Is anyone OCD like me and closing apps when you know you don't *NEED* to ?

[AndyLL]

If it's inactive, then it isn't running. Plain and simple. The data that comprises the app is simply stored in RAM. The phone will handle it from there. It's like any OS. If you close your browser on your PC, the data that makes up that program is still in RAM (unless needed by something else). But it isn't running anymore, just stored.

So, you're wasting your time.

Plenty of reason to occasionaly run a task killer:

1) It's up to the app on if it will continue to run in the backgound.

2) Apps can also prevent the phone from sleeping.

3) Unlike PC multitasking it is up to the app to save and restore its state when it moves between active/inactive states. Poorly designed apps can cause lags if you accidently make it active.

4) Andoid dumps oldest apps first when memory is required which may not be the order you want them dumped. If I load the market or a game later in the day I don't want it kept in memory over apps I use more often just because they were used last.

5) If your active app suddenly requires a decent amount of memory you could see a lag if android needs to perform a garbage collection.

I occasionally run ATK manually... I kill apps that I know I'm not going to use again or for a while (including ATK).

 

[upther]

I had ATK when I first got my Incredible because I thought it was necessary. Did some research and read a couple articles like the one already posted here and discovered that it wasn't necessary. Once I uninstalled it I felt like I got improved battery life. I was also enjoying my phone more because I wasn't so adamant about having to kill something as soon as I was done using it. I'm much happier now.

I've got System Panel and I can use the task killer in there to kill the occasional stuck app, but that's it.

 

[klownin5643]

i from time to time use the atk, if my phone seems boggy or a bit laggy, i open it and look at available memory. if its lower than say 50, and i kill unneeded processes it jumps back up to 170ish, and the phone runs fantastic again.. this surely is not a coincidence. too many running processes? i have not read the threads on atks but i know what works for me currently. a once a day reboot doesnt hurt either.

 

[Nightfall]

I just set my Task Killer to autokill every 2 hours with a low priority. That closes all apps for me for the most part and keeps my phone running fresh.

 

[Nick The Great]

I have ATK and notice these things running. This bothers me with my DInc but I'm learning to let it be. I've spent 8 - 10 hours per day in front of a Windows PC for the last 10 yrs of my life, and old habits die hard.

But I'm trying to let the things run when they want to run. I do exit a program whenever the program lets me, but trust the programmers to know what they're doing . . .

 

[TheGoatLantern]

I always kill apps after I use them excluding some of the important ones, mainly the apps that I kill are apps I installed and I know won't affect my phone.

 

[NiteRider]

if you charge your battery while the phone is on, let it charge until the light is green, then turn off the phone, and the light goes back to red. continue charging until the light turns green again. for whatever reason, the battery is not able to charge completely while it's on. i'm assuming that is the battery trick we're talking about. if there's another one, please let me know.

Now I wish I named that trick after me since I discovered it. But I had no idea it would have become this popular.

 

[kriskmk]

I use Advanced Task Killer (available on the market) to shut down open apps automatically when my screen goes dark. Under its' settings, I have it set to "crazy" mode.. which basically will kill every app unless I specifically put them in the ignore list.. of course, gmail sync,phone and navigation never get killed by default. so yes, I am OCD about having open apps.. and this is how I take care of them.

 

[klownin5643]

thanks for the idea.. just set up the ignore list and and set kill to aggressive. i think this is going to work much better for me. available memory went from 27m to 229m. there was like 10 processes that were running that i haven't used in weeks.

 

[adidas1124]

I have my ATK set to kill every 30 minutes and love it... my battery last a helluva lot longer with it in that mode than without the ATK.

 

[JuniorNA]

I have my ATK set to kill every 30 minutes and love it... my battery last a helluva lot longer with it in that mode than without the ATK.

It's so insane that you say that, not you personally, but that there is such a split between lovers and haters of ATK. Some say it does not increase battery life, it decreases it; while others say it helps their battery and gives them 3-4 more hours.

There is such a difference of opinion, which is why there is such debate .If you search task killer, you'll find hundreds if not thousands of posts of valid examples and stats from each side. it's so weird how this one little app can caause so much chaos and wide spread panic.

Anyway, i dont have it set to autokill. I mostly use it to see whats running, and i kill the task killer itself, but i will also kill maps, games, market, etc.

I guess if all these apps had a close button, while still doing the same exact thing they are doing now, a lot less people would be talking about this. It's the placebo effect, you hit exit, or close, and you feel the program is closed, even though the OS has suspended it and stored some of the program parameters for faster startup ,that little close or exit button on apps would have put so many people at ease .

It's nuts when you think about it. bananas and psychotic when you read some of these posts and arguments and differences in experience .

 

[callmeox]

thanks for the idea.. just set up the ignore list and and set kill to aggressive. i think this is going to work much better for me. available memory went from 27m to 229m. there was like 10 processes that were running that i haven't used in weeks.

With Linux, unused memory is wasted memory.

 

[klownin5643]

With Linux, unused memory is wasted memory.

so why does my phone run so much better and without stutter at 200mb as opposed to laggy and jittery at 25mb? im not understanding.

 

[callmeox]

so why does my phone run so much better and without stutter at 200mb as opposed to laggy and jittery at 25mb? im not understanding.

Placebo

 

[JuniorNA]

cmon, while I do agree there is a placebo effect sometimes, I do agree that when i'm downloading or installing something from app store, i get some lag and stutter when I switch screens.

But I do see that it can slow down when only that much memory is available but it shouldnt be noticable Klownin.

 

[ChiTownJim]

I don't use a Task Killer at all , I have one installed but I've only used twice. It's more there for if I download a app that is glitchy.

Android OS does a great job of doing what it needs to do so I let it do it's thing

I use to be OCD about it when I owned my Eris, I had to have my available memory close to 100 at all times , I would constantly end all using TasKiller and it's widget that is always red it made me completely OCD. I had the same problam with having a battery widget I would constantly be checking my percent of battery left , I'd constantly turn things off and freak out that it was draining too fast now. I don't even worry about it anymore and have everything set to auto and now my battery life is much better