force android to close apps on reboot?

[bagou01]

Hi.
Since lollipop there's no such thing as real reboot anymore (in my opinion).
I liked the idea of, time to time, rebooting my device to clean opened apps, but since lollipop apps keep staying in the background.
does anyone know if it's possible to force close apps on reboot?

thanks

 

[B. Diddy]

I'm not sure I understand the issue. Android has always kept certain apps open in the background--see these articles:

http://forums.androidcentral.com/ambassador-guides-tips-how-tos/380592-guide-ram-android.html
RAM: What it is, how it's used, and why you shouldn't care | Android Central

You can always reboot by powering completely off, then powering back on again. That starts you with a clean slate of RAM, but of course, the system will start opening some apps in the background to be ready to use.

 

[bagou01]

no it won't since lollipop
i mean, say i launch, 9gag, youtube, vlc, or whatever "non system apps"; they appear in the recent apps "tourniquet"....
well before lollipop, rebooting closed those apps and pressing the recent apps button after reboot showed nothing.
however since lollipop, a reboot won't close those apps anymore, after the reboot, you'll have those exact same recent apps you launched before the reboot

 

[B. Diddy]

Oh, I see what you're saying. The Recent Apps list doesn't necessarily reflect apps that are actively open in RAM, though. It's more accurate to look at Settings>Apps>Running. I've read various complaints about how the Recent Apps list functions now, and that's one of them. But I don't think it's a reflection of any new way of handling RAM.

I'll test it out myself.

EDIT: Ok, just tried it myself. An app I had opened right before powering off still shows up in the Recent Apps list, but is not shown as Running in the Settings>Apps>Running menu. Other apps opened automatically upon powering up, but these were to be expected, based on what my typical usage is, and the apps themselves.

 

[zorak950]

Android's recent apps switcher is often misunderstood, which has led to your misperception. It is not and has never been, as in WebOS, a list of running apps. It is a list of apps you've used recently. To use an analogy, think of it less as tabs in a web browser and more as a web history: it's a quick way to see where you've been and go back to it. It has no relationship to what's actually running in the background: in fact running apps don't even necessarily show up in the recent apps list. They're two separate things.

 

[bagou01]

ah ok good to know, thanks !

 

[Lord Barkley]

Android's recent apps switcher is often misunderstood, which has led to your misperception. It is not and has never been, as in WebOS, a list of running apps. It is a list of apps you've used recently. To use an analogy, think of it less as tabs in a web browser and more as a web history: it's a quick way to see where you've been and go back to it. It has no relationship to what's actually running in the background: in fact running apps don't even necessarily show up in the recent apps list. They're two separate things.

Then can you please explain why the "Kaspersky battery life" app is showing the same apps open after a reboot, asking if you want them closing. Also if this "history" list is not the programs that are actually running, why do they open instantly when clicked on and not take the time to open/load?

 

[Mooncatt]

Then can you please explain why the "Kaspersky battery life" app is showing the same apps open after a reboot, asking if you want them closing. Also if this "history" list is not the programs that are actually running, why do they open instantly when clicked on and not take the time to open/load?

Welcome to the forums.

On Android, just because an app is loaded and in memory doesn't mean it's using battery power. RAM chips use the same amount of power no matter if it's empty or full. Android takes advantage of that by loading your most commonly used apps into memory, but in a dormant state. They use no additional processing power, and this keeps them ready for when you want to use them, instead of using extra processing power to start them from scratch every time you switch to them. That's why they open instantly for you.

Battery saver/boosters/optimizers/whatever work against how Android was designed to function. They are developed with the outdated mindset that you must keep memory as empty as possible. With Android and other modern OS's, free RAM is wasted RAM. So when they close those background apps, Android will only re-initialize them or other apps to take up that freed space. The app closes those too at some point, and the cycle repeats itself. So instead of opening once and leaving dormant and using no additional battery life, you are now constantly opening and closing apps all the time and using more battery life than if you left it alone. That's why these sorts of battery (and RAM) management apps are highly discouraged.

 

[Lord Barkley]

Welcome to the forums.

On Android, just because an app is loaded and in memory doesn't mean it's using battery power. RAM chips use the same amount of power no matter if it's empty or full. Android takes advantage of that by loading your most commonly used apps into memory, but in a dormant state. They use no additional processing power, and this keeps them ready for when you want to use them, instead of using extra processing power to start them from scratch every time you switch to them. That's why they open instantly for you.

Battery saver/boosters/optimizers/whatever work against how Android was designed to function. They are developed with the outdated mindset that you must keep memory as empty as possible. With Android and other modern OS's, free RAM is wasted RAM. So when they close those background apps, Android will only re-initialize them or other apps to take up that freed space. The app closes those too at some point, and the cycle repeats itself. So instead of opening once and leaving dormant and using no additional battery life, you are now constantly opening and closing apps all the time and using more battery life than if you left it alone. That's why these sorts of battery (and RAM) management apps are highly discouraged.

I'm not really understanding your reasoning here. The Op wanted to know why after a reboot programs are being loaded back up into memory. You explained that although they are in memory they are not running and that free memory is wasted memory. I'm sorry but I have to disagree here. Chrome for example takes up a huge amount of memory and can significantly slow your device while hogging all resources. To have that preloaded into memory not only slows boot time but prevents other applications from opening quickly while ram is freed up. Further more, how do you know those preloaded applications are not running. Once loaded into memory it's just a case of turning on or off.

 

[Mooncatt]

I'm not really understanding your reasoning here. The Op wanted to know why after a reboot programs are being loaded back up into memory. You explained that although they are in memory they are not running and that free memory is wasted memory. I'm sorry but I have to disagree here. Chrome for example takes up a huge amount of memory and can significantly slow your device while hogging all resources. To have that preloaded into memory not only slows boot time but prevents other applications from opening quickly while ram is freed up. Further more, how do you know those preloaded applications are not running. Once loaded into memory it's just a case of turning on or off.

Which apps get loaded into memory automatically is based on your usage, which Android learns over time. The only times I see issues like you describe are if someone is a heavy user and simply doesn't have enough RAM to keep everything open, has a low spec phone that effectively causes the same issue, or a buggy app goes rogue and doesn't go dormant like it should.

I do a lot of gaming, which is one of the most resource demanding activities you can do on a phone. If those kept running while in the background, then my phone would be sluggish even when I press the home button. It isn't. I also use Chrome, and it isn't affecting performance. When I set my phone down, my battery doesn't keep draining the same as if I'm still using the phone. It barely drains at all.

Some apps will run in the background if needed. Weather apps, email apps, the browser, etc. This is so they can receive notifications and such to alert you. For this situation, the apps will wake up every so often to check for alerts and then go dormant again.

 

[Lord Barkley]

Which apps get loaded into memory automatically is based on your usage, which Android learns over time. The only times I see issues like you describe are if someone is a heavy user and simply doesn't have enough RAM to keep everything open, has a low spec phone that effectively causes the same issue, or a buggy app goes rogue and doesn't go dormant like it should.

I do a lot of gaming, which is one of the most resource demanding activities you can do on a phone. If those kept running while in the background, then my phone would be sluggish even when I press the home button. It isn't. I also use Chrome, and it isn't affecting performance. When I set my phone down, my battery doesn't keep draining the same as if I'm still using the phone. It barely drains at all.

Some apps will run in the background if needed. Weather apps, email apps, the browser, etc. This is so they can receive notifications and such to alert you. For this situation, the apps will wake up every so often to check for alerts and then go dormant again.

Let's not stray from the op question too much here but to say your phone doesn't slow down while resource hogging applications hang dormant is not relevant, there is a majority of users who do not have the latest hardware and having a 2Gb application pre loaded into memory does effect it performance. The Op wants to know why those programs are still there after a reboot and your answer is only half of it. As I explained, preloading common applications based on usage does not make for a smoother experience for anyone other than those who have upgraded to the latest high end high ram device, and even that's debatable. Having 2Gb Chrome preloaded into memory if you are not using it is not an advantage to anyone. The majority of today's applications collect data, transmitting it without your knowledge. It is more to their advantage and not the users to be preloaded, to be constantly in memory. The speed it takes for all but the largest applications to load does not warrant being preloaded, and for the largest applications to be preloaded without use, hogging large amounts of ram does not make sense as it takes longer to empty and fill than it does to simply fill.

 

[Mooncatt]

The Op wants to know why those programs are still there after a reboot and your answer is only half of it.

The OP got his answer, which was a different question than what you asked about. My answer to you was the whole answer for your question, and is how Google programmed the OS. You may not like that reason or have other opinions, but that doesn't change the factual answer.

Also, you mentioned Chrome being 2 GB when loading into memory. Are you sure you're looking at memory usage and not storage space? For example, Chrome only takes up about 160MB in memory on my phone but has just over 1GB in app storage including the cache files. If your Chrome is truly taking up 2GB of memory, then I would say you have something else going on causing a problem.

 

[Lord Barkley]

The OP got his answer, which was a different question than what you asked about. My answer to you was the whole answer for your question, and is how Google programmed the OS. You may not like that reason or have other opinions, but that doesn't change the factual answer.

Also, you mentioned Chrome being 2 GB when loading into memory. Are you sure you're looking at memory usage and not storage space? For example, Chrome only takes up about 160MB in memory on my phone but has just over 1GB in app storage including the cache files. If your Chrome is truly taking up 2GB of memory, then I would say you have something else going on causing a problem.

This isn't a problem specific to me. Chrome uses huge amounts of ram causing many thousands of people to ask why, do a simple search. As for answering " my question " the answer you gave was , like I said, half an answer, I gave you the other half.

 

[Mooncatt]

This isn't a problem specific to me. Chrome uses huge amounts of ram causing many thousands of people to ask why, do a simple search. As for answering " my question " the answer you gave was , like I said, half an answer, I gave you the other half.

Chrome may use more RAM than other browsers, but not 2 GB worth unless there's some extenuating circumstance. You also don't need to be "upgraded to the latest high end high ram device." My three year old V20 runs fine with 4 GB of RAM. Used flagships like that are cheap. Current mid-range phones are also able to handle it. The phones that may have a problem with it are either so old that it's time to replace them anyway, or the bottom of the barrel phones with barely enough power to run the out of the box software (which I wouldn't recommend to anyone).

As for what you call the other half of the answer, that's speculation. It's no secret we are being tracked when using apps. If you have one actively tracking you in the background without your permission, that's not the fault of Android. That's either a poorly coded app gone rogue because of a bug, or a malicious app. In either case, I wouldn't want either one on my phone.

 

[Golfdriver97]

I'm sorry but I have to disagree here

A couple of interesting articles:

https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2010/04/multitasking-android-way.html

https://www.howtogeek.com/128130/htg-explains-why-its-good-that-your-computers-ram-is-full/