Droid RAZR ICS Questions

[Droid_Ritch]

So I've been messing around with my phone since the update for Android ICS 4.04...about freakin time the update finally became available. I've only been waiting for the past six months. But while exploring my phone I have noticed a few things that I'm a little concerned with...

When holding the home softkey down, the (Recent Apps) display comes up in a list of windows showing the last few applications I was using. Does this mean that those recent applications are always running?...I would like for those specific windows to close out after I have left them.

I also noticed at random times throughout the day, in my notification bar it temporarily will say "Background Data Restricted"...Is this good or bad? It's never done that in the past with Gingerbread...Is there a way I can avoid this?

And the camera and picture editing is setup a little bit differently now. I've noticed that they took away the effect where you can make a pic all distorted and reflect itself...Is this true? Or am I just missing it?

Some help would be very much appreciated guys. Please and Thanks. Happy 4th of July by the way. God Bless! =]

 

[94lt1]

To close the apps when you long press the home key, swipe left or right.

The back ground data is your smart actions battery extender kicking in. That's why it goes away moments after waking up the device

DROID RAZR MAXXIMIZED!!!! PREPARE TO BE VANQUISHED!!!

 

[Droid_Ritch]

I understand you can swipe recent apps closed but do they always have to save like that or is there a way to auto close apps out after leaving them instead of having to go in and manually close out every single one.

 

[FoxKat]

You can set the phone to never keep an app open once you leave it. Go to Menu, Settings, Developer, and scroll down to "Don't keep activities". Place a checkmark there and they will stop as soon as you exit out. You can also scroll down to "Background process limit" and set that limit to a lower number or No background processes.

 

[RzrGrl]

My App Drawer Disappeared !!

Okay, I must be sleep-deprived cuz what seems (to me) to be a relatively simple problem, has now snowballed into a real pain in the patooty!

1. It all started when I tried to set up Motoprint. I had been having problems printing to pc, gone through a lot of online suggestions...nothing worked, so I "disabled" MotoPrint (like I did all my useless apps :dry. Then I found a suggestion in another forum here so I figured I'd try once more to get MotoPrint to work.

When I went to look for it, it was not at the bottom of the app list which is where I believe "disabled" apps are supposed to go and die. (GB had "show hidden apps", but I guess you just look at the end of the app list in ICS.) Anyway, I went into "MANAGE APPLICATIONS" and found MotoPrint there; the only options were to "Force Close" or "Uninstall Updates" so I uninstalled the updates. Went to Google Play and reinstalled the updates, hoping MotoPrint would then show up. It didn't, so I went back into "MANAGE APPLICATIONS" and now MotoPrint shows "Force Close" or "Disable". So I figured since now it's "enabled" it should show up in the App Drawer, right? NOT! So I choose "Verizon Wireless Apps" (cuz, you know, maybe they're "special"). :tongue: Apparently MP is not as special as the other Verizon apps cuz it wasn't there either! but NOW ....

2. I can't get back to my main APP DRAWER! Sheesh! :wacko: At the top of the app screen, Verizon Wireless is at the left, Widgets next to it in the middle, and Google Play on the right. It will not swipe either left or right. I'm stuck at the Verizon Wireless screen. I've powered down, rebooted and searched online for the last hour! I couldn't believe it; there was not one link addressing this "particular" problem. Aye Carumba! :blink: The only thing I found was how to hide apps (enable/disable). Well, I KNOW how to do that! That's where all my trouble started! LOL

I now no longer care about MotoPrint. I just want my apps back!

So I've come to my fave forum (where I should have started in the first place!) But that's OK; I like digging around and finding out stuff on my own, but now I must surrender and turn this one over to the masters!

(sorry for the length..I really did try to do this in "ten words or less")

 

[MattyP]

Okay, I must be sleep-deprived cuz what seems (to me) to be a relatively simple problem, has now snowballed into a real pain in the patooty!

1. It all started when I tried to set up Motoprint. I had been having problems printing to pc, gone through a lot of online suggestions...nothing worked, so I "disabled" MotoPrint (like I did all my useless apps :dry. Then I found a suggestion in another forum here so I figured I'd try once more to get MotoPrint to work.

When I went to look for it, it was not at the bottom of the app list which is where I believe "disabled" apps are supposed to go. GB had "show hidden apps", but I guess you just look at the end of the app list in ICS. Anyway, I went into "MANAGE APPLICATIONS" and found MotoPrint there; the only options were to "Force Close" or "Uninstall Updates." so I uninstalled the updates. Went to Google Play and reinstalled the updates, hoping MotoPrint would then show up. It didn't, so I went back into "MANAGE APPLICATIONS" and now MotoPrint shows "Force Close" or "Disable". So I figured since now it's "enabled" it should up in the App Drawer, right? NOT! So I choose "Verizon Wireless Apps" (cuz, you know, maybe they're "special"). :tongue: Apparently MP is not as special as the other Verizon apps cuz it wasn't there either, but NOW ....

