Related
Hey Everyone,
Just got my Droid Eris yesterday and I'm having fun exploring the phone and checking everything out.
One question, I noticed that many apps (in fact, almost all) don't have a direct "Quit" or "Exit" command. So I'm usually pressing "back" or "home" when I'm done with something. This left me wondering though... when I use "back" or "home", does the app actually exit? From what I can tell, it doesn't... so does the OS automatically clean up these apps from time to time? I came from WinMo 6.1, and it was irritating that everything defaulted to running in the background. How does Android treat it? Is there something special in this regard with the HTC Sense UI? I've seen there are some third-party task manager apps you can get... are they worth getting? Or just "let the phone do it's thing" and i will be fine?
Thanks!
I use a Task Manager from the Market called "Taskiller." But I'm still trying to figure out how the Hero handles the apps because sometimes it gets sluggish and taskiller helps out but then theres other times when I have all sorts of apps open and it runs smoothly, lol, I guess it just works sometimes.
I wonder if it's like the iPhone, where it kills the task when you hit the "Home" button. It doesn't seem like it, as some apps seem to just come up instantly when go back in them, as if I was "switching" to them, and no re-opening them...
false_apology said:
I wonder if it's like the iPhone, where it kills the task when you hit the "Home" button. It doesn't seem like it, as some apps seem to just come up instantly when go back in them, as if I was "switching" to them, and no re-opening them...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No I dont think thats the case because Android has a special way of "Multitasking," though I'm not completely informed so you might have to research that on your own. But like I said download a Task Manager from the market so you can see how much available memory there is.
By default, Android applications never really "close" as their components can be called upon at any time. (Android applications are structured to be very modular, allowing individual components to be used from each.) When an application needs memory immediately, and another hasn't used it for a while, it shoves the old app into what's called swap space (presumably it's on your SD card) while the new one takes over. This is why you'll occasionally see a delay while performing a "hard" operation (like opening an app) while the system is under heavy load. That's the old app's memory getting written out to temporary storage and the other one taking it over.
At least this is my understanding of the situation.
From what I've heard Android (linux) does a much better job of managing the memory used by our apps. And, that we "...shouldn't have to use a task killer..." to close out apps that are running in the background, especially on our phones.
For instance, the myTouch 3G usually only gets about 20-30 MB of RAM freed after a full clean up of background apps, the Eris will have about 80+ MB after a cleanup and they both feel about the same to me.
I still use Task Panel to close my apps sometimes because I just like starting fresh in an app from time to time. Also if things start getting fishy (screen stuttering, touch screen not working properly) I'll kill all running apps to see if it fixes the problem which in some cases it just does not and a reboot is still required.
I have found that by holding the home key it will bring up all the apps so you can switch to the one that you want so it is still running them in the background.
refthemc said:
I use a Task Manager from the Market called "Taskiller." But I'm still trying to figure out how the Hero handles the apps because sometimes it gets sluggish and taskiller helps out but then theres other times when I have all sorts of apps open and it runs smoothly, lol, I guess it just works sometimes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i use a Task application called Task Manager. It gives lists of all Applications running, all process and even has an uninstall feature. It also has a auto end application feature but on my eris it's greyed out(maybe Pro only?)
Here are a couple of links that I found on this subject. Don't mind that it says Hero in the thread title it talks about android phones in general. Also something to look into once we get the Eris rooted in the second link.
Task Managers and your Hero by romeosidvicious @androidforums.com
How to configure Android's *internal* taskkiller by androcheck @xda-developers.com
So I was told to only use the back button to leave an app when I'm done, which closes it so its not running all the time. I do that, but for some reason it doesn't quite work on some apps... for instance on the browser, if my wifi session dies while using my campus wifi, I have to force close the browser for it to automatically bring up the login page. And the app quickdesk also shows that the browser is always running. I shouldn't have to force close, and I hear bad things about other task killers... but it wont end itself. what to do?
