I'm very new to android and enjoying my S3 for two weeks. Sorry for the dump question but I'm still not sure about the interface that is shown after long press of home button.
a) Is it just a dummy task history including all active and inactive applications executed previously.
b) Or... Is it a task manager that shows only active background (consuming ram) applications.
I know that any application that have a RAM place will consume the battery, So which one of above item is the true one ?
An important second question: What does "Remove All" button do ? Just clears task history or kills all active background tasks ?
Regards...
buyukbang said:
I'm very new to android and enjoying my S3 for two weeks. Sorry for the dump question but I'm still not sure about the interface that is shown after long press of home button.
a) Is it just a dummy task history including all active and inactive applications executed previously.
b) Or... Is it a task manager that shows only active background (consuming ram) applications.
I know that any application that have a RAM place will consume the battery, So which one of above item is the true one ?
An important second question: What does "Remove All" button do ? Just clears task history or kills all active background tasks ?
Regards...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a history, not a list of active apps. From that screen, press task manager at the bottom left and go to the active applications tab on the very left (scroll the list of tabs if necessary). There you can see the list of active apps.
Don't forget that to exit most apps, you have to use the back button (or the exit fuction if the app has one, like Skype) rather than the home button.
buyukbang said:
I'm very new to android and enjoying my S3 for two weeks. Sorry for the dump question but I'm still not sure about the interface that is shown after long press of home button.
a) Is it just a dummy task history including all active and inactive applications executed previously.
b) Or... Is it a task manager that shows only active background (consuming ram) applications.
I know that any application that have a RAM place will consume the battery, So which one of above item is the true one ?
An important second question: What does "Remove All" button do ? Just clears task history or kills all active background tasks ?
Regards...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, i'm not using stock rom so i'm not very sure. But i think that's just inactive applications executed previously. If they were background tasks, and you killed them, they would continue running background later. You can check apps in Settings -> Apps -> Running
Semi-noob said:
Well, i'm not using stock rom so i'm not very sure. But i think that's just inactive applications executed previously. If they were background tasks, and you killed them, they would continue running background later. You can check apps in Settings -> Apps -> Running
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here is a decent article that explains why you shouldn't get too worried about seeing apps in your running apps list. If you're worried about conserving the battery, it is much more important to switch off stuff when you don't need it. For example do not use auto-sync, just manually sync what you want time to time. Manually switch off everything that you do not use before leaving your phone idle, like the wifi, mobile data, gps, etc. Also it's a paradox but it seems that you have to set your "keep wi-fi on during sleep" to always in the wifi advanced settings!?
Thank you guys. This information is really usuaful for me !
@daviddema,
I read the article, thx for that, too. So do I understand correctly:
Even a completely empty RAM consumes as much as the one filled with cache data (to start it faster in the future) of stopped applications ?
buyukbang said:
Even a completely empty RAM consumes as much as the one filled with cache data (to start it faster in the future) of stopped applications ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes.
Empty RAM uses as much power as used RAM.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium
Thank you for the answer. Now it's more clear for me...
nodstuff said:
Yes.
Empty RAM uses as much power as used RAM.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Related
I was wondering how to quit a program without using an app like taskiller. basically i'm using the Browser and pressed home screen to leave, but i want to quit the browser so it stops running...
Press the "Back" button. That is when you're inside an app and want to close it.
The behaviour of the "home" and "back" keys vary from application to application. Some quits, but the majority keeps running in the background. Some applications have an "exit" option from their menu, but that's just a few and most notably applications which normally are expected to do things in the background like maintaining connectivity to IM servers, checking for new mail etc. This is one of several inconsistencies which hopefully gets sorted in future android releases, accompanied by consistent recommendations in the dev-kit documentation.
From the Hero home screen, do this
Menu - settings - applications - manage applications - browser - force stop
Or you could stop treating your phone like a desktop computer and accept the fact that a) you can't run different apps in windows side-by-side and b) there is no point in closing windows. Android does the memory management for you.
