I'm wondering why do apps start up in the background when i've closed them ?

[Guest Just Wondering]

Why is it that on android apps are forever starting back up in the back ground ? i use advanced task killer program to automatically kill programs running in the background.....but give it a few seconds sometimes and another app has started automatically......i tend to exit apps rather than just kill them.

ideally i dont want to actually sign out of the apps as i prefere to simply exit / close the app.....

anyone have a solution , or is this a standard Android operating system issue ?

[Guest goatee]

In short, because they're designed to. Using a task killer just kills your battery. It uses no power, nor slows your phone down if there are applications resident in memory. If you want to stop them loading in the first place, then use Autostarts. But please stop using your task killer.

Why is it that on android apps are forever starting back up in the back ground ? i use advanced task killer program to automatically kill programs running in the background.....but give it a few seconds sometimes and another app has started automatically......i tend to exit apps rather than just kill them.

ideally i dont want to actually sign out of the apps as i prefere to simply exit / close the app.....

anyone have a solution , or is this a standard Android operating system issue ?

[Guest ballist1x]

yea it annoys me. after opening some apps theres seemingly no way to close therm and they just remain running?

why?

it doesnt happen so much on the iphone. for me, App markers should need to do a couple of things to get access to Google market

Power draw: How much does the app use?

Auto Close: App tidies up for itself and shuts itself down when you press Home or gives you the option to close from the menu

wthout those its a bit annoying tbh

[Guest goatee]

But why does it bother you? If Android needs the resources, it will kill the app. What it means is that you can multi-task easily, and re-open apps much faster as they're still in memory. I see it as a positive. If you're worried about dodgy apps that are killing your phone, get Watchdog, and read this well written piece on Watchdog and why task killers are bad, on lifehacker.

yea it annoys me. after opening some apps theres seemingly no way to close therm and they just remain running?

why?

it doesnt happen so much on the iphone. for me, App markers should need to do a couple of things to get access to Google market

Power draw: How much does the app use?

Auto Close: App tidies up for itself and shuts itself down when you press Home or gives you the option to close from the menu

wthout those its a bit annoying tbh

[Guest Just Wondering]

the apps that are often restarting in the background are apps that are not needed by the op system , such as a program called Shareprice (for checking stocks and share markets and prices) voip programs , gmail , i would rather they not run in the background , due to them taking proceser time and no doudt battery also.

will autostarts , stop the programs starting unless i start them ? or is autostarts a program that allows you to start programs that do not autostart normally etc.

[Guest ballist1x]

But why does it bother you? If Android needs the resources, it will kill the app. What it means is that you can multi-task easily, and re-open apps much faster as they're still in memory. I see it as a positive. If you're worried about dodgy apps that are killing your phone, get Watchdog, and read this well written piece on Watchdog and why task killers are bad, on lifehacker.

because i dont care if an app opens in 1 second or 1 and a half seconds. i want my phone to run lean until i purposely open something that i want to use. and when i do open 1 thing i want that to run optimally not be hindered by others things still lingering around my system. i want to max out battery and max out performance on the apps i want to use, not what android leaves open to run behind it!

[Guest rayraven]

Unless you have background data enabled, apps dont try to refresh automatically in the background.

And most apps that fetch info like stock/weather have a setting to how often they should refresh, which you should use.

Android will start applications in the background when there's memory available.

It doesnt cost anymore battery to have an app open than storing nothing in it

Here's a nice explanation by Andy:

I'm going to be brief and attempt to avoid engaging a mass debate.

Short:

Stop using ATK.

Ignore how much memory things are using. (There is no slow down even at 80%, if Android needs more memory it intelligently kills off the sleepers)

Battery life is mostly affected by data connections, active widgets, and screen time (brightness makes a diff). Obviously if you play games/watch vids/music then this will use up a bigger amount.

Long:

Task killers are doing more harm than good, if anything it's a placebo affect of "freeing up memory" under the illusion that this will speed up the system.

The way android runs is that it can have loads of apps sleeping in the background that just sit in the memory without taking up real-time resources. Think of it as a loaded gun. When you need them then they fire up.

