Control what apps persist without rooting - any apps for this?

[greenman]

I notice that there are a lot of things running in the background all the time just taking up space in memory. Why do all the app stores/markets persist even after you close them? Appbrain, android market and amazon market all seem to want to stay alive even after you close them. Pulse and Pandora want nothing better than to stick around, even when I don't need them running. There must be 10 or more apps that just stick around for no reason. I'm not using them, now, but I'd like to have them available when I would like access to them. When I look at the items-currently-running list, they stay there and don't go away even if I kill them.

I am not confident enough to root the phone at this time, but I really would like to have better control over what services persist. Sure, k-9 and skype should persist, but app markets?


The above image shows a few of the apps that returned after clicking 'close all programs'. When the device first starts up, even more end up in the list of running apps.

I'd like to see an actual exit button on the menu for all apps, similar to what dolphin has. It's the only app I know of that actually has an exit button. (See image below.) I'd like to have the option to fully close any specific app from some place on the device, giving me control over what apps are functioning and when. What options might be out there for someone like me?

[CrowdAds]

[musichound]

You don't need to root the phone. Install Elixir2. It's a very flexible app, with one notable feature in its arsenal that displays all running apps, and offers the ability to close them. Also, there's an app called cache cleaner, where you can delete the entire cache the installed apps are using. Wiith one swipe I claimed 50MB of wasted space. I use these two apps religiously, and I never run into any memory issues.

P.S. I use a Samsung Galaxy S4G phone, and I am asuming these will work the same way on the Galaxy player.

EDIT: Here's some more information
https://market.android.com/details?i...android.elixir

[tcat]

If you look at the task manager that came with the player, mine shows zero apps active. I show 10-15 "running" in the GO drawer, and do kill then occasionally, but no real need to. Android kills then if you need memory for something else. Takes more energy to kill and restart than to leave then alone. If you're not using it, it's probably not using any juice.

[greenman]

@musichound, thanks for the app suggestion. This looks like I need to read the manual to make it do the things you're talking about.

@tcat, I can hear what you're saying, but my task manager widget is continually in the red, right from startup in the morning on through the night. I turned on Pandora once to log in about a week ago. I look at facebook maybe once a day. I don't feel comfortable having these things running in the background because I don't know what they're logging about me.

I would like a clearer line between what wants to run just because it can and what actually needs to run. I like a lot of the news apps like BBC, CNN, Pulse, NPR, TEDAir, etc. Many of these like to 'just hang out' with me for days, even if I'm not really using their services. Sometimes they just show up, even if I don't call them. But visitors, like fish, stink after three days. I'm at the point that if I can't control how long they 'stay', I'll just delete the offending apps altogether.

[1776]

Originally Posted by musichound

You don't need to root the phone. Install Elixir2. It's a very flexible app, with one notable feature in its arsenal that displays all running apps, and offers the ability to close them. Also, there's an app called cache cleaner, where you can delete the entire cache the installed apps are using. Wiith one swipe I claimed 50MB of wasted space. I use these two apps religiously, and I never run into any memory issues.

P.S. I use a Samsung Galaxy S4G phone, and I am asuming these will work the same way on the Galaxy player.

EDIT: Here's some more information
https://market.android.com/details?i...android.elixir

Seeing what you said about Elixer 2, I downloaded it into my SGP5. It shows a large number of apps with active processes. I can see how to close these one by one, but I do not see any way to batch close them. Is there a way to close multiple processes and running apps at once with Elixer 2?

Interesting app, but I am not sure that it does not duplicate a lot of what is already included with the SGP.

[musichound]

Originally Posted by 1776

Seeing what you said about Elixer 2, I downloaded it into my SGP5. It shows a large number of apps with active processes. I can see how to close these one by one, but I do not see any way to batch close them. Is there a way to close multiple processes and running apps at once with Elixer 2?

Interesting app, but I am not sure that it does not duplicate a lot of what is already included with the SGP.

Then you might be interested in Advanced Task manager. This can list all running apps and gives you the option of closing them with a single selection.

[tcat]

It really does no good to close them, they just start back up. My ram always hangs out around 300 mb, I seldom have any lag. I make sure none of my news or social apps do not sync, I check them manually. Anything set to sync will always run in the background. Getting rid of apps that give you grief is probably better than killing them. Or root, there are apps to control start up if rooted.

[greenman]

@musichound, @1776,

Thanks for your replies. I uninstalled Elixer 2 for the same reasons you suggest.

There are no less than four or five apps called either 'advanced task manager' or 'advanced task killer'. Some of them even have paid versions. They all look pretty much the same - almost like they're just putting a different skin on existing services. Meh. All of them do the same thing - only temporarily kill useless invasive and pernicious tasks.

To that end, apparently the only thing to do is uninstall the pernicious apps that just take up memory and don't really help me. So, goodbye soc.io mall, amazon appstore, appbrain and facebook. I can look at these on my computer instead.

App-Makers and Marketers: Stop filling my device with your persistent garbage. I don't need it. I don't want you sitting on my shoulder watching what I do. Stop it.

[tcat]

Amazon App Store? It does have a good freebie now and then. It doesn't show up as open on my SGP unless I open it. Never opens by itself, nor is one of my "running services". If it's opening I'm not sure what's going on since there are no settings that would cause that (other than maybe enable in app purchasing which should be disabled!)

[greenman]

Originally Posted by tcat

Amazon App Store? It does have a good freebie now and then. It doesn't show up as open on my SGP unless I open it. Never opens by itself, nor is one of my "running services". If it's opening I'm not sure what's going on since there are no settings that would cause that (other than maybe enable in app purchasing which should be disabled!)

