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Android slows down over time

Just after I boot, android is fast and responsive. But over time android slows down and keyboard have delay.
What to do to prevent or at least reduce this "effect"? I have some Automatic Task Killer and free RAM is constantly above 100MB which means that task killer is doing something. Should I install better one or do something else?
Sent from my X1 via Android app. Sorry for typos.

Do you have GPS active? it doesnt work and android trying to find satellites may be slowing down your device. I dont have this issue and i dont use automatic task killer so free ram is always lesser than yours

Nope, all is off except wifi and phone.
Most annoying thing is that keyboard gets delay. So when you press key there is about 1 second delay between key press and letters show up on the screen. It don't sounds much but when you type something in you have too wait then few seconds for letters to appear on the screen.

have you tried not using the task killer app?

I have deleted all my widgets and shortcuts (my homescreens are now empty) and it's working great. It seems that one of the widgets was causing problems.

Can you tell me how many of the free memory you have?
I have the same thing, after some time Android has only 80-90 of free memory.
After booting, it has 120-130 of free memory.
Maybe i have to do with my wallpaper and widgets too ?

I had always around 100MB, but keep in mind that my task cleaner was automatically cleaning unused apps. But never 130MB

so i have the same :/
i have to check this out. if cleaning shortcuts and widgets will do something i will post it here.

It seems that task killers do more harm than good. I'm using android without task killers and it looks like to be at least as fast as before if not faster. Android System info shows 59MB of memory, but i don't care much because android closes apps automatically when memory is low.
So to smooth up android: have as clean homescreen as possible and don't use task killers.

How to stop "running" and "cashed processes"?

I know that android is very good at handling background processes and ram but I have so many apps that I don't use at all. They consume big amount of ram and for instance, sometimes browser loads pages again when I get back to it from another app. I assume this is because of ram. So I guess, if I can shut down some running apps in the background, available ram would be more.
I can see them at settings-apps-running(or cached processes).
For example, right now in "running" section I have 9 processes and 3 of them are poweramp, awesome beats, accuweather.com and in "cached processes" I have 10 processes and 6 of them are beautiful widgets,calendar storage,google account manager, google search, calendar, google play store. Other processes are system services that I have no problem with. When I go to developer settings-background process limit and block them, there are no cached processes anymore but that probably has a side effect. I wish I could choose which apps I want in the background.
I can shut down these apps manually but every time I restart the phone, they are there again. How can I stop them?

if you rooted, you can use Autostarts or ROM toolbox from the playstore. it can change the receivers of the apps not to start at boot

CooLasFcuK said:
I know that android is very good at handling background processes and ram but I have so many apps that I don't use at all. They consume big amount of ram and for instance, sometimes browser loads pages again when I get back to it from another app. I assume this is because of ram. So I guess, if I can shut down some running apps in the background, available ram would be more.
I can see them at settings-apps-running(or cached processes).
For example, right now in "running" section I have 9 processes and 3 of them are poweramp, awesome beats, accuweather.com and in "cached processes" I have 10 processes and 6 of them are beautiful widgets,calendar storage,google account manager, google search, calendar, google play store. Other processes are system services that I have no problem with. When I go to developer settings-background process limit and block them, there are no cached processes anymore but that probably has a side effect. I wish I could choose which apps I want in the background.
I can shut down these apps manually but every time I restart the phone, they are there again. How can I stop them?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The simple answer is that you don't need to stop them!
As you say, Android is already very good at keeping track of background processes, to the extent that if a new program needs more RAM, Android itself will kill a background process that hasn't been used for a while to free up RAM for the new program.
The Cached processes screen SHOULD be full of recently used programs; it shows that Android is doing what it is supposed to do and is shifting inactive processes out of active RAM in case you want to load it again, without completely dumping the process memory.
Now, as for the side effect you mentioned, that would be a significant hit on battery life. By holding programs in RAM as it is supposed to do, the OS can load the program quickly and cleanly and more efficiently by simply reading the RAM rather than reading flash, writing to RAM, then reading from RAM. The general mantra for UNIX based systems is that unused RAM is wasted RAM.
Another thing to note is that if you do not close tabs when switching active programs (including going to homescreen) then the Browser is designed to hold that tab in memory. Even if you close the Browser (excluding closing the tab specifically with the "little x"). Even if you reboot the damn phone, it will still load the tabs/pages you had open last. The pages are not held in memory as such, just what was open and what tab order, so if you do open the browser after a while, it will load the last page from scratch.
TL;DR version: The running and the cached processes will remain exactly where they are until a new program needs more RAM than is available, at which point Android will kill something to make room. You do not need to do this manually. It will cause more power drain by making very inefficient use of RAM/Flash memory. Empty RAM is wasted RAM.

