Is there a task manager that'll kill apps and permanently kill tasks processes? I've noticed that some will kill the task then the task will automatically start back up again...
Looking for the best that'll actually purge the memory and all that.
You should never use a task killer. Android manages memory on its own. Killing tasks will only lead to instability.
Tapatalked from Desire S running Andromadus
They say that but I've yet to ever see it happen! LMAO
I've seen "so called" task managers handle memory better than that this nonexistent invisible task manager android speaks of.
What are ya supposed to do when ya have 20 something app's running in the background, just leave them running and let this unknown task manager "supposedly" handle them...
How bout managing startup app's and what not? Furthermore if android has a built in task manager where is it and why isn't it working or why not make it better?
n1nj4Lo said:
They say that but I've yet to ever see it happen! LMAO
I've seen "so called" task managers handle memory better than that this nonexistent invisible task manager android speaks of.
What are ya supposed to do when ya have 20 something app's running in the background, just leave them running and let this unknown task manager "supposedly" handle them...
How bout managing startup app's and what not? Furthermore if android has a built in task manager where is it and why isn't it working or why not make it better?
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I'd suggest a little more reading on the subject.
If there's something you really don't want running then freezing or removing it is a more efficient alternative than repeatedly killing it only for it to restart over and over.
Sent From My Fingers To Your Face.....
I use All-In-One Toolbox. Yes, I use a task manager, I have been using it since I got my LG Optimus One. I have been a developer for 9 years on both windows and linux platforms. It is true that linux manages memory better than windows, therefor Android benefits from this being build on the linux kernel. The fact remains, an app that doesn't run, doesn't use memory. Applications on android behave much like applications do on Windows Mobile, the don't exit but remain in memory in order to have quicker start up times. Unfortunately, killing an up does cause to restart, but I have noticed from personal experience that in that case, since the UI haven't shown yet, it uses less memory. I have no problem waiting for an app to start up, as long as while it runs, it runs smoothly. For that reason I disable many apps from start up that I don't need to run on a day to day basis but only when I need the app. AIO Toolbox handles all of that, task killer with whitelist, start up management, file manager, apk backup and restore and a slew of features I hardly ever use.
moving to Q&A section
conantroutman said:
I'd suggest a little more reading on the subject.
If there's something you really don't want running then freezing or removing it is a more efficient alternative than repeatedly killing it only for it to restart over and over.
Sent From My Fingers To Your Face.....
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Click to collapse
What are some good articles on the subject then?
cornelha said:
I use All-In-One Toolbox. Yes, I use a task manager, I have been using it since I got my LG Optimus One. I have been a developer for 9 years on both windows and linux platforms. It is true that linux manages memory better than windows, therefor Android benefits from this being build on the linux kernel. The fact remains, an app that doesn't run, doesn't use memory. Applications on android behave much like applications do on Windows Mobile, the don't exit but remain in memory in order to have quicker start up times. Unfortunately, killing an up does cause to restart, but I have noticed from personal experience that in that case, since the UI haven't shown yet, it uses less memory. I have no problem waiting for an app to start up, as long as while it runs, it runs smoothly. For that reason I disable many apps from start up that I don't need to run on a day to day basis but only when I need the app. AIO Toolbox handles all of that, task killer with whitelist, start up management, file manager, apk backup and restore and a slew of features I hardly ever use.
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Yea I'm the same way when I used winmo I loved HTC CleanRAM, Pocket Mechanic and SKTools I really wish I could find a tool for android like SKTools, that was one powerful app. LoL
But I'm the same type of user you are it seems, right now it's at a toss up for me between Go Task Manager and ES Task Manager, but if anybody askes me for a good task manager to use I tell them ES Task Manager, cause it's startup list editor is a lot more newby user friendly telling ya whats safe to remove from the list and what isn't.
Related
Hey Everyone,
Just got my Droid Eris yesterday and I'm having fun exploring the phone and checking everything out.
