Database Users

What the **** is up with the ram?

On the nexus one there is about 500 mb of ram. Whenever I put my phone on and I kill all my tasks, I only have 120 mb. This is not the biggest problem because after about 30 minutes of using the phone, no matter if I kill all the apps, the ram goes to 70mb - 79mb.

Android 2.2 should fix this.
Or you can use a custom ROM such as cyanogen, with which i have over 230MB free RAM after closing apps

There are already a million and now one threads on this subject, search and you shall find all you could ever care to know about the subject.

You should be using the RAM, not freeing it. The only way you lose battery is if the Application/Widget is downloading or using the CPU/GPU. On your PC, do you go to task manager and kill apps every time?

I know it's a hard habit to kick coming from a G1 where it seemed necessary. But on a Nexus, you really don't need to. The only times I have to use it are when an application hangs.

What the **** is up with everyone not wanting the memory in their phones/computers to be used? That is what it's for! If its not being used it is going to waste.
If you guys are using task managers you have failed.

lol chillout!
People are obviously fine with it and welcome not to moan on the internet to people about not being able to use it.
Install a custom ROM if you want to dry your tears about not being able to use the extra RAM.

mets3214 said:
On the nexus one there is about 500 mb of ram. Whenever I put my phone on and I kill all my tasks, I only have 120 mb. This is not the biggest problem because after about 30 minutes of using the phone, no matter if I kill all the apps, the ram goes to 70mb - 79mb.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Killing apps is 100% unnecessary on the Nexus One.
It actually wastes MORE power to kill apps and have them restart all the time, than it does to just leave them alone.
For the next week, uninstall all your task killer apps.
Then tell us how it went.

Ram goblins got to your ram, oh noes!

I'll answer his question. currently the nexus one only has half of the 512mb of RAM freed up, so you only have 256 mb right now. the next update is freeing up the other half.

RogerPodacter said:
I'll answer his question. currently the nexus one only has half of the 512mb of RAM freed up, so you only have 256 mb right now. the next update is freeing up the other half.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, you're right we didn't really directly answer his question I guess. But the point is, people shouldn't be looking at the free memory measurements anymore. Anything that isn't being used by applications will be used by the operating system for caching and other such things (this is a good thing). As soon as another applications starts up and needs that space, the kernel will give it up. Free memory doesn't use less power than memory that is in use by a sleeping process.
While you are correct that not all of the current memory of the device is addressable with the current kernel, when this limitation is removed in the next update (assuming it will be) it still wont solve the OP's problem. All it is going to mean is that even more memory will be taken up as cache space and buffers by the kernel and applications will be closed down even later so you'll still see a pretty small amount of "free" memory. If close to half of the RAM is going completely unused, then that's a lost opportunity by the kernel to cache or prefetch something.
Don't use task managers. They aren't needed and provide nothing. All they do is give fodder to the Steve Jobs' of the world that claim you need to manually micro manage memory on android devices as evidence by the number of people that use them.

Nerd rage much?

So just to clarify, apps don't really "run" in the background, they are just more readily available if they have ram dedicated to them? I'd rather not use a task manager but if it saves any of this pathetic battery I would sacrifice some performance...

DMaverick50 said:
So just to clarify, apps don't really "run" in the background, they are just more readily available if they have ram dedicated to them? I'd rather not use a task manager but if it saves any of this pathetic battery I would sacrifice some performance...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only thing task managers do is kill your battery. If you find that your phone is sluggish , doesn't respond well etc, uninstall some bad apps. Some apps aren't coded very well and remain active all the time killing your battery. Having an app checking all the time if another app is killing your battery is also killing your battery.
Bottom line: Don't use a task killer unless you find it absolutely neccesary to keep your phone running at decent speed.

DMaverick50 said:
So just to clarify, apps don't really "run" in the background, they are just more readily available if they have ram dedicated to them? I'd rather not use a task manager but if it saves any of this pathetic battery I would sacrifice some performance...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Look at the link in my signature, it'll explain how the android system manages programs.

V6 Supercharger

So do you guys use it and what does it exactly do? And also what does 3g turbocharger and kick ass kernel tweak do?

