Device(s): iPhone3, iPhone3GS, Motorola Droid, iPhone4, HTC Evo
Thanks: 4
Thanked 22 Times in 15 Posts
Automatic Task Killer and Why you need it.
There are many topic on the forum against the use of a Task Killer for your Evo running Froyo. While I agree with those posters on Froyo does a efficient job at managing RAM usage, there is a good reason to use Automatic Task Killer for your Evo. Specifically, you want to set Automatic Task killer to kill the Browser app and the Map app after your lock your screen (1-5 minute delay is suggested).
The reason for this: Evo browser does not exist the page when you leave the browser, it just run your browser in the back ground. If the web page have things that automatically update every so often (ads, news feeds, etc) the browser will stay active in the back ground using up your battery for the CPU and 3G, and sometime even GPS . So I found that having ATK automatically kill your browser after you lock your screen is helpful.
I found the same to be true of Navigation also, if you forget to exist Navigation and left it running in your phone's back ground, it will kill your battery in no time.
So while I agree with most people here in the forum that Froyo does a good job managing memory usage in general. There are very good reasons to use Automatic Task Killer for your Evo.
I hope this is useful for people that still struggling with battery issues.
I uhh... never have battery issues... even after visiting nothing but flash pages... same goes for navigation. I can use it to get somewhere, then just hit the home button when I'm there and out of my car, and my battery doesn't die off like you're suggesting it would...
Automatic task killing is only going to cause problems, especially on 2.2. Don't do it! Get something like system panel to simply monitor what's using the most battery, and to end specific applications (Pandora) if they run rogue after 'closing' them.
Task killers are bad for android. Read this article to understand why.
Android is hard coded to automatically kill a task when more memory is needed.
Android is hard coded to automatically kill a task when it’s done doing what it needs to do.
Android is hard coded to automatically kill a task when you haven’t returned to it in a long time.
Most services (while possibly running in the background) use very little memory when not actively doing something.
A content provider is only doing something when there is a notification for it to give. Otherwise it uses very little memory.
Killing a process when it isn’t ready only causes it to have to reload itself and start from scratch when it’s needed again.
Because a task is likely running in the background for a reason, killing it will only cause it to re-spawn as soon as the activity that was using it looks for it again. And it will just have to start over again.
Killing certain processes can have undesirable side effects. Not receiving text messages, alarms not going off, and force closes just to name a few.
The only true way to prevent something from running at all on your phone would be to uninstall the .apk.
Most applications will exit themselves if you get out of it by hitting “back” until it closes rather than hitting the “home” button. But even with hitting home, Android will eventually kill it once it’s been in the background for a while.
__________________
The Following 3 Users Say Thank You to ardchoille For This Useful Post:
Just wonder if anyone knew that Sprint customer service recommends ATK to anyone who calls complaining of EVO's battery life. My wife called about problems after latest update, and complained about the battery at the same time. The CS rep advised her to get ATK "its free on the market" he said.
(Of course i told her to drop it, but since i am no techie, she wont listen to me)
__________________
HTC EVO 4g "OG"
Recovery: Amon RA
ROM: MIUI 2.3.2 b1 es by swipperrat/rootlinux
Kernel: stock for now
Just wonder if anyone knew that Sprint customer service recommends ATK to anyone who calls complaining of EVO's battery life. My wife called about problems after latest update, and complained about the battery at the same time. The CS rep advised her to get ATK "its free on the market" he said.
(Of course i told her to drop it, but since i am no techie, she wont listen to me)
The lady activating my Evo when I bought it automatically went to the market and put on a task killer, and set it up to automatically kill everything every 5 minutes, even though I told her I didnt want that. SHe insisted, so i just let her do it, and uninstalled it when i left the store. She said that Sprint told them to put it on every single android phone, no matter if the customer says they dont want it. I cant imagine how may people have walked out of that sprint store, and are still using the task killer because sprint said it helps...
The lady activating my Evo when I bought it automatically went to the market and put on a task killer, and set it up to automatically kill everything every 5 minutes, even though I told her I didnt want that. SHe insisted, so i just let her do it, and uninstalled it when i left the store. She said that Sprint told them to put it on every single android phone, no matter if the customer says they dont want it. I cant imagine how may people have walked out of that sprint store, and are still using the task killer because sprint said it helps...