One question, I noticed that many apps (in fact, almost all) don't have a direct "Quit" or "Exit" command. So I'm usually pressing "back" or "home" when I'm done with something. This left me wondering though... when I use "back" or "home", does the app actually exit? From what I can tell, it doesn't... so does the OS automatically clean up these apps from time to time? I came from WinMo 6.1, and it was irritating that everything defaulted to running in the background. How does Android treat it? Is there something special in this regard with the HTC Sense UI? I've seen there are some third-party task manager apps you can get... are they worth getting? Or just "let the phone do it's thing" and i will be fine?
Thanks!
I use a Task Manager from the Market called "Taskiller." But I'm still trying to figure out how the Hero handles the apps because sometimes it gets sluggish and taskiller helps out but then theres other times when I have all sorts of apps open and it runs smoothly, lol, I guess it just works sometimes.
I wonder if it's like the iPhone, where it kills the task when you hit the "Home" button. It doesn't seem like it, as some apps seem to just come up instantly when go back in them, as if I was "switching" to them, and no re-opening them...
false_apology said:
I wonder if it's like the iPhone, where it kills the task when you hit the "Home" button. It doesn't seem like it, as some apps seem to just come up instantly when go back in them, as if I was "switching" to them, and no re-opening them...
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No I dont think thats the case because Android has a special way of "Multitasking," though I'm not completely informed so you might have to research that on your own. But like I said download a Task Manager from the market so you can see how much available memory there is.
By default, Android applications never really "close" as their components can be called upon at any time. (Android applications are structured to be very modular, allowing individual components to be used from each.) When an application needs memory immediately, and another hasn't used it for a while, it shoves the old app into what's called swap space (presumably it's on your SD card) while the new one takes over. This is why you'll occasionally see a delay while performing a "hard" operation (like opening an app) while the system is under heavy load. That's the old app's memory getting written out to temporary storage and the other one taking it over.
At least this is my understanding of the situation.
From what I've heard Android (linux) does a much better job of managing the memory used by our apps. And, that we "...shouldn't have to use a task killer..." to close out apps that are running in the background, especially on our phones.
For instance, the myTouch 3G usually only gets about 20-30 MB of RAM freed after a full clean up of background apps, the Eris will have about 80+ MB after a cleanup and they both feel about the same to me.
I still use Task Panel to close my apps sometimes because I just like starting fresh in an app from time to time. Also if things start getting fishy (screen stuttering, touch screen not working properly) I'll kill all running apps to see if it fixes the problem which in some cases it just does not and a reboot is still required.
I have found that by holding the home key it will bring up all the apps so you can switch to the one that you want so it is still running them in the background.
refthemc said:
I use a Task Manager from the Market called "Taskiller." But I'm still trying to figure out how the Hero handles the apps because sometimes it gets sluggish and taskiller helps out but then theres other times when I have all sorts of apps open and it runs smoothly, lol, I guess it just works sometimes.
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i use a Task application called Task Manager. It gives lists of all Applications running, all process and even has an uninstall feature. It also has a auto end application feature but on my eris it's greyed out(maybe Pro only?)
Here are a couple of links that I found on this subject. Don't mind that it says Hero in the thread title it talks about android phones in general. Also something to look into once we get the Eris rooted in the second link.
Task Managers and your Hero by romeosidvicious @androidforums.com
How to configure Android's *internal* taskkiller by androcheck @xda-developers.com
I installed a task killer and noticed that when killing certain apps, the phone just lags real bad. I discontinued use of it and now the phone has no serious pausing. I was killing unknown apps with Android box icons.
heygrl said:
I installed a task killer and noticed that when killing certain apps, the phone just lags real bad. I discontinued use of it and now the phone has no serious pausing. I was killing unknown apps with Android box icons.
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yeah I uninstalled it as well. I heard Android does great job of managing ram and as soon as it gets low, it will start killing other apps automatically.
you need to learn what apps need to stay running, but some apps are just fluff and worthless... you may need to set up you task killer to ignore certain apps like handcent and clock... killing any android processes is usually a bad idea.. I just kill my 3rd party apps that open for no reason or use it to close apps when I am done using my phone for a while...
You should not need a task killer with this phone. Android has been managing its own memory and background services quite nicely for a while now.
SkOrPn said:
You should not need a task killer with this phone. Android has been managing its own memory and background services quite nicely for a while now.
