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Task killer apps " THE TRUTH"

I downloaded ATK also because I thought it would make my phone faster, increase battery life or something, but that just forces each app or program to restart each time. When I read a post on a forum that reminded me that android was meant to multitask, I got rid if it and I'm glad I did.
 
i have a task manager, but i only use it for if an app freezes.
Sometimes Ebuddy does it so its handy an quick =)
 
My battery was lasting about 5 hours when I installed ATK.

I have cycled the battery a few times to equalize and tried both again.

No difference with ATK installed -

BUT........

I uninstalled it and right now my battery is at 74% after 6:46 hours.

So it does more harm then good having that thing installed.
 
i dont know if anyone else is getting the benefits i am from ATK... apparently not. before i downloaded it (with 2.2) i kept getting that terrible home screen lag where the buttons take a few seconds to show up... i downloaded and installed ATK excluded the tasks that need to be running and put the widget on the home screen and press it before i turn the screen off every time... and now i never get the screen lag anymore. battery life is no different though.
 
"The task manager mentioned on the first page would be useful to see which apps have services and how much CPU they are using in the background."
What task manager from the first page are you talking about?
 
ajm144k said:
yep docprego's right. there really is no need to have a task killing app. linux systems are made to handle memory different than typical windows does, which is what the majority of people are familiar with, and makes us want to kill every single background process.

ive been running completely fine without any task killer. i've found that changing settings like window animations (settings > sound & display > animation) will have a better, more effective effect on speed.
Click to expand...

Question then...I have an app I use a lot and it automatically updates (google reader app) now and then and the App itself is a little buggy so when it goes for updates, it can lock up phone for 25-60 seconds...beyond turning off the auto updates/refreshing, how would I rid my memory of this program without a task killer?
 
garak0410 said:
Question then...I have an app I use a lot and it automatically updates (google reader app) now and then and the App itself is a little buggy so when it goes for updates, it can lock up phone for 25-60 seconds...beyond turning off the auto updates/refreshing, how would I rid my memory of this program without a task killer?
Click to expand...

Force stop it. settings>applications>manage applications>look for it in there and force stop it.
 
spectrrr said:
so then I am curious - which specific apps do you kill on occasion to improve your battery life?

I'm trying to find the happy medium between killing everything (former windows user) and killing nothing....
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I found this Lifehacker article about Task Killers extremely educational regarding memory, ram, and CPU. Made a lot of stuff that didn't make sense before (former WinMo user), quite understandable as it relates to Android.

So based on their recommendations, I uninstalled my TK and installed Watchdog Lite instead and use it to kill runaway CPU apps/processes as needed.

I think I'll root after the 2.2 update, too :)
 
BookLover said:
I found this Lifehacker article about Task Killers extremely educational regarding memory, ram, and CPU. Made a lot of stuff that didn't make sense before (former WinMo user), quite understandable as it relates to Android.

So based on their recommendations, I uninstalled my TK and installed Watchdog Lite instead and use it to kill runaway CPU apps/processes as needed.

I think I'll root after the 2.2 update, too :)
Click to expand...

See, I found that article and my battery life and performance went WAY down. Today is another day back on ATK with ignoring email and messaging and I am still at 88% battery with normal use when I normally would be past 50% battery and on the charger already.
 
garak0410 said:
See, I found that article and my battery life and performance went WAY down. Today is another day back on ATK with ignoring email and messaging and I am still at 88% battery with normal use when I normally would be past 50% battery and on the charger already.
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The article does say that for some people Task Killers can be useful, especially for those who have a "beloved" app that uses a lot of CPU.

In your TK'ing you're probably killing that offending app and thus lengthening your battery life.

For my part, after I install an app, and I find that it constantly eats up my CPU (via Watchdog), I usually uninstall it.

However, my TuneIn Radio and stock Music Player have occasionally been culprits, but I haven't uninstalled those. I just sometimes kill them when their CPU ramps up (Watchdog warns me) and sometimes I just let them run, at which point they sometimes FC.

But I don't globally kill everything (anymore), just the offending app. Watchdog makes this easy to do.

It's ok to use Task Killers, just use them judiciously, is what the article is recommending. In other words, kill only what you need to, when you need, not everything, and certainly not everything on a set schedule.
 
BookLover said:
The article does say that for some people Task Killers can be useful, especially for those who have a "beloved" app that uses a lot of CPU.

In your TK'ing you're probably killing that offending app and thus lengthening your battery life.

For my part, after I install an app, and I find that it constantly eats up my CPU (via Watchdog), I usually uninstall it.

However, my TuneIn Radio and stock Music Player have occasionally been culprits, but I haven't uninstalled those. I just sometimes kill them when their CPU ramps up (Watchdog warns me) and sometimes I just let them run, at which point they sometimes FC.

But I don't globally kill everything (anymore), just the offending app. Watchdog makes this easy to do.

It's ok to use Task Killers, just use them judiciously, is what the article is recommending. In other words, kill only what you need to, when you need, not everything, and certainly not everything on a set schedule.
Click to expand...

Good points...and I'll give this another week or so before proclaiming what works best...and I am one of them who schedules a kill every 30 mintues or so...so far, so good.
 
garak0410 said:
Good points...and I'll give this another week or so before proclaiming what works best...and I am one of them who schedules a kill every 30 mintues or so...so far, so good.
Click to expand...

I have mine set to crazy and kill when screen is off. I used to hate task killers, but until a fix comes via ota or I root first, I'm gonna keep it. B efore, my battery lasted 8 hours, now all day. I took tk off, amd was back to 8 hours.
 
jdailey1981 said:
I have mine set to crazy and kill when screen is off. I used to hate task killers, but until a fix comes via ota or I root first, I'm gonna keep it. B efore, my battery lasted 8 hours, now all day. I took tk off, amd was back to 8 hours.
Click to expand...

