I did use the search function. There was a similar thread posted a day ago but I'd like to do a more in-depth query here. The more extensive one has been dormant since April so I figure that I might as well open a new one.
I'm sorry if this sounds like a rant, but I want to do a serious investigation of the multitasking woes in the S3.
Just some background of my experiences:
Having flashed the latest official (ending with MF6), I must say that multitasking is just atrocious and my apps close for every 3rd one I open. RAM is always full, and once cleared it is bogged down again. And again. And again. The iPhone 4, with 512 MB RAM, can manage better than this. The RAM heavy ones (Facebook, Chrome, YT, etc.) are the worst of all-as they close down even when you don't touch the phone for a period of time.
What exactly is using up my RAM? Please don't come back to me with the Free RAM=Wasted RAM argument. I have seen no speed improvement of apps "cached in memory" compared to those that I just opened up.
I remembered back in the days of the S2 release people called 1 GB RAM unnecessary, and to an extent this is true, as the S2 was able to do some serious multitasking of 8-9+ apps without having to close any of them. Other flagships (HTC Sensation) did fine with 768 MB RAM. Heck, the Galaxy S1 seemed fine with 512 MB RAM. The OS can run, camera works fine, I can play videos fine. So where exactly did this 512 MB of extra RAM go, when the Galaxy S3 is upped to 1 GB of RAM?
I have tried zRAM 300 MB, 400 MB, 600 MB. They all make the phone remarkably slow. Initially it does prove to be somewhat useful, but over time multitasking becomes completely hopeless again.
Is there ever going to be a solution to this, or do I really have to get a 2 GB RAM phone to actually be able to use it?
Well, mate, this has been discussed over and over as you may be aware. Honestly, i've lost hope for stock firmwares on multitasking. Some people swear by zram or even swap and while it does work i didn't find the results very good. Someone may come up with a more thorough explanation on how all the ram is being actually used (and it has been written already, i've seen it around) but at this point i just don't really care much.
Bottomline, you have 3 options:
- install some aosp rom and never see this problem again (some others may come up due to lack of sources for exynos)
- compromising speed for multitasking purposes with zram, swap and there were some atempts at plain better multitask management with supercharger and others
- ignore and live with it and try to change your phone for anything else asap - samsung botched this and is making no effort i can see for a fix. If they don't care about you it's only fair you don't care about them either.
I'm aiming for a nexus4 when i find one cheap around. Plenty of power, 2Gb, fastest updates in the business. Should come down in price even more when any new phones hit the market.
This is a really big issue with this phone.
First of all, don't compare it to the iphone, cause the iphone doesn't actually multitask as it freezes apps in the background.
Start downloading something with safari and open another app in iphone. Then the download stops until you switch back to safari.
iOs multitasking philosophie is completely different to android.
Now, having paid 600euros and being unable to multitask is really frustrating. I've tried several things like different roms, external swap, internal swap, zram blah blah.
The truth is that although the stock touchwiz roms offer stuff like multi-window, they are really REALLY laggy in my opinion. I once decided to flash a cm10.1 (aosp) based rom. I haven't regretted since. I felt as if i had a completely new phone. I suggest you try such a rom. you wont regret it.
Also, there are some apps that allow you to freeze background processes. I use Rom Toolbox pro for example and i have frozen many background apps so I've reduced the amount of ram being used. Search on xda, there is a thread about which backgroung services are safe to be frozen.
Also, use greenify. Greenify stops apps from running in the background when you dont need them. Maps for example keep running in the background consuming 20mb for no reason. Greenify such apps so that they consume your ram only when you need them to do so.
Plus, change your LMK settings. The Low Memory Killer is an android service that kills apps when the amount of ram falls beneath a limit. Use an app such as Rom Toolbox to lower your limits so that apps don't get closed so often.
Finally, try zram with the appropriate settings. I use Googy-Max kernel which has bult-in zram support. I use 600mb of zram with 80% swappiness.
Having these things altered i can run at least 5 apps simultaneously without any problems. For example i run facebook and messenger along with whatsapp and skype. When i open the browser to search for something, none of the other apps gets closed.
Ofcourse if you try to run many apps, you may experience app-closing or lags. But remember, the key, is to close apps that you dont need.
Also, if your phone feels laggy just reboot it. For the next 24 hours you ll be fine without any lags.
Hopeless multitasking continues even on CM11 4.4.4. I don't understand what the reason for bad multitasking. When I switch from Dolphin browser to any other app and come just after 5 seconds I find it killed. Even I can't upload a photo to a browser. While I am selecting the, browser page was shut down.