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Thats what i was told but when i uninstalled the task killer my phone lagged with everything i did. Even when closing programs properly it still lagged. Im keeping my task killer.
acjames said:
Thats what i was told but when i uninstalled the task killer my phone lagged with everything i did. Even when closing programs properly it still lagged. Im keeping my task killer.
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yeah maybe its not as good as most people say it is at controlling its own memory usage.
Task Killers = meh,
Android has a way of doing things and that means keeping apps open for some time, I tried using app-killers and it did not seem to make my phones run better, and auto kill everything is even worse...
heygrl said:
I installed a task killer and noticed that when killing certain apps, the phone just lags real bad. I discontinued use of it and now the phone has no serious pausing. I was killing unknown apps with Android box icons.
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idk if youre rooted or not, or if this app works on the vibrant cuz it does an amazing job on the g1, but you could try autokiller, tho it requires root. what it does is change the android memory management settings and will kill apps more frequently depending on the settings you choose.
speedysilwady said:
idk if youre rooted or not, or if this app works on the vibrant cuz it does an amazing job on the g1, but you could try autokiller, tho it requires root. what it does is change the android memory management settings and will kill apps more frequently depending on the settings you choose.
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I still need to use it for those unruly apps but I got so used to it because my old phone would lag with Slacker even in the background and I had to kill it. I've stopped using it and I've stopped having major problems. Just an FYI for those out there that still use one, it's not needed here on a regular basis really.
I noticed that I can't use the "kill all" function in Advanced Task Manager by Arron La any more without making my phone freeze up. My brother suggestion Task Manager by Rhythm Software (he has a MyTouch Slide). This program doesn't give me any problems when killing files and also doesn't list system files (that I've noticed).
The people who are having problems with task killer are the ones that are not setting it up correctly or don't have enough apps installed for it to make any difference.
If you don't setup the ignore list correctly your phone will freak out or make your existing problem worse.
Android 2.2 is a different story though, Froyo is faster without a taskiller
Buddy here's what .....
Download AutoKiller from the market , then go to the dev's webpage ,there he has a lot of information about android and memory management .... then you can make an informed decision .... the lag issue you continue to have .,.,..., you might have to do a hard reset to clear the system of that poorly coded task/app killer ....
Here's some more information http://androidforums.com/samsung-vibrant/124542-constant-apps-restarting-themselves.html
I hope that here on xda we can help people to understand Android and memory management , so they are not fooled by these task/app killers that work against the system ......
heygrl said:
I still need to use it for those unruly apps but I got so used to it because my old phone would lag with Slacker even in the background and I had to kill it. I've stopped using it and I've stopped having major problems. Just an FYI for those out there that still use one, it's not needed here on a regular basis really.
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I used to have the original my touch 3g, lag central, even on custom roms. Task killer was handy, so I got in the Babbitt if killing tasks. I then got me a nexus, and it seemed to have not needed one, but I still used it out of the Babbitt and being paranoid of my plbattery being wasted with apps on the background and lag lol. Well, I'm now done with them, seriously, no need for task killers. I think on this phone it does more damage then good, most apps need to be running on the background, killing them just lags your phone. Like you'd lose signal, or it would run time and date update again, etc.
Task killers may not be necessary for memory management, but it will help save on battery by killing 3rd party apps that stay running in the background. I use Advanced Task Manager myself, and never get any lag when I run it. The main thing you need to "exclude" if you havnt already, is the TWLauncher(or whatever launcher you're running).
Hello all,
I am very new to android, this GT 10.1 being my first android device. I have been unable to figure out how to kill a process and or close apps. I have tried "advanced task killer" & "watchdog" apps, as well as going settings>Applications>force stop on said apps; no luck, running apps still show on the navigation button.
I have searched the GT 10.1 forum with no luck, has anyone had this issue and or have a fix?
There was a lot of talk about task killers on Android phones over the last couple years... As I recall, since Android 2.2, Android terminates apps when needed. I would not recommend a task killer... They can cause system instability when shutting down apps. As best I know, it is the same on the Android 3.x series as well.
