Task killer apps " THE TRUTH"

[krouget]

I understand the logic behind not needing task killers, but for those of you who go without, what do you do when your phone starts to lag or freeze? Don't tell me it never does. Do you just let it lag and suffer? There are plenty of apps that seem to stay running for no reason that the OS doesn't shut down. Or perhaps the OS has a higher tolerance than I do.

Honestly, my Droid usually slows down when something is either accessing the SD card, installing from the market, or has a specific app that is misbehaving. I don't have an awful amount of apps installed, but it otherwise only lags if I transition quickly in some cases, such as the notification drag down menu, but certainly hasn't frozen (even if it did, it doesn't directly mean too many apps were running).

I do have home++ and astro, both of which come with the ability to kill tasks, but I very rarely use either feature. Otherwise, I've long deleted ATK from the phone, per suggestions and convincing arguments found in this thread, and have noticed no slowdown due to running multiple apps in the background.

I have access to 3 other Droids, two of which have owners who've installed a substantial amount of apps, and delight in task-killing, while the other one is fresh out of the box with 3 apps added (not even a week of active use). None of these phones is noticeably faster than mine, save for obvious situations. If anything, the individuals with multiple apps who task kill complain about performance, though its likely subjective. An added bonus, is that ridding myself of the task-killer, also relieved me of the OCD which comes along with constantly killing, checking, and killing tasks over and over...which is tedious.

I will also say my battery life has been fine, though a direct comparison to another user is moot, given different usage habits. Turning down my brightness will have infinitely more effect on battery life, than task-killing has.

 

[shrink57]

Every once in a while I take a serious look at my homescreens, remove all the widgets I couldn't live without (and never use), reduce the screens back to 3 or 4 (I use PandaHome which also slows my Droid but a trade off as I enjoy it) and my phone perks up again. Unfortunately the next day I am back to loading more unneeded garbage.

 

[jasonb1985]

I installed a task killer when I first got the phone. I just deleted it as an expirement. We'll see how it goes.

 

[maquiningoc]

Mine is very noticebly faster. THANKS!

Please educate me.
Q1: Now when I had TKA installed, I noticed that when I hit TKA it would give me a list of apps that were supposedly running. In that list, It showed apps that I know I didnt execute. Whats up with that?

Q2: If those apps were executed some how, is there a procedure that I should do to shut them down for the sake of power?

Thanks all,

 

[jxker]

i uninstalled the app when i began reading this post but after more reading reinstalled it....i dont want something running unless i started it, even if it isnt doing anything

 

[droidx]

well i just uninstalled atk and rebooted, it loaded faster than it did the day i bought it with no apps installed, im very happy, and over the next three days ill keep a monitor on it, and ill report back. im on the htc eris at the moment.

 

[droidx]

i uninstalled the app when i began reading this post but after more reading reinstalled it....i dont want something running unless i started it, even if it isnt doing anything

what phone are you currently using?

 

[jxker]

motorola droid

 

[Argan]

I had been using for a week and then I stopped receiving POP3 emails. I would sync and refresh, shut down the phone and restart it, nothing would work.

I finally uninstalled ATK and restarted the phone and boom, all the emails came through so ATK will stay uninstalled until they figure out why it seems to stop POP3 emails from coming through.

 

[messenger13]

I had been using for a week and then I stopped receiving POP3 emails. I would sync and refresh, shut down the phone and restart it, nothing would work.

I finally uninstalled ATK and restarted the phone and boom, all the emails came through so ATK will stay uninstalled until they figure out why it seems to stop POP3 emails from coming through.

Did you try putting your email clients in ATK's ignore list?

 

[Argan]

When I ran it I would make sure that email was always unchecked before running the app. Once that was set it is always unchecked.

I assume that is what you mean?

 

[messenger13]

When I ran it I would make sure that email was always unchecked before running the app. Once that was set it is always unchecked.

I assume that is what you mean?

No. If you long-press on an app in the list, you can tell ATK to "ignore" the app. You'll never see it on the list again ... until you manually go into ATK's settings > Ignore list and remove the app from there.

Also, do not let ATK run at start up. Just use it momentarily, and let it kill itself. That's the way I use it, and I love it. Then again, I have OCD like nobody.

 

[JohnDa]

A number of posts that advocate not using a task killer suggest rebooting if there is a program with a bug that is slowing down your phone. To me it seems that the task killer is just a fast way to reboot. While it is true that the best thing for speed is to avoid buggy apps, I don't agree with that philosophy. For instance SportsTap causes slowdowns from time to time and my phone definitely speeds up after I kill it when it acts up. Sports Tap is otherwise very useful. I am not going to get rid of useful apps because I am scared of slowdowns. Also, I would guess that SportsTap works perfectly for many other Droid owners, so it is hard to identify a real bug. Just kill it.

