is it really worth closing all apps every hour or 2 to save battery , esp apps that use location etc? a lot of people think that closing them and reopening them later will take even more battery
Does closing out apps really help the battery?
- Thread starter demarco5
- Start date
SactoKingsFan
Well-known member
Re: Do closing out apps really help the battery?
No, constantly closing apps doesn't result in longer battery life.
No, constantly closing apps doesn't result in longer battery life.
marlin29311
Well-known member
Re: Do closing out apps really help the battery?
Closing apps does nothing, possibly hurts battery life. Disabling them is another story though.
Closing apps does nothing, possibly hurts battery life. Disabling them is another story though.
Re: Do closing out apps really help the battery?
cool, i wont worry about closing them out constantly than
cool, i wont worry about closing them out constantly than
limitbreak09
Well-known member
Re: Do closing out apps really help the battery?
wow... my whole life was a lie.. I've been closing all the apps after I use it smh.
wow... my whole life was a lie.. I've been closing all the apps after I use it smh.
marlin29311
Well-known member
Re: Do closing out apps really help the battery?
I think the OP was referring to closing apps out of memory, not just backing out of them normally with the back button.
I think the OP was referring to closing apps out of memory, not just backing out of them normally with the back button.
natehoy
Well-known member
Re: Do closing out apps really help the battery?
The only case where closing an app helps battery life is if all three of the following are true:
1. The app does a decent amount of background processing or data transmission.
2. The app does not have a clear EXIT method so it stops running when you are done with it.
3. You do not intend to use the app for some time.
In MOST cases, having apps sit in the background taking up memory is a GOOD thing. Because when you go back to those apps, they are already in memory and there is no need to take time, NVRAM access, and CPU to load the app back up. It simply resumes where it left off.
If you find yourself benefiting from manually stopping apps, you need to find better apps.
The only case where closing an app helps battery life is if all three of the following are true:
1. The app does a decent amount of background processing or data transmission.
2. The app does not have a clear EXIT method so it stops running when you are done with it.
3. You do not intend to use the app for some time.
In MOST cases, having apps sit in the background taking up memory is a GOOD thing. Because when you go back to those apps, they are already in memory and there is no need to take time, NVRAM access, and CPU to load the app back up. It simply resumes where it left off.
If you find yourself benefiting from manually stopping apps, you need to find better apps.
bsteppuhn
Well-known member
limitbreak09
Well-known member
Re: Do closing out apps really help the battery?
Well what I always do is go to my recent app and close everything right after I use an app.
Posted via the Android Central App
Well what I always do is go to my recent app and close everything right after I use an app.
Posted via the Android Central App
andrew_ackley
Well-known member
Re: Do closing out apps really help the battery?
This used to help back around when the og note / s3 was out. Back when they barely had enough memory and apps hogged more resources. It may help on cheapo budget phones some but these monsters with 4 gb of ram? I think we're good.
Posted via the Android Central App
This used to help back around when the og note / s3 was out. Back when they barely had enough memory and apps hogged more resources. It may help on cheapo budget phones some but these monsters with 4 gb of ram? I think we're good.
Posted via the Android Central App
Re: Do closing out apps really help the battery?
Counterproductive if they're apps you use frequently. Google will simply reload them in the background, which uses more battery than letting them sit there.
Counterproductive if they're apps you use frequently. Google will simply reload them in the background, which uses more battery than letting them sit there.
Re: Do closing out apps really help the battery?
Android nerds — forgive me for trying to make this as simple as I can for people who aren't total geeks. You and I know about lowmemkill and threading/processes/services. This reply isn't meant for you
For everyone else:
There are a lot of different "levels" of staying alive in the background when it comes to an Android app.
Some apps are built so they need to listen all the time and do something immediately when they need to do it. These apps have a service or thread that always runs, even if you close the app. It starts right back up.
Some apps need to do something after a specific event. Your SMS app needs to wake up and collect data when you get a text message. That app is technically running all the time, but most of the time it's not doing anything besides staying resident in your memory so it can start as needed.
Some apps are called by other apps that trigger an event. If you Open the camera app on your phone, every other app that can take a picture starts up in order to receive a request to take a picture. Even if you had no plans to use them, they start. They quickly go back to "sleep" in memory.