Also the way the OS is designed is that applications can share underlying processes. When you kill stuff you are potentially harming other apps.

When you do a mass kill it forces the system to restart all the essential processes again, you'll be glad to hear that it is this restarting of processes that is using up a load of battery. Stop it.

See how your phone performs when sleeping. For example I unplugged mine at midnight after a full charge and left it alone with a fb widget and all google accounts sycning and news/weather syncing. After 8 hours it had used 8% battery. 3G was on the whole time. This makes me realise that I can leave 3G on without thinking my battery is getting rinsed. Obviously there is a diff between having it on and using it!

fyi just checked my phone and have 160mb free but there are many times when I have had about 30mb and not noticed any difference in performance.

What you are probably experiencing are not mem/batt issues but just smartphone power usage.

Do let me know if you ahve any further concerns.

Andy

[Guest meinnit]

In short, because they're designed to. Using a task killer just kills your battery. It uses no power, nor slows your phone down if there are applications resident in memory. If you want to stop them loading in the first place, then use Autostarts. But please stop using your task killer.

That statement is misleading. Apps do use processing power even when idling in the background simply because they may be doing stuff eg. polling. I copied my post on another thread:

When I got my Pulse I was quite annoyed when I found apps randomly starting up in the background without my knowledge so I decided to do a bit of research. It turns out that Android supports something called Intents which are basically triggers. So when a certain event occurs (eg. SMS is received) Android will fire off apps that are registered against this event. The problem is many developers register their app against many events for no apparent reason which is why you see so many apps running randomly. Developers abuse this feature IMO. I purchased Autostarts from the Market to disable apps that I didn't want running on certain events. Obviously some apps genuinely need to be launched on certain events (eg. a wifi widget on wifi state change) however I would suggest turning off the apps that don't need to be launched..

http://www.appbrain.com/app/autostarts/com...roid.autostarts

[Guest buneech]

If some app annoys you by reloading in the ram, then get rid of it.

Edited November 23, 2010 by buneech

[Guest meinnit]

Unless you have background data enabled, apps dont try to refresh automatically in the background.

And most apps that fetch info like stock/weather have a setting to how often they should refresh, which you should use.

Android will start applications in the background when there's memory available.

It doesnt cost anymore battery to have an app open than storing nothing in it

Here's a nice explanation by Andy:

Not true! Most apps actually don't follow the Background Data setting. It only seems to apply to Google apps.

I agree that certain apps are best left in memory as it takes longer to launch them when they are needed, eg. messaging app, keyboard etc but anything else can go.

If you look at top via adb you will see that occasionally these apps use CPU so why have them running if they are not needed? Yes we have lots of RAM free and the OS will kill processes when we need more RAM however these apps also use some CPU whilst sitting in background.

[Guest ballist1x]

but some apps have no way to close them?

YT app for instance. its just going to sit there indefinately until i go into task manager and kill it off.

even if u say it doesnt hurt the system, i dont want it open. why doesnt the app have an OFF button when iu press menu? it should be mandatory for an app to have an Exit option.

[Guest Azurren]

Task killers should only be used as a "Ctrl + Alt + delete" or when you are running a resource heavy game / app (Angry birds, fennec)

Android handles the apps just fine as it is for normal use

Some of those "running" apps listed in the task killer aren't even fully running. I don't know why they're listed or what they're doing but I know this:

The full app isn't running

Loading times for these apps are way slower than when they are fully opened

[Guest goatee]

Ok, so use Autostarts - this shows all the Intents, and what apps are registered against them. It then allows you to disable them. This way, it allows you to stop apps starting you don't want, and prevents them responding to intents that you don't want them to.

[Guest meinnit]

Some of those "running" apps listed in the task killer aren't even fully running. I don't know why they're listed or what they're doing but I know this:

The full app isn't running

Every app that Advanced Task Manager reports to me I find IS actually running. They are usually listed because they are actually running in the background.

[Guest rayraven]

For those who think there's apps that eat away at battery by using cpu in the background, get SystemPanel app, it's a paid app but worth it.

It'll show you a historical cpu consumption stats so you'll know if an app is actually eating cpu or it's just a feeling.

