I often see a few apps running in the background and wonder why they are not Grenified. This happens to me most with YouTube, Google Drive & Titanium Backup. There doesn't seem to be a reason why they should run in the background, thus I'd expect them to be hibernated by Greenify.
I have a rooted LG L7 II device running CM11.
Digdis said:
I often see a few apps running in the background and wonder why they are not Grenified. This happens to me most with YouTube, Google Drive & Titanium Backup. There doesn't seem to be a reason why they should run in the background, thus I'd expect them to be hibernated by Greenify.
I have a rooted LG L7 II device running CM11.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you Greenify those apps? I had to ask since you didn't specifically say so. Also, is Greenify enabled in Device Administrators and Accessibility settings? And are you running Greenify in Root mode or Boost mode?
tnsmani said:
Did you Greenify those apps? I had to ask since you didn't specifically say so. Also, is Greenify enabled in Device Administrators and Accessibility settings? And are you running Greenify in Root mode or Boost mode?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. Gotta to admit that I didn't Greenify them manually, but waited for Greenify to do it automatically. I now sent them manually to hibernation and will keep track on whether they run in the background as they did before.
However, isn't the whole point behind Greenify that you don't need to do it manually, but let Greenify do that for you? AFAIK, neither of these apps have anything to do in the background, so isn't Greenify supposed to notice that and send them to hibernation?
Digdis said:
Thanks. Gotta to admit that I didn't Greenify them manually, but waited for Greenify to do it automatically. I now sent them manually to hibernation and will keep track on whether they run in the background as they did before.
However, isn't the whole point behind Greenify that you don't need to do it manually, but let Greenify do that for you? AFAIK, neither of these apps have anything to do in the background, so isn't Greenify supposed to notice that and send them to hibernation?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Greenify doesn't automatically greenify(!) any app. There are many apps running in the background, some required, some not required. So you make the choice to greenify whatever you choose to, depending on your requirements. This is because if you greenify all the apps running in the background, you will lose some functionality. While you may choose to greenify one particular app because you don't need it to run in the background, I may not agree with you since I may require its functionality. So to each his own. That is the beauty of Greenify, that it allows you to choose.
However, once you greenify a particular app, Greenify takes over and further greenifying that app is automatic.
tnsmani said:
Greenify doesn't automatically greenify(!) any app. There are many apps running in the background, some required, some not required. So you make the choice to greenify whatever you choose to, depending on your requirements. This is because if you greenify all the apps running in the background, you will lose some functionality. While you may choose to greenify one particular app because you don't need it to run in the background, I may not agree with you since I may require its functionality. So to each his own. That is the beauty of Greenify, that it allows you to choose.
However, once you greenify a particular app, Greenify takes over and further greenifying that app is automatic.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your answer. I did Greenify apps manually in the past, ones that I considered their running in the background as unnecessary (such as a shopping app I had which kept notifying me of new deals). However, I thought that Greenify could somehow identify apps who run in the background without need, and so it would send them to hibernation automatically. Guess I was wrong here.
Related
Hi
First of all thank you Oasis for creating a tool to fix things that shouldn't be broken to begin with! You are an example for a lot of developers :good:
I've read the first couple of posts on the original thread but I still have a few things that are not clear..
The advice of Oasis himself is too hibernate only those apps that misbehave. He states that hibernating apps will also remove them from the memory, which will come with a performance/cpu usage penalty when you want to use them again.
In the video tutorial however Josh greenifies almost every application that doesn't need push notifications.
So this would mean that when I use an application that doesn't have notifications but I open frequently, for example Nu.nl, a dutch newsapp, it will always have to reload the app from scratch instead of loading it from memory?
So baically the best way to use Greenify would be to NOT just greenify most apps, but to use the analyzer frequently and see what's running in the background and greenify those that don't depend on notifications?
Then newsapps that don't push news, image viewers, file managers, system tools like SD Maid and simple games that don't use internet should be ok not being greenified?
Is there no big list available of apps that misbehave or are safe to keep de-greenified?
Thanks in advance for any help on this.