Some apps are just built poorly and the developer has them running and using CPU time when they don't need to run.
Finally, some apps go to sleep when you back out of them. They stop using the CPU and sit in your memory until room in memory is needed for something else.
None of this is tied to your recent apps menu. Think of that as a shortcut to bring an app back to focus, no matter if it's alive, asleep or actually closed.
Apps that go to sleep stay in your memory until the system flushes them out in order to have enough memory to run another app.
Apps that need to run (either all the time or stay ready when an event happens — see the first two examples above) will always want to restart if you force close them. So will many poorly coded apps. Any app that is on your screen and being used will never close it's activity. If you need to use an app and your memory is full, the system checks to see which apps are asleep and closes them. If you need more memory, it can close apps that technically need to listen for an event, and when enough memory is available those will reload. In extreme cases, it will dump recently used apps that are still awake out of memory so that whatever you're looking at can run. This is what Samsung does to make the launcher and certain Galaxy apps always ready and responsive.
It takes more battery power to start an app than it does to keep one alive in memory while it's asleep. Oftentimes closing apps (not just swiping them away from the recent apps menu — that does nothing other than tell the system you're done looking at them for now) means those apps need to restart right away and that will use more battery power than it would if they had been left alone.
It's complicated. The old adage "free RAM is wasted RAM" is true, because our phones do not use a portion of the storage to "swap" files in and out of RAM. They are instead closed and have to completely restart.
tl;dr — closing apps out of your recent apps menu doesn't hurt anything, and can be beneficial because your telling the system that it's cool to shut them down (if they can be shut down) and you'll open them later if you need them.
Force closing apps from the Apps settings or using an app like Clean Master can affect your battery life, because you're using more power to reopen them instantly than you would have if you just let them run.
Android nerds — forgive me for trying to make this as simple as I can for people who aren't total geeks. You and I know about lowmemkill and threading/processes/services. This reply isn't meant for you
For everyone else:
There are a lot of different "levels" of staying alive in the background when it comes to an Android app.
Some apps are built so they need to listen all the time and do something immediately when they need to do it. These apps have a service or thread that always runs, even if you close the app. It starts right back up.
Some apps need to do something after a specific event. Your SMS app needs to wake up and collect data when you get a text message. That app is technically running all the time, but most of the time it's not doing anything besides staying resident in your memory so it can start as needed.
Some apps are called by other apps that trigger an event. If you Open the camera app on your phone, every other app that can take a picture starts up in order to receive a request to take a picture. Even if you had no plans to use them, they start. They quickly go back to "sleep" in memory.
Some apps are just built poorly and the developer has them running and using CPU time when they don't need to run.
Finally, some apps go to sleep when you back out of them. They stop using the CPU and sit in your memory until room in memory is needed for something else.
None of this is tied to your recent apps menu. Think of that as a shortcut to bring an app back to focus, no matter if it's alive, asleep or actually closed.
Apps that go to sleep stay in your memory until the system flushes them out in order to have enough memory to run another app.
Apps that need to run (either all the time or stay ready when an event happens — see the first two examples above) will always want to restart if you force close them. So will many poorly coded apps. Any app that is on your screen and being used will never close it's activity. If you need to use an app and your memory is full, the system checks to see which apps are asleep and closes them. If you need more memory, it can close apps that technically need to listen for an event, and when enough memory is available those will reload. In extreme cases, it will dump recently used apps that are still awake out of memory so that whatever you're looking at can run. This is what Samsung does to make the launcher and certain Galaxy apps always ready and responsive.
It takes more battery power to start an app than it does to keep one alive in memory while it's asleep. Oftentimes closing apps (not just swiping them away from the recent apps menu — that does nothing other than tell the system you're done looking at them for now) means those apps need to restart right away and that will use more battery power than it would if they had been left alone.
It's complicated. The old adage "free RAM is wasted RAM" is true, because our phones do not use a portion of the storage to "swap" files in and out of RAM. They are instead closed and have to completely restart.
tl;dr — closing apps out of your recent apps menu doesn't hurt anything, and can be beneficial because your telling the system that it's cool to shut them down (if they can be shut down) and you'll open them later if you need them.
Force closing apps from the Apps settings or using an app like Clean Master can affect your battery life, because you're using more power to reopen them instantly than you would have if you just let them run.
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