Looking at Buying A Task Manager

[Vildy]

Hey, back again..Asking for info, as usual... But hey, at the end of the day, this is the best place to come to for help and quick solutions...One day I will be able to give expert advice like you ladies and gentlemen..

For my question, I'm looking at purchasing a task manager (Advanced Task Manager Pro $2.99 Google Store). My main concern is battery life. JB 4.2.1, for me, is hogging my battery, Yeah, I've disabled or forced stop, etc everything that I can...Sill sucking my battery life like a battery vampire..

Any suggestions on the best app to manager and/or kill my background apps??? Again, thanking everyone in advance...Thomas

 

[ardchoille]

Killing apps is the quickest way to kill battery life. I develop Android apps so I though I'd explain why a task killer isn't needed on an Android system.

Activities
Android apps use activites to preform tasks. For example, if you use a file manager to send a picture via email, the file manager calls the send activity within an email app, passes the file name to it and the email app sends the picture.. not the file manager. This will result in seeing the email app as "running" even though the user didn't actually launch that email app.

Smaller apps
Using activites helps developers design smaller apps. A file manager app that contains every bit of code needed to do everything a file manager does would likely be so large that no one would want to install it. Developers know that an android phone more than likely has an email app so there is no need for the developer to include email code in his/her file manager to send a picture when he/she can call an activity in an existing email app to do the job. This results in a smaller file manager app since there is no need to include email code or any other code for an activity that can be done via an app that is already present on the phone. This also alleviates redundant code. When you install an app outside of the android market, also known as sideloading, the file manager app calls the package installer (already present in Android) to install the requested app.

Running apps vs. cached apps
The "Manage Applications" list included in many android devices lists running apps as well as cached apps. Cached apps don't use any CPU or battery, they're cached so they will load faster the next time you need them. Killing cached apps results in those apps requiring more time to load the next time they are launched.

System management
By default, every android application runs in its own Linux process. Android starts the process when any of the application’s code (activities) needs to be executed, and shuts down the process when it’s no longer needed and system resources are required by other applications.

* Android is hard coded to automatically kill a task when more memory is needed.
* Android is hard coded to automatically kill a task when it’s done doing what it needs to do.
* Android is hard coded to automatically kill a task when you haven’t returned to it in a long time.
* Most services (while possibly running in the background) use very little memory when not actively doing something.
* A content provider is only doing something when there is a notification for it to give. Otherwise it uses very little memory.
* Killing a process when it isn’t ready only causes it to have to reload itself and start from scratch when it’s needed again.
* Because a task is likely running in the background for a reason, killing it will only cause it to re-spawn as soon as the activity that was using it looks for it again. And it will just have to start over again.
* Killing certain processes can have undesirable side effects. Not receiving text messages, alarms not going off, and force closes just to name a few.
* The only true way to prevent something from running at all on your phone would be to uninstall the .apk.
* Most applications will exit themselves if you get out of it by hitting “back” until it closes rather than hitting the “home” button. But even with hitting home, Android will eventually kill it once it’s been in the background for a while.

If you see an app running that you didn't launch, it's most likely because an activity within that app was called by another app to perform a task. If you kill the app you didn't launch, the system has to relaunch that app in order to complete its task. This is why some people kill a task and then see it immediately running again.

Constantly killing apps creates a situation where the user is battling the system.. resulting in wasted system resources.

Android is Linux
Android is not a Windows-based OS, it is based on Linux. Many of the apps you think are running aren't actually running, they're cached, this is typical with a Linux operating system and is much more efficient than other systems. Cached apps don't use any CPU or battery, they're cached and will load faster the next time they're needed.

The best practice is to let the system manage itself.

 

[Vildy]

Thanks a lot ardchoille...That's why I come here.. For real help!!! You guys never disappoint..Guess I'll save my $$$ and stick with what I got...

 

[ardchoille]

Thanks a lot ardchoille...That's why I come here.. For real help!!! You guys never disappoint..Guess I'll save my $$$ and stick with what I got...

You're welcome My suggestion is to simply let the system take care of itself. You can, however, keep an eye on things and uninstall apps that seem to be resource hogs.. you can always search the Play Store for similar apps.

 

[rscarawa]

I just discovered something pretty big. Forget the task killer. It seems that the tablet cannot support all the runnning processes at once and that makes the device laggy. To solve this, go to settings, developer options (you may need to enable this), and change number of background processes from system managed to either 3 or 4. The change will blow your mind if you have a slow device.

 

[TexasBadger]

I agree with rscarawa. Go to the thread on Infinity Instability and Lag Issues, then check Posts 38-42.

 

[Vildy]

You guys are geniuses.. I'll never waste my time with Asus support again (unless I have a dead tablet)... And the 7 taps?? That's MENSA territory

 

[Tylorw1]

The background processes limited helps but you must set it every time you turn off then turn on your tablet. It is not a permanent setting.

Tylor

 

[rscarawa]

The background processes limited helps but you must set it every time you turn off then turn on your tablet. It is not a permanent setting.

Tylor

Yep. We need an app to make this persistent.

 

[CraiginMA]

I see the referenced behavior, apps starting that I didnt request. And if I use a task killer, they simply get restarted within the next 10 seconds. But I disagree with the "let it take care of itself" philosophy, because at least on my device, that leads to device self-destruction from a usability perspective.

When my device (Droid Razr Maxx, VZW, 4.1.2) drops below 100MB free RAM, it crawls to a standstill and/or becomes completely unresponsive. If I can get the interface to respond in timely fashion, using a task killer gets me back to 250MB+ free RAM before those killed apps restart themselves.

Question is, how to keep those apps from respawning at all? Especially the ones I havent used even once nor indirectly referenced? Being a Verizon device, it's preloaded with bloatware, some of which I was able to deinstall/disable, but there are still dozens of apps that consume 200MB+ of memory that I never use, and cannot disable/uninstall such as Kindle Reader, Google Hangout, Google Play Music. Then there are apps that I only use at MOST once a week like Weather Underground, Google Play Store, Facebook, etc. Combined, those apps are 300MB right there.

Allowing them to run and letting the "OS take care of itself" doesnt work. I really don't like waiting 2 minutes to take a simple picture with the phone. Task killing and freeing up the phone returns that timeframe from 60 seconds+ down to a reasonable 2-3 seconds.