Basically everytime the memory drops below the thresholds set by v6, the system will start killing of apps running in the background which frees up memory that you most probably aren't using, Im currently on the aggressive settings so everytime my memory drops below 150mb the system starts killing apps. Its basically just tweaking the internal task killer to be slightly more aggressive. It also locks the launcher so the system cannot kill it if the memory drops too low.
The 3g tweaks, I think adjust or add some settings to the build.prop which supposedly make it faster although I haven't noticed much difference with that and the kernel tweaks I'm not too sure where the changes are made but again I don't see a great change from it. Definitely recommend v6 supercharger though.
Sent from my HTC Wildfire using xda premium

Scratch0805 said:
Basically everytime the memory drops below the thresholds set by v6, the system will start killing of apps running in the background which frees up memory that you most probably aren't using, Im currently on the aggressive settings so everytime my memory drops below 150mb the system starts killing apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great. Let's take 150MiB of RAM and then don't do anything useful with it. Processes aren't supposed to be killed unless you actually run out of memory.
Scratch0805 said:
It also locks the launcher so the system cannot kill it if the memory drops too low.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That seems innocent, but it won't help you if the launcher has a memory leak. If the launcher kept getting killed, it was telling you that your low memory thresholds are too high. Under normal circumstances, the launcher won't get killed. But if it grows too much, it'll get killed and the OS won't crash.
When you force close an application through the application manager, it shows you a warning. There's a reason for that (exactly what it says). And since Android 2.2, the framework can take care of itself just fine. No need for any 3rd party task killers.

Lol..... Thought you'd have something to say on it, actually mate the way my phone is usually setup there is nothing running in the background to kill anyway, thanks to autostarts I only have apps running that I need and make sure that I close things properly after use, so it really doesn't matter which settings I use whether they be low such as 30mb before it starts killing the first lot of empty apps or high such as 150mb as my setup rarely drops below because there is only the bare minimum running in the first place.
Sent from my HTC Wildfire using xda premium

Allright, it's not that RAM would slowly wear and tear by using it but at least you're not buying that it's better for performance. And I just wonder how these apps are made, as a thought experiment to figure out the mindset of whoever wrote this task killer.
...So let's make an app which looks real cool and doesn't do anything useful in particular! Wait, no one would download that! Hmm... Oh, I know! Let's call it "V6 Supercharger"! Yeah, that sounds awesome! Now people will download it for sure! It's the coolest thing since sliced bread!
It's the same with those programs like "Registry Booster". How did that happen? Someone must've woke up one day, turned on his PC, started poking in the registry, saw lots of keys which aren't really strictly necessary but are there anyway and thought like "Hmm, what if I made a program which removes all these unneeded keys? MS-Windows would be ZOMG faster!!111eleventyone". Then made it look real slick with a custom skin and a speedometer showing progress and say at the end that the registry has been "boosted". And since this guy is such a nice fellow, he threw in some extra free toolbars into the mix as well. Users always appreciate having more toolbars to click on and agreements to ignore.
Ok, I'll stop ranting now. Enjoy your week

Try explaining that to the dev who created it here. Honestly, it would be better, because, I am pretty sure most members here are not as technically inclined as you.:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=991276

You're just setting him up so I can tear him apart... aren't you?
The poor bastard doesn't even know what it is... he thinks it's a task killer app... heh

No, I would like him to discuss all the technical aspects with you. Because, clearly, he's wasting his effort as a developer here educating non-technical people like me, and the majority here on the Wildfire Forums.
And before you accuse me of trying to set people up, I can assure you I have nothing against you / your script or anything. Rather, I have used your script, and came away impressed with it.

I know you you weren't doing anything like that... I'm always putting down these clowns that think that suffocating the phone is good... idiots lol
Like I say, what the hell good is phone if you can't make a call because of some crap hogging the ram?
Besides, I doubt very much he has any technical skills at all... like I said before, he doesn't even know what it is so he's not very techinical

dud3me said:
what does it exactly do?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It makes you feel good.
And I definitely noticed a 0.00001ms speed difference when opening apps.

