Related
I guess this is my honeycomb ignorance (still getting used to the features) but when pulling up recent apps with the softkey I really only want apps that are currently running.
Are some of these apps are already "closed" and by choosing a thumbnail from the list I'm re-opening these?
Is there a setting anywhere to "limit" the history I see? Like <5 apps or something?
I have Task Killer pro intalled now to manage the real running apps but the Softkey is handier, if I can just be sure of what its supposed to indicate.
Thanks
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using XDA Premium App
I was wondering this as well. I haven't found any way to do it yet.
I don't know of any way except to manage apps in the settings and then kill "running" apps....but remember; these are apps "in memory" like you'd think in Windows.....they are not sucking resources...
I think that there is an article here somewhere about this list and why you shouldn't use an app killer in Honeycomb....
I'm more interested in changing it to a grid layout, like a speed dial.
yeah I know theyre not in memory but they are wasting screen space. I finished playing chess yesterday, I dont think the game should stay in the recent apps list. Froyo & Gingerbread are much better at managing this.
moo99 said:
yeah I know theyre not in memory but they are wasting screen space. I finished playing chess yesterday, I dont think the game should stay in the recent apps list. Froyo & Gingerbread are much better at managing this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree. I just want a cleaner recent apps list. Sometimes it's hard to find what you're looking for.
I guess a workaround would be to longpress the home screen, put a widget there that is linked directly to "manage applications" and then it would only be one press and then zap the offending apps.
You do realize the Recent Apps button on the homescreen is just that, a Recent Apps button. It's not exactly a "running in the background" button.
"I finished playing chess yesterday, I dont think the game should stay in the recent apps list."
Why not? It is a recently played app isn't it? LOL.
And yeah, agree with the other reply, if you want a list of running apps.... don't touch the Recent Apps list button lol.
Stop worrying about what's running in the background. Just enjoy the damn Android.
Im not near my TF now but I use Multitasking Pro on my Galaxy S for that. you can choose to open it by double clicking the home button and see only running apps or recent apps - its configurable in the application settings. i does cost about 2$ i think but it was the best 2$ I've spent
this is called a 'Recent apps' list for a reason...it's 'Recent'..not current running...
Well you could always downgrade to 3.0 if it really bothers you. That only showed 5 apps!
LOL. Its a nuisance, not so much a grievance; but I'm glad I'm not the only one annoyed, perhaps this will get looked at ;-)
Possibly once Honeycomb is more prevalent there will come market apps or enough reportage to have an updte with a setting for it, or a utility that tweaks it. Regardless, I appreciate the feedback. At least now I know its sort of "normal".
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using XDA Premium App
My number one wish is for Google to improve multitasking (and give back control to the user as to which programs are running).
As is, the implementation just isn't very usable if you consider it to be a multitasking device -- it's really closer to single-tasking with a memory of what it did recently and the ability to reopen with a similar state to what it last had.
For example, I use my tab during F1 races for timing and scoring. I have F1.com's timing and scoring app, and I have access to a (non-public) website which provides further real-time info through Adobe Flash in a web browser.
If I switch from the web browser to F1.com's timing and scoring app for more than say 10-15 seconds, then back again, the flash app has to reconnect to the server because the web browser ceased running, even though the browser and the F1.com app were the only programs running and had ample memory / CPU power / a mains power supply connected, ie. no reason to halt the browser.
This isn't the only time I hit this issue, it's just one easy-to-explain example.
I'd much rather I had the ability to exit programs / apps myself when I'm done with them, and to keep programs / apps running in the background when I want them to. It'd make the whole experience much more coherent and logical.
The Flash plugin was designed to suspend when you switched apps. It's not an android issue.
Adding "close programs" to the current implementation would not make it more logical, it would make it more convoluted. It doesn't need it.
knoxploration said:
.I'd much rather I had the ability to exit programs / apps myself when I'm done with them, and to keep programs / apps running in the background when I want them to. It'd make the whole experience much more coherent and logical.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem is that the vast majority of users won't want to handle this themselves, and would expect the OS to do if for them.
Personally, I'm in favour of having some sort of mechanism whereby you can tell the OS not to kill specific tasks if you so choose, but otherwise task management performs as is.
With specific regard to your example, I think that the OS believes it is always OK to kill the browser, which is why it can be killed so quickly after switching away. For other apps, this doesn't seem to happen - for example, yesterday I was connected to a remote server using Wyse PocketCloud, and I frequently switched away to do something else for 30-60 minutes at a time, yet my remote desktop connection was never dropped or killed.
Regards,
Dave
Me personally don't need and don't like this "recent" app button. Or I need it to have an option either to clear it or not. You know we sometimes need privacy over such things
JCopernicus said:
The Flash plugin was designed to suspend when you switched apps. It's not an android issue.
Adding "close programs" to the current implementation would not make it more logical, it would make it more convoluted. It doesn't need it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed, if flash is left to run in the background it will drain the battery like hell..and other system resources as well.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using XDA Premium App
...and it should be *my* choice whether that happens. That is where this argument totaly falls on its face. *I* know whether it is vital to me that an app remain open, or can safely be closed. The tablet doesn't.
As long as it remains in the tablet's hands, it will continue to annoy me by leving open apps that I no longer need running, while closing apps that I strongly do need running.
magicpork said:
Agreed, if flash is left to run in the background it will drain the battery like hell..and other system resources as well.
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that's just it....it doesn't.
Revisiting Android Task Killers and Why You Still Don’t Need One
from another forum.
We almost hate to approach the topic of Task Killers on Android after all this time, but with so many new faces here at Droid Life and in Android in general, it’s something that needs to be done. In fact, after seeing the Amazon app of the day and reading through the Twitter conversations we just had with many of you, this thing needs to be posted immediately.
Let’s see if we can’t get you all some better battery life!
First off, please ignore the image up at the top of the post. If this was 2009 and we were all running something less than Android 2.2, that statement plastered on that red banner might be somewhat correct. But since it is 2011 and the majority of people on the planet are running Android 2.2, we need to get you away from the mindset that killing off tasks on your phone is a good thing.
So rather than me blabbering about the inner-workings of Android and how it manages RAM for the 10,000th time, I’m going to just pull from some posts that friends of ours have done that explain this in the plainest of ways.
First up is our boy @cvpcs who you may know from CM and his Sapphire ROM days. He knows Android inside-and-out, so when he goes into memory management which is done by the OS itself, you should listen up:
…What people don’t seem to realize is that android is designed to have a large number of tasks stored in memory at all times. Why? Well basically we are talking about a mobile device. On a mobile device things tend to be slower. The hardware isn’t as robust as say a desktop or a laptop, so in order to get that same “snappy” feeling, there have to be workarounds.
