After closing an app and re-opening it will go back to the same spot, why is it doing this?

[AC Question]

After closing an app and re-opening it will go back to the same spot

I just got a Droid Turbo BN blue two weeks ago

So I started to notice this in my picture gallery. When I open it to look at a photo and then close the app, re-opening the app brings me right back to the last photo I was looking at. On my Razr M if you closed the gallery and open it again you are back on the folders screen. Now with the turbo I have to hit back a few times to get where I want to be. The same goes with my emails and text messages. If I text someone and close, instead of getting the whole list when I re-open messaging it starts off on the last person I was talking to.

I have tried other gallery apps and its the same result. Is there any way to fix this. It is extremely annoying to have to keep hitting back every time for every app that I use. I have searched around but cannot find anything similar to this issue.

 

[LeoRex]

Re: After closing an app and re-opening it will go back to the same spot

This isn't an issue, it's by design. Android will keep apps in memory, in the state you let them, for as long as there is free memory to do so.

 

[doogald]

Re: After closing an app and re-opening it will go back to the same spot

I have tried other gallery apps and its the same result. Is there any way to fix this. It is extremely annoying to have to keep hitting back every time for every app that I use. I have searched around but cannot find anything similar to this issue.

LeoRex is right, but one method that you can use is to press the task button to get the list of running tasks and swipe the gallery listing to the right or left, which will close the app. The next time that you open it, it will be back at the last album you looked at (I think the camera roll by default.)

 

[88horizon5speed]

Or enable developer settings and scroll to the bottom and click the option to never keep apps running. This will force close every app when you leave it. So it opened up to the first starting screen of that app. I dont see why you would want to do this, especially with 3gb ram, phones are made to do this to keep you productive and do tasks quicker...

 

[psugrad97]

Re: After closing an app and re-opening it will go back to the same spot

I have a question about this. If I were to go to the developer settings and check to close the apps. Would this save battery, use more battery or make no difference?

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[doogald]

Re: After closing an app and re-opening it will go back to the same spot

I have a question about this. If I were to go to the developer settings and check to close the apps. Would this save battery, use more battery or make no difference?

Not sure. It'd be worth a try. My guess is that it would use slightly more battery. Apps are usually kept in RAM for a while in a suspended state until they need to gather information (if they do background processing) or are reactivated. If you have apps set to close when they go into the background, and the OS is dumping them from RAM, then the next time that you start them the apps need to be reloaded and reactivate. The process of loading apps from storage to RAM takes some power, plus the CPU time of starting the apps fresh.

I believe that the option is there truly for developers, so that they can see how their apps perform from as clean a state as possible always.

 

[vzwuser76]

Re: After closing an app and re-opening it will go back to the same spot

Not sure. It'd be worth a try. My guess is that it would use slightly more battery. Apps are usually kept in RAM for a while in a suspended state until they need to gather information (if they do background processing) or are reactivated. If you have apps set to close when they go into the background, and the OS is dumping them from RAM, then the next time that you start them the apps need to be reloaded and reactivate. The process of loading apps from storage to RAM takes some power, plus the CPU time of starting the apps fresh.

I believe that the option is there truly for developers, so that they can see how their apps perform from as clean a state as possible always.

I'd also imagine that it would be a problem for apps that you want to run in the background, say like playing music. You'd have to keep the app in the foreground to keep it running.

 

[LeoRex]

Re: After closing an app and re-opening it will go back to the same spot

I have a question about this. If I were to go to the developer settings and check to close the apps. Would this save battery, use more battery or make no difference?

Closing out apps like this will actually have a negative effect on your battery... Now, it won't be huge. How? Well, Android will keep running as many apps as its memory allows. Free memory is wasted memory and these apps are put in a kind of suspended animation.... This allows for fast app switching in Recents/Overview. Most poeple have a few, core applications that they access all the time and these will most likely all be sitting there, ready to go. Keeping an app in memory ultimately saves power since the phone doesn't have to then go load the application (storage I/O) from scratch.

Over time, those seconds of resource intensive operations turn into minutes turn into hours.

I mean... I just did a quick little test. G+ takes roughly 3 seconds to launch cold, Facebook 5... If they are allowed to be kept in memory, they restore to their running state almost instantly. That's 8 to 10 seconds or so that my CPU isn't loading stuff, my storage not getting accessed to read in the files, etc. That will add up pretty quickly over time.

If you don't want the apps to cluttler up the list, use an app like Recently (in the Google Play Store). Great app... one of those features that Google MUST incorporate into Android.