Basically you got it right. Use the built-in analyzer as well as disable service and autostarts to check apps' behaviour. For my experience, sometimes is better to disable a background service than greenify an app, if the app "misbehave" for this service only (of course you'll have to check if the app still works). An example: guaranteedhttpservice and tracksyncservice in shazam...
marchrius said:
Basically you got it right. Use the built-in analyzer as well as disable service and autostarts to check apps' behaviour. For my experience, sometimes is better to disable a background service than greenify an app, if the app "misbehave" for this service only (of course you'll have to check if the app still works). An example: guaranteedhttpservice and tracksyncservice in shazam...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where can I find and disable things like tracksyncservice? I also use Shazam but I can't find both services you mentioned in Greenify nor TiB?
latino147 said:
Where can I find and disable things like tracksyncservice? I also use Shazam but I can't find both services you mentioned in Greenify nor TiB?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
"Disable Service" (and "Autostarts") from play store.
marchrius said:
"Disable Service" (and "Autostarts") from play store.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah, I believed those were two functions withing Greenify I couldn't find
wtf, FB has 62! services! None of them where active though, until you open the app, then it was 3.
So you can choose between greenifying an app which will basically kill all services from an app, even background services on one hand, and choosing specifically which services too disable, like you did with Shazam.
The only issue with this second method being that you don't always really know what these services do.
latino147 said:
So you can choose between greenifying an app which will basically kill all services from an app, even background services on one hand, and choosing specifically which services too disable, like you did with Shazam.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly. Take google play services for example. If you greenify it, you'll lose gcm and other functions and that's not advisable at all (in fact greenify hides it). But with disable service (and autostarts/system tuner)you can choose what to disable while still mantaining gcm, location services (when needed), sync etc. I can' remember what I did in system tuner regarding gplay services (I followed some tutorial), but with disable service I disabled analyticsservice (this one will reactivate itself unless you do some tweak with system tuner), refreshenabledstateservice, playlogreportingservice, googlehttpservice, playlogbrokerservice, adrequestbrokerservice, gcmschedulerwakeupservice, advertisingidservice, adsmeasurementservice, locationwearablelistenerservice, nlplocationreceiverservice, geocodeservice, dispatchingservice and playlogservice. A reboot is needed. Haven't lost a single function since weeks (gcm, location, autosync and every google app in general are working 100% fine).
Same story with play store. Apps wake it very often, so greenify it does more harm than good. Instead, you can disable pendingnotificationsservice, contentsyncservice and dailyhygiene (and will still be fully functional).
Of course these are little tips to increase performance and battery life even more. I use greenify for 90% and more of apps that "misbehave" and disable service/autostarts/system tuner for the remaining 10% "misbehaving" apps. However, an app "fixed" with such methods will stay cached while with greenify is completely closed (resulting in more cpu/time/battery consumption when loaded again).
The only issue with this second method being that you don't always really know what these services do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Like I already said, for general purposes you'd better simply greenify the "misbehaving" apps. If you use it/it is woken very often, you can consider these methods.
Yes, it's a "trial and error" thing. Unless you're disabling services with self-explainatory names such as "pushservice".
Never installed Facebook official app but I heard many times that is a notorious hogger and takes many personal datas too, for which you can look for xprivacy xposed module as well.
I'll start experimenting with it today :good:
I want to use greenify to "freeze" a certain apps when are not in foreground, do don't check in the background for location, connect to internet to update, and so on and so forth. Like if weren't installed from the beginning. I couldn't find anything in the user interface, the app looks more oriented to hibernate the entire phone (which I don't want).
scandiun said:
I want to use greenify to "freeze" a certain apps when are not in foreground, do don't check in the background for location, connect to internet to update, and so on and so forth. Like if weren't installed from the beginning. I couldn't find anything in the user interface, the app looks more oriented to hibernate the entire phone (which I don't want).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Look elsewhere. Greenify doesn't "freeze" any app.
tnsmani said:
Look elsewhere. Greenify doesn't "freeze" any app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok look like there was a misunderstanding. Didn't mean "freeze" in the way Titanium Backup does, but rather prevent the app from doing anything unless in foreground. Greenify is capable of that, you just add the desired apps to the list.
Hibernation Manager is similar and has high ratings. Also explains things better.
scandiun said:
Ok look like there was a misunderstanding. Didn't mean "freeze" in the way Titanium Backup does, but rather prevent the app from doing anything unless in foreground. Greenify is capable of that, you just add the desired apps to the list.
Hibernation Manager is similar and has high ratings. Also explains things better.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My understanding is, when you add apps to the autohibernate list and when you continue to work with one app in the foreground, any other hibernated app will continue to run (if started while you are working or if already running) till the screen is locked. Only after that the running apps will hibernate. This is the behaviour I am seeing.
Correct me if I am wrong.
