Droid Task-Manager, Cause more harm than good?

[Mike Anthony]

Whats up?

I wanted to find this out once and for all. Im sick of reading conflicting opinions regarding task-managers on the Droid and Droid Eris.

Well, while some people swear by them, others think they actually cause more harm than good! Can we get someone who actually knows to confirm which side is correct?

I actually use two task managers. Task Panel and Advanced Task Manager. I use the auto-kill feature on Task Panel and it helps as does ATM. It seems that without killing certain apps that run in the background, my Eris starts to get a little sluggish. The screens dont switch as smooth, for example. Also, it can cause a slowdown when you're trying to send a message.

BUT, am I causing more harm than good to my phone? Did google think about this and already plan for this? Did they intend of apps running in the background without being killed manually? Are we supposed to be screwing with these apps like this?

Please, someone, anyone.

Thanks,
Mike.

 

[guitarevan07]

+1 I'd like some knowledgeable clarification

 

[cranky_dan]

...me 2!

 

[hrbib21]

Knowledgable? Probably not me about Android (yet). However, I can tell you that killing "leeching" programs after exiting them has dramatically increased battery life for me. A couple days ago my phone lasted maybe 8 hours. With the addition of ATK, today it had 40% battery life left after 10 hours. This was the only change from earlier this week.

 

[cranky_dan]

Well, I respect what you've experienced. But it's been different for me.

I installed TasKiller within a day or two of getting the phone. When I first got the droid I ran it full out for about three days, until I realized that kind of behavior runs down the battery quickly.

I'm a former *heavy* Palm user, you see. So I'm *really* used to managing power usage. I managed to get my droid battery to be at 60-70% at the end of the day without any real sacrifices.

I ran taskiller for about two weeks, until I saw this thread: http://androidforums.com/motorola-droid/18334-task-killer-apps-truth.html. After reading the thread, I uninstalled it.

I have seen *no* change to my battery life. None. And I've been watching.
I use Spare Parts, and Settings>about phone>battery use.

Dan

 

[Mike Anthony]

Thanks for the link, Dan. I have to say, I believe what you all are saying about uninstalling the task killer. But for some reason, my device has been running much more smooth the last 2 days! As far as battery life, I havnt seen a significant change in battery life. Only a very minor benefit to the battery. BUT I have seen a significant boost in the operation of the phone altogether. I recently started using the auto killer on Task Panel.

I ignore certain important things like HTC Sense, Touch Input, Voice Dialer, etc. And some other apps that I want to always run. But other things that I might occasionally run like 3Banana Notes app or even my MeetroDC app. I only need them when I need them but they dont need to continue to run after I am done. I set the frequency to 30 minutes and threshold to 50.

All that said, my phone just seems really smooth. When I open some apps and the auto kill hasnt occured yet, the phone can get sluggish. It definately slows down a bit. As soon as these idle apps are killed, my phone returns to normal.


I just dont know...I've read enough stories about task killers harming the phone that I am skeptical and I dont want to screw my phone up! But I cant ignore the benefits that I've had.



EDIT: I guess I should also ask, that other thread is talking about ATK. I wonder if Task Panel is also a memory hog?

 

[Mike Anthony]

Im going to try to uninstall ATK and keep Task Panel and see what happens........Although I like having both because some apps show up in ATK that dont in Task Panel....

Ill report back in a bit to see what I find.

 

[BiGMERF]

Well, I respect what you've experienced. But it's been different for me.

I installed TasKiller within a day or two of getting the phone. When I first got the droid I ran it full out for about three days, until I realized that kind of behavior runs down the battery quickly.

I'm a former *heavy* Palm user, you see. So I'm *really* used to managing power usage. I managed to get my droid battery to be at 60-70% at the end of the day without any real sacrifices.

I ran taskiller for about two weeks, until I saw this thread: http://androidforums.com/motorola-droid/18334-task-killer-apps-truth.html. After reading the thread, I uninstalled it.

I have seen *no* change to my battery life. None. And I've been watching.
I use Spare Parts, and Settings>about phone>battery use.

Dan

thanks for sharing the link to that thread it was very informative.. but my issue is the thread is for droid users and while the droid is more powerful thus the phone is able to handle more.. does taskiller make more sense for a slightly less powerful mytouch?

 

[Mike Anthony]

Additional info:

PLEASE READ: Do NOT worry about Apps running in the Background - Droid Forum - Verizon Droid & the Motorola Droid Forum

 

[cranky_dan]

Nice find. A *very* succinct, easy to understand explanation for android n00bs like me.

Thanks for the link.

Now I can get back to *not* killing all my tasks.

Dan

 

[Mike Anthony]

Ok I still have Task Panel but I have disabled the Auto-Kill.
An hour ago, I removed ATK.

My phone has not slowed down because of not auto-killing my apps.
Also on a side note, after I uninstalled ATK and disabled the auto-kill, I rebooted my device.

Since then, my speed is smooth and fine! I think I will keep Task Panel just incase there is something I NEED to manually kill. But, it seems that removing ATK has not affected me in a negative way.

Maybe these task-killers are overrated? I will keep an eye on my performace throughout the day.

 

[Danokan]

I will tell you my nightmare.

HTC Hero.

Had ATK on it.

Rebooted because it was acting strange.

Android system would not load.

Took phone in and they could not do a reset on it.

Exchanged phones.

About a week later.. same thing.

So I deleted ATK.

Rebooted and...

Phone works fine now.

Don't know if anybody else has had this issue.

 

[droidclues]

Info seems circumstantial, but of course with the weight of enuf circumstantial some may begin to believe. I will be continuing to investigate at this point, but any and all info is welcome by me, including circumstantial.

 

[takeshi]

Any anecdotal evidence presented in threads like this will be circumstantial.

Read the info from the Android developers. They do not promote the use of task killers. That said, they are useful if you're stuck with using a problem app for whatever reason. Just don't use one that autokills.

This dead horse has been repeatedly beaten for far too long.