Prevent auto-close of background app. - Galaxy S I9000 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi,
I use a web radio application that does not use a tray icon, which means that androids built in RAM manager will close it if there's little RAM availible.
How can I prevent this? I don't care if the phone becomes choppy. I want to be able to listen to radio and browse the web at the same time.
Ideally I want to exclude this one particular app from any RAM management.

Related

GN browser issue

Hi All,
was if others are experiencing the same issue i am having?
when i am using the stock internet browser on the GN, (having couple of tabs opened).
i open another app or do something on the phone eg, listening to music or some using other apps,
then I go back to the browser again but this time the browser is closed, none of the tabs are there, feels like the browser restarted.
It keeps happening to me and i cant figure out the cause of it.
does anyone has similar or the same issue i am experiencing?
thanks
mr11gt said:
Hi All,
was if others are experiencing the same issue i am having?
when i am using the stock internet browser on the GN, (having couple of tabs opened).
i open another app or do something on the phone eg, listening to music or some using other apps,
then I go back to the browser again but this time the browser is closed, none of the tabs are there, feels like the browser restarted.
It keeps happening to me and i cant figure out the cause of it.
does anyone has similar or the same issue i am experiencing?
thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what apps are you swapping between?
the galaxy note may have 1gb of ram, but it doesnt keep a lot of it free. mine normally has something like 350mb free with the widgets i use. when i run my browser with 3-4 pages with a lot of pics, it uses up about 150-200mb of ram. if i then run a game like shadowgun or dungeon defenders, it will use up a lot of ram as well. to keep the system from running out of ram, gingerbread will shut off any background apps using a lot of ram, in this case, the browser. hence you'll lose your tabs because the browser will restart when you reopen it.
i havent had any issues with it crashing when listening to music though. my poweramp only uses like 20mb ram. ive only really had it happen when im gaming and browsing.
the only solutions are to minimise desktop widgets to maximise free ram, and possibly swap launchers to one that will use ram more efficiently. auto task killers are useless since they send most apps into reboot loops which will drain the battery, but if your device is rooted, you can always use titanium backup to freeze apps and processes you never use (ie. weather widget).
Souai said:
what apps are you swapping between?
the galaxy note may have 1gb of ram, but it doesnt keep a lot of it free. mine normally has something like 350mb free with the widgets i use. when i run my browser with 3-4 pages with a lot of pics, it uses up about 150-200mb of ram. if i then run a game like shadowgun or dungeon defenders, it will use up a lot of ram as well. to keep the system from running out of ram, gingerbread will shut off any background apps using a lot of ram, in this case, the browser. hence you'll lose your tabs because the browser will restart when you reopen it.
i havent had any issues with it crashing when listening to music though. my poweramp only uses like 20mb ram. ive only really had it happen when im gaming and browsing.
the only solutions are to minimise desktop widgets to maximise free ram, and possibly swap launchers to one that will use ram more efficiently. auto task killers are useless since they send most apps into reboot loops which will drain the battery, but if your device is rooted, you can always use titanium backup to freeze apps and processes you never use (ie. weather widget).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi
thank you for getting back so quick...
yeah i do run an large amount of widgets...
currently i've only got about 200mb spare on the
i've try reducing the amount of widget and see if that resolves the issue my browser being closed automatically...
thanks again..

RAM problem. Please help!

Hi everyone!
While watching youtube videos specifically, I notice I get a lot of lag and waiting time for videos to play. When I Go into my "Task Manager" on my note, it displays 600-700MB of 747MB being used. When I "clear memory", it drops down to about 400. How can I keep it lowered? I find videos load faster when the RAM is lower. How do I know which programs are running in the background continuously? thx
markmessier8888 said:
Hi everyone!
While watching youtube videos specifically, I notice I get a lot of lag and waiting time for videos to play. When I Go into my "Task Manager" on my note, it displays 600-700MB of 747MB being used. When I "clear memory", it drops down to about 400. How can I keep it lowered? I find videos load faster when the RAM is lower. How do I know which programs are running in the background continuously? thx
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Goto settings->Applications-->Manage applications then click the running tab. You can see a list of running programa. You then can close the programs you do not need.
Oh I did that but they seem to pop right back up in a minute later
You need to Freeze them.. i mean not system processes but unwanted bloated processes.. use titanium backup and freeze them..
If you want to monitor your background i would suggest System Panel. another app called Fast reboot also not bad..

