Slow loading home screen

[somnambulator]

Whenever ive been off the home screen for a while (ie in an app) and hit the home key it takes at least 5 seconds for all the icons and widgets to load. upon hitting Home i see my wallpaper, google search bar at top, and the app drawer button, but all widgets, app icons, and home bar shortcuts (left and right of app drawer) are blank. after about 5 seconds everything pops up right away and all at once.

It started doing this a week or so ago and ive since removed all widgets and it hasnt helped. i cant remember if i installed any apps since then... anyone else see this?

 

[jephanie]

I've noticed that occurring more frequently over the past week, actually. I don't know what's causing it either.

 

[elvisgp]

Are you guys using chrome as a browser or doing some other heavy tasks on your phone? If u are, that's probably what is causing the home screens to constantly refresh. All of the memory is being used by the heavy apps, so it pushes the launcher out of memory.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

 

[jephanie]

Are you guys using chrome as a browser or doing some other heavy tasks on your phone? If u are, that's probably what is causing the home screens to constantly refresh. All of the memory is being used by the heavy apps, so it pushes the launcher out of memory.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

Come to think of it, it does seem to coincide with the installation of Chrome. I don't use it that much but it seems like a good time to remove it...

 

[kpoverdorf]

That's interesting. I have been seeing the same behavior and I bet your are correct about Chrome. It started to happen soon after I installed it. It doesn't happen often enough to make me remove chrome though. I think they will update Chrome to fix that issue.

 

[jerrod6]

I am using chrome and have not noticed this behavior.

 

[somnambulator]

i installed chrome about the same time i started seeing this, gonna uninstall and see how out goes.

 

[Andrew Martonik]

i installed chrome about the same time i started seeing this, gonna uninstall and see how out goes.

Its not Chrome, its any app that will use a lot of RAM.

Android decides at some point that the app you're using in the foreground is more important than keeping your widgets loaded on your homescreen. So when you exit, the launcher has to re-draw.

Some 3rd party launchers let you "keep home in memory" to try and hold onto the launcher longer when Android is low on resources.

 

[somnambulator]

Its not Chrome, its any app that will use a lot of RAM.

Android decides at some point that the app you're using in the foreground is more important than keeping your widgets loaded on your homescreen. So when you exit, the launcher has to re-draw.

Some 3rd party launchers let you "keep home in memory" to try and hold onto the launcher longer when Android is low on resources.

ok makes sense. i never saw this until recently tho, and i havent installed anything new besides chrome (now uninstalled - no difference). ive been using the phone in the exact same way. why is this happening now when it didnt before?

 

[ammarmon]

I've started having this issue and it is happening more often. Has anyone else determined if it is a specific app or process? I'll admit I'm a bit of an app junkie and have quite a few on my GNex but I can't seem to figure out what is causing it to happen.

Important to note I'm totally stock. Been planning on stepping up to the big boy table and rooting but haven't had the time as my days run from 7a-11p. I also don't use Live Wallpapers and don't have that many widgets either.

I do use a lot of folders to organize my apps.

Thanks!

 

[JediJesus95]

I've noticed if my RAM gets below 150 MB available then I have a greater chance of having the home screen re-draw itself. A reboot clears it up and I try to do a reboot every few days anyways.

 

[Undertoad]

Someone once said this to me in 1991 and it's still true today: "Rebooting a Unix system is like giving it a bowl of bran."

(Unix -> Linux -> Android)

 

[blaze214]

nothing is helping my EVO LTE, i have tons of ram free and i have tried to reboot and restart many times. i sure do wish i could do a battery pull

 

[ammarmon]

I started experimenting with deleting apps to see if that helped After I deleted Lookout and Locale it improved and did not happen again. I added back Lookout to see what would happen and after a few hours it happened again. I deleted and added back a few times with the same results. I know that experience does not match the majority when reviewing the ratings but that has improved things for me.
Still going to try Locale and see what happens.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Android Central Forums

 

[alcor34]

I was having some performance issues as well. Removed Chrome and all went back to being good.

Even if i wasn't using it, it's background services were sucking my GN dry.

 

[sephiroth_4]

Try Settings
Developer options
deselect "Don't keep activities"

I have chrome and all kinds of madness installed, but this setting gave me the slow home screen when returning from any app.

 

[Phenziox]

@sephiroth_4 thanks an awful lot my friend. this worked and i can start enjoying my HTC Desire C again! Thanks really

 

[somnambulator]

i was having slowness again last week, which was a few months after flashing to 4.04 a few months back. I randomly found that my 2 gmail accounts were set to sync all mail with my phone, going back forever or something ridiculous. if so, that would have been probably 100k emails...i changed it to 3 days like i used to have and it was fast again. not sure if it was coincidence or not. i wasnt trying to find the reason for the slowdown but i noticed it was back to normal shortly after adjusting gmail's sync

 

[birdcatcher]

Thank you sephiroth_4! Settings, developers options, deselecting "don't keep activities" solved the problem for me.

 

[vikingvista]

It happens to me every time, and only when, I return to the home screen from Chrome. I've never had that developer option checked. Doesn't happen with any other browser or app.