Three Simple (and probably stupid questions) from an X Newbie

[rousea24]

1. Under settings>SD Card & Phone Storage, I accidentally hit "Unmount SD Card." How do I remount it? From what I'm told, when this is grayed out, the phone won't use it.

2. How do I do a hard reset? With my blackberries, it was the alt-caps lock-etc. combo. What's the trick to do the same on a Droid X?

3. How do I close an app? Going to my blackberry again, I would hit menu and close. I don't see a similar option here. For example, if I go into the Market or into settings, etc., how do I close it after I'm done....or can I? What I've been doing so far is just to hit the back button or go to the home screen. I'm just wondering if I'm leaving too much stuff going in the background. I know more stuff will be running in the background versus with my blackberry.

 

[rousea24]

Ok, I just powered off phone and back on and #1 is taken care of.

 

[Arelunde]

1. Under settings>SD Card & Phone Storage, I accidentally hit "Unmount SD Card." How do I remount it? From what I'm told, when this is grayed out, the phone won't use it.

2. How do I do a hard reset? With my blackberries, it was the alt-caps lock-etc. combo. What's the trick to do the same on a Droid X?

3. How do I close an app? Going to my blackberry again, I would hit menu and close. I don't see a similar option here. For example, if I go into the Market or into settings, etc., how do I close it after I'm done....or can I? What I've been doing so far is just to hit the back button or go to the home screen. I'm just wondering if I'm leaving too much stuff going in the background. I know more stuff will be running in the background versus with my blackberry.

Can't answer 1. But for 2 - With the X, turning off is enough for most issues. Cuts power entirely to the X like a battery pull does for BB. In extreme problems, can do a battery pull, but not a normal thing.

3 - The X is programmed to close down apps on its own. You don't have to force this. Just go to your home screen when done. Apps will continue in background for a while. Then it will be shut down. DONT use task killer app. Anything you do to force shut an app drains battery. X then has to overcome the force shutdown.

You will be amazed how far ahead of BBs the X is. Have fun being amazed. Lots of questions answered in this forum, including thread for ex-BB owners.

 

[ultravisitor]

3. How do I close an app? Going to my blackberry again, I would hit menu and close. I don't see a similar option here. For example, if I go into the Market or into settings, etc., how do I close it after I'm done....or can I? What I've been doing so far is just to hit the back button or go to the home screen. I'm just wondering if I'm leaving too much stuff going in the background. I know more stuff will be running in the background versus with my blackberry.

Don't worry about closing apps. This is not BlackBerry; this is Android.

 

[anon(19758)]

Don't worry about closing apps. This is not BlackBerry; this is Android.

I'd like to expand on this a bit, since I came from a BlackBerry Tour and didn't quite grasp this at first. If you have an app open on a BlackBerry, it is consuming memory. Unused memory equals available memory. This is because there is no system built into the OS that will close unused programs if necessary. This leads to the system slowing down, and eventually leads to a battery pull.

On Android, if you have an app open it is using memory. Android keeps them open to facilitate multitasking better. So, if you are using your GPS, then decide to hand over your phone to a passenger to play Angry Birds, then maybe track a package over at UPS, then blah, blah, blah whatever, then go back to your GPS, it's still up and running. If somewhere in there you managed to run out of memory, Android would shut one of the less important apps down. It automagically does this all on its own. Very, very well.

Please take my advice and don't ever install a task killer. Android learns what you use over time, and will open those apps into memory for quicker access when you want them. If you have a task killer it basically makes the phone work HARDER, having to reopen those programs over and over again, and doesn't do you any favors in the battery life department.

If I got any of this wrong... someone please correct me =)

 

[newob]

If you want to close an app go into settings > applications > manage > running

 

[roberte1342]

If you want to close an app go into settings > applications > manage > running

This is good advice.
There are times when an app misbehaves and needs closed, the browser for me will get stuck on some website once in a while and rather than powercycling the phone doing the above works great.

 

[Arelunde]

I found, after updating with 2.2, closing running apps seemed to actually shorten battery life. I have a feeling that the X does pretty well on controlling app activity and battery consumption all by itself.

With 2.1, it made a HUGE difference to close running apps, but since the upgrade, I tried doing that but now don't even bother -- and am getting even better battery life!

 

[rousea24]

Thanks everyone.

I now have 2.2 on my phone.

So far everything seems fine.

What are the major bugs to look for? I've only had my phone since Thursday, so I hadn't done that much to it yet.

Will I automatically have to do the steps described in Fabrian's thread (with the factory reset, etc.) or could I be ok and not have to do that?