App killer was abusing my battery

[StylinProfilin]

Ever since i got rid of it, my battery last alot longer in the green and doesn't even heat up anymore

 

[yojoe600]

yea its been said plenty of times but people still use them... app killers are worse on battery

 

[Terabethia]

People are hard headed!

My fiance has several co-workers with Android phones (yay!). I told him "whatever you do, don't let someone try to convince you to download an app killer!"

I explain to him why not, though granted it was a quick 30 second explaination that was basically "cause I said so"

3 days later, what do I get? "Honey, my co-worker said I should download *insert whatever app killer here* but now I don't know how to use it!"

I wanted to smack him! I took the phone, removed the app and said "here, told you not to do that". He just laughed. But at least he gets it now!

 

[gorenut]

I don't think app killers are bad per se, its just leaving them on all the time that can lead to a battery drain. I have a task manager and I usually bust it out when I need to kill an app. I usually terminate the task manager too when I'm done

 

[WeaponX]

so then what do u use to close apps? Because it seemed that all the apps before i had task killer or whatever were killing my battery...

 

[yojoe600]

system panel is all you will ever need... it gives great info and can kill apps when needed... but doesnt run all the time

 

[Terabethia]

so then what do u use to close apps? Because it seemed that all the apps before i had task killer or whatever were killing my battery...

A properly designed app will close itself, you don't need to do it for them.

If you are finding that your battery life is crappy (well... more crappy than normal ) then figure out which app is doing it. Edit the settings of that app to see if it helps. If it doesn't, remove the app. You can replace it with something else if you need the function.

 

[euph_22]

A properly designed app will close itself, you don't need to do it for them.

If you are finding that your battery life is crappy (well... more crappy than normal ) then figure out which app is doing it. Edit the settings of that app to see if it helps. If it doesn't, remove the app. You can replace it with something else if you need the function.

+1. I am 100% convinced that almost everybody who raves about app killers helping there battery have a malfunctioning (or improperly set up) app that's causing there problems.

And app killers can CAUSE battery drain issues (and not just from running constantly in the background). Lets assume app A starts service B temporarily, and will shut it down when it's down with it. And then taskiller kills app A. Then the service will keep running forever. This can be very bad if that service prevents your phone from sleeping, uses the network, or is a CPU hog. Not to mention keeping recently used apps in memory saves battery life and generally improves performance.

In short task managers good, especially System panel or something else that gives system performance data.

 

[simmons_m]

I use ATK from the market place, I include shutting ATK down when I kill apps. Based on the comments in this thread, it is redundant, but I have apps that periodically open themselves. i.e city ID, and some of the other apps that came preloaded. I believe these are launching as a result of random reboots. Considering I cannot remove these apps without rooting, what other options do you recommend?
Thanks.

 

[mtollin]

I do pretty much the same thing. insalled a Task Killer, but don't run it in the background, and have it "kill itself." I have some programs that have to be killed to run them a second time like an encrypted web server for email that refuses to recognize I logged out unless I "kill" it.

If the app killer isn't running in the background it won't affect battery.

 

[gruss]

system panel is all you will ever need... it gives great info and can kill apps when needed... but doesnt run all the time

qft

even the free version gives you more info than you need

 

[sabrewings]

I use ATK from the market place, I include shutting ATK down when I kill apps. Based on the comments in this thread, it is redundant, but I have apps that periodically open themselves. i.e city ID, and some of the other apps that came preloaded. I believe these are launching as a result of random reboots. Considering I cannot remove these apps without rooting, what other options do you recommend?
Thanks.

Get a real app for managing apps (like System Panel). Any apps that are under "inactive" are just cached in memory and aren't running. I have never seen CityID in the active list, so it isn't using your battery. And the Android OS will manage its own memory so no need to worry about that either.

Certain apps like "People", "Sense", "Messages", "Touch Input", etc should never be killed.

For the most part, let your phone handle itself. Only start messing with these things when you suspect a problem. I never kill apps and actually use my phone regularly and my battery still lasts 24 hours.

 

[kevinbakon]

+1
I've tried every battery "fix" recommendation on this site with no noticeable changes in battery life.
Last week I decided to remove Advanced Task Killer & try out SystemPanel . . .
I IMMEDIATELY noticed a huge difference in my battery consumption!!!

 

[gorenut]

+1
I've tried every battery "fix" recommendation on this site with no noticeable changes in battery life.
Last week I decided to remove Advanced Task Killer & try out SystemPanel . . .
I IMMEDIATELY noticed a huge difference in my battery consumption!!!

Were you running ATK at all times when you had it? Because I think this is where people are seeing problems. As mentioned before.. I only run ATK when I want tasks killed and thats it. I have it kill itself when I kill off all apps too. Are you running SystemPanel at all times?

