Task killer apps " THE TRUTH"

[AngryHatter]

How can I view the cache allocation by app at any given time? Checking each app manually is a pain. I recently rebooted, so they were almost all zero. But during times that are laggy, I'd like to be able to look at the running services, look at the cache, and see if I can spot some candidates for removal to speed it up.

1click cache cleaner?

 

[thraxx]

i registered just to say this: Task killers are 99% bullshit. My droid was great for a while until then it started to get laggy and freeze up and id never get fb notifications or emails. I figured this was from all the abuse i put it through.(this process happened 3x) fast forward to now i had to get an incredible, and i was amazed by the speed and how smooth and fluid it was. It was like when i first got my droid....hmmm. a couple days go by and i dl my trusty atk and things go horribly wrong. Lags freezes black screens restarts. W T F. Ive bee going through this for a couple of weeks now and i dled.antivirus apps, deleted tons of apps, and even deleted all 600 songs i had stored so i could hopefully get that speed back. Nothing at all. Until im searching for answers and came along this thread. I deleted atk and voila!!!!! Just like new.

 

[carrot]

Some say the phone is smarter... But wait... Why is lagging so much if so smart? You don't need to read this really, I'm just venting.

Today I went to Verizon and I was running ATK free for 6+ months. Lately, my phone started to lag badly, take 10 seconds before the icons show up after a call, power button refused to work after a few tap, can't dial from the contact list, camera freeze and force quit, etc...

So anyway, the verizon dude installs ATK and killed 17 apps the first time.

Now, people think it is going to hurt. But its funny to see all these apps showing up in the list that you aren't running. I use e-mail, gmail and the dial. But then in the list, Pandora, Amazon MP3, Youtube, Gallery, Gesture Search, Voice Search, verizon mobile, etc... All these show up without firing them.

Then I get a bunch of Low Memory in the logs showing up.

Now if the phone would be smart, or the apps. They would shut themselves up after they are done doing whatever they are doing.

Who do you blame? The phone? The OS? The Apps? The SD card?

I just want a phone that works. I want to dial when I want to, take pictures when I need to and check my e-mails (Also get proper notifications and shut down the vibrate/sound at night!).

Seems so hard to me to get a "working" phone these days.

Am I happy with my Droid phone? It does work 98% of the time, but there is still this 2% of the time which I'd like to throw it out the window. Maybe I couldn't do much with my Blackberry curve, but I never missed phone calls or had problem with notifications.

At least if the apps could let me "close" them instead of having to kill them.

Anyway, for the next few days, I'll kill the apps and uninstall a few since I barely use them anyway.

 

[NiceGuysFinishLast]

The apps that you referred to (amazon, blockbuster, etc) are system apps. When they are in memory, but not using CPU, THEY USE NO EXTRA BATTERY, NOR DO THEY MAKE YOUR PHONE SLOWER. When you kill them, they re-start almost immediately. THIS uses processor time, which uses battery. When ATK keeps killing them and the system keeps restarting them, you are using infinitely more processor cycles and battery than you are just letting them run. You can always root your phone, then freeze or rename those apps so that they don't run. That's the recommended route. If ATK is helping with lag issues, or battery issues, it's because you've got an app that's doing something wrong. ATK is just fixing the symptoms. You need to find the cause. If your phone is working correctly, you do NOT need ATK. Also, you could try an app called autokiller. Instead of indiscriminately killing system apps, it lets you set the minimum free RAM you want. Instead of running all the time (using battery), it runs once at startup and writes a new value to the android system. Then the OS starts killing off apps more aggressively, but it uses the same processes it always does. This keeps it from killing important things that a user or ATK might mistakenly close. It's the most efficient method of keeping your memory free.

 

[carrot]

The apps that you referred to (amazon, blockbuster, etc) are system apps. When they are in memory, but not using CPU, THEY USE NO EXTRA BATTERY, NOR DO THEY MAKE YOUR PHONE SLOWER. When you kill them, they re-start almost immediately.

As far as I can see, I killed them and they didn't come back (yet). So they must running some sort of random check for data thing. So until they come back, they aren't using memory and/or CPU. So seems like I'm better off this way. Will see what happens in the long run with running less app and killing the one I don't want to see.

As for Amazon MP3, I'm not even signed in or have an account. So that's pretty useless to run this app for nothing. Anyway, this one seems pretty lean. Not using 15MB of memory like Google Voice (which doesn't even seem to work most of the time).

I'm currently reading about rooting, soon I'll get on it but not sure if I want to go Gingerbread or not.