One of these is how android deals with memory. Android will load up your apps and then keep them running until they absolutely HAVE to kill them. This is because that way, if you want to re-open an app, the system already has it loaded and can then just resume it instead of reloading it. This provides a significant performance increase.
What a lot of people don’t realize as well is that android kernels have their own task manager. This means that:
it will be more efficient than any app-based task manager as it is run at the kernel level, and
it should be left up to that task killer to decide when to free up memory
There is only one case where having a task killer is a good idea, and that is when you want to kill ONE SPECIFIC APP. Killing all apps is never a good idea. You don’t know what operations they are performing or if they are necessary.
Whitson Gordon of Lifehacker suggests that you should be more worried about CPU usage than what’s going on with your RAM. We agree:
This set-up implies that the goal of killing these apps is to free up memory. Nowhere on the list does it mention the number of CPU cycles each app is consuming, only the memory you’ll free by killing it. As we’ve learned, full memory is not a bad thing—we want to watch out for the CPU, the resource that actually slows down your phone and drains your battery life.
Thus, killing all but the essential apps (or telling Android to kill apps more aggressively with the “autokill” feature) is generally unnecessary. Furthermore, it’s actually possible that this will worsen your phone’s performance and battery life. Whether you’re manually killing apps all the time or telling the task killer to aggressively remove apps from your memory, you’re actually using CPU cycles when you otherwise wouldn’t—killing apps that aren’t doing anything in the first place.
In fact, some of the processes related to those apps will actually start right back up, further draining your CPU. If they don’t, killing those processes can cause other sorts of problems—alarms don’t go off, you don’t receive text messages, or other related apps may force close without warning. All in all, you’re usually better off letting your phone work as intended—especially if you’re more of a casual user. In these instances, a task killer causes more problems than it solves.
More on how Android has a built-in memory-management system, but also on how killing all tasks is not a good thing (via: NextApp):
Android was designed from the ground up as an operating system (OS) for mobile devices. Its built-in application and memory-management systems were engineered with battery life as one of the most critical concerns.
The Android OS does not work like a desktop operating system. On a desktop OS, like Windows, Mac OS X, or Ubuntu Linux, the user is responsible for closing programs in order to keep a reasonable amount of memory available. On Android, this is not the case. The OS itself automatically removes programs from memory as memory is needed. The OS may also preload applications into memory which it thinks might soon be needed.
Having lots of available empty memory is not a good thing. It takes the same amount of power to hold “nothing” in memory as it does to hold actual data. So, like every other operating system in use today, Android does its best to keep as much important/likely-to-be-used information in memory as possible.
As such, using the task manager feature of SystemPanel to constantly clear memory by killing all apps is strongly NOT RECOMMENDED. This also applies to any other task killer / management program. Generally speaking, you should only “End” applications if you see one which is not working correctly. The “End All” feature can be used if your phone/device is performing poorly and you are uncertain of the cause.
And we could go on for hours with source after source on why task killers do nothing but work against Android, but you probably get the point now don’t you? Ready for a quick recap? OK.
Basically, Android keeps tasks handy because it thinks you’ll want to perform them again in a very short amount of time. If you don’t, it will clear them out for you. It also likes to keep as many things handy as possible so that the overall performance of your device is top notch. If Android were to completely kill off everything that your phone is doing, then it would require more resources to restart all of them and you would likely run into slowness and battery drains. By keeping certain things available to you, your phone is actually running better than it would without. So please, stop killing off tasks and let Android do the work for you.
Your goal for the week is wash your brain of the idea that having little RAM available is a bad thing. The more RAM available, the more Android will find ways to use it up which means your battery will be dead in hours. Instead, let it manage itself, so that you can spend more time playing Angry Birds or reading Droid Life.
All good now?
A simple reboot clears the list of recent apps. And as others have stated, it's not about running apps but something like the "recent documents" list in Windows 7
*Disclaimer* This is all from a personal experience and testing/research from a long time android user, what I have discovered over time and has helped me and some friends. This will work whether your rooted OR not. I kept it as basic as I can so everyone can benefit. If you dont like what you read and disagree, or want to add something PM me, Ill change/add and give credit to you. Hopefully, this can grow with the community.
*Rooted Section Will be Added*
*When I charge my battery I usually drain it all the way down or as much as i can (around 20% left) then charge plugged in till green, then power down and charge for another hour or so. Not sure if this matters or not but seems to help me out try it!*
This guide will help you if your rooted or non-rooted, all the apps I talk about I honestly have no ties to the devs. I don't use any SUPER AWESOME AMAZING BATTERY SAVER 5000 apps or anything like that. Those mostly just turn ur radios off and on and kill apps in the background. In my experience a lot of them cause syncing issues with my e-mail and other notifications. I like to receive my information instantly not have an app waiting for me to turn my screen on to check for updates.
About my personal setup: Basically, I want my phone to last me all day but still perform well with a heavy use, WITHOUT needing to constantly change settings to save battery. With what I have here Im able to keep my Sensation running for a full day of moderate-heavy use (7:30am to around 10pm) with its STOCK battery (Did damn well on my Evo 4G too). Days of very minor use Ive gone into the second day with 60% + battery. Yes, I use all my home screens and have a good amount of widgets, I love sense and its widgets. I play games, surf the web, do a lot of texting, listen to a lot of music, decent amount of fbing and email, usually take a few pictures a day. Half my day is wifi/other is mobile data.
Here goes the real basics, mostly common sense here not trying to insult anyone. Feel free to browse thru it quick (green text) if your not totally new to the android scene, whats after it will be a good read for noobs and vets.
*I use the power control widget, make getting to a lot of settings quicker. Why waste battery digging thru menus?*
Basics:
-Screen brightness: (duh ) these pretty screens eat battery brighter=quicker drain naturally and from my experience leaving it on Auto Brightness kills more battery too. Each time your phone pulls information from the sensor to decide on how bright it should adjust itself too.
-GPS: If GPS is on it should not effect battery unless an app is using it and you see the GPS icon on your notification bar. I noticed a very slight increase in mA discharge when i had it enabled, to be safe leave it off if you dont use it extremely frequently.
Location thru mobile networks: Not to hard on battery. I leave mine on it does add drain but it takes away from my weather widgets updating when Im traveling.
-Bluetooth: Moderate battery drain. I honestly don't use it at all myself but if you do try your best to keep it off when not in use.
-Wifi: Android has gotten a lot better at managing wifi over the past few years. It doesn't drain that bad on battery and it shuts off/on periodically on its own when screen is off depending on whats using it.
Google Back-Up: Takes a little juice here and there no biggie. I dont use it just because I like to fresh install my apps when I try a new rom, run into less problems that way.
