App Request - kill tasks, then launch another app - G1 Apps and Games

Enjoying Taskiller - works very well.
Most users know their apps run better once unnecessary background apps / services have been killed.
Another set of users continue to complain about specific games or apps being laggy without taking steps to solve the problem.
Case in point is the camera application which needs more memory than most and often gets out of memory exceptions.
What would be great is if Taskiller or one of the other task closing apps could create a configurable desktop shortcut that would kill all unneeded apps, then launch a preconfigured app, e.g. camera app.
Users would need to understand that clicking this button to launch another app will lose state in any running apps, but will most likely mean the game or app they then run will have far better performance and be less laggy.
Any takers?

Though im the tiniest bit of confused...
A) If this app TaskKiller (never used) worked so well, whats the need for another?
B) I am also unsure if its absolutely necessary for the android platform. Maybe older phones or WinMo phones (<6.1) have this problem. But as far as I know, android has a garbage collector in which it treats its processes with priority and after a certain utilization, it ends it (for instance. I am playing gameboid, then just hit the home button. I can go back to gameboid fine. But if I open a large app after 'minimizing' gameboid (like opening the htc music player), gameboid will end and I will have to reload it again. Though if I open msgs while gameboid is minimized, gb stays up.
Its supposed to do that. So this request I am not sure if its really necessary.

Killing background apps when memory requires is the theory behind the OS but doesn't always work in practise.
For example, play any game on Android and you'll see occasional judders in the scrolling, etc. - this is usually because a Facebook or Twitter app on the phone has decided that its a good time to get some new notifications ... but that spoils the game experience.
I hate to mention the fruity phone but this is one of the places where it beats Android hands down and their games are in a different league to ours.
I think a way to clear the phone's background processes before launching a game / resource intensive app would make a big difference.

Related

Apps seem to open themselve sin the background when they have no services or function

As topic.
5.0.6 via kang
Just did a full restart so I can get the full picture, this is what is open, sorted into categories of stuff which does have services (which im happy with), those with services (which i think ive dissabled and shouldnt be there), those with no services which shouldnt be there:
services and happy:
HTC IME mod
live wallpapers
email
calendar
auto memory manager
news and weather
google mail
music
setcpu
3g watchdog
juice defender + plotter
beautiful widgets
engaget
helixlauncher
taskiller [what im looking at it with]
services and not happy:
clock
bluetooth share
cm updater (ive turned it to manual only)
bluetooth file transfer
finance (ive told it NOT to update, i dont use it really)
camera (does it need to sit open in the background?)
notes
klaxon
cachemate
appbrain market sync
mp3 store
weatherbug elite
no service and dont want:
shopsavy
police stream
Does anyone know of any program i can use to directly stop these unwanted apps to stop running every time, or any individual information on the programs?
cheers
Why do you not want them preloaded?
The main reason im being such a memory whore is because my launcher lags like crazy under 70-80mb. I have 250ish apps, and see many people with a similar setup demonstrating on youtube, and theirs is instantly responsive, as is mine >120mb free. If I leave all these apps etc free, i end up on ~40mb which makes my old nokia 6300 looks like flash gordon compared to my launcher :/
Re: Apps seem to open themselve sin the background when they
Android preloads apps into its memory for fast load times.
Just because an app is loaded does not mean it is using any resources. They're usually just sitting there idle. Android also frees up memory as needed.
That said, I've seen apps that can control what apps you never want preloaded. Search around on the market.
Looks like the slowdowns from a lack of ram still exist. I hope froyo will help with this. This problem makes the lower end android phones run slow.
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Apps automatically starting up, by themselves