 

[YankeeDudeL]

If you choose not to use a task manager, then you use Settings > Applications > Running Apps. From there, you can kill what you don't want running. That's what will solve the problems, no need to restart (but that will automatically clear your cache, which will free up some space).

 

[tomato88]

So I've been using mine without any sort of task-killing (including the one provided by default) for the last few days, and here are the results:

1. It started lagging and locking-up after 2 to 3 days of usage, needing me to reboot.
2. Battery lasted only about 20-25 hours, which usually lasts 45+ hours with task-killer.
3. The added snappiness was only noticeable on the first day after each reboot.

So I guess I'm going back to atk.

 

[Bswartz95]

So I've been using mine without any sort of task-killing (including the one provided by default) for the last few days, and here are the results:

1. It started lagging and locking-up after 2 to 3 days of usage, needing me to reboot.
2. Battery lasted only about 20-25 hours, which usually lasts 45+ hours with task-killer.
3. The added snappiness was only noticeable on the first day after each reboot.

So I guess I'm going back to atk.

I removed Task Panel a few days ago. I haven't experienced lag, but my battery is noticeably worse today. I think I'll be going back to Task Panel. I will give it one more day of trial.

edit: for people who experience lag, i would highly recommend they clear cache on their programs/apps.

 

[nlsuelo13]

okay well i called t mobile "smartphone technical" support more than once,( so i could get diff peps) and all of them told me that i did need a way of killing my task, so it would run faster and batt will last a little longer, they did told me by going into settings...ect ect and ending the task that way...... or a task killer.. ...but now i dont know wich one to get LOL

 

[iFrostyy]

What i think would be a good way to increase battery life/cpu memory would be to have a Task killer app but ALSO have an exclusion list for apps that would be a waste to constantly be killing. I think that if the right apps are excluded, while other apps such as games and others ended would increase battery life. To me battery life is the most important aspect to my phone. There is nothing more depressing then being away from home and having that red LED flash constantly. The memory aspect has seemed to dominate this thread, i would like to see some more info about the battery aspect.

 

[gentlefury]

For me Home++ was very unstable until I stopped task killing....now it runs great and never crashes. It really does cause the system to become unstable and like someone else said all the tasks that are always on will start back up after you kill them anyway!

 

[Bswartz95]

What i think would be a good way to increase battery life/cpu memory would be to have a Task killer app but ALSO have an exclusion list for apps that would be a waste to constantly be killing. I think that if the right apps are excluded, while other apps such as games and others ended would increase battery life. To me battery life is the most important aspect to my phone. There is nothing more depressing then being away from home and having that red LED flash constantly. The memory aspect has seemed to dominate this thread, i would like to see some more info about the battery aspect.

Task Panel allows you to create an "ignore list" and an "auto kill list".

 

[iFrostyy]

Task Panel allows you to create an "ignore list" and an "auto kill list".

I am aware of this feature but I'm wondering which apps would benifite my battery by ignoring ending/killing because of how many apps restart themselves anyway

 

[EroThraX]

My G1 is currently running fine with 716 hours uptime since I last had to turn it off to change sim.

No lock ups or complete slow downs at all and without needing an automatic task killer. If I notice the phone starting to lag or the responsiveness starts to become sluggish then I just clear the largest caches, usually my gmail, browser and twitter then it speeds up again.

 

[PetiePal]

I've had my Droid for about 2 weeks now. I'm using Advanced Task Killer Free. I've only put the following apps on my ignore list:

-Gmail
-Power Manager
-Weather Widgets
-Battery Status Free
-Handcent SMS

Now I notice that even after I've killed tasks after awhile a bunch of apps seem like they're open for no reason...I noticed Last.FM loaded up (haven't loaded that up in over a week) The default messaging app seems to always load up, even though Handcent is the default. And a few others. My available memory maxes out usually at like 50MB and gets as low as 32...

What's an average amount? Why are these other apps loading at random times if I'm not opening the programs or using them?

 

[boatman]

on droid. had both task manager, and atk. had them separate, had them both. had very poor battery performance for the past 2 weeks. took them both off. Noticed my battery life much better.

Didn't do anything quantitative, just noticing. Also, not sure if having both on the phne together was a bad thing...

 

[iFrostyy]

I think that it would be super cool if someone tested battery life with and w/o a task killer