Bukem is correct -- as a rule, you don't want to force close an application or service unless it is actually misbehaving. Android doesn't work like Windows. Android is much more efficient about managing background tasks, and there's usually no noticeable performance hit even from extensive multitasking.
Plus, you don't know what every applicable or service is actually doing or whether its needed. By way of example, when the EVO came out a few self-proclaimed experts advised that you could task-kill the Google Talk service to make the phone faster. Turns out, the Google Talk service was used as the universal Google sign-in, so killing it also killed your push Gmail and all other Google services.
Agreed. Task killers haven't been needed for Android since 2.2. Google should save everyone the confusion now and just purge them from the market, in my opinion.
Quote from a well-known dev, cvpcs:
…What people don’t seem to realize is that android is designed to have a large number of tasks stored in memory at all times. Why? Well basically we are talking about a mobile device. On a mobile device things tend to be slower. The hardware isn’t as robust as say a desktop or a laptop, so in order to get that same “snappy” feeling, there have to be workarounds.
One of these is how android deals with memory. Android will load up your apps and then keep them running until they absolutely HAVE to kill them. This is because that way, if you want to re-open an app, the system already has it loaded and can then just resume it instead of reloading it. This provides a significant performance increase.
What a lot of people don’t realize as well is that android kernels have their own task manager. This means that:
it will be more efficient than any app-based task manager as it is run at the kernel level, and
it should be left up to that task killer to decide when to free up memory
There is only one case where having a task killer is a good idea, and that is when you want to kill ONE SPECIFIC APP. Killing all apps is never a good idea. You don’t know what operations they are performing or if they are necessary.
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Whitson Gordon of Lifehacker:
This set-up implies that the goal of killing these apps is to free up memory. Nowhere on the list does it mention the number of CPU cycles each app is consuming, only the memory you’ll free by killing it. As we’ve learned, full memory is not a bad thing—we want to watch out for the CPU, the resource that actually slows down your phone and drains your battery life.
Thus, killing all but the essential apps (or telling Android to kill apps more aggressively with the “autokill” feature) is generally unnecessary. Furthermore, it’s actually possible that this will worsen your phone’s performance and battery life. Whether you’re manually killing apps all the time or telling the task killer to aggressively remove apps from your memory, you’re actually using CPU cycles when you otherwise wouldn’t—killing apps that aren’t doing anything in the first place.
In fact, some of the processes related to those apps will actually start right back up, further draining your CPU. If they don’t, killing those processes can cause other sorts of problems—alarms don’t go off, you don’t receive text messages, or other related apps may force close without warning. All in all, you’re usually better off letting your phone work as intended—especially if you’re more of a casual user. In these instances, a task killer causes more problems than it solves.
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And from a site called NextApp:
Android was designed from the ground up as an operating system (OS) for mobile devices. Its built-in application and memory-management systems were engineered with battery life as one of the most critical concerns.
The Android OS does not work like a desktop operating system. On a desktop OS, like Windows, Mac OS X, or Ubuntu Linux, the user is responsible for closing programs in order to keep a reasonable amount of memory available. On Android, this is not the case. The OS itself automatically removes programs from memory as memory is needed. The OS may also preload applications into memory which it thinks might soon be needed.
Having lots of available empty memory is not a good thing. It takes the same amount of power to hold “nothing” in memory as it does to hold actual data. So, like every other operating system in use today, Android does its best to keep as much important/likely-to-be-used information in memory as possible.
As such, using the task manager feature of SystemPanel to constantly clear memory by killing all apps is strongly NOT RECOMMENDED. This also applies to any other task killer / management program. Generally speaking, you should only “End” applications if you see one which is not working correctly. The “End All” feature can be used if your phone/device is performing poorly and you are uncertain of the cause.
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All those quotes were aggregated for this article, if you want to read more: http://www.droid-life.com/2011/06/02/revisiting-android-task-killers-and-why-you-dont-need-one/
So TL;DR, this:
Droid Life said:
Basically, Android keeps tasks handy because it thinks you’ll want to perform them again in a very short amount of time. If you don’t, it will clear them out for you. It also likes to keep as many things handy as possible so that the overall performance of your device is top notch. If Android were to completely kill off everything that your phone is doing, then it would require more resources to restart all of them and you would likely run into slowness and battery drains. By keeping certain things available to you, your phone is actually running better than it would without. So please, stop killing off tasks and let Android do the work for you.
