Is there an App Limit Beyond Which Touch Wiz Becomes Unstable

[vferrari]

With 64 GB of internal memory to play with, I decided to load up the phone with apps to see how much internal memory I could consume (still keeping all media and doc files on the external card). It seems that Touch Wiz and even Google Now launchers do not like it when the apps go much north of 600. i was able to install 630 or so apps just fine (and let their shortcuts be installed on the home page upon each installation, touch wiz dutifully automatically created multiple home pages as the app shortcut icons filled the pages). I stopped there even though I had plenty of internal memory still left (at least 40%). However, when I restarted the phone, touch wiz kept crashing and I could not access the home page. Same with google now and also the app manager in Touch Wiz settings. Luckily, I could still pull down the notifications screen to access phone settings and I had the app store shortcut installed on an edge panel so I could uninstall apps from there (since I could not get into the phone's app manager) and was able to eventually delete enough apps to restore stability to the Google Now launcher. Have not tried to switch back to Touch Wiz launcher because I like the speed of Google Now. Anyone else encounter Touch Wiz or alternative launcher instability with large numbers of apps installed? I don't need 600 apps installed, was just trying to see what the internal memory could handle so no biggie, but I thought that as long as I did not exceed a memory limitation, there would not be a practical limit on number of apps that could be installed on one device. Thoughts? Thanks.

 

[Bosbouer]

If I understand your post correctly, it seems that the Note was still working as normal until you restarted it, Is that assumption correct?

 

[PRGDR]

As the OP suggests, 600 seems to be way over what anybody would need, I wouldn't be surprised if there are parameters in the touchwiz framework that are set way below that number. What could be an interesting study would be seeing until which number of apps touchwiz still behaves well (reboot included, as the previous post points out). But yes, the bottleneck is probably not RAM or internal storage...

 

[vferrari]

If I understand your post correctly, it seems that the Note was still working as normal until you restarted it, Is that assumption correct?

Yes, that is correct. I could incrementally add more than 600 apps, but upon restart it seemed to choke on the app rescan. Don't know if it was due to the gross number of apps installed or a function of the number of app shortcut icons and widgets on tje home pages.

 

[rushmore]

I have over 400 with 6.3gb free. Marshmallow needs 1gb free to behave and allow most apps to update. 2GB min provides the most stable and all apps can update without issues. Some 1GB + games like GTA sometimes update the entire app rather than just a patch. Hence 2GB is safest floor.

 

[Almeuit]

Dang you guys have a lot. I have ... 70 ish ? :-x

 

[rushmore]

Dang you guys have a lot. I have ... 70 ish ? :-x

You're obviously less compulsive and have more discipline

 

[Wiley_11]

Thoughts? Thanks.

Just one, why! ........

 

[vferrari]

I have over 400 with 6.3gb free. Marshmallow needs 1gb free to behave and allow most apps to update. 2GB min provides the most stable and all apps can update without issues. Some 1GB + games like GTA sometimes update the entire app rather than just a patch. Hence 2GB is safest floor.

Just to recap because I know people don't like to read the op (especially if it's wordy):

(1) I was trying to fill internal memory only with apps, simply to see how many apps it would take to get there (not because I needed 600+ apps). This was more of an apps management stress test than a memory stress test (see (2) below)
(2) I had 630 or so apps installed yet still had 25+ GB (!) of internal memory (i.e., at least 40% internal still available), 20+ home screen pages filled with app shortcut icons and plenty of RAM because I was not running multiple apps, just installing them. So nowhere near any operating or storage memory limit.
(3) At that point I decided to restart the phone to let it do some post app install housekeeping and upon reboot into touchwiz, touchwiz launcher kept continuously crashing when it attempted to generate the home pages, I guess. Not really sure if it was choking on regenerating the app shortcut home pages or just couldn't deal with the shear # of apps installed. I suspect the latter because the app manager in settings also would crash out. Note that the top pulldown notifications page and settings pael and the edge side screen app launchers were still functional despite the touchwìz homescreen instability.
(4) I was finally able to restore stability by removing several apps (via the play store app not app manager (which was also crashing) because I had set a shortcut to the play store on the edge app launcher which was unaffected as described in (3) above) Once I got the app count to less than 600 and started the google now launcher, things got stable again. I attempted to install more than 600 or so apps running the google now launcher and got similar crashes with the google now launcher as I was getting with the touchwiz launcher upon restart.