2G/3G/4G: This varies phone to phone, the slower speed the better battery life. If you know your not going to be using 4G for a while turn it off. I leave mine on 4G or wifi all day with my sensation. When I had Sprint and my Evo I would leave it off most of the time. Depending on your carrier and how their data works this is a big one. T-Mobile seems to handle well, Sprint and Verizon's 4G Ive seen eat an insane amount of battery.
Sync/Background Data: I lumped them together because sync is pretty much reliant on background data. These kill a lot of your battery in general. It syncs your apps (email, facebook, google data, contacts, etc.), the periodic checks your apps do to check for and download new emails and notifications, using background data (data still transmits when screens off). I always leave these on and still manage great battery life, I like things instant if I wanted to wait Id just wait till i got in front of a PC. Sync and Background data are the settings most battery saving apps control because they really can help your battery if you turn it off. You can control what core apps sync in settings>accounts and sync. Or the power widget that 95% of android phones have has it on there. I recommend minimizing the amount of apps you allow background data with, example: WeatherBug first launch it asks if it can automatically update itself in the background for apps were thats not necessary hit no.
Radio/Airplane Mode: Pretty self explanatory, turns off your connection to your wireless provider. No point in ever turning it off in my eyes, your phones no longer a phone.
What has really helped me with my battery life (non-basics):
There is a lot to be said when it comes down to 2.2+ android phones and whether they need a task killer anymore or not. Since Ive had a lot of android phones and a few now that are 2.2+ Ive done a lot of testing. I usually go about a 2 weeks on one idea or new task killer and keep a close eye on battery drainage using Battery Monitor Widget, free app in the market. It tells you exactly how much of your battery is being drained without killing battery itself. Each phone/rom settles at a different average mA lower the better. In my experience if I can keep my phone anywhere under 100mA when idle im doing good. This held true on both the Evo 4G and my Sensation. Some ASOP roms i could get down to the 30's but for sense under 100mA is good. Keep in mind you will get the occasionally spike here and there its just android and/or apps in the background. You can view the a chart of the battery data in Battery Monitor.
Instead of boring you guys with each task killer Ive used and its results, Ill just get down to what I found out in the end.
Basically, the way android 2.2+ works it really isn't necessary to run a task killer it does a decent job removing apps from memory when you need more memory. But at the same time I found running a task killer periodically (BUT not killing frequently used apps) results in a lower average mA drain leading to overall better battery life.
The best application I have used has to go Automatic Task Killer , trust me Ive used a lot from the top free ones to a few of the more popular paid ones. What this task killer does is kill a selection of apps you allow it too every time your phones screen shuts off and goes idle. On Automatic Task Killer's first boot your shown a screen of every application that could at some point run in the background on your phone. This part sucks a little bit but it is worth it, you need to select which of the apps you want to allow it to kill automatically. It does not kill foreground apps the ones you currently have open on the screen aka a browser or a game. Example your playing NFS: Shift and your boss walks by so you quickly pause and hit the power button turning off the screen, next time you turn the screen on it will kill all other allowed background apps but your game will still be up front and center.
Now the trick is to go thru and set it to kill apps you know your phone won't automatically just restart or you don't use 90% of the time. So don't select things like Dialer, Contacts, Clock, Calendar, Messages or apps you constantly use/check such as a third party SMS app or your main E-Mail Client or third party keyboards (various by person and what you use most). Letting the app automatically kill those is just going to lead to worse battery life because your phone will just restart it each time leading to more CPU cycles (not what you want and part of the reason some consider task killers bad things).
Also, when using any task killer and killing the proper apps sense seems runs smoother, a big deal with sense 3.0.
Re-calibrate Battery: After you flash a new rom or start using a new battery, you should use your recovery (CWM or other) to Wipe Battery Stats. Before you do this make sure your battery is at 100% and has been on the charger for over an hour with the fully charged green led on. This will allow your device to better drain your battery and can really help battery life.
So hopefully with a little messing around you can get a good setup where your phone lasts you all day without having to constantly keep changing settings and watching your battery life. All while everything stays syncing and instant. Hope this helps!
Thanks to people who have contributed:
-JadeSoturi
*ROOT Section (now that we have s-off )
Everything posted above can be done on any rom, rooted or none. There has been a lot of posts on "freezing apps" that you dont need or typically use, which does in fact really help battery life. Since, we (by we i mean sensation users) now have a permanent root this is my tiny second part of the guide for rooted devices.
I dont freeze my apps I prefer them to be gone for good if its something I dont see myself using or its bloat that came with my phone/rom. Since 98% of us will be using custom roms now this usually isnt an issue since most dev's r good at what they do and remove all the bs we dont need or normally use. Still there is some apps we may not want on our phones so for that I use SystemApp Remover . Its a great App for people who dont want to have to worry about going in manually and getting rid of system apps.
Its just basically an Uninstaller that allows you to access any and every app on the phone for you to uninstall (thats y roots needed). For me I just go in an drop the apps I know i wont use. A lot of roms come with carrier add-ons and such, those I normally delete as well as a few HTC sense widgets and apps I see no need for. It will free up space and increase your phones battery life with most things you delete.
Now, be careful. You are prompted upon opening SystemApp Remover that messing in system apps is dangerous and it is. If your not sure what something is DONT touch it, simply do a google search or ask around to see if its safe to remove first.
Nice to have needed guides posted. Hopefully someone will see fit to add this to the Stickies. Thanks.
no problem glad to give back.
itd be nice to have my first sticky, maybe when some people start noticing results and the thread picks up
Leaving GPS on has NO impact on battery life unless you have an app that is actively using it (you will notice the little satellite icon in the notification bar).
Thanks your this what is the automatic task killer you used because there are a few when I search on the market and wasn't sure which one to get?
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using XDA Premium App
TheBiles said:
Leaving GPS on has NO impact on battery life unless you have an app that is actively using it (you will notice the little satellite icon in the notification bar).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Updated OP. I do still notice slightly higher mA when it is enabled even if theres no apps using it
Thanks for the info, I'm trying out the automatic task killer to see how it affects my battery life.
Oh, and I didn't even read the bottom of your post. DO NOT USE TASK KILLERS WITH ANDROID. PERIOD.
TheBiles said:
Oh, and I didn't even read the bottom of your post. DO NOT USE TASK KILLERS WITH ANDROID. PERIOD.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No offense bro, but you should read his entire post before you start ripping it apart. It looks like he put a lot of effort into it. He explains his reasoning for the task killer with evidence and it makes sense.
Thanks OP, I'm using your suggestions already. Will update soon.
moh0 said:
No offense bro, but you should read his entire post before you start ripping it apart. It looks like he put a lot of effort into it. He explains his reasoning for the task killer with evidence and it makes sense.
Thanks OP, I'm using your suggestions already. Will update soon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With more evidence than the article I posted? Yeah, right.