Sent from my Motorola Atrix using the XDA App
So after a long browsing session you hit back back back back back back back until the browser closes.?. Or you force kill it. Do you have a particular reason why or your just following someone else's 'back out' preferences? I say there is no reason to end your browser, none. If you are playing a game, then yes there might be advantages to backing out opposed to hitting the "home" key. However, just this morning I was playing PvZ and hit the home key, no lag and two hours later I opened the game to the same spot and continued.
The Atrix manages tasks very well, much better than my Captivate for instance. For the most part it will background a task so its not burning up cpu/bat. I'm sure you may have noticed the task manager popup from time to time saying "the following app has been running 45 minutes, would you like to kill it?". If you are worried about what apps are burning up your cpu/bat, use Watchdog.
WiredPirate said:
So after a long browsing session you hit back back back back back back back until the browser closes.?. Or you force kill it. Do you have a particular reason why or your just following someone else's 'back out' preferences? I say there is no reason to end your browser, none. If you are playing a game, then yes there might be advantages to backing out opposed to hitting the "home" key. However, just this morning I was playing PvZ and hit the home key, no lag and two hours later I opened the game to the same spot and continued.
The Atrix manages tasks very well, much better than my Captivate for instance. For the most part it will background a task so its not burning up cpu/bat. I'm sure you may have noticed the task manager popup from time to time saying "the following app has been running 45 minutes, would you like to kill it?". If you are worried about what apps are burning up your cpu/bat, use Watchdog.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I usually don't have a problem. My problem is that I want the browser to end so that it can start up a new session next time. Like I said with the wifi login...Usually my browser is on the google homepage, so since it never ends it will always open up google again. Then when my wifi session dies, I open the browser so that the login page will show up, but just google tries to load because it's trying to 'remember' a previous session with the app. I realize what I'm trying to explain probably sounds really confusing lol sorry.
I am new to Android - just got a Droid 3.
How do I stop the system from auto-killing a certain app? When I play Angry Birds, if the phone goes to sleep on timeout, when I turn it back on, the App has to re-load from scratch (rather than opening to where I left off last time). I'm assuming the system decided to kill it for lack of memory, but how do I STOP it from doing that (like an ignore list)?
Will I need a third party app?
Any help is appreciated!
not really. the Android system does a pretty good job of reclaiming unused memory. ive been dealing with this for a while trying to keep a replacement lock screen in memory
Sounds like Verizon installed a task killer. I know their employees do that saying you need one. But you don't. Make sure you uninstall it. It is most likely set to kill apps off ever x minutes. Usually Android keeps foreground apps in memory for a long time unless the system needs it. But doesn't sound like it would. I wonder what the Droid 3 memory settings are for stock now. I have the Evo 3D and they are set at a higher threshold(as I'm kills unused apps sooner) compared to my older HTC phones(Evo and Hero). How long do you let the phone sit idle before coming back?
Sent from my iPhone with the bigger GeeBees.
notasimpleway said:
Sounds like Verizon installed a task killer. I know their employees do that saying you need one. But you don't. Make sure you uninstall it. It is most likely set to kill apps off ever x minutes. Usually Android keeps foreground apps in memory for a long time unless the system needs it. But doesn't sound like it would. I wonder what the Droid 3 memory settings are for stock now. I have the Evo 3D and they are set at a higher threshold(as I'm kills unused apps sooner) compared to my older HTC phones(Evo and Hero). How long do you let the phone sit idle before coming back?
Sent from my iPhone with the bigger GeeBees.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not obvious which program that would be - there's nothing called Task Killer. Plus, most of the VZW bloatware can't be uninstalled anyway. Apart from rooting (locked bootloader on Droid 3), what can I do to force it to stay open?
Also, it gets killed immediately on turning off the phone. As in, I start the game, hit sleep, hit wake a second later and the game reloads from scratch. Very irritating.
Any thoughts are appreciated, thanks!
jbroses said:
It's not obvious which program that would be - there's nothing called Task Killer. Plus, most of the VZW bloatware can't be uninstalled anyway. Apart from rooting (locked bootloader on Droid 3), what can I do to force it to stay open?
