damn near useless for any location based app, so they ask the Google Maps process to return a city, state, zip code, street address, ect... instead of your Average app maker programming an entire system for this, and getting map data from somewhere else on its own (that will most likely be not as efficent), google made a wonderful maps program and let everyone use it for its location data! Hows that for open source?
As for app killers, they are useless, 100% useless and i think that they are the only thing that should be banned from the google market. they ONLY hurt and NEVER HELP!!! the only thing that is useful is CM7/CM9's 'hold back button to kill app' this can be used to kill that annoying rogue app that has an awful programmer. but even then about 75% of the time the programmer will make it just start back up anyway, so the only solution is to UNINSTALL it.
korny647 said:
IV seen a couple forum's we're people go back and forth about task killers, ( manly about whether or not you need them)
It seems like the argument against it is that the android system already kills apps. And most of the programs and apps constantly try to restart (draining you're battery)
But the argument for it. Is that the android O/S lets way to many apps run. And keeps them in memory, before it actually starts killing them.
But from what I can tell it doesn't look like any of the arguments were 'rom' or even 'phone' specific.
What do you Guy's think?
Are you for, or against auto killers?
And why?
Do you think they make a difference?
Do they drain your battery?
If you do use them. "Which ones do you use"? And y?
(Let the arguments begin) I'm interested to know what you guys think?
Sent from my G2X.
Rocking stock CM 7.2.0-RC1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Honestly I can care less about a task killer. My phone runs perfectly without any task killer.
Sent from my LG-P999 using xda premium
Klathmon said:
ok, ill try to explain this
one last thing, the reason google maps runs in the background is because something on the phone wants location data. (could be the fact that you checked 'share anonymous data about my location with google' or the fact that you want your weather service to update based on your location, or any other 100's of things) While any program can access GPS data, the numbers you get back are latitude and longitude. This is damn near useless for any location based app, so they ask the Google Maps process to return a city, state, zip code, street address, ect... instead of your Average app maker programming an entire system for this, and getting map data from somewhere else on its own (that will most likely be not as efficent), google made a wonderful maps program and let everyone use it for its location data! Hows that for open source?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you! That makes a lot of sense. My phone still seems to slow down when I do a lot of web surfing. When my available memory drops below 100mb the Internet slows to a crawl. Any tips? I have been using a task killer to manually close out runing apps to free up space.
jcbofkc said:
Thank you! That makes a lot of sense. My phone still seems to slow down when I do a lot of web surfing. When my available memory drops below 100mb the Internet slows to a crawl. Any tips? I have been using a task killer to manually close out runing apps to free up space.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if your using the stock browser, press the tab button at the top right...
close the probally 20 or so tabs that are still open that you dont use anymore
the more memory the active app takes up the more android has to kill, after it kills all empty processes, it starts killing services, and active services, then notifications, ect...
the further up the list you go the more cpu power it takes to free up the resources.
Many tabs take up alot of ram
Klathmon said:
ok, ill try to explain this
Android and windows operating systems are very different in the way they handle memory useage.
In windows, when you open a program the program allocates a chunk of memory that it can use, it then tells the system to give it more if it needs it, and it gives it back when it dosent. Once the program is closed all of this memory is 'forgotten' instantly and cannot be recovered, so when you restart the program you are starting it over like new. (one exception being programs that stay running in the background after you close the window)
In android, this is all handled much MUCH MUCH more efficiently.
Android apps are made up of processes and services. A process is a foreground window that you interact with. Unless you hit the back key to exit out of the program, it is simply paused. Once paused a process can use NO CPU!! none at all! ZERO! It is still kept in memory so that if you want to go back to the app, or you restart it later, and its still in memory, the phone will spend less time, CPU power, and battery power relaunching it from the start. if the phone begins to run low on memory it starts closing these programs. id say 90% of the time closing a paused process is so fast, and takes so little resources that you cant tell when its happening, even if you watch really closely for it.
The problem with apps using battery in the background is android Services.
Services are different from processes. services have no UI, the user cannot interact with them directly at all, and they should only contain code that is needed to run in the background. When you exit an app through its own menu, it shuts down its own services, unless it believes that they are needed still. These processes can run in the background for as long as they want... to a point. if android needs the memory for something else, and its already killed every process that's not running, it will start killing unused services.
