Freezing Unwanted Apps

tclarktc

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I've read a fair amount about people freezing or removing unwarranted apps that are killing battery juice. I'm new tl Android, rocked a BB for about 7 years, and want to optimize my battery/phone. So, this presents my qirstoln- how do I remove or freeze apps I don't want. I removed some of the preinstalled Verizon apps but some aren't allowing me to delete them. Thanks.

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jpcalhoun

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I've read a fair amount about people freezing or removing unwarranted apps that are killing battery juice. I'm new tl Android, rocked a BB for about 7 years, and want to optimize my battery/phone. So, this presents my qirstoln- how do I remove or freeze apps I don't want. I removed some of the preinstalled Verizon apps but some aren't allowing me to delete them. Thanks.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using DroidForums
Your Razr came with an app called Task Manager. You can select apps to close 2 minutes after your screen turns off. The only way to remove apps that came on your phone is to Root your phone. If you go to the "Hacks" section of this forum you can get information on how to do that. If you root your phone it is generally not recommended that you remove anything...it is preferred to "freeze" the app so that it never starts. But again, it helps if you know what you're doing. Freezing an app, service or task without a good understanding of what you're doing can cause your phone to not operate properly. The problem with deleting apps is that when it comes time to receive the OTA updates from the manufacturer, if there are apps missing or moved you will not be able to receive the update until you return the phone to "factory condition". I'd suggest you read the number of post/articles on "root" before you try it. Also, read the threads of people who thought they knew all about root and now have "bricked" phone because they didn't know as much as they thought...or made a stupid mistake.
 

Deron

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I would be warty about using any "task manager" or task killer programs,even if they came built into the phone. Task killer apps sometimes cause more harm than good.

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jpcalhoun

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I would be warty about using any "task manager" or task killer programs,even if they came built into the phone. Task killer apps sometimes cause more harm than good.

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This true, but the one that comes on the phone is recommended (sanctioned if that means anything) by Motorola. It does a decent job of turning off unwanted apps after 2 minutes of screen off. I agree, the 3rd party apps you get off the market will usually cause more problems than they fix.
 
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tclarktc

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When I go into battery manager the lit of apps running is not the complete list? All that is really ever running for me is display, OS, texts, wifi, and sometimes twitter, Facebook, or ESPN. I read about the social media app and the motorola music app causing issues.

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jpcalhoun

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When I go into battery manager the lit of apps running is not the complete list? All that is really ever running for me is display, OS, texts, wifi, and sometimes twitter, Facebook, or ESPN. I read about the social media app and the motorola music app causing issues.

Sent from my DROID RAZR using DroidForums
I haven't had a problem with the music app, but some have. An alternative to the stock music app is a third party app available in the market...there are some good ones. I never use the social media app because I don't do facebook on my phone or any other social network. The reason is three fold: I don't want all that stuff on my phone, it drives up data usage and there is something continuously running which eats battery. But, how and what you do with your phone is your business.
 
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tclarktc

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Yeah I haven't used the Motorola Music App but read that people said it downloaded stuff in the background and drained the battery. I'm trying to optimize my battery life as best I can. As of right now I have been on battery life for 5h 31m 9s and am at 40% battery life. I have, or so I think, set up my phone for optimal battery. I have the screen brightness down to 10%, 3G only, Wifi on, In-Pocket Detection off, only GMail backup ON, and E-Mail synch every 15 minutes. I've been texting continuously, checking Twitter about every half hour, 3 short phone calls, and checked Facebook once or twice. I am sort of concerned my battery is not what it should be because I read articles about people getting their battery to last far longer- some even saying they get over 24 hours on one charge. Help is appreciated.
 

jpcalhoun

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Yeah I haven't used the Motorola Music App but read that people said it downloaded stuff in the background and drained the battery. I'm trying to optimize my battery life as best I can. As of right now I have been on battery life for 5h 31m 9s and am at 40% battery life. I have, or so I think, set up my phone for optimal battery. I have the screen brightness down to 10%, 3G only, Wifi on, In-Pocket Detection off, only GMail backup ON, and E-Mail synch every 15 minutes. I've been texting continuously, checking Twitter about every half hour, 3 short phone calls, and checked Facebook once or twice. I am sort of concerned my battery is not what it should be because I read articles about people getting their battery to last far longer- some even saying they get over 24 hours on one charge. Help is appreciated.
I too came from a BB and can tell you that you're not going to get the same battery life out of your Razr as you probably got from the BB, but there are things you can do to stretch your time between charges. I turn my Razr on about 630AM and off at about 1130PM...process about 30 emails, 20 text messages, 20 minutes web browsing and probably about 20 minutes of phone calls. I always have 55-65% battery left. Here are some tips that will help with time between charges:

