Apps in Task Mgr

[harlock]

My wife and I are both experiencing apps showing up in the Task Mgr that are taking up RAM. We never opened these apps, and even when ending them, they sometimes show up again. Sometimes, we end one app, and another will appear that we haven't turned on.

Some app examples are:

Google Maps / BluetoothDun / Bookmarks Widget

Anyone else experiencing this? Anyone know why this is happening?

 

[draexo]

I asked the same question a while ago and never got a response. Some apps are are set up to load at boot. I removed the load at boot option using Android Optimizer in market. Other apps appear in my task manager as the day goes by and there is no reason for them to be running. I did not open them and they are not loaded at boot.

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[tcrews]

It's the way Android works. The OS tries to fill the memory (to a certain threshold) with apps so that if you go to use one of those apps, access to it is near instantaneous vs. having to load it from storage in to memory. Holding an app in memory does NOT use any resources. 000000 takes just as much power to hold in memory as 110101 or 000011 or 010101 etc..... The apps aren't running, they are just prepped for access. You kill it (bypassing Androids default method of handling memory) and it will typically just reload that app back in to memory (now using resource to reload it) or reload something else (also using resources) to reach it's threshold of memory holding apps.

DO NOT USE TASK KILLERS. Again...that's just another resource using app that interferes with the default Android OS's way of handling apps/memory/resources making everything work worse. Free memory is not a "win" on Android....this isn't a Blackberry or Windows Mobile device.

If you need to kill a task, use the built in Settings/Applications/Running Services to see what is actually running (not just held in memory). Some services have to run (and if you are using widgets they'll be there as well) but you'll find a few that start because of their design. Skype, IM, BackupAssistant....these will start at boot...or if you run them. You can stop these running services and they should not restart until you use them or reboot the device.

 

[draexo]

It's the way Android works. The OS tries to fill the memory (to a certain threshold) with apps so that if you go to use one of those apps, access to it is near instantaneous vs. having to load it from storage in to memory. Holding an app in memory does NOT use any resources. 000000 takes just as much power to hold in memory as 110101 or 000011 or 010101 etc..... The apps aren't running, they are just prepped for access. You kill it (bypassing Androids default method of handling memory) and it will typically just reload that app back in to memory (now using resource to reload it) or reload something else (also using resources) to reach it's threshold of memory holding apps.

DO NOT USE TASK KILLERS. Again...that's just another resource using app that interferes with the default Android OS's way of handling apps/memory/resources making everything work worse. Free memory is not a "win" on Android....this isn't a Blackberry or Windows Mobile device.

If you need to kill a task, use the built in Settings/Applications/Running Services to see what is actually running (not just held in memory). Some services have to run (and if you are using widgets they'll be there as well) but you'll find a few that start because of their design. Skype, IM, BackupAssistant....these will start at boot...or if you run them. You can stop these running services and they should not restart until you use them or reboot the device.

Thanks for the explanation!

 

[harlock]

@tcrews - Thanks for the explanation! This makes some sense now. On my old Moto D1 there were apps that I would need to kill (ex: Ghost Radar) because it would just keep running in the background. That app now has an END RADAR function on it, so it sounds like it will sit in memory, not running, and shouldn't be slowing anything down, right?

 

[tcrews]

Keep in mind that some apps are just poorly written and may stay in memory and use resources after you have launched/used/finished using that app. These you just need to uninstall (or deal with it). Properly written apps will "end" on exiting out but will remain resident in memory until garbage collection in the OS occurs and/or memory is needed for a running app which will force the "not running" app out of memory.

If an app has "Exit" or "end" you should always use that when finished with the app.

 

[nitrate28]

So for my clarification, there isn't a "safe" way to keep apps like Skype and Yahoo Messenger from loading at boot? I just need to force close them from the running tab? Thanks!

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