@tcat - Apologies, you're right. It doesn't 'open' to my screen. It 'opens' in the background. If I click on 'kill' the amazon appstore any number of different ways from within the android interface, the app pops back into the background of running apps. The same is true for other apps. There is no 'exit' button in the menu for amazon apps, facebook or other services that persist in the background. If I reboot the machine, it and those same apps will often come up and stay on, 'running' in the background even though I never clicked on them since reboot.

Android market is nearly always the first to come up running in the background after reboot. Why on earth does in need to be running?

Yes, it does have good free apps, sometimes. Bummer.

[musichound]

You are correct on Facebook, that's for sure. Whenever I kill the app it always manages to launch again.

[tcat]

I agree, many services shouldn't start on their own if you don't use them. After about an hour I have 5 showing open, the 1st 3 had no reason. Mail is open because I just received an email (I poll once an hour), and screen capture is open of course. I have a feeling Task Manager is open, because I opened another app (Power Tudor) to check if any were drawing any power (none are), but that app may need Task Manager for some odd reason. "Assistant" may have opened because I got mail, who knows... The android system is real efficient at killing "as required" on its own. It does feel good to kill stuff you don't want popping up.... but task killers aren't really necessary. If your Player is laggy, it's probably a "bad apple"... and shouldn't be installed in the 1st place. Then again, this processor isn't all that powerfull, and some big apps will bog it down.

edit: By the way, I just noticed that when I open an app that I got from the Amazon app store, both that app and App Store will show as running. That seems logical to me (although probably not necessary).

[musichound]

I just noticed that if you force stop an app, it will remain closed. I just tried this with Facebook and it seems to work.

[dfkt]

Another goodie - I use this to kill useless apps directly at startup/reboot: https://market.android.com/details?i...smanager&hl=en - it doesn't need root.

(Tcat: Comic Sans on Android, seriously? )

[saratoga]

Originally Posted by greenman

I'd like to see an actual exit button on the menu for all apps, similar to what dolphin has. It's the only app I know of that actually has an exit button. (See image below.) I'd like to have the option to fully close any specific app from some place on the device, giving me control over what apps are functioning and when. What options might be out there for someone like me?

Originally Posted by greenman

@tcat - Apologies, you're right. It doesn't 'open' to my screen. It 'opens' in the background. If I click on 'kill' the amazon appstore any number of different ways from within the android interface, the app pops back into the background of running apps. The same is true for other apps. There is no 'exit' button in the menu for amazon apps, facebook or other services that persist in the background. If I reboot the machine, it and those same apps will often come up and stay on, 'running' in the background even though I never clicked on them since reboot.

Android market is nearly always the first to come up running in the background after reboot. Why on earth does in need to be running?

Yes, it does have good free apps, sometimes. Bummer.

To be clear, the reason theres no way to actually quit apps in the standard Android UI is that you aren't supposed to actually do that. The OS automatically swaps apps to the flash when memory runs low, and loads them into RAM when theres too much free RAM. The whole idea is to always have the RAM in use rather then sitting their wasting energy without accomplishing anything.

Task killers are useful for debugging apps, but I wouldn't bother using them normally.

[K O B O]

The issue I have had trouble with seems to be apps wanting to start up when I boot up the device, apparently overwhelming the CPU, and causing me to get stuck in a reboot loop.

One of the first apps I installed when I got the SGP5 was Android Assistant which has a number of useful apps including one, Startup Manager, that allows you to choose what apps you want to kill when your device is booting up; solves my problem.

YMMV

Have a Magical Day

[woer]

Each app is configured to autostart on various conditions. Maps alone has 10+. That's why it seems like they autostart automatically for no specific reason. Some of them start on network change, on sdcard mnt/unmnt, screen on/off, initial boot, etc. Gemini App Manager lets you turn on and off each one. It also has the option to prevent them from running at all, like the 'freeze' option in Titanium Backup. (Beyond that it has a ton more features.)

[greenman]

Originally Posted by woer

Each app is configured to autostart on various conditions. Maps alone has 10+. That's why it seems like they autostart automatically for no specific reason. Some of them start on network change, on sdcard mnt/unmnt, screen on/off, initial boot, etc. Gemini App Manager lets you turn on and off each one. It also has the option to prevent them from running at all, like the 'freeze' option in Titanium Backup. (Beyond that it has a ton more features.)

@woer - Thanks for this tip. It looks like Gemini requires root to manipulate autostart settings. Is your SGP rooted?

[mikee]

Originally Posted by tcat

I agree, many services shouldn't start on their own if you don't use them. After about an hour I have 5 showing open, the 1st 3 had no reason. Mail is open because I just received an email (I poll once an hour), and screen capture is open of course. I have a feeling Task Manager is open, because I opened another app (Power Tudor) to check if any were drawing any power (none are), but that app may need Task Manager for some odd reason. "Assistant" may have opened because I got mail, who knows... The android system is real efficient at killing "as required" on its own. It does feel good to kill stuff you don't want popping up.... but task killers aren't really necessary. If your Player is laggy, it's probably a "bad apple"... and shouldn't be installed in the 1st place. Then again, this processor isn't all that powerfull, and some big apps will bog it down.

edit: By the way, I just noticed that when I open an app that I got from the Amazon app store, both that app and App Store will show as running. That seems logical to me (although probably not necessary).

a little off topic but how do you get to this task manager? I really like it because it's similar to ios in a way

[tcat]

This screen is built into GO Launcher (the wallpaper is from Zedge). You can lock any apps you don't want to force close. Not that they won't come back in 30 seconds. I tried "Android assistant" to stop apps from starting, but unrooted the apps just keep coming back.

Originally Posted by mikee

a little off topic but how do you get to this task manager? I really like it because it's similar to ios in a way