So we're told not to run task killers....

[takirb]

I've never had any issues with notifications, what kind of notifications are you missing? I get all of my notifications (SMS, Missed Calls, Gmail).

I use Handcent SMS and failed to get notifications when new msgs arrived. If i opened the app itself, i'd have FB and personal txts that were unchecked, yet nothing in the notification bar up top telling me so.

 

[htmlcssguru]

Just checking my ATK list of apps running and here's what it shows me:

1)Voice Dialer - why is this running? Never used it!
2) Craigsnotification - this is the Craigslist app I installed. Problem is I have notifications TURNED OFF. Why is this running?
3) Amazon MP3 - I've tried to delete/uninstall this and it wouldn't let me. WHY is this running? And WHY can't I uninstall it?

ATK is killing these off which is great. Otherwise i'd never know they were 'running' since I don't do anything to start them up.

Does anyone know how to get rid of that lame ass Amazon MP3 app?

 

[RedWingsFan]

Does anyone know how to get rid of that lame ass Amazon MP3 app?

Startup Auditor will kill it

 

[edriggers]

Just get System Panel. It will tell you everything you need to know without messing with the phone. I got the paid version and it is awesome. The phone should come with system panel right out of the box.

+1

 

[nahpungnome]

I use Handcent SMS and failed to get notifications when new msgs arrived. If i opened the app itself, i'd have FB and personal txts that were unchecked, yet nothing in the notification bar up top telling me so.

Weird, I use Handcent also and I have no issues. I even kill Handcent along with all of the other apps and I still get notifications. Have you toyed around with your Handcent notification settings? How about the regular messaging app? Any issues with that?

 

[sonicwind]

I've never had a problem. I've also never run out of memory since using it. It think the advice should be "don't do stuff if you don't know what you're doing." But I think that's assumed in any situation. So that leaves nothing should be said. Do you eat food that comes in a plain package and you don't know what it is? No, you find out first, and you get whatever information is necessary, like what's in it, how is it supposed to be cooked, does it give you diarrhea, is it actually food and not rat poising. Ooh, task killer, I need that, I'll set it to kill EVERYTHING. Stick with a nice dumb flip phone if you don't have any common sense. Or maybe an iPhone.

 

[nomunk]

Navigating to the android running apps menu is a major pain

dude are u serious i have the Running Apps shortcut right on my home screen, its only 1 click away

 

[sonicwind]

dude are u serious i have the Running Apps shortcut right on my home screen, its only 1 click away

Or just hold the home button and up pops the last six used apps. If you need to maintain more than 6 running apps, shouldn't you be on a computer?

 

[pwnst*r]

Or just hold the home button and up pops the last six used apps. If you need to maintain more than 6 running apps, shouldn't you be on a computer?

It's a 1Ghz computer. What's your point?

 

[355spider]

Mine works just fine but I only use it to kill things not related to phone functioning. Mostly my apps I have installed.

 

[355spider]

Just get System Panel. It will tell you everything you need to know without messing with the phone. I got the paid version and it is awesome. The phone should come with system panel right out of the box.

SO I have this app now. What do I do with it? It tells me not to kill anything in the instructions but how does this help me save battery life? It uses the most power out of anything according to itself.

 

[sag7392]

SO I have this app now. What do I do with it? It tells me not to kill anything in the instructions but how does this help me save battery life? It uses the most power out of anything according to itself.

I have it as well...it's more of an informational/troubleshooting/only if needed a task killer. It will tell you what's going on with your device and help you determine what uses what. You can set it up to monitor your device for a few days to really see what's going on as well. This may help you make changes in order to help your battery performance. I have the paid version and really like it.

 

[RiverOfIce]

A light use of task manager works. Having it go insane fails. I have it only kill 3rd party apps that can not be uninstalled. For example, amazon mp3, qik, nfl, facebook, sprint zone, gallery, music, maps, footprints, and a dozen other apps, that you have no choice but to allow.

Do I need amazon mp3 tracking every website I visit that has a reference to music on it?

Do I need facebook, trying to sync continuously, regardless of settings?

Do I need nfl or sprint zone at all?

No, no, and no. Then why should I leave them running, updating every time a visit a website?

If that is ok for you, great. It is not ok for me.

I would rather not have amazon know all the websites I visit with music on them. But every time I visit a website that has a band name on it, the little mp3 app gets killed by atk.

My battery life has tripled with task killer, just killing the 2nd and 3rd party apps.

355spider[/URL]]SO I have this app now. What do I do with it

Ok first thing you do is make sure the auto kill is disable in settings and the security level is set to high.

Do the scroll down screen thing on home screen, click everything that it shows on the screen so it is grayed out.

Next have it run in the back ground a few days. Every once in a while take a look at what you are using and what you are not using. You have now disabled the atk.

Now take it slowly. Find the apps you are not using.For example, if you are not using the nfl or qik, click it so it has a green check mark. Then have it kill the task.

Over the next week, slowly have it take out more and more apps, just the ones that you are not using. Manually kill them. Once you have a good idea of what you use and what you do not, set the auto kill level to safe. If you get weird errors or something does not work, turn off auto kill, remove the last app from the checked list. And try again.

This will easy your way into the task killer.