whilst Chaos is right, I notice severe performance drops when ram is filled, despite Androids theoretical advantage. It doesnt work...
Best to prevent from loading altogheter.
Root, lose warranty, backup apps, uninstall or freeze apps so the bloatware is removed.
For others, change autostart settings in Romtoolbox. So they wont start on boot.
Search for safe stuff to delete. There are lists for that
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk 2

Or just dont install the apps that you dont really need.
Via GtN7000

LoVeRice said:
Or just dont install the apps that you dont really need.
Via GtN7000
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol, even then you might still need to remove bloatware lol
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk 2

Thanks so much for detailed answers.

[Request] Process manager/Task manager

I am wondering if we have a task manager/process explorer app for Nexus 4? Currently I am using AirDroid v2 that includes a task manager, but I am looking for one with more options.
I travel a lot & would like to kill as much unwanted applications running in the background as possible to conserve battery.

There is no more need to use task killer to manage android systems any more. You will be doing more harm than good, in fact there is no good in killing tssks manually.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using xda premium

Point noted.
But when I use Airdroid task manager, I see a process when the corresponding app is not running the background.
To mention a few; Cut the rope free, stocks & Hill climb racing.
Few system process like picasa uploader, chrome etc.
As you said andoird may optimize most of them, but I would like some control when running thin on battery.

mohan_168 said:
I am wondering if we have a task manager/process explorer app for Nexus 4? Currently I am using AirDroid v2 that includes a task manager, but I am looking for one with more options.
I travel a lot & would like to kill as much unwanted applications running in the background as possible to conserve battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
use greenify https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.oasisfeng.greenify&hl=en to hibernate any persisting apps/processes (except system). apps relaunch when you open them.

Killing apps and then having to reload them actually uses more battery than them being dormant in the background and already loaded when called upon. The problem is when you have misbehaving apps that stay in the foreground eating up cpu, instead of going dormant into the background. And this does happen. I use an app called Watchdog that alerts me when this happens. It allows you to kill the app when this happens. It also allows you to whitelist and blacklist apps and processes.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

main phone setting, apps, running.. default task/process manager. in the top right will be an option to show cached process as well.

simms22 said:
main phone setting, apps, running.. default task/process manager. in the top right will be an option to show cached process as well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We all know that is there. The op mentioned wanting more options, mainly monitoring and kill options.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

mohan_168 said:
I am wondering if we have a task manager/process explorer app for Nexus 4? Currently I am using AirDroid v2 that includes a task manager, but I am looking for one with more options.
I travel a lot & would like to kill as much unwanted applications running in the background as possible to conserve battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
fernandezhjr said:
We all know that is there. The op mentioned wanting more options, mainly monitoring and kill options.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4 Beta
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
fast reboot(free), but the paid version i like better https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.greatbytes.fastreboot&hl=en

rayiskon, I will try greenify & let you know how that helps.
fernandezhjr, I agree restarting app is not an optimal way, but I require to squeeze battery to atleast make phone calls when I am away from charging options.
simms22, fast reboot looks promising. I'll try the free one for now and take it from there.