Watchdog is also a good app that lets you track cpu usage.

[Guest meinnit]

PowerTutor is also good for this B)

[Guest ballist1x]

i used powertutor very useful. but no one else seems to use or and nor would they share their outcomes in terms of mW used etc

[Guest meinnit]

i used powertutor very useful. but no one else seems to use or and nor would they share their outcomes in terms of mW used etc

It's an interesting meaure. Not sure how it calculates it!

[Guest ballist1x]

open market, then go into settings and open youtube

then go back to home and hold the HOME key, it will show that all these apps are still running.

Download powertutor and notice that they are all taking up CPU cycles AND the Settings one is a pretty big consumer. i cant close it, i cant delete it? but its there staring me in the face eating my battery... as is the market and so is youtube!

[Guest meinnit]

then go back to home and hold the HOME key, it will show that all these apps are still running.

That just shows apps that were recently launched but doesn't mean they are running in background

[Guest rayraven]

Yes, and also the way backgrounding works has been changed by Google in 2.2

Until 2.1, we had active apps, cached apps & system apps.

In 2.2 we have active apps & system apps only.

But, that doesnt mean that the apps are running, they are just in memory, available for when you need them.

Also, the app-switcher doesnt show running apps, but only recent apps.

I dont get it when people leave things like GPS, bluetooth on and forget it, but cringe about apps opening up automatically.

Relax people, android can take care of apps itself.

If you think you're loosing battery life because of an app you have, use apps like watchdog/system panel to look at what apps are eating the cpu.

If you do fine one, either notify the dev or get a replacement.

But please stop using apps like ATK, it only worsens battery life.

There's a reason Froyo killed most task killers.

For more info, Here's an excellent and detailed article on task killers.

http://lifehacker.com/5650894/android-task...ouldnt-use-them

Edited November 23, 2010 by rayraven

[Guest Just Wondering]

One very annoying thing is for example , i have a voip program on my zte / andorid phone , i do not have the voip program running but it does contain my voip out account i use a fair amount during the day ...........i can be using voip on my pc making a call.....then all of a sudden the call ends my voip program on the pc says "you have connected to this account on another system " !!!!!!!!!!

B) !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! guess what android has started the voip program on my android phone and logged in !!!!!!!!!!!! i did not have the program running in the background and it was exited when i had finished using the program....this is most annoying......i would like to think when a program is exited / closed , unless i have it set to say open every 30mins or similar for emails .

of course i can log out of my voip account on my voip android program , but why ! i've typed in all the details once , i dont wish to keep having to do this...its a work around of course , but not the solution , i say if a program is exited , it should stay closed :) :) ;)

Edited November 23, 2010 by Just Wondering

[Guest meinnit]

rayraven, is the CPU not used each time an app is simply launched? Is that not a slight UNNECESSARY load on the battery? 1 or 2 apps is acceptable but if you have 20 apps loading randomly it does add up!

[Guest meinnit]

For more info, Here's an excellent and detailed article on task killers.

http://lifehacker.com/5650894/android-task...ouldnt-use-them

I just read that article and I do agree with not killing apps that you use frequently however I disagree to leave apps that you use once a week or less in memory. You need to put some thought into what you do and don't kill.

Again use can Autostarts to stop these apps re-appearing

Edited November 23, 2010 by meinnit

[Guest rayraven]

rayraven, is the CPU not used each time an app is simply launched? Is that not a slight UNNECESSARY load on the battery? 1 or 2 apps is acceptable but if you have 20 apps loading randomly it does add up!

Yes, but the thing here is, if you close the app, android will launch them back anyways.

That's the way the system works. So, by closing it you are in-essence making it launch again, eating more cpu.

It does matter in systems like WinMo 6.x / bada where the system cannot take care of free memory without forcing rude error messages on people.

Android can sense when it's low on mem and closes un-necessary apps itself.

I agree we need to close misbehaving apps, but just closing apps for the sake of free memory is what i'm against.

The blade's got 512MB ram, afaik, the most on a phone yet.

So, make the most of it, keep an eye on apps that misbehave using apps like system panel/watchdog etc.

But, dont just use apps that kill everything on pressing the power button.