Is Greenify legit - is it good or not?

[noxxtar]

This is a pretty popular app for both non-root and rooted phones that hibernates user apps. In root mode it does magic, and in non root mode it just force stops apps. But is it really good? Apps dont seem to restart after stopping, they only start if I open them. It does this even on lockscreen automized etc. So is it good? Does it save battery? I've been using it for some time but changes arent that big.

 

[funkylogik]

I think it depends what apps you greenify. Apps like Facebook that are constantly searching for updates are the obvious target

 

[noxxtar]

I think it depends what apps you greenify. Apps like Facebook that are constantly searching for updates are the obvious target

i greenify em all. messenger, games, chrome, not launchers of course. so its good. thank you

 

[codesplice]

i greenify em all. messenger, games, chrome, not launchers of course. so its good. thank you

In certain circumstances, Greenify can be helpful - particularly with problematic apps like Facebook.

I absolutely would not use it to "Greenify them all". Android itself can be depended upon to properly manage most apps/games, and interfering with that management can actually cause more harm than good.

Greenify is unique and controversial.

Let's go right to the horse's mouth - the dev - and see what he said (and I'm going to liberally paraphrase):

1. A lot of devs don't understand what they're doing and bloat their apps with unnecessary permissions, features and responses to system control events.

2. He tried teaching many until he was blue in the face that they were doing it wrong.

3. The end result is apps that misbehave and suck your battery because they stay awake. Facebook is the first one mentioned (and I agree, what a catastrophe).

4. His end goal is to get user feedback on what apps need and best respond to Greenify in the hopes that their devs will see their stuff on the list, feel bad about it, and fix their apps to straighten up and fly right.

So, where I advise just avoiding bad apps, he advises that if you can't, let Greenify in to deal with them.

Some will still wake up but not be allowed to maintain keeping your phone awake with the screen off. And it ought not do anything with the screen on.

It's an interesting approach - it'll be nice if he succeeds but I doubt that bad devs will respond. Especially ones with evil overlords at the corporate level.

It's a fight fire with fire philosophy.

Many have reported excellent results with it, some have complained that it hasn't worked out.

The weird part is, if he has to, he removes the app from cache and so start-up is impacted, they don't come back as quickly as when Greenify is absent.

For rooted users only - fight fire with fire - constrain the behavior of bad apps.

Fighting fire with water if rooted - find bad apps with Wakelock Detector, reconfigure to behave or uninstall, seek alternative.

I don't classify Greenify as snake oil, although others may differ on that.

I would caution that it's easy to abuse and overuse and would advise that there's no substitute for reading what he said in full and use it as intended only.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2155737

Read the first 3 posts in their entirety, imo.

More reading in this this thread: http://androidforums.com/threads/pu...k-killers-ram-optimizers-and-the-like.896663/

 

[AZgl1500]

I take a different road to preserving battery power. I do not use Greenify or any other similar app. They are not even on the phone.

I use MacroDroid to turn OFF both DATA and WiFi radios when the screen is locked. If the radios are OFF, no app can connect to a server period. No sync is possible that way. All of my apps continue to run, and within 5 or 6 seconds, TheWeatherChannel brings me up to date, my email syncs and is loaded with 10 seconds..... what more can I ask for? I don't need instant updates thru the night.

My wife's S5 is only used as a telephone and can go 14 days between charges. 40% level.

My S5 gets more normal use and I will get from 1 to 3 days per charge.... which to me is at the 40% level. I don't let the battery go much below 40% unless I am away from the house or other charging source. Sometimes, it gets down to 12-15 percent.... Lithium batteries would prefer to stay topped off for longevity....

Both of our phones are Qi equipped.

current technology gives something like 1,000 recharges plus or minus a few hundred charges depending on how deeply they get discharged.

Doing it my way, I get years per battery. My Galaxy S is now right at 5 years old and still using the OEM battery.... and I have always turned off the radios when locking the screen on it.

MacroDroid also turns OFF all of those irritating sounds that your battery is full, Please Remove Charger..... when the phone wakes up, all sounds are restored to normal.

____________________________________
2 ea. Verizon Galaxy S5, 4.4.4 forever!, ART
MyPhoneExplorer lets you access a broken phone while locked
Nova Prime, Textra, Blue Mail, Qi wireless equipped
MacroDroid can help extend battery life
MacroDroid senses Screen off, turns Wifi & Data OFF
MacroDroid senses Screen UnLock, turns Data ON
PureVPN when using a public WiFi

 

[EarlyMon]

At the end of the day, Greenify and MacroDroid really are more similar than not.

Truth.

 

[noxxtar]

so its good to use. the part about turning wifi and data and sync off while lockscreen doesnt work due the fact that i want battery to last longer while i use it not while i have it locked, and if i do what you say while isnt locked,i couldnt do anything without wifi.

when i meant hibernate em all, i meant apps that have ads. there are a few apps that have the annoying vungleService running in the back, and it can load the ads while offline. there is also this PersistentService thats eating my battery, so i just simply force stop the app.

i know android manages em all, but it doesnt manage messenger, doesnt close chrome wich has the website still working while closed, i bet i dont interferre at this point.

i hate the apps that when closed still run. why do people program apps like this anyway? i mean if it was something that holds something off like the greenify service that hibernates at lockscreen, it be ok, but if its a damn game, why? a total pain.