It's kind of already been said, but I want to clarify as much as possible.
Apps running dormant in the background (using RAM) use no more power than if it weren't running. This is because all of the memory you have is being refreshed all the time, the controller has no idea whether there is actually data there, it still refreshes the entire space of memory.
Apps running "dormant" but using CPU do use more power than if it weren't running. I assume OP is wanting some sort of monitoring app that shows which apps are using CPU, in which case is fine. If OP is wanting to kill all apps that he isn't using at the time to conserve battery, then he would actually be doing the opposite of what he wants, as it requires to CPU to spin back up to restart it later. Again, the difference here is RAM vs CPU, one doesn't use battery (or rather, uses the same amount of battery, no matter how much of it is being utilized), and one can use more or less battery depending on how much it's used.

Johmama said:
It's kind of already been said, but I want to clarify as much as possible.
Apps running dormant in the background (using RAM) use no more power than if it weren't running. This is because all of the memory you have is being refreshed all the time, the controller has no idea whether there is actually data there, it still refreshes the entire space of memory.
Apps running "dormant" but using CPU do use more power than if it weren't running. I assume OP is wanting some sort of monitoring app that shows which apps are using CPU, in which case is fine. If OP is wanting to kill all apps that he isn't using at the time to conserve battery, then he would actually be doing the opposite of what he wants, as it requires to CPU to spin back up to restart it later. Again, the difference here is RAM vs CPU, one doesn't use battery (or rather, uses the same amount of battery, no matter how much of it is being utilized), and one can use more or less battery depending on how much it's used.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the detailed explanation. I understand killing process, shutting down cached process or apps & later restarting them is only going to fire up the CPU usage which completely defeats the purpose of conserving battery.
Though not a daily ask, at times I am stuck in situation where a phone call or SMS is all I need to keep me going.

How much of a difference does closing apps make?

Hi, i'm thinking of buying an HTC one and i can't wait for it and i wonder how much of a difference does closing apps make in terms of battery life because it is obvious that having apps running in the background makes the OS feel a lot faster and if it's a minor downside than i'd rather have the upside of having those running in the background.

Hahaahahahahahahahahaahaha. Closing them neither increases battery nor makes the system feel faster... Have you come from an iPhone? (It doesn't make a difference on iPhones either)

nope im coning from glaxy nexus and it does make a difference in it though

According to what I've read, the newer android systems freeze the apps while in the background. I don't know what apps you'd keep open in the background, though. The only one I have keep running is my browser.

Im asking that if im surfing on net and then have to go somewhere, do i have to close apps and then put the phone in my pocket or is just locking your phone and putting it in your pocket is fine.

battle1 said:
Im asking that if im surfing on net and then have to go somewhere, do i have to close apps and then put the phone in my pocket or is just locking your phone and putting it in your pocket is fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just lock the phone and put it in my pocket. Does fine for me. I get awesome battery life. Usually your screen is what eats up your battery anyways, again I say usually ;p (always an exception somewhere). Out of all the android phones I've had, this one has the best battery life. Not saying there aren't better, but I can go a whole day with moderate use and still have a little juice at the end of the day. Now granted, if you were playing music, you may want to stop that first, but I figured that was common sense...

battle1 said:
Im asking that if im surfing on net and then have to go somewhere, do i have to close apps and then put the phone in my pocket or is just locking your phone and putting it in your pocket is fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just minimize it to the recent apps tray, you can just restore the app where you left off ... Android manages apps extremely efficiently so you don't need to close them, force stop them in settings, use a task manager or any of the above. It actually drains your battery more to kill apps and have them start again, especially system apps that constantly run, than it does to just leave them running.

when you pause an activity (hit the home button, rather than the back button - or venture off to a different activity)
The app does not continue running, however it does preserve the application state (as long as dalvik doesn't kill it, due to higher priority memory allocation requests)
Apps can launch background services, which are NOT paused in the same way (depending on how they are created, of course). In order to force kill all services associated with an app, you'll have to use the app manager.
---
As far as performance/battery impact:
- You'd think "Oh, if i pause 50 apps then i'm going to run out of memory?" NO - the dalvik will kill them in the order it deems necessary to ensure a certain amount of memory is always free.
- This also means you cannot count on a paused app ALWAYS being where you left it off. In the middle of writing an important email? pause the app, go look something up in chrome, and come back to the email it MAY or MAY NOT BE where you left it off. (The dalvik could have killed it)
- Paused apps do not account for any CPU time, therefore there is no battery impact.
Services MAY account for cpu time depending on what they're doing - and they will run even when the app is killed depending on how they were registered.

