Real App Startup Control!

[EarlyMon]

Ignore this thread!

I'm leaving it in place temporarily for historical reasons - and will mod this out with a pointer to the right links when I sort this out.

If you're running a stable Android - DO NOT follow this advice.

Thank you, EarlyMon


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ignore!~~~~~~~~~~~~

OK. I've expressed my view here:

http://androidforums.com/htc-evo-4g/101548-apps-loading-automatically-how-stop.html#post943009

This is so important, I wanted to start a new thread to get attention, with no disrespect intended to the many others posing the question:

How do I get rid of startup apps I just don't want on my Evo?

1. I've taken the time to read at length, and understand, the many good threads explaining why using things like APK is a bad idea for Android - and to just let Android do its job.

I'm ok with that.

2. Coming from a _very experienced_ unix background, I still believe that I own this phone and I should be able to control (some) things.

I don't do social networking. I will never care about NASCAR or the NFL - my primary use is for work. I don't want to root my phone and uninstall apks from Sprint. I want Sprint TV - I've been in airports when breaking news hit and I couldn't hear the public TVs, for example.

Girls and boys, I think I've found the answer:

Startup Cleaner 2.0 by Bright Wallace

He also makes Startup Cleaner - I tested both, you want 2.0 for your Evo.

He also makes Advanced Task Cleaner Pro - that you can run in Background mode to do kills at startup.

I'm using Startup Cleaner 2.0 - AND IT WORKS.

It just won't assassinate that Amazon MP3 Store.

For that, I launch APK - have turned off autostart of APK, btw - and I kill the Amazon MP3 Store - and APK at the same time.

Now - arguments abound about CPU time, the Android scheduler, and the battery.

I've used EVERY battery trick in this forum, believe me.

BUT - using SystemPanelLite Task Manager by NextApp, Inc. I've been monitoring things.

Before Startup Cleaner 2.0 - my free memory was below 20%, with all of the app killing and so forth.

With Startup Cleaner 2.0 - my free memory at startup is 48%, and drops to just over 40% with the browser and email launched, and a few other apps launched and quit, imitating my normal usage.

The Android developers have done a FANTASTIC job doing task management and I've come to agree - don't run task killers in the background, let Android do its job.

But - I say give Android a chance to do its job - remove the cruft you don't need or want, like Sprint goodies, and who knows? Maybe you'll see an improvement, too.

Use the Startup Cleaner 2.0 _judiciously_ -- if you're unsure of an app, leave it alone. It gives you dangerous powers. Only remove those high-level apps you're sure of.

Bye bye, resource hogs - bye bye, memory hogs, bye bye any uncertainty as to whether the Sprint apps waste your battery or Android is perfect at controlling that.

I sure hope others find this suggestion useful.

PS - BEFORE, on reboot, my wallpaper selection was always lost. Now it's not.

 

[EarlyMon]

By the way - last night, went to be with battery at 92%, used my Evo as my alarm clock.

Just had a 24 minute phone call.

Battery at 86%.

I also tried loading all of my apps. Memory went down to just over 30%, nothing crashed.

Amazon MP3 Store came on when I turned sync back on (I _think_ that's the correlation - who knows). Going to wait a bit, not caring about that one for now, and continue to monitor.

PS - Two hours later - had some brief calls, just finished a 32 minute call, sms'ing a lot to co-workers during conference time I wasn't really required - battery is at 74%.

This is really an improvement for me personally - as mentioned, I'd already done all of the battery tricks.

Uptime: 15 hours - Awake time: 4 hours

 

[Wadester]

Where can you get Startup Control? I tried Android Market and Google but couldn't find it.

 

[EarlyMon]

Where can you get Startup Control? I tried Android Market and Google but couldn't find it.

I'm a total idiot. I didn't make the thread name match the product name - my bad, many apologies.

It's Startup Cleaner 2.0 by Bright Wallace.