2. I can't get back to my main APP DRAWER! Sheesh! :wacko: At the top of the app screen, Verizon Wireless is at the left, Widgets next to it in the middle, and Google Play on the right. It will not swipe either left or right. I'm stuck at the Verizon Wireless screen. I've powered down, rebooted and searched online for the last hour! I couldn't believe it; there was not one link addressing this "particular" problem. Aye Carumba! :blink: The only thing I found was how to hide apps (enable/disable). Well, I KNOW how to do that! That's where all my trouble started! LOL

I now no longer care about MotoPrint. I just want my apps back!

So I've come to my fave forum (where I should have started in the first place!) But that's OK; I like digging around and finding out stuff on my own, but now I must surrender and turn this one over to the masters!

(sorry for the length..I really did try to do this in "ten words or less")

Sounds like a FDR may be in order ... Just sayin

 

[Droid_Ritch]

You can set the phone to never keep an app open once you leave it. Go to Menu, Settings, Developer, and scroll down to "Don't keep activities". Place a checkmark there and they will stop as soon as you exit out. You can also scroll down to "Background process limit" and set that limit to a lower number or No background processes.

Thanks a lot for the response FoxKat. And I had actually tried exactly what you said before I even posted this thread. I figured tweaking those settings would definitely fix the problem but it didn't....I still continue to see application windows running in the background of my recent apps list...I'm wondering if it takes few minutes for them to close out...I would figure it would be instant since I checked both "Don't keep activities" and "No Background Process Limit"....Im just confused at this point...I just really don't like the fact of a ton of apps running in the background and the only way to stop them is by going in and manually swiping off every single one of them.

 

[Sydman]

You can set the phone to never keep an app open once you leave it. Go to Menu, Settings, Developer, and scroll down to "Don't keep activities". Place a checkmark there and they will stop as soon as you exit out. You can also scroll down to "Background process limit" and set that limit to a lower number or No background processes.

That is pretty cool setting. Question though will that hinder battery life if it is killing APPS that are just going to start back up anyway, kind of like an auto task killer?

 

[TisMyDroid]

Thanks a lot for the response FoxKat. And I had actually tried exactly what you said before I even posted this thread. I figured tweaking those settings would definitely fix the problem but it didn't....I still continue to see application windows running in the background of my recent apps list...I'm wondering if it takes few minutes for them to close out...I would figure it would be instant since I checked both "Don't keep activities" and "No Background Process Limit"....Im just confused at this point...I just really don't like the fact of a ton of apps running in the background and the only way to stop them is by going in and manually swiping off every single one of them.

I believe the apps that are listed in your recent apps list are only a list of recent apps you have accessed but not that they are actually open or currently running. For instance, you can kill all your apps using a task killer program and then check your recent apps list and the killed apps will still be listed. As well, I believe you can also completely exit out of an app, say droid forum, and go to recent apps list and it will still be listed but press on the app from the list and it will open from scratch rather than open to the last page you were on when you were previously in the app.

Am still experimenting and may learn the above is not true but so far for me, it appears to be the case.

 

[hobby31]

Okay, I must be sleep-deprived cuz what seems (to me) to be a relatively simple problem, has now snowballed into a real pain in the patooty!

1. It all started when I tried to set up Motoprint. I had been having problems printing to pc, gone through a lot of online suggestions...nothing worked, so I "disabled" MotoPrint (like I did all my useless apps :dry. Then I found a suggestion in another forum here so I figured I'd try once more to get MotoPrint to work.

When I went to look for it, it was not at the bottom of the app list which is where I believe "disabled" apps are supposed to go and die. (GB had "show hidden apps", but I guess you just look at the end of the app list in ICS.) Anyway, I went into "MANAGE APPLICATIONS" and found MotoPrint there; the only options were to "Force Close" or "Uninstall Updates" so I uninstalled the updates. Went to Google Play and reinstalled the updates, hoping MotoPrint would then show up. It didn't, so I went back into "MANAGE APPLICATIONS" and now MotoPrint shows "Force Close" or "Disable". So I figured since now it's "enabled" it should show up in the App Drawer, right? NOT! So I choose "Verizon Wireless Apps" (cuz, you know, maybe they're "special"). :tongue: Apparently MP is not as special as the other Verizon apps cuz it wasn't there either! but NOW ....

2. I can't get back to my main APP DRAWER! Sheesh! :wacko: At the top of the app screen, Verizon Wireless is at the left, Widgets next to it in the middle, and Google Play on the right. It will not swipe either left or right. I'm stuck at the Verizon Wireless screen. I've powered down, rebooted and searched online for the last hour! I couldn't believe it; there was not one link addressing this "particular" problem. Aye Carumba! :blink: The only thing I found was how to hide apps (enable/disable). Well, I KNOW how to do that! That's where all my trouble started! LOL

I now no longer care about MotoPrint. I just want my apps back!