TheBiles said:
Oh, and I didn't even read the bottom of your post. DO NOT USE TASK KILLERS WITH ANDROID. PERIOD.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I address the fact that android doesnt need a task killer but if you read the whole thing automatic task killer lets you choose which apps to kill, leaving out worry of killing system apps that just restart.
Also, this is for battery life and performance, my battery's mA drains slower when i use a task killer for non system apps as well as keeps Sense 3.0 running smoother. I have had sense bog down on me a few times when not keeping a task killer handy.
It isnt necessary to have have a task killer and in the average users hands it can cause more harm than good. But this threads helping to school people on a way for better battery life using a safer method than a BASIC KILL ALL task killer.
Lastly, why did they include a task killer with my android if they dont think we need one?
TheBiles said:
Oh, and I didn't even read the bottom of your post. DO NOT USE TASK KILLERS WITH ANDROID. PERIOD.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, that was helpful. What a waste of an attempt to incite a useless forum war.
@ bobzoz
Nicely put, it will definitely help the newbies to android and made me think twice about a couple of things even though I'm on my 4th android phone.
bobzoz said:
I address the fact that android doesnt need a task killer but if you read the whole thing automatic task killer lets you choose which apps to kill, leaving out worry of killing system apps that just restart.
Also, this is for battery life and performance, my battery's mA drains slower when i use a task killer for non system apps as well as keeps Sense 3.0 running smoother. I have had sense bog down on me a few times when not keeping a task killer handy.
It isnt necessary to have have a task killer and in the average users hands it can cause more harm than good. But this threads helping to school people on a way for better battery life using a safer method than a BASIC KILL ALL task killer.
Lastly, why did they include a task killer with my android if they dont think we need one?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The same reason HTC and T-Mobile included all of that other BLOATWARE crap.
dazzlet said:
Thanks your this what is the automatic task killer you used because there are a few when I search on the market and wasn't sure which one to get?
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using XDA Premium App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Updated OP with links, good call
TheBiles said:
The same reason HTC and T-Mobile included all of that other BLOATWARE crap.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's made by Google, not HTC or T-mobile.
Im just sharing how with people how I get good battery life. Trying to help out, if you dont agree with my method than just dont use it and ignore this thread.
bobzoz said:
Its made by Google, not HTC or T-mobile.
Im just sharing how with people how I get good battery life. Trying to help out, if you dont agree with my method than just dont use it and ignore this thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That looks like part of HTC's Sense. You definitely won't find that in AOSP Android.
TheBiles said:
That looks like part of HTC's Sense. You definitely won't find that in AOSP Android.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTC_Sense
Apps section.
Im not trying to have a battle man just ignore the thread if you dont agree with it. Easy stuff
bobzoz said:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTC_Sense
Apps section.
Im not trying to have a battle man just ignore the thread if you dont agree with it. Easy stuff
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow, you cited Wikipedia. Credible info there!
I'm only trying to help out the other forum users who are being mislead. I've been through a lot of Android devices and spent a lot of time focusing on things like this, and I know what I'm talking about.
Edit: And the only task killer you will find made by Google is the one within Android OS itself. Go download an AOSP build of Android with the latest Google Apps and let me know when you find a task-killer app.
TheBiles said:
Wow, you cited Wikipedia. Credible info there!
I'm only trying to help out the other forum users who are being mislead. I've been through a lot of Android devices and spent a lot of time focusing on things like this, and I know what I'm talking about.
Edit: And the only task killer you will find made by Google is the one within Android OS itself. Go download an AOSP build of Android with the latest Google Apps and let me know when you find a task-killer app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Im just sharing what works for me and like i said in the OP ive been doing this for a long time too. If you want to continue coming at me please do it thru a PM.
Hi all, ive had my play for a few months now and im having problems with battery life as most seem to have had at some point. Ive tried a bigger battery but it turns the phone into something from the 90s lol....so i then tried some task killers but ive noticed they seem to kill a few tasks, then 5 mins later the tasks have started themselves up again so i spend my time going in and out of the task killer hitting optimise which is a total pain and im thinking pointless? Ive heard these newer builds of android manage tasks anyway but i think there are still some tasks/processes i could do without... My question is, would it just be better to uninstall the task manager and then manually force close tasks/processes i dont need and if i do do this will they stay closed/killed till i manually open them again or reboot, or will they automatically restart themselves? Im mainly talking about preloaded stuff i dont need like timescape and data monitor and other battery eating rubbish.
Rooting is an option but now being on 2.3.3 and awaiting 2.3.4 it seems like alot of agro just to clear some running bloatware (downgrading to uk generic firmware 2.2 then gingerbreak then upgrading then removing bloatware then reinstalling removed bloatware for every update, sigh)... If the damn tasks would just stay closed im sure my battery would last a bit longer...
So any difference force closing tasks manually vs task killers and would it help with battery life?
This is a great phone with 2 flaws one is battery life the second is small internal memory... Rooting seems to help fix these problems from what i have read. Why cant sony release a small app/program to let us clear the bloatware without the hassle of rooting.
This has turned into more of a rant, whoops!
Any ideas...?
Sent from my R800i using XDA App
Right understand this. There is no point closing apps or using task killers in android. It makes no sence. This isnt windows, android handles ram in a totally diffrent way to windows, In windows the more free ram you have the faster the pc/phone right? well it's the oposite in android, the less free ram the better, It means android is managing it's own workload, unlike windows application are split into 2 catagories, Applications and process, Now android can have an application running in the background but it will freeze the active process if your not using it, It will keep the ram that application is using a keep it save, so when you relaunch the app it's fast and smooth, Kill the app and you may reclaim the ram but you have to wait for the application to reload and restart. I think life hacker tells it better then me. Read this!
"Android Task Killers Explained: What They Do and Why You Shouldn’t Use Them
Android task killers improve your phone's performance while also boosting battery life—or at least that's the much-debated promise. Here's a look at how task killers actually work, when you should (or shouldn't) use them, and what you can do instead.
A task killer is an app from which you can (sometimes automatically) force other apps to quit, the hope being that the fewer apps you have running in the background, the better your Android's performance and battery life will be. Not everyone agrees with this premise, though. The argument about whether task killers are effective rages all over the internet: Android forums are full of threads with constant bickering and conflicting anecdotal experience, making it difficult for most users to make sense of the situation.
Below, I'm going to dig into the truth about Android task killers: that apart from maybe some older phones, Android manages tasks fairly well on its own, and how task killers present quite a few problems. I'll also take a look at the rare occasions when they're useful, and offer some alternatives you should try to improve your phone's performance and battery-life quirks.
Before we dive in, here's a quick overview of how Android handles process management by default.