I've been using watchdog lite instead of a task killer. It monitors the cpu usage of apps. When one goes rogue and uses cpu cycles above the threshold it alerts me and then I can kill it. Seems to work well for me.
I stopped using ATK cause it caused terrible keyboard lag, I thought it was a kenral issue but once i uninstalled ATK the lag went away I really dont need it on the evo anyway its pretty fast and responsive
I installed ATK the other day, set the setting to the highest possible app killing, and to kill tasks every 30 minutes, I unplugged it in the morning at 8am, drove to work, sent/recieved approx 10 texts, I work at a prison, so no cell phones allowed, left in my truck, got out to the truck at 845, battery was at 64% the first day, and 60% the second day, and thats with NO use on stand-by for 12hrs with only "mobile networl" and "wifi" running, I simply changed the autokill to kill on screen close, got off work last night and had 88% battery life, decided NOT to put it on the charger last night just to see how long it will last....it is now 630pm and 34hours unplugged, been texting and browsing and dl apps all day, and still have 36% battery left, I am running a "stock" evo, no root, no kernals, no roms. 100% from the factory EVO 4g with a 3500mah ebay battery. AWESOME, I highly suggest using ATK.
I installed ATK the other day, set the setting to the highest possible app killing, and to kill tasks every 30 minutes, I unplugged it in the morning at 8am, drove to work, sent/recieved approx 10 texts, I work at a prison, so no cell phones allowed, left in my truck, got out to the truck at 845, battery was at 64% the first day, and 60% the second day, and thats with NO use on stand-by for 12hrs with only "mobile networl" and "wifi" running, I simply changed the autokill to kill on screen close, got off work last night and had 88% battery life, decided NOT to put it on the charger last night just to see how long it will last....it is now 630pm and 34hours unplugged, been texting and browsing and dl apps all day, and still have 36% battery left, I am running a "stock" evo, no root, no kernals, no roms. 100% from the factory EVO 4g with a 3500mah ebay battery. AWESOME, I highly suggest using ATK.
Dude get real, you have a 3500 mah battery and you are down to 36% after 34 hours with texting, browsing, and downloading apps? That is absolutely crappy battery life for that size of battery you have. You just installed ATK the "other day" and I'm pretty sure if I had your phone in my hand I would notice lag or Android not acting as responsive without ATK. Had my phone since last June and I'm thinking you just got an EVO.
i am rooted and using adv task killer .. but im not really having any problem atm .. just got a few questions .. how can you tell which app is running in the background if i wasnt using adv task killer? .. and when i put my phone in stand by without opening any apps at all .. i open up adv task killer and i see like 5-8 apps running .. why is that? ..
Because 'task killing' became obsolete once we all got 2.2. The way the OS runs now doesn't allow for a task killer to really do much of anything.
Again, still holding firm on what I preach. Get rid of the task killers, people. Its a mentality from windows that you're going to have to drop when using your phone. It behaves differently, because its not the same. By overriding what the os does on its own, and forcing it to waste cpu cycles, you're doing far more harm than you think you're doing good. Free ram does not=more speed either.
I develop Android apps so I though I'd add my two cents.
1. Android apps use activites to do the work. For example, if you use a file manager to send a picture via email, the file manager calls the send activity of the email app, passes the file name to it and the email app is what is actually sending the picture.. not the file manager. This will result in seeing the email app as "running" even though the user didn't actually launch that email app. If you see an app that is running and you didn't actually launch that app, it's more likely that an activity within that app is, or was, used by another app. Using activites helps developers design smaller apps. A file manager app that contains every bit of code needed to do everything a file manager does would likely be so large that no one would want to install it. Developers know that an android phone more than likely has at least one email app so there is no need for the developer to include email code in his/her file manager app to send a picture when he/she can simply call an activity in an existing email app to do the job. This makes for a smaller file manager app since there is no need to include email code, and any other task code that can be done via an activity that is already present on the phone. this also alleviates redundant code. A file manager doesn't install/sideload apps either, it calls the package installer (already present in Android) to install/sideload an app.
If you see an app running that you didn't launch, it may be because that app was called by another app to perform a task. If you kill the app you didn't launch, the system has to relaunch that app in order to complete its task. This is why some people kill a task and then see it immediately running again.
2. As someone has already mentioned, Android is not a Windows-based OS, it is based on Linux. Many of the apps you think are running aren't actually running, they're cached, this is typical with a Linux operating system. Cached apps don't use any CPU or battery, they're cached so they will load faster the next time you need them. And Android is hard coded to kill them if you haven't used them in a long time.