So even in my Galaxy Nexus it's actually better if i don't swipe all the recent apps?

[Q] Trouble with RAM management?

I got my Xperia Z1 about a month ago, and I've noticed some issues with RAM management (or possibly under-optimized third-party apps). Although I haven't had much luck in replicating the problem, I noticed it happen a few times after a Firefox internet session, or after playing a graphically intensive game like Dead Trigger 2. The app would either close by itself (not crash, as in, there were no error messages), or, after I'd close it, I'd notice my launcher (Nova Launcher Prime) go into a restart loop. A quick glance at the running apps section in settings shows 50-100 MB of free ram, and all "constantly running" apps (launcher, viber, zooper widget, k9-mail, swiftkey, tasker, etc.) stuck, for want of a better phrase, in a restarting loop (due to lack of ram I guess).
I tried running Fast Reboot (a task killer) to see if I could regain stability of the system, but it kills only a few system tasks, freeing up to a measly 50 MB of RAM, which makes me wonder (in aggravation) just where the RAM is being used. The only way the running apps would stop closing and restarting (and I need the launcher stable) is to reboot. I'm not sure if the system would stabilize after x minutes, as I only waited for a minute or two before rebooting so that I could open another app/game.
I'm not trying to start yet another debate on necessity of used RAM on Android and efficiency/futility of task managers/killers, but what I described above really seems like poor RAM management to me. I've had a few android devices in the past, and experienced various problems /errors, but never something like this.
Has anybody had a similar issue, or have any tips?
My Xperia Z1 C6903 is currently running on rooted stock 14.2.A.0.290

Although i dont get force closes, but ive noticed most of the ram is taken by the phone itself, right now for me it says i have 1.1gb in use, when i close everything i have just a slight (barely even noticeable) increase in free ram, when i click on cached processes and close all one by one ive seen it increases the ram use instead of decreasing it?
But, do you use apps like setcpu? You can keep it on performance and keep the min slider to the lowest and the max slider to max, it runs stable and gives you performance when you need it, and no performance when you dont need it.
If all fails, try deleting system apps that you barely even use or need... Becareful what you delete tho!

mobzw995 said:
Although i dont get force closes, but ive noticed most of the ram is taken by the phone itself, right now for me it says i have 1.1gb in use, when i close everything i have just a slight (barely even noticeable) increase in free ram, when i click on cached processes and close all one by one ive seen it increases the ram use instead of decreasing it?
But, do you use apps like setcpu? You can keep it on performance and keep the min slider to the lowest and the max slider to max, it runs stable and gives you performance when you need it, and no performance when you dont need it.
If all fails, try deleting system apps that you barely even use or need... Becareful what you delete tho!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply. No, I've used apps like that in the past, but haven't installed anything similar on the Z1, because I noticed in BetterBatteryStats that the CPU speed goes down often when the screen is off, and up when, I suppose, it's required, such as in intensive games...

What apps do you use? For example facebook, YouTube, browser etc
Ive checked again on my cached apps and to my surprise, AOSP browser takes up 208mb!
Facebook takes up 48mb, and youtube takes up 22mb.
It just depends on the apps you have installed, some use the ram even while the phone is asleep.
Ive stopped those and a huge difference was made on freeing up my ram!
What i dont get is tho why sony advertises 2.2ghz quadcore if the phone itself takes most of it?
Just delete the apps you dont need from "all apps".