My Note II just loads most of the apps on it, which drains the battery. How can I stop this please?

[Rob Gough]

Hi everyone

Since I got my Note II from a friend when he upgraded, I've really enjoyed the phone. One of the things thats become a real
problem though, is that as I have found more apps to do what I want to do with my phone, (carefully selected from the Play Store) Android simply loads more apps by itself, without me starting the apps up. I run a couple of battery care apps om a regular basis (each day), to conserve battery power. However, on most days, only an hour later, if I run the battery conservation app, I find to my display, that many of the apps have simply started themselves up again, and are once again draining the battery.

Questions:
Why is this happening please? I thought Android was a good mobile OS, but if it lets apps start up on their own accord, I don't see how it qualifies as such!
What can I do about it, or will I have to root the phone? The Android version, is 4.2.1. I think.

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[Javier P]

Hi Rob, welcome to the forums! Which apps are being downloaded by themselves? Which battery apps are you using? Some of these apps can do more harm than good. Maybe some of the apps being downloaded without your consent are related to those so called battery boosters.

 

[Rukbat]

HI run a couple of battery care apps om a regular basis (each day), to conserve battery power.

Uninstall them and your battery life will go up. Apps that "clean" the phone to "conserve battery power" actually cause the phone to use more power. About the only ones worth using are Greenify and Startup Manager.

However, on most days, only an hour later, if I run the battery conservation app, I find to my display, that many of the apps have simply started themselves up again, and are once again draining the battery.

That's why those apps use more battery than they "save". Android has a memory manager that works very efficiently. It "knows" what apps have to remain in RAM (they aren't running, they're just sitting there) and which ones it has to kill because it needs the space. Along comes one of the apps that you installed and kills an app that Android needs running, so Android loads it again. Your app kills it t again, etc., etc. That kills your battery fast.

An app sitting in RAM is not using battery power - something has to be sitting in that spot, an app, random bytes, something. Only an app that's running is using power. You may be using an app that uses a function in another app for something, so if you're running the first one, Android will load the second one. It's just sitting there until the first one calls that function. (Like your GPS receiver - it uses almost no power unless an app asks it for the current location.)

Why is this happening please? I thought Android was a good mobile OS, but if it lets apps start up on their own accord, I don't see how it qualifies as such!

It's not starting on its own accord, Android is starting it - because it has to be in RAM at that time.

What can I do about it

Uninstall your "battery saver" apps.

or will I have to root the phone?

Rooting itself has nothing to do with battery consumption, it's just adding one file to the system area of storage. (But you have to be rooted to do it, which is why it's not that easy to root a new ROM - some trick has to be figured out for each update, and Google patches that trick in the next update.) And you don't need rooted apps to keep battery consumption down, you just have to let Google do its thing, instead of running apps that were designed with the idea that Android is a cellphone version of Windows made by Google. (Windows likes as much free RAM as possible. To Android, unused RAM is wasted RAM. You should normally be running with at least 60% to 80% of RAM in use.) People who write these apps don't understand how Android works, so I wouldn't use any of their apps.

If you want to learn a little about how Android works from one the people who wrote it, read Multitasking the Android Way (it's a fast read).