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apps running in background

gow75

gow75

Newbie
ok im sure peeps have run into this. certain apps that run in the background and you have to kill the process to free up resources. i have a samsung galaxy tablet 7.1 from verizon. i am getting tired of having to go to services to shutdown apps that are running when they are not being used. is there an app to kill certain processes from running to free up resources. :(
 
im not using task killer. i know im looking it as a desktop but say you have FB app installed well the service is running and i am not using FB at that time so no point of having it running. also it is still in contrast to a desktop has a running service does consume resources.
 
gow75 said:
im not using task killer. i know im looking it as a desktop but say you have FB app installed well the service is running and i am not using FB at that time so no point of having it running. also it is still in contrast to a desktop has a running service does consume resources.
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Turn off sync'ing for the Facebook account and it won't use any resources. Something else you must understand is that Android is a lean OS, meaning there is very little redundancy of services. So when one app needs a service or process to run, whoever built that particular rom told it to use the service within the Facebook app or some other app you don't recognize. That's why when people root their phones to delete the Facebook app (just using Facebook as an example), it will cripple functionality for other apps as well.

Just because an app is listed as running, it is not actually consuming any resources. It may simply be cached in a ready-to-run state so there is no lag when it's process or service is needed.
 
gow75 said:
im not using task killer. i know im looking it as a desktop but say you have FB app installed well the service is running and i am not using FB at that time so no point of having it running. also it is still in contrast to a desktop has a running service does consume resources.
Click to expand...

That's not true. An app running in the background is not using any resources unless it is actively doing something. Please read the linked page lunatic provided in his post, it will open your eyes. Killing tasks is bad for android, let the system manage itself and you'll be fine.
 
I agree with you all statements, but disagree as well. My Atrix 4G came with an app manager app, to control all 3rd party apps. Apps that run in the background, that I'm not using like the coupon widgets that I stop running, after I view the coupons and other widgets. I haven't had any problems with my phone having certain apps on the auto end list in the stock apps manager. As a matter of fact, it comes in really helpful when I'm using my lapdock. Sometimes my resources are low and I receive a notice to close apps. This free's up my resources and the lag/freezes stop. (You would think Android OS would close them for me, but I think it waits until your at that critical point of shotdown, before it starts ending apps.)
 
im sorry but i disagree. services that run on a pc, mac or any other device consume resources such as ram, disk space and or cpu usage this is by design. so say the FB app is not being used but the service is running well when you clear it and or kill it you free up internal ram. end of story.
 
gow75 said:
im sorry but i disagree. services that run on a pc, mac or any other device consume resources such as ram, disk space and or cpu usage this is by design. so say the FB app is not being used but the service is running well when you clear it and or kill it you free up internal ram. end of story.
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It is important that you understand that Android is not a desktop OS and that it manages resources quite differently. If you continue to treat your Android device as if it were Windows, OS X or Ubuntu, you will not enjoy the full benefits of Android. It is your device and you are perfectly free to treat it as you wish. Just saying.
 
gow75 said:
im sorry but i disagree. services that run on a pc, mac or any other device consume resources such as ram, disk space and or cpu usage this is by design. so say the FB app is not being used but the service is running well when you clear it and or kill it you free up internal ram. end of story.
Click to expand...
You are completely wrong, sorry. You're thinking in Windows terms but Android is Linux-based and Linux handles things differently and more efficiently. Windows tries to free memory, wasting CPU cycles in the effort. Linux correctly considers unused RAM is just wasted RAM so tries to maximize RAM usage to increase system response. That's oversimplifying, but the basic idea.

Let Android automagically handle processes and memory management. It does a very good job. You'll save time, effort and battery.
 
All I know is my SGII has a task manager built in and I'll go back and kill 'active applications" in it b/c if I left them on, i.e. Facebook, SMS, Dolphin (since I have multiple tabs open usually), camera etc, then battery drains faster. Usually after a bit I'll close them all if I'm not using them.

Is this what you guys are talking about, or do you mean actually clearing the ram memory which is separate from the active applications.
 
The built in task manager in Samsung TouchWiz is different from the third party apps for task managers, which show ALL processes. The TW task manager only shows apps currently in use, which basically are apps that are switchable to via the task switcher. It doesn't show the hidden facebook upload service for example. Basically only apps that are safe to force close appear there.

The clear RAM option in TouchWiz only clears the RAM for the cached apps which are using up RAM only to load faster, but aren't part of any services which Android needs running.

This is very unlike the third party task managers which shows everything, even system processes you shouldn't kill.
 
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