[Q] Streak 7 honeycomb sound issue

Was wondering if anyone has had this problem that i have and if there is a fix for it. I am using the stock rom and when i play podcasts or music in general in any app i want to multitask and research what im listening to but honeycomb seems to kill the task and its stock nothing to make it do it i want it to play audio in background while im surfing the browser or other areas but it just kills task.
That might depend on the app. I know that TuneIn Radio will play in the background. In fact, at first I wondered why it didn't stop.
reply
guessing thats normal then since it doesnt do it in other apps. i tried doggcatcher and beyondpod but it kills them must be an app problem but they say its not. oh well
Maybe you need to change priority of your app to Foreground? But sound likes really this app doesn't support playing in backgr
Duskycub said:
guessing thats normal then since it doesnt do it in other apps. i tried doggcatcher and beyondpod but it kills them must be an app problem but they say its not. oh well
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not a heavy podcast listener- but for what it's worth-
I use the google listen app for the ones I do listen to...it works for listening while browsing... I'm running stock HC on my ds7 as well.
the ram for the dell streak 7 available is only 256mb, and HC 3.2 was setup so that it automatically close the task in background if it run out of memory.
the only fix is that go to development in settings menu and uncheck the box "close background apps"

[Q] Things to know before beginning a music player app for WP8

First of all, hello to everybody. I have just joined xdaDevelopers.
To business now..
I recently bought my first Windows Phone (Nokia Lumia 520). One of the reasons for getting it was for developing my own WP8 apps.
I would like to start with a music player app - one that can play mp3 files from phone memory and SD card; arrange songs according to name, albums and artists; create playlists; have capabilties of fast foward and rewind (seeking); and recognise album arts.
What do I need to know before I can start building it?
I have zero experience in app development; I am a web designer.
I noticed that there are very few "polished" music players (which function properly as well as have a nice UI) in the WP store. Any particular reason for that (other than the platform being relatively new)?
I created this post mainly because the lack of quality music players appeared a bit strange to me. I have heard that a particular file type can be accessed by only one app (please correct me if I am wrong). So does it mean that one has to somehow uninstall the default music player in order to use the newly downloaded one?
For instance, I have "Adobe Reader" which can read PDFs from my MicroSD card. But the "PDF Reader" app (which I installed just yesterday) cannot even find them! So I had to uninstall the latter.
So I wanted to know if there was something about WP8 that doesn't allow such things - if these "security measures", which render apps like file managers less useful, are also responsible for the lack of music players in this otherwise very fantastic platform.
Please note that I come from Android, and am very new to Windows Phone platform. So kindly point out if there's something incorrect about my assumptions.
Thanks and regards.
Hi,
Welcome to Windows Phone. The Lumia 520 is a great choice in my humble opinion. In regards to why there are so few music apps, there are probably several reasons. One such is the fact, that the easiest way to make one is to integrate with the built-in music features, which however limits you in several ways, like not being able to add more file types, not being able to customize the experience too much, playlisting is limit as far as I know, which basically puts you in the position, that the only actual improvement you can do upon that is implementing a new streaming service. The other route is to implement your own music player, but then you're going to have issues making it work in the background (not to mention, that implementing a music player isn't entirely simple).
gdebojyoti said:
What do I need to know before I can start building it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. Make sure you have hardware for it. I recommend a minimum of Windows 8 Pro 64bit, but you can find instructions for Windows 7 on this forum as well. You'll need VT-x support on your CPU, plenty of RAM.
2. Download and install the WP8 SDK.
3. Once you open Visual Studio, you can start by creating a new project, you'll need a UI project (I recommend Windows Phone App or HTML5 App templates) and a music playback project (WP Audio Playback Agent -OR- WP Audio Streaming Agent).
4. For tutorials on how to get started I usually go to Pluralsight.com, because I have a subscription there, and they're plain awesome, but I'm sure there are a bunch of other sources as well, which are for free.
gdebojyoti said:
For instance, I have "Adobe Reader" which can read PDFs from my MicroSD card. But the "PDF Reader" app (which I installed just yesterday) cannot even find them! So I had to uninstall the latter.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have both Adobe Reader and PDF Reader installed, once you tap on a PDF file (say after downloading one in IE) an option should appear for you to select which app you wanna open it with.
gdebojyoti said:
So I wanted to know if there was something about WP8 that doesn't allow such things - if these "security measures", which render apps like file managers less useful, are also responsible for the lack of music players in this otherwise very fantastic platform.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can install and use as many audio/music apps you like, but obviously only one can have the background music feature used at one time. (You can only have one music playing in the background).
Also:
"Developers must pay an annual subscription fee of $99, (this, according to Todd Brix, the General Manager for Windows Phone Apps and Store team, is currently on an ongoing promotion at $19) to become an App Hub member and submit apps to the Windows Phone Store. There's no limit on the number of free submissions for paid apps. There's a limit of 100 free submissions for free apps; thereafter, there's a fee of $19.99 per submission for free apps." - Wikipedia
Hope I helped, and happy coding!
:fingers-crossed:
@TheGoldrocker: Thank you for your reply. It did clear up quite a few things.