Another liar

zeppelinrox said:
Another liar
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Click to collapse
Yeah lol. Most people in this forum are wannabe developers who know **** about developing but they like to act like they do. Apart from few people who actually know stuff and the others like me who acknowledge the fact that we don't know anything

Fact is, those who know they don't know learn more than those that think they know it all
Less than a year ago, I knew 0 about android.
And when I started the supercharger script, I knew nothing about linux scripting.
Just started off with a few commands and everytime I wanted to try something new or add something... I googled it up.
And I'm still figuring it out.
For example, I set my 256mb device to have 25mb free with the number I use in slot 3.
So whatever memory tool I use will show I have 25 or 30mb free... great - that's what I want
But when I was doing up the recent update and enhanced the Fast Engine Flush, I wanted to show before and after using the "free" command.
To my surprise, system tuner shows that I have 30mb free while the free command shows I have only 5mb free!
So what's that mean? Why that difference of 25mb?
It means that all that "free ram" is actually being used for cache.
And it's giving me speed
So to those that think it's great to have ram clogged with apps when the system is starving for space to use for cache...
BOOYA!

Really have trouble using your scripts and I think after enabling 3gturbotweak thing my 2g data isn't working haven't tried 3g.

I can't recall it affecting 2g... so I assume 2g used to work (I don't get 2g - it's unavailable)
But if you unturbocharge, the 2g/3g goes back to normal, no?

zeppelinrox said:
I can't recall it affecting 2g... so I assume 2g used to work (I don't get 2g - it's unavailable)
But if you unturbocharge, the 2g/3g goes back to normal, no?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I had to format system data and cache and wiped everything and now it's working again so I'm not completely sure if it was the turbocharge thing.

The idea that you can magically "supercharge" your OS by freeing up memory is fundamentally flawed.
what the hell good is phone if you can't make a call because of some crap hogging the ram
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If this is really a problem on your phone, you're doing it wrong. I haven't done anything to free up ram and the amount of ram available on my wildfire is currently 108,48MiB. I start 10 random apps, Angry Birds, and Angry Birds Rio. 40,68MiB still free. I start Angry Birds Seasons and end up with 49,66MiB free and 9 apps died, including the first angry birds. Running out of ram is in general not a failure mode of Android and at no point was I unable to place a call. I close the 2 remaining open instances of Angry Birds the normal back-button way, 147,68MiB free.
I'm always putting down these clowns that think that suffocating the phone is good... idiots lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just wanted to quote that.
And when I started the supercharger script, I knew nothing about linux scripting.
Just started off with a few commands and everytime I wanted to try something new or add something... I googled it up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's exactly the impression I had. Now take it from someone who has run Linux both embedded and on his desktop for the past 12 years. Your app doesn't improve anything, and I'd be glad to be proven wrong because you would've actually made a discovery we can use to improve Android and Linux with. From your post I understand it you change vm kernel parameters such that the oom killer is invoked sooner. This is actually detrimental to the stability of the OS, the oom killer is only meant to be invoked as a _last_resort_. The Android framework has its own means to free up memory, including calling onLowMemory in any application and doing a gc run. This does not cause instability and is completely transparent to the user. I've only ever had to manually kill applications in a broken state and others for debugging purposes, which is why the Force Close button exists.
It means that all that "free ram" is actually being used for cache.
And it's giving me speed
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If the output looks anything like this:
Code:
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 3456 3325 131 0 10 93
-/+ buffers/cache: 3221 235
Then you've just never bothered to look. You can clearly see in the second line it makes a calculation for you which is exactly what it says in the leftmost column. And of course completely disregard the fact that cached pages are invalidated on a write (marked dirty) and reads from an mtd are really fast already anyway.
So to those that think it's great to have ram clogged with apps when the system is starving for space to use for cache
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is not how it works! For starters, ram cannot be "clogged". A drain pipe can be clogged but ram is made of digital circuitry, not plumbing. And second, there is no resource starvation in the page cache. It's just an old optimisation to keep data pages in memory for longer to serve repeated reads and give them back whenever they're needed for something else. More apps in ram can actually mean less reads are necessary because the data is already there (especially if you tend to switch between recent apps). Since Android 3.0, application developers are encouraged to use Loaders which cause filesystem I/O to be performed on a background thread. And applications which actually use the available ram always trump applications designed to use as little ram possible in performance. Between a collection of loaded objects and a cached filesystem, the collection always wins. You have 256 to 512 MiB of RAM in a typical Android device. The average application is 18 to 30 MiB. It can manage. Especially when you consider the fact that the UI only shows 1 task at a time and pressing the back button usually destroys the activity you were in. The gc takes care of its remains.
Now here's something which will actually improve write speeds on /data: Open up settings, applications, manage applications. Sort by size. Remove the biggest apps you don't need and move the rest to SD if you can (you can use "pm setInstallLocation 2" as root to move non-froyo-aware apps to SD). I've been using the market a lot lately so I just removed aDosBox, Albert Heijn, PocketCloud, Pulse and moved Dolphin Browser to SD which meant 47.25MiB free on /data. On a 175MiB partition, 30% of it is about 52MiB so I'd try to keep the available space around 50MiB. If your phone is low on storage, doing this will perceivably improve performance.

