How do you exit out of an app?

woosung

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I click the home button but the app is still running in the background! I dont want to have to go to task killer everytime to kill those apps. how do i exit without leaving the app in the background?
 

trebb

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You don't have to. And you don't need a task killer. This isn't a Blackberry.

I don't understand why VZW reps tell people to install a task killer. They did for my friend and gave some bs reason. They don't know anything about the OS itself. Honestly, the task killer makes his phone run worse.
 
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woosung

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then doesn't it drain the battery faster if the app is still running in the background? sorry i am new to all this android stuff
 

trebb

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No, not really. The Android operating system has its own way of dealing with background apps, and a task killer is not really needed. This is a much debated topic on the forum. However, I have NEVER used a task killer and I've never had a problem with battery on my Motorola Droid (my X isn't here yet). My phone is also overclocked to over twice the processing speed..which uses a lot of battery.

If you're on your home screen and you go into settings - about phone - battery usage, it gives you the percentage of what's using your'e battery. My apps are hardly ever there.

Give it a try if you like. Go into the market and download "advanced task killer" or something of the sort. Go one day without killing anything and see how your battery does. Go one day with killing everything once you're done. I doubt you'll see a huge difference either way, so I'd rather not have to open an app and kill stuff as soon as I'm done.
 

randomroads

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I just got my Droid 2 yesterday, so I'm here looking for answers. BUT....
The only way I've found (from online info) to exit an app is to back out of it. In the case of Pandora, the music keeps playing. I would think that not only drains your battery, but also uses up your data? Yes, I realized pretty quickly that I need to switch to the unlimited data package, but still.... there must be a better way to exit apps?
 

hookbill

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I just got my Droid 2 yesterday, so I'm here looking for answers. BUT....
The only way I've found (from online info) to exit an app is to back out of it. In the case of Pandora, the music keeps playing. I would think that not only drains your battery, but also uses up your data? Yes, I realized pretty quickly that I need to switch to the unlimited data package, but still.... there must be a better way to exit apps?

You can exit the app but pressing the back key. You can also do it in your settings/applications/manage applications. But certain apps will still run in the background even if you shut them down. That doesn't make them a battery killer.

Data, now that's interesting I never thought of that since I have unlimited data. I would pause Pandora and hit the back button, can't use data if it's paused.
 

cjv1982

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With pandora just hit the menu key and than hit quit

Sent from my Droid using Tapatalk
 

BayouFlyFisher

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I click the home button but the app is still running in the background! I dont want to have to go to task killer everytime to kill those apps. how do i exit without leaving the app in the background?

The article copied below is specifically about task killers, but it gives an excellent description of how the android OS handles apps.

Task Killers Per Lifehacker:

Android Task Killers Explained: What They Do and Why You Shouldn't Use Them
How Android Manages Processes

In Android, processes and Applications are two different things. An app can stay "running" in the background without any processes eating up your phone's resources. Android keeps the app in its memory so it launches more quickly and returns to its prior state. When your phone runs out of memory, Android will automatically start killing tasks on its own, starting with ones that you haven't used in awhile.
The problem is that Android uses RAM differently than, say, Windows. On Android, having your RAM nearly full is a good thing. It means that when you relaunch an app you've previously opened, the app launches quickly and returns to its previous state. So while Android actually uses RAM efficiently, most users see that their RAM is full and assume that's what's slowing down their phone. In reality, your CPU—which is only used by apps that are actually active—is almost always the bottleneck.

Why Task Killers Are (Usually) Bad News


Apps like Advanced Task Killer, the most popular task killer in the Market, act on the incorrect assumption that freeing up memory on an Android device is a good thing. When launched, it presents you with a list of "running" apps and the option to kill as many as you want. You can also hit the Menu button to access a more detailed "Services" view, that lists exactly which parts of each application are "running", how much memory they take up, and how much free memory is available on your phone. This set-up implies that the goal of killing these apps is to free up memory. Nowhere on the list does it mention the number of CPU cycles each app is consuming, only the memory you'll free by killing it. As we've learned, full memory is not a bad thing—we want to watch out for the CPU, the resource that actually slows down your phone and drains your battery life.
Thus, killing all but the essential apps (or telling Android to kill apps more aggressively with the "autokill" feature) is generally unnecessary. Furthermore, it's actually possible that this will worsen your phone's performance and battery life. Whether you're manually killing apps all the time or telling the task killer to aggressively remove apps from your memory, you're actually using CPU cycles when you otherwise wouldn't—killing apps that aren't doing anything in the first place.
In fact, some of the processes related to those apps will actually start right back up, further draining your CPU. If they don't, killing those processes can cause other sorts of problems—alarms don't go off, you don't receive text messages, or other related apps may force close without warning. All in all, you're usually better off letting your phone work as intended—especially if you're more of a casual user. In these instances, a task killer causes more problems than it solves.
What You Should Do Instead

