Android keyboard after update.

[drummer_guy520]

I apologize if this has been addressed already, but I searched as best I could and was unable to find anything on it. This is partly about the virtual keyboard and partly about the update.

When I first got the phone I tried all 3 keyboards and found that I didn't care for either of the virtual ones. So I had it set where those 2 were just kept off all the time. I'm not sure if this was the reason, but I noticed slightly better battery life after I did this because that was one less app. running. Ever since I downloaded the update though, it won't stay turned off. I go into the settings to uncheck it, but if I kill some apps. or turn the phone off and back on, it is running again. Before this update it didn't matter if I used a task killer or turned the phone off, the virtual keyboard never came back on. I really feel this is what is causing my battery to drain faster now after the update since most people have mentioned improved battery life. I would greatly appreciate it if anyone has any information on how to fix this.

If not, is there a way to remove the update? I've seen all of the things it is supposed to improve and personally, I had no real issues with any of them before. That's probably because I didn't really use most of it enough to care, but that isn't really important.

Thanks for any help that is given.

 

[JayMonster]

Step One: Stop Killing Tasks. While there are one or two apps that may improve your battery life slightly (and I do mean slightly), for the most part you are causing more problems than you are solving by doing this. Some processes that get killed will force back things when they restart their polling processes. (Not to mention them reloading into memory will take more memory than you are saving by leaving them idle).

The fact that most people are reporting improved battery life (and they for the most part are either using or leave available) the virtual keyboard means that this is not the problem.

Step Two: What apps do you have installed (and are you killing any of them?) Some apps will reset things like the virtual keyboard (most notably Messaging apps).

Unfortunately you are the second person that I have seen report this, but I have personally been unable to duplicate the issue on my own Droid. So, I am unsure what else to tell you. But pay close attention to number one. If the real reason you want to disable this is because of battery life, I don't think the keyboard is as big an issue as you believe.

If you tell me what apps you are running though I will try again to duplicate the issue.

 

[drummer_guy520]

Messaging and Gmail are the only 2 I never take any action against. Most of the stuff I kill is either games or something like SportsTap and the Market. I'm sure killing those do nothing for me on any front. For some reason I still do it though. Just to clarify(since I'm new to the smart phone world), when you ask for the apps. I'm running, does that mean installed or actually running? Just checking on what all I should be listing.

Since you mentioned memory, I might as well ask this. Is it typical for available memory to slowly drop over the course of the phone being on?

 

[JayMonster]

When I ask about apps, I am asking what apps you have installed onto the phone (ie. Advanced Task Killer, Handcent, etc).

Memory dropping... yes and no. Memory will drop while in use... but eventually the Android OS will do a clean up off unused processes (aka Garbage Collection). If an app has a "leak" the OS will have a problem recovering that memory, but in general there is more than enough memory to go around, and people are worried a little too much about trying to watch memory usage.

 

[drummer_guy520]

Ok thanks for clearing that up. I'm going to list these as a before and after the update, not that it really matters much.

aCar
Advanced Task Killer Free
AirPainter
Apps Organizer
Armored Strike Lite
Backgrounds
Calculator
Calorie Counter
Coloroid
DailyStrip
Favorite Recipes
Flood-It
Free Dictionary
Google Sky Map
Grid Droid
Jewels
Labyrinth Lite
Maps
Math Practice
Movies by Flixster
Mystique Chapter 1
Note Everything
NubiNews
Herbert Soundboard
PapiRiver
Phit Droid
Phit Extreme
Pizza Rat - Tennessee
Places Directory
Randy Marsh Soundboard
Retro Clock
Ringdroid
Rotary Dialer
Shazam
ShopSavvy
Shot
Simpson Jigsaw
Speed Test
SportsTap
SuperYatzy
TiltMazes
Tip Calc
Tourettes Guy Soundboard
Trap!
TxtSpeed
Unit Converter
USA Today
Weatherbug
What the Doodle Lite
Where is it?
Where
WordGame
WordSearch
WordUp!
Yellowbook
Zilch

After
Bartender
Countries of the World
Lexicon Lite
OpenTable

Wow that looks like a much longer list than what I thought it would be. Not sure if it has any bearing on this or not, but I really only use a handful of these daily. I don't uninstall them though because I know as soon as I do, I'll decide I absolutely have to use it. Thank you for your help so far.

 

[JayMonster]

OK, after trying this again, I can confirm one part and duplicate the problem... A reboot apparently WILL turn the virtual Keyboard back on.

So that part is clearly a bug in the update. But the other part of it just turning back on, is probably because you are causing it by killing some process that reactivate the keyboard.

So for now at least I would say, if you reboot the device, remember to turn the virtual keyboard off, and stop killing processes and it will probably not make an sudden appearance without a reboot.

 

[drummer_guy520]

It might be a hard habit to fight off, but I will do that. Thank you very much for helping me with this.

 

[radowningii]

I think I may be seeing the same problem, with slightly different symptoms... After the update, every time I go into messaging & open a thread, the virtual keyboard comes up. This is while the keyboard is enabled. If I disable the keyboard, it is (of course) disabled across all applications. The keyboard in messaging never used to behave this way, it only came up if I tapped in the input field.