 

[codesplice]

You should read through that thread I linked to make sure you have a firm understanding of the differences between "cached", "in memory", and "running".

 

[EarlyMon]

Check out "RAM Truth"

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=sa.ramtruth

See for yourself.

And if you're sure that you really don't want background processes, turn on developer options and limit your active tasks to just the one in the foreground.

As for your browser still running when it's in the background - go to youtube on your browser, play something and switch to another task.

Does the audio still play?

If you go back to your browser 3 minutes later, is the video 3 minutes later, running in real time while you were doing something else?

 

[noxxtar]

Check out "RAM Truth"

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=sa.ramtruth

See for yourself.

And if you're sure that you really don't want background processes, turn on developer options and limit your active tasks to just the one in the foreground.

As for your browser still running when it's in the background - go to youtube on your browser, play something and switch to another task.

Does the audio still play?

If you go back to your browser 3 minutes later, is the video 3 minutes later, running in real time while you were doing something else?

erm, not what i meant.
anyway imma try that dev option right there
i understand the things about the in memory stuff that apps open faster when they are there. anyway that dev option might be useful. or you know what? im done checking apps in background. just leave the phone alone, let it die if it dies, let it do its job, let it leave. whatever.

 

[AZgl1500]

At the end of the day, Greenify and MacroDroid really are more similar than not.

Truth.

ummmm, no, Greenify won't let me write macros to control other situations. turning OFF the radios is only 1 of the 13 macros I have in use. None of those macros disable any apps.

 

[EarlyMon]

ummmm, no, Greenify won't let me write macros to control other situations. turning OFF the radios is only 1 of the 13 macros I have in use. None of those macros disable any apps.

Yeah. You missed the point. And you're not fully realizing what MacroDroid is doing.

Whether you hibernate apps directly - or shut down radios using macros that saves battery because what that really does is hibernate apps using those radios - you're simply choosing which path you like to... wait for it...

Hibernate apps.

I get better battery life than you. I don't turn off radios with MacroDroid and I don't hibernate apps with Greenify. I control my configuration and use so that when the screen is off - the phone hibernates.

Not everyone can seem to do that.

So Greenify and MacroDroid are there to help - and they often do - because at the end of day, and for the how and why they actually save power - they're more alike than different.

They're both two back doors leading into the exact same room, from the exact same hallway.

Different door colors and doorknobs don't change the destination.

People prefer each of the two in turn because for various reasons, setups and use cases are different for people.

But - same results because the power draw savings comes from the same place.

 

[EarlyMon]

Here's my phone, sleeping for 5 hours except for a brief live check by me and regular, periodic email checks as automated.

Cell radio, wifi and GPS were on the entire time. They always are on my phone.

There was virtually no power draw due to those radios being on - and quiescent except when used by an app.

Power savings from turning radios off only occurs when a) you're in a no-reception area for cell service or b) turning off radios forces app hibernation.

I keep Bluetooth and NFC off at all times unless using them. Technology for both is pretty poor and stuff attached to their presence won't hibernate otherwise. If I used Bluetooth in some predictable fashion, sure, I'd consider a MacroDroid convenience for that. But I don't.

 

[noxxtar]

woa is that lollipop?

 

[EarlyMon]

woa is that lollipop?

KitKat. I'm still on KitKat. Want Lollipop but also want to wait until I get some of my favorite features ported over from Xposed - and that's happening quickly.

WifelyMon recently upgraded to Lollipop. Her performance is better than mine now, and we have the same model phones (HTC One M8).

Here's my previous phone doing close enough to the the same thing on ICS. Here's 8 hours of screen on time over the course of 30 hours -

That was after using it and adding a bunch of stuff. This is from the same phone new, HTC Evo 4G LTE (the break is from having it down during a backup) -

Same phone, brand new, not rooted, stock setting to turn off wifi with screen (made no difference to me - and yeah - I've never owned one of those buggy graphs that always shows wifi on when it's not, probably worth mentioning that) -

That's all from back in 2012. If I look hard I can probably find something similar from my 2011 phone.

Android task management rules have been the same for a long time. It took me more than a year to learn that.

 

[MLSS]

I use Greenify and it works very well for me. It's not for everyone and it's usefulness depends on what you want to get out of it. I have a few apps that I like to use that will constantly run in the background consuming ram and battery is Facebook for Android just to name one, and Greenify keeps that from happening.
My phone is usually charged by the time I got to bed so I unplug it and I'll use 1% over the 6 or 7 hours until I wake up.

 

[Jeyd02]

The thing is, people need to comprehend what is happening with their phone. A good monitor app like betterbatterystat can help you target many factors that causes the phone to be active or wakelock or see what services are running on background unnecessarily. Greenify can initial help you to yield or suspend some apps that wakes your phone.

However if you are not aware and in in control of your apps management it won't matter if you have greenify. Because regardless of what you do there are others loopholes that you are not even aware that is draining battery. And there is also kernel settings, radios signal strength, wifi scan, other services. Greenify can only do so much but not everything.

Like I said, greenify it'd a simple and effective app that's suspend resource hog applications. But it'll give you a more effective result if you manage other internal services as well.

Maybe Tasker can be the ultimate app to macro your phone from inside out.

 

[noxxtar]

too complicated, just greenify facebook and messenger and all apps that have constant updates and games that use vungle.