How Android Manages Processes
In Android, processes and Applications are two different things. An app can stay "running" in the background without any processes eating up your phone's resources. Android keeps the app in its memory so it launches more quickly and returns to its prior state. When your phone runs out of memory, Android will automatically start killing tasks on its own, starting with ones that you haven't used in awhile.
The problem is that Android uses RAM differently than, say, Windows. On Android, having your RAM nearly full is a good thing. It means that when you relaunch an app you've previously opened, the app launches quickly and returns to its previous state. So while Android actually uses RAM efficiently, most users see that their RAM is full and assume that's what's slowing down their phone. In reality, your CPU—which is only used by apps that are actually active—is almost always the bottleneck.
Why Task Killers Are (Usually) Bad News
Apps like Advanced Task Killer, the most popular task killer in the Market, act on the incorrect assumption that freeing up memory on an Android device is a good thing. When launched, it presents you with a list of "running" apps and the option to kill as many as you want. You can also hit the Menu button to access a more detailed "Services" view, that lists exactly which parts of each application are "running", how much memory they take up, and how much free memory is available on your phone. This set-up implies that the goal of killing these apps is to free up memory. Nowhere on the list does it mention the number of CPU cycles each app is consuming, only the memory you'll free by killing it. As we've learned, full memory is not a bad thing—we want to watch out for the CPU, the resource that actually slows down your phone and drains your battery life.
Thus, killing all but the essential apps (or telling Android to kill apps more aggressively with the "autokill" feature) is generally unnecessary. Furthermore, it's actually possible that this will worsen your phone's performance and battery life. Whether you're manually killing apps all the time or telling the task killer to aggressively remove apps from your memory, you're actually using CPU cycles when you otherwise wouldn't—killing apps that aren't doing anything in the first place.
In fact, some of the processes related to those apps will actually start right back up, further draining your CPU. If they don't, killing those processes can cause other sorts of problems—alarms don't go off, you don't receive text messages, or other related apps may force close without warning. All in all, you're usually better off letting your phone work as intended—especially if you're more of a casual user. In these instances, a task killer causes more problems than it solves.
What You Should Do Instead
That said, not all apps are created equal. Many of you have used task killers in the past and actually found that after freeing up memory, your phone works a bit better. It's more likely that this is because you've killed a bad app—one that was poorly coded, and (for example) keeps trying to connect to the internet even when it shouldn't. Any performance increase you experience is more likely because you killed the right app, not because you freed up loads of memory (or, in many cases, it's just placebo). Instead of killing all those apps, find out which ones are actually causing the problems. If you really know what you're doing, you may benefit from using a task killer to stop the one or two inefficient-but-loved apps on your phone.
Note, however, that this is still a contested notion. A lot of developers (including ROM builder extraordinaire, Cyanogen) will not even look at your bug reports if you're using a task killer. In this humble blogger's opinion, your best bet is to stay away from regular task killer usage entirely. If you absolutely have to have that one battery-killing app on your phone, though, kill away—just be aware that when you experience a recurring Android bug later on, the task killer may be at fault. Of course, you can just stop using it to determine whether that is or isn't the case.
With task killers firmly in the better-off-without box, there are still a number of other things you can do to fill the void, improving your performance and battery life:
Watch for Runaway Processes: Previously mentioned Watchdog is a slightly different kind of task killer, in the sense that instead of telling you your phone's out of memory and it's time to go on a task killing spree, it alerts you when the occasional app starts eating up CPU for no reason. You can then kill the app with Watchdog and get on with your day (though honestly, at that point, I usually just reboot my phone). If it happens often with the same app, however, you may want to move on to the next step.
Uninstall Bad Apps: Worse than the occasional, one-time runaway app is the poorly coded, always-eating-CPU app. If you find (with Watchdog or through some other method) that a particular app seems to drain CPU and battery life whenever it's running, confirm your suspicions by uninstalling it and seeing what happens. If an app is causing problems on your phone, you're probably better off without it.
We advocate rooting Android devices a lot at Lifehacker, but that's because it really is as useful as everyone says it is. You can over- and underclock your phone with SetCPU, install custom ROMs that noticeably improve performance and battery life, and use the ever-useful, crapware-thwarting Autostarts utility to stop apps from starting up on your phone in the first place. Honestly, with one-click rooting apps like previously mentioned Universal Androot available for most phones, rooting only takes a few minutes to do, and you'll be much happier for it.
Update: Many of you also mentioned the root-only app Titanium Backup, which will help you get rid of the pre-installed crapware that comes on most phones, which are one of the worst offenders of phone lag. Thanks to all of you that sent this in!
Seriously, Use the Power Control Widget: This may sound ridiculously obvious, but if you aren't already using some form of the Power Control widget, you should. The things that drain the most battery on any smartphone are Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and your screen. Turn them off when you don't need them and you'll find that you can eke out considerably more battery life.
Charge Your Phone: Even more obvious yet rarely heeded advice: Charge your phone often. This isn't as hard as it sounds for most people. While you're sometimes stuck going out for 14 hours with no place to charge your phone, the majority of us spend our days in our homes, our offices, and other places rife with electrical outlets. Buy a few extra chargers and place them strategically around your home, car, and office. Whenever you're sitting around at home or working away at your desk, you can use that time to dock your phone and give it some extra juice without worrying about battery or performance drains. Before I upgraded to Android 2.2, my battery life was pretty awful, but just having a charger in my car and next to my computer made a huge difference in how often I got the dreaded "low battery" message."
Theres no way to remove the bloatware without root access. I rooted my xplay yesterday using the new zergrush method, you dont need to downgrade or anything you just type in a bunch of stuff in the command promt and its done.
Just to add on to AndroHero's post. In short, Task Killers actually REDUCE your battery life. Just leave it alone, turn off bluetooth and wifi, etc when youre not using them, keep your text message conversations low, and your email inbox clear. Thats about all you can do.
Also the battery life may be related to your coverage area. My phone will last all weekend at home, but is dead in 8 hours at my office due to all the interference and poor cell service coverage, its always searching for signal.
Very interesting thank you for the detailed explanation and tips. Im gonna remove my task killer and try watchdog if i can, to keep an eye on my cpu. I am also going to look into rooting my phone, its just the constant android updates and horror storys of rooted phones with removed bloatware bricking after OTA thats putting me off.
I can understand how having an app in memory ready to go keeps your phone quick (in the same way a cookie in your browser cache makes a page load faster?) but if the app is monitoring data or connecting to the net then they are using some cpu and need to be terminated or stopped from starting. It looks like the only way to do this is to root and then as said in your post ill beable to stop them starting up in the first place.
Thanks again for your time and info
Sent from my R800i using XDA App
b4d5h0t said:
Very interesting thank you for the detailed explanation and tips. Im gonna remove my task killer and try watchdog if i can, to keep an eye on my cpu. I am also going to look into rooting my phone, its just the constant android updates and horror storys of rooted phones with removed bloatware bricking after OTA thats putting me off.