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Although they are not necessary in every day use, I still recommend having one just in case. Every once in a while, something will go wrong. I guess you could just reboot so it's not a big deal either way. So anyway.. I have advanced task killer but I probably only use it about once a month.
On Linux I am not a hostage of the operating system...
On Android it seems it wants me to be 'cos it knows better.
For example: I use Skype maybe once a week. BUT android assumes that I will use it again and 3 minutes, and keeps it around hoping that I do. I know I won't so I want to kill it (like I did 2.1) so the machine will be more responsive - instead of for CPU to do massive cleanup before I start a new app.
The terrible system instability, the immediate phone damage - this is spreading FUD. Nothing terrible will happen.
Grrr...
viulian said:
o be 'cos it knows better.
For example: I use Skype maybe once a week. BUT android assumes that I will use it again and 3 minutes, and keeps it around hoping that I do. I know I won't so I want to kill it (like I did 2.1) so the machine will be more responsive - instead of for CPU to do massive cleanup before I start a new app.
The terrible system instability, the immediate phone damage - this is spreading FUD. Nothing terrible will happen.
Grrr...
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You see this is EXACTLY what the anti-taskkiller people dont understand. They think apps get closed and memory gets reorganized like MAGIC instantly. They dont understand that it takes CPU power to do this which is why you see slight lag when your memory gets low. This lag is from the system reallocating memory and this has been proven via acatlogs.
How does one do that if it's possible at all?
I'd like to have, say, Opera, stay open until I close it.
sent from my hd2
*bump*
sent from my hd2
dont use advanced task killer, or any task killer for that matter.
i would also like to know if this is possible. i would like to keep widgetlocker and 3G watch dog open at all times but when ever i use task manager to clear the memory, it closes both of them.
Dont use a task killer or manager but if you do normally they have a whitelist in settings so you can check any apps that you want to be left out of the task killer so they stay open.also can be called an "ignore list" too.if you go into settings you should see something that will be called whitelist or ignore list depending of course on what task manager you have as they are not all the same.check the apps that you want to be left alone and save.the next time you manually or automatically kill your apps the ones you have checked will not be touched.
unfortunately, the OOM built into android may close ANY app eventually, depending on the amount of available memory you have. the only real way to prevent it is to adjust the oom grouping and priorities of said app(s), also known as bullet proofing.
i would pm zeppelinrox regarding this, as he developed the v6 supercharger and has vast experience with this subject.
if u make sure u have enough free memory, then no application will be closed. If u have any application killer software then make sure to exclude the application from that software
I have kinda nooby question... i am using a phone with stock gingerbread and i am using an advanced task killer. I know a lot of people say that I shouldn't do it, but it just makes my phone a lot faster and smoother. As a noob, i have one question: is task killer really harmful to my phone and is it better for me to not use it? If you say yes, please provide me some specific reason why. Thank you ask much guys!
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
its not that bad... but u should not kill background services!
keep settings on safe... don't use aggressive mode
applications u know u use often for example- browser or music player... u can add to excluded section... currently im using ZDBox and it works perfect... it also has additional features that you will need... hope this helps
I only use the ATK to kill an app that's not responding well.
For example, when I was using CM7, sometimes my Google Reader app would hang and display a loading symbol for a long time instead of displaying my articles, and the arrow that shows transmission over the network wasn't displaying so I knew it wasn't waiting on data, I would use ATK to kill ONLY Google Reader. Then I could go back into the app and it would load very quickly.
But since I switched to an ICS ROM, I haven't had that same issue and haven't had a need for ATK.
Also, do note that it does take processing power, and therefore battery power, when your phone decides to restart any of those apps you are killing, and it will restart apps.
For a great explanatory article, see here:
http://androidandme.com/2011/11/app...lers-still-dont-give-you-better-battery-life/
and also the links in the phrase "(see here, and here, and here)".
