Multitasking is not s3's cup of tea. - Galaxy S III Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Ok. I am a s3 user for last month. But disappointed on s3 multitasking capabilities. Seriously If u r playing a basic game like angry birds and if u got a call in middle after finishing call the game reload s itself. Wtf. My old lg optimus net with 512mb ram and arv6 800 mhz pro works good at these things. I was able to use uc browser, equilizer app, songs playing in background and also whats app same time on lg op net. But on s3 having quad 1gb ram it sucks. Some times it reloads equilizer app also that hardly takes 2 or 4 mb
I guess because sammy has loaded so much bloatware that leads to 650 or 700 mb ram always in use. What is the use of these specs then????? :banghead:
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Yeah, it isn't. They've really messed it up.
There's nothing that we can do about stock, though. Just move on or go for a custom ROM/kernel.

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rohan_avni said:
Ok. I am a s3 user for last month. But disappointed on s3 multitasking capabilities. Seriously If u r playing a basic game like angry birds and if u got a call in middle after finishing call the game reload s itself. Wtf. My old lg optimus net with 512mb ram and arv6 800 mhz pro works good at these things. I was able to use uc browser, equilizer app, songs playing in background and also whats app same time on lg op net. But on s3 having quad 1gb ram it sucks. Some times it reloads equilizer app also that hardly takes 2 or 4 mb
I guess because sammy has loaded so much bloatware that leads to 650 or 700 mb ram always in use. What is the use of these specs then????? :banghead:
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It's not due to the bloatware. It's actually a problem with ICS and jellybean. They just use more ram than the older versions of android. For example, my old galaxy s could multitask amazingly well on froyo 2.2.1 but not as well on gingerbread and worse on cm10. Similarly, your lg optimus was probably on froyo of gingerbread, which inherently use less ram. Even if you disabled all the s3's bloatware, you'd only get a minor increase in multitasking capabilities. In order to multitask well on ICS or jb, you'd need 2gb of ram. Hopefully, android 5.0 will optimise ram usage and make multitasking better on 1gb ram phones.

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DeadSOL said:
Yeah, it isn't. They've really messed it up.
There's nothing that we can do about stock, though. Just move on or go for a custom ROM/kernel.
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Hmmm thank u for not bashing me. I thought I might have hurt the ego of sammys fans. But really unrooted and on stock it really suck. No use of quad core and gig of ram. Any other solution than rooting???

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Yup my op net is on gingerbread 2.3.4 hope that 5.0 will resolve this issue. How u ppl managing this?? Even while using xda app I just pressed home button to check new sms and in background sonsgs also playing. After replying to sms I tap on xda app and guess what it reloads. I have to find whole way to this thread.
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rohan_avni said:
Hmmm thank u for not bashing me. I thought I might have hurt the ego of sammys fans. But really unrooted and on stock it really suck. No use of quad core and gig of ram. Any other solution than rooting???
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Uhh!!
No. Nobody would bash you for this post.
Unless you spam the forum.
I was almost bashed for that yesterday..
LOL

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i think some people said MB1 - MB2 Roms has a bit better ram management maybe u can try
and the weird thing my 2 years old GS2 multitask 1000% times better than GS3 ( both on 4.1.2 ) samsung need to fix this **** for their flagship :silly::silly:

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yahyoh said:
i think some people said MB1 - MB2 Roms has a bit better ram management maybe u can try
and the weird thing my 2 years old GS2 multitask 1000% times better than GS3 ( both on 4.1.2 ) samsung need to fix this **** for their flagship :silly::silly:
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I tried 4.2 leak and Samsung improved memory management on it but that leak has it's own share of bugs and I'm back on 4.1 better to wait for new leak or final product.

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rohan_avni said:
Hmmm thank u for not bashing me. I thought I might have hurt the ego of sammys fans. But really unrooted and on stock it really suck. No use of quad core and gig of ram. Any other solution than rooting???
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Click to collapse
No, no; I wouldn't bash you for this. The multitasking issue is a big thing and has been present for a long time. For example, look at my review post and look at the list of negatives: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=37700176&postcount=9061
Multitasking really, really sucks on the S3! Samsung have done an awful job.
I really hope Google can fix two major things on the next iteration of Android's OS;
1) Better RAM management (which would improve multitasking and load)
2) Giving us cloud storage for game data (it would be a huge help for those people who wipe or switch ROMs)

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Hmmm really hoping that sammy will fix this annoying issue asap. I dnt want to root and install custome rom just nw. I can experiment with these things on my old lg. Its on jb cm 10 already but camera not working. But my s3 is new so will use it stock. Also afraid of sds.
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Nice review mate. :thumbup:
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Well no doubt multitasking sucks on s3. I guess it's not due to jelly bean. My friend's s2 works great on jelly bean and multitasking is great on it. I guess the problem is on software side of s3. 1gb ram its more than enough for handling phones like s3.
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This has been discussed plenty and you're right, it's one of the s3's biggest flaws. The only obvious solution is the only one you can't really do - add ram. That or, you know, hope samsung takes his head out of his ass and actually fixes this since it's rather shameful, but I won't be holding my breath.
But there are workarounds, even if not perfect:
- you can use a custom aosp based rom. There're plenty to chose from. Although i haven't tried how their memory management is better than stock's many people report it is. And they usually use much less ram too and that also helps. The bad side is, since samsung didn't really deliever on the sources they promissed, any aosp rom for the s3 isn't as optimized as it could be. This translates in worse battery life, somewhat more lag than expected, aparently worse camera (from what i heard) that stock stuff... Some people don't even notice other can't live with that - up to you.
- use swap. by installing a swap-enabled kernel you're able to multitask more. This isn't the same as adding ram although it's probably as close as it gets functionality wise. What you're doing is creating a file on either the internal or the external sd that will help with your poor ram managing.
You can get more info here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paging if you're ineterested how stuff works. There's also plenty of info on such kernels on the "original development" thread.
There are prices to be paid though, internal and external sd's are never as fast as ram, so you'll probably feel your phone slower overall, even more if you use the external sd which is known to be even slower than the internal sd (card class is a huge factor here since it determines how fast your card is at reading and writing).
Also, since your phone will be constantly writting/reading from sd you're also reducing it's life span. If your internal sd breaks down, you'll need a new phone since the internal sd can't be replaced. If it's the external sd you can just buy another one cheap.
I did try this with an 8Gb class 6 card and a 512Mb swap. Sure it multitasked like a boss but phone was much slower all around. There are reports from people saying they don't notice any slow downs with a class 10 card though. They're rather cheap so i'll give it a try one day.
- sell it and buy the 9305 with 2Gb of ram. Or wait for the new S4. Or, if you're tired of getting shafted by samsung, go for any other brand. To be honest that xperia Z is looking mighty fine lately...

