why is there so much memory leak

[Rickbubello]

Why is there so much memory leak with this phone? In about 4 hours I might go back to blackberries because of this issue. I dont open up single program and when i check on task killer or any other task manager things are running and Im down to about 40 mb with lagginess. I close everything, close task manager and put my phones display to sleep with around 89mb free. Give it 5 minutes and things are back up and running and the phone because increasingly slow to use. I have about 5 programs installed on the phone and just find this everyday usability quite cumbersome. With the blackberry tour or storm2 if you close programs out, your running around 130mb-140 free at all times (my experience) and I never dealt with such random lag and programs opening on their own..

Any advice before I sell this beautiful screen and go back??

 

[Jared DiPane]

The Android OS runs differently then the BlackBerry OS does. The Android will manage its own memory for you and close applications in the background that you are not using.

Now the lag, how bad is it, and is it all the time, or while certain programs are running?

I have a lot installed on my Droid, and the memory fluxuates just like your saying but I never notice lag. Also, the memory doesnt bother me, its just a number, there is plenty of free memory on the device, and it will balance accordingly.

 

[mjesenovec]

What apps are you running? i dont have any memory leak issues at all. It could be a bug in one of your apps. Instead of jumping ship and giving up on the phone, i would uninstall non-essential apps one by one, and see if one of them in particular is causing your issue.

 

[Jared DiPane]

The memory is not truly leaking. If you can end a task and get the memory back, it hasn't leaked.

 

[Rickbubello]

but then the task immediately opens back up on its own. Ive noticed this with 3 different droids ive owned over the last month and having absolutely no third party programs installed. Lag is when I use the phone for any extended period of time- going on the web (site doesnt matter) to just typing out a text message

 

[Roy Aguilera]

Unlike the BB the phone recycles memory (what you see missing will eventually come back on its own).
I recall being at 5MBs at time with the BB cause of programs really leaking memory.
If the programs you are killing are Corp Calendar and other unused apps (in some cases Facebook, Amazon MP3, Visual Voice Mail...ect). You can always root and permanently delete them.

 

[entwined82]

Stop using a 3rd party task killer/manager. The only one you need is built into the phone under Settings, Applications.

 

[dboss007]

I'm a new Droid user and I've noticed this at times as well. What usually corrects this for me is checking and clearing my browser and Touchdown (email) cache's. For some reason, the phone won't do this on its own and even though I have over 200MB left in memory, this seems to cause some lag on my phone. Once I do this, everything is usually back to normal.

Does anyone know why the phone doesn't have a 'set limit' for the amount of memory held in each cache? Or maybe there is and I'm missing it?

 

[sethjk]

Stop worrying about the number- it's not important. With respect to laggyness, it's probably a badly coded app.

The droid monitors its own memory therefore you don't need the 3rd party app to do so. Also, the 3rd party apps will show some apps that aren't actually running. They're called "empty processes." The process is not actually "active," but is just a little piece of information that the system uses to open application faster when you launch it again. It is possible to "kill" this process, but it won't free up any real memory in the way most people think it will.
Cardio Trainer is one example of an App that does this.
https://sites.google.com/a/worksmartlabs.com/help-center/

 

[ridavid81]

thats the problem with people who install task managers. they become obsessed with the amount of available memory. one reason i left blackberry because it didn't know how to handle memory management.

for android i installed a task manager and took it off about 2 weeks later. the phone runs better without it, there it no lag at all and android handles memory just fine.

stop looking at available memory and just use the phone and enjoy its features or go back to blackberry and enjoy taking up to 2 minutes to load a basic webpage on their horrible browser.

 

[diverbelow]

but then the task immediately opens back up on its own. Ive noticed this with 3 different droids ive owned over the last month and having absolutely no third party programs installed. Lag is when I use the phone for any extended period of time- going on the web (site doesnt matter) to just typing out a text message

As a former BB Storm 1st gen user, I also had to get used to the fact that my Droid is better at managing it's own memory as it is based on Linux. Also, there a ROM and RAM. One is for the OS and the other is for installing apps.