dud3me said:
Well I had to format system data and cache and wiped everything and now it's working again so I'm not completely sure if it was the turbocharge thing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same thing happened to me, but every time i turned 3g on the phone rebooted and i got stuck in a bootloop, i had to use the ruu update to restore phone.
I would stay away from the network tweaks. It doesnt improve speed anyway.
Sent from my HTC Wildfire using xda premium

henkdv said:
The idea that you can magically "supercharge" your OS by freeing up memory is fundamentally flawed.If this is really a problem on your phone, you're doing it wrong. I haven't done anything to free up ram and the amount of ram available on my wildfire is currently 108,48MiB. I start 10 random apps, Angry Birds, and Angry Birds Rio. 40,68MiB still free. I start Angry Birds Seasons and end up with 49,66MiB free and 9 apps died, including the first angry birds. Running out of ram is in general not a failure mode of Android and at no point was I unable to place a call. I close the 2 remaining open instances of Angry Birds the normal back-button way, 147,68MiB free.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
All that you said is very informative.
What are your minfrees?
Set them to something like 6, 12, 16, 18, 26, 30.
Run a bunch of apps...
See how great it runs then
Fact of the matter is, user's with 1GB ram devices notice a real improvement.
Not placebo.
Pressing the home or back button has an instant effect without hesitation - which indeed happens on stock roms.
Yes in theory I'm sure it all makes sense and I apologize for using layman's terms such as "clogging".
An android phone is not a Linux PC so I believe it's not a great idea to configure it like it is a Linux PC.
They have difference purposes.
Anyway, in theory, a bumble bee can't fly - but it does.

[Q] Ram ?

May i ask why is the ram used always 500-600 / 776 even after closing all programs? Is this normal?

Yes, it is normal, but with touch of some devs we could get more
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

Honestly, the fact that a lot of RAM is being used is a good thing. Think about it. If you have loads of free unused RAM, then that's just really high speed memory that isn't being used to make your system and apps run and load faster.

Jade Eyed Wolf said:
Honestly, the fact that a lot of RAM is being used is a good thing. Think about it. If you have loads of free unused RAM, then that's just really high speed memory that isn't being used to make your system and apps run and load faster.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
make sense but somehow looking at that amount of ram use doesn't seem to justify the speed i feel
Well, maybe just get use to it and hope it gets better after some nice update

The only problem of too much used ram is that the garbage collection on the the Tab7.7 is quite bad and needs to be tweaked once you have 50mb free ram it starts to significantly slow down till the low memory killer decides to kick in.

elsonhwx said:
make sense but somehow looking at that amount of ram use doesn't seem to justify the speed i feel
Well, maybe just get use to it and hope it gets better after some nice update
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I not sure how many times this needs to be repeated, but the lag is due to honeycomb and touchwiz, and likely won't change till ICS arrives.

