Dear Devs, please don't force apps to start on boot

[Tim K]

Unfortunately, I've had to uninstall several apps that I liked because they force start on boot and my Droid was becoming completely laggy because of too many apps starting on boot. I understand that some apps/widgets need to start on boot, but others its completely unnecessary. At a minimum, make an option in settings to let the user decide if we want it to start on boot up.

I just uninstalled Note Everything, Estrong File manager and Weatherbug because they were starting on boot. I love MixZing and I am kind of annoyed that it starts on boot, but its an app I "need" so I can't uninstall it. I'll probably email all these devs and ask about giving the option not to start on boot.

 

[mjschmidt]

@Tim K: This is apparently an app called Startup Auditor that will kill these apps when you boot your phone. I say "apparently" because it's a paid app, so I can't get it in Canada, but if you are in a country with access to paid apps you might want to try it.

Alternately you can try TasKiller to kill all those apps after your phone finishes booting. I believe there is a free app called "Task Panel" (?) that you can set up to auto-kill apps after the phone is booted.

I do agree with you, however, about apps starting themselves. Devs need to end this, or give us a setting to end it.

 

[Tim K]

I emailed the devs of several apps asking for them to either disable or give users the option to disable it. Some apps clearly don't need to load on start...like Note Everything and MixZing... but I understand why weather players that provide alerts may need to. But even in those cases, for people like me who don't need a notification every time there is a coastal flood warning or a high wind warning, perhaps the option to disable alerts and do away with loading on startup.

I'm certainly not about to pay $ to prevent programs from running automatically on my phone. I'd simply uninstall the programs and find another to replace it with.

 

[aximtreo]

This is what is said on the developers website. The program sells for $.99.

26 September 2009: New Application published to the Market! Look out for Startup Auditor.

View a demo of the app here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbFzs_4I-cE

Right now Startup Auditor is the only boot monitor or startup monitor listed in the Android Market. Startup Auditor is a tool which displays a list of applications that react to OS boot completion. It is very likely that after receiving such an event, the application does something behind the scenes.
Click on an application in the list to view further details about it. Furthermore, there is a button that can be pressed in order to view Android's regular information about that app, as well as take other actions such as uninstalling. Suggestions or Concerns? Email: vesperanovus@gmail.com

NEW in v1.1: Long press an item in the list to ENABLE/DISABLE at startup!

http://sites.google.com/site/vesperanovus/Home/detailScreenShot.png?attredirects=0

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Our entry into the Android Developer Challenge 2 is a Travel app named LawLocale. Keep an eye out for it!

 

[tsaunders]

I had to uninstall a few apps yesterday because my phone was acting weird.

It would be nice to have an option to turn it off.

 

[yankeeboy]

At a minimum, make an option in settings to let the user decide if we want it to start on boot up.

Same issue with older Windows Mobile. There are some well thought out apps that allow you to back out to keep open, or hit menu and quit to get out of the app.

 

[fahertyps]

I had to uninstall a few apps yesterday because my phone was acting weird.

It would be nice to have an option to turn it off.

Were you getting error messages? I have found that after installing several apps and rebooting my eris, the phone won't work or I get other error pop-up messages. I can't even get to the market because the data connection won't turn on. Glad I have Quick Uninstall. It has been a life saver in getting me back online.

Is it common practice for folks to reboot after each app install to make sure everything still works? Seems like an old Win OS...