I can understand how having an app in memory ready to go keeps your phone quick (in the same way a cookie in your browser cache makes a page load faster?) but if the app is monitoring data or connecting to the net then they are using some cpu and need to be terminated or stopped from starting. It looks like the only way to do this is to root and then as said in your post ill beable to stop them starting up in the first place.
Thanks again for your time and info
Sent from my R800i using XDA App
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Click to collapse
Rooting is not going to do this for you. Rooting WILL allow you to remove apps that have no use to you whatsoever. But apps, even ones you aren't using are still going to behave like this. Not only that, but those actions are part of what keeps them snappy. And if you kill them, all you would be doing is making it harder and slower to run them when you need to as it will do all those things you wanted it to not do while it was in the background. That drains the battery more. The path you are following with this isn't gonna solve your problem. Android manages its memory on its own better than any of us can.
As I mentioned about coverage area, for example do you have poor service where you are? If you have WiFi keeping it on will prevent the phone from searching for data service which will help.
b4d5h0t said:
Very interesting thank you for the detailed explanation and tips. Im gonna remove my task killer and try watchdog if i can, to keep an eye on my cpu. I am also going to look into rooting my phone, its just the constant android updates and horror storys of rooted phones with removed bloatware bricking after OTA thats putting me off.
I can understand how having an app in memory ready to go keeps your phone quick (in the same way a cookie in your browser cache makes a page load faster?) but if the app is monitoring data or connecting to the net then they are using some cpu and need to be terminated or stopped from starting. It looks like the only way to do this is to root and then as said in your post ill beable to stop them starting up in the first place.
Thanks again for your time and info
Sent from my R800i using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You may also want to try a minifree manager like autokiller in the market. Rather that acting like a task killer, it can edit androids built in process manager you can change how much ram is allocated to background and foregrounds apps and also how much memory android cache's, the cache is the minium amount of ram that android allows to be free, you could set it to 150mb if you wanted, then android will never let your free ram go lower than 150mb.
Sent from my R800i using Tapatalk
Nice one ill look into it
Sent from my R800i using XDA App
Just let Android manage itself, My Xperia play will last an entire day with a lot of use such as wifi, Bluetooth and other things.
Hello everyone,
I'm new here so not sure did I hit the right section (sorry if its wrong).
By the normal use my battery last around 24hr but recently I had some issues with the battery drainage so to speak in like 2-3 hr it would just dry out and I have to recharge.
That lasted for like a week and then suddenly it stopped and it return to normal lasting 24hr on a full charge.
My question is was that a fluke or should I replace the battery?
Thanks,
Sam
Batteries don't die and get resurrected.
An apk(s) was the cause.
If it happens again track down the offender(s).
blackhawk said:
Batteries don't die and get resurrected.
An apk(s) was the cause.
If it happens again track down the offender(s).
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Click to collapse
Hi blackhawk, thank you for the replay I was tracking with Advanced task manager app and all the apps that run right now they are aps that run on my phone regularly. There was no changes (I didn't install/remove any app in few months). That is the reason for my odd question so to speak.
samcoon62 said:
Hi blackhawk, thank you for the replay I was tracking with Advanced task manager app and all the apps that run right now they are aps that run on my phone regularly. There was no changes (I didn't install/remove any app in few months). That is the reason for my odd question so to speak.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try using Galaxy Labs Battery Tracker.
Sometimes Google apks will show battery usage as other Google or Android apks because of related dependencies even if the apk is disabled.
Google Backup Transport, Framework and Google Play Services are prime suspects. Clearing the data of these apks will many times stop excess battery usage. Gmaps is another one that will run in the background. Brave browser too.
Close apps when done with them especially before you go to bed.
Wifi if enable as well. Something did it...
Karma Firewall is very useful in spotting troublemakers and for locking down those apks.
It's freeware, ad free and uses almost no battery.
Has logging that makes seeing excessive internet usage easy.
Works best with Pie or early OSs.
blackhawk said:
Try using Galaxy Labs Battery Tracker.
Sometimes Google apks will show battery usage as other Google or Android apks because of related dependencies even if the apk is disabled.
Google Backup Transport, Framework and Google Play Services are prime suspects. Clearing the data of these apks will many times stop excess battery usage. Gmaps is another one that will run in the background. Brave browser too.
Close apps when done with them especially before you go to bed.
Wifi if enable as well. Something did it...
Karma Firewall is very useful in spotting troublemakers and for locking down those apks.
It's freeware, ad free and uses almost no battery.
Has logging that makes seeing excessive internet usage easy.
Works best with Pie or early OSs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry for the late replay, wow so much information's thank you so much blackhawk I will setup Galaxy Labs Battery Tracker and Karma.
My wifi is always on and always connected to home or office wife (mostly home nowadays as the corona forced us all to work from home if we can.
I appropriate your help so much was going crazy over here lol
Sammy's can be quit the pain. If you're running Pie or below you have far more tools to track down the offenders. Running Apps/cache in Developer options and cache apps in Samsung Device Care are two I use.
This package blocker is another favorite I always use. It can completely clear app caches leaving no nulls that "clearing" them in app settings sometimes leaves. Incomplete clearing means the problem can persist. It's a great troubleshooting and debloating tool if you use it wisely. Has a widget that allows you to toggle selected apks on/off too.
Home - Package Disabler
The only NON-root solution that let’s you disable any unwanted packages that come pre-installed / installed with your phone / tablet.
www.packagedisabler.com
I get you what you are saying but it's a bit uncharted waters for me. lol
As I'm use to computers wracking them up and setting them back up for last 30+ years (professionally). I was always repulsive toward mobile phones. As I like my privacy, piece will working, and when I go somwere no one to disturb me and know were exactly I'm lol.
When they first came out I didn't want to get one until 2004 and then I got my first one Nokia 3310 that is still working (just who knows how many batteries did I change), 2nd one was Note4 in 2016 (also still works and looks like new) and now Note9.
Android phones I got just for viber (registration mostly as i more use it on PC) and banking (from time to tiem) calling and rarely sending sms. Other than that I don't use phone much as I prefer to shoot pictures with my Sony Camera and to do everything else on my PC.
Because of that there was no much interest and room for a phone so I didnt play with developers modes and wracking phones up like I do with PC's lol.
PS: Only reason I'm into Notes is the pen (don't ask me why, I have no idea) lol
samcoon62 said:
I get you what you are saying but it's a bit uncharted waters for me. lol
As I'm use to computers wracking them up and setting them back up for last 30+ years (professionally). I was always repulsive toward mobile phones. As I like my privacy, piece will working, and when I go somwere no one to disturb me and know were exactly I'm lol.
