My non-root tips to speed up Transform on 2.2

[fujimori]

Just based on my experience, I think the reason many people are having major stability and speed issues with their Transform since the 2.2 update has to do with RAM limitations. As people have noticed, tasks like Sprint ID keep reappearing in my task manager, whereas they used to stay closed after killing them with a task manager. (I know some people preach against task managers, but they helped in 2.1 to close all the junk that opened on startup at least) I'm running with consistently less free RAM than I used to on 2.1. It seems like 2.2 has many more processes running all the time.

I had many freezes and crashes the first few days after the update, usually when multitasking such as making calls, using GPS, and texting at the same time. This seems to point to the fact that the shortage of RAM in the device is causing the problems.

I haven't gone the root-route yet. While I know there are benefits to that, I know many users including myself would prefer not to. I might opt for that at some point, but for now I'll keep things simple. Here are just a couple things which have made my phone faster and more stable.

Sorry if this seems painfully obvious, but my biggest suggestion is just to uninstall whatever apps you can, and move whatever apps you can to the SD card. From the home screen > Menu soft key > Settings> Applications > Manage applications. You'll be surprised what a difference it can make when you only have 20 MB of RAM free - every bit helps. The Facebook app was taking up 11MB of RAM (combined app and data), and I rarely use it and can access it by the browser. Same goes for the Yahoo Mail app. I uninstalled several games I never play which were a few MB each. I haven't had a freeze since I decided to get more radical in uninstalling things.

Another tip which definitely makes the phone feel snappier:
Disable animations! This includes the fadeout of the lock screen when you unlock the phone, the zoom out effect when you tap Home from an app, or the sliding motion in menus. Your phone will feel much faster due to the time saved, and I think it also helps reduce the load on the phone's processor given its poor graphics performance.
From home screen, tap Menu > Display > Animation > No animations.

For Launcher Pro users: some of the memory usage settings can make scrolling among home screens a lot smoother, which will also make your phone feel faster. I have it set to:
From Home Screen > Menu soft key > Preferences > Advanced Settings: > Memory Usage preset: Light.
> Use homescreen caches enabled (description: creates caches of your homescreens for smoother scrolling)
> Homescreen cache type: Compressed.

If anybody has other tips, feel free to share. Hope this helps!

 

[monmur]

Thank you! You're right on all counts and I will try some of these. I don't want to go the root/flash/ROM type stuff route, as I just want to keep my stock phone stock! Esp. if I drop it, it breaks and I have to get a replacement!

 

[nstg8r]

Another thing I tried which seemed to help so far: I backed up all the data on my sd card to my hard drive the old fashioned way. (ie pulled it from the phone, stuck it in the card reader on my comp, drag & drop, etc.) Then, I put the card back in the phone and reformatted it. Copied all my files back to it.

This is something I had to do when I upgraded my old Windows Mobile phone to 6.1

 

[lyssalynne]

I actually wrote this for another thread but it seems appropriate here too.


Maybe this will help...
Just a few tips that seems to have helped my Samsung Transform in this week long journey of forums... *note: i have not rooted. i am on 2.2 on basic launcher (now) and removed all my widges (for now)

-clear all caches in all apps (perhaps there are some that should have been kept, maybe someone will chime in, but in my frustration cleared them all)
-remove any fishy apps
-uninstall any apps that boot on startup
-moved any music, photo, game apps to sd card that would let me
-to stop seemingly pointless vibrations go to Animations in Settings->Display->Aimations to "No Animations"
-go to the browser app, hit Menu->More->Settings and clear Cache, History, Cookie Data and Form Data."Accept cookies" and "Remember form data" should be checked. Similarly, you may have to clear your call logs and SMS history logs from time to time if there seems to be a lot of data
-if running a FB widget, try launching the Facebook app from a shortcut icon instead.
-i changed my synch on FB and gmail to 1hr intervals and this helped tremendously!
-<back> key instead of hitting home (i knew this but some may not, it turns off most apps instead of home key leaving app multi-tasked in background)

I really hope this helps someone else, kind of a "pay it forward". Extra special thanks to rbasusparky for helping me get here. My phone was painfully slow and I had read so many forums but still had little success.