Hello all,
I recently bought my N1 about 4 days ago. So far its been great. Easily one of the best phones I've ever owned. However, I am having this problem where apps in android seem to startup by themselves. I'm using Advanced Task killer to kill em but ill kill them and then like a minute later they're back up and running without me starting them. Its quite annoying as my battery is taking a beating from it having to close and open apps and repeat. The biggest offenders of this are the voice apps such as voice search, voice dialer, Google voice (which isn't even setup), and the amazon mp3 store. A few third party apps I downloaded tend to do this as well.
Have any of you guys experienced this? Is there any way to fix it? Thanks in advance! XD
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
decoyjoe said:
Hello all,
I recently bought my N1 about 4 days ago. So far its been great. Easily one of the best phones I've ever owned. However, I am having this problem where apps in android seem to startup by themselves. I'm using Advanced Task killer to kill em but ill kill them and then like a minute later they're back up and running without me starting them. Its quite annoying as my battery is taking a beating from it having to close and open apps and repeat. The biggest offenders of this are the voice apps such as voice search, voice dialer, Google voice (which isn't even setup), and the amazon mp3 store. A few third party apps I downloaded tend to do this as well.
Have any of you guys experienced this? Is there any way to fix it? Thanks in advance! XD
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do not worry about app running in the background, what you are probably seeing is the list of what was run, Android is verry good at managing memory, in fact I do not even use a task manager and I am fine with it.
Well that's the thing. Some of these apps that startup I have never run such as the mp3 store. So I close it and I get an additional 10megs of memory. But then it just starts back up. So I don't know how to stop it all together.
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
There are apps that automatically run in the background but don't effect performance like Google voice voice dialer etc..what I did was add them to the ignore list. Trust me those apps are always running no matter how many times you close them
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
Like has already been said, stop worrying about it. Those apps are NOT stealing memory, they're NOT using battery.
Free memory does not benefit you. Android will automatically load apps in to memory so that they are available to switch to fast as possible.
You should not kill apps unless they are bisbehaving. Killing off apps forces Android to load them back into memory if its algorithm thinks you are likely to use it. The act of loading data into memory uses power and Android tries hard to avoid it.
I was obsessed with managing my memory and running apps when I bought my nexus one. Everyone at that time suggested task killers so I got one of those. I had crappy performance with random sluggishness. I figured I just needed to kill off more apps. Eventually I read an article from an Android dev explaining this stuff and I backed off and have had a much better experience since.
I wish Google was more vocal on this subject. Everyone thinking auto task killing is a necessity on Android really gives it a black eye.
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=712352
Jack_R1 said:
...
2) App that loses focus goes to background. That's the way OS is built. If you want apps to be killed on losing focus, get iOS 3 to run on your device.
3) The market has task killers because they can be written for multitasking OS, and because they help dealing with bad apps. Not for any other reason.
4) The OS loads some of your most used tasks when it runs, even if you don't know about it. Just loads in the memory, and allocates no CPU time. If you leave your phone unattended, your free memory goes down by itself. Why? Because free memory is wasted memory. You can check the "EMPTY" processes in Astro, for example.
5) The best task killer is careful selection of your apps. You see hangups? Find out the app that's doing it and remove it, or kill it specifically after running if it's necessary.
...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=678205
Remove your task killer (or, if you insist, just clear the auto-kill list), erase all you think you know about memory management - because you don't know - and stop worrying.

How to make your LG Optimus 2x run like a Rocket! (Requires Root)