Volker1 said:
Or you could stop treating your phone like a desktop computer and accept the fact that a) you can't run different apps in windows side-by-side and b) there is no point in closing windows. Android does the memory management for you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree that android does the memory management very neatly, that's only when you are running very low on it... and what about the fact that the backgroung apps are draining the battery?? I think one really needs to get rid of unnecessary apps to improve battery life.
LooieENG said:
From the Hero home screen, do this
Menu - settings - applications - manage applications - browser - force stop
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm, yeah that's one way but it takes for ever!!
salmanbodla said:
I agree that android does the memory management very neatly, that's only when you are running very low on it... and what about the fact that the backgroung apps are draining the battery?? I think one really needs to get rid of unnecessary apps to improve battery life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Background apps are SLEEPING, ie they ONLY take up memory, they hardly use any CPU time at all
Background apps can sleep and can also continue to work.
Just let the handset work its own management. Never had an issue with memory or slow downs but just leaving well alone.
If you want the browser to stop loading before you move to another app or go Home, just hit the stop loading icon in the address bar.
Ok I have looked around and have not found the answer. SO here Goes
In windows if you want to keep the memory that you have clear of background applications, you can run system configuration and just remove the check-mark for those items you dont want to auto start.
I have Advanced Task Killer installed and will set it up to auto kill and will manual kill apps as well. Instead of consistently looking at ATK to shut down apps, is there a way to just keep all the apps you not using nor have ever started from suddenly being there and sucking the life out of your battery?
Having applications "running" in the background (i.e., still in memory but in a suspended state) does NOT negatively affect your battery life. These applications are actually just remaining in memory because that memory does not need to be used by anything else at the moment. If an active application gets to a point where it needs more memory, Android will automatically close applications that are in a suspended state (i.e., not actively being used) to make room.
In other words, using an app killer is NOT necessary and I definitely recommend NOT using one. By closing the application repeatedly, you are just causing the application to take a longer amount of time to start up next time you use it. You're making your Android experience worse by using one, not better.
There is one caveat to this, and that is when you have an application installed that doesn't play nicely -- i.e., even when you stop using that application, it will continue to use up CPU cycles (never go into a suspended state). This is actually pretty rare unless you are installing really poorly written programs, but it can happen to some popular apps too (usually the result of a bug). In this case, you should either uninstall that application or use an app killer to only kill that one app.
I've heard both sides of this argument, and don't know who to believe. I didn't think I needed a Task Killer, but then I saw it repeatedly on "top 10 apps for Android" and "must have Android apps" lists from respected sites like cnet... who to believe?!
Cnet ≠ respected
Sent from my Liberty using XDA App
drumist said:
Having applications "running" in the background (i.e., still in memory but in a suspended state) does NOT negatively affect your battery life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I need to confirm this. Anyone? I dont care about memory because I bet Android excels at that, and at any rate, memory is there to be used, not to keep it empty.
But I come from a Symbian smartphone and "minimized" applications DO uses battery. Maybe little, but noticeable.
Anyone can confirm that background apps consume negligible battery juice?
Additionally, is there a nice task changer? Like windows Alt+Tab. I feel my Android like an iPhone, that I need to press the home button to move to another already opened app and that's just plain stupid. So far I'm using Multitasking Lite, but it can get sluggish once there are too many apps opened. Any suggestion would be warmly welcomed.
"Running" background apps DO NOT consume battery life unless they're actively syncing. If it's just in the memory saving the state of the app then that is fine.
As far as using a task killer, if you are manually killing apps and they keep starting back up then that is a bad thing for your battery. The app uses cpu cycles everytime it starts up again and syncs data. You can use a task killer to close apps that opened on startup or when you're done with them. If they stay closed until you choose to open them again then you're saving memory, but nothing to do with battery life.
ocswing said:
"Running" background apps DO NOT consume battery life unless they're actively syncing. If it's just in the memory saving the state of the app then that is fine
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for confirming ;]
Darius_bd said:
Additionally, is there a nice task changer? Like windows Alt+Tab. I feel my Android like an iPhone, that I need to press the home button to move to another already opened app and that's just plain stupid. So far I'm using Multitasking Lite, but it can get sluggish once there are too many apps opened. Any suggestion would be warmly welcomed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Obviously you can switch over to some apps by pulling down the notification menu and selecting the appropriate app. That only works on apps that put themselves in the notification menu though (multimedia apps and things like Google Nav usually do this).