As of now, I am okay with "integrating with the built-in music features" as you said.
What I want to do is modify the UI and UX a bit. Some of the features can be as follows -
1. Introducing a scroll bar;
2. Option to get rid of the grouping system by name;
3. Control over the font size;
4. Allowing the currently playing song to continue if I select the song (currently it starts playing from the beginning);
5. Enabling the seeking feature (tapping the timeline of the song so as to play from that point of time);
6. Having a tile feature in the start screen with options to pause, change song, etc (number of options would depend upon the length of the song);
7. Showing the album art of the currently playing song in the tile;
8. Having an animated background in the app (just a wide photo which slowly slides from left to right).
Am I allowed to do the above?
You're welcome.
"Integrating with the built-in music features" doesn't mean you get to rewrite the UI/functionality of the current Music+Videos app. What it means is, you get to use the built-in classes for simplifying music playback in your new app. You'll still have to build up a new UI around your classes, you'll also have to write quite a few lines of code for the playback functionality (but obviously way less than if you tried to write your own music player from scratch).
Now sadly I cannot answer all of your questions with absolute certainty, because I haven't tried writing a music player yet, but I'll give them a shot.
I numbered your list:
gdebojyoti said:
1. Introducing a scroll bar;
2. Option to get rid of the grouping system by name;
3. Control over the font size;
4. Allowing the currently playing song to continue if I select the song (currently it starts playing from the beginning);
5. Enabling the seeking feature (tapping the timeline of the song so as to play from that point of time);
6. Having a tile feature in the start screen with options to pause, change song, etc (number of options would depend upon the length of the song);
7. Showing the album art of the currently playing song in the tile;
8. Having an animated background in the app (just a wide photo which slowly slides from left to right).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. Yes, since you'll have to make a new UI from scratch, and you'll have the ability to include any logic behind it you want.
2. Yes, the grouping can be avoided AFAIK.
3. Same as 1.
4. Same as 1.
5. Don't think so. Someone else with more knowledge will have to answer this to be sure, though.
6. If you mean a tile on the start screen, which, when tapped will play/stop/next/prev/whatever and STAY on the start screen? No. Tiles (sadly) always open a program (even if for only a millisecond). You can use this for deeplinking to favorite songs/playlists/streaming services though, which is cool.
7. Same as 1.
8. Same as 1.
Hope I helped.
Thank you for your reply.
TheGoldrocker said:
6. If you mean a tile on the start screen, which, when tapped will play/stop/next/prev/whatever and STAY on the start screen? No. Tiles (sadly) always open a program (even if for only a millisecond). You can use this for deeplinking to favorite songs/playlists/streaming services though, which is cool.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
By "deeplinking", do you mean pinning songs to the start screen by 'long pressing' on them?
I do hope that Microsoft introduces interactive tiles in some future update. Sort of start screen widgets.
gdebojyoti said:
By "deeplinking", do you mean pinning songs to the start screen by 'long pressing' on them?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Deeplinking is launching an app with a link toward a specific page with parameters. Imagine it as a URL to a specific page on a website. If your app and pages support it, you could tap on a tile (say on the start screen), which opens your app, and instantly navigates to a playlist, album, song, whatever you made that tile link to.
Pinning items to the start screen can be triggered by anything you want. You, the coder, decides how you're gonna allow the user to pin their songs/albums/playlists/artists/whatever.
Here's a little tutorial on this topic:
http://wp.qmatteoq.com/first-steps-...-links/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
Okay, thanks. I'll have a look at that.
To make a media player for windows phone is to know insanity.
Why we no join forces?
There are a couple fo things the guys here forgot to tell you:
You can not read Mp3 files from SD card.
You can not read mp3 files from the user music folder.
You only have access to web resources or your app's isolated storage.
You basically have to engineer a way to get them to the app storage.
mcosmin222 said:
To make a media player for windows phone is to know insanity.
Why we no join forces?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think I have enough knowledge to be able to help you. I am just a beginner.
mcosmin222 said:
You can not read Mp3 files from SD card.
You can not read mp3 files from the user music folder.
You only have access to web resources or your app's isolated storage.
You basically have to engineer a way to get them to the app storage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, that's why I will try to "integrate with the built-in music features". Hopefully it will be okay then.
I am not trying to make the next best thing in the music player app category.
I am just trying to make one which has a slightly different UI and is able to play mp3s.
Sort of a project of mine.
By the way, can someone please tell me if I can use technologies like HTML5 to create this app? Actually I don't know C#.
Or should I learn C# before attempting this app?
gdebojyoti said:
I don't think I have enough knowledge to be able to help you. I am just a beginner.
Well, that's why I will try to "integrate with the built-in music features". Hopefully it will be okay then.
I am not trying to make the next best thing in the music player app category.
I am just trying to make one which has a slightly different UI and is able to play mp3s.
Sort of a project of mine.
By the way, can someone please tell me if I can use technologies like HTML5 to create this app? Actually I don't know C#.
Or should I learn C# before attempting this app?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can not integrate with the built-in player.
There are too many limitations to explain. You will see.
Yes, learn C#
Okay.