Related
Hello
First of all, Sorry for my bad english
I am using Galaxy S Plus i9001 (has 1.4 ghz proceesor and 512 mb ram)
and i wonder why Android cant multitask ?
If someone calls me while downloading some files from internet, Opera is killed and opening from beginning.. And my downloads are being corrupted..
Same for messaging too..
Its really annoying even Symbian could multitask with 680 mhz + 256 mb ram on my c6-01...
Thanks.
Strange isn't it? My old Omnia with WM6.1 was better at multitasking than Android!
Its not android blame...
The problem is in the application, on this case Opera.
nah, had it happen to me also, almost all the time.
It does this with almost every application, except those that elevate their priority themselves (i.e Titanium Backup, Better Terminal Emulator, and somehow the Android Market as well -ever noticed how the auto-updates go on even though you've started 3 or 4 other apps in the meantime ?).
The problem lies more in the way Android is configured by default for RAM-management. Using a memory optimizer like the V6 supercharger helps a lot, just use the "multitasking" setting, and it'll be much better you'll see
And if you're still not happy, just use the "bulletproof" script on the app you want to stay open, it'll be almost unkillable by the process manager then..
Sorry to restart very old thread, but this concerns me a lot.
"The problem lies more in the way Android is configured by default for RAM-management. Using a memory optimizer like the V6 supercharger helps a lot, just use the "multitasking" setting, and it'll be much better you'll see
And if you're still not happy, just use the "bulletproof" script on the app you want to stay open, it'll be almost unkillable by the process manager then.. "
I did not understand what is V6 supercharger, and I didnt understand "bulletproof" script either
Second of all in no way Android has "true multitasking", true multitasking is about giving control to users as to which apps he wants to stay open and which to be closed. Android however prefers to close my browser app(may be because it has holds more memory), and keeps apps running such as facebook which I don't use neither do I intend to use any day,
however its the closure of running app bothers me a lot, specially as it causes browsers to reload data.
There is android blog on "Multitasking the Android Way" by Dianne Hackborn.
If you read that blog it mentions how multitasking occurs on android, it brutally kills app when it needs memory, and the reasons they have posted are rather correct,
But this poses another question, symbian S60 had true multitasking, I ran more than 15 apps on my most basic symbian device and it took all that without sweat.
How did symbian handle this memory issue??
Sanditech said:
Sorry to restart very old thread, but this concerns me a lot.
But this poses another question, symbian S60 had true multitasking, I ran more than 15 apps on my most basic symbian device and it took all that without sweat.
How did symbian handle this memory issue??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
probably because symbian os doesnt eat ram as much as our stock rom? aosp roms like cm and miui give me superb multitasking..
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=991276
here you go mate, everything's explained on the page (you'll have to read it thoroughly though, it's important to understand what you're about to modify)
Has anyone else had issues of running out of memory? I often have 500+MB being used at any given time. A couple of days ago, I was using my GPS, listening to iHeartRadio and texting and my phone slowed to a crawl. Once I finally got task manager open, I had about 10MB free. I've had this happen with stock and custom ROMs.
It seems like I constantly stand at having over 400MB used.
So, how's it look for everyone else?
i've never had an issue and it should be warning you way before you get 10mb that you are low on resources
Welcome to HTC Sense.
Today, I was in a pickle because I was in a part of town I had no idea about, I was driving to and from about three places with important documents that needed to be delivered where people were waiting on me to close on a house.
Meanwhile, I'm trying to get my phone brightness up via the notification menu quick settings, open maps and find a location and navigation to there, long pressing to multitask, and text, and I was just going to fast for the phone. It was bogged down and in that hectic moment, it was just frustrating. I forgot I could have used task manager. I wonder if that would've helped me.
I love the phone. It feels great in my hand and looks sexy both physically and in its display, but this phone should not perform like the EVO 4G. I'm an HTC fanboy, but I am not above calling out a flaw. If I were an android developer wizard, I would try to fix it. But no.
I'm just trying to relate and say, I get you. ^_^
Sent from my EVO using XDA
Task manager helped in that it simply exited EVERYTHING. It kicked me out of navigation, stopped the music and brought me down to about 450MB used. Odd thing was that even though nothing was listed as running, everytime I hit refresh the memory usage was increasing.
It probably is because of sense, but it just looks so nice!
gdrocks said:
Task manager helped in that it simply exited EVERYTHING. It kicked me out of navigation, stopped the music and brought me down to about 450MB used. Odd thing was that even though nothing was listed as running, everytime I hit refresh the memory usage was increasing.
