Apps starting up by themselves....?

[Monochrome]

Hi,
Android newbie here - The Droid being my first.

I've moved over from a Samsung Glyde (aka biggest pos ever) and am so far loving my droid. I'd like to thank everyone that contributed to the app lists/tips/tricks threads. All of it has made moving over to Android so much easier. Really, those kinds of things help us nubs

So far I've only had one real concern with the Droid, and I was wondering if this was unique to my phone, the Droid itself or if its an Android thing.

I downloaded Advance Task Killer as so many have recommended and have noticed that certain apps will simply start themselves running in the background it seems for no other reason than the phone sees the spare memory and fills it up in anticipation that I might run one of them. As you can imagine this is quite frustrating and annoying. Not only does it eat up valuable RAM space but also is eating battery (probably) in the process.

In particular, I notice the Corporate Calender, Voice Dialer, and Visual VM all tend to start themselves up on their own. What's interesting to me about this is I don't even use these applications. In fact, my corporate calendar is not setup, nor have I even opened it once. My phone could be sitting on my desk in sleep mode for an hour and then I'll wake it up and open Task killer to find 10 apps open that I never used.

I was wondering if anyone knew what this was about?

 

[OutGolfn]

I agree about the corporate calendar thing. Never set mine up but it still pops up as running.

 

[Teufel Hunden]

This is a good question. Coming from a Blackberry they have 5 programs that always are running; the dialer, browser, bbm, messages, and the home screen. I wonder if this isn't the same kind of deal, although the ones that you had mentioned dont really seem like they are a necessary part of the phone.

 

[DGalt]

I've been seeing the same thing. Dialer, Calendar (both of them, but i use the non corporate one so that makes sense) and the Alarm Clock (....why would that need to be running???).

Wonder if it's just a bug. Hopefully hotfixes won't be too far down the road.

 

[icstars989]

I had the same issue with corporate calender, finally after the 4th time it got the hint and hasn't returned. However, now the photoshop app keeps coming back.

 

[droidnewbie]

Mine does the exact same thing, if anyone finds out why it does that let us know

.

 

[quezzimoto]

adding my annoyance with this situation to the chain in case somebody finds a fix...

 

[scheng12]

Its an Android thing. I'm not sure of a reason but Apps running in the background don't take up as much memory as people think. When it gets to a certain point, the OS will close background apps that aren't being run to make room

 

[baddriver]

Its an Android thing. I'm not sure of a reason but Apps running in the background don't take up as much memory as people think. When it gets to a certain point, the OS will close background apps that aren't being run to make room

I agree. I was driving myself nuts opening the task killer every few minutes and closing the same apps, so I uninstalled the task killer. I'll let android manage the programs and I'll be able to enjoy the device and not have to think about it.

I haven't noticed any decreased battery life from letting android manage apps. I just check battery use to see what programs/devices have been using power at the end of the day and If I see a program that I don't use I'll take care of it. I deleted photoshop, and turned off the location in locale and shopsavvy because I noticed it was running the GPS a lot and killing battery life.

 

[MAndroid27]

I agree that its annoying but as the previous two posters have said, the apps don't really take up that much memory. If you look at whats taking up your battery (settings > about phone > battery use) you'll see that the display is what really uses anything substantial. Right now, mine is using 55% while the next one, phone idle is using 14%. Core apps account for 4%

 

[chefboyardee]

Great info everyone, I've also been experiencing this (corporate calendar, photoshop, other apps i never open being "opened" for some reason) but after looking through replies here I'll give it a week of letting Android manage it, instead of habitually checking task killer, and see how it does. Thanks all!

 

[NajinX]

lol. I was about to post about these undead apps, but I figured I'd do a bit more searching first.

I was wondering why Photoshop and others kept popping up even when I wasn't using them.

Guess I'll just let it slide for now.

 

[galt]

Add my 1.5 cents. There are several issues at play.

An app like corp calendar COULD be used as part of the engine for the regulr calendar, maybe providing graphics, formatting, or database services to the non-corp one. But I have no way of knowing without looking at the source code.

In the case of a third party app like photoshop, all I can say is that I wrote my frst program 48 years ago. I have seen generations of new programmers make the same errors, deliver the same sloppy code, take different but siimilar shortcuts without regard for all the consequences. As companies hire young kids and offshore companies to save money, these problems have been getting worse for decades. Faster and cheaper is not always better, especially in version 2 of any product. This issue has plagued Microsoft for years. All the senior people are managers and the new hires write the code.

And we won't even talk about the possibilities of a malicious program starting up apps just to justify the need for an app killer. I would never accuse anti-virsu companies of creating viruses or app killer companies of spawning apps in another free app. I am sure no one would ever do that.

 

[KDH]

Thanks for the info. Was just about to post a topic about the same thing happening on my Behold 2. I guess I'll just let it slide for now. Hopefully someone will find a way to stop it. I don't like my phone doing anything without my direct intervention.

 

[chefboyardee]

for anyone who's still having an issue with this, i've been using a great 99c program called startup auditor that allows you to disable, or permanently disable (keep from reopening) startup programs and services. if you're not using corporate calendar and email, you can tell them to never open. it works great and the developer is a very cool, responsive guy. highly recommend and worth the $1.

(i'm not associated with this program except as an end user)

 

[J05h4L0NE]

Its an Android thing. I'm not sure of a reason but Apps running in the background don't take up as much memory as people think. When it gets to a certain point, the OS will close background apps that aren't being run to make room

What consideration does the software engineer give to the battery requirement of each module of the operating system?

Answer. None, that is for the hardware engineers to figure out create a solution.

Myself, I went for the obvious fix and ante'd up an extra $30, bought the
EXTENDED LIFE and now as long as I plug it in until fully charged every 36 hours or so, It doesn't go down below 30%.

