[Q] Trouble with RAM management? - Xperia Z1 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I got my Xperia Z1 about a month ago, and I've noticed some issues with RAM management (or possibly under-optimized third-party apps). Although I haven't had much luck in replicating the problem, I noticed it happen a few times after a Firefox internet session, or after playing a graphically intensive game like Dead Trigger 2. The app would either close by itself (not crash, as in, there were no error messages), or, after I'd close it, I'd notice my launcher (Nova Launcher Prime) go into a restart loop. A quick glance at the running apps section in settings shows 50-100 MB of free ram, and all "constantly running" apps (launcher, viber, zooper widget, k9-mail, swiftkey, tasker, etc.) stuck, for want of a better phrase, in a restarting loop (due to lack of ram I guess).
I tried running Fast Reboot (a task killer) to see if I could regain stability of the system, but it kills only a few system tasks, freeing up to a measly 50 MB of RAM, which makes me wonder (in aggravation) just where the RAM is being used. The only way the running apps would stop closing and restarting (and I need the launcher stable) is to reboot. I'm not sure if the system would stabilize after x minutes, as I only waited for a minute or two before rebooting so that I could open another app/game.
I'm not trying to start yet another debate on necessity of used RAM on Android and efficiency/futility of task managers/killers, but what I described above really seems like poor RAM management to me. I've had a few android devices in the past, and experienced various problems /errors, but never something like this.
Has anybody had a similar issue, or have any tips?
My Xperia Z1 C6903 is currently running on rooted stock 14.2.A.0.290

Although i dont get force closes, but ive noticed most of the ram is taken by the phone itself, right now for me it says i have 1.1gb in use, when i close everything i have just a slight (barely even noticeable) increase in free ram, when i click on cached processes and close all one by one ive seen it increases the ram use instead of decreasing it?
But, do you use apps like setcpu? You can keep it on performance and keep the min slider to the lowest and the max slider to max, it runs stable and gives you performance when you need it, and no performance when you dont need it.
If all fails, try deleting system apps that you barely even use or need... Becareful what you delete tho!

mobzw995 said:
Although i dont get force closes, but ive noticed most of the ram is taken by the phone itself, right now for me it says i have 1.1gb in use, when i close everything i have just a slight (barely even noticeable) increase in free ram, when i click on cached processes and close all one by one ive seen it increases the ram use instead of decreasing it?
But, do you use apps like setcpu? You can keep it on performance and keep the min slider to the lowest and the max slider to max, it runs stable and gives you performance when you need it, and no performance when you dont need it.
If all fails, try deleting system apps that you barely even use or need... Becareful what you delete tho!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply. No, I've used apps like that in the past, but haven't installed anything similar on the Z1, because I noticed in BetterBatteryStats that the CPU speed goes down often when the screen is off, and up when, I suppose, it's required, such as in intensive games...

What apps do you use? For example facebook, YouTube, browser etc
Ive checked again on my cached apps and to my surprise, AOSP browser takes up 208mb!
Facebook takes up 48mb, and youtube takes up 22mb.
It just depends on the apps you have installed, some use the ram even while the phone is asleep.
Ive stopped those and a huge difference was made on freeing up my ram!
What i dont get is tho why sony advertises 2.2ghz quadcore if the phone itself takes most of it?
Just delete the apps you dont need from "all apps".

Related

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.

