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[Q] Nexus S suddenly very slow - error message

I love my nexus s, but suddenly the OS became very slow and I need help on where to start the trouble shooting.
It is the entire operating system -- even the touch screen.
I will pull down the notifications window and it will get stuck,
The browser select screen will pop up when I click on the "world" icon to open up the internet and after I select browser, there is a long pause before the background color appears (recognizing that I selected which browser) and then there is another long pause after recognizing that I selected it.
I have installed apps from other sources besides the android market.
At first I started thinking that I had too many apps running, so I started using the apps manager to force close the apps, but that did not help.
I tried restarting the phone multiple times with mixed results. Sometimes it would help a little, other times not at all.
I looked at how much room I had left on the internal drive and started moving more to the USB drive -- that didn't help.
I started wondering if I installed too many apps.
Then suddenly, when barely chugging alone to try to update a few apps (literally the install part was lagging -- not the download) I got an error message:
Error: Activity Android System(in process system) is not responding
It's funny -- when I want to replicate the error (as in right before writing this post - I cannot).
Thanks for your help on this matter.
Please instruct me on where to start trouble shooting.

med007 said:
I love my nexus s, but suddenly the OS became very slow and I need help on where to start the trouble shooting.
It is the entire operating system -- even the touch screen.
I will pull down the notifications window and it will get stuck,
The browser select screen will pop up when I click on the "world" icon to open up the internet and after I select browser, there is a long pause before the background color appears (recognizing that I selected which browser) and then there is another long pause after recognizing that I selected it.
I have installed apps from other sources besides the android market.
At first I started thinking that I had too many apps running, so I started using the apps manager to force close the apps, but that did not help.
I tried restarting the phone multiple times with mixed results. Sometimes it would help a little, other times not at all.
I looked at how much room I had left on the internal drive and started moving more to the USB drive -- that didn't help.
I started wondering if I installed too many apps.
Then suddenly, when barely chugging alone to try to update a few apps (literally the install part was lagging -- not the download) I got an error message:
Error: Activity Android System(in process system) is not responding
It's funny -- when I want to replicate the error (as in right before writing this post - I cannot).
Thanks for your help on this matter.
Please instruct me on where to start trouble shooting.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
root or no root?

no root. Thanks for fast reply.
my hunch is that an app was screwing something up.
There were a few that I wasn't updating because I didn't like how they started changing permissions. But maybe I should go through and update every app that I can... thoughts?

med007 said:
no root. Thanks for fast reply.
my hunch is that an app was screwing something up.
There were a few that I wasn't updating because I didn't like how they started changing permissions. But maybe I should go through and update every app that I can... thoughts?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
anything that you could have installed recently that works in the background? what launcher do you use?
---------- Post added at 10:57 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:56 PM ----------
med007 said:
no root. Thanks for fast reply.
my hunch is that an app was screwing something up.
There were a few that I wasn't updating because I didn't like how they started changing permissions. But maybe I should go through and update every app that I can... thoughts?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
update is good. there could be an app freaking out holding up the system.

And at the worst case scenario you can do a factory reset (menu, settings, privacy) and see if that fixes it... of course you'll need to re-install your apps afterwards

simms22 said:
anything that you could have installed recently that works in the background? what launcher do you use?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know how to check what launcher I use...
I don't even know what that is

med007 said:
I don't know how to check what launcher I use...
I don't even know what that is
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
try updating your apps. a factory reset will help, but that should be your last option. launcher apps replace the stock launcher, the thing you press to open the app drawer and that holds the phone app and such.

My phone was acting all sorts of crazy lately (couldn't connect to the internet amongst other random performance issues) and it turned out to be an app causing the problems. It was actually one of two apps. It was either Tetris or memory trainer. I deleted them right after one another so I'm not sure exactly... Just a heads up to be cautious if you're using these. For the record these apps were from the official Android market.

Testing Nexus 5 memory?

Is there a tool or way to test the Nexus 5 sdcard memory?
For the last six months I've had problems with my rooted Nexus 5 (stock kitkat) suddenly running very slow. After a lot of time trying to figure out why, I determined the following.
1. Slowdown happens when an app is writing something to the sdcard.
2. Is not a particular app. Can be any app.
3. When it happens all 4 CPU cores are running close to full blast.
4. Battery usage shows "android os" is 50% of the usage.
5. Task killers do not solve the problem.
6. Reboot restores things to normal for a while.
So I now wonder if there's something wrong with the built in memory but don't know how to test it.
Is there a way to test the Nexus 5 message? It is very frustrating to talk 2-3 pictures and then have the 4th one make everything grind to a stop. Right now, typing this is a pain because every letter takes its time to appear. I know rebooting will solve it but I should not have to.

sounds like you get a process(es) that get "stuck". also, when this happens, have you ever checked if your google stuff is syncing or " stuck"? sometimes badly written apps can cause this to happen as well.

simms22 said:
sounds like you get a process(es) that get "stuck". also, when this happens, have you ever checked if your google stuff is syncing or " stuck"? sometimes badly written apps can cause this to happen as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you are right but I don't know how to find the faulty process. I "think" I first noticed it after the google camera update, but I used settings /apps/ to uninstall the camera update without improvement. I think camera showed the problem because it has to save the image to memory sdcard.
I don't sync and have sync turned off everywhere and on all apps. Sometimes Google play shows up as the prominent battery user even though I don't have it update apps automatically. But it is primarily android os that is the bad guy.

One of the things I had tried when the problem first started was to restore an earlier nandroid backup, but the problem continued, so I restored the most recent nandroid I had done before the earlier restore.

Recent screenshot.
I was on the browser and Tapatalk for a while. But not on play store.
Not frozen now when taking this screenshot.

You need to get gsam, or BBS or wakelock detector and see what one of those says. The stock battery screen is pretty much useless to find a battery problem.
But I'm guessing all your issues are tired to one bad app as said above.
Get a battery app I suggested, run a full charge down with it running.... And comb thru all of it and see if anything pops out.

kj2112 said:
You need to get gsam, or BBS or wakelock detector and see what one of those says. The stock battery screen is pretty much useless to find a battery problem.
But I'm guessing all your issues are tired to one bad app as said above.
Get a battery app I suggested, run a full charge down with it running.... And comb thru all of it and see if anything pops out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I already did that. I have gsam and wakelock detector installed but my knowledge of Android is very limited and they have not helped me so far except to confirm I have a problem. I wonder if there is a way to see the dates I installed various apps. That way I could uninstall in the order they were installed.

Here are various screenshots. The list of active processes goes down several pages.

My guess... It's an app that hadn't been updated since kit kat has been out, and it's spamming location services.
Just a guess.
Check in gsam for times waking device, held awake time and kernel wakelock. (You need gsam root companion from play store installed as well.). These are all found in gsam app screen by clicking the drop down at the top. See if anything looks bad on any of those.
---------- Post added at 05:18 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:17 PM ----------
Oh, and obviously, whatever tick tick is, is killing your battery. If it accesses location.... that's my bet for the culprit.

Thank you all for the advice. Obviously I've tried various things. TickTick is a todo list app. Quite nice actually. Anyway I had suspected it might be a problem and have uninstalled it (several times) with no improvement.
Finally, I seem to be making some headway. Don't know which of these two did it (if the improvement lasts.....).
1. There were 3-4 apps I had avoided updating because I didn't like the updated versions (maps, Hangouts which I don't use, Firefox, etc). So I now gave up and clicked on "update all".
2. I disabled the module gravitybox and rebooted.
So far things have returned to normal. My CPU cores are back to low levels.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed. If things continue well after a while I will reactivate gravitybox. I'm holding my breath!

After a full 15 minutes of normal behavior (unbelievable!), I took my courage in hand, reactivated gravitybox. Used my usual apps without the previous freezing recurring (so far). If this continues - and it seems to - it might suggest you don't update GAPPS (I think it was Hangouts) only at your peril.
Such a difference having an uncrippled phone!

After a while the slowdowns returned. Any suggestions?

Marshmallow problems with spontaneous launching of Google Now, taking over device.

My phone has been misbehaving since it upgraded the OS to Marshmallow. It was primarily occurring with the Google Now app and it would take over the phone and flash up and off the screen and whilst this was going on, the phone is busy vibrating, the screen became unresponsive and generally I couldn't do anything with it during these episodes. I stopped it sending to the screen and then it was the Google app that kept flashing up, starting with a round circle coming from the app drawer icon. It has got worse over the last few days to the point that it might take me ten minutes before I could get access to the caller to make a call and even trying to shut down the device was near impossible because the confirmation box never stayed on the screen long enough to answer the question and then it didn't come back. Yesterday, after many tries to restart, it finally restarted in safe mode. If it was related to an app that I downloaded, it should have stopped then but it didn't. When I was able to get into settings, I then went to apps and then disabled google app as this was the one starting up and flashing the screen non stop. I was then asked if I wanted to replace it with a factory version which I did but I also left it disabled. The problem has continued but not as ferociously with the screen becoming unresponsive at times while the buzzing from the vibrate still occurring. I have looked up various forums but haven't found any that have similar problems described. I checked the screen overlay settings and they are enabled and that seems to be the main problem with marshmallow. I'm looking for some advice but realise that this might be too basic for this forum? Vodafone Smart ultra 6, Android version 6.0.1 Kernel version 3.10.49

Stoksie said:
My phone has been misbehaving since it upgraded the OS to Marshmallow. It was primarily occurring with the Google Now app and it would take over the phone and flash up and off the screen and whilst this was going on, the phone is busy vibrating, the screen became unresponsive and generally I couldn't do anything with it during these episodes. I stopped it sending to the screen and then it was the Google app that kept flashing up, starting with a round circle coming from the app drawer icon. It has got worse over the last few days to the point that it might take me ten minutes before I could get access to the caller to make a call and even trying to shut down the device was near impossible because the confirmation box never stayed on the screen long enough to answer the question and then it didn't come back. Yesterday, after many tries to restart, it finally restarted in safe mode. If it was related to an app that I downloaded, it should have stopped then but it didn't. When I was able to get into settings, I then went to apps and then disabled google app as this was the one starting up and flashing the screen non stop. I was then asked if I wanted to replace it with a factory version which I did but I also left it disabled. The problem has continued but not as ferociously with the screen becoming unresponsive at times while the buzzing from the vibrate still occurring. I have looked up various forums but haven't found any that have similar problems described. I checked the screen overlay settings and they are enabled and that seems to be the main problem with marshmallow. I'm looking for some advice but realise that this might be to basic for this forum? Vodafone Smart ultra 6, Android version 6.0.1 Kernel version 3.10.49
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you updated to Nougat, what method did you use to update? Did you update via OTA? We're you rooted when you did it?
Have you tried booting to recovery and factory resetting and wiping cache then rebooting?
Sent from my SM-S903VL using Tapatalk

Droidriven said:
When you updated to Nougat, what method did you use to update? Did you update via OTA? We're you rooted when you did it?
Have you tried booting to recovery and factory resetting and wiping cache then rebooting?
Sent from my SM-S903VL using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It was an update that appeared on my notifications and I thought it was a small bug fix update and didn't realize that it would replace the entire OS. I just allowed the update and then realized what had happened. I think it is Marshmallow that it updated to but originally the app drawer was paginated and accessed by side swipes whereas the system now is a long page of apps moved up and down. I don't know if it was rooted and I assume that that means it wasn't.
I was trying to avoid a factory reset but I did wipe the cache and rebooting. When google apps is disabled, the interruptions are less often and not for as long but it still went into a complete meltdown of a screen appearing and disappearing at such a rate that nothing can be done with it. It won't show a video because of the interruptions.