Btw when the battery gets to a critical low-level the warning screen has a button that takes you to "Battery Use" a list displayed in order of greatest to least usage history of all the apps and how much of the battery they each used. In my exp. DISPLAY IS ALWAYS THE BIGGEST CULPRIT. THINGS LIKE CORP. CALANDER ARE SHOW IN SINGLE DIGIT NUMBERS, often times the visual voicemail app is actually listed in fractional values.

 

[emeraldspyro]

I see that most of you that have replied to this about stock programs starting up, but i am not seeing that as the case on my phone. usually when i am exiting an app, either my camera turns on or realplayer will start playing a random song....IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SONG! someone help....ITS REALLY ANNOYING!!!!

 

[jestme]

I also have programs that start themselves. Almost all of them. This should NOT happen. Bluetooth file transfer for example, I WANT TO KNOW WHEN IT IS RUNNING! As far as "it doesn't matter Android will take care of memory", it still takes battery to load the programs in the first place. Then more to kill them if it needs memory. The entire "exit" concept of Android needs way more control. Every application should stop running completely when the back button is pressed enough times to get out of it. It should also stay stopped. The 1/2 second of extra time to re-load an application is nothing compared to the risk of running up massive data charges for something you don't even know is running. Of course, the cell phone carriers think it's great.

 

[JLang]

I also have programs that start themselves. Almost all of them. This should NOT happen.

It doesn't!
What you see in a task killer are snapshots of all those apps' last states. To enable them to quick-start the next time you start 'm up. Those apps themselves are NOT running (if you've exited them). It's an Android thing. Actually, 'task killer' is a misnomer, because there is nothing to kill. In fact task killers use up more juice and cycles! Best uninstall any task killers and forget about it.

 

[jestme]

It doesn't!
What you see in a task killer are snapshots of all those apps' last states. To enable them to quick-start the next time you start 'm up. Those apps themselves are NOT running (if you've exited them). It's an Android thing. Actually, 'task killer' is a misnomer, because there is nothing to kill. In fact task killers use up more juice and cycles! Best uninstall any task killers and forget about it.

No. Applications that I have not started in weeks show as started, and according to performance monitor are using CPU time. This "Android thing" you refer to is a serious Android bug. I have powered off, powered on, and left the phone for 12 hours without touching it. I didn`t start any programs, make a call or get or send any emails. Nothing. I power it on and let it sit. When I check, any or all of the following applications could be running: Google Maps, Bluetooth File Transfer, IM, Market, MyBackup, Google Voice, and others. None have any reason for being active at all. Few applications have an "Exit" option, and that is one of the problem points I already mentioned.
In either case, applications should not be starting on their own. Especially things like backups, places that could spend your money (like Market) and file transfers. Uninstalling app killers to hide the fact that applications ARE running does not make the problem go away.

 

[JLang]

What you describe doesn't look like a bug, it looks intentional. OK, let's test that. Imo the first thing you'd want to find out is if the 'trigger' for that behaviour is part of the app on your phone – some sort of timer, or a 'hook' into other events – or if it is triggered by some code from outside, over some network. One way to find out is to repeat your experiment with the phone in Airplane Mode and Mobile Data switched off.
Let's see if those apps are triggered from outside or stand-alone on your phone itself. Try to isolate the problem.

If it's a bug I would expect it to be gone in 2.3 Honeycomb. But I don't know if it is (I run 2.2.1 now). Any Honeycomb users out there that have the same issues with mysteriously restarting apps?

 

[namoroman]

The only people that use Honeycomb (Android 3.0) are those on the Xoom. Do you mean Gingerbread (Android 2.3)?

 

[JLang]

The only people that use Honeycomb (Android 3.0) are those on the Xoom. Do you mean Gingerbread (Android 2.3)?

Quite! Now that you mention it, I mean both!

 

[GRenz]

No. Applications that I have not started in weeks show as started, and according to performance monitor are using CPU time. This "Android thing" you refer to is a serious Android bug. I have powered off, powered on, and left the phone for 12 hours without touching it. I didn`t start any programs, make a call or get or send any emails. Nothing. I power it on and let it sit. When I check, any or all of the following applications could be running: Google Maps, Bluetooth File Transfer, IM, Market, MyBackup, Google Voice, and others. None have any reason for being active at all. Few applications have an "Exit" option, and that is one of the problem points I already mentioned.
In either case, applications should not be starting on their own. Especially things like backups, places that could spend your money (like Market) and file transfers. Uninstalling app killers to hide the fact that applications ARE running does not make the problem go away.

I agree: my phone regularly starts apps I haven't used in weeks -- which I discover when the phone slows down and I run a task killer. And when I kill the tasks I'm not using (and didn't start), it easily recovers 20M or more of memory. So it may not be a big drain on the battery, but it sure uses memory and slows everything down. I still don't understand how or why Android is starting apps on its own....??

 

[Yeahha]

Please read: FAQ: Why You Shouldn’t Be Using a Task Killer with Android by using a task killer you are undermining the way your system works and actually killing you battery more by going into it and killing background apps. You are likely use to using non-linux based operating systems. When an app is open in the background it is not using your memory and as memory is needed Android will kill apps that are not needed currently, this is by design. I feel the link does a good job explaining it but feel free to google "android task killer good bad" to see many reviews of this. If you feel your phone is sluggish check the available memory left on the phone. Installed apps take up memory and the more you have the less memory you have to run the OS, the D1 is notorious for having this problem. I would recommend uninstalling apps you do not use, we all have them...the one we found while playing on the market that looked cool but has not been opened since that day. Also try moving apps to the SD if you can. If you are rooted and on a custom rom you may want to look to see if you have support for an app called "swapper" that will partition part of your SD card to be used as RAM and/or compcache