Services are the main thing that separate android from the IOS. Android can multi-task, and services are the way that it does it. The reason that these can suck the battery dry is because of bad programming by the app creator. If your facebook app wants to sync your pictures, it will keep a service running to do that, perhaps using GPS, Network, and SD card data the whole time. Its the app's fault, not android's.
For example:
If your playing music, and you want to go to another playlist, a service is the part of the program reading the song off the SD card, downloading album art, and playing it over the headset. while the process is showing you all this and letting you pick another playlist. if you press your home key in the middle of a song, the process is paused, so the UI can no longer use CPU power, however the service is still running, still playing music. when you stop the music and then close the app, a WELL PROGRAMMED music app will stop its service, then pause its UI. 10 minutes later you want to play music again, so you reopen the app only to find that it is exactly the way you left it! all ready and waiting for you to hit play. this is because while it was paused, it was not using battery or cpu power, but was still stored in the RAM. when you reopened it, the OS just reads all this ram and 'un-pauses' the program for you.
Finally just because an app has a process, does not mean that it is drinking your battery power by the megawatt! Some services are just there, waiting for something, using little to NO cpu power. For example your SWYPE and Android Keyboard services are running constantly. however they are not using much battery power at all. the services are only there listening for android to shout that it needs a keyboard, at which point the service runs the paused process.
one last thing, the reason google maps runs in the background is because something on the phone wants location data. (could be the fact that you checked 'share anonymous data about my location with google' or the fact that you want your weather service to update based on your location, or any other 100's of things) While any program can access GPS data, the numbers you get back are latitude and longitude. This is damn near useless for any location based app, so they ask the Google Maps process to return a city, state, zip code, street address, ect... instead of your Average app maker programming an entire system for this, and getting map data from somewhere else on its own (that will most likely be not as efficent), google made a wonderful maps program and let everyone use it for its location data! Hows that for open source?
As for app killers, they are useless, 100% useless and i think that they are the only thing that should be banned from the google market. they ONLY hurt and NEVER HELP!!! the only thing that is useful is CM7/CM9's 'hold back button to kill app' this can be used to kill that annoying rogue app that has an awful programmer. but even then about 75% of the time the programmer will make it just start back up anyway, so the only solution is to UNINSTALL it.
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Click to collapse
Well said, makes it alot more clear to me.
But that being said is there anyone that still has an argument for auto killers?
Or is it pretty much a no across the bored. Here at xda.
If that's the case why are their so many task killers that have a huge amounts of downloads,?
Just a bunch of noobs falling for snake oil?
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA
korny647 said:
Well said, makes it alot more clear to me.
But that being said is there anyone that still has an argument for auto killers?
Or is it pretty much a no across the bored. Here at xda.
If that's the case why are their so many task killers that have a huge amounts of downloads,?
Just a bunch of noobs falling for snake oil?
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA
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Click to collapse
yes and no.
most people only have experience with windows, and when something is running in windows it is actually running. most people think a computer is a computer (roughly) so they think that running in android means the same. not really falling for something, just a misunderstanding.
also if i made one of these apps (regardless if i knew how it worked at the time or not) im not gonna stop the money coming in because i might be wrong
Klathmon said:
yes and no.
most people only have experience with windows, and when something is running in windows it is actually running. most people think a computer is a computer (roughly) so they think that running in android means the same. not really falling for something, just a misunderstanding.
also if i made one of these apps (regardless if i knew how it worked at the time or not) im not gonna stop the money coming in because i might be wrong
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Click to collapse
True, so true.
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA
Read here also.
http://geekfor.me/faq/you-shouldnt-be-using-a-task-killer-with-android/
Good stuff, Klathmon. Couldn't have explained it better myself.
If you want a "task killer" don't use a task killer use a memory optimizer... such as the v6 supercharger or autokiller from the market. These aren't task killers but they basically just make your phone a ram nazi.
Pin it to Win it.
Allow me to jump on the bandwagon. Don't use them. Allow the operating system to work as it was intended for better or worse.
Thanks everyone for this very interesting thread.