Two things to remember.
1.) If you do not know what it is, allow it.
2.) Go slowly one app at a time.

As soon as you figure out what you want and do not want increase the auto kill level and security level. Do not rush into it. Take it slowly. One app at a time.

I did one app a day.

 

[freeza]

I use ATK. You need to know which processes to ignore, otherwise you'll get some weird results. For instance, if you use HTC's calendar widget, which I do, and you kill the Stocks app, it'll reset the calendar widget and reload the data... kind of weird how that works. Also, if you kill the Flickr process, it'll make the UI reload. Sense is so deep within the OS that killing certain Sense apps causes weird things to happen like that.

In my own personal experience, not using a task killer makes my phone chunky after opening a bunch of apps. I've never seen the OS unload anything after a while, but then again I kill tasks as soon as I'm done using them.

None of this would be needed if all apps had a Menu->Exit option that actually releases all resources and closes the process. Some apps do have that option and they actually do close their process (using ATK you can check )

**** My Ignore List From ATK ****
com.htc.launcher
com.htc.android.omadm.service
com.htc.android.iqagent
com.htc.wdm
com.htc.socialnetwork.flickr (Killing this causes a UI reload)
com.htc.opensense.pluginmanager
com.htc.htcMessageUploader
com.htc.WeatherWallpaper (this is for the animated weather on the home screen when unlocking)
com.htc.android.htcime

com.sprint.ce.updater

com.broadcom.bt.app.system

com.smithmicro.DM

com.android.updater
com.android.providers.drm
com.android.bluetooth
com.android.providers.downloads

com.google.android.apps.uploader
com.google.android.partnersetup
com.google.android.providers.gmail

Talk (I actually use Talk)
Calendar
Stocks (I don't use stocks, but the Calendar issue I mentioned above causes me to ignore it)
Clock (Kill this and your alarm won't go off, learned this the hard way )

Weird, killing flickr doesn't cause a UI reload for me, and that's the first thing I DO kill, since I don't use flickr.

 

[ducatidrew]

Never once had an issue with ATK that wasn't due to user error in killing the wrong stuff. Now that I have the right set of apps on ignore, it works flawlessly and have been running strong for over 138 hours with no hiccups and memory always being around the same as a fresh boot

what apps do you set it to ignor?

******sorry, did'nt read the next reply. ***********

 

[Jonhern]

i use ATK but only manually. I use launcher pro and whenever it seems to be running slow i go into ATK and sure enough Sense has started up again and I kill it.

 

[takirb]

Weird, I use Handcent also and I have no issues. I even kill Handcent along with all of the other apps and I still get notifications. Have you toyed around with your Handcent notification settings? How about the regular messaging app? Any issues with that?

I'd think that killing Handcent processes would result in not getting notifications(?). I don't use the regular messaging app, I have everything defaulted to Handcent so it never notifies me. Handcent was the very 1st app i installed, and it worked fine before ATK, and worked fine after ATK was uninstalled. I think i was still getting email notifications, but nothing for Handcent at all. It's not a big deal to me though, it didn't give me a performance gain of any kind and I can understand some people running it fine and some people having problems. I think it's personal preference or is more dependent on how each individual uses their phone (resources-wise). And for some people (not all) it's an actual placebo affect.

Ooh, task killer, I need that, I'll set it to kill EVERYTHING. Stick with a nice dumb flip phone if you don't have any common sense. Or maybe an iPhone.

I have yet to hear of someone setting ATK to kill EVERYTHING. Some people actually have common sense, and still have problems with it. Not all software will run the same for every person/device (OTA bricking phones comes to mind, or even mixed reviews on every single app in the market). If that were true, then Android OS itself would be just fine for handling resources on your phone the same as it works just fine on mine. Telling people to stick with a flip phone because a 3rd party app works for you and not for others is just dumb.

Then again, i did post a link to jitterbug on someone else's thread today, so take anything i say with a grain of salt...

 

[nahpungnome]

Weird, killing flickr doesn't cause a UI reload for me, and that's the first thing I DO kill, since I don't use flickr.

For me, it's not flickr itself, but the combination of flickr and one of my other widgets. I haven't narrowed it down to which one though. I'm thinking it's either my Calendar or the default clock widget with weather.

Just like the Stocks application causes my Calendar to reload, it's a combination of what would seem to be disjoint applications. Sense doesn't make sense.

 

[Deleted User]

I've been using ATK since I bought the phone. For the first week or so I was using it constantly w/ a widget on the front page; but since then I've slowed down w/ it. Now I only use it when my phone seems a little slow or on start-up when a lot of apps open up. I've never noticed it hurt my phone.

 

[Gurba]

Or just hold the home button and up pops the last six used apps. If you need to maintain more than 6 running apps, shouldn't you be on a computer?

This feature shows the last 6 apps you've used. It doesn't neccessarily mean the apps are running.

 

[evo32]

I'm running it with no problems. I set it up to not kill, my alarm clock, calendar, weather widget, messages, and some other apps. I'm not sure what other people are doing to have it cause problems with their phones, but I'm running it just fine.

 

[habitual.line.stepper]

I use ATK but I only use the widget to manually kill running apps since I have all my android processes on the ignore list. It's never given me any problems, it's actually nice just to have to tap the widget once to automatically free up physical memory.