 

[jackdubl]

System Panel Lite is the best I've used because there is no autokill. I leave it on all the time and use the kill widget. Leaving it on all the time has had no effect on my battery. Leaving ATK on all the time, on the other hand, did have an effect. The best way to test is see how much charge you lose overnight when not using your phone. I believe it was the autokill function that was causing problems, but turning it on and off constantly would also cause problems. Make sure clock, sense, touch input, mail, messages, and System Panel are excused. I personally also have a battery widget and antivirus excused.

 

[Jaimie]

how do you get the system panel on your home?

 

[adrynalyne]

Folks still have CityID on their phone?

I nuked it, the framework, and the permissions for it long ago.

 

[kevinbakon]

Were you running ATK at all times when you had it? Because I think this is where people are seeing problems. As mentioned before.. I only run ATK when I want tasks killed and thats it. I have it kill itself when I kill off all apps too. Are you running SystemPanel at all times?

Yep, ATK at all times, but not a bad idea to have it kill itself.
Personally, I'm very pleased with SP & don't intend to reinstall ATK.
I haven't noticed an option with SP to run all the time, so as far as I know I'm only running it when I open the app (I did turn off the notification option).

 

[PearlRose]

This post is the first I've heard of System Panel. Took a look and I am wondering if the free is enough or should I dive in for the paid version?

I've been using ATK, Cleanoid, and Astro; but I'm also a noob just trying to do my best. From what I've seen, SP should replace all three of those?

 

[sabrewings]

This post is the first I've heard of System Panel. Took a look and I am wondering if the free is enough or should I dive in for the paid version?

I've been using ATK, Cleanoid, and Astro; but I'm also a noob just trying to do my best. From what I've seen, SP should replace all three of those?

System Panel Lite is what I use and it does the job nicely. The paid version adds some monitoring features, but that's about it.

 

[dm33]

People get so confused by this. iPhone 4 has copied android, similar problems showing up there.

In general, Android is very good at managing apps. The apps stay in memory, making people think they're still running, but they should not consume any CPU, meaning no battery power, unless they are incorrectly written.

Task killers are not needed. Cause more harm than good. Don't use them.

If you find an app that keeps using up CPU when you think it shouldn't, remove it and complain to the developer.

 

[adrynalyne]

I boot with 240mb of ram free. It takes days, sometimes more to get down to the 30mb level. Until that happens, i don't worry about it.

 

[gorenut]

Gave SystemPanel a try. I like it.. but for the sole purpose of killing apps, I still prefer to use ATK the way I use it. I never leave it on at all times. I just like the ease ATK provides at killing all apps minus ones you've selected. SystemPanel doesn't seem to have that choice. Its either kill all apps or kill individual ones.

 

[KB3MMX]

Ever since i got rid of it, my battery last alot longer in the green and doesn't even heat up anymore

That seems to be pretty common but for some reason guys rush into App killer/ATK then find out is stinks.

The built in app killer works best.

 

[kevinbakon]

Gave SystemPanel a try. I like it.. but for the sole purpose of killing apps, I still prefer to use ATK the way I use it. I never leave it on at all times. I just like the ease ATK provides at killing all apps minus ones you've selected. SystemPanel doesn't seem to have that choice. Its either kill all apps or kill individual ones.

Play around with it some.
SP basically operates in exactly the same in the manner you've mentioned with ATK.

Select the running apps that you do not want to kill and chose the "Exclude" option. You'll then see a blue box with "Ex". Last select "End All" and all apps without the "Ex" will be killed.

The advantage to SP is that the program identifies for you which apps are Active, Background, Inactive & System apps. So you basically have the option with SP to kill MUCH more than with ATK.

One other awesome feature is that each app displays how much CPU it's occupied since running, helping you identify which apps are hogging the power.

When you select the "End All" option, you can choose which levels you want to end so you don't kill system or excluded apps unless you want to.

The last thing I'll rave about is the meters/gauges at the top.
Once you've isolated all the power-hog apps and the ones you don't need, you can watch the gauge drop for reassurance that you are actually improving the performance of the phone.

BTW, Mario Live Wallpaper used to lag horribly on my phone. As soon as I uninstalled ATK & started using SP, Mario runs more smoothly than the day I installed it (and consistently).

The risk here though is that the user might kill something critical, have to pull the battery, etc. Then never identify the root of the issue, complain that the app sucks & screwed up their phone so they uninstalled it.

(Oh yeah, thanks for the tip on killing the app killer itself. I'm now doing it with SP because it WAS running all of the time and consuming power. Hopefully I'll see even better battery life tomorrow).