Recently my SGS2 LTE becomes sluggish if I don't turn it off for a week or two. I also notice that my RAM normally sits at about 500+/785MB. I know that clearing my memory lowers it quite a bit, but then I don't get certain notifications because it clears certain apps from the Running Services and Cached Processes. So my question is A) how can I keep my RAM lower without clering the memory? and B) how can I keep my phone from being so sluggish? Is this just normal and turning it off and on every week or two is normal protocol for keeping a smooth phone? Keep in mind that my phone is totally stock as well. Any help is much appreciated. Thanks.
How many apps do you have on your phone?
Any task killers or task managers?
What apps do you have that are updating or syncing?
When you say sluggish, is it just the launcher or is it everything?
Are you getting any force closed error messages?
Uncle Irish said:
How many apps do you have on your phone?
Any task killers or task managers?
What apps do you have that are updating or syncing?
When you say sluggish, is it just the launcher or is it everything?
Are you getting any force closed error messages?
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Click to collapse
Not including the stock apps, I have roughly 45 installed.
Other then my Gmail, Email, WhatsApp, and 2 games, I don't think any others are actively syncing.
When I say sluggish I mean everything.
And yes at the really bad times, I'll get the Force Close message.
did u flash the note uclc5 radio?
icenight89 said:
did u flash the note uclc5 radio?
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Click to collapse
No I did not.
45 apps and you are wondering why it is sluggish.... Do you think your phone is a desktop?
Just caching all the **** will rape your phone. It's a good phone but remember the cache and ram are still weak.
Do yourself a favor and reduce to half th apps.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Tapatalk
Pay no mind to the post above mine. 45 apps is not the culprit. I have about 70.
You should try a factory reset to test things out. Make sure u back up everything u need and pull everything u want off the internal storage and save to PC. Start totally fresh and then start adding apps slowly to test. Could be a rogue app causing it but never know. Factory image "should" resolve.
<insert witty signature here>
@kr3w1337 yes Skyrocket is a desktop, or the closest thing to a desktop. If you think 45 apps are too much - last I checked I had 89, and then I installed a few more mapping apps
This is our future, the desktop capabilities are leaking into our wearable items. It's not perfect and this guy's skyrocket is slow ... let's find out why (I will have an app for that in the coming months)
@RoLo. let's use what others suggested and add a few more things:
Are you using apps that are on your SDcard or use data on your SDCard ? I'm sure they are loaded to memory but if they interact with the external SDCard and if you have a slow card this may be part of your problem
Also, do you have stock ROM ? if you do I suggest learning how to install one of the rooted trimmed ROMs that take away some of the apps known to hog your phone resources
Another thing - is your data connection turned on all the time ? I found out that our phone is looking for the best network (4G) and then if that is not there it "downgrades" the search. All of that consumes time especially if you are on the move. Your apps freeze as a result and wait for the phone to establish connection all the time. To resolve this in some scenarios - go to your wireless settings and limit your phone so it only looks for connection up to 3G
Another thing as people already mentioned is the apps you have running. I'll ask this: do you have multiple apps that keep updating and getting new information ? the network handshakes between apps and data-network is slowing the rest of your apps down. If you are on WiFi it's a lot better
I hope this gives you a few more ideas to chase. It's a great phone and a huge step in the right direction where one day (soon) our phones will be part of our computing, information and services tools. It will do many things and serve as a phone as well
JD
kr3w1337 said:
45 apps and you are wondering why it is sluggish.... Do you think your phone is a desktop?
Just caching all the **** will rape your phone. It's a good phone but remember the cache and ram are still weak.
Do yourself a favor and reduce to half th apps.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
No way dude, I have exactly 182 apps, never had under 120 on my old Atrix, had no problem even on GB!
Sent from my HTC Vivid via Tapatalk
Nice post dorj1234
Happy to give you your first thanks
kr3w1337 said:
45 apps and you are wondering why it is sluggish.... Do you think your phone is a desktop?
Just caching all the **** will rape your phone. It's a good phone but remember the cache and ram are still weak.
Do yourself a favor and reduce to half th apps.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I727 using Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
Are you crazy i have 100 apps and my phone runs like a breeze