F7 [mustang] multi-tasking and swap

Hi there,
I have a rooted 2019 F7 (Mustang) - stock rom - to be honest it's not a great performer but the form factor is spot on. I need a fix or workaround for playing music + browsing at the same time.
I'm struggling to get the F7 to do simple multi tasking for example, playing music via Spotify, or a Radio app whle browsing the web.
I've tried the usual "tricks" to keep Android memory manager at bay, and stop it closing my music in the background e.g:
- a 4gb swap partition in /data/ via apps2sd;
- using termux to create a swap file, both in /data/ and /cache/;
- Using Swapper (root) to create a swap file; and
- various swappiness settings using teh above.
Swap seems to work superficially, as the partitions are shown as free memory whenI run
Code:
free -m
in terminal, however, the amount of memory used suggests the system is not utilising them beyond a few MB over ZRAM.
In any event - is there some clever workaround I can use to either keep my apps music alive / listen adn browse in the same browser etc?
thephatmaster said:
Hi there,
I have a rooted 2019 F7 (Mustang) - stock rom - to be honest it's not a great performer but the form factor is spot on. I need a fix or workaround for playing music + browsing at the same time.
I'm struggling to get the F7 to do simple multi tasking for example, playing music via Spotify, or a Radio app whle browsing the web.
I've tried the usual "tricks" to keep Android memory manager at bay, and stop it closing my music in the background e.g:
- a 4gb swap partition in /data/ via apps2sd;
- using termux to create a swap file, both in /data/ and /cache/;
- Using Swapper (root) to create a swap file; and
- various swappiness settings using teh above.
Swap seems to work superficially, as the partitions are shown as free memory whenI run in terminal, however, the amount of memory used suggests the system is not utilising them beyond a few MB over ZRAM.
In any event - is there some clever workaround I can use to either keep my apps music alive / listen adn browse in the same browser etc?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Best solution IME is a 192MB (or so) swap file in the /cache partition with priorities set to favor the exiting 64MB ZRAM based swap. Set swappiness to ~10 and call it a day. Spinning up a huge static swap partition in /data won't help (will likely have the opposite effect) as the low-end eMMC overtaxes the annemic processor on large comprssion/decompression tasks. The small static swap gives the ROM some 'breathing room' which reduces most lags/stalls on boot and wake from sleep. Better but not great.
Browsing is particularly taxing on this device (albeit typical behavior on a low RAM gizmo). Might try a browser that renders in the cloud like Opera Mini or Opera w/data saver enabled. Stick to a tab or two and use the integrated ad blocker (I prefer VPN based blockers but that's OT). Even with those measures browsing will be a painful experience if the tab is doing anything else that actively utilizes limited resources. Good luck.
I'll give that a go. Two things:
My system reports 256mb Zram - is that compressed into 64mb or something?
Opera mini doesn't work on the Fire 7, nearest I found is puffin - which is heavy slow and buggy
thephatmaster said:
I'll give that a go. Two things:
My system reports 256mb Zram - is that compressed into 64mb or something?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My error; forgot Mustang defaults to 256MB ZRAM on FireOS v6. That could part of the problem when fully utilized as it reduces available uncompressed RAM which is much faster given the low end processor which must handle compression/decompression. Note ZRAM only consumes as much RAM as needed. A tool like DiskInfo will give a graphical readout of utilization.
thephatmaster said:
Opera mini doesn't work on the Fire 7, nearest I found is puffin - which is heavy slow and buggy
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try the full version of Opera with 'data saver' enabled. In that mode it operates much like Opera Mini from a workload and memory footprint perspective. Mini works fine on the hardware; FireOS v6 is the bad boy (likely missing libraries).

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