 

[k9rosie]

How do you change the intervals on Sync?

 

[rbasusparky]

I don't believe you can set the gmail sync interval automatically. You can manually toggle the gmail sync settings. The email settings (exchange/pop3/vpn) can be set when you are in the email app, Menu->more->Account Settings, Email check frequency setting. The FB sync can be managed when you enter the app from the app drawer, back out to the News Feed, profile, etc. and Notifications page, Menu->Settings, Refresh Interval

 

[rbasusparky]

I'm pretty happy with the way my Transform has been handling, especially with all the improvements and features from the 2.2 update and the apps I've installed and the widgets I'm running but I was wondering if I could still tweak my phone trying to see if there was anything else I could do (aside from the stuff I've mentioned in other threads and similar to fijimori's tips above) to improve performance and thought I'd focus on somehow improving RAM. Anyway, one of the threads I came across was this one, giving tips to speed up old or sluggish android devices both from a non-rooted and rooted perspective:

http://lifehacker.com/#!5709148/how-to-speed-up-your-old-sluggish-android-device

Even though I use the stock 2.2 launcher (the article was written from a LauncherPro perspective), I thought I'd see if reducing my homescreen usage from all 5 available to just 4 homescreens as well as eliminating some widgets would improve my phone's performance. I was pleasantly surprised that it did. I also uninstalled Accuweather Quick which seemed to always run in the background though I was not using the widget that launched it or the app itself and had identified and stopped it in Applications->Running Services and even later on in Applications->Managed Applications->[App], Force Stop (an example of a "misbehaving app" in my opinion).

I might also try using folders as well to allow more app icon shortcuts without having to increase the number of homescreens used but reducing the number of widgets used (I still have Fancy Widgets as my clock, Business Calendar, stock power control, battery life, ringer toggle and an airplane widget) and using only 4 homescreens has made an improvement to my Transform. We don't have the RAM that an Evo, Epic or Evo Shift has, so we need to be more cognizant of ways to be efficient with our RAM usage than users of those phones may have to be.

Update: I'm very impressed with the speed improvements to my Transform that I've achieved by reducing my homescreen usage to 3 screens and have organized my shortcut icons into 8 folders. I have not noticed much lag at all or home screen redraw and certainly within limits (of the phone's specs) and tolerable if any.

 

[rbasusparky]

NOTE: I am not advocating everyone to do a Factory Data Reset, but if you wanted to do so, please plan ahead and BACKUP all your DATA!

I did a factory data reset (Menu->Settings->Privacy->Factory Data Reset) on my phone two days ago and found out that doing so can have positive benefits to my phone! I never thought I would ever do that to my phone as I've been apprehensive about the possible negative consequences to my phone since I haven't really had much issues with the Transform since I got it (2.1) and the update to 2.2 Froyo. Anyway, here is what occured that forced me to do the factory data reset.

I've been very careful to maintain at least 10-30% (21.8-65.4 MB) of internal storage free on my phone to ensure performance (speed) efficiency.

http://www.bongizmo.com/blog/speed-up-android-phone-free-up-internal-storage/

I never let it drop below 62 MB available space (Menu->Settings->SD card & phone storage) and I've been maintaning about 65 MB. I went to a party over the weekend and used Google Maps with Voice Guidance to navigate there and compare it to our vehicle's onboard GPS navigation system. The next day, I checked my available space and it said that I had about 24 MB available! I was shocked by this low figure and wondered what had caused me to lose about 40 MB of internal storage memory! I checked if I had accidentally downloaded some apps (no new apps) and thought of some pictures I had taken using Retro Camera. I deleted some of them and it didn't affect the internal storage amount and realized that Retro Camera was storing the pictures on my SD so that's not what caused the issue. I deleted my browser cache and it didn't affect the internal storage amount much. I did some research and found some users having some possible issues with Google Maps and internal storage memory disappearing:

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Google+Mobile/thread?tid=26908a4da7fe778c&hl=en

http://www.nexusoneforum.net/forum/nexus-one-tech-issues-bug-reports/10745-google-maps-ate-away-40mb-my-internal-memory.html

http://androidcommunity.com/forums/f41/g1-internal-phone-storage-suddenly-disappeared-33281/

http://androidforums.com/desire-support-troubleshooting/252003-internal-storage-issue-ive-tried-allsorts.html

