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I have read that taskkiller is not necessary on Android as the OS will kill off running apps when it needs memory - what are people's thoughts on this?
Hmmm...I read somewhere (maybe on here) heard if the App is coded properly that when not in use it will be background so not take up memory.
Not too knowledgable, but in that case would imagine they are acting like a windows service so will be taking up memory somewhere....so perhaps what I read was nonsense
Well, I have stopped killing tasks and guess what - I notice no difference at all! Hero is just as speedy (or slow depending on how you wanna look at it!).
Interesting!
Killing truly idle applications wont have significant effect. There are however many applications which appear idle, but still drains resources. An example is Peep, the twitter client, which starts automatically even if there's no twitter account configured. It has some frequent checks that put load on the CPU and thus helps drain power. Killing it adds many hours of standby time.
i'm not using any task manager/killer, did try them for a couple of days, can't really tell the difference, except i was wasting time constantly killing apps :/
suisen said:
i'm not using any task manager/killer, did try them for a couple of days, can't really tell the difference, except i was wasting time constantly killing apps :/
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Ditto... surely there is no need as the OS will kill a unused app if it needs the memory ??? I don't have any problem running any apps one after the other... they just load.
The only lag I get is while the handset starts a widget update, once they are started everything runs slickly.
I found it a little slicker without taskiller. Especially in the use of big apps like copilot or documents2go. It seems to be managing itself pretty well.
Yep. I can report that the phone is working very well without Taskkiller. I have uninstalled it now.
If you are reading this, give it a try for a few days and tell us what you think. You may be pleasantly surprised...
Ditto - I've removed taskiller so I don't get tempted. Surprise surprise, no problems, no lag, etc. Now mostly this is due to removing the clock and people widget, but memory management seems fine after playing many different games and browsing the internet.
I think a benefit to doing this is that you aren't going to get and bizarre problems caused by killing system processes by accident - ie you won't miss alarms or stop receiving email alerts.
Hi,
Since I read up on how the Android OS works I have not used TaskKiller or similar and the OS works great (MCR 2.8).
I think these task killer apps are redundant.
Anyone actually think they are needed at all?
It's true that the system will kill apps itself when the memory is needed, but a side-affect of having 192MB available to android, is that there will be a lot of open apps before that happens.
While some apps will become 'frozen'/ only taking memory and no cpu time, other will not.
Having these apps in memory, and using cpu while not needing/using those apps, will drain the battery faster.
In such a case, a task killer will be useful.
It may do more harm than good though, I missed an alarm because I killed the clock app once
short answer: no, not needed unless an app is draining the battery while the app is not used/necessary.
Theory is one thing, reality is another.
When I hit the 'kill all' button on taskiller my phone definatly speeds up, sometimes it's essential when an app hangs(phandroid has gone like this recently) or is rather resource heavy (like sky map) as the phone gets rather laggy untill it's taskilled.
yeah, what she said ^^^
If an app is still using cpu after you closed it, then (task-)kill dat motherf-
I've got Taskiller ocd! Less stuff running definitely keeps your phone running nice and fast so if I'm not actively using an app then I kill it. Although I do have all the important stuff on the ignore list so the phone doesn't crash... or I miss an alarm like E2K
I'm currently trying to decide which app I like best for the purpose, Taskiller Full or TaskPanel.
TaskPanel has more useful options like Auto-kill however I think it has a bigger memory footprint than Taskiller.
I installed a task killer and noticed that when killing certain apps, the phone just lags real bad. I discontinued use of it and now the phone has no serious pausing. I was killing unknown apps with Android box icons.
heygrl said:
I installed a task killer and noticed that when killing certain apps, the phone just lags real bad. I discontinued use of it and now the phone has no serious pausing. I was killing unknown apps with Android box icons.
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yeah I uninstalled it as well. I heard Android does great job of managing ram and as soon as it gets low, it will start killing other apps automatically.
you need to learn what apps need to stay running, but some apps are just fluff and worthless... you may need to set up you task killer to ignore certain apps like handcent and clock... killing any android processes is usually a bad idea.. I just kill my 3rd party apps that open for no reason or use it to close apps when I am done using my phone for a while...
You should not need a task killer with this phone. Android has been managing its own memory and background services quite nicely for a while now.
SkOrPn said:
You should not need a task killer with this phone. Android has been managing its own memory and background services quite nicely for a while now.