If the article is to be believed, then there is probably an app (or even a few apps) that you have that are constantly using your CPU and therefore draining your battery. Your Task Killer probably kills that one app that is the culprit.

Just for kicks you should install Watchdog Lite (free) -- and disable your TK and see what Watchdog tells you. If it shows an app or two that high-CPU use apps, and you kill them when WD warns you, it's possible that you would have the same benefits as using an auto task killer. The additional benefit is then you can make an educated decision whether the app is one you really need or not. If not you can uninstall.

IMHO, TK's are like using a machine gun to kill an ant :) You could be doing more harm than good, you just never know. So I just err on the side of caution.
 
BookLover said:
If the article is to be believed, then there is probably an app (or even a few apps) that you have that are constantly using your CPU and therefore draining your battery. Your Task Killer probably kills that one app that is the culprit.

Just for kicks you should install Watchdog Lite (free) -- and disable your TK and see what Watchdog tells you. If it shows an app or two that high-CPU use apps, and you kill them when WD warns you, it's possible that you would have the same benefits as using an auto task killer. The additional benefit is then you can make an educated decision whether the app is one you really need or not. If not you can uninstall.

IMHO, TK's are like using a machine gun to kill an ant :) You could be doing more harm than good, you just never know. So I just err on the side of caution.
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I had WDlite......I want to know is what "threshold number" is appropritate? Help. I too dont like TK, but I know I need something bc I know there are apps on my D1 that is totally draining my BATT.:rolleyes:
 
So, I have a question on how to determine whether or not an app is bad or not. And whether it should be killed.

I have tried not using TK (actually uninstalling it for a day), but even under light use, the battery was down to 5% by the end of the night when it is usually around 45% under heavier use.

Here are the apps I kill:
AT&T : hot spots, navigator
Email, Instant Messaging, Gallery
Gmail (I rarely ever use it, and my auto update is turned off)
Weather Channel
and any games I start up (angry birds, galaxIR, alchemy, etc.)


My ignore list is:
quick office
messaging
browser
market
clock
voice search
net counter
double twist


Is everything alright? or should I not be killing something I am. Everything I kill are things that I absolutely never use such as the At&T bloatware, email, and instant messaging, as well as games I won't touch for a while (a couple hours or more).


Also, if things start going south using a task killer, can i uninstall the tk and everything will slowly return to normal? or are all the damages done permanent?
 
Hopefully I have not missed the answer to this question....the reason I installed this app in the first place was because someone told me if I kill all the apps running in the background it would also cut down the amount of data usage....is that NOT correct? How much do all those things in the background use of one's data package? I'm on the 200mb plan, that's why I'm asking.
 
So, I have found with 2.2 running on my original Motorola Droid, that the battery was going dead in less than 1/2 a day (not so prior to 2.2 update).

So I "learned" how to use ATK better (i.e. in my mind) by turning on auto-kill so it killed apps when the screen went dim ("Screen Off"). That seemed to really help battery life for me... now it lasts about 1.5 to 2 days! I use "Crazy" and Auto Kill "When Screen Off" settings.

But the phone does seem more sluggish - don't really know if that is related to ATK or not. Some in this thread would say yes, some no.

If I turn off ATK, are we saying that will HELP my battery life? Does using ATK by itself actually cause my battery drain? If ATK does not drain battery life much, then I'd say there are other issues killing battery life and if I can deal with the slight sluggishness, then saving Battery Life is worth the sluggishness.

FYI, I do not have lots running that would normally kill battery life like GPS, WiFi, etc.

Thoughts?
 
UseMyDroid said:
So, I have found with 2.2 running on my original Motorola Droid, that the battery was going dead in less than 1/2 a day (not so prior to 2.2 update).

So I "learned" how to use ATK better (i.e. in my mind) by turning on auto-kill so it killed apps when the screen went dim ("Screen Off"). That seemed to really help battery life for me... now it lasts about 1.5 to 2 days! I use "Crazy" and Auto Kill "When Screen Off" settings.

But the phone does seem more sluggish - don't really know if that is related to ATK or not. Some in this thread would say yes, some no.

If I turn off ATK, are we saying that will HELP my battery life? Does using ATK by itself actually cause my battery drain? If ATK does not drain battery life much, then I'd say there are other issues killing battery life and if I can deal with the slight sluggishness, then saving Battery Life is worth the sluggishness.

FYI, I do not have lots running that would normally kill battery life like GPS, WiFi, etc.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...

I use WD lite. Works great.

What kills battery is some apps when you kill them, must fully boot up again, requiring more ram and battery. Android manages its own memory and shuts down programs it doesn't need on its own. WD lite watches for apps needlessly hogging ram, and gives you the option to kill, which may be nessecary.
 
So far I haven't read any hard evidence either for or against the benefit of having app killer. But I have read a few strong arguments that lead me to believe that it's not necessary.

1) the whole Linux argument makes a ton of sense to me (although I’m an expert on that by any stretch).
2) I wonder if it was really necessary why didn't Google just make it native.
3) I agree having an app killer does bring out the OTC in me. The whole killing app thing makes me feel a bit like I'm down in the bunker on Lost pressing a button for no apparent reason.

So all said and done, I deleted ATK and I'm gonna walk away and hope for the best.
 
daktron said:
So far I haven't read any hard evidence either for or against the benefit of having app killer. But I have read a few strong arguments that lead me to believe that it's not necessary.

1) the whole Linux argument makes a ton of sense to me (although I
Click to expand...
 
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