It probably is because of sense, but it just looks so nice!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If your rooted, try AutoKiller Memory, it tweaks the OOM settings of the kernel making it more efficient while managing your dormit and active memory cycles.
The dev has a great resource page you can learn much about what happens in the Android world when it comes to memory utilization.
megabiteg said:
If your rooted, try AutoKiller Memory, it tweaks the OOM settings of the kernel making it more efficient while managing your dormit and active memory cycles.
The dev has a great resource page you can learn much about what happens in the Android world when it comes to memory utilization.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Out of curiosity what are your OOM levels set at and does it help with multitasking on our devices?
boomer8403 said:
Out of curiosity what are your OOM levels set at and does it help with multitasking on our devices?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First, in the Development options I keep the Backgroud process limit the Standard and I set the AutoKiller Memory to Strict profile, which has given me good results so far, but you can play around with your settings because I know we don't have the same amount of apps or configuration overall.
Keep in mind also that I am not running a custom ROM, I'm STOCK rooted only without bloatware removed or any major changes.
Hi, my phone's music lags and stutters very frequently when I multitask. For example, if I am playing some music while I am downloading an app from the market or surfing the web, my music tends to start stuttering. It is quite annoying. I am guessing it is due to the lack of RAM but I am not 100% sure. Also, if I multitask, sometimes my entire phone starts to lag too. I have had this issue on Gingerbread, ICS and now Jellybean too. I think I may have had it on Froyo as well. Can anyone help me in solving this problem? Thanks.
What app? Which jb ROM ( just curious).
sent from my magic box to yours
I have tried a whole bunch of music players, but my fav is Google Play Music. I was on SlimBean, which was really good, but I cant handle the music lag issue. (Im almost certain that issue has been on every rom ive tried.) Im back to stock eclair now, and the music lag issue is gone. I think the music lag issue is not on google stock updates. But now on stock, the phone itself gets quite laggy. -.- I think Ive also had the music lag issue on GB and Froyo, but less. GB and Froyo were also a lot more laggy on the whole for me compared to ICS and JB. Any ideas about what I can do?
I usually get 150-200 Mb of free ram maybe because of this my phone never lags ......not even once btw I use google music along with beats audio ......I use only ics roms as these are better than froyo
I'd like to know how you get that. Tell me your settings please? And I have also gotten the music lag issue on ICS too. And I also usually use Google play music. I use an apk of course because I don't live in the states.
There are no setting actually I never use the apps which run in the background like google maps ...............I use iczen which has 380 mb of available ram and always use go taskmanager it uses very less ram and is very effective in clearing running apps ...........I usually have 10 apps installed in my phone .....other apps which I require I will do a backup of its apk and install it whenever required and after using I will remove it .....use apex launcher consumes less ram ......I always keep my data connection on and rest I will switch off including vibrations and keysounds.......... Whichever stock apps I dont use I will delete it off using titanium backup.......since we use ics on our old 512 mb ram vibrant these are must to experience no lag
Hmm I'm on jellybean and I have about 390 mb RAM but when I download on Google store the available ram is very low. I have to keep clearing my running apps. I did try go task manager but that thing takes up 30 mb of ram itself so I found it useless. Now I just use the manage apps in settings and I fc any running apps I don't need. I dunno if it'll help but I'm trying right now
Sent from my SGH-T959 using xda app-developers app
go task manager uses 10 MB. On my phone that's all .........switch off all animations ...I have tried nearly 6 ics roms in all roms I get more than 150 MB available ram! !!!...btw I never use Google maps as I have sygic navigation .......Google maps all the time will be running in background..............u can also use ram booster looks awsome and even this consumes 15 MB of ram that's it ......here is the link .... https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rootuninstaller.rambooster&hl=en
I used to use that but it took up over 20 mb of RAM for me. GO Task manager used even more, at 30 MB for me lol. I just dont use any task managers. I go manually close apps when I hit Manage Apps > Running. FB is annoying because it takes up about 10 - 15, and you are correct, Google Maps takes up a lot of RAM (for me sometimes over 30 MB, tho normally is around 14 MB) Anyway, I like Google Maps so I just stick with it. Ive tried going into dev options and setting the min background process to 2, and kill when leaving the app, as well as kill app with back button. Im getting 180 MB now, but as soon as I use the browser with music or download apps with music (DL apps with music sucks up wayyy too much RAM and then my phone starts getting choppy), it starts to laaaaagggg. oh well. Funny, this never happened to me on stock lol. stock homescreen lagged like hell, but no lag anywhere else haha. stock is just ugly though, which is why im on JB.