You don’t need to change your ROM to get the best from your 2x, just a rooted stock ROM and a couple of apps that will change things dramatically. One thing I’ve noticed on the 2x is its memory management is too lenient and gets consumed quickly by background tasks etc. In no time I was down to 40-30Mb free memory and then my phone would run like a dog resulting in a reboot as the only solution.
Installing task and app killers are not the way, as they’ll only give you a short respite before the apps and background tasks you killed relaunch.
However, there is a solution.
1)Root your phone using SuperOneClick (piece of cake, instruction already on this forum)
2)Install “AutoKiller Memory Optimizer” by AndRS Studio free from the market
Optional
3) Install “Watchdog Task Manager” by Zolmut LLC (There’s a free or Paid version) I paid!
4) Install “Root App Remover” by Best of Best Android app
AutoKiller is not a task killer/manager it reconfigures Androids inbuilt memory manager to kill or suppress memory usage by applications and tasks. I now always have about 140-170MB free RAM at all times regardless of what I’m doing (but I do close my apps with the back button rather than click home)
AutoKiller Memory Optimizer Settings
I’ve used the ‘Extreme’ settings to ensure I have around 150MB free, and this makes a huge difference in everything I do with the phone.
----------Optional things you may want to consider-----------
Watchdog
Yeah, I know this is a task killer but Watchdog is different from other task mangers as it monitors CPU usage rather than free RAM, 3D Gallery for example is a CPU hog on my 2X, so I configured it to be killed if it consumes more than 30% CPU whilst running in the background, you’d be surprised what saps your battery!
Root App Remover
Uninstall the tosh supplied on the ROM, I removed the following, AndroidBackup (I use Titanium Backup), CarHome, F-Secure_Mobile_Security, SNS (If you’re not using the built in Facebook and Twitter app).
I also use LauncherPro with Beautiful Widgets to give my phone an almost HTC Sense look and feel and uninstalled LG Home using Root App Remover afterwards.
Hope it makes a difference for you, it did for me, vote if you like
What do you think having 140-170MB RAM free at all times actually does?
Guess what? Nothing.
I disagree, my phone runs way better now, maybe due to the fact that in part it’s killing more background tasks and enforcing better garbage collection. I want a phone that when I go to it, it responds immediately, I don’t want my phone to chug along whilst a new app is launched and android then decides to kill lower priority background tasks resulting in a choppy experience. These are my findings, and I wanted to share them. As a result using this particular application I now have a phone I can enjoy, rather than being frustrated by pausing, choppiness etc.
I would welcome your reasoning to why my post is useless, or explain why my phone is now running so well? Are you saying I’m suffering a placebo effect? Remember, this app is not a task killer, it reconfigures Androids internal memory management, see here:
http://andrs.w3pla.net/autokiller/details
and
http://androidforums.com/eris-all-things-root/158846-autokiller-vs-setcpu.html#post1452069
Finally, I’m very happy with the results.
Spadb (HTC G1, HTC HD2[CM7], LG Optimus x2
We want to see some bench marks.
Thanks for sharing! My phone does become much more responsive
Sent from my LG-P990 using XDA App
I tried the app too and i can say that it works, I also did some of the advanced tweaks.
phone seems more responsive now.
Yes, me too. It's more responsive now. Also when I open app manager, the app list is a lot faster.I know it's more related to file read/write but still it's nice to finally able to browse with less waiting time.
Sent from my LG-P990 using XDA App
thx
good one and simple, thx
cann someone please post some benchmarks?
Here are some screenshots, tested with AnTuTu Benchmark
The first one is v10c stock, some apps like f-secure, carapp etc frozen, second one is with using autokiller memory with preset extreme, third one is to compare, this was while using cm7.1 rc
now we'll see if autokiller works stable ^^
edit: realized that with cm7 something seemed to be wrong with the sd-card, so don't forget to compare the single-scores
spadb said:
I disagree, my phone runs way better now, maybe due to the fact that in part it’s killing more background tasks and enforcing better garbage collection. I want a phone that when I go to it, it responds immediately, I don’t want my phone to chug along whilst a new app is launched and android then decides to kill lower priority background tasks resulting in a choppy experience. These are my findings, and I wanted to share them. As a result using this particular application I now have a phone I can enjoy, rather than being frustrated by pausing, choppiness etc.
I would welcome your reasoning to why my post is useless, or explain why my phone is now running so well? Are you saying I’m suffering a placebo effect? Remember, this app is not a task killer, it reconfigures Androids internal memory management, see here:
http://andrs.w3pla.net/autokiller/details
and
http://androidforums.com/eris-all-things-root/158846-autokiller-vs-setcpu.html#post1452069
Finally, I’m very happy with the results.
Spadb (HTC G1, HTC HD2[CM7], LG Optimus x2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm sure Rusty knows what he is talking about. Thing is, this talk about "the more free ram the better" has been repeated so many times, and at the end of the day, it seems to be more about user preference.
The default LG ROM seems to allow tasks to run in the background until it reaches around 50MB free RAM, then it starts to close tasks one by one. For multi-taskers like me, this is fine, I love how I can switch between facebook, tweetdeck, miren browser, google+, gmail, and messaging without seeing the apps reload.
For some, they'd want to open a task, close it, and move on to another without looking back. I guess that is where the 100MB of RAM is good for.
If you guys will be looking at benchmarks, I can guarantee that you will have higher scores with RAM optimizers. As benchmarks do not test multitasking, they simply check the performance of your phone at that point in time. (Which is also why some modders pump up their CPU freq to insane values before doing their bench then posting it.)
I have nothing against AKMO, and I find it very effective for Froyo builds. But I would recommend that each user try it out themselves. It's not a "1 fix for all" thing.
spadb said:
I disagree, my phone runs way better now, maybe due to the fact that in part it’s killing more background tasks and enforcing better garbage collection. I want a phone that when I go to it, it responds immediately, I don’t want my phone to chug along whilst a new app is launched and android then decides to kill lower priority background tasks resulting in a choppy experience. These are my findings, and I wanted to share them. As a result using this particular application I now have a phone I can enjoy, rather than being frustrated by pausing, choppiness etc.
I would welcome your reasoning to why my post is useless, or explain why my phone is now running so well? Are you saying I’m suffering a placebo effect? Remember, this app is not a task killer, it reconfigures Androids internal memory management, see here:
http://andrs.w3pla.net/autokiller/details
and
http://androidforums.com/eris-all-things-root/158846-autokiller-vs-setcpu.html#post1452069
Finally, I’m very happy with the results.
Spadb (HTC G1, HTC HD2[CM7], LG Optimus x2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll just say this once: Free RAM is wasted RAM. If you feel´your phone is slow try adding some swap space
kiljacken said:
I'll just say this once: Free RAM is wasted RAM. If you feel´your phone is slow try adding some swap space
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does O2X already support swap space in EXT? (Or are your referring to VM heap?)
Doesn't play well with Fr19 at all (2 reboots in 2 minutes). Maybe I touched some settings that I shouldn't though.
akyp said:
Doesn't play well with Fr19 at all (2 reboots in 2 minutes). Maybe I touched some settings that I shouldn't though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, FR19 is one of the more stable ROMs out there. Try full wipe then reflash maybe.