Stoksie said:
It was an update that appeared on my notifications and I thought it was a small bug fix update and didn't realize that it would replace the entire OS. I just allowed the update and then realized what had happened. I think it is Marshmallow that it updated to but originally the app drawer was paginated and accessed by side swipes whereas the system now is a long page of apps moved up and down. I don't know if it was rooted and I assume that that means it wasn't.
I was trying to avoid a factory reset but I did wipe the cache and rebooting. When google apps is disabled, the interruptions are less often and not for as long but it still went into a complete meltdown of a screen appearing and disappearing at such a rate that nothing can be done with it. It won't show a video because of the interruptions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately, I think you're gonna have to factory reset in stock recovery because there's obviously a conflict with something you already had on the device and it isn't playing nice with something that was in the update.
Sent from my SM-S903VL using Tapatalk

Droidriven said:
Unfortunately, I think you're gonna have to factory reset in stock recovery because there's obviously a conflict with something you already had on the device and it isn't playing nice with something that was in the update.
Sent from my SM-S903VL using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for taking the time to respond. I have resigned myself to that although it does not seem to be anything that I downloaded to the phone as it occurred in safe mode too. I was just hoping that there was a fix out there but obviously it is not a widespread occurrence.

Stoksie said:
Thanks for taking the time to respond. I have resigned myself to that although it does not seem to be anything that I downloaded to the phone as it occurred in safe mode too. I was just hoping that there was a fix out there but obviously it is not a widespread occurrence.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It could have been something in system that got changed during the update but the data from before the change is still there and conflicting with whatever changes were made. Some kind of saved system data that can only be wiped by factory reset or reflashing.
Sent from my SM-S903VL using Tapatalk

I did a factory reset, lost a lot of photos that had started being saved on the phone and not the sdcard after the upgrade to Marshmallow. Have had to accept that but unfortunately the bizarre behavior did not stop and it continues on and off, sometimes so bad that I cannot dial a number on it and other times it happens but I can get in between the action and dial or send a text etc. I have gradually been stopping things like notifications from google apps and traffic reports from google maps (this may have had a good effect) and anything that might be doing constant checks. It seems to have quietened down over the last day or so and I even got to play a game on it but the next option is to send it away to an engineer. I just thought that I would let you know the outcome of the factory reset.

OnePlus 7 Pro Slowdown

It seems after about 48 hours of up time. The phone begins to lag extremely bad. Mostly when I first start typing it'll take 3 seconds or so for it to finally catch up to my typing. This happens Everytime I use the keyboard after those 48 hours or so. Apps seem to open very slowly as well after this time. A reboot seems to fix it and it runs fine after that until then. I've tried about 3 different kernels and face the problems with everyone. Not seeing any odd battery drain either. Just curious as to what would be causing this. Only module I have installed is google framework (for the dialer)

Doze.
This application who is show go in apk info and click dont optimize
Sent from my GM1910 using Tapatalk

Geto-Fraer said:
Doze.
This application who is show go in apk info and click dont optimize
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm really. I'll have to give that a shot ?
EDIT
I don't see Gboard even under the battery optimization. Doesn't give me an option to remove it from optimization. Pretty much all apps run slower around the 48 hour mark it's not just Gboard. But that's weird it's most annoying.

cgibbons51 said:
Hmm really. I'll have to give that a shot ?
EDIT
I don't see Gboard even under the battery optimization. Doesn't give me an option to remove it from optimization. Pretty much all apps run slower around the 48 hour mark it's not just Gboard. But that's weird it's most annoying.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could be an app leaking memory (not properly returning it when it's no longer needed). Have you added any new apps recently? Try freezing them.
Or perhaps a bad app update?

davidk21770 said:
Could be an app leaking memory (not properly returning it when it's no longer needed). Have you added any new apps recently? Try freezing them.
Or perhaps a bad app update?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll have to check apps here and there cause I have a pretty long app list but nothing that would run in the background much. But nothing new that I'm aware of. Not seeing my memory usage maxed out or anything. I'll have to take another look after my phone's been on for 48 hours.

