Help Help! Eris running unbelievably slow

[Deleted User]

As of last night, my Eris is running so slow that I can't even flip quickly between my 7 different home pages. The lag is unreal. I am out of town but not in the boonies...Can lower 3G coverage screw up even the basic aspects of my phone though? I need serious help troubleshooting this...

A restart just helped...But I need to know what caused it in the first place so that I can avoid doing the same thing again. Under Advanced Task Killer I could see that hardly any apps were running. I don't know what was slowing it down so dramatically

 

[OfTheDamned]

Uninstall the task killer. You will a vast improvement when it is gone.

 

[Deleted User]

Why do so many people recommend task killer though? Is there something better to use or a better way to manage apps that run in the background??

 

[xNJxPlague]

I have advanced task killer and my phone runs fast. I used to have problems with the lag and i even posted on here to find help like you did, and what i did to make it fast again was pretty simple.

I uninstalled all the apps i didn't use often (like games mainly)
I got rid of handcent and use the native texting app
Delete my texts every night (i notice the more texts i have, the more my phone laggs, and that is the main cause of my lagg)
Also, i clear the cache on the market and browser every other day.

I have to say my eris is significantly faster then my friends who uses handcent and has a lot of texts and doesn't clear her cache.

 

[Gevis]

Clearing your cache is far more important it seems than killing apps.

 

[Bswartz95]

Clearing your cache is far more important it seems than killing apps.

...

 

[randallinarizona]

Well, i've been SO FRUSTRATED w/ how slow my Eris has become. I'm glad i looked for help here. As soon as I cleared the cache, things got better... AMEN!! Thx everyone for your posts!

 

[OfTheDamned]

Why do so many people recommend task killer though? Is there something better to use or a better way to manage apps that run in the background??

Sorry, I was walking into an appointment when I made my previous post and didn't have time to go into detail.

The reason that most people recommend and/or use task killers is because they are typically Windows users. They think that they have to handle the memory the same way a PC does. Android is Linux based and handles memory on its own. There is no real need for task killers. In fact, most people will find that task killers will slow down their phone and drain their battery. Some apps actually close themselves when you exit out of them by using the back button instead of the home button. Others actually have exit or quit options when you hit the menu button. Either of these methods is preferred to just hitting the home button. Using this method you don't need a task killer at all.

The best way to keep your Eris running fast is to let go and let the OS do what it is designed to. The part that you should be managing, as others have said, is the cache on different apps you have installed. If you take a look at Settings > Applications > Manage Applications you will see a list of every app installed on your phone. From there you can hit the menu button and select sort. This will put all your applications in order of size. Take a look at the largest apps you have. Chances are pretty good that they are storing a lot of cache. This will limit the amount of available memory that you have and slow your phone down. Clear the cache on the apps, but leave the data alone. The data is the more long term info stored for the app (bookmarks in the browser for example). Do take a look at the data though. Some apps, like Slacker radio, don't store information in cache and take up data instead. These apps can quickly grow from 1.7 Mb to 9 Mb with use. A lot of the time the only way to get rid of this bloat is to uninstall and reinstall the app.

 

[AdrianC14]

Sorry, I was walking into an appointment when I made my previous post and didn't have time to go into detail.

The reason that most people recommend and/or use task killers is because they are typically Windows users. They think that they have to handle the memory the same way a PC does. Android is Linux based and handles memory on its own. There is no real need for task killers. In fact, most people will find that task killers will slow down their phone and drain their battery. Some apps actually close themselves when you exit out of them by using the back button instead of the home button. Others actually have exit or quit options when you hit the menu button. Either of these methods is preferred to just hitting the home button. Using this method you don't need a task killer at all.

The best way to keep your Eris running fast is to let go and let the OS do what it is designed to. The part that you should be managing, as others have said, is the cache on different apps you have installed. If you take a look at Settings > Applications > Manage Applications you will see a list of every app installed on your phone. From there you can hit the menu button and select sort. This will put all your applications in order of size. Take a look at the largest apps you have. Chances are pretty good that they are storing a lot of cache. This will limit the amount of available memory that you have and slow your phone down. Clear the cache on the apps, but leave the data alone. The data is the more long term info stored for the app (bookmarks in the browser for example). Do take a look at the data though. Some apps, like Slacker radio, don't store information in cache and take up data instead. These apps can quickly grow from 1.7 Mb to 9 Mb with use. A lot of the time the only way to get rid of this bloat is to uninstall and reinstall the app.

I kept reading about clearing cache in apps but never knew how to actually do it. I looked at Pandora and it had 2.5MB of cache. Now my phone is faster. Thanks for the tip. The only reason why I am keeping Advanced Task Killer is because sometimes Pandora turns on by itself and I don't want it to be playing music while I'm at school. So when school starts, I kill Pandora.

 

[Lacy]

How do you uninstall apps that were downloaded from the Market?

 

[Lacy]

And how do you clear the cache?

 

[zoltan]

I'm going to disagree with those who say a task killer slows things down. When I restart my Eris, ~25 apps autostart. These bring the available memory down to <30M, which really makes the phone lag. Once I kill all of these apps, the phone runs as one would expect.