As someone said, there will be certain apps that if you close like Amazon, Corp calendar, or standard email they will always come back, unless you root your phone and either delete them or rename them.

 

[nickf126]

I must agree with the others who have posted. Do not rely on task killers. They are not needed with the Droid. As far as Alps reopening, that is to be expected and is normal. Lose the task killer and don't sweat it. Enjoy the phone.

 

[BoNg420]

Dont go to blackberry, horrible OS, same OS all the time. It is most likely an app you are running, also I don't run a task killer all the time, I only open it when I need to shutdown soemthing, which is rare, then I kill the task killer. Task kilers were causing problems on my phone in the past. I have no lag at all ever on my phone. Occasionally FC's, but those are rare. Im on droidmod 1.0.

 

[Adawg1203]

I have to agree with most of the previous comments. I too had the ist Gen Storm and all it did was leak memory. The Droid memory is NEVER a concern and never has to be looked at comparatively speaking. The great thing about the droid is you can install programs and walk away. I would be more concerned about installing a program that is killing your battery versus the memory. I do not use a task killer and my droid runs better that way. I have 22 downloaded apps all from the market and my droid runs just as fast as it did when I got it.

 

[Roy Aguilera]

Sounds like we all agree that its the Task Killers fault.

 

[acidsamuraix]

I came form BB Storm. Once I got out of the BB mindset of free memory and open programs = battery loss, my Droid actually got faster and more battery efficient.

When I would kill tasks and have minimal homescreen widgets/icons, my battery would drain in a day.

Now I have all 3 home screens full, at least 4-5 autoupdate widgets (weatherbug, touiteur, 2 WoW armory widgets, facebook), and i get about 1.5 days charge and very little if any lag. Deleting ATK was great, i never worry about memory or open programs anymore, and it works great.

Let it go, and keep you battery door on...its the Android thing to do.

 

[mclarryjr]

I haven't had lag since I used my storm. The droid is so much faster then any blackberry like everyone else saying get rid of your task killer and don't worry about memory let your droid handle it. It did take me a week to find that out myself but I much happier not always looking at the memory.

 

[claustin]

I also came from the Storm and I find it rather amusing somebody is claiming a memory leak problem on the Droid. Storm vs. Droid is like night and day. Nobody could beat the BB OS on memory leak issues.

 

[sethjk]

I came form BB Storm. Once I got out of the BB mindset of free memory and open programs = battery loss, my Droid actually got faster and more battery efficient.

When I would kill tasks and have minimal homescreen widgets/icons, my battery would drain in a day.

Now I have all 3 home screens full, at least 4-5 autoupdate widgets (weatherbug, touiteur, 2 WoW armory widgets, facebook), and i get about 1.5 days charge and very little if any lag. Deleting ATK was great, i never worry about memory or open programs anymore, and it works great.

Let it go, and keep you battery door on...its the Android thing to do.

I'm also coming form a first gen storm though that's irrelevant.

How do you get 1.5 day charge? Do you use your phone during the day? I can get about a full day, but that's the extent. I kill my battery by reading my newsfeeds on the subway in the morning using news rob. Though, lately, I've been turning off sync while I'm at work because I'm online anyway. That's conserved some battery.

 

[acidsamuraix]

my charge generally lasts from 9:00am to about 8-9pm the following day. At work, I read my gmail (mostly just deleting), check any blocked feeds on my phone (mostly funny/crude humor sites) using the google reader site. I also use the web when i get home and not on my computer.

Thing is that I almost never use my phone for actual talk time. Maybe 30-40 mins a day at most, with bluetooth connection on, but i propmtly turn everything off except sync from the power control.

Backlight is always at 10% because if i actually need anything brighter, i just use the power control widget on my home screen.

So I'm not on it all day, but I use it a pretty good amount throughout the day. At work I am always in front of a computer, but email and many websites are blocked, so i still use the phone for those things.