So in short, they are not exactly "harmful" but they don't provide any real benefit if you "kill everything, every time."
It is a common myth that more RAM = better performance, and this is a result of the market being dominated by Microsoft for so long. Android does not equal a desktop OS. Free RAM literally does nothing. In fact, it is wasteful to have bunch of free RAM. Android manages RAM very effectively and aggressively works to ensure that you have sufficient resources to do whatever it is you want to do. If you notice an increase in performance with a task killer, it is because you have a misbehaving app. Watchdog is the only task manager I would recommend, all it does is watch for apps that are using an abnormal amount of resources and alerts you. Part of the Android experience is the emulated multi-tasking, or having several apps saved to memory simultaneously to facilitate ease of switching between them. An app in the background will not affect the performance of your device, it is not using any resources. Aside from that, if you end a task, it will usually just start right up again, using more resources, because that is how Android is designed to work.
So, I would say finding the misbehaving app is a much better option than a task killer. They were important in eclair, maybe even FroYo. But anything above that they are unnecessary.
i dont really believe in android"s app managmentbut task killers make it only worst IMHO
I have to agree with member devator22.
Android is not Windows. Android is basically Linux and Linux is using a different memory management than Windows does. (Although Windows has got a lot of improvements during the last years)
RAM which isn't used, is wasted! That's a fact.
So, if you run a specific application, some of its data my be cached. Linux is reporting this as "buffered" (you can see the amount by running the 'top' command)
There might be a more or less big chance to hit this cache. If so, the data is loaded much faster ( definetly > 10 ) than if it had to be requested from the file system.
By killing your application by a task manger you are releasing this buffered resources (actually you are forcing the OS to release it). In the worst case you are wasting your advantage of loading already cached data from the RAM. In the best case you are gaining nothing because your device has to load it from the file system anyway.
(sorry for my english )
Get watchdog!
/end
*just because nobody understands you, doesn't make you an artist..
Thank you so much for these replies! I really appreciate it! I decided to keep my task killer but not use it aggressively. I probably will use it to end apps that i really find it pointless. And also to the people who said android dies it's own task managing, you're right but wrong at the same time. When i didn't use my task killer, android did killed some apps in in order to launch more apps, but it left only like 10mb of 300mb, which i found little odd and also it mainly killed launchers which was very annoying.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
Task killer will speed up your phone if you know what you're doing. Only kill tasks that you are familiar with...e.g. apps that you know you have launched and won't be using anymore. Those apps running in the background can slow down your device.
If I'm on ICS, its better to use the bult-in task killer, or download one from the market?
Guys, he's not saying he does it for the memory. He says the phone's smoother. I don't know whether this is true, but if there are background tasks performing operations that he doesn't want them to do, it's *absolutely appropriate* to kill them.
The flip side of that is that the applications will eventually be automatically started again, and that startup takes extra CPU time. As long as the process startup and process killing happens when the screen is off, I would think this could improve the responsiveness.
But I think on most people's phones, the background processes really don't use a lot of CPU...
I know by default even Gbs memory management isn't the best. The app priorities are a bit weird aand the launcher gets killed to easily. Running the v6 supercharger scripts and making the launcher hard to kill and fixing the priorities and changing the oom settings makes any from wicked fast
Sent from my PG86100 using xda premium
I am not rooted, so I can't do anything that involves rooting.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
Instead of killing an app over and over again install something like Gemini App Manager and disable the app's autostart permissions. For example, dropbox and dropbox sync are set to automatically start at boot or when there's a connectivity change. I understand why they're set to do that but for my purposes I only needed them to start when I actually used them.
Having said that, I no longer use Gemini and have never used an automatic task killer. I think android (ICS) does a good enough job managing it's memory that I don't need to be anal about micromanaging it myself. I think it also helps that I'm not an appaholic. I'm very picky about what I install and will only keep an app installed if I regularly use it.
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Moving to Q&A
Jinx Lumos Joke said:
If I'm on ICS, its better to use the bult-in task killer, or download one from the market?
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Built-In is much better
im on ics on my captivate and it runs beyond smooth
like stated before having free RAM with not do anything
android has a good way of muti tasking