If anyone knows how to keep Ultimate Faves, Astrid, Browser, ShopSavvy, EboBirthday, WaveSecure, textPlus, DocsTo Go, Photoshop mobile, Craigslist, Twidroid, Footprints, Albums, Handcent, MixZing, Brightness widget, native Mail, Gmail, Toggle Settings, BBC News, Alice, Voice Dialer, Market, Note Everything, Apps Organizer, Uninstaller, and Advanced Task Killer from autostarting on boot, please let us all know.

 

[OfTheDamned]

How do you uninstall apps that were downloaded from the Market?

The fastest way is to open the market and click on my downloads. Then select the app and uninstall.

 

[zoltan]

How do you uninstall apps that were downloaded from the Market?

There are several uninstall apps available from the market, including Quick Uninstaller and Uninstaller. You can also go to the market and click on My Downloads. From there, you can uninstall specific apps.

A good reason to have a stand-alone uninstaller is that some apps WILL cause your phone to crash, and you won't be able to use the market to uninstall, since you likely won't have any service, although your phone will be powered up.

 

[swe3t23]

for me i uninstalled all task killer apps and let the phone run with a full battery.

i must say it ate up a lot of my battery with NO TASK KILLER/MANAGER APP running on my phone

So i installed a simple one Advance Task Killer and my phone has drastically improved in battery and without lag.

 

[Lacy]

Thanks I was able to uninstall a lot of things. Battery-wise, I figured out the best way to get longer battery life was to turn off wi-fi and or mobile whenever I don't need them. Especially at work, which is an elementary school-notorious for poor service on any network-I got 48 hours plus once I did that. I put the on/off widgets on one of my screens so it's easy to do. At work, I have my computer right there, so I don't it to be on all the time. When I'm at home, I switch to wi-fi and that seems to take less batter power.

 

[hrbib21]

This is true. However, I refuse to turn off Mobile Network because I feel there's point in having a smartphone then.

for me i uninstalled all task killer apps and let the phone run with a full battery.

i must say it ate up a lot of my battery with NO TASK KILLER/MANAGER APP running on my phone

So i installed a simple one Advance Task Killer and my phone has drastically improved in battery and without lag.

Exactly my experience.

 

[Bswartz95]

for me i uninstalled all task killer apps and let the phone run with a full battery.

i must say it ate up a lot of my battery with NO TASK KILLER/MANAGER APP running on my phone

So i installed a simple one Advance Task Killer and my phone has drastically improved in battery and without lag.

I'm finding the same to be true. I had Task Panel for a long time and decided to remove it. For the first 3 days, all was good. By day 4, my battery was draining quickly. I think I'm going to put Task Panel back on to auto kill some tasks.

I haven't experienced any lag though.

I'm going to give it one more day to see if tomorrow will be different. Maybe a simple reboot of the phone would be the answer? I'll play with it a little more.

 

[Gevis]

I use taskiller. It doesn't run all the time so it doesn't run down battery. One button kills everything that isn't on your ignore list.

But yes. I think an. app that runs all the time to try and stop other apps from running seems slightly counter productive.

 

[OfTheDamned]

There are several uninstall apps available from the market, including Quick Uninstaller and Uninstaller. You can also go to the market and click on My Downloads. From there, you can uninstall specific apps.

A good reason to have a stand-alone uninstaller is that some apps WILL cause your phone to crash, and you won't be able to use the market to uninstall, since you likely won't have any service, although your phone will be powered up.

I'm sorry if this seems like a silly question, but why in the world would you install an app to uninstall apps? I know you mentioned apps that can crash your phone, but you can also uninstall from settings too.

 

[tonyb81]

I stopped using a task killer for 3 days now and I don't notice a difference in performance. The biggest problem a task killer presents is that you get so obsessed in killing tasks . I would check my phone way too much just to see what was running and kill the tasks.

 

[hrbib21]

I'm sorry if this seems like a silly question, but why in the world would you install an app to uninstall apps? I know you mentioned apps that can crash your phone, but you can also uninstall from settings too.

I agree, not to mention that you cannot leave feedback when you use an uninstaller like you can if removing via settings.

 

[davros]

I stopped using a task killer for 3 days now and I don't notice a difference in performance. The biggest problem a task killer presents is that you get so obsessed in killing tasks . I would check my phone way too much just to see what was running and kill the tasks.

have you been watching me?

 

[ludist210]

I have the full version of Advanced Task Manager, and I keep it just to see what's running. However, I rarely kill a task anymore. I took my phone off the charger yesterday morning at 9:30, and right now (7:30 a.m.), I'm still at 40% battery.

When you exit an app/program, hit the back button. Clear your cache every couple of days. You'll notice a difference.

 

[jpzsports]

Delete my texts every night (i notice the more texts i have, the more my phone laggs, and that is the main cause of my lagg)

Is it really true that having a lot of text messages slows down the phone? My friend has kept all of his text message conversations since day one and it doesn't seem any slower than mine. I've been deleting them lately, but just wondering if there's really any need for it.