When they first came out I didn't want to get one until 2004 and then I got my first one Nokia 3310 that is still working (just who knows how many batteries did I change), 2nd one was Note4 in 2016 (also still works and looks like new) and now Note9.
Android phones I got just for viber (registration mostly as i more use it on PC) and banking (from time to tiem) calling and rarely sending sms. Other than that I don't use phone much as I prefer to shoot pictures with my Sony Camera and to do everything else on my PC.
Because of that there was no much interest and room for a phone so I didnt play with developers modes and wracking phones up like I do with PC's lol.
PS: Only reason I'm into Notes is the pen (don't ask me why, I have no idea) lol
Click to expand...
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I use my 10+ like a PC. I rarely use my laptop and keep it completely off the internet.
The SD card is the data drive on my 10+. I can do a full reload from it with little or no internet; all critical data is store there including copies of all my apps. I load directly from the SD card, no Playstore needed. A full restore takes me about 2 hours now. The SD card is also backed up to 2 hdds just in case. Develope a complete restore plan for a forced reload. After that a reload is no issue.
They are very rare but they can happen especially if you run into a virus.
The only things I keep on the internal memory are the working apps, DCIM (with frequent backups to the SD card) and the download folder until the files can be vetted.
Androids are fun to play with. With a none rooted phone it's pretty hard to crash them. Lol, I've crashed and burned about 50 Window's loads playing in the Registry over the years. Cloned OS copies made that pretty painless.
I play with the 10+ a lot. It's a surprisingly stable and fast platform.
Lots of really good apps for it too. Most are free.
The 10+ replaced my TV as did the PC over 15 years ago. Pretty cool.
Gene Roddenberry would have gone nuts holding a 10+ in his hands. More than even he could have imagined.
Having multiple phones allows me to observe their battery life under different scenarios.
This is what I have seen:
If you have no sim installed, you get best battery life.
If you have only one sim installed, you get around 20% more battery life than when you have two SIMs installed. This is even if you're using WiFi throughout.
While this is largely dependent on your mobile network provider and the network reception where you live, work, etc., this is something that would affect most users.
I'm seeing roughly 45 minutes to an hour of extra SOT on average after I moved my 2nd sim to another phone on my S22U.
What about screen off time?
blackhawk said:
What about screen off time?
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I have given the details here.
TheMystic said:
I have given the details here.
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Click to collapse
Specifically how much battery % per hour when sleeping with phone/internet service active?
My N10+ gets:
AOD always on, about 1%@hr (good battery)
Tap on AOD, >.5%@hr (good battery)
Right now with a degraded battery of about 3200 mAh I'm getting about 9 hr SOT. With a new battery it's over 12 hours.
Heavily optimized stock still running on Pie.
Not optimized those figures are halved and it's a hot running battery hog out of the box. All Samsung's should be hand optimized.
blackhawk said:
Specifically how much battery % per hour when sleeping with phone/internet service active?
My N10+ gets:
AOD always on, about 1%@hr (good battery)
Tap on AOD, >.5%@hr (good battery)
Right now with a degraded battery of about 3200 mAh I'm getting about 9 hr SOT. With a new battery it's over 12 hours.
Heavily optimized stock still running on Pie.
Not optimized those figures are halved and it's a hot running battery hog out of the box. All Samsung's should be hand optimized.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
9 hours SOT is just unbelievably good. I don't know how many apps you have installed and what apps you use and when. I see that of I'm only watching videos at night (low brightness) on YouTube, the battery life is excellent during that period. But that isn't typical usage which involves browsing, chatting, video calls, a bit of camera, etc.
My phone is turning 1 year tomorrow, and here are the battery stats for now:
Everything ON: 1.5% per hour (AOD OFF)
Everything OFF: 05.% per hour (Power Saving ON)
By everything, I mean WiFi, Mobile Data, Bluetooth and Location.
More details here.
You'll notice from my stats there that WiFi consumes about 0.5% per hour on standby, and the SIM card consumes another 0.5% per hour on standby, even though no mobile data is being used.
I have a very unusual setup too. VPN running on the Main Profile, Work Profile and the Secure Folder. I'm sure that consumes additional battery.
TheMystic said:
9 hours SOT is just unbelievably good. I don't know how many apps you have installed and what apps you use and when. I see that of I'm only watching videos at night (low brightness) on YouTube, the battery life is excellent during that period. But that isn't typical usage which involves browsing, chatting, video calls, a bit of camera, etc.
My phone is turning 1 year tomorrow, and here are the battery stats for now:
Everything ON: 1.5% per hour (AOD OFF)
Everything OFF: 05.% per hour (Power Saving ON)
By everything, I mean WiFi, Mobile Data, Bluetooth and Location.
More details here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
One of the reasons I love this model.
With a fresh battery browsing Brave uses about 6%@hr. Online vids about 9%, offline vids about 6%. Not optimized this phone was a mess, a night and day difference.
I always have wifi disabled as it's a security risk and not needed. Bluetooth standby on or off doesn't impact the battery much for me.
Power is always set on optimized.
All global power management is off.
Brightness, manual generally between 30-40%
AOD always tap on.
Location always off unless needed.
No bixby ever, NFC payment disabled
Google play Services temporarily disabled unless needed, Playstore disabled, Google backup Transport disabled, OTA updates disabled, all feedback disabled.
About 70 packages are always disabled with Package Disabler, mostly bloatware.
Your screen off usage suggests something(s) is running in the background.
Cloud apps are prime offenders.
TheMystic said:
I have a very unusual setup too. VPN running on the Main Profile, Work Profile and the Secure Folder. I'm sure that consumes additional battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm using Karma Firewall* (VNP based) which uses almost nothing and NextDNS to lock it down.
*only fully functional on Pie or lower
blackhawk said:
Not optimized this phone was a mess, a night and day difference.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Paying a subscription to some unknown company and giving them access to my device is something I'm not comfortable with. I would rather charge my phone twice everyday.
blackhawk said:
I always have wifi disabled as it's a security risk and not needed.
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Click to collapse
Can you elaborate this in detail?
blackhawk said:
Google play Services temporarily disabled unless needed, Playstore disabled, Google backup Transport disabled,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is something I can't do. I'm heavily invested in the Google Ecosystem.
blackhawk said:
Your screen off usage suggests something(s) is running in the background.
Cloud apps are prime offenders.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have plenty of accounts on my device (mail, cloud, etc.) and over 500 apps. At one point, I had crossed 1k apps.
These WILL consume battery, irrespective of whether they are in deep sleep or not.
blackhawk said:
I'm using Karma Firewall* (VNP based) which uses almost nothing and NextDNS to lock it down.
*only fully functional on Pie or lower
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Karma doesn't work reliably on Android 11+ as you pointed out.
