Newbie question - do I need to be running these services? Trying to improve battery

boe · #1 (**permalink**) 07-14-2011, 03:59 PM

Hello,

I'm trying to see if I can improve my battery life by killing things I don't need. I'm new to Android so I'm not sure what I need and don't and I'm not sure why some things are running as I don't think I've opened them or I thought I closed them but apparently didn't. (i'm used to click on an x in the top right corner to close an app

)

I'll list all my running services and maybe some can help me figure out what I need to change. Some may have experience with apps I've added that might be bad.

1. Battery indicator pro - seems much more linear and accurate than the droid native one.

2. HTC Sense - I figure I really want that running.

3. People - not sure why that is running - I guess that is the contacts synced with Exchange.

4. Rosie Utility - I can't remember what that is

5. Beautiful widgets - I figure that is running beacause I have shortcuts for silent and vibrate.

6. Mail - I need my e-mail for work set for push - I can't go with 15 minute updates

7. Voicemail - I did check my voicemail - not sure why it is still running - can someone tell me
the proper way to exit an app/service so it isn't left running?

8. vdm client - not sure what that is.

9. Calendar - I need that synced

10. Market - no idea why that is running - I haven't used it on my phone but have on the web - is it left open just to keep the apps I download from the web on the phone?

11. Telenav GPS Navigator - not sure why that is coming up - I have not used that service.
and I have GPS turned off along with WIFI and 4G.

12. Google Services - not sure what that is for.

13. Maps - I used that a couple of days ago - perhaps I didn't shut it down.

14. CSPeopleSyncServices - what is that? Is that my contacts or is People or are both?

15. Bluetooth share - I don't have it set as visable, I only use BT from my headset - not sure why it says that.

16. Touch input - ??

Thanks in advance.

**themuffinman** · #2 (**permalink**) 07-14-2011, 04:02 PM

I think many of us that came from winmo are stuck in this "memory management" mental block. Keep in mind that even though there are apps that are showing up in your memory doesn't necessarily mean that they are running and using battery.

draghn · #3 (**permalink**) 07-14-2011, 05:04 PM

That is true about the memory thing, and I realize it's a different paradigm than wm, which I came from. But, and it could just be a placebo effect, after talking with my friends on the Evo 4G, and a couple other Android phones, I started using Advanced Task Killer (ATK) so it'll "safely" (so it claims) kill apps after 30 minutes (I set it to 30 minutes) and I seem to have improved battery life.

I didn't get it to manage my memory, but to try to get better battery life and I think it's worked, though I wasn't very meticulous in studying the battery life and usage as boe has been doing.

Maybe give it a go? I had to add some htc stuff to the ignore list (in ATK). And I like facebook and twitter push notifications so I put those apps on the ignore list as well. You get the idea... if you do decide it's worth trying, please let us know if it has any effect.

boe · #4 (**permalink**) 07-14-2011, 05:27 PM

Thanks - if anyone can run through the list of what some of these apps are that I'm not sure about and how to prevent some from loading, I would appreciate it.

For example - htc people sync cspeopleservice - what is it? If I don't need it - how do I prevent it from loading?

**scrosler** · #5 (**permalink**) 07-14-2011, 05:31 PM

Ok, I cannot tell you what every service does etc but I can recomend this app to you: https://market.android.com/details?i...tes.fastreboot
I use it all the time.

It basically kills everything and lets restart what is needed. Its almost like the old "CleanRAM" for WM.

**themuffinman** · #6 (**permalink**) 07-14-2011, 06:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by draghn

That is true about the memory thing, and I realize it's a different paradigm than wm, which I came from. But, and it could just be a placebo effect, after talking with my friends on the Evo 4G, and a couple other Android phones, I started using Advanced Task Killer (ATK) so it'll "safely" (so it claims) kill apps after 30 minutes (I set it to 30 minutes) and I seem to have improved battery life.

I didn't get it to manage my memory, but to try to get better battery life and I think it's worked, though I wasn't very meticulous in studying the battery life and usage as boe has been doing.

Maybe give it a go? I had to add some htc stuff to the ignore list (in ATK). And I like facebook and twitter push notifications so I put those apps on the ignore list as well. You get the idea... if you do decide it's worth trying, please let us know if it has any effect.

I used atk on my evo 4g all the time but after a while the only thing that was worth killing that seemed to improve my battery life was the internet browser. Any time after a browsing session I made sure I killed it but other than that I just ignored everything else. After months and months of testing, again based on my own personal use, atk didn't make much of a difference to me other than killing the browser after I finished using it. Now as far as the evo 3d, to me it hasn't made much of a difference at all so for the most part I don't even worry about even killing anything at this point and I end just uninstalling it.

toddpedersen · #7 (**permalink**) 07-15-2011, 07:20 AM

In my opinion, those all look normal to me. i don't use beautiful widgets, so I am not sure if there is any battery drain with that running.

Keep in mind that just because the services are running, does not always mean they are using the battery.

The true sign of something using the battery is if it shows up under Settings, About Phone, Battery, Battery Use.

Your going to see Voice Calls and Display, not necessarily in that order, at the top of your use list for the most part. Below that you can tell what other apps are using the battery based upon a minimum of 2% use.

Quote:

Originally Posted by boe

Hello,

I'm trying to see if I can improve my battery life by killing things I don't need. I'm new to Android so I'm not sure what I need and don't and I'm not sure why some things are running as I don't think I've opened them or I thought I closed them but apparently didn't. (i'm used to click on an x in the top right corner to close an app

)

I'll list all my running services and maybe some can help me figure out what I need to change. Some may have experience with apps I've added that might be bad.

1. Battery indicator pro - seems much more linear and accurate than the droid native one.

2. HTC Sense - I figure I really want that running.

3. People - not sure why that is running - I guess that is the contacts synced with Exchange.

4. Rosie Utility - I can't remember what that is

5. Beautiful widgets - I figure that is running beacause I have shortcuts for silent and vibrate.

6. Mail - I need my e-mail for work set for push - I can't go with 15 minute updates

7. Voicemail - I did check my voicemail - not sure why it is still running - can someone tell me
the proper way to exit an app/service so it isn't left running?

8. vdm client - not sure what that is.

9. Calendar - I need that synced

10. Market - no idea why that is running - I haven't used it on my phone but have on the web - is it left open just to keep the apps I download from the web on the phone?

11. Telenav GPS Navigator - not sure why that is coming up - I have not used that service.
and I have GPS turned off along with WIFI and 4G.

12. Google Services - not sure what that is for.

13. Maps - I used that a couple of days ago - perhaps I didn't shut it down.

14. CSPeopleSyncServices - what is that? Is that my contacts or is People or are both?

15. Bluetooth share - I don't have it set as visable, I only use BT from my headset - not sure why it says that.

16. Touch input - ??

Thanks in advance.

boe · #8 (**permalink**) 07-15-2011, 05:37 PM

Thanks. I don't see anything showing up in my battery use that I wouldn't expect - beautiful widgets doesn't show there. What does show is maps. I have GPS turned off and haven't used any map programs. Is that from when I manually sync weather?

Clipp · #9 (**permalink**) 07-15-2011, 07:03 PM

When I first switched to Android, I tried the task killer route, but I no longer bother with that... seemed to me I ended up using more battery worrying about all the apps and killing them. I let Android handle all the management now, as it actually does a pretty good job. Plus, the fact that they're up doesn't necessarily mean they're sucking battery.

Just go through all the apps/widgets on your phone that you don't use and make sure they don't have certain settings turned on, like auto updates. Also, if you use an app/widget that updates more frequently than you really need, I'd recommend changing the refresh rate.