Hobbesfed said:
I used to use that but it took up over 20 mb of RAM for me. GO Task manager used even more, at 30 MB for me lol. I just dont use any task managers. I go manually close apps when I hit Manage Apps > Running. FB is annoying because it takes up about 10 - 15, and you are correct, Google Maps takes up a lot of RAM (for me sometimes over 30 MB, tho normally is around 14 MB) Anyway, I like Google Maps so I just stick with it. Ive tried going into dev options and setting the min background process to 2, and kill when leaving the app, as well as kill app with back button. Im getting 180 MB now, but as soon as I use the browser with music or download apps with music (DL apps with music sucks up wayyy too much RAM and then my phone starts getting choppy), it starts to laaaaagggg. oh well. Funny, this never happened to me on stock lol. stock homescreen lagged like hell, but no lag anywhere else haha. stock is just ugly though, which is why im on JB.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
among all the roms i have used remics ux and iczen uses least ram .......try these ics roms and u dont have any options other than that:laugh:
Is your music on an sd card or on the phone? it used to stutter a lot when I had it on the sd but when I moved it all to the phone it was perfectly fine.
just something that sounds like my issue before.
I was on ICSzen, however, i extremely disliked the new green theme. it was good on battery life, like SlimICS, but ICS roms all lagged, so Im on JB now. Also that Encryption Unsuccessful bug has made me wary of ICS. If I do get on ICS, I will not be able to get to JB (from what I've heard), so that is kind of an issue for me. I'm on SlimBean v2.1 right now with Semaphore v2.0.7sv, and my phone runs like the wind. RAM is better, thanks to the kernel and with SlimBean's BigMem configuration. The music lag issue is a bit better, although I haven't tried anything too crazy yet LOL. Gonna use for a while and see.
Came here for the main point? Go here and star the issue. If you want to read up, continue on!
Okay. Here's the thing: all of us know that Chrome has never been a fantastic performer on Android. That's just the fact of the matter, currently. The only device I have seen that it actually runs well on is the Nexus 4 (as a phone). The most powerful Android tablet on the market currently, save for the latest Tegra 4 devices, is the Nexus 10.
And Chrome is a disaster on it.
Hence, I wanted to do something about this. I started small, and created a Chromium bug report on Google's own issue page focusing on rectifying the stutter, lag, and unresponsiveness we see with zooming. I've looked at similar reports, and at MOST they have 2-4 stars, over long periods of time. This one? I posted around on Google+, and we've gotten 20 within 16 hours. That is a milestone. At this rate, they will HAVE to pay attention to us and work seriously on fixing slow, laggy zooming, and by extension we'll be able to continue our march into panning, scrolling, and overall UI performance.
So c'mon! Head up to the link at the top (or down there at the bottom) and star the issue. Maybe we'll get somewhere! Let's try to hit 100*!
https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=302868
CWalkop said:
a Chromium bug report on Google's own issue page focusing on rectifying the stutter, lag, and unresponsiveness we see with zooming
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd rather they corrected the freaking insane memory leak from Chrome than scrolling performance! Open a second tab and Chrome unloads the first tab BUT DOESNT RELEASE THE RAM! Switch back to the first tab and it reloads the page taking up more memory (and resetting the position on the page if scrolled down on sites like FB). In no time at all you have less than 90MB of RAM left and the Android memory manager is killing the keyboard mid-sentence because it is so low on resources!
chaosdefinesorder said:
I'd rather they corrected the freaking insane memory leak from Chrome than scrolling performance! Open a second tab and Chrome unloads the first tab BUT DOESNT RELEASE THE RAM! Switch back to the first tab and it reloads the page taking up more memory (and resetting the position on the page if scrolled down on sites like FB). In no time at all you have less than 90MB of RAM left and the Android memory manager is killing the keyboard mid-sentence because it is so low on resources!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So THAT is what was happening. I didn't know why, I could just tell it was killing the KB due to RAM.
dibblebill said:
So THAT is what was happening. I didn't know why, I could just tell it was killing the KB due to RAM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I don't know for absolute definite (I'm not a developer, merely a science graduate "pro user") but I did a series of "tests"
Here's what I did:
1) reboot tablet to start fresh
2) disable all non-needed services (dashclock, widgets etc)
3) note start "free", "in-use" and "unaddressable" RAM in the Applications -> Running screen (the bit to the left of the RAM display at the bottom of the screen I refer to as "unadressable" for lack of a better term)
4) open Chrome, navigate to reasonably image-heavy website (e.g. Facebook)
5) Check RAM usage again ("in use" had gone up, "unaddressable" unchanged)
6) Open an additional tab in Chrome, navigate to same website as 4)
7) check RAM, "in use" had gone up same amount as 5), "unaddressable" unchanged
8) switch back to first tab of Chrome, webpage reloads as if visiting the site for the first time
9) back to RAM view, "unaddressable" had increased by same amount that "in use" had increased by in 5), "in use" had ALSO increased by same amount as in 5)
10) repeat steps 6) to 9) and "unaddressable" keeps going up and up, "free" keeps going down and down, "in-use" remains the same (at least until Android starts killing processes because of the low memory!)
