Today I (supposedly) disabled lowmemorykiller by putting zero in minfree and adj files. I already have swap partition set up (size 1 GB) in a class 10 SDHC card.
Then I proceeded to open all the apps that I have installed and set them in a different state from default (like opening its settings, opening a file in case of officesuite etc).
These things happened:
1. After a max limit, older apps started to vanish from task manager to make space for newer apps
2. used swap space did not exceed 122 MB
3. when I tried to return to very old apps, some of them retained their last state giving an illusion of multitasking but a text message I was typing disappeared, did not even get saved as draft. ALL web browsers were killed. Some reloaded pages from internet, Opera Mini and Easy Browser failed to save last state (they always fail, so does Adobe Reader) so they were back to home screen with all opened tabs lost.
4. After an incoming call, when I returned to all the apps a second time, I found that all but the lightest of apps had lost their last states.
After setting minfree to zero and enabling swap with 60 swappiness Android is still killing apps without my permission.
<rant> I usually have less than 10 apps open and some of them can be memory intensive. Multitasking is better than default now, but still kinda random. I can't ever be sure that if I open this document now, I won't find my previous 20 minutes of research session lost upon returning to browser (history is messy for retrieving long sessions and very short in case of Opera Mini. Even Chrome browser sometimes crashes and gets reset not to mention always reloading all pages while Android Browser in ICS only renders crashes. My data limit is 3 GB/month). The three major handheld OS right now are Android, iOS, WM7 so don't tell me to stop whining and change OS; there is nowhere to go. At least Android is open source and there is a chance of someone legally implementing proper (like in PC) multitasking in it except multiple instances of same app which will probably be a little too much to ask for from a community but seeing that browsing the web is my main concern and all browsers already support multiple tabs, it will not be a deal-breaker for me</rant>
So my question is, how do I stop this T1000 Ninja Edition? Throw it into the chasm of Mount Doom?
On a serious note, any help will be appreciated. If you can't solve it but know what is killing my app sessions, please explain that.
SO I have come to the conclusion that ICS's maximum limit of Background apps is 18. As long as the app is not older than 19, it should be visible in task manager and should be in memory. I have set swappiness to 100 and use of swap memory increased to 221220. I'll put further pressure on it to see how it behaves when lots of tabs are open but I am afraid that 100 swappiness will make the device crash if too many tabs are open. It has already started to suddenly reboot time to time.
Edit:
It does not work that way. Android seems to really have its own will in this matter. There is no rule found by me so far that can predict when an app will be unloaded from memory. It seems time plays a role too.
At least iOS and WP7 clearly state that they do not support multitask. Google is the worst of all.
Edit:
Chrome Browser is not loading the pages from internet upon being recalled from task manager. It is loading the pages from swap but looks just like loading over 3G. Any changes in the actual pages are not being reflected until I manually hit reload. Not sure if other browsers will follow suit.
It 'just a habit of many displaying applications in the background to go on the Android Market and install a task killer for fear that some application in the background throughout the battery consumption and slow down the phone memory consuming.
First Step
Android is the son of Linux and not Windows, Windows programs make sense that clean and optimize your memory, not in linux and behaves the same way if you have 10 or 100MB of free memory.
How to manage Android applications
Android applications and processes have defined 3 stages:
1) Running
2) Break In
3) Stopped
Each application runs in its own process when Android starts the process need to be made and ends when no longer needed, it lives in its own world and its code running is isolated from the rest with a Virtual own machine, it is assigned an ID whose permissions are visible to the user and 'application.
If an application needs to share files with another application creates a unique ID to save memory with a single Virtual Machine she shared.
Services are active as long as they need as well as activities that require the data connection and every process of Android. To understand whether an application or any process needs to connect and see if there are updates that it is active so that makes this operation.
It is not good or terminate these operations because the process will start all over again immediately active or when we are going to open an application it will take longer to open.
All processes are terminated when there is no longer needed or when the memory required by other processes.
If a user leaves a task for a long time, the system deletes all activities except the root, and when the user returns to the task it is like you had left.
An application is running when in fact you're running and is the first system plan
When it is no longer at the center of the 'attention but can still be visible is paused and can be killata by the system in case of need for extreme lack of memory
Finally, the application is blocked, but retains all the information is no longer visible on the screen and is in the background, can be killata from Android for any other activity that requires memory.