Jade Eyed Wolf said:
Honestly, the fact that a lot of RAM is being used is a good thing. Think about it. If you have loads of free unused RAM, then that's just really high speed memory that isn't being used to make your system and apps run and load faster.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Except that most of it is filled with bloatware that most of us won't even use.
I hate how Android decides for me what it will load. I have no control of it and that is annoying. I wish it was more like a PC where you can uninstall the crap you don't want and be shut of it for good.

DaveC1964 said:
Except that most of it is filled with bloatware that most of us won't even use.
I hate how Android decides for me what it will load. I have no control of it and that is annoying. I wish it was more like a PC where you can uninstall the crap you don't want and be shut of it for good.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A windows 8 tablet might give you just that and I would assume the modding community for it will be bigger.

DaveC1964 said:
I wish it was more like a PC where you can uninstall the crap you don't want and be shut of it for good.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can... root it (takes around 2 minutes) and use Titanium Backup to freeze or even uninstall system apps.

Richdog said:
You can... root it (takes around 2 minutes) and use Titanium Backup to freeze or even uninstall system apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
which apps can be freeze ?
Thank you

might as well try installing autostarts app so you will have control on the app that will run on certain event, such as during boot up, when wifi is turned on etc. saves ram and loading times (during boot up not the app themselves)

I just uninstalled a bunch of stuff, about 61 APK's this includes apps that I will never use and widgets that I dont use that auto starts.

koofaa said:
which apps can be freeze ?
Thank you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is a very good question. Whats apps could safely be frozen that wont interfeer with the operation of the tab. Everytime i clear ram using the stock task manager it closes over 20 apps, i would like to know what they are and if i really need them.
Sent from my GT-P6800 using xda premium

Mine is always used maxed at 650mb.. If I clear them, it will go down to 420.. sometime even 380..

650MB sounds about right as we only have 766MB of usable mem, andriod tends to keep between 75-95mb of free ram for god knows what.

i just get tired of stupid TouchWiz to kill my browser or Reader each time i go to Home launcher and open something else

Richdog said:
You can... root it (takes around 2 minutes) and use Titanium Backup to freeze or even uninstall system apps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried that on my phone and it ended up freezing the GUI somehow (even though I only froze bloat) so I could no longer use the phone at all. I had to reflash the FW through odin and set up all over again. What a pain. I am a bit aprehensive to freeze anything now.

which system apps that we suppose to freez and it's save??do you have any suggestion??
Sent from my GT-P6800 using xda premium

i am having some issues with the ram - it gets to a point where the device becomes unresponsive using around 750 mb of ram - not sure exactly why and i dont always have alot of apps open - i am forced to hold the power button down and restart - i am rooted running the magnolia tab 1.1 beta - i dont remember if this was happening before i rooted / running this rom - i am not running any widgets at all now and it is still happening - anyone else having this issue ?

I suspect the missing ram may have been stolen by the Mali graphics adapter. I'm not certain but since this is a SOC there isn't any place to put ram so it just nicks done system ram. It seems like a lot to go missing but texture can be pretty large these days.
Sent from my GT-P6800 using Tapatalk

[Q] How often does your RAM go over 90% used?

I've been using this app for the past few weeks:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cleanmaster.mguard
and it seems like every other day or so, it warns me that my RAM use is over 90%?
Maybe the reason why Samusng put 3gb of RAM on this phone is because the software is so bloated?

Neo3D said:
I've been using this app for the past few weeks:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cleanmaster.mguard
and it seems like every other day or so, it warns me that my RAM use is over 90%?
Maybe the reason why Samusng put 3gb of RAM on this phone is because the software is so bloated?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's normal, and infact good.
When you close an application, it leaves a bit of footprint in the RAM. So when you open it the next time, it opens faster. Incase the RAM starts running out, android removes the earlier apps from it.
Stop blaming Sammy for just about everything.