Also, it gets killed immediately on turning off the phone. As in, I start the game, hit sleep, hit wake a second later and the game reloads from scratch. Very irritating.
Any thoughts are appreciated, thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just tested this with Angry Birds from the time I posted till just now and it was right where I left the game. It may be called Advanced Task Manager. Or something like that. And you should be able to uninstall it. It would have been installed by the person selling the phone and not at the factory.
Sent from my iPhone with the bigger GeeBees.
Go to the Market, download Spare Parts. Open and scroll down to Activity/Process Management. Select normal. It may not have been the problem, but worth a shot. Are you hitting the home button before putting the phone to sleep? What do you see immediately upon turning the screen on and unlocking the phone? Angry Birds? The home screen?
Sent from my iPhone with the bigger GeeBees.
When you haven't used an app for a long time, Android automatically recycles all open activities from the app, except the root activity.
By default, every application runs in its own Linux process. Android starts the process when any of the application’s code needs to be executed, and shuts down the process when it’s no longer needed and system resources are required by other applications.
[...]
If the user leaves a task for a long time, the system clears the task of all activities except the root activity. When the user returns to the task again, it’s as the user left it, except that only the initial activity is present. The idea is that, after a time, users will likely have abandoned what they were doing before and are returning to the task to begin something new
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
From geekfor.me/faq/you-shouldnt-be-using-a-task-killer-with-android/ (sorry I can't make a link yet)
Shinigami20 said:
When you haven't used an app for a long time, Android automatically recycles all open activities from the app, except the root activity.
From geekfor.me/faq/you-shouldnt-be-using-a-task-killer-with-android/ (sorry I can't make a link yet)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it actually happens instantly. in other words - open angry birds, begin level. sleep phone, wake phone. angry birds reloads from the beginning. this is all within the span of 5 secs.
i thought it might be my lock screen - widgetlock, but i disabled that and it just happened again, this time with opera mini as i was writing this. I was writing this post, went to a text, came back to opera within 30 secs and it had shut down and reopened (no tab with my partially composed message).
is the droid 3 just shutting things down more aggressively? is there a way to tweak that? maybe too much other crap is running and I should get a task killer? thoughts?
jbroses said:
it actually happens instantly. in other words - open angry birds, begin level. sleep phone, wake phone. angry birds reloads from the beginning. this is all within the span of 5 secs.
i thought it might be my lock screen - widgetlock, but i disabled that and it just happened again, this time with opera mini as i was writing this. I was writing this post, went to a text, came back to opera within 30 secs and it had shut down and reopened (no tab with my partially composed message).
is the droid 3 just shutting things down more aggressively? is there a way to tweak that? maybe too much other crap is running and I should get a task killer? thoughts?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
do not sleep your device, try entering level then return to home switch to other apps. Then open angry bird again and see what happen
On my desire Z, it kill the app every time i sleep the phone. Keep the phone alive then I have 3 apps running at same time without being killed. But it's not likely that I have RAM shortage. 3 apps is constant no matter what apps
Flipz explains that well. Autokiller is a great little app to adjust those settings. Used it for over two years now. I actually got to watch that app evolve. Great dev. Only works if you are rooted.
Shinigami20 said:
When you haven't used an app for a long time, Android automatically recycles all open activities from the app, except the root activity.
From geekfor.me/faq/you-shouldnt-be-using-a-task-killer-with-android/ (sorry I can't make a link yet)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sent from my iPhone with the bigger GeeBees.
Thanks for all the responses. I've tried to address them all:
Spare Parts - I installed this and set the Activity to Normal (it WAS set on aggressive). Unfortunately, this didn't help.
Press the Home key - Pressing the Home key and then going back to Angry Birds DOES work. It picks up right where you left off. Unfortunately, when the phone goes to sleep, it restarts Angry Birds on waking.
What do I see when I wake the phone - It goes to my WidgetLocker lock screen. Once unlocked, the very first thing that shows up is the Angry Birds "Rovio" loading screen. No home screen in between.
