• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

Help Task Killers! Must read for new Android Users

Force close apps/services?

  • Yes, I force close apps/services with ____

    Votes: 101 44.9%

  • No.

    Votes: 69 30.7%

  • Sometimes...

    Votes: 55 24.4%
  • Total voters
    225
Raw said:
I must admit that forums such as this need to be more publicly advertised I have been using android since the G1 and I have always used task killers and have constantly come across problems with task killer restarting apps I such as clock and weather as well as blanking out my screen for 2-3 seconds when using auto kill feature I have since unistalled ATK and can say I have had no problems since.
Click to expand...


LOL yea I agree we should be back on the front page. We were put there for a day but was moved back. I have no control over it so maybe the mods will move it back.

Glad to hear your success with not using a task killer. It does lesson the stress of being worried all the time about apps running. It really does make a difference.
 
Because of all the back and forth whether to use a task killer or not, I decided to just see how the battery life would do, based on my normal usage.

I'm happy to say that I was able to get 32 hours (16 hours overnight standby, while I was sleeping) out of my phone with 14-15% left to spare. My 2 gmail accounts are set to automatic push and my other email address pushes popmail through every 4 hours. I have friendstream set to update every 4 hours.

For what I use my phone for, I'm extremely satisfied with the battery life, without having to use a task killer. I did however download an app called JuiceDefender (supposed to help battery life). I can't really tell if it's extending the life of my battery, but it hasn't seemed to hurt it, so I'm leaving it on there.
 
I'm 4 hours into my phone, and I noticed that there are random apps starting that I didn't even run. Amazon MP3, Yahoo, Ect. I installed yahoo but didn;t start it once.

There loads of them starting out of no where.

Why?
 
I forgot, you also need Root access for privileges to uninstall all software.

I was able to remove Amazon Mp3 with Titanium backup ;)
 
SporkLover said:
I forgot, you also need Root access for privileges to uninstall all software.

I was able to remove Amazon Mp3 with Titanium backup ;)
Click to expand...
Beats me then, I'm rooted and on the 2.2 stock ROM. When I try to uninstall it via Titanium, it says it cannot find the .apk file.
 
Try re-installing Titanium. I had issues after my incremental upgrade, but they went away after I re-installed.
 
I actually just got to it uninstall. I removed the update and force closed it, and Titanium got rid of it. Thanks for the suggestion though!
 
Wait wait, if I install something, I can't remove it?

I'm not rooted, I don't know if they rooted 2.2 yet. I wanted to follow that picture guide, but scared too right now, don't know if the root will stick.
 
Sometimes Android will pre-cache applications. It happens. They don't consume processing cycles, you'll be fine.
 
stock apps. they are not running just sitting in a "ready" state. they are not using any precious resources.

go here to read up in how android handles memory....

http://androidforums.com/tips-tricks-evo-4g/85554-task-killers-must-read-new-android-users.html





SOHurley said:
I'm 4 hours into my phone, and I noticed that there are random apps starting that I didn't even run. Amazon MP3, Yahoo, Ect. I installed yahoo but didn;t start it once.

There loads of them starting out of no where.

Why?
Click to expand...
 
Yep.
Amazon MP3 has been started on my phone for about 24 hours now(last reboot) and has used 0sec of processor according to system panel.

So just because it is loaded, doesn't mean it is doing anything. I used ATK for a long time after I got my phone. But notice my phone is more stable now that I got rid of it.

I do use system panel (love the app), and can use it to kill a crappy app if one goes crazy.
 
SOHurley said:
Wait wait, if I install something, I can't remove it?

I'm not rooted, I don't know if they rooted 2.2 yet. I wanted to follow that picture guide, but scared too right now, don't know if the root will stick.
Click to expand...

No, you just need root for removing pre-installed bloat.
 
Ive gone into the few apps I can actually turn off the load on startup option and they also continue to load. To name a few that are loading to see if you guys may be able to help me stop them from loading (These did not load w/ 2.1)

Amazon MP3
Easy tether (no option to stop at startup but it didn't start up in 2.1)
FM Radio (no option to stop at startup but it didn't start up in 2.1)
Footprint
Gmail (Disabled sync it but it still starts up)
Google Search
Google partner search
Hi AIM (Disabled startup but it still starts up)
HTC Messsage uploader
LED Desire Light (no way to disable on startup it appears but no idea why it'd start up all the sudden)
Market
Music
My uploads
Open sense plugin manager
Pandora
PDA net
Nascar
football crap
etc.
etc.
etc.

Dave
 
98% of those started for me on 2.1.

It's not 2.2.

And wtf is Hi Aim? I've NEVER seen that on my phone.
 