Would be worse if you have data turned on both SIMs.
TheMystic said:
Paying a subscription to some unknown company and giving them access to my device is something I'm not comfortable with. I would rather charge my phone twice everyday.
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Click to collapse
I firewall block it, it runs fine. If you don't use something like this or adb edits then there a lot of resources being squandered. This not only impacts SOT but performance.
TheMystic said:
Can you elaborate this in detail?
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Click to collapse
I'm running Pie, wifi is a known weak point. I have no need for it anyway. My unlimited data plan is cheap and grandfathered with excellent signal.
TheMystic said:
This is something I can't do. I'm heavily invested in the Google Ecosystem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ouch. Gmail and occasionally Gmaps are the only ones I use aside from system apps but at least 10 of those are disabled. I use some of their Samsung counterparts instead like Calendar and and contacts.
TheMystic said:
I have plenty of accounts on my device (mail, cloud, etc.) and over 500 apps. At one point, I had crossed 1k apps.
These WILL consume battery, irrespective of whether they are in deep sleep or not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My total app count including system, bloatware is 474 with 138 blocked, apps I installed are 138 (about 10 of those are on the block list).
TheMystic said:
Karma doesn't work reliably on Android 11+ as you pointed out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It will still block but you loss it's valuable logging features. I simply use my N10+ running on Pie as the template for the one running on Q.
blackhawk said:
This not only impacts SOT but performance.
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Click to collapse
That's true. But I'm always concerned about whether unknown entities/ mods/ ROMs etc. do more than what they claim. I find it safer to deal with the known devil than take help from the unknown angel.
blackhawk said:
I use some of their Samsung counterparts instead like Calendar and and contacts.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use multiple platforms (Android, iOS, Windows, macOS) and Google products allow me to access my content on all of them. Quite indispensable.
blackhawk said:
My total app count including system, bloatware is 474 with 138 blocked, apps I installed are 138 (about 10 of those are on the block list).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where did you get this number from? I see that the number is different under system settings, Google Play Store and 3rd party apps. Not sure which one is giving the correct figures.
TheMystic said:
That's true. But I'm always concerned about whether unknown entities/ mods/ ROMs etc. do more than what they claim. I find it safer to deal with the known devil than take help from the unknown angel.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Stock with locked bootloader only. Package Disabler runs well and keeps the demons stfu.
TheMystic said:
Where did you get this number from? I see that the number is different under system settings, Google Play Store and 3rd party apps. Not sure which one is giving the correct figures.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
SD Maid Pro, a very useful app.
blackhawk said:
Stock with locked bootloader only. Package Disabler runs well and keeps the demons stfu.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you search the internet, you'll see bad actors can simply install a service on your phone (locked bootloader) that you won't see anywhere and they'll be able to see everything you do, and more. As an unsuspecting user, it will make no difference to you unless they want you to know.
blackhawk said:
SD Maid Pro, a very useful app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You seem to be using an old version. Here's mine (I see I'm still over 1,000 apps). 🫣
TheMystic said:
If you search the internet, you'll see bad actors can simply install a service on your phone (locked bootloader) that you won't see anywhere and they'll be able to see everything you do, and more. As an unsuspecting user, it will make no difference to you unless they want you to know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Keeping it locked reduces the risks considerably.
You are what you install though...
TheMystic said:
You seem to be using an old version. Here's mine (I see I'm still over 1,000 apps). 🫣
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tend not to update apps unless I have a good reason. Updates carry risks.
629 apps is an awful lot. I throw out apps I don't need or if they cause trouble. Sampling apps is a bad practice that can result in messing up hidden user settings. Not all apps uninstall clean and undo changes they made. I stick to mostly to apps/versions I know to be good. One of the reasons this load will be 3 yo in June.
blackhawk said:
Keeping it locked reduces the risks considerably.
You are what you install though...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have seen a video where an IT expert demonstrated how easy it is to infect someone's device with spyware and the user wouldn't even know it. The takeaway was to not give your phone to anyone.
Here we are talking about an unknown entity that charges a subscription to disable something on your phone to help with performance and battery life. How do you know for sure that they don't do anything more than that?
blackhawk said:
629 apps is an awful lot. I throw out apps I don't need or if they cause trouble. Sampling apps is a bad practice that can result in messing up hidden user settings. Not all apps uninstall clean and undo changes they made. I stick to mostly to apps/versions I know to be good. One of the reasons this load will be 3 yo in June.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree. About 250 of them are watchface apps which are essentially just placeholders that help launch the app page on Play Store on the watch.
Even then I'll be having about 400 user apps which is still very high. May be I'll uninstall the rarely used ones someday instead of keeping them in a frozen state.
TheMystic said:
I have seen a video where an IT expert demonstrated how easy it is to infect someone's device with spyware and the user wouldn't even know it. The takeaway was to not give your phone to anyone.
Here we are talking about an unknown entity that charges a subscription to disable something on your phone to help with performance and battery life. How do you know for sure that they don't do anything more than that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeap.
Never give your phone to anyone or allow remote access. Never plug in foreign OTG drives.
TheMystic said:
I agree. About 250 of them are watchface apps which are essentially just placeholders that help launch the app page on Play Store on the watch.
Even then I'll be having about 400 user apps which is still very high. May be I'll uninstall the rarely used ones someday instead of keeping them in a frozen state.
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Yeah occasionally I'll spot a misbehaving app, not malware just poorly written. Just uninstalled a photo gallery app like that a few days ago; it's database size was abnormally high. Took a good 30 minutes to clean up the mess it made. Deleting it's data screwed up another good gallery app. Fortunately it was repairable by simply clearing the good app's data and letting it rebuild. It had me going at first
blackhawk said:
it's database size was abnormally high.
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Let me guess: Was it Aves Gallery?
blackhawk said:
Deleting it's data screwed up another good gallery app.
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This is unusual. Never experienced something like this. I mean all apps are sandboxed and something like this is not expected.
TheMystic said:
Let me guess: Was it Aves Gallery?
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Simple Photo Gallery, what a mess
TheMystic said:
This is unusual. Never experienced something like this. I mean all apps are sandboxed and something like this is not expected.
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I'm running on Pie so no scoped storage. Still it shouldn't have done that. I backed up the whole dcim folder before I uninstalled it because I was expecting trouble However it didn't damage the contents of the dcim folder, just another app. Swell. Glad it's gone... it was always firewall blocked.
blackhawk said:
Simple Photo Gallery, what a mess
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If you're talking about this, I would be surprised. It works fine on my phone.
blackhawk said:
I'm running on Pie so no scoped storage. Still it shouldn't have done that.
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That's true.
blackhawk said:
it was always firewall blocked.
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Simple Mobile Tools make very clean apps, unless you are referring to something else. None of their apps have internet permission in them.