Any other thoughts are much appreciated! Is there any way to simply exempt Angry Birds from being closed by the system automatically? It seems like this should be possible!
Can you try something out for me? I want to give evidence to my theory.
Download another 3d game, load a level, then sleep the device. See if there's a lot of stuttering/reloading when you wake the device back up.
Any news on this? I got the same problem with CM 9.1 on my Doubleshot (aka M4GS). When I have like 10 tabs or so opened in Opera, Android kills the task. But not when I put it into sleep, but right when I'm browsing! That's really annoying since after restarting Opera I have to reopen every single tab manually from the history.
Already tried Spare Parts, but it doesn't offer some kinda whitelist for apps that shouldn't be autokilled.
It's really frustrating, Android's autokilling feature was one of the few things, that I didn't like about that OS when I switched from Windows Mobile to Android a few years ago. And I still hate that feature. Why can't I decide by myself which apps to be closed and which ones not? Give back the power to the user I say!
At least there HAS to be a solution to force Anddroid, not to kill a specified app (e.g. Opera) and kill all the other running apps instead. Any 3rd Party task killer has some kinda ignore list, so how could Android be tweaked to do the same?
Shani Ace said:
Any news on this? I got the same problem with CM 9.1 on my Doubleshot (aka M4GS). When I have like 10 tabs or so opened in Opera, Android kills the task. But not when I put it into sleep, but right when I'm browsing! That's really annoying since after restarting Opera I have to reopen every single tab manually from the history.
Already tried Spare Parts, but it doesn't offer some kinda whitelist for apps that shouldn't be autokilled.
It's really frustrating, Android's autokilling feature was one of the few things, that I didn't like about that OS when I switched from Windows Mobile to Android a few years ago. And I still hate that feature. Why can't I decide by myself which apps to be closed and which ones not? Give back the power to the user I say!
At least there HAS to be a solution to force Anddroid, not to kill a specified app (e.g. Opera) and kill all the other running apps instead. Any 3rd Party task killer has some kinda ignore list, so how could Android be tweaked to do the same?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree. I was downloading a file in Opera, switched to other apps, then went back to opera and it reopened.. Needless to say the download failed. This really sucks.
Use titanium and freeze the stock task manager (if any).
Android, by default, keeps only 3 (correct me if I'm wrong) applications' sessions in memory, but that's obviously no reason for it to kill angry birds right after the display is closed.
Try installing Minfree (I think it's available on the Play Store) to understand when and why Android is killing the application. It'll give you the parameters on which the Android Auto killer operates, but you will need ROOT to be able to edit them.
And no, there isn't a way to earmark an application such that it isn't killed, at least, not that I know of.
Hope this helps.
Haters gonna hate
potatoes gonna potate.
Check out v6 supercharger and all ur questions will be answered.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=991276
sent from my DNA
jbroses said:
I am new to Android - just got a Droid 3.
How do I stop the system from auto-killing a certain app? When I play Angry Birds, if the phone goes to sleep on timeout, when I turn it back on, the App has to re-load from scratch (rather than opening to where I left off last time). I'm assuming the system decided to kill it for lack of memory, but how do I STOP it from doing that (like an ignore list)?
Will I need a third party app?
Any help is appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, excuse me for not reading other posts and replying directly but wanted to share something that works for me and does not kill certain launched apps. Open any app, then come out of the app and tap on recent apps button and you will see the apps that are currently launched. Depending on your OS and model, are you able to lock an app (by slightly dragging the app icon down and then tapping on the lock icon). I did that for one of the games and surprisingly even after several minutes, I was able to continue from exactly where I left off. Hope this helps. Let me know.
Screenshot: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9Bs7dxj7t3o/VZHLFAF6fdI/AAAAAAABI0Q/WXFhUv1c2gw/s1600/IMG_0023.JPG
Hi Everyone,
Basically, I got my Samsung Galaxy Player 4.0 in January, and when it comes to the features, I have been loving it. This is my first Android device.