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Thats what i was told but when i uninstalled the task killer my phone lagged with everything i did. Even when closing programs properly it still lagged. Im keeping my task killer.
acjames said:
Thats what i was told but when i uninstalled the task killer my phone lagged with everything i did. Even when closing programs properly it still lagged. Im keeping my task killer.
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yeah maybe its not as good as most people say it is at controlling its own memory usage.
Task Killers = meh,
Android has a way of doing things and that means keeping apps open for some time, I tried using app-killers and it did not seem to make my phones run better, and auto kill everything is even worse...
heygrl said:
I installed a task killer and noticed that when killing certain apps, the phone just lags real bad. I discontinued use of it and now the phone has no serious pausing. I was killing unknown apps with Android box icons.
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idk if youre rooted or not, or if this app works on the vibrant cuz it does an amazing job on the g1, but you could try autokiller, tho it requires root. what it does is change the android memory management settings and will kill apps more frequently depending on the settings you choose.
speedysilwady said:
idk if youre rooted or not, or if this app works on the vibrant cuz it does an amazing job on the g1, but you could try autokiller, tho it requires root. what it does is change the android memory management settings and will kill apps more frequently depending on the settings you choose.
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I still need to use it for those unruly apps but I got so used to it because my old phone would lag with Slacker even in the background and I had to kill it. I've stopped using it and I've stopped having major problems. Just an FYI for those out there that still use one, it's not needed here on a regular basis really.
I noticed that I can't use the "kill all" function in Advanced Task Manager by Arron La any more without making my phone freeze up. My brother suggestion Task Manager by Rhythm Software (he has a MyTouch Slide). This program doesn't give me any problems when killing files and also doesn't list system files (that I've noticed).
The people who are having problems with task killer are the ones that are not setting it up correctly or don't have enough apps installed for it to make any difference.
If you don't setup the ignore list correctly your phone will freak out or make your existing problem worse.
Android 2.2 is a different story though, Froyo is faster without a taskiller
Buddy here's what .....
Download AutoKiller from the market , then go to the dev's webpage ,there he has a lot of information about android and memory management .... then you can make an informed decision .... the lag issue you continue to have .,.,..., you might have to do a hard reset to clear the system of that poorly coded task/app killer ....
Here's some more information http://androidforums.com/samsung-vibrant/124542-constant-apps-restarting-themselves.html
I hope that here on xda we can help people to understand Android and memory management , so they are not fooled by these task/app killers that work against the system ......
heygrl said:
I still need to use it for those unruly apps but I got so used to it because my old phone would lag with Slacker even in the background and I had to kill it. I've stopped using it and I've stopped having major problems. Just an FYI for those out there that still use one, it's not needed here on a regular basis really.
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I used to have the original my touch 3g, lag central, even on custom roms. Task killer was handy, so I got in the Babbitt if killing tasks. I then got me a nexus, and it seemed to have not needed one, but I still used it out of the Babbitt and being paranoid of my plbattery being wasted with apps on the background and lag lol. Well, I'm now done with them, seriously, no need for task killers. I think on this phone it does more damage then good, most apps need to be running on the background, killing them just lags your phone. Like you'd lose signal, or it would run time and date update again, etc.
Task killers may not be necessary for memory management, but it will help save on battery by killing 3rd party apps that stay running in the background. I use Advanced Task Manager myself, and never get any lag when I run it. The main thing you need to "exclude" if you havnt already, is the TWLauncher(or whatever launcher you're running).
At boot, once I close everything, I keep 80mb of ram free. (besides what I need.)
I have auto task killer set to aggressive, every 30 minutes. Phone is generally fast, however sometimes everything just gets restarted at once. Phone crawls until autotask killer does its magic again. These are default GAPPS and the like. I love maps, gmail, and the like, but I'm damn near ready to delete them.
Is there anything I can do?
(overclocked to 710, any higher and the phone gets slow as soon as it gets warm, anything lower doesn't help at all)
Maybe I'm missing something. I come from a blackberry, before that a windows phone. Task killing was important, I've read that it isn't so here. But I just don't know what to do to keep my phone from going into a crawl.
viogrep said:
At boot, once I close everything, I keep 80mb of ram free. (besides what I need.)
I have auto task killer set to aggressive, every 30 minutes. Phone is generally fast, however sometimes everything just gets restarted at once. Phone crawls until autotask killer does its magic again. These are default GAPPS and the like. I love maps, gmail, and the like, but I'm damn near ready to delete them.
Is there anything I can do?
(overclocked to 710, any higher and the phone gets slow as soon as it gets warm, anything lower doesn't help at all)
Maybe I'm missing something. I come from a blackberry, before that a windows phone. Task killing was important, I've read that it isn't so here. But I just don't know what to do to keep my phone from going into a crawl.
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They really aren't so important here, and most ROM's already come overclocked with task killers and/or governors.
What ROM are you using?
Do you have alot of widgets on your homescreen?
The only time I've had your problem is when I had like a total of 5 homescreens COMPLETELY filled with widgets.
viogrep said:
At boot, once I close everything, I keep 80mb of ram free. (besides what I need.)
I have auto task killer set to aggressive, every 30 minutes. Phone is generally fast, however sometimes everything just gets restarted at once. Phone crawls until autotask killer does its magic again. These are default GAPPS and the like. I love maps, gmail, and the like, but I'm damn near ready to delete them.
Is there anything I can do?
(overclocked to 710, any higher and the phone gets slow as soon as it gets warm, anything lower doesn't help at all)
Maybe I'm missing something. I come from a blackberry, before that a windows phone. Task killing was important, I've read that it isn't so here. But I just don't know what to do to keep my phone from going into a crawl.
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Click to collapse
Personally, I used to use the task killers a lot, and while on 2.1 I think it helped a little. But as I switched around different froyo ROMs and am now on gingerbread, I noticed that the task killers actually hindered my phone's performance. Battery would discharge quickly, the phone would become sluggish and sometimes lag so bad I would reboot.
I found that just leaving the android system to do its own thing worked out the best. Memory management has been greatly improved, and really eliminated the need for task killing apps and the like.
Always good reading:
"FAQ: Why You Shouldn’t Be Using a Task Killer with Android"
"Multitasking the Android Way"
"Android Task Killers Explained: What They Do and Why You Shouldn’t Use Them"
Using Gingerbread, clocked at 604mhz. CPU governor ondemand. (Bump it to 748mhz and interactive for heavy games)
No killers, although I used to be religious about autokiller memory optimizer. GB handles memory and app killing very well.
And the stock app management tool loads quick and is easy to use to kill something that's acting naughty or hung.
I use cache cleaner, set to clean once a day.
I am picky about my apps. If I don't like their startup and shutdown behavior, I find an alternative program.
I'm also rather anti social so no twit, face, up ur butt, whatcha doing apps constantly syncing for me.
I do use genie for news and weather and smooth calendar synced with my exchange via gmail. But these don't update but one every 3-4 hours. Gmail on demand unless I'm expecting something, then I'll let the sync run.
Used to be an adw fanboy. But switched to LP. Its simple and light. Adw is still my favorite especially EX, but LP performs better for me.
I also uninstall everything I don't use, email, dpm, stock music, HTML viewer, setup wizard, keyboard tutorial, development, rom manager, carhome, couple other none dependencies. Use that free space to more some of my root apps, widget apps, utilities.
Also use. Zach's cache2cache. Freeing up a little more data room. No apps on SD.
Widgets I use; note everything 3+ Widgets, genie news and weather, smooth calendar, a photo slide widget app. Usually about it. Sometimes a full month calendar.
No lag or performance loss. My daily usage averages 4 to 6 hours a day.
Edit - also turn off orientation if I don't need it to keep my screen from redrawing every time I pick upmy phone or adjust my wrist
Sent from my GSBv1.7-ERIS using XDA App
I do as little as possible.
I kill some tasks when my phone first starts up, that's the only time I use my task killer unless a program is glitching out.
I keep setcpu profiles.
I keep my apps up to date.
I keep my ROM up to date.
After installing/ uninstalling a lot of programs (Such as when I first flash a new rom) I always make sure I Wipe my dalvik cache.
I always wipe between ROMs. It's more stable and always faster.
I suggest to keep your phone fast you DONT:
use setcpu's widget.
use autotaskkiller (it's just one more process. And once you kill tasks, there's no reason to continuously re-kill persistent ones)
Clear your cache too often. Your cache is there for a reason. I personally never clear mine, just my dalvik.
Dedication
amfetamine said:
Using Gingerbread, clocked at 604mhz. CPU governor ondemand. (Bump it to 748mhz and interactive for heavy games)
No killers, although I used to be religious about autokiller memory optimizer. GB handles memory and app killing very well.
And the stock app management tool loads quick and is easy to use to kill something that's acting naughty or hung.
I use cache cleaner, set to clean once a day.
I am picky about my apps. If I don't like their startup and shutdown behavior, I find an alternative program.
I'm also rather anti social so no twit, face, up ur butt, whatcha doing apps constantly syncing for me.
I do use genie for news and weather and smooth calendar synced with my exchange via gmail. But these don't update but one every 3-4 hours. Gmail on demand unless I'm expecting something, then I'll let the sync run.
Used to be an adw fanboy. But switched to LP. Its simple and light. Adw is still my favorite especially EX, but LP performs better for me.
I also uninstall everything I don't use, email, dpm, stock music, HTML viewer, setup wizard, keyboard tutorial, development, rom manager, carhome, couple other none dependencies. Use that free space to more some of my root apps, widget apps, utilities.
Also use. Zach's cache2cache. Freeing up a little more data room. No apps on SD.
Widgets I use; note everything 3+ Widgets, genie news and weather, smooth calendar, a photo slide widget app. Usually about it. Sometimes a full month calendar.
No lag or performance loss. My daily usage averages 4 to 6 hours a day.
Edit - also turn off orientation if I don't need it to keep my screen from redrawing every time I pick upmy phone or adjust my wrist
Sent from my GSBv1.7-ERIS using XDA App
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THAT is a lot of work and you do this EVERY day? WOW that is dedication!
Kent_Davis said:
THAT is a lot of work and you do this EVERY day? WOW that is dedication!
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Errrrrrrrrrr?
Just an update. I used the majority of advice here. Installed watchdog. After about 4 days worth of running and watchdogs help I just Uninstalled Google Reader and Facebook. Never have to kill a task and everything runs smooth now.
Thanks!
Kent_Davis said:
THAT is a lot of work and you do this EVERY day? WOW that is dedication!
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Hee-hee... I live on my Eris
Naw, pretty much just the new rom setup routine. But I do seem to spend more time in settings menus than in actual apps
Sent from my GSBv1.7-ERIS using XDA Premium App
Contrary to what most people will tell you, I use a Task Killer and some will call me a liar but I see a very good improvement on my battery life. As soon as I'm done doing whatever I was doing on my phone, I open Advanced Task Killer and kill every task running then lock my phone (press the end button) and tuck it away. People say it doesn't work but everyone's Eris is different and reacts different to different apps. I love having it and I love using it. I usually go in to cyanogenmod settings and use the overclocker, 748Max, 122Min, Ondemand gov, set to boot. I also use LauncherPro Plus which seems to be faster and smoother than ADW therefore using less power. I also have absolutely no widgets whatsoever. Wifi is only on when I'm home and GPS is never on unless I'm using navigation. That's really about it and my Eris runs smooth as a baby's backside !!
So I've noticed that even after using the "close all programs" option in the "running" portion of the app drawer, apps start popping up there even if i haven't used them. The nook contacts for instance, i never use, yet it still shows up in "running." It seems to be using storage space, and i certainly don't want those extra apps draining the battery. Has anyone else encountered this?
ETA: So i was mistaking memory for storage, my bad, but i still don' t want apps running on the RAM when i don't want them to. The ones that seem to always pop up are nook contacts, nook shop, pandora, amazon app store, and pulse. Why are these apps initializing? Is it an update/being connected to the internet thing?
I take it this is your first Android device. Check the link to see how memory is managed in Android.
http://mobworld.wordpress.com/2010/07/05/memory-management-in-android/
Yep, first android device, thank you so much, couldnt find anything by searching the forum.
I'm still not 100% sure why apps i'm not using would show up like that, the impression i got from that article was that android has unusual priorities in killing apps in use, why are apps i never use showing up?
Some apps are programmed to stay partially resident in memory because they are used by other apps. Contacts would be used by Email, etc.
Just because it says they're running, though, does not mean that they will affect how your tablet runs at all.
In a nutshell, taskkillers are ineffective and unnecessary in Android. A lot of us come from a Windows-mindset that says "kill tasks to free up memory!" but this does nothing for Android. (The exceptions seem to be rogue processes).
All I know is I was driving myself nuts when I first got my Android phone using task killers, and worrying about apps I'd 'killed' popping right back up again. I was actually slowing down the system, not speeding it up. When I finally read about it, and then got rid of the task killer stuff, my performance actually improved. My limited understanding of this, is that a killed app will actually expend more memory opening itself back up again to run idle, than if you just leave it running idle.
Thank you zaptoons, that makes sense. I hadnt really noticed much ofa difference with the apps killed or not, so very helpful info. Still getting used to my tab, think rooting may be in my future.