Therefore, since I was never close tò a memory limit, I am presuming the stability issues were due to the launchers' inabilities to handle the shear number of apps installed. So I am asking if there is an inherent limitation of the number of apps that can be installed on an android deviceif you are not otherwise limited by memory.

 

[Bosbouer]

Yes, that is correct. I could incrementally add more than 600 apps, but upon restart it seemed to choke on the app rescan. Don't know if it was due to the gross number of apps installed or a function of the number of app shortcut icons and widgets on tje home pages.

Function of number of pages and app shortcuts would be my bet

 

[vferrari]

Function of number of pages and app shortcuts would be my bet

That's what I thought at first but I am noticing that even with Google Now launcher behaving itself with 599 apps installed (lol) the app manager in settings crashes out still. Go figure.

 

[Bosbouer]

That's what I thought at first but I am noticing that even with Google Now launcher behaving itself with 599 apps installed (lol) the app manager in settings crashes out still. Go figure.

Sorry! I should have been more clear. I was referring to the underlying Android OS. I had read your comments about Google Now misbehaving by the time I posted.

Would be interesting if someone with a Nexus device would repeat your experiment.

 

[vferrari]

Hope someone runs the experiment on a Note 7 too.

 

[Ryano89]

Just to recap because I know people don't like to read the op (especially if it's wordy):

(1) I was trying to fill internal memory only with apps, simply to see how many apps it would take to get there (not because I needed 600+ apps). This was more of an apps management stress test than a memory stress test (see (2) below)
(2) I had 630 or so apps installed yet still had 25+ GB (!) of internal memory (i.e., at least 40% internal still available), 20+ home screen pages filled with app shortcut icons and plenty of RAM because I was not running multiple apps, just installing them. So nowhere near any operating or storage memory limit.
(3) At that point I decided to restart the phone to let it do some post app install housekeeping and upon reboot into touchwiz, touchwiz launcher kept continuously crashing when it attempted to generate the home pages, I guess. Not really sure if it was choking on regenerating the app shortcut home pages or just couldn't deal with the shear # of apps installed. I suspect the latter because the app manager in settings also would crash out. Note that the top pulldown notifications page and settings pael and the edge side screen app launchers were still functional despite the touchwìz homescreen instability.
(4) I was finally able to restore stability by removing several apps (via the play store app not app manager (which was also crashing) because I had set a shortcut to the play store on the edge app launcher which was unaffected as described in (3) above) Once I got the app count to less than 600 and started the google now launcher, things got stable again. I attempted to install more than 600 or so apps running the google now launcher and got similar crashes with the google now launcher as I was getting with the touchwiz launcher upon restart.

Therefore, since I was never close tò a memory limit, I am presuming the stability issues were due to the launchers' inabilities to handle the shear number of apps installed. So I am asking if there is an inherent limitation of the number of apps that can be installed on an android deviceif you are not otherwise limited by memory.

I'm curious if it had as much to do with 20+ home screens as it did sheer number of apps?

 

[vferrari]

It appeared to be purely app driven. I tried it with 600+ apps and less than 5 homescreens and with <600 apps but many homescreens. The former was unstable the latter was not. It also did not appear to be launcher dependent, it happened with either google now or with touch wiz launchers (including touchwiz easy mode!). What I do not know is whether the issue lies with the touchwiz framework or is inherent to android 6.0. All I know is that the native Note 7 app manager apparently has an issue loading 600+ apps into its database.

 

[pduffer]

Now I use a lot of apps, but 600?

 

[vferrari]

Now I use a lot of apps, but 600?

As I've said previously in this thread, this was an experiment, I do not use 600 apps. That being said, I was merely trying to see how many apps I could install with 64GB of internal memory, I was surprised that the internal memory was not the issue but the number of installed apps was. With less that 60% of internal memory used, I could not get any launcher or the app manager to be be stable with more than 600 apps installed. This could be an issue with someone using multiple profiles, themes, work related apps in addition to personal apps, or using the secure folder. Who knows. Not just limited to a an "app hoarder" situation lol. Point is, I was never expecting to run into a # of apps issue before I ran into a memory issue regardless of the number of apps installed.