However, I have been having problems lately. First, some basic information: it's an 8gb device, and I have a 32gb class 10 microSD card in it. I have a huge number of apps on it (over 200), however, I keep careful tabs on what is running in the background, reporting an app if it runs in the background even when not needed and that will reopen if killed, and if I don't really need it, deleting it after a week. I've only had to do that with a couple of apps so far. As I use this a lot as a PDA (I don't have a phone, this basically covers those bases), I have a couple of things that always run in the background, which I want there (textplus, Linphone, MailDroid, SwipePad). After getting rid of the services that I don't need, I'm still looking at over 100MB free RAM. I'm still on the stock ROM, and I'm using GO launcher Ex. I reboot daily.
My problem is that it crashes often - sometimes daily. Usually, it will go something like this: An application freezes, the whole system becomes unresponsive, and I either have to reboot it by holding down the power button for 8 (?) seconds, or something snags and it reboots by itself. Usually the first sign is that the haptic feedback for the home button comes about a second later after I press it - except then it is almost always too late. The power button will usually turn the screen on or off, but the lockscreen won't appear, I'll see the screen as it was before, frozen. Sometimes, it eventually reboots, while sometimes it doesn't, making me hold down the power button to reboot it, and sometimes, just as it will start "becoming unfrozen" (it goes to the home screen and it starts loading), it will reboot.
It seems to be that after an approximate time of active use, it will crash. Before that, apps can freeze, FC, and within a few seconds, I'll be back on the home screen or in another app, doing something else. After that, on the other hand, it seems to me that whenever an app freezes or has a problem, it basically takes down the whole system with it.
Something tells me that this isn't just normal (otherwise Android wouldn't have over 50% of smart phone market share ), because I haven't heard of problems like this before, and other people with Android I know don't seem to be having the same problems (if any, at all). I have been reading around, and saw some thread about another phone describing similar problems, and it turns out it was a motherboard problem, so the phone was returned for warranty, except I don't remember where that was, I'm just hoping it's something like that...
OK, now that you've read my long post (sorry, I thought it would be best to give more details than get asked about them), I really hope this isn't something normal, because outside of this problem, I'm really enjoying all the possibilities, capabilities and flexibilities of Android (I'm looking at you, iPod). It's really quite aggravating, today I lost my public transit itinerary on Google Maps (I feature I love), and thankfully, I remembered enough to make it through, but it is quite frustrating. Please tell me this is not Android being Android?
Go Launcher is not Officially supported on these devices and swallows the small amount of ram very quickly, I tried it for a day and got rid of it because of how badly it impacted performance.
edit: looks like since I tried it they added support for our players, still won't run it, its to much of a system hog.
I don't know, but I tried switching to the default launcher, and it already crashed earlier than usual. Any other ideas? I'll try some other launchers over the next few days.
Sounds like you are running out of system resources. You say you have a couple hundred apps installed and I bet some of those are becoming active and hogging precious ram and cpu resources in the background until the system crashes. I have a 2 year old Samsung Captivate and I only have minimal amount of apps because it will often big down and become unresponsive and crash. So before you head out to a repair shop, remove some of your many apps and see if that helps.
So, if I understand, even if an app runs in the background for a short period of time, it still consumes resources, even after it's stopped running?
