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Advanced Task Killer?

t1jordan

Android Enthusiast
Oct 19, 2009
586
22
Baltimore
Im wondering if everyone is using the Hero with ATK. I was using the app. until I realized I was not receiving emails. When I called Sprint they said I should remove the app and let the OS control the apps. Since I removed the app., I am getting all my email notifications. With out ATK. My phone is extremely lagy or bugy. It's not a major problem but I do notice the difference in the phone. I guess my question is " Should we be using ATK or not?" I would like to hear everyones thoughts on this. Im just trying to get the best use out of the phone.
 
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Are you sure you were not killing a process which deals with your Emails?
I probably was. but I cant afford to gamble with that app. I need my alerts to come thru. Im in the Mortgage Business so I need to have my email running smoothly. But im sure I did something wrong down the line. I also noticed that my alarm doesn't go off if I make a mistake and kill the alarm app. So I rather take my chances without the ATK
 
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Looks like you seem to be killing the "alarm" , if you do decide to use the taskiller you should add it to the "Exclude list" and that should be fine.

does anyone who has a hero {sorry I've got a magic} confirm what the process is to add to the exclude list if any?

OP , Can you share what is running in Advanced task manager? Download the Task killer -> Restart your phone -> After boot up open up the Gmail icon on your phone -> Press the "Home" button

Now open the ordinary email icon {if you use it} and press home -> Open the alarm and press "Home"

Now go to the task killing app , Can you tell me what processes are running? {DO NOT KILL ANY YET}

Carl
 
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They all have corresponding icons. If you use mail, then dont kill the mail app (ya know the one that is a white envelope). If you want your alarms to go off why would you kill the process with an Alarm Clock for an icon?

Dont get crazy with whatever task managing program you are using. One good rule to follow. IF YOU DONT KNOW WHAT IT IS, DONT KILL IT. I know that sounds basic and quite straightforward, but obviously its not. I cant count how many times on i here i have read about people killing needed tasks.

Personally i was using TasKiller's widget, but after a while it would stop working and i would have to actually open the program. So I went back to Task Control. Personally I am pretty tech savvy and have yet to have an issue from killing a wrong process. Although the other day i freaked myself out a little because i accidentally killed HTC Sense. I thought i was just going to be left with a blank screen, but thankfully it just started back up.
 
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After I stopped using ATK my Hero started running a lot better and quicker. I probably wasn't using ATK correctly and killing the wrong apps. There's a great post somewhere on here about how Linux/Android handles apps and that killing them actually could cause more issues then just leaving them alone. I wish i could find the post.
 
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They all have corresponding icons. If you use mail, then dont kill the mail app (ya know the one that is a white envelope). If you want your alarms to go off why would you kill the process with an Alarm Clock for an icon?

Dont get crazy with whatever task managing program you are using. One good rule to follow. IF YOU DONT KNOW WHAT IT IS, DONT KILL IT. I know that sounds basic and quite straightforward, but obviously its not. I cant count how many times on i here i have read about people killing needed tasks.

Personally i was using TasKiller's widget, but after a while it would stop working and i would have to actually open the program. So I went back to Task Control. Personally I am pretty tech savvy and have yet to have an issue from killing a wrong process. Although the other day i freaked myself out a little because i accidentally killed HTC Sense. I thought i was just going to be left with a blank screen, but thankfully it just started back up.
Obiviousely Negrito your having the same problem as me. Your killing things by mistake. Nobody has time to keep checking to make sure you didnt kill the wrong app. I appreciate your responce but you didnt help me. Also how do you add something to the exclude list. I see the option but there is no way that I can see to add them. My exclude is always blank. Even if I pay for a ATK it still doesn't show me how to add things to the exclude list.
 
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After I stopped using ATK my Hero started running a lot better and quicker. I probably wasn't using ATK correctly and killing the wrong apps. There's a great post somewhere on here about how Linux/Android handles apps and that killing them actually could cause more issues then just leaving them alone. I wish i could find the post.
Sipnor I hear you! Im trying to manage without ATK. How is your battery life?
 
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Looks like you seem to be killing the "alarm" , if you do decide to use the taskiller you should add it to the "Exclude list" and that should be fine.

does anyone who has a hero {sorry I've got a magic} confirm what the process is to add to the exclude list if any?

OP , Can you share what is running in Advanced task manager? Download the Task killer -> Restart your phone -> After boot up open up the Gmail icon on your phone -> Press the "Home" button

Now open the ordinary email icon {if you use it} and press home -> Open the alarm and press "Home"

Now go to the task killing app , Can you tell me what processes are running? {DO NOT KILL ANY YET}

Carl
Thanks Carl for the information on how to add things to my exclude list
 
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Obiviousely Negrito your having the same problem as me. Your killing things by mistake. Nobody has time to keep checking to make sure you didnt kill the wrong app. I appreciate your responce but you didnt help me. Also how do you add something to the exclude list. I see the option but there is no way that I can see to add them. My exclude is always blank. Even if I pay for a ATK it still doesn't show me how to add things to the exclude list.

No, the point of my post was that i am not having your problem. Just because i said i accidentally killed "Sense" doesnt mean i didnt know what it was. I was killing tasks while i was a passenger in a car. The car hit a dip and i accidentally touched the screen and it got killed. I have no idea what those three or four tasks are that have an icon that reminds of a Gold Medal, but you can bet i have never once killed them.