 

[sweetmonichick]

Hello all. Just to clear things up. I just got the evo shift 2.2 and I had a problem with the phone force closing and turning on and off and being slow. I talked to sprint about why it was happening and the explanation I got was the task killer also closes apps that are necessary to the phones inner workings that you can't see when you close your apps. And that with prolonged time of closing everything down your phone starts to read its own mechanisms as something that's not supposed to be there. This eventually will cause your phone to be slow and force close all the time. Pretty much you are killing your phone. The only time you need the task killers is if your phone is older and doesn't have much memory. Watch your memory as long as its above 100 mb you shouldn't have problems without a task killer. Also to kill apps if necessary go to menu-settings-apps-running apps and kill from there. Hope this helps!

 

[garak0410]

Since (finally) getting Froyo on my Captivate, I started running without ATK and have the same if slightly better performance.

 

[Bladewing]

I'm using a HTC Desire HD.

It started lagging on me after about 2 days, so I started looking for solutions. Then I read about task killer. After killing tasks, the lag disappears. It does seem to fly in the face of logic that the task killers has had such an effect, but thats what happened.

I wish i could beleive all that talk about andriod using its resources efficeintly and therefore, we do not need a task killer, but in practical terms, I found that it is just not true.

 

[Vehtemas]

I'm using a HTC Desire HD.

It started lagging on me after about 2 days, so I started looking for solutions. Then I read about task killer. After killing tasks, the lag disappears. It does seem to fly in the face of logic that the task killers has had such an effect, but thats what happened.

I wish i could beleive all that talk about andriod using its resources efficeintly and therefore, we do not need a task killer, but in practical terms, I found that it is just not true.

I use ATK to kill Google Voice, it is a pain in the ass app that keeps running according to Spare Parts...

Get Spare Parts and you can track which apps are doing that, you may not even need them.

 

[FrazierHughesc]

Just my 2 pennies...but I've found my Droid to perform noticeably faster with Advanced Task Killer uninstalled. This was one of the first apps I put on my phone to help KEEP it running quickly, but I have been very unhappy with the slow performance. I've gone through multiple reboots and systematic installing/uninstalling of apps until I hit upon the least likely culprit, ATK. After removing it completely, I've noticed a significant difference in respect to keyboard lag, UI refreshing, and possibly battery life.

This is by no means an absolute truth, but I'm curious if anyone else has seen this?

Thanks.

I just removed it. What do you use in place of it?

 

[cameronh17]

I saw this thread, took off ATK, did a reboot. Now my Droid 2 Froyo is running worse than ever before! It is incredibly difficult to send or receive calls or texts. Starting apps is a nightmare, and I haven't even tried to access the web! I've done several hard reboots, works great for a rough minute, then shits on me and lags like crazy. I can hardly even slide over to the other screens! IF YOU HAVE ATK RIGHT NOW, AND YOUR PHONE RUNS FINE, LEAVE IT! I'm about to back up everything and perform a system reset. I've had a terrible Easter so far because of the advice on this thread. I've put my beloved task killer back on, and it runs a little better. I also took off all widgets and turned off wifi bluetooth and GPS. If you think my problem is anything else, please help.

 

[NiceGuysFinishLast]

I saw this thread, took off ATK, did a reboot. Now my Droid 2 Froyo is running worse than ever before! It is incredibly difficult to send or receive calls or texts. Starting apps is a nightmare, and I haven't even tried to access the web! I've done several hard reboots, works great for a rough minute, then shits on me and lags like crazy. I can hardly even slide over to the other screens! IF YOU HAVE ATK RIGHT NOW, AND YOUR PHONE RUNS FINE, LEAVE IT! I'm about to back up everything and perform a system reset. I've had a terrible Easter so far because of the advice on this thread. I've put my beloved task killer back on, and it runs a little better. I also took off all widgets and turned off wifi bluetooth and GPS. If you think my problem is anything else, please help.

Your problem is very obviously something else. You've got an app or combination of apps that is causing your issues. The phones don't need ATK to run well, and if it makes them run better, it's because it's masking the symptoms caused by your real problem.

 

[cameronh17]

Hye niceguys, your right, I did a little more research, and tried a few more things, turns out it was my SD card. Doesn't make sense, since it worked fine this morning. Considering taking ATK off was my most recent change, I assumed it was the culprit, or savoir rather. However, I'm backing up the card and formatting it. Sorry for over reacting every one

 

[AngryHatter]

And now Go Launcher has a ATK widget - it's going to get worse.

 

[norweger]

Here's a WARNING for those who's thinking about installing Advanced Task Killer by ReChild. I did it. I didn't use it. I uninstalled it, and it f**cked up my homescreen. I couldn't browse left and right not more, the menu (all applications menu) got totally scrambled.

And the SMS homescreen also got scrambled. See here:

I managed to get it sorted though, but I hate having something f**k up my phone temporarily, because it gets me thinking; if it did this - what else might have been done (under the bonnet).

 

[FeebleNosemann]

This is just another reason I love this website. A bunch of knowledgeable, levelheaded people just going at it. The lack of trolls is actually amazing