 

[EarlyMon]

Mobile network on for well over an hour, lots of emailing. Another 30+ minute conference call - that puts my use since last charge at 92%:

- overnight as alarm clock, no mobile network
- over 2 hours of phone calls
- lots of sms
- emails (mobile network on for an hour+, checks for new email in three accounts every 5 minutes)
- three trips to the Android Market looking for goodies

Battery at 63%

PS - Just had another full hour with the mobile network on, pulling down more emails and replying.

Battery at 60%

-- and yet another hour of mobile network on (3 hrs straight), now using phone for email only this hour - not much mail, so battery is at 58% - prolly should've mentioned I've had brightness set to medium, not low, all day

-- a few hours later, turned off the mobile network after another half hour and dorked around with Bluetooth file transfers for a half-hour - just because. Battery at 46%.

 

[Sprockethead]

I use Startup Auditor. Does the same thing, and it is awesome.

 

[finndo77]

I also use startup cleaner 2.0 AND startup auditor and love them both!!! have not been able to figure which I like better.

 

[v01rider]

givin it a try now. i use atc already which works well for me. i bet this will be another good app!

 

[EarlyMon]

Battery at 35% now - last charge was at 92% some 22 hours ago.

Mobile net off overnight, then today had:
* about 3 hours of talking
* maybe only 20 or so sms
* about 7 hours of mobile network (3G) on, doing mainly light email, and a few trips to the Market
* a half-hour of Bluetooth file transfers (just testing things out)

For me - that's a very light day of phone use. And I have 35% of my battery to go - I am totally satisfied with my Evo's performance and staying power as a business tool.

I ran one of the ftp apps (a few actually) and file browser apps - and found that Qik, Sprint Nav and few others then launched - and my free memory had dropped to 15%.

That said, my phone has been MUCH more responsive all day.

I'm going to add Advanced Task Cleaner Pro, same author to my run profile and I expect to do even better from here on.

Will also investigate Startup Auditor - but may avoid that and instead go with the 1-2 punch by the same author (Startup Cleaner 2.0 + Advanced Task Cleaner (not Advanced Task Killer)) to avoid any weirdness (pulled from that special place where all such theories come from - my hiney).

 

[MDbandit]

these programs FREE ?

 

[t1jordan]

OK. I've expressed my view here:

http://androidforums.com/htc-evo-4g/101548-apps-loading-automatically-how-stop.html#post943009

This is so important, I wanted to start a new thread to get attention, with no disrespect intended to the many others posing the question:

How do I get rid of startup apps I just don't want on my Evo?

1. I've taken the time to read at length, and understand, the many good threads explaining why using things like APK is a bad idea for Android - and to just let Android do its job.

I'm ok with that.

2. Coming from a _very experienced_ unix background, I still believe that I own this phone and I should be able to control (some) things.

I don't do social networking. I will never care about NASCAR or the NFL - my primary use is for work. I don't want to root my phone and uninstall apks from Sprint. I want Sprint TV - I've been in airports when breaking news hit and I couldn't hear the public TVs, for example.

Girls and boys, I think I've found the answer:

Startup Cleaner 2.0 by Bright Wallace

He also makes Startup Cleaner - I tested both, you want 2.0 for your Evo.

He also makes Advanced Task Cleaner Pro - that you can run in Background mode to do kills at startup.

I'm using Startup Cleaner 2.0 - AND IT WORKS.

It just won't assassinate that Amazon MP3 Store.

For that, I launch APK - have turned off autostart of APK, btw - and I kill the Amazon MP3 Store - and APK at the same time.

Now - arguments abound about CPU time, the Android scheduler, and the battery.

I've used EVERY battery trick in this forum, believe me.

BUT - using SystemPanelLite Task Manager by NextApp, Inc. I've been monitoring things.

Before Startup Cleaner 2.0 - my free memory was below 20%, with all of the app killing and so forth.