Im not sure what time has to do with killing apps, but if you follow the advice i listed above you will be in a much better place, I promise. "If you dont know what it is, dont kill it." I mean do you Ctrl-Alt-Del your PC and then just start killing random processes? I highly doubt it. So, why would you do it on your phone? Cause its a phone? No, its a small computer running a stripped down linux, I believe... Not 100% on the "stripped down linux" but i hope you can get the jist of what i mean.

I am trying to help, dont let my blunt, straight forward canter(As quoted/italicized below) mislead you. My apologies if it seems that i am berating you, or anything to that effect, but i am not. I'm just asking questions, and offering up advice based on my own knowledge and experience.

"They all have corresponding icons. If you use mail, then dont kill the mail app (ya know the one that is a white envelope). If you want your alarms to go off why would you kill the process with an Alarm Clock for an icon?"
 
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I also have stopped using ATK. Battery life seems to be better than when I had ATK. I didn't have to worry about turning the phone on to check to see if there are any apps that was not suppose to be running and such. I can go a day and a half or 2 days with normal use. Android does a pretty good job at memory / app management.
 
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Just to try again to dispel some misconceptions that people have, especially coming from Windows Mobile.

1 ) Most programs do not multitask. A program must be specifically set up to be allowed to run in the background. ( Ones that do multitask are the browser, Pandora, media players, etc. )

2 ) Many programs save their state upon close, and reopen in the same state you left them in. Thus, it makes it seem like they are multitasking.

3 ) Android does a pretty good job of memory cleanup. It will reallocate memory being used by a multi tasking program left open. It does a much much much better job of this than Windows Mobile did. Task killers were ESSENTIAL on Windows Mobile. With Android, not so much.

4 ) If you are absolutely going to use a Task killer, be careful. Also, please try running without one, you might be pleasantly surprised.
 
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Just to try again to dispel some misconceptions that people have, especially coming from Windows Mobile.

1 ) Most programs do not multitask. A program must be specifically set up to be allowed to run in the background. ( Ones that do multitask are the browser, Pandora, media players, etc. )

2 ) Many programs save their state upon close, and reopen in the same state you left them in. Thus, it makes it seem like they are multitasking.

3 ) Android does a pretty good job of memory cleanup. It will reallocate memory being used by a multi tasking program left open. It does a much much much better job of this than Windows Mobile did. Task killers were ESSENTIAL on Windows Mobile. With Android, not so much.

4 ) If you are absolutely going to use a Task killer, be careful. Also, please try running without one, you might be pleasantly surprised.
Thanks for the information. I removed the task killer. I felt like I was messing up my phone.
 
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Sipnor I hear you! Im trying to manage without ATK. How is your battery life?
When I was using ATK my battery would be ~20-30% at the end of the day now I have ~40-50% battery left. Also my EVDO radio would stop working I haven't had that issue since I stopped using ATK. I'm not saying ATK is a bad app it works as advertised. I must have been killing the wrong apps.
 
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ok i just got my phone and had it about a week, been going crazy on the phone as people do when they get their hero, i was told to get task killer and an anti virus, as for the anti virus, it doesnt use much cpu for a piece of mind, and handset sms due to talks of heros default messaging not allowing sleep on the hero, which im not even sure of. as for task killer, heres the super fast fix for battery life from the newbie that knows how most systems run be it phone computer, whatever your using. REBOOT ONCE IN WHILE! thats the first thing, how long has your hero been without a simple reboot, also, how many texts and e-mails do you have on your phone, thats a good reason for peoples lag when they have 2,000 messages and more. it's like a clean house, to keep it clean, clean it up, clean up phone= clean running phone :)
 
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ok i just got my phone and had it about a week, been going crazy on the phone as people do when they get their hero, i was told to get task killer and an anti virus, as for the anti virus, it doesnt use much cpu for a piece of mind, and handset sms due to talks of heros default messaging not allowing sleep on the hero, which im not even sure of. as for task killer, heres the super fast fix for battery life from the newbie that knows how most systems run be it phone computer, whatever your using. REBOOT ONCE IN WHILE! thats the first thing, how long has your hero been without a simple reboot, also, how many texts and e-mails do you have on your phone, thats a good reason for peoples lag when they have 2,000 messages and more. it's like a clean house, to keep it clean, clean it up, clean up phone= clean running phone :)


While I agree about a simple reboot being good for your phone, I don't agree that having a task killer is good for your phone. Ever since I removed mine, I have experienced an unquestionable difference in battery life and overall performance. And no, I wasn't killing off everything, only non essential apps like NFL and NASCAR etc.
 
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I use AutoKiller ( from Market). It allows me to tell the Android OS how much free memory I want. That eliminates lag and lets the internal task manager to gather statistics about each each running app, which it uses to control there allocation of/to memory ( based on anticipated need).
Plus it's fun to tweak the system. :rolleyes:

I also have ATK for manual stuff.
 
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bumping this thread. I just got my droid yesterday and it came preloaded with ATK. I have found myself obsessively checking it and killing everything that was running (what they told me to do). I have noticed short battery life, and have not been recieving emails (likely because i was killing the gmail task, and ATK was running in the background).

I was searching for a app that killed tasks automatically when I came across this post. I am now going to uninstall, and see what the differences are. The guys at verizon made it sound like ATK is a MUST and your phone can't live without it...
 
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Just curious - has anyone had any problems with the recent "updates" that downloaded a couple of days ago? Ever since I downloaded the update - I can't kill my email. Just wondered if anyone else is experiencing this, and how I can get the old version back? This is killing my battery ( I have the HTC Droid Eris - Verizon )
 
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