E-mail client that DOESN'T run as a "Service"?

[adam97202]

I have an old-fashioned POP3 mail account, and sometimes I need access to features that the built-in E-mail client just doesn't have: the ability to delete messages from the server, for example, or the ability to save messages or select text. So for that I need to use K-9 or MailDroid.

But both K-9 and MailDroid insist on running as a "Service" -- even though I have them set to NOT check my mail periodically. Running as a Service means I can't use a startup manager (Android Assistant) to keep them from loading when I boot up my phone, and I can't prevent them from sitting there using up 10% to 50% of my CPU (and a good chunk of my battery) without doing a "force stop"!

Does anyone have a solution to this problem? Either a way to tell MailDroid and K-9 to mind their own business, or an alternate e-mail client that doesn't insist on being "always on?"

 

[Knewz]

If you don't want mail to be checked automatically, skip the apps and just use the browser. For fast access save them as bookmarks.

 

[Yeahha]

Any mail app is going to run as a service once you exit the actual app. It is a remnant of the app waiting for you to recall the app back to the foreground, it is used to keep the app available quicker, once android decides you need more memory it will kill services, it is not something to fret over.
If you are completely opposed to using the browser to check your mail you could download an app like tasker and set an exit task for the mail app to kill the app on exit. Which sounds redundant but when you exit an app on android the app doesn't stop running but just waits to be call upon again, after a while the OS will kill the app once a few more have been pulled up.
I do agree with the earlier post if you are wanting to avoid these from starting at all just use the browser and create bookmarks.

 

[adam97202]

I understand the thing about apps running in the background and not using many resources when doing so... what bothers me is that, according to Android Assistant, these programs are sometimes using 10% or more of the CPU even when in the background. MailDroid seemed to be worse in this respect.

Unfortunately, MailDroid also seems to be the ONLY program I've found that preserves line breaks in selected and copied text; every other program I've tried (including K-9 and the built-in web browser) runs paragraphs together when pasting.

 

[takeshi]

Are you actually experiencing performance issues or just fixated on the number?

 

[adam97202]

Fixated on the number. I'm trying to keep my battery drain to a minimum.

 

[Yeahha]

Be careful with that. Worring about the number or background processes will result in you going to extreme measures for no results. Let Android do it's thing if your phone is running fine. If you start noticing preformance problems then look into different solutions. I used to use a task killer all the time and I realized I was spending about 25% of the time on my phone messing with the task killer, since the uninstall my phone is much smoother and I learned Android knows what it is doing.