Otherwise, you can press and hold the home button to bring up the list of 8 most recently opened apps without exiting the active app. This works but like I said, it's the 8 most recent apps, so it will list apps that aren't necessarily still running anymore. It's more of a shortcut to having to go search in your apps menu or home screens to find a recent app than a way to see what is currently running.
drumist said:
Otherwise, you can press and hold the home button to bring up the list of 8 most recently opened apps without exiting the active app. This works but like I said, it's the 8 most recent apps, so it will list apps that aren't necessarily still running anymore. It's more of a shortcut to having to go search in your apps menu or home screens to find a recent app than a way to see what is currently running.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What can I say, I hate pressing the home key to hunt for the icon that opens the app I already opened more than 6 other apps ago ;] Guess I'll stick to Multitasking Lite for the time being. Thanks!
does anyone know how to clear the recent apps so there is not a long list? is there anyone that I could shorten it to only show my last 3 apps?
thanks again
Freak
tab 10.1
If you hold your Power button down a while, a list of options will come up. Select Power Off. This will power down your tablet. When you restart it the list will be cleared.
What type of things do you have on your recent list "sexfreak"?
there are things there that are adult oriented, I also dont like how it shows the last picture taken. I was hoping for something a little more slick then powering it off and on, like maybe shortening the list that it would display, or a "app" or link that would clear it out.
sexfreak said:
does anyone know how to clear the recent apps so there is not a long list? is there anyone that I could shorten it to only show my last 3 apps?
thanks again
Freak
tab 10.1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just use one of the Task Manager apps then kill all the processes.
i use advance task killer, it free's the memory up but still leaves the "history " should I use a different task killer?
Developers can mark their apps to not show in recent apps list, but the list itself is only modifiable by android OS. So I think there is no a task killer/manager which can help you.
You can reboot tab or open as many app as needed to hide your problematic app from the lsit
So far Task manager will not clear your recent app list. Only solution I have found is rebooting the device.
Does anyone know where the data is stored? Would it be possible to navigate to the location of the file and clear it that way?
Sent from my GT-P7510 using XDA Premium App
has anyone noticed that after you kill an app that it will start on its own? gmail, books, clock, browser, craigslist, google voice and others will start up after I "kill" them
Is it a good idea to constantly long-press home button and swipe the recently opened apps away? Is this the equivalent of "killing" the apps? I'm asking because I read that killing your apps is usually a bad idea because your RAM should always be used and it actually hurts your battery life. Is there a difference between this and going to the process manager and deleting the process?
When should I swipe recently opened apps away? Currently, I do this to free some RAM but I'm not sure if it's necessary.
Does your swipe include killing apps ? or it just removes it from recent apps list ?
if it kills , I'd say that don't swipe away important applications that you constantly use like launcher,browser,whatsapp etc
on the other hand you can swipe off apps you rarely use and which might be open like games , or other apps
you are right about swiping the important apps,it does more harm than good
Sent from my GT-S5670 using xda premium
mindstormer said:
Is it a good idea to constantly long-press home button and swipe the recently opened apps away? Is this the equivalent of "killing" the apps? I'm asking because I read that killing your apps is usually a bad idea because your RAM should always be used and it actually hurts your battery life. Is there a difference between this and going to the process manager and deleting the process?