With Startup Cleaner 2.0 - my free memory at startup is 48%, and drops to just over 40% with the browser and email launched, and a few other apps launched and quit, imitating my normal usage.

The Android developers have done a FANTASTIC job doing task management and I've come to agree - don't run task killers in the background, let Android do its job.

But - I say give Android a chance to do its job - remove the cruft you don't need or want, like Sprint goodies, and who knows? Maybe you'll see an improvement, too.

Use the Startup Cleaner 2.0 _judiciously_ -- if you're unsure of an app, leave it alone. It gives you dangerous powers. Only remove those high-level apps you're sure of.

Bye bye, resource hogs - bye bye, memory hogs, bye bye any uncertainty as to whether the Sprint apps waste your battery or Android is perfect at controlling that.

I sure hope others find this suggestion useful.

PS - BEFORE, on reboot, my wallpaper selection was always lost. Now it's not.

Great thread

 

[Colorado_Al]

If you're

Coming from a _very experienced_ unix background

Why not just root the device and remove the apps you don't want?
Like this:
Apps that are ok to remove with root - xda-developers

 

[cabbie]

what is this trickle charge thing I keep seeing referenced? you just leave the screen on while charging to full?

 

[EarlyMon]

these programs FREE ?

Yes.

 

[EarlyMon]

If you're (coming from a _very experienced_ unix background)

Why not just root the device and remove the apps you don't want?
Like this:
Apps that are ok to remove with root - xda-developers

Because I'm coming from a very INexperienced return-in-30-days-if-unhappy-with-Sprint background, and a what happens if I removed something and I want to return. (yeah - like I'd remember where I put the backups when I'm pulling 18 hour days at work)

I also did some casual snooping - very casual - and thought I saw that the Sprint package had to be removed whole cloth, rather than app by app - and I happen to like Sprint TV.

And I also thought that it might be a good idea to find an off-the-shelf solution suitable for everyone.

Some people might find root discussions a bit elitist.

 

[theebrownieee]

@ early

You can reset your phone back to stock even if you have rooted it. There is a catch.

a) if you use autoupdate to reset your phone back to stock, you will never be able to reroot that phone.

b) not an issue but to reset with the ability to reroot in the future you have to flash it to stock manually (not a real biggy link is somewhere around here)

Also, the sprint package is not linked together, im using fresh 0.3 and have been streaming fifa all week with only Sprint TV installed

 

[EarlyMon]

@ early

You can reset your phone back to stock even if you have rooted it. There is a catch.

a) if you use autoupdate to reset your phone back to stock, you will never be able to reroot that phone.

b) not an issue but to reset with the ability to reroot in the future you have to flash it to stock manually (not a real biggy link is somewhere around here)

Also, the sprint package is not linked together, im using fresh 0.3 and have been streaming fifa all week with only Sprint TV installed

Between you and Colorado_Al helping me, I'm going to be straightened out in no time - many thanks!

It's been over a dozen years since I've worked with a compact o/s - and even then, I was relying on bootp and network loading of apps. Transitioning to a fully embedded o/s with no disk farm (to be lazy with) is going to take - for me - a little time to settle on strategies that I can live with. And I'm kind of a revision control freak.

And I like to be canonically correct. I suppose I can learn to live with just uninstalling apps, but I'd also like to kill the start mechanisms themselves. No need for spawns or execs even spending time happening in the first place, if I can help it. That may be impossible, I don't know.

FWIW as one example - I _think_ I've correlated the Amazon MP3 Store startup to visits to the Market (but won't swear to that). If true and if that's an embedded process start up then there's probably nothing I can do about that.

Guess I'm about to develop a new hobby in my copious spare time.

PS - Seems Android is really straightforward. Using Astro, I snooped around, found the init and init.rc files, looked into those. Rooting one of these seems to be basically a simple exercise in access. I guess I wouldn't be surprised to find that they're doing something as simple as looping over the /system/app contents and bringing things in. Thanks again.

 

[lopezpm]

If you're

Why not just root the device and remove the apps you don't want?
Like this:
Apps that are ok to remove with root - xda-developers

Maybe not everyone is comfortable rooting or may not want to root. Rooting is not always the answer.
To the OP nice find on those apps. Which apps have you found safe to stop from running?

 

[EarlyMon]

Maybe not everyone is comfortable rooting or may not want to root. Rooting is not always the answer.
To the OP nice find on those apps. Which apps have you found safe to stop from running?

So far, I'm stopping all of the Sprint apps except Sprint TV, all of the social networking apps (that's a personal pref for me), including footprints, the Amazon MP3 Store, and Google Talk.

Google Talk you can nullify following the instructions here: How to improve the battery life of your HTC EVO 4G - Know Your Cell

Leave HTC and other Google apps and services alone.

Do not leave ATK running - it's not that great on your battery. Use it to check your system from time to time and to explicitly kill anything that creeps back in - and check off ATK itself at the bottom of the list.

PS - From reading other forums, I've found that the Google Partner Setup should be ABSOLUTELY left alone - it causes inoperative Market, Gmail, and other woes.

I'll just bet - WITH A NAME LIKE THAT - that it's part of my suspected link between launching the Market and then seeing Amazon MP3 Store running, and eventually the other cruft.

PPS - And - BlueTooth Share - I turn that off at start-up as well.

 

[EarlyMon]

what is this trickle charge thing I keep seeing referenced? you just leave the screen on while charging to full?

I'm not clear on that myself. I've seen in the forums that people are buying trickle chargers w/ battery on eBay for 12 bucks.

I've also seen the advice to charge with the screen kept on - so I'm doing that.

I'm all for all of the battery advice given so far by others, and because they're too numerous to mention by name, I thank them all.

 

[EarlyMon]

I'm recommending the SD card reformat - please see the thread on that.

I found NO difference using the built-in reformat - but formatting from my Mac made a substantial difference.

Not the big difference that the OP of that thread reported, but still a rather large and positive difference - so - I'm now repeating the iteration: charge with power on until green, unplug, charge with power off until green, unplug, charge with power on until green ... until you can just plug in and it's green, as it was in the last state.

Will report in this post by PS if that made a difference.

PS -- Ran the iteration cycle just once and I'm back to instant green - first time through I had to go through some 6 or 7 iterations, as I recall.

 

[EarlyMon]

no point for this app, just long press on your screen add a shortcut to settings> running services and it's the same thing

I'm missing something. How is having an automated kill list at boot time that you set and forget the same thing as a manual process?

 

[EarlyMon]

what is this trickle charge thing I keep seeing referenced? you just leave the screen on while charging to full?

OK - turns out people are reporting MUCH better battery performance if the Evo is trickle charged - meaning - charged slowly.

Here's a quick and simple shortcut on how to get there without buying yet another phone gizmo -

http://androidforums.com/htc-evo-4g/97434-wall-c-charge-vs-usb-computer-charge-seems-have-dramatic-difference-charging-times.html

PS - See note below - dr g is right, of course.

PPS - I was way wrong. See:

http://androidforums.com/htc-evo-4g/102869-why-your-battery-drops-10-15-first-20-minutes.html

 

[dr g]

USB charging is not trickle charging, but it is slower.

 

[finndo77]

PS - From reading other forums, I've found that the Google Partner Setup should be ABSOLUTELY left alone - it causes inoperative Market, Gmail, and other woes.

I'll just bet - WITH A NAME LIKE THAT - that it's part of my suspected link between launching the Market and then seeing Amazon MP3 Store running, and eventually the other cruft.

PPS - And - BlueTooth Share - I turn that off at start-up as well.

Thanks for that, I have been killing the Google Partner Setup and have been having issues, I'll try not killing it and see if things improve.