Unnecessary space and memory hogging system apps

[jlgarr86]

What are some of the system apps that hog precious memory and internal storage that can be removed safely without impacting the system as a whole? I know there are lists that show what can be removed safely but they don't show how much kb/mb they consume or how much CPU is used.

 

[Stuntman]

Apps don't necessarily hog memory. If there is available memory unused, Android will load apps it thinks you may use in the future into memory to use that memory. That way, when you do launch those apps, they will come up faster. Apps that are loaded into memory that are unused would not be using any CPU.

If you try to manually manage the system resources yourself, you may end up confusing the Android OS and cause it to use system resources like memory inefficiently. It is best to just let Android manage the system resources.

If you are having some issues with your phone, perhaps you should let us know what exactly they are. If you are not having any issues, I recommend you just leave it alone and not try to kill or delete any processes or apps.

 

[jlgarr86]

Apps don't necessarily hog memory. If there is available memory unused, Android will load apps it thinks you may use in the future into memory to use that memory. That way, when you do launch those apps, they will come up faster. Apps that are loaded into memory that are unused would not be using any CPU.

If you try to manually manage the system resources yourself, you may end up confusing the Android OS and cause it to use system resources like memory inefficiently. It is best to just let Android manage the system resources.

If you are having some issues with your phone, perhaps you should let us know what exactly they are. If you are not having any issues, I recommend you just leave it alone and not try to kill or delete any processes or apps.

not having any issues yet lol but if android is recalling apps for faster recall i'd prefer it be apps that are used rather than junk i don't touch or need i.e ecomode

 

[gibbs1984]

Yep, Task Killer aren't necessary, Android does it perfectly itself.

Unused RAM is wasted RAM, think of it like that, apps loaded into the RAM won't use any battery really, nothing you'd notice over the course of a day anyway and once you load an app it'll remove one of the other apps from the RAM (or however many need to be moved) so that the app you're using can be used properly.

 

[Stuntman]

not having any issues yet lol but if android is recalling apps for faster recall i'd prefer it be apps that are used rather than junk i don't touch or need i.e ecomode

If you leave it alone, Android will figure out which apps you do need over time. If you try to artificially close apps, it will confuse Android and may cause it to think that you are using apps that you are not.

 

[lightsleeper23]

Hmm. This is something I've been struggling with myself. I've never heard the angle that you SHOULDN'T use a task manager/task killer. I have a habit of constantly checking my running apps and freaking out if I done have at least 150 mb or so of free ram. I must kill apps running in background a dozen times a day. But to be fair, it all started with battery drain problems. Some days, at random it would seem, my battery would drain MUCH faster than usual, and upon checking what had been using it,I found Android System at the top, every time, with 70% or more. In fact it uses twice as much battery as the next thing below it on these days. And as far as I can tell, all it is doing is holding the wallpaper.

Maps is also pretty bad at constantly running, and it drains a fair chunk by itself, even though I almost never open it. So I quarantined that. So you're saying, just because apps may be using ram in the background, they aren't necessarily using up battery?

 

[Ze Veteran]

Apps don't necessarily hog memory. If there is available memory unused, Android will load apps it thinks you may use in the future into memory to use that memory. That way, when you do launch those apps, they will come up faster. Apps that are loaded into memory that are unused would not be using any CPU.

I would hope that the Android developers are more intelligent than loading apps that MAY be used into memory. I'd love to know the algorithm that could predict which apps may be used : lets load up Starbucks since he's near a Starbucks, no he paid for the Subway app - load that one instead it's just around the corner.

 

[chanchan05]

Actually, Android tells what apps to load by logging which apps are used the most. Some launchers like Holo are able to take advantage of this log by having a 'Favorites' tab in the app drawer. On Go Launcher i notice that the 'recent' apps and the 'running' apps (misnomer, not all apps in that tab are listed as running on task managers. They are cached to RAM though) are almost always the same apps. Although it may take some time, like a week or two before Android develops a completely correct log for a person's usage.

 

[Stuntman]

If you kill an app, it is possible that the app will end up restarting itself or Android ends up restarting it. This would make Android think that you are actually using the app that you killed. If it is an app you don't wanto to use much, it would confuse Android and cause it to make poor decisions about what apps it chooses to load.

 

[jlgarr86]

I would hope that the Android developers are more intelligent than loading apps that MAY be used into memory. I'd love to know the algorithm that could predict which apps may be used : lets load up Starbucks since he's near a Starbucks, no he paid for the Subway app - load that one instead it's just around the corner.

i'm not gonna lie i had a good laugh at that algorithm bit haha android can make a good guess that i want fb loaded but perhaps i'm feeling twitter today and my phone is being eaten alive by that misguided memory being preloaded so twitter runs like crap. how about my phone keeps memory waiting and free up until i'm ready to use it

 

[Hadron]

i'm not gonna lie i had a good laugh at that algorithm bit haha android can make a good guess that i want fb loaded but perhaps i'm feeling twitter today and my phone is being eaten alive by that misguided memory being preloaded so twitter runs like crap. how about my phone keeps memory waiting and free up until i'm ready to use it

Well that type of prediction would be inefficient - just because I'm near a Starbucks doesn't mean I need that app (though Starbucks might disagree). But leaving memory empty won't make twitter run faster either - loading twitter will take time, and once it's loaded it doesn't matter whether the rest of the RAM is empty or storing inactive apps.

If the phone tries to keep your commonly used apps in memory, they will start faster and starting them will use less power. If it constantly cleared them from memory the opposite would be true. So the efficient thing to do is to try to keep your most-used apps in memory, and clear space as needed (and only as needed) when other things are run. On average this strategy will make the phone faster and more efficient.

 

[chanchan05]

Just to note, even Windows is moving away from the "keep memory free" algorithm. On Pro and more expensive versions of Windows 7, there is an option there to enable RAM loading prediction.

 

[jlgarr86]

Just to note, even Windows is moving away from the "keep memory free" algorithm. On Pro and more expensive versions of Windows 7, there is an option there to enable RAM loading prediction.

i'm all for it. i understand used apps being stored but eco mode? maps? and other system apps that have no use being active and sucking CPU? google talk? i've never even opened it but i know it shouldn't be using ram in place of the apps i do use constantly. i just want to know if there is a list of notorious memory using apps in the system that are safe to freeze/delete.

 

[chanchan05]

Maps is connected to several background services that lets you use the GPS system for locating itself. Camera for example and a whole slew of others like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. if you ise any of those or anything else that allows locations, a maps service will be open. Besides its not the entire app itself. Eco mode is the power saving feature. I understand its on by default. Then turn it off i suppose.