I removed the internal tile cache on Google Maps (Menu, on the application) as well as <Clear Cache> and <Clear Data> on Menu->Settings->Applications->Managed Applications and got back about 2-3 MB of memory. I even hit the <Uninstall Updates> button. I got back around 10-12 MB of memory. I now had about 38 MB of available memory, not close enough to the 65 MB that I wanted to maintain. Since I was planning on using Google Maps again, I did not want my internal storage to go to 0 and have issues with the phone so I decided to do a factory reset to start over and regulate the apps that I really wanted to install on my phone and to have a baseline for tracking sudden internal storage memory loss. Before doing so, I dowloaded a free app called DiskUsage (Ivan Volusyuk). I cross-checked the memory readings for app storage and my sd card with the SD card & phone storage and Task Manager (Samsung, 2.2 update) readings. I noted that DiskUsage had the following readings:
DiskUsage (AppStorage view)
Data: 217 MB
Applications: 82.3 MB
System Data: 97.1 MB
Free Space: 37.6 MB

I knew that the Factory Data Reset would not delete the SD card contents and I knew that email, calendar, and contacts information would be reset. I wrote down all my phone settings (sound, display, etc.) and all my installed apps as well as their versions and the ones whose versions I wanted to maintain (free apps) and not use the updated version (various reasons like increased force closures, new permissions, less functionality, etc), I used Astro or ES File Manager (I have both) to back it up to my SD card. I knew that I could use Astro to re-install these apps (particular versions) from my SD card after the reset. Here is a guide for Astro File Manager:
http://www.metago.net/astro/fm/
http://www.metago.net/astro/fm/doc/help_quickstart.php
http://www.metago.net/astro/fm/doc/help_tools.php#app_mgr

I backed up my SMS messages using SMS Backup & Restore (Ritesh Sahu):
http://android.riteshsahu.com/apps/sms-backup-restore

I wasn't worried about my Call Logs as I use CallTrack (asterdroid mobile) to log all my call logs to a google calendar (category). You might want to look at Call Logs Backup & Restore (Ritesh Sahu) to back it up instead. I forgot about my voicemails but here is a thread about it:

http://androidforums.com/htc-evo-4g/101905-will-factory-reset-delete-my-voicemails.html

General OS Tips and Tricks
http://community.sprint.com/baw/docs/DOC-1151

Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised by the results of the Factory Data Reset. Restoring my email (I made sure to not agree to Google location tracking), calendar, contacts and apps (paid and free as well as reloading apps from Astro), and phone settings did not take much time but the internal storage results were astounding! I noticed that the initial reading for System Data on DiskUsage (first app I downloaded after the reset) was about 14 MB! I downloaded all of my previous apps except for about 8 and moved every app that I could move to SD (aside from widgets which need to be on internal storage to work as well as those with <Move to sd card> greyed out). I did run into an issue wherein I got the "Failed to move application" error when moving apps to the SD card. I rebooted my phone and when I got that error, I just hit the <Move to sd card> button again and it worked the second time. With some other apps, I did not get the error initially. My current system memory readings are as follows:
DiskUsage (App Storage View)
Data: 217MB
Applications: 65.2 MB
System Data: 25.3 MB
Free Space: 127.2 MB

Task Manager (Summary)
Summary:90.45/218 MB

SD Card & Phone Storage
Available Space 127 MB

I have not tried using Google Maps yet and seeing if I lose internal storage memory but will do so soon and now feel comfortable that I have good baseline data to compare its usage to. More importantly though is the fact that my phone runs well (I even have animation turned on and added two widgets to my homescreen that I had deleted previously and increased the size on another) and I have 127MB of available space with system data only using up 25.3 MB!!! I'm wondering if all the theories about not regaining system memory when installing/re-installing apps are correct and whether Factory Data Reset is actually a necessary process to undertake after we figure out which apps we really need and use (perhaps that app emulator on the amazon app store is a good way to test out apps on our pc beforehand). Is that part of the reason (aside from other software/hardware performance tweaks) that people who root report enhanced phone performance? Finally, what caused system data to go to 97.1 MB and take up only 25.3 MB currently?