I had the same problem. If you see A lot of apps that your not using in the task list, you can do a long hold and choose to ignore and you'll never see it again in the task list till you actually use it.
 
I still don't understand why Android insists on pre-caching apps that are never run. If it's going to pre-cache in order to maybe save startup time later, you'd think they would save a list of most commonly used apps on YOUR phone, and load those. Otherwise, the pre-caching is just totally useless. Just seems like a stupid way to do things, to decide for you what you might be wanting to run later, without looking at your individual usage patterns.
 
kayst said:
I still don't understand why Android insists on pre-caching apps that are never run. If it's going to pre-cache in order to maybe save startup time later, you'd think they would save a list of most commonly used apps on YOUR phone, and load those. Otherwise, the pre-caching is just totally useless. Just seems like a stupid way to do things, to decide for you what you might be wanting to run later, without looking at your individual usage patterns.
Click to expand...

Thank you. Android may handle apps that are in an inactive state just fine, but they are still consuming memory. Maybe not much, and it may not take much processor time to clear cached memory and fill it with active memory that other apps need, but it still seems stupid for these useless trash apps to run at all. If I never use them, they don't need to be there.

I'd much rather have commonly used applications being pre-cached. This is how OS's are supposed to work.
 
marctronixx said:
stock apps. they are not running just sitting in a "ready" state. they are not using any precious resources.

go here to read up in how android handles memory....

http://androidforums.com/tips-tricks-evo-4g/85554-task-killers-must-read-new-android-users.html
Click to expand...

I wouldn't say that apps sitting there in memory not doing anything useful aren't using precious resources. RAM is precious :)

What if you have 40megs of RAM free, open up a music streaming app which caches to RAM and the OS has to decide what to kill? Sure it wouldn't (or shouldn't) be noticable to the user, but still, the fact that the OS had to kill something that shouldn't have been there in the first place wastes cycles... Sure it's an edge case, but it's still a valid one.

With today's phones, it might not be much of a problem, but that's not to say it can't happen. So is there an absolute answer for this whole memory management issue that keeps popping up? I'd say no. People asking why Android chooses to pre-cache useless apps in the first place is a good question.
 
nahpungnome said:
I wouldn't say that apps sitting there in memory not doing anything useful aren't using precious resources. RAM is precious :)
Click to expand...

Unused ram is wasted ram. It costs you exactly the same (battery-wise) for the ram to hold all zeros as it does a mixture of zeroes and ones.

The idea that ram should be 'free' is a throwback to the days of poor memory management, and very low memory systems where a single application would require the entirety of your system's ram simply to launch.

What if you have 40megs of RAM free, open up a music streaming app which caches to RAM and the OS has to decide what to kill? Sure it wouldn't (or shouldn't) be noticable to the user, but still, the fact that the OS had to kill something that shouldn't have been there in the first place wastes cycles... Sure it's an edge case, but it's still a valid one.
Click to expand...

The apps that are being cached are each only a few hundred kilobytes in size, you're just not going to notice Android doing it's thing in the background except when you go to use one of the pre-cached apps and it starts up instantly.
 
mynamewastaken said:
you're just not going to notice Android doing it's thing in the background except when you go to use one of the pre-cached apps and it starts up instantly.
Click to expand...
Except that it caches apps I never go to use, so it's no help at all. Cache the apps I use, please.
 
nahpungnome said:
RAM is precious :)
Click to expand...
No, it isn't.

The reason some of y'all are panicing about "Apps I don't run" loading is most likely because these apps are getting notifications (Android Intents) from the system as the system boots, and are necessary for the proper functioning of that particular app- just because you might not use it, doesn't mean no-one does anywhere (and those who do probably want them to run properly :))

But in the end, it has negligible impact on these handsets; it's just not worth worrying about.
 
mynamewastaken said:
Unused ram is wasted ram. It costs you exactly the same (battery-wise) for the ram to hold all zeros as it does a mixture of zeroes and ones.

The idea that ram should be 'free' is a throwback to the days of poor memory management, and very low memory systems where a single application would require the entirety of your system's ram simply to launch.



The apps that are being cached are each only a few hundred kilobytes in size, you're just not going to notice Android doing it's thing in the background except when you go to use one of the pre-cached apps and it starts up instantly.
Click to expand...

Again, from personal experience on my EVO. When there are tons of apps loaded, the phone is less responsive. You can choose not to use a task killer, but I choose to based on my own experience with my phone.

Memory management itself isn't black and white. You can't just say it's good to have free RAM or not. Unused RAM is wasted RAM? I disagree, unused RAM is RAM that can be accessed quicker than deciding what to kill in order to free up memory. Free memory space has its uses.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom