Does Anyone Else Turn Off Apps Reqularly? Am I Missing Something?

[tmann202]

This is my first smartphone, had it for only a few days now but have gone through all the settings and have it set up pretty well by now including downloading a bunch of apps, and I find myself going into the apps section in settings and manually stopping some of them regularly to save battery life and/or data (I even put a shortcut from the widgets section on the home screen to reach the Apps setting with one click).

I was surprised that there is no easy way to "x out" (close) apps from the actual app like with a computer (is there???) and that they just keep running once you open something else, so I go in to settings and turn them off. Do other people do this? Is there something I am missing???

 

[VDub2174]

Honestly, I rarely go through and close apps. Most phones have a way to see running apps. I believe on Samsung phones you press and hold the home button down to see what's running still and you can just swipe them away.

 

[realitydigg]

In most cases for most apps Android is smart enough to idle them down to nothing (releasing memory) so truly closing them is not needed. There are some apps that are worth shutting down because they are doing something in the background or taking up memory. Bloatware - disable it. If something syncs regularly set the sync to something you are comfortable with etc. Otherwise you aren't really making much of a difference.

You can touch the softkey to the right to get a list of apps that were run recently, and swiping them off the screen gets rid of them so you don't have to keep a shortcut and go into settings

 

[shadow536]

There is no reason to do this. Android is very smart when it comes to multitasking. Closing apps will have no impact on data usage or battery life unless the app is out of control. I never close apps and have zero issues.

 

[tmann202]

In most cases for most apps Android is smart enough to idle them down to nothing (releasing memory) so truly closing them is not needed. There are some apps that are worth shutting down because they are doing something in the background or taking up memory. Bloatware - disable it. If something syncs regularly set the sync to something you are comfortable with etc. Otherwise you aren't really making much of a difference.

You can touch the softkey to the right to get a list of apps that were run recently, and swiping them off the screen gets rid of them so you don't have to keep a shortcut and go into settings

I thought that that softkey on the right just showed recently used stuff for easy access, and that swiping them away just took them off that list but did not actually close them. Is that not correct?

 

[tmann202]

There is no reason to do this. Android is very smart when it comes to multitasking. Closing apps will have no impact on data usage or battery life unless the app is out of control. I never close apps and have zero issues.

This is good to know. Again I was very surprised that you can't just close an app from the app itself. Still would be nice to be able to do though.

 

[someguy01234]

If you want to close apps from within the app, you have to open it's menu and chose exit or quit, if it have the option.

I use Greenify, without root it can't auto hibernate apps, but it can still close all running apps with one click.

You can also press the recent apps button and swipe then away, this will actually clear some RAMs, but it might not fully close some apps, use Greenify for that.

sent via tapatalk

 

[realitydigg]

I thought that that softkey on the right just showed recently used stuff for easy access, and that swiping them away just took them off that list but did not actually close them. Is that not correct?

No it kills them off, if you re-open the app you will see that it is not where you left off (which it is if you switch to it. This has grown up from being just a task switcher. I am sure there are levels of "dead," but this is good enough for me especially since I am not having issues with battery or memory

 

[tmann202]

No it kills them off, if you re-open the app you will see that it is not where you left off (which it is if you switch to it. This has grown up from being just a task switcher. I am sure there are levels of "dead," but this is good enough for me especially since I am not having issues with battery or memory

OK thanks.

How come some apps don't show up in the "Running" section of the apps settings after I open them? I tried to test swiping off the right soft key list and see if they came off the "Running" list but they didn't show up on that list after opening them. ??

 

[PiggyMiddle]

First thing I did was to weed all the apps I don't need. They just waste battery life.

Go to Settings -> Apps and start there. Then swipe left to "Running" and take out (Clear Data, Force Stop, Disable) everything you do not want. Look at the top of the screen for Running and there is a "Cache..." tap that and it will list a zillion more. Take out those you don't want as well.

If at some time you decide you want something back, then swipe left two more times from Running to get "Disabled" and find the app there and enable it.

 

[ttfn92]

First thing I did was to weed all the apps I don't need. They just waste battery life.

Go to Settings -> Apps and start there. Then swipe left to "Running" and take out (Clear Data, Force Stop, Disable) everything you do not want. Look at the top of the screen for Running and there is a "Cache..." tap that and it will list a zillion more. Take out those you don't want as well.

If at some time you decide you want something back, then swipe left two more times from Running to get "Disabled" and find the app there and enable it.

But how do you know which ones are necessary and which ones aren't? I looked at the list and saw quite a few I'd never heard of but I don't want to delete them if they are something that runs the phone.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[tmann202]

But how do you know which ones are necessary and which ones aren't? I looked at the list and saw quite a few I'd never heard of but I don't want to delete them if they are something that runs the phone.

Posted via Android Central App

Exactly. It's like Task Manager on the computer. There's always tons of stuff running and I have no idea what they are or if they are critical to the operation.

 

[sting7k]

This is my first smartphone, had it for only a few days now but have gone through all the settings and have it set up pretty well by now including downloading a bunch of apps, and I find myself going into the apps section in settings and manually stopping some of them regularly to save battery life and/or data (I even put a shortcut from the widgets section on the home screen to reach the Apps setting with one click).

I was surprised that there is no easy way to "x out" (close) apps from the actual app like with a computer (is there???) and that they just keep running once you open something else, so I go in to settings and turn them off. Do other people do this? Is there something I am missing???

I almost never do unless an app starts to hang or get sluggish. You "close" apps by swiping them away with the app switcher. Most of the apps you see there are not actually running so they aren't using system resources. They are just held in the RAM in the state when you minimized so the next time you launch it will load faster. If you see a splash screen when you launch an app that means it loaded from the flash memory. Otherwise it will open generally and only have to pull down some new data.