Edit: Even Hibernation Manager works only when screen is off. Please read its description in Play Store.
tnsmani said:
My understanding is, when you add apps to the autohibernate list and when you continue to work with one app in the foreground, any other hibernated app will continue to run (if started while you are working or if already running) till the screen is locked. Only after that the running apps will hibernate. This is the behaviour I am seeing.
Correct me if I am wrong.
Edit: Even Hibernation Manager works only when screen is off. Please read its description in Play Store.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes Hibernation Manager and Greenify only work when screen is off. That's enough for me, but do you know if any app that does it also when the screen is on? (App always hibernating unless on foreground)
On my Mate 9 (running Oreo 8.0, no root) I installed Greenify, but Greenify displays that e.g. Opera is greenified, but in an Android task manager (Android Assistant app) it shows it is still eating CPU. The same applies to e.g. Brave browser which has 'no background' according to Greenify.
Does Greenift really hibernate apps ?
mermaidkiller said:
On my Mate 9 (running Oreo 8.0, no root) I installed Greenify, but Greenify displays that e.g. Opera is greenified, but in an Android task manager (Android Assistant app) it shows it is still eating CPU. The same applies to e.g. Brave browser which has 'no background' according to Greenify.
Does Greenift really hibernate apps ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Of course it does. The size/activity in this forum plus frequent mentions in respected publications over many years should offer some clues to its integrity. Whether it is working on your device is a different matter.
Greenify does best on rooted devices as unharnessed ROMs can both undo actions and/or misrepresent status. It's quite possible an app placed in hibernation was later woken via internal trigger that Greenify can not suppress on an unrooted device. In the case of Opera (my preferred browser) there is regular syncing of tabs and downloading of *cough* 'news' if you have those features enabled.
I also question info coming out of the "Android Assistant" app. On my device it claimed all apps had zero CPU...including itself. Also did not display system partitions correctly nor properly detect the sensor suite. Granted I only spent a few minutes poking around. Maybe some switches needed to be thrown.
Finally, you probably don't need Greenify on Oreo as Doze does a find job with power management.
planetera said:
Don't I really need Greenify on oreo? Is Doze on Oreo really that good? Can you confirm please? I've been always using Greenify but if I don't need it on Oreo, I'll remove it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well don't take my word for it. Simply remove all apps from Greenify's hibernation list (hopefully there are not many there), observe device behavior over the next few days then make your own decision.
planetera said:
Well, thanks for information. Just made a quick research and everyone says Greenify is trash on Oreo. So I just uninstalled it. Thanks for heads up. Glad I've seen your comment
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Trash? Err-no. I have it installed on every one of my devices for valid reasons. Needed for generic power management on Doze capable ROMs? Probably not (and as such serving no purpose). Enjoy your device.
planetera said:
ok, but, when Greenify hibernates an app, you don't get notificaton froms this app, but when Android itself hibernates the app, you still get notifications, how does these two compare?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It varies by app, developer approach and user settings. Many apps will experience delayed notifications with Doze while other punch right through. Greenify can be configured to permit notifications but only if the app utilizes GCM (Firebase). Aggressive doze, light hibernation, Xposed framework availability and several other variables contribute to notification behavior. If your head is spinning it should! End users should not need to know the contents of the underwear drawer. Best practice is to simply let Android do its thing without 3rd party tools unless one understands their behavior and application. At one time such tools were needed to achieve acceptable app/device performance and battery life. Not so today. Is such a simplistic solution 'optimal' form an enthusiasts point-of-view? Probably not. It is acceptable/reasonable from an end-user perspective? In most cases 'yes' yielding a good balance of performance and battery life with minimal interaction for those who simply want to enjoy their device vs. manage it. Good luck with whatever direction you choose.
Agree one hundred percent!
Greenify on Oreo is an appendage that is best left out in my opinion, since for most, Oreo itself manages the drain admirably. Though I have it installed, it is more by way of habit than necessity. I have experienced Oreo without Greenify and have no complaints.
Greenify is STILL works.
But its benefit on recent Android versions is not as prominent as on earlier versions.
Coz we already have Doze starting from Marshmallow.
It works for me. I have a samsung tab a 9.7 sm-t550 with an aicp 8.1 rom (lineageos based). Therefore it doesn't have the built-in samsung app device maintenance. I've also discovered a little trick to using greenify that I want to share. I use greenify with another app called shutapp. Shutapp is an app that helps you force stop apps running in the background. Except I don't do that. I use it solely for the purpose of having an accurate number of apps running in the background. Then I open the app to see which ones are running. Next I open greenify and hibernate them. I use this method, because I found that when you force stop the apps they will open back up again. Also, I use the widget from shutapp and not the floating bubble which requires extra permissions granted. The widget does the same thing without the extra permissions. This method I discovered has improved my ram and battery life drastically. I can tell because I use status bar mini pro to monitor my ram speed constantly. And finally I do have Xposed with the donation package of greenify, didn't want to leave that out. Not sure if it makes a difference or not, but wanted to be accurate. That's it, hope that works for somebody else, take care.
I hear that greenify isn't really needed on Oreo but how about the xposed version of greenify? That ads a couple of more features, does any of those change the verdict to "must have on Oreo" for greenify?
ovizii said:
I hear that greenify isn't really needed on Oreo but how about the xposed version of greenify? That ads a couple of more features, does any of those change the verdict to "must have on Oreo" for greenify?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The verdict doesn't change. Use of Greenify on Oreo may become "must" only if you have a rogue app which can't be controlled otherwise. Even then, it might be better to seek alternative apps instead of trying to control it with Greenify.
ovizii said:
I hear that greenify isn't really needed on Oreo but how about the xposed version of greenify? That ads a couple of more features, does any of those change the verdict to "must have on Oreo" for greenify?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
tnsmani said:
The verdict doesn't change. Use of Greenify on Oreo may become "must" only if you have a rogue app which can't be controlled otherwise. Even then, it might be better to seek alternative apps instead of trying to control it with Greenify.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Greenify works just fine on recent Android builds. It is a tool that can be very beneficial when properly used to produce a specific outcome. That said, it is rarely needed on Android 6+ as doze handles most of the heavy lifting. Enjoy using your device vs trying to fix problems you haven't identified.
i have this app but i dont know wich apps to hibernate, because people recommend to hibernate apps that you dont use but i kinda use a lot of apps , and if i use the magisk version can i hibernate apps without missing notifications?
THEwed123wet said:
i have this app but i dont know wich apps to hibernate, because people recommend to hibernate apps that you dont use but i kinda use a lot of apps , and if i use the magisk version can i hibernate apps without missing notifications?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only apps that need to be hibernated are those that frequently start or run in the background *and* consume significant resources. This is an infrequent occurrence on Android 6+ as doze keeps most bad actors in check. If you can not identify misbehaving apps there is little benefit to using Greenify.
so not even boost mode with the magisk module will make a difference?
THEwed123wet said:
so not even boost mode with the magisk module will make a difference?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just to add to @Davey126's true and clear statement: Most likely not.
As you're obviously using Greenify4Magisk, please allow me to partially quote its OP:
A very simple module just to make Greenify work as a rom-integrated (privileged) app systemlessly (also known as Boost Mode), ...
* Note: You won't get any xposed-side features, since magisk is NOT xposed!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To ensure not to miss any notification, Greenify needs to run as a Xposed module.
How can you tell that an app constantly restarts in background?
crittarr said:
How can you tell that an app constantly restarts in background?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check to see if it (or related processes) are running and, more importantly, consuming excess resources. Built in tools are a starting point including the often ignored/maligned Android battery 'app' and the 'running processes' gadget usually located under developer options. Don't kill everything you see; just because it has a pulse doesn't mean it has to die (or be hibernated).
Can you name a third party root-free most reliable tool for telling how much energy apps drain?
I would be glad to know if apps are consuming excess resources but this is not told by the onboard android 7 tools I know of. If I go to battery more settings the most usage shows to be from android OS, bluetooth (headphones) and screen. Still making full (and probably excessive) use of tools like brevent or greenify does make the battery graph flatten noticeably.
crittarr said:
Can you name a third party root-free most reliable tool for telling how much energy apps drain?
I would be glad to know if apps are consuming excess resources but this is not told by the onboard android 7 tools I know of. If I go to battery more settings the most usage shows to be from android OS, bluetooth (headphones) and screen. Still making full (and probably excessive) use of tools like brevent or greenify does make the battery graph flatten noticeably.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Built in tools are more than adequate but if you prefer 3rd party give GSAM a whirl as I find it easier to use than BBS (Better Battery Stats). Some also like Accubattery; too much flash and dash for my tastes. Good luck.
My background apps are killed way too often. Is it possible to change that behaviour? Even music apps are killed while I'm playing music.
I have tried several custom roms and kernels but nothing seems to change the settings. Is either able to change RAM management settings?
