Took several months of debugging, testing, needlessly factory resetting and dropping/adding google account. But its now finally running without frustration again. I'm on 5.0.2 but that has next to nothing to do with my unlagging since I achieved this shortly after 5.0. I don't know why my changes works but it does.
For me there are multiple issues.
1. By far the major culprit for me was Google Account Sync. Why it has so much trouble on my N7 and not even perceptibly noticeable on my N5 is beyond me. Turning off the syncing removes 90% of my lag. But thats not really realistic because I do need stuff sync. So I kept syncing on, unchecked everything and slowly added 1 app at a time back to syncing. Things I don't really need synced all the time like google sheets, google docs etc. I kept them unchecked. The real culprit was Google Contacts and Google Calendar. I almost always see a sync error message with Contacts. No idea why its a problem since I rarely edit my contacts. Without those 2 things alone made my N7 useable again. I suggest you try this out first. Its easy, won't delete anything valuable and force you to rebuild your system.
2. Don't use chrome..ever...at least not for your N7. It will lag you to death whether its running in the foreground or background. I use firefox on this device. Occasionally (even now), something will trigger chrome to launch and whenever it does I get the lag bomb and have to kill the chrome task.
These 2 things accouts for 95% of my lag issues. So far on rare occasion I still go in and kill google play store task but its rare now (once in the last 3 weeks). I used to kill it daily and every hour or so which was ridiculous but it used to unlag me instantly. Didn't know then but killing it terminated Account Sync which is probably why the lag went away so quickly.
I was ready to chuck this thing and get a new tablet but was not interested in spending $$$ for a samsung tab s or Dell venue. I rather spend that on a great pair of noise cancelling wireless headphones or a good lens for my camera. Now I can at least run this tablet for another few months.
Things that imo are pointless to try and no way worth the time and effort:
1. Factory Reset (people on forums looooove to tell you to go the drastic route. Its like "hey I got a splinter"..."okay we need to amputate your finger and then attach a new one")
2. Google account drop and add back
For me there are multiple issues.
1. By far the major culprit for me was Google Account Sync. Why it has so much trouble on my N7 and not even perceptibly noticeable on my N5 is beyond me. Turning off the syncing removes 90% of my lag. But thats not really realistic because I do need stuff sync. So I kept syncing on, unchecked everything and slowly added 1 app at a time back to syncing. Things I don't really need synced all the time like google sheets, google docs etc. I kept them unchecked. The real culprit was Google Contacts and Google Calendar. I almost always see a sync error message with Contacts. No idea why its a problem since I rarely edit my contacts. Without those 2 things alone made my N7 useable again. I suggest you try this out first. Its easy, won't delete anything valuable and force you to rebuild your system.
2. Don't use chrome..ever...at least not for your N7. It will lag you to death whether its running in the foreground or background. I use firefox on this device. Occasionally (even now), something will trigger chrome to launch and whenever it does I get the lag bomb and have to kill the chrome task.
These 2 things accouts for 95% of my lag issues. So far on rare occasion I still go in and kill google play store task but its rare now (once in the last 3 weeks). I used to kill it daily and every hour or so which was ridiculous but it used to unlag me instantly. Didn't know then but killing it terminated Account Sync which is probably why the lag went away so quickly.
I was ready to chuck this thing and get a new tablet but was not interested in spending $$$ for a samsung tab s or Dell venue. I rather spend that on a great pair of noise cancelling wireless headphones or a good lens for my camera. Now I can at least run this tablet for another few months.
Things that imo are pointless to try and no way worth the time and effort:
1. Factory Reset (people on forums looooove to tell you to go the drastic route. Its like "hey I got a splinter"..."okay we need to amputate your finger and then attach a new one")
2. Google account drop and add back