-Don't use Live Wallpaper...they use alot of battery resouces
-Use 4g only when you need the speed. Most functions will operate just fine with 3g. 4g is a real battery killer
-Turn WiFi, GPS and Bluetooth off unless you are actively using one of them.
-Turn display brightness down to as low a level as you can stand
-Email...try having your non gmail accounts forwarded to your gmail account. Gmail will push that email to your phone thus saving battery (jyour phone doesn't have to do anything)...saves battery. If that is not possible then set your phone to sync email at the longest time between sync as you can tolerate
-Task Killers (other than Task Manager that came with your phone) are trouble makers. Get rid of it/them
-Social media/networks like Facebook etc are great...but you need to decide what is most important to you...battery life or social apps running and syncing all the time. You can't have both and expect excellent battery life
-Streaming music and video is cool...but they are just another drain on your battery. Like social media/apps...it's a personnel preference...battery life or entertainment.
-Power OFF your phone before charging. Let it charge to full before turning it back on.
-SmartActions can help depending on how, where and when you use the phone...check out some of the treads about SmartActions...some are having great success with them in terms of battery life
-Dark wallpaper seems to use less battery than bright wallpaper
Hope these suggestions help.
 
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tclarktc

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Thanks for the advice man. Funny story, my BB actually got absolutely horrid battery life in the end. The first one's I had were alright- only really noticed an issue if I didn't spend the night at home and didn't charge it. Once I got my Bold, my last BB, I would have to charge it at least once throughout the day if I wanted to continue to use it. One of the primary reasons I got rid of it- and the fact that BBs are dying, but that's besides the point. I have most of the suggestions in place currently, I quickly learned that as cool as the bikini-clad chick scrubbing my window was, it was killing my battery life. I don't know if this is the same, but I actually disabled the GMail E-Mail push in favor of having my school E-Mail pushed to my phone instead. When I look in the battery manager, it does not show Facebook or Twitter running- does that mean they are not synching in the background?

I took my phone off the charger exactly 6h 6m 1s ago and am at 30% battery life. I've probably sent 100-150 texts today, a few e-mails, and some manual twitter/facebook refreshing. Can't for the life of me figure out how people get 18+ hours.
 

jpcalhoun

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Thanks for the advice man. Funny story, my BB actually got absolutely horrid battery life in the end. The first one's I had were alright- only really noticed an issue if I didn't spend the night at home and didn't charge it. Once I got my Bold, my last BB, I would have to charge it at least once throughout the day if I wanted to continue to use it. One of the primary reasons I got rid of it- and the fact that BBs are dying, but that's besides the point. I have most of the suggestions in place currently, I quickly learned that as cool as the bikini-clad chick scrubbing my window was, it was killing my battery life. I don't know if this is the same, but I actually disabled the GMail E-Mail push in favor of having my school E-Mail pushed to my phone instead. When I look in the battery manager, it does not show Facebook or Twitter running- does that mean they are not synching in the background?

I took my phone off the charger exactly 6h 6m 1s ago and am at 30% battery life. I've probably sent 100-150 texts today, a few e-mails, and some manual twitter/facebook refreshing. Can't for the life of me figure out how people get 18+ hours.
100-150 text messages...Wow. I don't know how long you've had your Razr, but battery life gets bettery after a few days/charging cycles. Also, for the first few days...in my case weeks, I find myself playing with the "new phone" all the time. Facebook and Twitter can be running in the background and not using enough battery to meet the criteria to show up on the battery manager. So, if they're using 1 or 2% they may not show up. You can go to manage applications and select all to see what resources in terms of memory and cpu% they are/have used. If you're going to check those sources manually then I'd just make sure they don't start or have your task manager turn them off after two minutes of screen off.
 
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tclarktc

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Yeah 100-150 texts so far. That's a pretty light for me actually. I have noticed it to be getting a little better through the charging cycles- have had it since Nov 28th. Just really wanting to know how these people can use pretty moderate use and still have really good battery life.
 
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