Memory and Auto Loading of Apps

[tcope]

Two issues, that are related, that I find with the way Android is set up....

The issue of Android not closing apps and leaving them running and how this affects memory has been beat to death. Many people will point out that Android manages memory and apps differently. I agree... however, I don't think Google has done a good job of incorporating this into Android.

I just updated to 2.3.4 and have seen the "Low Memory" icon a few times already. I bring up Advanced Task Manager and I see apps running that I don't have set to use data in anyway, have never used and that I've never loaded (Photobucket, Amazon MP3, Finance, etc.). If my phone is "low on memory" why are these apps loaded and if I don't use them why don't that unload? When I kill them I can easily gain back 50 or 60Mb.

The other, related issue, is that these bloatware apps... and others... load automatically. Who can do this? I think it's pretty much anyone, even app developers. Now I understand some apps need to run even when they are not being used if we have them set to sync or obtain data in some way. But as I mentioned above, some of these apps run... just to run. So if pretty much anyone can have their apps run, where is the line drawn?

Even if the app is not doing anything, taking up internal memory _is_ going to slow the operation of the phone down.

I understand why I'm not allowed to delete some bloatware... and that even Google does this. But why do these programs need to load themselves into memory for no reason?

 

[takeshi]

If my phone is "low on memory" why are these apps loaded and if I don't use them why don't that unload? When I kill them I can easily gain back 50 or 60Mb.

The memory isn't needed. This is covered in the countless prior threads on this topic. They'll unload when the memory is actually needed. Your "gained" 50 or 60MB is actually wasted.

Even if the app is not doing anything, taking up internal memory _is_ going to slow the operation of the phone down.

Simply using memory does not slow your phone down. Again, dead horse. This faulty line of thinking is perpetuated by those that don't understand the difference between coincidental and causal.

 

[tcope]

The memory isn't needed. This is covered in the countless prior threads on this topic. They'll unload when the memory is actually needed. Your "gained" 50 or 60MB is actually wasted.

Then why does the phone report it's low on memory and instruct me to shut down apps not being used?

I know all about the memory discussion but that does not explain the warning message.

Simply using memory does not slow your phone down. Again, dead horse. This faulty line of thinking is perpetuated by those that don't understand the difference between coincidental and causal.

It does if the phone loads and unloads those apps all of time. It loads then automatically which ties up the CPU. It then needs to juggle the remaining amount of memory around these apps. At some point it then needs to unload those apps in order to free memory. Rinse and repeat.