Annoying apps.. please help!
roeder3
Newbie

There are very few apps that I use on my phone.  Any time I open Advanced Task Killer I see tons of apps that apparently just start on their own constantly. 

 

Amazon MP3

Skype Mobile

VZ Navigator

Visual VM

 

I do not use these.... is there a way to remove them or atleast a way to prevent them from starting up and using my battery.

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Re: Annoying apps.. please help!
bearx16
Contributor - Level 1

Welcome to the Android world run by VZW.  Outside of the apps you installed removal/deleting is not possible without altering the phone, something that can't be talked about here, and voiding you warranty.

 

I still don't understand the concept of adding apps to the phone without the option to accept or decline the apps.  OS/SW updates I understand.

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Re: Annoying apps.. please help!
budone
Legend

They will not kill the battery. But ATK constantly killing them only to return will burn up the batteries juice very quickly. I have an app called System Panel. It will show the CPU usage for anything running. Those, 'running' programs are not using any resources or a miniscule amount.

 

I say dump the task killer.

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Re: Annoying apps.. please help!
RonNYC
Newbie

I have a VZW Droid. Generally I like it a lot; easy to use, etc. EXCEPT for the huge number of totally useless apps that startup by themselves (and not only at restart time). My Droid runs Amazon MP3, Skype, Stocks, CityID, Uploads, Voice Dialer, Flickr, Facebook and others. They can be TEMPORARILY stopped with one of the task killer apps but only for a few minutes. (And the startup modification apps don’t work at all.) If you go into Manage Applications->Services and stop, say, Skype, you will get a message box saying it will stop until you start it up. That of course is a lie. None of these apps can be stopped.

For the life of me I can’t figure out why they are running. As far as I can tell, even if they are running, the only way I can access them is to tap on the icon. So what is the incredible advantage of having 20 apps running I cannot access anyway vs the  drain on the battery? (My battery lasts less than a day)

 

CityID is one that mystifies me in that if I want to use it, I have to pay, and I'd day it pops up about 3x per week.

 

 

I have gone around and around with VZW about this and the best I have been told is that someone will (maybe) submit my complaint to a design team.

 

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Re: Annoying apps.. please help!
budone
Legend

Do not stress, be obsessed, or worry about, "Running" apps. They use zero resources while sitting there. If you do not believe me, download the app, "System Panel Lite" that will show how much system resources they have used while sitting there.

 

Continually attempting to shut down those apps, only to have them turn back on just kills your battery.

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Re: Annoying apps.. please help!
RonNYC
Newbie

Perhaps; I'll see. But why do they run? I have to tap the icon to access them, so what is the advantage? And CityID keeps coming up. For me, ths is my phone. I can destroy it if I want to. Why should all this crap, and they are pure crap, run?

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Re: Annoying apps.. Please help!
budone
Legend

The reason they "run" is due to the OS being Linux based.  Unlike Windows where every program will have all the info needed to run, Linux is more compact in that if a program needs a particular piece of info to run, instead of each program having duplicate info, Linux looks for another program that has the info needed to run. That is why you will see the apps on the running list. They are simply supplying info for another app to run.

 

As for City ID. after I had my phone for 15 days, those messages quit. This is a app I will shut down so when it restarts, I still see where the call is originating.

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Re: Annoying apps.. please help!
DukeArchon
Newbie

Apps running use a vital resouce called: Memory.  Which is shared between memory, and onboard storage.  Since VZW is screwing Ally users at least about the Froyo update, apps can not be insalled to the phone.  I'm sure this is an issue with any other users locked to 2.1.

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Re: Annoying apps.. please help!
budone
Legend

Those app are in ROM not RAM, so memory is not an issue. And those apps if not being used are using literally ZERO resources.

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Re: Annoying apps.. please help!
demmo86rt
Champion - Level 3

You can also go to menu>settings>about phone>battery use and see a list of what has used how much of your battery. These items are a percentage of the battery that has already been used. Most likely display, android os, and cell standby will be near the top, as well as any apps that you have used a lot of. The apps you are worried about killing your battery will probably be hanging, at max, around 1-2%, and thats probably only if you are using a task killer to constantly force them to restart. If you are worried about memory being "used up", you have been hanging around Windows too long. Like budone was saying, Android sees free memory as wasted memory, so apps are loaded up to not waste memory. If an app is not being used, and more memory is needed, it will be removed. Let your phone run for a few days, hopefully without turning it off and definitely without killing any apps, especially using an autokill function.  If you use enough other apps, enough times, you can pull up your trusty task killer and those apps will probably not even be on the list.  When i first got my Eris, I heard that you were supposed to use an automatic task killer and ran it religiously because amazon mp3, twitter, and a couple apps were "running" for no reason.  When I started looking at information on android, I found several forum threads and websites that said this was an exercise in futility, so i quit using it.  After a while, i would check on my task killer (which i left installed, but rarely used) and those apps wouldn't even show up, ever.  Android, while still new and developing, is written very well and will eventually "learn" how you use your phone.

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