Neo3D said:
I've been using this app for the past few weeks:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cleanmaster.mguard
and it seems like every other day or so, it warns me that my RAM use is over 90%?
Maybe the reason why Samusng put 3gb of RAM on this phone is because the software is so bloated?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i have the same app and ive been on cm11 for weeks never had to use it not like when i was on tw sometimes 2/3 times aday

jaythenut said:
i have the same app and ive been on cm11 for weeks never had to use it not like when i was on tw sometimes 2/3 times aday
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is it safe to use these app killer things or should we just let Android take care of it automatically? I thought I read somewhere that these things are bad and can make corruption?

Over 90%? I rarely go past 50%... Perks of running CM11

I rarely go past 50 and I use a TW based ROM..

radicalisto said:
I rarely go past 50 and I use a TW based ROM..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm using stock TW on Tmo and I go over 90% at least every other day if not more

Might wanna check what apps you are using and have installed. Uninstall apps you don't use etc.

If you have root you can freeze apps you never use and I disagree it doesn't affect the system performance. On a boot up just about every application loads into memory and that's plain stupid, since most of those apps I never ever use. I was actually shocked when I looked at application manager and everything was loaded into memory. It was main reason I rooted my phone, to freeze all the garbage and bloat on my phone. You can also delete some of the stuff, but it gets little complicated if you delete wrong app and then other things don't work no more. I don't know if they load all programs into memory because of "just in time" compiler, another idiotic idea, why compile program once, when we can compile and waste time, every time we start the program. When new, my phone would use about 70% of memory right from the boot and would go to 90% over time, now I freeze just the most obvious stuff and start at 40% memory load. There is a spreadsheet listing all apps, what they do if they can be safely removed, it could help you get better control of your phone.

pete4k said:
If you have root you can freeze apps you never use and I disagree it doesn't affect the system performance. On a boot up just about every application loads into memory and that's plain stupid, since most of those apps I never ever use. I was actually shocked when I looked at application manager and everything was loaded into memory. It was main reason I rooted my phone, to freeze all the garbage and bloat on my phone. You can also delete some of the stuff, but it gets little complicated if you delete wrong app and then other things don't work no more. I don't know if they load all programs into memory because of "just in time" compiler, another idiotic idea, why compile program once, when we can compile and waste time, every time we start the program. When new, my phone would use about 70% of memory right from the boot and would go to 90% over time, now I freeze just the most obvious stuff and start at 40% memory load. There is a spreadsheet listing all apps, what they do if they can be safely removed, it could help you get better control of your phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which spreadsheet do you mean? Is it an accurate spreadsheet as to what we can freeze? Oh, do you need root to freeze?

pete4k said:
On a boot up just about every application loads into memory and that's plain stupid, since most of those apps I never ever use. I was actually shocked when I looked at application manager and everything was loaded into memory.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
^ This
I've just recently installed boot manager(requires root + xposed framework) to combat this very problem. It doesn't stop system apps from starting just user downloaded ones. TBH I haven't noticed any effect on the battery or the speed of the phone. Just when I restart, the phone has more free memory.
Sent from my SM-N9005 using Tapatalk

I was on 4.3 MJ1 rooted and every day I would go up to 90% as it would notify me on the bar to clean.
Now I'm on 4.4 NA6 rooted and I don't get the popup anymore, the 340mb RAM bump is quite useful.

nicholaschum said:
the 340mb RAM bump is quite useful.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What does that mean? KK uses 340mb less RAM?

Neo3D said:
Which spreadsheet do you mean? Is it an accurate spreadsheet as to what we can freeze? Oh, do you need root to freeze?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
here is the spreadsheet listing apps, what they do and if they're safe to remove or freeze, it is not complete but good starting point. Just be careful, don't touch stuff you're not sure about.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2470862
Since Google, just like Crapple thinks all their users are idiots and should be saved from themselves, yeah you need to root to just do anything on your phone. You can go to Application manager and force close programs you don't use without root but:
1. you need to do it every time phone starts one by one
2. some programs will restart by themselves anyway
When you freeze, you do it once and that's it. ROM Toolbox has pretty much all you need.
As far as 4.4 goes, yep you may get some RAM back but pretty much loose access to your SD card, if you have one, something like going from shower into the rain

Neo3D said:
What does that mean? KK uses 340mb less RAM?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You get more RAM on KK. 340mb more.

nicholaschum said:
You get more RAM on KK. 340mb more.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But KitKat disables the micro SD card?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2613816

Neo3D said:
But KitKat disables the micro SD card?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2613816
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
MicroSD works on mine. Maybe its because of different variants. But I run custom ROM X-Note 8.0, and most of my media is in MicroSD.