Stock vs custom - multitasking

So, i've tried many different roms out there on my SGS. Never got any major issue with flashing or setting them up. Supposedly a custom rom has something improved but there was one think i kept thinking they all fail and i was wondering if anyone else feels the same.
I see random posts all the time telling how great multitasking in android is. But all these roms i keep using try their very best to close just about everything i have running. As far as i can tell, a few seconds after i switch to anything else, my first app gets closed. For example, everytime i'd leave browsing to manage what im listening to or sort out files on some file manager i'd find i needed to open my browser again instead of being there opened and waiting for me to return.
After searching for a while, the best explanation i could find out is to prevent battery drain from opened apps and to keep things smooth by having free ram, which kind of makes sense. Goes against what i read in a paper from google about android multitasking but fair enough.
Except the other day i happened to returned to a froyo stock rom (JS8 with darkcore 1.4) on my SGS and found out this does not happen. Apps stay open for the most part, except when i run something really heavy (like a game). And i dont really notice any performance decrease or extra battery drain from my usual usage.
Granted, i could be just told something along the lines "well dude, just use whatever works for you" and i totally plan on doing so, hence me experimenting, but thats not really my point. What i'm going for is, are custom roms being overzealous? because this really spoils any attempt at multitasking...
Again, this is not a rant of any sort, i was just wondering what are other people's thoughts about it
I'm suffering same problem
i want to have the browser and messenger at the same time
it close one after swetching to the other
i have 80mb free ram
I had the same problems, although lack of multitasking appeared on my stock rom, not a custom... sgs couldn't handle faceboom messager, viber, and a browser at the same time, everytime I switch from my browser to something else - it gets killed, which is frustrating
at the same time I saw how nexus s work, and how much free memory it has, compared to mine, the difference was huge!
I tried cyanogen at first, which was very close to stock nexus s, but it doesn't work good with sgs's camera and crashes once in a while
so eventually I installed JVT with voodoo and uninstalled different samsung stock apps, which gave me about 50mb of additional RAM compared to stock, and there doesn't seem to be any aggressive memory cleaners working, so I can now finally switch between all the apps I need
If you want the best roms for multitasking, go for the final builds of Froyo 2.2.1. They have plenty of free ram and are very smooth. I'd recommend Froyo ZSJPK. You can download it from XDA.
I think it depends on the ram settings in your ROM. The way android works is there are a bunch of system settings on how much ram to keep clear, and if it drops beneath certain values they start killing apps.
It's highly possible these values were tweaked in the custom roms, to improve the perceived smoothness and so on, but at the same time reducing multitasking. There's a trade off between performance and multitasking (guess why apple was so reluctant to add multitasking?)
I'm not really an expert on it, but I'm sure some quick searches around will find out where those values are and how to change them.. some rom/app probably even allows you to tweak them to your liking.
All Gingerbread roms do the same, closing apps after moving away from this, don't know why, but froyo didn't do this and ginger does.
I used to be like TS, clearing RAM because it might let the phone run smoother. After getting more exposed to Android, I realised that it could be logical to keep your apps in RAM instead of doing a cold boot again, meaning to close an app, open, close and open again, making it taxing on the phone.
So I tried to use up as much RAM as possible and it works just fine, it feels good. I believe the problem you have stated is that in your ROM, the task manager has instructions to clear the RAM once it hits a certain threshold. When it does, it starts to clear apps in different category, starting from what is known as empty apps, which are generally just apps you use and are not important to the android OS or rather independent from the OS.
In the new Samsung ROM, the threshold is set to 40MB, and it is working great for me. You can go to the android market and download "Galaxy Tuner" to set the threshold to a value you feel comfortable with. To multitask better, set the threshold as low as possible.
MaoJie said:
I used to be like TS, clearing RAM because it might let the phone run smoother. After getting more exposed to Android, I realised that it could be logical to keep your apps in RAM instead of doing a cold boot again, meaning to close an app, open, close and open again, making it taxing on the phone.
So I tried to use up as much RAM as possible and it works just fine, it feels good. I believe the problem you have stated is that in your ROM, the task manager has instructions to clear the RAM once it hits a certain threshold. When it does, it starts to clear apps in different category, starting from what is known as empty apps, which are generally just apps you use and are not important to the android OS or rather independent from the OS.
In the new Samsung ROM, the threshold is set to 40MB, and it is working great for me. You can go to the android market and download "Galaxy Tuner" to set the threshold to a value you feel comfortable with. To multitask better, set the threshold as low as possible.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok i downloaded galaxy tuner but idk how to change threshold

