Multitasking or not?

**jeffreii** · 05-09-2012, 05:03 PM

I've been reading about this in several threads (none dedicated to this issue) both here and on XDA.

It appears as though true multitasking is not working on the One X? When you open an app from the background it reloads/refreshes instead of resuming what you were doing before.

This would be especially noticeable/annoying when using a web browser and you return only to have it reload the page you had already loaded.

I don't have a lot of experience with Android devices yet but my understanding is that previous phones have not had this problem. Is it a One X issue, ICS issue, etc.?

Your thoughts are appreciated as I continue to debate between getting the One X and S III. Thanks!

**icebike** · 05-09-2012, 06:10 PM

Don't mistake web browser operations for Android operations.
(Would you really want the web browser running in the background animating whack-the-monkey gifs and reloading pages?).

Things that have to run in the background to be useful (twitter, email, music, some social apps, downloads and uploads) continue to run in the background.

Other things that would be pointless (web pages, YouTube, Video Player, games) are simply paused.

When you restart these the pick up where they left off.

Web pages do seem to reload. This seems different than my other ICS tablet. Maybe there is a setting, or maybe they decided to make it that way, because the browser has no way of knowing it the page changed while you were away. In any event, it takes you right back to the same paragraph.

Android appears to be doing the right thing, but the browser may arguably be doing something different than it did previously.

**Ardrid** · 05-09-2012, 06:48 PM

Originally Posted by icebike

Don't mistake web browser operations for Android operations.
(Would you really want the web browser running in the background animating whack-the-monkey gifs and reloading pages?).

Things that have to run in the background to be useful (twitter, email, music, some social apps, downloads and uploads) continue to run in the background.

Other things that would be pointless (web pages, YouTube, Video Player, games) are simply paused.

When you restart these the pick up where they left off.

Web pages do seem to reload. This seems different than my other ICS tablet. Maybe there is a setting, or maybe they decided to make it that way, because the browser has no way of knowing it the page changed while you were away. In any event, it takes you right back to the same paragraph.

Android appears to be doing the right thing, but the browser may arguably be doing something different than it did previously.

A good way to test that would be to use another browser (Chrome, Dolphin, etc.). HTC's browser may simply tuned to use less aggressive caching.

**icebike** · 05-09-2012, 07:00 PM

Originally Posted by Ardrid

A good way to test that would be to use another browser (Chrome, Dolphin, etc.). HTC's browser may simply tuned to use less aggressive caching.

Chrome does not reload the page.

There are cases (such as google news) where the page has a refresh built into it, and if you switch back to that page after the refresh interval, it will refresh. This is true for both the browsers I use.

But Stock will refresh if you simply step away from it for a much shorter period.

**scottymomo** · 05-09-2012, 07:39 PM

Chrome appears to refresh the page but I'm not sure it is actually doing a data refresh at the time

**jeffreii** · 05-10-2012, 11:24 AM

This is clearly a major issue and combined with the wifi bug is preventing me from buying this phone...

**cd36** · 05-10-2012, 12:33 PM

My three year old blackberry storm is better at multitasking, and my playbook is even better yet. When u clicked the link in the last post it opened up opera mobile, so when I came back to tapatalk it reloaded this thread.

This is a big problem that needs fixing.

Another good example is something like angry birds, I can't quickly check an incomming text message while playing angry birds without having to reload angry birds when u come back.

I'm able to do it on my playbook though, and its hardware is nowhere near this phone's.

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

**digthemlows** · 05-10-2012, 12:52 PM

It is not multitasking the way that my other phones worked...........CM7, and CM9 do not function the way HTC has this working...........Hopefully the bootloader will get unlocked and we'll get some devs fixing this stuff.........

**jmsewe0** · 05-10-2012, 01:18 PM

Originally Posted by cd36

Another good example is something like angry birds, I can't quickly check an incomming text message while playing angry birds without having to reload angry birds when u come back.

I just noticed this as well. GRR!! I came from the iPhone and its multitasking wasn't great but it had gotten a lot better. Good thing i have 30 days to decide if I want this phone

**neocryte** · 05-10-2012, 01:26 PM

Originally Posted by icebike

Chrome does not reload the page.

It does for me...

**Kevin O'Quinn** · 05-10-2012, 01:28 PM

There's definitely some weird stuff going on with it.

**icebike** · 05-10-2012, 02:05 PM

Originally Posted by Kevin O'Quinn

There's definitely some weird stuff going on with it.

Agreed. Its very different from the way my other ICS device works. I suspect it is something in Sense, and not in android itself. It clearly is not a multitasking issue, because continuous operating apps work in the background just fine.

Has anyone called HTC about this?

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

**wrxdrunkie** · 05-10-2012, 04:54 PM

Check out these videos I made of the broken multitasking

[YT]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6v1W9rjr_qc[/YT]

[YT]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12_iTfMEyVY[/YT]

[YT]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7Uo5f2vSxo[/YT]

**Kevin O'Quinn** · 05-10-2012, 05:38 PM

Ok....so you guys aren't going to like what I'm about to say. We bought an HTC phone. We got an HTC phone. They are able to make any changes they want to the way Android operates. This includes memory management. HTC doesn't have to change it, and they don't have to care that we don't like it.

We all have a decision to make. Keep it and deal with it (no guarantee that it will EVER operate any differently than it does right now), or return and get the Galaxy Nexus if we want ICS to be ICS. Anything else isn't guaranteed to run Android the way Google intended.

Me? I like the phone too much to return it. I'll deal with the app thing. I'm not a super multi-tasker anyway.

**icebike** · 05-10-2012, 06:03 PM

After a reboot, my phone worked much better at not re-dowlloading the page. I was able to use multiple apps and switch back and forth with no problems.

Only when I loaded up the gallery (lots of big pics) did the next invocation of the browser repaint the entire screen. When I exited the gallery, it went back to behaving ok again. No re-downloads.

So some portion of it might be due to memory demands of large apps, like Google Chrome, forcing cache flushes.

**minhaferzz** · 05-10-2012, 06:08 PM

What browser is everyone using?

I was having the multitasking issue since getting the HOX and during that time I was using the chrome browser exclusively. I just recently switched back to the htc browser and most, if not all, of my apps are resuming correctly.

Might be a coincidence?

**cd36** · 05-10-2012, 06:15 PM

Originally Posted by minhaferzz

What browser is everyone using?

I was having the multitasking issue since getting the HOX and during that time I was using the chrome browser exclusively. I just recently switched back to the htc browser and most, if not all, of my apps are resuming correctly.

Might be a coincidence?

I use opera mobile

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2