Task killers aren't needed in Android, the system takes care of things on its own. Using a task killer in Android creates a situation where you're constantly battling the OS and that requires more system resources to be expended.
Last edited by ardchoille; May 13th, 2011 at 12:39 PM.
The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to ardchoille For This Useful Post:
I develop Android apps so I though I'd add my two cents.
1. Android apps use activites to do the work. For example, if you use a file manager to send a picture via email, the file manager calls the send activity of the email app, passes the file name to it and the email app is what is actually sending the picture.. not the file manager. This will result in seeing the email app as "running" even though the user didn't actually launch that email app. If you see an app that is running and you didn't actually launch that app, it's more likely that an activity within that app is, or was, used by another app. Using activites helps developers design smaller apps. A file manager app that contains every bit of code needed to do everything a file manager does would likely be so large that no one would want to install it. Developers know that an android phone more than likely has at least one email app so there is no need for the developer to include email code in his/her file manager app to send a picture when he/she can simply call an activity in an existing email app to do the job. This makes for a smaller file manager app since there is no need to include email code, and any other task code that can be done via an activity that is already present on the phone. this also alleviates redundant code. A file manager doesn't install/sideload apps either, it calls the package installer (already present in Android) to install/sideload an app.
2. As someone has already mentioned, Android is not a Windows-based OS, it is based on Linux. Many of the apps you think are running aren't actually running, they're cached, this is typical with a Linux operating system. Cached apps don't use any CPU or battery, they're cached so they will load faster the next time you need them. And Android is hard coded to kill them if you haven't used them in a long time.
Task killers aren't needed in Android, the system takes care of things on its own. Using a task killer in Android creates a situation where you're constantly battling the OS and that requires more system resources to be expended.
Mod, can we close this damn thread now? This came from a developer living in Seattle. And we need to post this on the main page for all the newbies to read. I'm tired of this ATK debate and people saying apps running eat up battery. I firmly believe Ardchoille knows his job well.
The Following 3 Users Say Thank You to Evulution For This Useful Post:
I have a tiny bity small idea of what I am doing though, and have specific reasons for doing it the way I do
Can a task killer do more harm than good...YES
do they ALWAYS do more harm than good...NO
+1
I've also used a task killer since day one w/o issue. I *do* believe you should know why you're using a task killer and what it does before using it, but no complaints here.
This is a topic that'll always have a lot of controversy surrounding it. I believe if using a task killer works for you, use it, if it doesn't agree w/ your Evo or you don't know how to use it efficiently, effectively, and correctly, don't.
I've also used a task killer since day one w/o issue. I *do* believe you should know why you're using a task killer and what it does before using it, but no complaints here.
This is a topic that'll always have a lot of controversy surrounding it. I believe if using a task killer works for you, use it, if it doesn't agree w/ your Evo or you don't know how to use it efficiently, effectively, and correctly, don't.
for the heck of it I have run 2 weeks without one...really missing it. Battery is draining 20% faster
in the end it is poor app development but I honestly don't believe that will ever change.
oh..and mustard...mustard is bad and all people should stay away from it. it definitely causes more harm than good.
As with any tool, it's only useful when used properly. For those of you who are still unsure, keep researching and come up with your own conclusion after you have a solid understanding of both viewpoints and apply them to your unique usage patterns. After hearing accounts from extremely proficient and intelligent Android users justify their use of a task killer and them able to offer proof of the benefit, I have to acknowledge that in certain circumstances, a task killer is worthwhile. On the other hand, assuming that killing tasks is a panacea for your phone problems without understanding the root cause of the issue is a bad practice and can potentially lead to more problems than you solve. So knowledge is power. Keep an open mind and don't stop learning
/thread
__________________
The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it. -Neil deGrasse Tyson
Help me out: Sign up with Dropbox and we both get 250-500MB extra space. Thanks!
The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to novox77 For This Useful Post:
When Sprint announced their first ever 4G handset at CTIA in March 2010, they dropped a bombshell on the mobile world. The HTC Evo 4G is a device that introduces a lot of firsts when compared to other North American handsets. This is the first Andr... Read More
Automatic Task Killer and Why you need it.
. So I found that having ATK automatically kill your browser after you lock your screen is helpful.
I really dont need it on the evo anyway its pretty fast and responsive 