Apps Performance issue

Hello evry one. I have problem in my captivate and other models of android. I installed almost every custom rom but problem of loading apps fast still exist. What i mean is.. that when i on my mobile, so first time apps like calender, messenging etc take a little time to load. than when i close the app and open again, it loads very quickly. When mobile goes to standby for more than 10 mins, and when i on it, it again take little time to load apps, and widget menu etc.
Why it is like that ??? and whats the solution to always load the apps quickly
majidshahab091 said:
Hello evry one. I have problem in my captivate and other models of android. I installed almost every custom rom but problem of loading apps fast still exist. What i mean is.. that when i on my mobile, so first time apps like calender, messenging etc take a little time to load. than when i close the app and open again, it loads very quickly. When mobile goes to standby for more than 10 mins, and when i on it, it again take little time to load apps, and widget menu etc.
Why it is like that ??? and whats the solution to always load the apps quickly
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's how Android manages memory. It keeps your apps in memory until it needs to free some, at which point it starts to close apps to free some up. If they're already in memory they open fast because they're already open. If they aren't, they open more slowly.
There's not a ton you can do, really. Some 3rd party sms apps let you lock the app in memory, but I honestly never checked to see if it really works or not.
Personally, I restart my phone every morning when I wake up. This frees up the most memory and allows your phone to leave more apps open before closing them.
make sure you arent running any ****ty task killers.
You could flash an I9000 ROM/kernel that let's you tweak the lmk. (low memory killer)
Talon and semaphore both offer that option.
The trick is to make it weak enough to not kill the apps you want, but aggressive enough to not allow to run out of ram completely.
both of those kernels also have a "bigmem" version that gives the user a bit more ram at the cost of being able to record video in 720p.
studacris said:
You could flash an I9000 ROM/kernel that let's you tweak the lmk. (low memory killer)
Talon and semaphore both offer that option.
The trick is to make it weak enough to not kill the apps you want, but aggressive enough to not allow to run out of ram completely.
both of those kernels also have a "bigmem" version that gives the user a bit more ram at the cost of being able to record video in 720p.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I like ur answrr. But can u pls guide me abt lmk. I like this idea but never use such tweaks. I m using talon kernel right now and rom is much fast. But have same prb of apps loading
In the app memory freak, that installed with the kernel, there is a slider for you to adjust,
lower number the more aggressive the lmk but the better the overall performance.
Higher number is less aggressive and is better for multitasking, but can be a bit slower.
studacris said:
In the app memory freak, that installed with the kernel, there is a slider for you to adjust,
lower number the more aggressive the lmk but the better the overall performance.
Higher number is less aggressive and is better for multitasking, but can be a bit slower.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Where to find app memory freak ? i haven't seen any option in CWM
Should have been installed when you flashed talon. If not, it should be linked in the talon op.

Effect of installing many apps

I've downloaded to my LG Optimus Black 30 apps til' now, I'm on Zeus V2.1
When I had the stock rom I had 100 apps!!
Does installing many apps necessarily slow down the phone? or It doesn't have to affect on the phone memory and speed?
On the one hand, I know that the phone is a lot faster when It has only few apps, and on the other hand, I have an Android Phone, Why not to have funny apps like lighter and games. What's your opinion?
Short answer: Mostly less is more...
Means: A lot of apps stay in memory and slow down ur phone, as u alread answered to urself, some even keep running in background and can keep the cpu from going to deep sleep mode, if they are not programmed well.
So yes, many apps slow down ur phone
Well, to describe it correctly, i would like you to explain that it's not the "numbers" of applications that matters.... I mean, we have a whole one GB of internal space, so we can easily afford 100+ applications.
So, it's actually the "type" of applications that give you a considerable effect on your device's performance.
# Example : i have installed TorrentFreak reader application. When i open it to read TF articles, it opens... when i exit it, it exits... shuts down completely. Now, i have installed UNO game from glu, which even if i don't open, it brings me advertisement notification.
So, the moral of story is, if i have installed hundreds of applications like TFreader, they won't cost me any RAM or any battery usage if i don't use it. But if i install just 10-15 apps like UNOgame of glu, they will use my data connection, RAM etc. in background even if i hardly use them.
So, always choose the application wisely, that's the point. Check their permissions, see if they add any "services" that may keep consuming your cpu cycles..... and you are good to go.

Fire Tablet 7 (5th Gen) Ram Question...

Hey guys. After a restart I am usually sitting at around 425 mb of free RAM. Most of the apps I run are light, FB Lite, Smart Keyboard Pro, etc. so it runs pretty fast to me, but it seems to slow down significantly when it gets to the low 300's. I am annoyed everytime I see the Amazon Video App (or Whisperplay Daemon) constantly running even though I don't use it or know what it is for. Most all my apps I use are third party.
How much ram do you guys with this device usually have free and is there any tips to get even more. I do not have a PC and obviously we can't root 5.4 right now.
CaptainPatterson said:
Hey guys. After a restart I am usually sitting at around 425 mb of free RAM. Most of the apps I run are light, FB Lite, Smart Keyboard Pro, etc. so it runs pretty fast to me, but it seems to slow down significantly when it gets to the low 300's. I am annoyed everytime I see the Amazon Video App (or Whisperplay Daemon) constantly running even though I don't use it or know what it is for. Most all my apps I use are third party.
How much ram do you guys with this device usually have free and is there any tips to get even more. I do not have a PC and obviously we can't root 5.4 right now.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
FireOS uses several techniques (KSM, ZRAM, aggresive swapping) to insure apps will not force close due to limited resources. Downside is a significant degradation in performance. You can not tune these parameters nor prevent preinstalled apps from aggravating the situation without root permissions.
Two options:
- limit the number of apps you launch; swipe them away when finished
- reduce the number of preinstalled apps by running a debloat script
If you opt for the latter be sure to read through the caveats; you will probably want to make some modifications to the default script.

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