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Super nice info friend. Will try other kernel but not nw. Will wait and watch what sammy is gonna do to fix these in next updates??
So many issues wid this flagship droid. Sudden death, exynos abuse, heating issues........
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Well, it sucks how the phone just kills, stops or breaks whatever you leave running either in background or when the screen turns off. And it's plainly annoying to see almost every app getting reopened after a while even if nothing significant happened. Since there's no working multitask I'd rather have what apple does for "multitasking". At least apps are reopened where they were left.
But I'm keeping it for a bit more. I guess I could sell it and get the 9305 for little more money but I'm waiting to see whatever new comes out. If nothing pleases me I can always get the 05 at any point later, probably cheaper too. There's a 4.2 rom from Samsung to the s3 just around the corner, and I'm aware this is wishful thinking but who knows...
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kaynpayn said:
Well, it sucks how the phone just kills, stops or breaks whatever you leave running either in background or when the screen turns off. And it's plainly annoying to see almost every app getting reopened after a while even if nothing significant happened. Since there's no working multitask I'd rather have what apple does for "multitasking". At least apps are reopened where they were left.
But I'm keeping it for a bit more. I guess I could sell it and get the 9305 for little more money but I'm waiting to see whatever new comes out. If nothing pleases me I can always get the 05 at any point later, probably cheaper too. There's a 4.2 rom from Samsung to the s3 just around the corner, and I'm aware this is wishful thinking but who knows...
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Have you checked what the multitasking is like in aosp roms?
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2 pages and all of the mockery and nonsense flying all over the wall... You guys should sell your phone really, you lose couple hundreds dollar more and buy HTC or sth....save the b*tching
Solution: swap, lower the low Memory Killer value (original value is too high to keep app initial load faster, apps like system tuner or minfree manager will help), lock app logic (so that app doesn't get kill almost immediately when you use another app in between of a big app.
Reason why the galaxy s3 is so bad at multitasking is that to ensure users of less lags, less forgotten apps running in the background hogging the ram. Unfortunately android doesn't have a "pause in between" feature, but you chose it so find the d*mn mod and stop whining. I use AOSP and don't even say I defend samsung.... I just hate the nonsense...
Edit: Btw, titanium backup is only 6$ or so, buy it and freeze the crapwares if you don't use. Freeze, not uninstall so the next time you update your custom rom it won't reappear.
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Actually, I believe Samsung is working on a resolution.
I was trying out the 4.2.1 stock leaked ROM, and to my surprise found that zRam was enabled (thanks to Yank, check out the discussion over on the "bestmultitaskingfix" thread).
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Not sure what is wrong with your phones
Alright, I have read a lot of threads about this issue, but it always amazes me. I am not sure what is up with your phones. I just did a quick test. I opened messaging to a certain message, opened dropbox to my camera uploads, opened xda to this thread, and opened two games (subway surf and hill climb racing). I am able to switch between them with no reloading, fairly quick goes right back to where I was. Checking my ram I am still at 706MB/832MB. After closing it all down I am at 466MB/832MB.
Not sure what I am doing differently. I am running wanamlite v5.5. I have not done anything else special.
I suggest looking a little closer at your phone. What have you done to it and what is taking your memory. Surely there is something(s) you don't really need sucking up your memory.
I know many people report this issue, but I think everyone has a different situation. I don't see how I have no issue and others do, must be some change on the users part that causes/prevents this problem.

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wangdaning said:
Alright, I have read a lot of threads about this issue, but it always amazes me. I am not sure what is up with your phones. I just did a quick test. I opened messaging to a certain message, opened dropbox to my camera uploads, opened xda to this thread, and opened two games (subway surf and hill climb racing). I am able to switch between them with no reloading, fairly quick goes right back to where I was. Checking my ram I am still at 706MB/832MB. After closing it all down I am at 466MB/832MB.
Not sure what I am doing differently. I am running wanamlite v5.5. I have not done anything else special.
I suggest looking a little closer at your phone. What have you done to it and what is taking your memory. Surely there is something(s) you don't really need sucking up your memory.
I know many people report this issue, but I think everyone has a different situation. I don't see how I have no issue and others do, must be some change on the users part that causes/prevents this problem.
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Hii. well try this run angry birds & subway surf same time plus songs in background & any messenger like nimbuzz then switch between apps & revert here please. also a live wallpaper. :angel:
I am just mentioning basic games. i tried running gta vc & nfs mw but both reloads after first switch.