cgibbons51 said:
Hmm really. I'll have to give that a shot ?
EDIT
I don't see Gboard even under the battery optimization. Doesn't give me an option to remove it from optimization. Pretty much all apps run slower around the 48 hour mark it's not just Gboard. But that's weird it's most annoying.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Show system apps from menu
Also if you have Alot of apps installed you can try to turn off sync
This should take Alot of strain away from apps trying to update/check for updates
Stuff like snapchat, Facebook, and other apps with frequent updates.
If you have magisk/EdXposed installed it could be these as well since they are trying to force the system to change code.
It kinda depends on what you have done to your device, if it's stock then sync or doze could be the problem

ivoe said:
Show system apps from menu
Also if you have Alot of apps installed you can try to turn off sync
This should take Alot of strain away from apps trying to update/check for updates
Stuff like snapchat, Facebook, and other apps with frequent updates.
If you have magisk/EdXposed installed it could be these as well since they are trying to force the system to change code.
It kinda depends on what you have done to your device, if it's stock then sync or doze could be the problem
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sync isn't on for most apps I have. Everything is stock other than having magisk installed. Like I said oddly battery life and phone speed are great until 48h mark or so. I'll just have to work on narrowing it down from apps and stuff. Gboard isn't under any optimization settings. I can't remove it even with system apps enabled. Because if it's just cause the app is being dozed I would like to remove it.

cgibbons51 said:
Sync isn't on for most apps I have. Everything is stock other than having magisk installed. Like I said oddly battery life and phone speed are great until 48h mark or so. I'll just have to work on narrowing it down from apps and stuff. Gboard isn't under any optimization settings. I can't remove it even with system apps enabled. Because if it's just cause the app is being dozed I would like to remove it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sync is either on or off. I don't believe you can select certain apps, atleast I'm not aware of this as I just turn it off unless I need updates
Is the battery dead or is it being charged over the 48h.
If the apps being forced to sleep it has the tendency to lag and be unstable (stuff I noticed with my s5 before this phone)
Have you tried another keyboard? (I use SwiftKey and have had no lagging issues unless I messed with stand by apps via developer options)

ivoe said:
Sync is either on or off. I don't believe you can select certain apps, atleast I'm not aware of this as I just turn it off unless I need updates
Is the battery dead or is it being charged over the 48h.
If the apps being forced to sleep it has the tendency to lag and be unstable (stuff I noticed with my s5 before this phone)
Have you tried another keyboard? (I use SwiftKey and have had no lagging issues unless I messed with stand by apps via developer options)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haven't tried another keyboard like I said it's not just the keyboard the apps also seem slow but the keyboard is also slow. The battery is fully charged at the time of the slowness. Sync I see for multiple apps overall.

davidk21770 said:
Could be an app leaking memory (not properly returning it when it's no longer needed). Have you added any new apps recently? Try freezing them.
Or perhaps a bad app update?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is what I guess.
Some rouge app.
I'm running 10.3.0 and my phone is stable. No slowdowns and no reboots.
It will stay up for weeks if I let it.
Normally I reboot after a few days, just because.

tech_head said:
This is what I guess.
Some rouge app.
I'm running 10.3.0 and my phone is stable. No slowdowns and no reboots.
It will stay up for weeks if I let it.
Normally I reboot after a few days, just because.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well that's good news we are on the same update. Do you have magisk? Or anything

tech_head said:
This is what I guess.
Some rouge app.
I'm running 10.3.0 and my phone is stable. No slowdowns and no reboots.
It will stay up for weeks if I let it.
Normally I reboot after a few days, just because.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does clash of clans, cod mobile, or old school runescape run on your device? Or do you get blackscreen?
Seems it only happened on the new 10.3.0 / 10.0.3
It use to run fine on older 10.0.0
I think it could be the "backup" since it broke these apks into parts.
Its kinda annoying because I haven't been able to use these in over a month.
And OnePlus is in hiding due to the cornavirus.