I have also tried several apps that claim to be able to change RAM management settings without success.
Disabling battery optimisation doesn't help.
I have uninstalled unused apps and disabled autostart (boot completed receiver) for non-essential apps to reduce RAM usage.
When I use a RAM monitor it will show RAM usage at ~75% when apps are killed.
My old phone (Note 4) only had 3 GB ram but could still keep more apps in memory.
I don't have that problem.
Have you tried Greenify or similar app to hibernate unwanted apps running in the background? They will only open then when being used and will automatically hibernate again when closed.
ChazzMatt said:
I don't have that problem.
Have you tried Greenify or similar app to hibernate unwanted apps running in the background? They will only open then when being used and will automatically hibernate again when closed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the reverse of what I'm looking for. I want the apps in the background to keep running.
Telorast said:
That's the reverse of what I'm looking for. I want the apps in the background to keep running.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then you misunderstood what I wrote. Read it again.
It's exactly what you want, because then apps you don't want running won't take up your RAM and kick off the apps that you do want running. Like your flashlight app should NOT be running the background all the time. One example. Lots of devs think their apps are most important and should always run in the background, so when you "launch" them they are there instantly.
Like I said, I don't have your issue. My apps I WANT running stay running.
If you hibernate the UN-wanted apps, that will give more freedom to apps you DO want running in the background.
There are other apps besides Greenify which may do that task even better, it's just the most well known. It shows you complete list if apps running in the background and you can choose which you WANT to run and which you want to stay killed until you choose to activate them. Those apps will be forced hibernated from then on -- until you manually activate them. When you close them, they will STAY closed and not run in the background sucking up your RAM. It also allows you to go through your entire inventory and decide yes/no. For instance, weather widget, email, yes. Benchmarking app, NO.
Worth a try. Installed Greenify and added most apps with ignore background-free.
Telorast said:
Worth a try. Installed Greenify and added most apps with ignore background-free.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I even hibernate alleged background free apps, just in case.
ChazzMatt said:
Lots of devs think their apps are most important and should always run in the background, so when you "launch" them they are there instantly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
VERY TRUE!
This always infuriated me, not just on phones, PCs too, all the way back to the DOS days. An obsession with running in the background, as if it's particularly clever. :cyclops:
I've also found that turning off battery optimization for apps I don't want killed helps. I've had the same experience with music and podcast apps getting killed in the background and turning off their battery optimization usually fixes it.
There are some simple things to try that do not require any special apk's. One is to look in the apps section of the "Developer options" sub-menu. The default settings work well in most instances. Perhaps you accidently enabled closing of apps when a background limit has been reached or have ticked force closure of apps on exit.
Another place to look is in the "Power saving exclusions" sub-menu in the Battery settings. Music makes some boring forms of exercise less tiresome and provides additional motivation for activities that are challenging but fun (mountain biking). The music should not stop, but it might for default settings. Enabling a power saving exclusion for your music app will keep it running.
ChazzMatt said:
Then you misunderstood what I wrote. Read it again.
It's exactly what you want, because then apps you don't want running won't take up your RAM and kick off the apps that you do want running. Like your flashlight app should NOT be running the background all the time. One example. Lots of devs think their apps are most important and should always run in the background, so when you "launch" them they are there instantly.
Like I said, I don't have your issue. My apps I WANT running stay running.
If you hibernate the UN-wanted apps, that will give more freedom to apps you DO want running in the background.
There are other apps besides Greenify which may do that task even better, it's just the most well known. It shows you complete list if apps running in the background and you can choose which you WANT to run and which you want to stay killed until you choose to activate them. Those apps will be forced hibernated from then on -- until you manually activate them. When you close them, they will STAY closed and not run in the background sucking up your RAM. It also allows you to go through your entire inventory and decide yes/no. For instance, weather widget, email, yes. Benchmarking app, NO.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Been using Greenify for a bit now and doesn't seem to help much. It shows a bunch of hibernated apps but multitasking is still nearly impossible.
I had assumed the problem was related to the Mem Free settings rather than actual free memory but no one here has mentioned it. Is that because no one else thinks it's the problem or maybe I have misunderstood what those settings do?
I thought apps were free to use as much memory as they want until certain thresholds on total memory usage were met, then the system would ask or force apps to release memory.
Apps that let you edit those settings usually shows several thresholds where the system gets progressively more aggressive at freeing memory as memory is running out. But they all look hopelessly out of date so maybe it works completely differently today?