How to stop "running" and "cashed processes"?

I know that android is very good at handling background processes and ram but I have so many apps that I don't use at all. They consume big amount of ram and for instance, sometimes browser loads pages again when I get back to it from another app. I assume this is because of ram. So I guess, if I can shut down some running apps in the background, available ram would be more.
I can see them at settings-apps-running(or cached processes).
For example, right now in "running" section I have 9 processes and 3 of them are poweramp, awesome beats, accuweather.com and in "cached processes" I have 10 processes and 6 of them are beautiful widgets,calendar storage,google account manager, google search, calendar, google play store. Other processes are system services that I have no problem with. When I go to developer settings-background process limit and block them, there are no cached processes anymore but that probably has a side effect. I wish I could choose which apps I want in the background.
I can shut down these apps manually but every time I restart the phone, they are there again. How can I stop them?
if you rooted, you can use Autostarts or ROM toolbox from the playstore. it can change the receivers of the apps not to start at boot
CooLasFcuK said:
I know that android is very good at handling background processes and ram but I have so many apps that I don't use at all. They consume big amount of ram and for instance, sometimes browser loads pages again when I get back to it from another app. I assume this is because of ram. So I guess, if I can shut down some running apps in the background, available ram would be more.
I can see them at settings-apps-running(or cached processes).
For example, right now in "running" section I have 9 processes and 3 of them are poweramp, awesome beats, accuweather.com and in "cached processes" I have 10 processes and 6 of them are beautiful widgets,calendar storage,google account manager, google search, calendar, google play store. Other processes are system services that I have no problem with. When I go to developer settings-background process limit and block them, there are no cached processes anymore but that probably has a side effect. I wish I could choose which apps I want in the background.
I can shut down these apps manually but every time I restart the phone, they are there again. How can I stop them?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The simple answer is that you don't need to stop them!
As you say, Android is already very good at keeping track of background processes, to the extent that if a new program needs more RAM, Android itself will kill a background process that hasn't been used for a while to free up RAM for the new program.
The Cached processes screen SHOULD be full of recently used programs; it shows that Android is doing what it is supposed to do and is shifting inactive processes out of active RAM in case you want to load it again, without completely dumping the process memory.
Now, as for the side effect you mentioned, that would be a significant hit on battery life. By holding programs in RAM as it is supposed to do, the OS can load the program quickly and cleanly and more efficiently by simply reading the RAM rather than reading flash, writing to RAM, then reading from RAM. The general mantra for UNIX based systems is that unused RAM is wasted RAM.
Another thing to note is that if you do not close tabs when switching active programs (including going to homescreen) then the Browser is designed to hold that tab in memory. Even if you close the Browser (excluding closing the tab specifically with the "little x"). Even if you reboot the damn phone, it will still load the tabs/pages you had open last. The pages are not held in memory as such, just what was open and what tab order, so if you do open the browser after a while, it will load the last page from scratch.
TL;DR version: The running and the cached processes will remain exactly where they are until a new program needs more RAM than is available, at which point Android will kill something to make room. You do not need to do this manually. It will cause more power drain by making very inefficient use of RAM/Flash memory. Empty RAM is wasted RAM.
whilst Chaos is right, I notice severe performance drops when ram is filled, despite Androids theoretical advantage. It doesnt work...
Best to prevent from loading altogheter.
Root, lose warranty, backup apps, uninstall or freeze apps so the bloatware is removed.
For others, change autostart settings in Romtoolbox. So they wont start on boot.
Search for safe stuff to delete. There are lists for that
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk 2
Or just dont install the apps that you dont really need.
Via GtN7000
LoVeRice said:
Or just dont install the apps that you dont really need.
Via GtN7000
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol, even then you might still need to remove bloatware lol
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk 2
Thanks so much for detailed answers.