Summing Android is designed to kill the tasks when
You need more memory
They finished their work
Are not used for a long time
Kill process "by hand" can lead to side effects such as non-receipt of messages, slowdowns, crashes, etc. widget
The majority of applications closes with the BACK button and in any case by pressing the HOME Android close the task after it has been in the background for a certain period of time.
The majority of services running in the background using very little memory when they are not doing something so all other processes (reporting, etc.)
Domada: But why do I open google maps, facebook etc. mail.
These programs are not actually "open" if you notice are all programs that need a network connection, when you turn on the phone they do nothing but check for updates and notifications and then close.
If these activities killiamo happens that most of them will re-open to start all over again or take longer to open when we need them, or worse, will not give us accurate and up to date or will not work properly as well as make a lot more processor.
stempox said:
It 'just a habit of many displaying applications in the background to go on the Android Market and install a task killer for fear that some application in the background throughout the battery consumption and slow down the phone memory consuming.
First Step
Android is the son of Linux and not Windows, Windows programs make sense that clean and optimize your memory, not in linux and behaves the same way if you have 10 or 100MB of free memory.
How to manage Android applications
Android applications and processes have defined 3 stages:
1) Running
2) Break In
3) Stoppati
Each application runs in its own process when Android starts the process need to be made and ends when no longer needed, it lives in its own world and its code running is isolated from the rest with a Virtual own machine, it is assigned an ID whose permissions are visible to the user and 'application.
If an application needs to share files with another application creates a unique ID to save memory with a single Virtual Machine she shared.
Services are active as long as they need as well as activities that require the data connection and every process of Android. To understand whether an application or any process needs to connect and see if there are updates that it is active so that makes this operation.
It is not good or terminate these operations because the process will start all over again immediately active or when we are going to open an application it will take longer to open.
All processes are terminated when there is no longer needed or when the memory required by other processes.
If a user leaves a task for a long time, the system deletes all activities except the root, and when the user returns to the task it is like you had left.
An application is running when in fact you're running and is the first system plan
When it is no longer at the center of the 'attention but can still be visible is paused and can be killata by the system in case of need for extreme lack of memory
Finally, the application is blocked, but retains all the information is no longer visible on the screen and is in the background, can be killata from Android for any other activity that requires memory.
Summing Android is designed to kill the tasks when
You need more memory
They finished their work
Are not used for a long time
Kill process "by hand" can lead to side effects such as non-receipt of messages, slowdowns, crashes, etc. widget
The majority of applications closes with the BACK button and in any case by pressing the HOME Android close the task after it has been in the background for a certain period of time.
The majority of services running in the background using very little memory when they are not doing something so all other processes (reporting, etc.)
Domada: But why do I open google maps, facebook etc. mail.
These programs are not actually "open" if you notice are all programs that need a network connection, when you turn on the phone they do nothing but check for updates and notifications and then close.
If these activities killiamo happens that most of them will re-open to start all over again or take longer to open when we need them, or worse, will not give us accurate and up to date or will not work properly as well as make a lot more processor.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know I'm likely to get criticised by some for saying this but some of us have to use task killers.
My phone has an average of 140 mb free after it boots up. Add to that apps that stay in ram even when you close them and you can have as little as thirty or fourty mb free.
I've seen apps such as facebook and tapatalk, and even some games, taking up ram even though I don't want them used once I exit from them...and when my phone gets to around fifty mb free or less it can get slow and unresponsive.
A quick kill of un needed apps makes the os perform as it should again.
It's nice to say android clears up ram as needed, and it does, but try playing a decent hd game when your ram is low and, unless you kill some apps first, you're left with a black frozen screen while it tries clearing some ram. In some cases your phone can be unusable for a while, on mine when this happens the capacitive buttons stop responding to keypresses.
Now on ics with 1 gb ram this isn't an issue but for those of us with less ram and / or an older os it is.
Ideally we could configure non system apps so that if we don't want them in ram when finished with them then they cannot auto restart.
It is a simple fact that two identical phones will perform differently if one has lots of free ram and one has most ram in use, I use an on demand task killer so that apps that stay around on exit can be stopped from eating ram and slowing my phone down so for me a task killer is not pointless specifically because it frees up ram so that something memory intensive can be run without slowing my system while android tries to make room for it.
So while I agree with the theory, in practice task killers can be useful or at least on demand ones can.
Dave
( http://www.google.com/producer/editions/CAownKXmAQ/bigfatuniverse )
Sent from my LG P920 using Tapatalk 2
I agree with how Linux handles its applications. I switch between WinXP and Ubuntu and the overall way tasks are utilized are similar, but linux does a better job at handling running applications. On windows i have Chrome open and with 9 tabs open im hitting 1.5 gb ram used. Same situation on linux i find myself hitting around 500mb of ram used. Im sure this applies to android as well.
On a side note i find that people who "Kill Tasks" are just running them because they can and are usually fixated on seeing a large amount of ram free. It just adds another reason to stay on their device. Just my opinion.
An alternative to task killers for rooted devices are apps that blocks app from running at triggers so nothing is killed at all; the apps don't run.
Eg: the autostarts app.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Xparent ICS Tapatalk 2
gruntparty said:
On a side note i find that people who "Kill Tasks" are just running them because they can and are usually fixated on seeing a large amount of ram free. It just adds another reason to stay on their device. Just my opinion.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use one to make sure my phones already low ram does not drop so low my phone becomes slow, which it does when you get to even just fifty mb free ram left. And to kill those applications which do not exit properly.
On an android phone that has 512 mb ram if ram gets eaten up the phone goes slow, and I know it is not just me because other users with similar setups have same issues. So I think it is too general an assumption to say we all use task killers for say a cosmetic rather than practical reason though I'm sure some do.
Dave
( http://www.google.com/producer/editions/CAownKXmAQ/bigfatuniverse )
Sent from my LG P920 using Tapatalk 2
Markuzy said:
An alternative to task killers for rooted devices are apps that blocks app from running at triggers so nothing is killed at all; the apps don't run.
Eg: the autostarts app.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Xparent ICS Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately this only stops apps auto starting at boot and once you have used an app and exited it, a lot stay in ram.
Some restart when killed some don't but when your phone is on permanently as many are, having low ram can quickly be a problem.
I think part of that is the phone manufacturer as 512 mb ram, with just 140 mb free at boot, is rubbish on a dual core 3D phone but whatever the cause I find killing tasks helps make phone run better.
Dave
( http://www.google.com/producer/editions/CAownKXmAQ/bigfatuniverse )
Sent from my LG P920 using Tapatalk 2
I used to kill tasks when i was on Android 2.1 an 2.3, but since 4.0 i feel my phone gone strangely fast, and i don't need to use task killers anymore. Phone is LG GT540, so...
lewymaro said:
I used to kill tasks when i was on Android 2.1 an 2.3, but since 4.0 i feel my phone gone strangely fast, and i don't need to use task killers anymore. Phone is LG GT540, so...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I used to love my gt540. Didn't know you could run ics on it though, good phone for the price but didn't like the resistive screen though the phone itself can take some serious punishment and still keep working.
I love lg for their build quality, pretty hard to break them with dropping etc, but unfortunately they do bad with the software side.
Dave
( http://www.google.com/producer/editions/CAownKXmAQ/bigfatuniverse )
Sent from my LG P920 using Tapatalk 2
Good topic, I don't like the task killer!
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2
In general, yes task killers are bad. But occasionally it IS necessary to kill an app. Sometimes an app will freeze. Then it needs to be killed to be able to use it again. But you can easily just go into Settings > Applications > Manage Applications, find the app and then Force Stop it. So there's no real need to have a task killer. Although I do like to have Watchdog on my phone, as it shows the amount of available CPU cycles being taken up by each app, so you can make sure background apps aren't using too much CPU. (It does also show RAM usage, but it sorts apps by CPU usage, by default at least).
Linux has nothing to do with the management of an application, the applications under Android are sandboxed in java and there is this dalvik machine that takes care of everything.
I don't get why people keep mentioning this kernel over and over, also for the biggest part of its history Android did not use a real linux kernel with vanilla flavour, only recently the Android kernel was merged with the linux kernel mainline.
This is one of the very first Google video about Android http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mm6Ju0xhUW8
edit: In this series of videos there are also references to memory management and app management.
Markuzy said:
An alternative to task killers for rooted devices are apps that blocks app from running at triggers so nothing is killed at all; the apps don't run.
Eg: the autostarts app.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Xparent ICS Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are right
I do the same thing
In cm9 you can enable auto close apps with long press back button
So I don't need a task killer
Sent from my LG-P500 using xda premium
I was wondering if there is a way to always keep commonly used apps preloaded into memory for instant access. (sms, contacts, browser)
xemi1 said:
I was wondering if there is a way to always keep commonly used apps preloaded into memory for instant access. (sms, contacts, browser)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Start them once, and they will be remaining in memory until Android OS decides the memory is better needed elsewhere.
What you describes is not The Android Way. Primary memory is the most critical resource in Android, lacking virtual memory. Due to this fact, an app may be killed by the OS if more memory is needed for other needs. On the other hand, an app often used, is very likely to reside in memory, giving you this "instant access" you want. If you'd be able to lock an app and its memory, the phone would get out-of-memory not being able to release it when you try stating Angry Birds.
This said, some devices have "Don't keep activities", "Background limit: no processes" or so much bloatware installed, leaving an app gets it more or less instant killed, causing the next start of it to be considerably slower. In this case, the solution is to adjust those parameters, not forcing your apps active.
Read this thread. It might give you some light. Specially the " bulletproof " thing.
The only reason I'm needing this is because of the buggy dialer/contacts that comes with the stock sgs s3 ics 404, where if they go out of the memory they take like 1 sec to load, whereas different dialers and any other stuff is pretty much instant.
It's annoying to experience that delay whenever you need to make a call on a flagship smartphone.
And other market dialers are ugly and/or need the stock dialer to open for them to work.
I would like to avoid rooting g and losing my warranty as well.
Not sure if it is wrong, just would like to get some explanation of this. Phone has bit less than 1GB ram available for apps and default behavior of Androuid should be to use it all for caching recently run proceses, because there is no difference if memory is free or taken - it uses same power.
I have Viper ROM 1.06 and using Nik3r kernel, tested with and without dataswap mod (128MB). Even tried to tweak Viper settings for minfree setting, using Multitasking ultimate profile. And still the same behavior. When I check available memory, it always sits around 750 used out of 980MB. Regardless what and how many apps I run.
Problem is, that when phone is not used for some time I see almost every time apps starting instead of fast switching from memory. Its mainly visible for me on FBReader, which I use to read ebooks every time I have little spare time. I pull phone from pocket, start FBReader and voila, it is starting from scratch loading book. Its 2-3s, but still. its relatively small app, shouldnt be killed most of the time thanks to system policies on free ram.
When I try to play with phone and run as many apps (start FBReader, home and run Chrome+load 2 tabs, run Camera, run Viber, run Tapatalk and back to FBReader) to force it to close my FBreader from memory, everything works fine and it swaps back in immediately. Even though checking Apps tab in settings shows memory usage about 750-800/980, not fully stuffed with cached apps (think its not showing correct numbers? Or not showing memory taken by apps in empty state?). But anyway. I give up, turn off my phone and let it be for some time. Then I check for example for SMS and would like to continue reading my book. And FBReader is loading as if it was closed. Why?
Seems to me like phone does cleaning of cached stuff in memory after some time when it is not used? Cant say precise when it happens, it just annoys me to see that system shows all the time around 750/980MB used and still is unable to keep my app in memory for longer period when it works fine if I test it directly.
Any ideas/tips/explanation?
Hi, I have the same issue with the fb messenger (chat heads)
I
Android still shut down and it doesn't restart...
Any idea ?
Sent from my ARCHOS 80 COBALT using xda app-developers app
Sometimes when I'm browsing ( using Chrome but not necessarily, sometimes when reading an article with Facebook internal browser ) it simply crash without any message, just return to home screen. When I check the used ram is at 450-500-550, signs of an automatically ram clear ( I'm not using any free ram tool ). Seems that the system simply end apps due low ram I suppose but shouldn't start with background apps? Why it clear my foreground application? What do you know about this?
Strangely as it happens lately before I didn't had any similar issues, it doesn't matter how many tabs I had opened in Chrome, never but never crashed. This happens also with the stock Browser so the problem could be the system actually, not an app.
I'm on Stock from sammobile
Nobody?