Neo3D said:
But KitKat disables the micro SD card?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2613816
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
KK introduces new permission for SD card usage that breaks writing to SD for most 3rd party apps, you can fix it if you're rooted or run custom ROM, like above poster, but I don't think there is a way to root KK without tripping Knox flag and so you may be loosing your warranty.
I'm rooted on 4.3 and my flag is x0, so for me this is the way it will have to stay.

denski101 said:
^ This
I've just recently installed boot manager(requires root + xposed framework) to combat this very problem. It doesn't stop system apps from starting just user downloaded ones. TBH I haven't noticed any effect on the battery or the speed of the phone. Just when I restart, the phone has more free memory.
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Just to add to this.
Here's another app I've been using to clear ram.
Advanced Task Cleaner Pro (doesn't require root)
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bright.taskcleaner
The advantage this app has over the regular way of clearing ram is that you can create an auto-kill list, which will stop apps from reloading back into the memory after being killed. It will show system as well as user apps and processes currently running.
Digging through the settings there's also a setting to clear ram on system startup(non-root alt to boot manager)
I myself have never got the "full or almost full" memory notification, so I quess I've never maxed out the ram. I think most of these memory/app killing apps(including the one above) are aimed at low and middle tier mobiles which don't have sufficient memory to cope with multitasking and background processes, without stuttering and slowing to a halt.
Since my battery life is good, and I'm more than happy with the phone's speed, I haven't got a real need to clear the memory all the time. I have a habbit of closing apps after using them, although leaving apps in the background and/or not clearing memory after closing will result in faster opening times. There are quite a few claims that these ram killer apps save massive amounts of battery and what not, from my end I don't see this, although its important to check for yourself and come to you own conclusions.
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CM11 High RAM Usage

I've noticed lately that CM11 is using abnormal amounts of memory. It doesn't slow my phone down all that much, but it's just bothering me because I know its not supposed to. Before I got this G2, my S3 ran CM10.2 and it used a ton less memory (between 4 and 600mb).
And from what I know, KitKat is supposed to use less resources.
I also have a normal amount of processes running. Just basic apps like Snapchat, Kik, Voice and Voice+, and all the normal Google services that always run. I even uninstalled FB cause I barely use it and at any given time it would be using up 70mb, and it made no difference,
I cant just keep killing my apps cause they reopen automatically. Even when I do, it doesn't even make a temporary difference. Even when I kill the cached apps.
Its just really bothering me. Any suggestions?
I have a couple screenshots.

free ram = wasted ram

sawyerbenjamin said:
I've noticed lately that CM11 is using abnormal amounts of memory. It doesn't slow my phone down all that much, but it's just bothering me because I know its not supposed to. Before I got this G2, my S3 ran CM10.2 and it used a ton less memory (between 4 and 600mb).
And from what I know, KitKat is supposed to use less resources.
I also have a normal amount of processes running. Just basic apps like Snapchat, Kik, Voice and Voice+, and all the normal Google services that always run. I even uninstalled FB cause I barely use it and at any given time it would be using up 70mb, and it made no difference,
I cant just keep killing my apps cause they reopen automatically. Even when I do, it doesn't even make a temporary difference. Even when I kill the cached apps.
Its just really bothering me. Any suggestions?
I have a couple screenshots.
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The amount of free ram looks fine. That's what I get on my end with stock LG G2
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It bothers me so much that people still don't know how Android runs and manages resources.
It's not Windows, it's not MacOS, it's Android, it allocates everything on the RAM so that it can be accessed faster, and this improves load times, multitasking, etc.
Free RAM is pretty much wasted RAM and please, do not install task killers nor kill tasks manually. Android does it alone and does it better. Whenever it needs free RAM it will shut down something that's not being used and haven't been used in a long time to free that RAM up.

