developer option.. "don't keep activities" ??

[russel5150]

i spent a lot of time reading the droid forums yesterday, learning about my razr maxx, and also the samsung galaxy tab 2 7 that i recently bought...

there was a "tips and tricks" kind of post about the tab 2, and as i was reading it there was an option mentioned to help preserve battery and data.

the post said that under developer options, activate the option " dont keep activities" so i did that, and also did it to my maxx.

unless im wrong it seemed to close recently used apps, because on my tablet when i went to the ram manager it quit showing which places i had just been to on my tablet. it also seemed to work on my maxx, except that my text notification quit making sound.. i wondered if it was because i use the zedge app for all the sounds on my phone?

i re powered my phone and it worked, but i also turned off the "dont keep activities" in case it was killing my zedge sound settings.

anyone know a little more about this that can maybe tell me if that option is a good one to have on the phone or if it was just a coincidence?

thanks

Russel the cop

 

[Squeak87]

I am curious about this as well, when I have time to research more tonight I will post my findings.

<<--{Droid Razr Maxx °Celcius .215}-->>

 

[Sydman]

It was recommended that you do not use that option on a day to day basis because of exactly what you are experiencing. It will kill anything that is running in the background, so that could also affect battery life.

It is basically auto killing apps that are just going to load back up to be auto killed again, thus battery will be impacted. As well as what you are experiencing with it killing Zedge and not playing your tones.

 

[bsweetness]

It's included in the developer options because it's something that's meant to be used by developers for testing apps. As Sydman said, it's not designed to be used all the time. If it was, it wouldn't be included in the developer options menu.

Basically, "don't keep activities" is designed to test whether or not apps that are being developed properly save their data when closed out. Here's what Google has to say about it on their developer website (it's called "immediately destroy activities" on the page, but it's the same thing). So, it kills absolutely everything, which is a bad thing on Android. Many processes are designed to be running in the background, and if killed, it could cause problems. It will also contribute to draining the battery faster because many of these processes will immediately try to restart after being killed, resulting in a continuous cycle of kill/start/kill/start/kill/etc. Additionally, it can slow down the system and the opening of apps and processes since they'll have to restart from scratch every time they're used.

So, in short, it's not the best idea to have that option selected unless you're testing an app that you're building.

 

[russel5150]

Ok thanks for the info!

 

[jaseman]

I selected that I like the post from bsweetness above. I used that option for a little while not understanding the full ramifications. Now I do not use it at all. The only way any task killer will work as we want it to is if the task in question does not continue to restart itself all the time. SOmething we have little control over. :icon_eek:

 

[Squeak87]

Thank you for the info, not sure what I would do without the forums.

<<--{Droid Razr Maxx °Celcius .215}-->>

 

[FoxKat]

I selected that I like the post from bsweetness above. I used that option for a little while not understanding the full ramifications. Now I do not use it at all. The only way any task killer will work as we want it to is if the task in question does not continue to restart itself all the time. SOmething we have little control over. :icon_eek:

And THAT ^^ is how we show others that someone like bsweetness has provided helpful content! Bravo!