Bonus steps:
11) reboot tablet
12) disable Chrome
13) install AOSP Browser
14) don't look back!
Attached is a screenshot of my RAM usage after only 17 hours of uptime before I started the process of elimination to find the cause. I had it happen after only an hour of uptime before when I was switching between a few tabs at once!
By way of comparison, here's a screenshot of the same menu taken just now after 144 hours uptime (!!!) without ever touching Chrome.
I'm rooted but otherwise stock 4.3, by the way.
I might have to go back to the AOSP browser, even though I do like having Chrome synced with my other PC's...
dibblebill said:
I might have to go back to the AOSP browser, even though I do like having Chrome synced with my other PC's...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well bookmarks still get synced to desktop Chrome, it's just the "other devices" bit that won't work...
chaosdefinesorder said:
I'd rather they corrected the freaking insane memory leak from Chrome than scrolling performance! Open a second tab and Chrome unloads the first tab BUT DOESNT RELEASE THE RAM! Switch back to the first tab and it reloads the page taking up more memory (and resetting the position on the page if scrolled down on sites like FB). In no time at all you have less than 90MB of RAM left and the Android memory manager is killing the keyboard mid-sentence because it is so low on resources!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Old reply, but that's really odd - I've never experienced a leak like this from Chrome. I've checked for it before, as well, and I never saw it through Android's built-in task manager in Settings. I'll have to try the method you mentioned to see if it persists on my device, too.
Personally, I just want a browser that doesn't get in the way like Chrome does. The features are amazing, but the constant sluggish response wrecks the experience and just makes me want to use a desktop. A RAM leak makes things even worse. Dolphin is much better, but the zooming is weird and it doesn't sync like Chrome does. I really want to love Chrome, but I just can't with the way it is now.
We have 35 stars now, by the way. If we can keep this up, we'll get somewhere hopefully.
The AOSP browser has problems of its own. I don't know the last time it was actually updated on the back end but more and more websites aren't rendering properly with it.
Load this in AOSP browser: http://airdailyx.blogspot.com/
Doesn't render correctly.. Works perfect in Chrome though. Also the AOSP browser is NOTORIOUS for the back button just reloading the page and never actually going back a page. I noticed Chrome runs differently depending on the ROM. On PA 3.99 Chrome was a laggy mess. Address bar typing lag etc.. Clean wipe never helped.. I went back to a basic AOSP rom (Rasbean) and Chrome works normal and fast as the AOSP browser now.
Sent from my Nexus 10
Hello all! I have searched XDA for a similar issue but can't seem to find anything. I find it hard to believe this hasn't been asked before, so I must be using the wrong verbiage.
For some reason, certain apps are getting killed off when they aren't the foreground app. I could be playing a game, hit the recents button and switch to hangouts to type out a text, switch back to the game, and the phone reloads the entire game. This is extremely frustrating as you can imagine, but games aren't the only apps this happens to as pretty much any app does this, with the exception of Hangouts and a few others. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it either, because it's not limited to only apps that take up large amounts of ram like games. I've checked my free ram available while running Hearthstone, and it never drops below 500 it seems. I am running SKyDragon's version 9.0, Sense 7, LP 5.02. I know LP had a memory hole issue when it first came out, but I thought the version of SkyDragon I have fixed it long ago. Thanks for any help!
Well Ok then. Does anyone know if this inherent to LP with the known ram issues or is this something else?
Euphoria64 said:
Well Ok then. Does anyone know if this inherent to LP with the known ram issues or is this something else?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't know if its a problem with LP in general. But Sense ROMs have always been notorious for high RAM usage, as well as aggressive killing of apps. You might try a GPE or AOSP ROM, to see if it helps.
Thanks for the reply. Is there any way to modify the phone's inherent management of apps and memory? The only thing I could find was changing the minfree values. I'm not super familiar with how exactly it works though. I've read a brief overview of it, but when I changed Empty App to a lower number (200), it doesn't seem to make a difference. I have a feeling I'm not understanding it correctly though. Like I said in my first post, the free RAM amount never dips below 500, so it's not killing apps because it's running low on RAM. smh
Can try a different kernel,memory is usually controlled there.