How much of a difference does closing apps make?

Hi, i'm thinking of buying an HTC one and i can't wait for it and i wonder how much of a difference does closing apps make in terms of battery life because it is obvious that having apps running in the background makes the OS feel a lot faster and if it's a minor downside than i'd rather have the upside of having those running in the background.
Hahaahahahahahahahahaahaha. Closing them neither increases battery nor makes the system feel faster... Have you come from an iPhone? (It doesn't make a difference on iPhones either)
nope im coning from glaxy nexus and it does make a difference in it though
According to what I've read, the newer android systems freeze the apps while in the background. I don't know what apps you'd keep open in the background, though. The only one I have keep running is my browser.
Im asking that if im surfing on net and then have to go somewhere, do i have to close apps and then put the phone in my pocket or is just locking your phone and putting it in your pocket is fine.
battle1 said:
Im asking that if im surfing on net and then have to go somewhere, do i have to close apps and then put the phone in my pocket or is just locking your phone and putting it in your pocket is fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just lock the phone and put it in my pocket. Does fine for me. I get awesome battery life. Usually your screen is what eats up your battery anyways, again I say usually ;p (always an exception somewhere). Out of all the android phones I've had, this one has the best battery life. Not saying there aren't better, but I can go a whole day with moderate use and still have a little juice at the end of the day. Now granted, if you were playing music, you may want to stop that first, but I figured that was common sense...
battle1 said:
Im asking that if im surfing on net and then have to go somewhere, do i have to close apps and then put the phone in my pocket or is just locking your phone and putting it in your pocket is fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just minimize it to the recent apps tray, you can just restore the app where you left off ... Android manages apps extremely efficiently so you don't need to close them, force stop them in settings, use a task manager or any of the above. It actually drains your battery more to kill apps and have them start again, especially system apps that constantly run, than it does to just leave them running.
when you pause an activity (hit the home button, rather than the back button - or venture off to a different activity)
The app does not continue running, however it does preserve the application state (as long as dalvik doesn't kill it, due to higher priority memory allocation requests)
Apps can launch background services, which are NOT paused in the same way (depending on how they are created, of course). In order to force kill all services associated with an app, you'll have to use the app manager.
---
As far as performance/battery impact:
- You'd think "Oh, if i pause 50 apps then i'm going to run out of memory?" NO - the dalvik will kill them in the order it deems necessary to ensure a certain amount of memory is always free.
- This also means you cannot count on a paused app ALWAYS being where you left it off. In the middle of writing an important email? pause the app, go look something up in chrome, and come back to the email it MAY or MAY NOT BE where you left it off. (The dalvik could have killed it)
- Paused apps do not account for any CPU time, therefore there is no battery impact.
Services MAY account for cpu time depending on what they're doing - and they will run even when the app is killed depending on how they were registered.
So even in my Galaxy Nexus it's actually better if i don't swipe all the recent apps?

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