trainman261 said:
So, if I understand, even if an app runs in the background for a short period of time, it still consumes resources, even after it's stopped running?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have a titanium backup freeze apps that run in backround and see what happens ..when you open programs they will stay in memory so use some memory kill widget to clean memory from time to time.I have a stock rom witch is not very good with memory menagment so sometimes when memory is full it just stop and only help is restarting ..so i use app "quick system info" which give you memory ajd cpy usage displayed in status bar and when memory is close 2 full i just click on that and it kill all other aps except what a use in that moment.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA
So, basically, the ROM is to blame? As to Titanium backup, I think that needs root, and I'm not quite ready to root yet (I've done enough hacking on my iPod). I do plan on upgrading to android 4.0 eventually (once all the issues get fixed, this is my main device, after all), and I think I'm going to have to root it at that point, but I'll be able to test it on a different ROM then, as well as try freezing apps. For now, I've tried LauncherPro, which seems a lot more lightweight, and it seems to be making it through the day until I reboot, and seems to be very stable... it also loads my widgets lightnight fast, which is great.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the way I understand it is:
obviously there are memory leaks, every OS has that
Android will not kill services, but only programs
If there are places where memory can be freed, Android will do that when necessary
If no memory can be freed, and there is barely any memory left, than a minor FC or a frozen app is all it will need to push Android off the cliff
Is this the way it works? And, then, when I upgrade to 4.0 (CM9), most of those problems should be gone (because of better memory management)?
I use the tablet mostly for playing. And I am used to move between them without issues. Unless I open a bunch of other apps or browser with multiple tabs and what not. The games remain running without issues or at least they used to. Normally I don't update anything, except for the games because they are live service and I can't play them if I don't. After learning that this update would improved multitasking I updated.
Ever since I can't keep the games open if I leave them for like 20 minutes or maybe less, haven't time it.
Using it as I did, closed them. So I decide to clear all and only play one. After a notification, went to that game for daily tap immediately went back to the prev game and it had close, which cost me a match. After finishing what I was doing on that game. I went to the settings to see if something was amiss. And all the apps I remember disabling that I couldn't uninstall like Youtube are still disabled. I don't have any social media app like FB or anything that would be constantly running. And went back to the game. Lo and behold had to restart again. I checked Dev options and Apps "Background process limit" still standard. Memory is at 4~4.5 with so much free I don't get I it's been so aggressive. Have 66 apps on "deep sleeping" have things like digital well being and other monitoring stuff also off. And the only thing I changed was enabling the "Labs" to allow Multi window for all apps. And just now, went to homescreen while I picked something from the kitchen, I know I didn't take more than 5 min because the screen didn't even timed out. And when I tap on a game, had to relaunch.
God this is ridiculously annoying. And non of the games updated since. I only updated a couple of apps from store.
And worst, I updated believing it would be better at multitasking. Like it would be smarter when using split screen, but it isn't. Maybe it does improve for Samsung apps. But I've seen nothing good from anything I use. And changes to the UI could've been implemented better. Like having dual pane only when you are holding the tablet lanscape. I remember having very old android device that had dual pane but revert to single if you hold them portrait.
I'm considering doing a full reset. But I'm hoping not too. Between the apps and games, which most are 5GB+ up to nearly 10GB it would take me a very long time to set everything again, Easily a full day for some games. (Very bad old, first gen copper line DSL)
Is anyone have any type of similar issues. Cause it would suck if I reset it and that's just how it works now. And it wants me to use the "keep open" feature. Which I don't like, I do like to use the clear all.
One of the main reason I got this particular tablet was for the multitasking. This is the first device I didn't try rooting out of the bat because of a warranty and what not and decided to give it a go as is. Now I'm not sure If I'm just spoiled by years for rooted and heavily modified devices. Or this is just a Samsung thing.
@Omizuke: Not sure if this is related to RAM management, but I'm also on September update. When I update apps via Play Store/Galaxy Store, the device will completely freeze for as long as 30 seconds. It just locks up, I can't do anything. Can't pull down the status bar, nav buttons don't work. Then suddenly it returns to normal. I get the same thing when connecting to WiFi or pairing via Bluetooth. ROM is clean flashed with Odin, i also did a factory reset.
This didn't happen at all on the July update.
I'm not seeing any issues with app killing, as you've described it. All opened apps continue running and I can return to them on demand. I play a lot of games, COD Mobile in particular, and I switch apps a lot between rounds.
I feel you on the not wanting to set up everything again. I save cached copies (APKs/obbs) of my games/apps on my SD card, so I can set everything up without Internet. Just use an app like Total Commander/X-plore to copy the apps.