That said, not all apps are created equal. Many of you have used task killers in the past and actually found that after freeing up memory, your phone works a bit better. It's more likely that this is because you've killed a bad app—one that was poorly coded, and (for example) keeps trying to connect to the internet even when it shouldn't. Any performance increase you experience is more likely because you killed the right app, not because you freed up loads of memory (or, in many cases, it's just placebo). Instead of killing all those apps, find out which ones are actually causing the problems. If you really know what you're doing, you may benefit from using a task killer to stop the one or two inefficient-but-loved apps on your phone.
Note, however, that this is still a contested notion. A lot of developers (including ROM builder extraordinaire, Cyanogen) will not even look at your bug reports if you're using a task killer. In this humble blogger's opinion, your best bet is to stay away from regular task killer usage entirely. If you absolutely have to have that one battery-killing app on your phone, though, kill away—just be aware that when you experience a recurring Android bug later on, the task killer may be at fault. Of course, you can just stop using it to determine whether that is or isn't the case.
 

the5barrons

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Simply put, the android os will officially shut an app down after it determines you're not using it. If it is something that is required to stay in the foreground, it does. Certain apps, like Slacker, for instance, has an exit from the menu that allows you to shut it down. You can always go into settings and shut down each app individually.

The task killer is unnecessary.

Even jumping off an app via the home button will eventually lead the app to be closed by the os if left long enough. Drain the battery? Maybe a little....certainly nothing to make any changes or add a task killer over.
 

Horch it

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FYI: Trapster does ask, upon exiting, if you want to keep it running in the background, albeit at battery expense, as it warns you if you decide to do so. It would be nice if all apps default to this question so one can pick and choose if you want to keep an app running in the background for faster reload; you can change this back to default at settings. Of course op-sys apps would be excluded.

I do not know if the os would try to shut down it down if you choose to keep it running in the background.
 
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hookbill

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FYI: Trapster does ask, upon exiting, if you want to keep it running in the background, albeit at battery expense, as it warns you if you decide to do so. It would be nice if all apps default to this question so one can pick and choose if you want to keep an app running in the background for faster reload; you can change this back to default at settings. Of course op-sys apps would be excluded.

I do not know if the os would try to shut down it down if you choose to keep it running in the background.

What you're not really getting I think is an understanding about what "running in the background" is. Basically the app is more or less sleeping, but ready. It's not like it's running if you were actually using it. That's why these apps don't show up when you check battery usage.
 

Sam Hobbs

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The article copied below is specifically about task killers, but it gives an excellent description of how the android OS handles apps.

Task Killers Per Lifehacker:

Android Task Killers Explained: What They Do and Why You Shouldn't Use Them
I see no description in that article of how Android handles applications.

The problem is that Android uses RAM differently than, say, Windows.
How? What is the difference? In Windows, there is a difference between RAM and memory; the main difference is that Windows uses hard drives for virtual memory. If virtual memory is a relevant difference, then the article should explain that.

On Android, having your RAM nearly full is a good thing.
Why? I see no explanation in the article of why. I assume the article is correct that it is a good thing, but I am interested in knowing why and the article does not explain why.
 
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Droid DOES!!

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I'll break it down for you. When you are leaving an app (except for Pandora and apps like it), press your back button instead of your home button. Done.
When you press home to exit, the app is left open AND running in the background with a "no kill" priority. To many of these and the phone will likely reboot itself to shut them down itself. If you know anything about audio, this is exactly like an amplifier going into "protection".
When you press back to exit, the app will remain open but idle (not running). The OS does this in case you're going to go back to it so it will load faster. If x amount of time has gone by and you a) haven't gone back to the app or b) another app needs the resources, the OS will shut it down itself.
All of these apps work together for the function of your phone. This is why apps open at random...and why task killers are irrelevant. Kill all apps and don't do anything else with the phone....they come back again! This is how Android operates. I hope this was helpful! :)

DroidForums Junkie!!
 
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