As two others have stated, free RAM is wasted RAM. I only have about 600mb of RAM free on the Optimus G3 ROM.

prowsterz said:
As two others have stated, free RAM is wasted RAM. I only have about 600mb of RAM free on the Optimus G3 ROM.
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I hope I don't sound stupid. It's just more of an OCD thing. Just a couple days ago and prior to that, my phone stuck around 750-850mb. Now its using a over a gig 100% of the time and its just bothering me. I figured there was an actual reason for this. Maybe its from Xposed modules? I never noticed it until I started using Xposed a couple days ago.
But its not a big deal I guess.

sawyerbenjamin said:
I hope I don't sound stupid. It's just more of an OCD thing. Just a couple days ago and prior to that, my phone stuck around 750-850mb. Now its using a over a gig 100% of the time and its just bothering me. I figured there was an actual reason for this. Maybe its from Xposed modules? I never noticed it until I started using Xposed a couple days ago.
But its not a big deal I guess.
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If you're not having actual performance issues as a result, then don't worry about it. If you always have X amount of free RAM, then you don't need that RAM. As has already been stated, free/unused RAM is wasted RAM. Something most people don't understand about how computers work is that storage and RAM and two completely separate things. Storage is just that - STORAGE. Nothing runs directly from storage. RAM is where things run. When you - or the system - goes to run an application, it gets read from the slow storage and loaded into the much faster RAM and runs from there. This is why more RAM is better (notice I didn't say more free RAM). It allows more applications to be cached in RAM ready to run fast - or to keep more services loaded to allow for more cool features.
More RAM is better, but if you're always clearing it out to keep X amount free and then reloading the same apps again, you are doing yourself no favors from a performance perspective. I am sure you have plenty available at all times for the system to load new apps. It will kill them on its own either when it needs to, or when it sees that haven't accessed that app after a certain amount of time.

rebar71 said:
If you're not having actual performance issues as a result, then don't worry about it. If you always have X amount of free RAM, then you don't need that RAM. As has already been stated, free/unused RAM is wasted RAM. Something most people don't understand about how computers work is that storage and RAM and two completely separate things. Storage is just that - STORAGE. Nothing runs directly from storage. RAM is where things run. When you - or the system - goes to run an application, it gets read from the slow storage and loaded into the much faster RAM and runs from there. This is why more RAM is better (notice I didn't say more free RAM). It allows more applications to be cached in RAM ready to run fast - or to keep more services loaded to allow for more cool features.
More RAM is better, but if you're always clearing it out to keep X amount free and then reloading the same apps again, you are doing yourself no favors from a performance perspective. I am sure you have plenty available at all times for the system to load new apps. It will kill them on its own either when it needs to, or when it sees that haven't accessed that app after a certain amount of time.
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I am 100% fully aware of what Random Access Memory is and what purpose it serves, and I can distinguish it from storage. I know far more than the very basics of a computer. I was just wondering what was using all the extra RAM up. It was bothering me because prior, my phone was using a lot less. Idk why you assumed I didn't understand what RAM and storage was.

sawyerbenjamin said:
I am 100% fully aware of what Random Access Memory is and what purpose it serves, and I can distinguish it from storage. I know far more than the very basics of a computer. I was just wondering what was using all the extra RAM up. It was bothering me because prior, my phone was using a lot less. Idk why you assumed I didn't understand what RAM and storage was.
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Read your own post again and see if you can figure out why i thought it needed explaining.
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rebar71 said:
Read your own post again and see if you can figure out why i thought it needed explaining.
Sent from my LG-D801 using XDA Free mobile app
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Yeah I didn't mention storage once.

sawyerbenjamin said:
Yeah I didn't mention storage once.
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EDIT: No, you didn't mention storage. But just by asking the question, people generally are demonstrating a clear lack of understanding about how computers work. I usually just keep quiet, but every now and then, I feel compelled to fully explain it in the hope that the topic won't return. Alas, it always does.
I apologize that you were the unlucky one that I singled out on this occasion. I did not mean to offend. I thought I was being helpful. Maybe I helped someone else.
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