Root [International] Running apps in the background

[noisydroid]

Hi all,

I have attached a screenshot of my running applications screen. I need help in understanding this. Everytime im checking my ram, I find that 80-90% is being clogged up by these applications which I am not running and haven't ran for a while. Thats forcing me to keep clearing them by using some task manager. Now im finding that im doing that every hour or so. I am also attaching a screen shot of what I always see as in how much ram is used.

Can someone please help me as this is really annoying me and draining my battery. Thanks.


-noisyboy

 

[D-U-R-X]

Hey noisydroid

You could be finding that your battery is running down quicker because you are killing tasks.

Here's some info from the Android Wiki entry:

Since Android devices are usually battery-powered, Android is designed to manage memory (RAM) to keep power consumption at a minimum, in contrast to desktop operating systems which generally assume they are connected to unlimited mains electricity. When an Android app is no longer in use, the system will automatically suspend it in memory - while the app is still technically "open," suspended apps consume no resources (e.g. battery power or processing power) and sit idly in the background until needed again. This has the dual benefit of increasing the general responsiveness of Android devices, since apps don't need to be closed and reopened from scratch each time, but also ensuring background apps don't waste power needlessly.

Android manages the apps stored in memory automatically: when memory is low, the system will begin killing apps and processes that have been inactive for a while, in reverse order since they were last used (i.e. oldest first). This process is designed to be invisible to the user, such that users do not need to manage memory or the killing of apps themselves. However, confusion over Android memory management has resulted in third-party task killers becoming popular on the Google Play store; these third-party task killers are generally regarded as doing more harm than good

As you can see, just because an app is showing as "open" doesn't necessarily mean that it is using power.

Smartphones operate on a sort of spectrum - on one end you could put battery life, on the other end all those options like wifi/3g/sync (among other things). If you want great battery life you can't have those on all the time. If you want those on all the time, you won't get great battery life. It is best to find the compromise that works best for you and what you want most out of your phone.

Here are a couple of things that you could consider - adjust the screen brightness, do not use live wallpapers, switch off networks when not in use (WIFI, Bluetooth, GPS), adjust update intervals for widgets (do you really need twitter/facebook notifications every half hour?). You could also consider downloading a battery monitoring app such as JuiceDefender.

 

[noisydroid]

Thank you very much for your detailed reply. I have two questions:

1) Is it normal for my task manager widget to show me that 80% to 90% of my ram is being used? Is that normal usage?

2) What is the point of killing them using the TM widget? They keep coming back anyway. So is there a point of "cleaning memory" if in reality you're not because they're gonna come back.

 

[D-U-R-X]

Thank you very much for your detailed reply.

No worries

I have two questions:

1) Is it normal for my task manager widget to show me that 80% to 90% of my ram is being used? Is that normal usage?

Not really sure... I've not used a task manager myself... perhaps someone else may be able to advise.

2) What is the point of killing them using the TM widget? They keep coming back anyway. So is there a point of "cleaning memory" if in reality you're not because they're gonna come back.

By killing apps yourself, you can be doing more harm than good. Android is pretty good at deciding what to kill/when to kill it. In hide tags is a quote from here that explains why.

Spoiler

In short, No - do not use a Task Killer!

If you take nothing else from this thread and just heed the above, then this has been worth it.

Seriously, to a certain extent, they weren't needed on Eclair (2.1) and they were definitely not needed in Froyo (2.2). Android is designed to be its own task killer, just let it do its job, it is pretty good at it. Just because you see an app held in RAM, that doesn't mean it's taking up battery. I hear things like "I use it to free RAM to make my phone faster/make XXX run better". If Android needs more RAM, it'll free it of its own accord as and when required. If you notice your phone acting sluggish, reboot. If it's consistent, check what's taking up CPU usage and if it's an
app you've installed, uninstall. If it's one of the stock apps, post in your phone's sub-forum, I'm sure someone will be able to help.

If you want more info on why Task killers are not required, you can look here. If you want a more technical overview of how Android manages tasks, take a look at what google have to say about the matter, here.

 

[funkylogik]

On my 1gb model, its usualy like this.

It actualy scores higher in benchmarks like quadrant if i dont clear the ram.
Not sure about battery use though.
Just trust the phone mate
Its screen and data you need to watch