When should I swipe recently opened apps away? Currently, I do this to free some RAM but I'm not sure if it's necessary.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When you swipe away recent apps you are essentially "exiting" the app safely where as when you use a task manger application you are force closing the application on the spot. This is not the same as "killing" the app in a technical sense what is happening is two things. The first thing that is happening when you swipe away a recent app is it kills any background process or empty processes of the application in a safe manner (Check out this section of the Android developer guide for more info on what this is about) unlike a task manger which just kills the entire application process negatively effecting performance. Second what is happening is the new API is used to tell any services of the action that is what removed so that the system can appropriate action such as starting a new process or service (For more on this see this section in the Android developer documentation). In answering you RAM question Android manages it's own memory which is why task killers once again mess this up and hurt rather then help performance. The recent application list shows what apps were recently used and clearing this will tell the applications to exist free some memory but some of their background services and tasks will still always run in the background as part of the app using some memory and battery. To explicitly and completely stop an app from memory you can go to Android built in application manger under System Settings > Application Manger and then go to the running tab and see what applications are running in the background. Overall, removing recent applications will help battery life but as previously mentioned the apps background processes will use some of system's battery and memory resources. If you are interested in learning more about this I would recommend checking out this.
shimp208 said:
When you swipe away recent apps you are essentially "exiting" the app safely where as when you use a task manger application you are force closing the application on the spot. This is not the same as "killing" the app in a technical sense what is happening is two things. The first thing that is happening when you swipe away a recent app is it kills any background process or empty processes of the application in a safe manner (Check out this section of the Android developer guide for more info on what this is about) unlike a task manger which just kills the entire application process negatively effecting performance. Second what is happening is the new API is used to tell any services of the action that is what removed so that the system can appropriate action such as starting a new process or service (For more on this see this section in the Android developer documentation). In answering you RAM question Android manages it's own memory which is why task killers once again mess this up and hurt rather then help performance. The recent application list shows what apps were recently used and clearing this will tell the applications to exist free some memory but some of their background services and tasks will still always run in the background as part of the app using some memory and battery. To explicitly and completely stop an app from memory you can go to Android built in application manger under System Settings > Application Manger and then go to the running tab and see what applications are running in the background. Overall, removing recent applications will help battery life but as previously mentioned the apps background processes will use some of system's battery and memory resources. If you are interested in learning more about this I would recommend checking out this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
soham jambhekar said:
Does your swipe include killing apps ? or it just removes it from recent apps list ?
if it kills , I'd say that don't swipe away important applications that you constantly use like launcher,browser,whatsapp etc
on the other hand you can swipe off apps you rarely use and which might be open like games , or other apps
you are right about swiping the important apps,it does more harm than good
Sent from my GT-S5670 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Awesome, thanks for the informative posts.
Hi guys,
I'll try to be understandable.
I have 2 apps (app1 and app2), I want to be able to use app1 while app2 keep running in background, and switch to app2 while app1 keep running in background.
I know that Android kills app if it needs RAM, mine has 6gb RAM maybe it's not enough or simply not possible.
Let me know about it, if I'm looking for something not possible.
I found some answers on internet but I think I didn't use them properly.
I heard about freeform mode (using a kind of floating apps).
I though about using split screen, it works, but I used the built-in feature and I can't resize both split screens. It is forced to 50/50.
I tried to use the "Don't optimize" feature, "Standard limit" in battery settings etc... but it doesn't work properly with my apps.
Maybe it comes from the apps themselves ?
Thanks in advance,
Hi
You can check Battery in settings, Allows apps to continue running the background with high power consumption.
Gaarnom said:
Hi guys,
I'll try to be understandable.
I have 2 apps (app1 and app2), I want to be able to use app1 while app2 keep running in background, and switch to app2 while app1 keep running in background.
I know that Android kills app if it needs RAM, mine has 6gb RAM maybe it's not enough or simply not possible.
Let me know about it, if I'm looking for something not possible.
I found some answers on internet but I think I didn't use them properly.
I heard about freeform mode (using a kind of floating apps).
I though about using split screen, it works, but I used the built-in feature and I can't resize both split screens. It is forced to 50/50.
I tried to use the "Don't optimize" feature, "Standard limit" in battery settings etc... but it doesn't work properly with my apps.
Maybe it comes from the apps themselves ?
Thanks in advance,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hiepv said:
Hi
You can check Battery in settings, Allows apps to continue running the background with high power consumption.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is an option in developer settings which allows to choose how many apps you want running in background before system kills them.