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I have a Droid X and this has frustrated me since I got the phone. When I look at the currently running tasks, it seems everything is always running, which is unnecessary.

I know this is a hot topic and most people say, just let it go, it isn't wasting CPU or battery (which is non-sense to a point, if the service is running and constantly updating via wifi or 3G, it is definitely using power).

My bigger problem is that they do, absolutely, use memory, and lots of it, and when I want to use something that is CPU or memory intensive, the program lags because there isn't enough memory available. If I kill everything, the programs runs fine for a few minutes until magically, everything is running again without any intervention.

For instance, why does Maps, Amazon MP3 (which I have never used), YouTube, NHL GameCenter, etc need to run all the time? Is there a way to stop them so they only run when I want to use them?

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  • Not quite a solution, but: Android 4 ("Ice Cream Sandwich") lets you limit the number of background processes; that might help. – offby1 Dec 19 '11 at 17:11
  • I doubt the Droid X will ever see ICS, and I don't want to root it. I haven't gotten a single update since I got the phone. Quite sad really. – steveo225 Dec 19 '11 at 19:50
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First, see my relevant answer over here in regards to "killing tasks", especially the use of task killers.

The only way to stop these background tasks is to either:

  • Turn off any sort of background notifications the app does (check the settings for each app)
  • Uninstall the app or if you are rooted, you could "freeze" it with Titanium Backup.

Beyond that, you aren't going to be able to do much more. It's up to the programmer to decide when he needs to have a background task run, and a good programmer will let you have to turn these background tasks off (usually it is caused by polling for notifications).

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  • I'd recommend using TiBU to freeze apps myself. Works well on all the phones I've done it on. You don't want to uninstall them if you're using a stock ROM, as this usually will prevent OTA updates from your carrier. – Logos Dec 19 '11 at 3:40
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Use Advanced Task Killer! Awesome app.

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  • He's already tried killing the apps and they start up again. – Peanut Mar 31 '13 at 13:06

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