So I've come to my fave forum (where I should have started in the first place!) But that's OK; I like digging around and finding out stuff on my own, but now I must surrender and turn this one over to the masters!

(sorry for the length..I really did try to do this in "ten words or less")

You should just be able to tap where is says verizon wireless and a drop down menu will show up and choose all apps.

 

[Droid_Ritch]

I believe the apps that are listed in your recent apps list are only a list of recent apps you have accessed but not that they are actually open or currently running. For instance, you can kill all your apps using a task killer program and then check your recent apps list and the killed apps will still be listed. As well, I believe you can also completely exit out of an app, say droid forum, and go to recent apps list and it will still be listed but press on the app from the list and it will open from scratch rather than open to the last page you were on when you were previously in the app.

Am still experimenting and may learn the above is not true but so far for me, it appears to be the case.

Thanks a lot for the input. I was kinda thinking of something like that similar as well...like basically the list is there to simply remember recent apps...I just don't admire the fact that it keeps a giant continuous log of every window you have had open at one point and the only way it seems to get rid of them is by swiping away every single one individually...a bit of an inconvenience.

 

[RzrGrl]

You should just be able to tap where is says verizon wireless and a drop down menu will show up and choose all apps.

Yep, tried that but nothing came up. I could tap widgets and it would come up, as well as the store. Odd thing is ... I searched and tweaked until the wee hours of the morning and just couldn't get them back. Hit a million forums, etc. I finally realized I hadn't eaten in hours, and prolly should get some sleep. As hard as it was, I had to "let go" ...sigh.

I woke up this morning and checked, still nothing. I needed to check the weather so downloaded a weather up; didn't care for it, so uninstalled. I made one more pass at the app drawer figuring I'd be on it again all morning...

....well sh*&!t & shinola! MY APPS HAD REAPPEARED! I couldn't believe it! I'm sure that it was some kind of "otherwordly" coincidence, but whatever it takes. The only thing is that I couldn't get it to work on my own. :angry: Now I don't know what happened and it just irks me.

As "someone" on this forum suggested to me ... if I want full "control" (control being the key word here) .. LOL ... I should root. Looks like that'll be my next project.

Thanks for the suggestions and feedback .... guess I won't have to do that FDR after all MattyP :icon_wink:

 

[MattyP]

Yep, tried that but nothing came up. I could tap widgets and it would come up, as well as the store. Odd thing is ... I searched and tweaked until the wee hours of the morning and just couldn't get them back. Hit a million forums, etc. I finally realized I hadn't eaten in hours, and prolly should get some sleep. As hard as it was, I had to "let go" ...sigh.

I woke up this morning and checked, still nothing. I needed to check the weather so downloaded a weather up; didn't care for it, so uninstalled. I made one more pass at the app drawer figuring I'd be on it again all morning...

....well sh*&!t & shinola! MY APPS HAD REAPPEARED! I couldn't believe it! I'm sure that it was some kind of "otherwordly" coincidence, but whatever it takes. The only thing is that I couldn't get it to work on my own. :angry: Now I don't know what happened and it just irks me.

As "someone" on this forum suggested to me ... if I want full "control" (control being the key word here) .. LOL ... I should root. Looks like that'll be my next project.

Thanks for the suggestions and feedback .... guess I won't have to do that FDR after all MattyP :icon_wink:

Sounds like control issues to me ... Just sayin :icon_ nana:

 

[bsweetness]

I believe the apps that are listed in your recent apps list are only a list of recent apps you have accessed but not that they are actually open or currently running. For instance, you can kill all your apps using a task killer program and then check your recent apps list and the killed apps will still be listed. As well, I believe you can also completely exit out of an app, say droid forum, and go to recent apps list and it will still be listed but press on the app from the list and it will open from scratch rather than open to the last page you were on when you were previously in the app.

Am still experimenting and may learn the above is not true but so far for me, it appears to be the case.

Some of the apps in your recent apps are running, but not all of them. It depends on the app and how it operates. But for the most part, I do believe you're correct.

I understand you can swipe recent apps closed but do they always have to save like that or is there a way to auto close apps out after leaving them instead of having to go in and manually close out every single one.

One thing that is for certain is that clearing an app from the recent apps list does not close it if it is indeed running. That seems to be a common misconception by many people. All it does is remove it from the list. If the app is indeed running in the background, it will continue to run even if cleared.

The recent apps list is exactly that - a list of recently used apps. It's not a task manager.

 

[bsweetness]

You can set the phone to never keep an app open once you leave it. Go to Menu, Settings, Developer, and scroll down to "Don't keep activities". Place a checkmark there and they will stop as soon as you exit out. You can also scroll down to "Background process limit" and set that limit to a lower number or No background processes.

You can do this, but I'd be careful with it. It's in the developer options because it's intended to be used by developers to test whether or not their apps properly save when completely closed. It's not intended to be used all the time, nor is it really intended for use by non-developers. Things might run fine with it selected continuously, but there's a chance it could contribute to some instability.