Hi Jim, thanks for the post, being new to the world of 'droids I have probably still a lot to learn!
at this moment, my RAM is 217 / 290, and after running a "clean" with go themes, its 168 / 290 and it will steadily increase even though sat for the most part idle...?
I am always happy to learn though, so any advice would be much appreciate...
In the time to type the last few sentences, my droid went into "idle" and on releasing the screenshot, my memory is now 189 / 290
just left it again for 45 - 60 seconds, and now at 204 / 290...
With our phones, we have apps that are constantly receiving information via the data connection. It's not like a computer where you can simply turn off
Outlook and stop receiving email updates, for example. Our phones are set up to automate the prices, so they are always checking for new information in the background.
Furthermore, everything on your phone is an app. Your call log, dialer, SMS program, etc. are all apps. Fisher and SMS do not use the data connection, but separate 'cell' connections that are always sending info as well.
For your main apps, like Google's apps, plus things like social media apps, etc., the more you allow them to connect and check for updates, over time the more memory they will use. To minimize this, you'll want to check your Google account settings and remove / tweak as many of the sync settings to you're liking / needs add possible. That will help alleviate some if the usage.
The same applies to other apps, but those are normally handled within the app's settings dialog instead of the system settings.
For phone calls and SMS, the more you have the more is always loaded into memory. I use Call log backup and SMS Backup & Restore, both by Ritesh Sahu, to make backups and delete them out of the actual logs, which will help free up memory, particularly when you have hundreds of either.
HTH
I don't think you should worry about this in itself. Free RAM is wasted RAM - it's doing nothing for you. So if the RAM is filled by storing inactive apps that's not a problem. If you switch to one of those apps it's already loaded, so it saves battery compared with reloading it. And if the OS needs the space it will clear an inactive app out. This is what Jim is saying about task killers being counter productive.
Correct, to a point. While Android is better at memory management, there is a limit to what you can have running and still have an effective system. Being able to use the phone as it is designed sometimes means still manually checking things as i mentioned above in order to maximize the operating system's responsiveness. No matter how good the memory management is, you can still overload it so that even simple tasks like opening the app drawer take entirely too long.
While i don't believe in the effectiveness of regular use of task killers and such, i still keep one around b/c apps do get hung, needing intervention on my part to FC them. Especially on lower end devices, where active RAM is limited.
(thanks rush)