Note: Sprint Tutorial gets started when you boot up the phone which you might want to stop using Menu->Settings->Applications->Running Services, click on Sprint Tutorial to stop it (be careful to press the right one).

 

[rbasusparky]

After I did a factory data reset (Menu->Settings->Privacy->Factory Data Reset), I downloaded a running app called RunKeeper and successfully used it with a good GPS lock using GPS Test (Chartcross Limited) with 8/8 satellites In View/In Use. Afterwards, for several days, I could not get a GPS Lock or even see any satellites using GPS Test and another app called GPS Status. GPS Status allows you to reset the GPS cache and download aGPS data (menu->Tools) to help your GPS get almanac data on the satellites but to no avail for my phone. I tried another running app called Cardio Trainer (GPS did not work) and even Navigation (Sprint Nav), which uses Satellite GPS, not wireless networks like Google Maps does, and I only got the "Searching for Location" and "Searching for GPS" message. After talking with Sprint Tech Support for a resolution, I told them I had read about an RTN (MSL) reset. They told me it was the option of last resort and there seemed to be more of an impact on the phone than a factory data reset. I decided to hold off on it and did more research on a "hard reset" wondering if there was a difference between it (phone powered off when executed) and a factory data reset (phone powered on when executed) which I had done again but did not resolve my GPS issue and whether a hard reset might resolve my GPS issue instead. Fortunately for me, the answer was "YES" on both counts. The "Hard Reset" is a better reset to do on the Samsung Transform as it resolved my GPS issue and I believe it deletes more cached data since it is executed with the phone already powered off. The reason I believe this is that the Android Market initially started on the 2.2 Froyo UI version and has remained on that version after several visits to the Android Market instead of reverting back to the 2.1 Android Market UI version after the initial visit displayed the 2.2 UI version which occurred after the OTA update to my phone and the subsequent factory data resets.

Here is the proper way to do a Samsung Transform Hard Reset:
Press and hold the following 3 buttons together (at the same time)
<Volume Down>, <Voice Dial>, <Power On/Off>
Note: <Voice Dial> is the button below the <Power On/Off>

As soon as you see "Samsung" appear on the screen, release all 3 buttons. The progress bar will appear and continue across the screen. When it finishes, you will see a menu which includes options to reboot the phone, delete cache, perform a factory data reset and a fourth option. Use the <Volume Up/Volume Down> button to scroll up or down, scroll down to the "factory data reset" option and execute it by pressing the <Voice Dial> button. Follow the instructions to confirm the factory data reset and the action will be processed. Afterwards, select the "reboot phone" option and execute it with the <Voice Dial> button and wait until the phone completes the reboot process.

Here is the link I used:
http://community.sprint.com/baw/docs/DOC-1631

The first thing I did after the phone rebooted was launch the Navigation (Sprint Nav) app and took a walk outside to get some clear view of the sky. It took about 10 minutes (and I initially thought it didn't work) but the "Searching for location" message disappeared! I selected "Maps" which was inaccessible while it searched for my location and I saw the blue arrow pointing on my street! I went inside, saw the "Searching for GPS" message, walked out and saw the blue arrow pointing correctly on my location. I then started Android Market, noticed the 2.2 UI, and downloaded GPS Test and GPS Status. Sure enough, I was locked into satellites, 13/13 to be exact! Finally, I noticed the android market remain on the 2.2 UI after several visits to the market. I hope this gives some perspective on a hard reset vs factory data reset and helps anyone with GPS issues, especially those using running apps.

Update to Samsung Transform Hard Reset Procedure:
Sprint Tech support currently recommends the procedure detailed above as evidenced in this link ...
http://community.sprint.com/baw/thread/69131?tstart=0

Correction on "Navigation" app I referred to above which is actually Google Maps Navigation (Beta) which is an internet connected GPS navigation system with voice Guidance. This is the one I used after the hard reset with a blue arrow (pointing up) icon. I thought it was Sprint Navigation which is the Telenav app and is available by installing the Sprint ID pack for example. Google Maps does use wireless networks, not GPS.