It is the gboard sometimes and it usually starts to happen wit whatsapp and Instagram
It's the gboard it's hide arrow is sometimes visible even if you're not using now I don't know if this happens on your phone but using whatsapp or Instagram(nightly) whenever you go to Home screen from typing a message there's a small arrow that will appear at left bottom that collapses the keyboard. also there's a delay in status bar pull down sometimes whenever the problem latter mentioned starts to occur.

cgibbons51 said:
It seems after about 48 hours of up time. The phone begins to lag extremely bad. Mostly when I first start typing it'll take 3 seconds or so for it to finally catch up to my typing. This happens Everytime I use the keyboard after those 48 hours or so. Apps seem to open very slowly as well after this time. A reboot seems to fix it and it runs fine after that until then. I've tried about 3 different kernels and face the problems with everyone. Not seeing any odd battery drain either. Just curious as to what would be causing this. Only module I have installed is google framework (for the dialer)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This same issue happens with me after every 48 hours of up time ussualy my spotify lags and i have some.seconds of delay in unlocking my phone

cgibbons51 said:
It seems after about 48 hours of up time. The phone begins to lag extremely bad. Mostly when I first start typing it'll take 3 seconds or so for it to finally catch up to my typing. This happens Everytime I use the keyboard after those 48 hours or so. Apps seem to open very slowly as well after this time. A reboot seems to fix it and it runs fine after that until then. I've tried about 3 different kernels and face the problems with everyone. Not seeing any odd battery drain either. Just curious as to what would be causing this. Only module I have installed is google framework (for the dialer)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just Remove that magisk module and tell the result ..

Question App settings not being saved (Solved)

Just like it says. I am having a issues with some apps not saving after I set them. It happens when I shut the app down or reboot and I find that the phone is not doing what I set for the app. I open the app to check the settings and it has all been erased like new. If I keep the app open it runs all the settings correctly and saves them but as soon as I close the app or reboot it some of those apps default like it is a brand new app. Any thoughts?
Thanks

bump...

stalls said:
Just like it says. I am having a issues with some apps not saving after I set them. It happens when I shut the app down or reboot and I find that the phone is not doing what I set for the app. I open the app to check the settings and it has all been erased like new. If I keep the app open it runs all the settings correctly and saves them but as soon as I close the app or reboot it some of those apps default like it is a brand new app. Any thoughts?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats been happening with me. SEVERAL apps, system apps included, that I know I've setup/logged into suddenly will ask for setup when I launch them

K1nsey6 said:
Thats been happening with me. SEVERAL apps, system apps included, that I know I've setup/logged into suddenly will ask for setup when I launch them
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Man I hope someone can help us out with a lil insight. Thanks for the reply. I thought I might have screwed up a few things while setting up this new phone. I am on the latest build stable.

is it the permissions being cleared because its being "Paused". under the app's app info page there is a toggle Unused app settings--> Pause app activity if unused. make sure this is off.

zero_ap said:
is it the permissions being cleared because its being "Paused". under the app's app info page there is a toggle Unused app settings--> Pause app activity if unused. make sure this is off.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No that doesn't appear to be that either. I checked all the apps that seem to be having this problem. Unfortunately that isn't it either. Thank you for the suggestion! IDK if a reflash without wiping would help?

I have never seen this or experienced it. Have you done "something" different? Tried to root, or install a ROM, or...???? If it keeps happening EVEN to native/default/system apps then I would recommend a factory reset with a low level cache wipe...if it can be done on this phone.

stalls said:
No that doesn't appear to be that either. I checked all the apps that seem to be having this problem. Unfortunately that isn't it either. Thank you for the suggestion! IDK if a reflash without wiping would help?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would go for the reflash, and in the end, go for a clean flash.
I didn't experience this problem, but I did have an issue where every time I set a conversation as a priority, the second I left that screen, it reset back to default. I don't have the issue now, but I've also reflashed since then.

I have fixed it by wiping the affected apps data and then uninstalling them and readding the settings. Thanks guys!