 

[tmann202]

I almost never do unless an app starts to hang or get sluggish. You "close" apps by swiping them away with the app switcher. Most of the apps you see there are not actually running so they aren't using system resources. They are just held in the RAM in the state when you minimized so the next time you launch it will load faster. If you see a splash screen when you launch an app that means it loaded from the flash memory. Otherwise it will open generally and only have to pull down some new data.

Great, thanks. Getting the Android "deep soak" the last few days. Lot of good info here.

 

[TechTinker]

This is good to know. Again I was very surprised that you can't just close an app from the app itself. Still would be nice to be able to do though.

Well some apps (like stated) do have that option. But phones are diferent from PC. Take feature "dumb" phones for example, you click exit/end/home and the app is closed, click home on a iphone (pre ios7) and the app is closed, pretty sure, and android the app is minimized, and hardly takes any resources.
If you really want to save battery go through the syncing options.

 

[tmann202]

Well some apps (like stated) do have that option. But phones are diferent from PC. Take feature "dumb" phones for example, you click exit/end/home and the app is closed, click home on a iphone (pre ios7) and the app is closed, pretty sure, and android the app is minimized, and hardly takes any resources.
If you really want to save battery go through the syncing options.

Had to do a search but found the sync settings and unchecked most of them. Is there a way to adjust how often it syncs?

 

[davidnc]

I close apps if I know I wont be using them for awhile.Also for apps that I know I will be using thoughout the day I dont close out.

Had to do a search but found the sync settings and unchecked most of them. Is there a way to adjust how often it syncs?

I dont think you can schedule the sync settings it to sync like that .
I just manually sync mine.I dont need to have many of those auto syncing.

 

[realitydigg]

OK thanks.

How come some apps don't show up in the "Running" section of the apps settings after I open them? I tried to test swiping off the right soft key list and see if they came off the "Running" list but they didn't show up on that list after opening them. ??

I guess the real question is are you having problems, or are you just obsessing over "managing" what is running. The running section shows full applications - things that can have launcher icons. When you go into the app section you can get to everything, including processes that run in the background (things you don't actually launch). As someone here mentioned. I tend to close apps if things are slugging under the assumption that something is hung or an issue, and this is rare for me. Otherwise I have tuned the setting and apps that I have so that I just use and enjoy my phone. There are a couple of threads on how to conserve battery life, but basically remove or idle (if bloatware) apps you don't use. Set the sync settings to meet your needs. For me things like FB I let update when I open them, things like email every 15 min or so (some of these fine tuned settings are in the apps). And then I just enjoy my phone...

 

[garublador]

I dont think you can schedule the sync settings it to sync like that .

Actually, if you use Synker:

https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...evelopers.android.synker&hl=en&token=3qysrSpb

With an automation app like Llama or Tasker you can control what syncs and when. For example, I have my email syncing every 15 minutes, some other things syncing every hour and then most of the rest syncing one time per day at midnight. I even have it so my phone only syncs with my work email if I'm actually at work.

As for the OP, as others have said, there really isn't a reason to try to manage that stuff yourself unless there's an issue. FWIW, I find it faster to just reboot my phone rather than track down the issue but YMMV. Stuff that uses battery or data will probably just open itself right back up when it syncs, but most of the things that use any significant battery or data are widgets. Most of that stuff doesn't really use that much data, anyway, unless you're doing something like syncing pictures to a cloud service, but the apps that do that pretty much always give you the option to only sync on WiFi.

 

[paintdrinkingpete]

In most cases for most apps Android is smart enough to idle them down to nothing (releasing memory) so truly closing them is not needed. There are some apps that are worth shutting down because they are doing something in the background or taking up memory. Bloatware - disable it. If something syncs regularly set the sync to something you are comfortable with etc. Otherwise you aren't really making much of a difference.

You can touch the softkey to the right to get a list of apps that were run recently, and swiping them off the screen gets rid of them so you don't have to keep a shortcut and go into settings

I thought that that softkey on the right just showed recently used stuff for easy access, and that swiping them away just took them off that list but did not actually close them. Is that not correct?

No it kills them off, if you re-open the app you will see that it is not where you left off (which it is if you switch to it. This has grown up from being just a task switcher. I am sure there are levels of "dead," but this is good enough for me especially since I am not having issues with battery or memory

The recent tasks list can be confusing. Here is some info I learned on it a while back...not sure if this is entirely still accurate with the latest versions on Android, but based on my own experience, this is correct:

1. The recent apps list is just that, "recently used" apps. Just because an app appears in the list, it DOES NOT mean that it's actively running or doing any processes in the background, it simply means that the app has been used recently. Any app that appears in the list *may* be completely shut down and not running at all...or maybe it is. In other words, it is not a list of actively running apps.

2. Having said that, however, swiping apps away from within the recently used apps list will close them *IF* they are still running, and is essentially the same process as hitting the "back arrow" key to exit out of a running app (i.e. a "graceful" exit, as opposed to a "force stop"). If an app is designed to sync regularly or start itself to run background processes, then it will continue to do that even if you've removed it from the recently used apps list and forced it to exit...so even if you swipe an app away, it is possible that it will still be "running" in the background if you check it's status in app manager.

Hope that makes sense.

To the OP, it really isn't something you should worry about too much or allow yourself to become obsessed with. Android does a pretty job of task management on it's own. I personally don't use the "recent apps" feature very often, and rarely even open it...nor do I ever go into the application settings to shut things down manually. I do try to reboot my phone every few days just to keep it "fresh", but honestly I'm not even sure that's 100% necessary unless things start to run sluggish. My phone has fantastic battery life too.