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Android getting slower over time?

nickdalzell

nickdalzell

Extreme Android User
Android is pulling a MS Windows on me. as in, after some time, like a few days, it starts getting painfully slow, like it is running out of memory, and only rebooting solves it. thing is, nothing appears to be running that is impacting the CPU (largest is only 4% CPU) or RAM (all is usually around 0% of RAM). i have not installed much aside two games (Pinball Arcade and Zen Pinball HD from Amazon--i no longer use Play) and the rest is what came with the thing. i am on 4.1 Jelly Bean. is it normal for Android to, like Windows, get slower until a reboot is needed?
 
Correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't you the guy who insists on using a task killer despite the rest of us telling you that it will just make your phone slower the longer you use it? I seem to remember you in that thread, but can't remember if you were the person I remembered or not.

Anyway, why do you have 0% RAM? Unused RAM is wasted RAM. Also Android is designed to use more RAM to run faster.
 
0% RAM used. when i'm looking at what is used it's in a percentage. most apps are backgrounded and suspended and are using no CPU or RAM. only two active apps, Internet (Browser) and a game with a grand total of, at most, 45%. but even if apps are not open in the foreground, let's say i just unlocked, as time goes by, it just gets slower and slower, even if nothing is running, or running much to cause it to slow down. i was forced to reboot my device because it would not load Netflix without force closing, and two other apps were too slow to be usable. after a reboot, everything was back to normal. i did try looking for a rogue app that was causing the slow down but i found nothing. either way the more i used it, just normal use, it would get slower.

i'm not running a Task Killer. i'm using Watchdog to monitor usage, nothing more. the only Android i needed a task killer for was so weak on spec that it was almost required to keep it from running so slow that it froze; Android's built-in task management was not fast enough when a certain app needed memory which would either throw a Force Close loop or throw a ton of ANRs (if on ICS)

this is a more higher end device.
 
Well, basing only from my experience, Android slowing down doesn't usually happen to me. The few times I was required to restart my device was when I had a large update of apps I have constantly running (like the launcher), but not always.
 
it reminds me of Windows. the longer it goes without being restarted, the slower it gets, regardless of the amount of apps running or amount of resources in use. today was the first day i was literally forced to restart my Tab (had it for a week, this would be the first reboot since i have had it) because it was slow to the point of being unusable. games would unplayably lag and certain apps would not load at all, or immediately crash (netflix and a farm game, the app market would not update anything, just froze and threw an ANR)). after that, it was back to normal. never knew what had happened. nothing was running or using a lot of CPU, it just wasn't fast enough. the closest i could describe is using Windows until it runs out of RAM and gets slow or crashes. or using Linux and having it use swap memory and slowing down
 
Android does not slow down like Windows. I never need to reboot for speed. You have a problem you need to troubleshoot.
 
nickdalzell said:
Android is pulling a MS Windows on me. as in, after some time, like a few days, it starts getting painfully slow, like it is running out of memory, and only rebooting solves it. thing is, nothing appears to be running that is impacting the CPU (largest is only 4% CPU) or RAM (all is usually around 0% of RAM). i have not installed much aside two games (Pinball Arcade and Zen Pinball HD from Amazon--i no longer use Play) and the rest is what came with the thing. i am on 4.1 Jelly Bean. is it normal for Android to, like Windows, get slower until a reboot is needed?
Click to expand...

That issue you described of your device getting slower and slower seems to be true for all devices using operating systems... Whether it's Linux, Windows, Android (similar to Linux) or iOS (though I would iOS as great when it comes to the long-run). But what you are particularly describing for your device seems to be a problem with some app, most probably a memory leak.

It would be great if you can try troubleshooting or finding out when your phone gets slow (after using which application regularly).
 
I turned off browser sync which from searching the issue seems a possible culprit, and the internet browser does seem to suffer memory leaks similar to Firefox, so we'll see. Before I rebooted I had four tabs opened. The device felt like Linux when it uses swap memory. Certain large apps wouldn't open kinda like they were crashing from out of memory. Just gets to me as I thought buying a higher end $300 device would equate to better luck but I've never rebooted iOS, but I am getting all the same crap I got from Android in the past again.
 
Linux does *not* slow down over time and need rebooting. It will run just fine for years. My Linux workstation has been up 202 days and no problems. Many years ago I had a RedHat mail server run untouched for over 3 years with no performance loss. Finally had to shut it down to move it or it would have run until the hardware failed.

Slowdowns, crashing, etc are not Android/Linux OS problems, they're application problems. Stop blaming the OS or you won't find the fix.
 
Crashdamage said:
Slowdowns, crashing, etc are not Android/Linux OS problems, they're application problems. Stop blaming the OS or you won't find the fix.
Click to expand...

You shouldn't pretend Linux is perfect. On a properly optimized system the above should be true. However, I think we all know that some devices aren't debugged or optimized as much as they should. Even the Linux kernel is subject to memory leaks.


nickdalzell said:
thing is, nothing appears to be running that is impacting the CPU (largest is only 4% CPU) or RAM (all is usually around 0% of RAM).
Click to expand...
0% RAM used would mean apps are constantly being shutdown and reloaded without any sort of cache. Even small apps like the keyboard would always needed to be completely reloaded. Unused RAM is wasted RAM. This is true for all operating systems. If RAM isn't being used by an app, then it should be used as cache.

A simple factory reset might help. If you're rooted you can try wiping dalvik.
 
I've hardly ever reboot my Galaxy Tab 2 7.0. It stays on all the time, though I may leave only 1 or 2 apps running when I stop using it.

I also hardly ever have to restart my phone either. It usally runs for a few weesk or so before it seems to get sluggish, from updates.

I do use Linux as my desktop OS and I've had Mageia 2 running for like 60+ days before a power outage knocked it off. This was a desktop Linux, not a server. Right now I'm beta testing Mageia 3, which is due to come out next month, so I've been rebooting alot because of kernel updates. Only time I reboot any linux I use is for kernel & Systemd updates.
 
I've never known Android get slower over time, in like the same way Windows does. Can get funky occasionally, maybe once a month, like the touch screen might start acting weird. Although that's probably hardware or drivers, rather than the OS itself.
 
nickdalzell said:
It is hard not to blame the OS when iOS never has these problems even while running the same apps
Click to expand...
Except they aren't the same apps. They may have the same names, but the coding will be quite different.

Not saying I know the cause - like others here I've never experienced what you describe. But the fact that a particular app doesn't cause a problem on one platform does not mean that the version for another platform is automatically innocent.
 
Overall I'm happy with it, don't get me wrong. I think I've nailed it to the browser sync. Still ok for now. I haven't installed a lot as of yet and am quite picky over what I install anymore. I haven't rooted either, and basically am stock. Rooting might have been why I got so much trouble out of things in the past
 
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