Help Memory Leak?

[poster55]

Forgive me if there's a thread on this, did a search and saw it mentioned for other phones but not here in for the Incredible.

When I first boot up the phone and check the memory (after shutting down all the apps I don't want running) I notice my phone has about 220-250 MB free... after leaving the phone on for about 2-3 hours, with no activity on my part, that number gets smaller and smaller. I just rebooted my phone again because it was down to 125 MB free with no apps running.

Also, "Android System" is consuming 65% of my battery life. I realize that number is inaccurate after a fresh reboot so I played with the phone for a good 4 hours running apps and such, so that I could get a good test of how much the OS is eating up in comparison to other apps. 65% is a bit much no?

 

[esn]

I haven't even looked because my incredible runs so good. I wouldn't care unless it was not workin right.

 

[elrabin]

People seem to forget that "free memory" is actually "wasted memory"

Android is an intelligent OS, as files get loaded into RAM, it saves them there until there is a real need to remove them due to low memory constraints.

There is no battery penalty for storing data in RAM, so, why wouldn't you want to load as much as possible into it? Data in RAM loads infinitely faster than from ROM so that saves on battery.

Is all this memory "vanishing" actually causing you performance issues?

Are you using a task killer? From your comments about closing down apps, it sounds like you are. If you are, might I suggest disabling or even uninstalling it?

Android is VERY good at task and memory management and more and more people are reporting that they're happier with performance and battery life not using a taskkiller.


Also "Android System" is the generic name for all of the background processes and tasks that are too numerous to break down in the battery panel. If you were, for instance, to charge the phone to full, go into airplane mode and shut the screen off. Nearly 100% of the battery drain would be "Android system" because NOTHING else is running. Not screen, not bluetooth, not wifi, not cellular radio. Looking at my Incredible, which i charged about 3 hrs ago but haven't touched until just now, i'm seeing 32% android system, 49% phone idle and the rest is cell standby.

 

[poster55]

Thank you for this response. I found it pretty helpful. I am still learning a lot about how droid works. My battery doesn't do too bad but I do notice it drain a lot faster (for me) when I have a lot of apps in the memory. I lose a good 4 hours of up time. Havent tested this thoroughly but I did try running without closing down stuff.

To answer your question I do not use an active memory manager. I use diagnostic tools that let me view what apps are loaded into memory, how much memory they are consuming, and how much load they are on the processor.

I do, from time to time, run it in the background to collect data on a running app so that I can see how much memory and processing power it truly consumes when active vs inactive.

 

[dylo22]

No need to check memory. I never had to close any apps. The phone runs fast and the battery last long enough for a day's use. Back when I was with winmo, I checked it constantly. With android though, I don't even think about it.

 

[poster55]

I guess it's more of an OCD twitch than anything. I will have to work on getting out of that habbit, thanks for the feedback!

However, it doesn't answer the question of a memory leak... I guess time will tell

I will say this though... I wish my desktop ran as well as my incredible does... lol

 

[elrabin]

My battery doesn't do too bad but I do notice it drain a lot faster (for me) when I have a lot of apps in the memory. I lose a good 4 hours of up time. Havent tested this thoroughly but I did try running without closing down stuff.

Thats odd. Unless your apps are actually doing something actively, such as GPS or location based services, pulling or pushing data or an "always awake" app such as Meebo, having apps in memory shouldn't be draining CPU / Battery.


My day to day usage:
I always have location based services on, do maybe an hour or two of web surfing, listen to an hour or two of MP3s, check email(maybe 50 push mail a day?) and make some calls. With a full charge from the previous evening(usually taking it off the charger at 100% at 8pm or so) I don't drop into the yellow until roughly when i get home. I have been waiting for the battery to drop to about 25-30% before i charge. still trying to condition the battery.

So, i'm getting nearly 20 hrs on a charge with moderate/heavy usage.

 

[nschor]

If you have a persistent memory leak and are using GOSMS, try restoring/recovering a previously backed up version of your GOSMS settings, and the leak will magically disappear. If you don't have a backup of your settings, uninstall GOSMS and reinstall it.

 

[euph_22]

If you have a persistent memory leak and are using GOSMS, try restoring/recovering a previously backed up version of your GOSMS settings, and the leak will magically disappear. If you don't have a backup of your settings, uninstall GOSMS and reinstall it.

I highly doubt that that was an issue for anybody in this thread. The most recent post was 2 years ago yesterday, and was 7 months before Go SMS was available.

Also, unless you're experiencing lag, high memory utilization is a GOOD thing in Android. The OS uses the RAM that would otherwise sit around ideal to store app data, which avoids the need to restart the app from scratch when you return to the app.
Remember the mantra "Free RAM is wasted RAM." That's the basic concept for how linux/android manages RAM.