how to close all open apps at once?

[PeltFrelken]

Close all windows

Why doesn't Marshmallow allow you to close all windows with one-tap? Like the OnePlus One, for example. Seems like an easy & useful feature.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[N4Newbie]

Re: Close all windows

Easy, yes. Useful? No.

Under the Android OS, there is no good reason to be concerned about open "windows" and lots of good reasons to not close them.

 

[Trigati]

Re: Close all windows

Exactly. Under early versions of Android, killing tasks may have been necessary, but since ICS, ram management is handled extremely well by the OS. Closing all windows will only end up making Android *inefficient* at its job.

 

[zorak950]

Re: Close all windows

Also closing windows in the app switcher doesn't close them anyway.

 

[hal1]

I know I can hit the box to open all my apps and then I can close out of them by swiping or hitting the X, but there must be a way to close all of them at once? I'm sure it's something obvious that I'm missing.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Aquila]

No, there isn't. Android closes them automatically when it needs to.

 

[doogald]

I know I can hit the box to open all my apps and then I can close out of them by swiping or hitting the X, but there must be a way to close all of them at once? I'm sure it's something obvious that I'm missing.

Posted via the Android Central App

Power off the phone and power back on. That's the only way.

As previously posted, there is no reason to close all apps at once. Android isn't Windows.

 

[1901Madison]

Download Greenify from the app store. That will let you close all apps at once. However, I agree with everyone who has said that it is not necessary, and maybe even a bad thing, to always close out of your apps. Android regulates its memory and resources better than you can.

 

[hal1]

Maybe I'm not getting it. I thought the square app button shows all open apps? Or is it just most recent used apps. When I press it, this is what opens, even though I used the 'exit' option, when available, when closing each of these.

 

[Aquila]

It is a recent app list, not all are open. Android automatically closes what it needs to do there is no reason to force close it exit apps unless you are troubleshooting a very specific performance issue.

 

[hal1]

Okay, that was my confusion, I thought they were open apps.

 

[kmf1]

The Samsung Galaxy S6 has a Close All option when you open the Recent apps. While it isn't necessary to close these, I wonder what amount of memory would be consumed if a year or more goes by without cleaning up the Recent apps tray?

 

[doogald]

The Samsung Galaxy S6 has a Close All option when you open the Recent apps. While it isn't necessary to close these, I wonder what amount of memory would be consumed if a year or more goes by without cleaning up the Recent apps tray?

What else will the memory be used for if not running apps?

Don't worry about it. Android handles ram usage just fine. If an app is consuming resources, of course close it. Otherwise, just let android manage it.

 

[Aquila]

The Samsung Galaxy S6 has a Close All option when you open the Recent apps. While it isn't necessary to close these, I wonder what amount of memory would be consumed if a year or more goes by without cleaning up the Recent apps tray?

While this is sort of a backwards question, as it implies that you want to use less memory (which while true in Windows, is not true in Linux and Android), I don't think the number would be very large. The system is always going to be using some RAM to do its background processing and the ideal situation is for it to use as much as possible to either hold apps in RAM or be able to front load the runtime processes and have just enough left over to fluidly facilitate dynamic switching between threads when the use switches tasks (ie, returns to home, opens a new app). Android will automatically free up whatever resources it needs in order to seamlessly accomplish these tasks - and it will do so with what it believes to be an optimal ratio of working vs ready RAM.

If we make the assumption that a person is going to open any given app approximately X times per day - it is definitely less RAM intensive (and less resource intensive overall) for the app to be held in RAM and re-accessed without having to start it up anew each time. While ART (Android Run Time) does take some of this inefficiency out of the equation by doing much of the processing the first time an app is installed/accessed (and accessed per boot), there is still an efficiency loss when closing an app and reopening it versus freezing it and reopening it. Most apps are meant to behave in the dynamic resource management environment and can misbehave when constantly closed and re-opened - which makes users think that they need to "restart it" by closing and reopening it and/or rebooting - and the cycle continues. Letting things handle themselves is much better.

And again, the recent apps tray isn't a list of open or "cached" apps, it is a list of apps that have been opened recently. Clicking on one does one of two things: 1. If the app was recently opened and is still held in RAM, it will be re-opened where you left off. 2. If the app was closed by the dynamic resource allocation processes, it will open the app. Both of these actions take place exactly in the same manner as if you clicked on the icon from the home screen or app drawer - unless you have taken action to close the app otherwise (back out of apps that code for that, selecting exit from a menu, force closing it, etc).

 

[Forest Dane]

Re: Close all windows

Easy, yes. Useful? No.

Under the Android OS, there is no good reason to be concerned about open "windows" and lots of good reasons to not close them.

I find it annoying to have lots of open windows in the app switcher or whatever it's called.
I've gone back to using tabs in chrome though to minimise that, perhaps the OP could try it?

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[LeoRex]

Re: Close all windows

Also closing windows in the app switcher doesn't close them anyway.

I closes the app that's running... Not associated services, but the app gets nuked.

 

[N4Newbie]

Re: Close all windows

I find it annoying to have lots of open windows in the app switcher or whatever it's called.
I've gone back to using tabs in chrome though to minimise that, perhaps the OP could try it?

Posted via the Android Central App

I agree about reverting to tabs in Chrome - but not for the reason given. Frankly, I don't need for anyone who picks up my phone to easily see hundreds of recent browsing sessions...

But as for the app switcher, I have so rarely used it that I honestly don't see the point of it. Every app I use with any regularity is no more than two taps away - the important ones are in folders on my home page - and so returning to a particular app is always going to require more effort through the app switcher than simply locating its icon and tapping.

 

[metallifan33]

Re: Close all windows

I used to have an LG G4 and whenever it would start to lag, I found that closing all the apps, powering the phone completely off and then back on always helped speed things back up a bit. I always assumed it was because it "cleared the cache" or something. Are you saying that Android will automatically close an app if it needs more memory?

 

[metallifan33]

Re: Close all windows

Also closing windows in the app switcher doesn't close them anyway.

I don't understand this. I closed out the AC app I'm using to type this (in the app switcher window) and when I launched the app, I had to re-navigate back to this thread like I opened the app for the first time. So if it doesn't close the app, what's it doing?

 

[zorak950]

Re: Close all windows

I don't understand this. I closed out the AC app I'm using to type this (in the app switcher window) and when I launched the app, I had to re-navigate back to this thread like I opened the app for the first time. So if it doesn't close the app, what's it doing?

Think of it like a web history. It's just keeping track of where you've been and giving you a shortcut back: it's not actually keeping things running.