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I bought a Moto 4G few days ago and I feel like it has a strange behaviour. My problem is that the phone is not handling multitasking as I would expect it to.

Some examples:

  • I use Chrome as web browser. Each time I switch between tabs, the tabs are refreshed. So if I am writing something in a form and need to check something in a other tab, then when I'll come back to the form the text I typed is lost with the refresh.

  • I have the same problem with forms inside apps. I wanted to sell something using a classified ads app. And I experienced the same. I switched on chrome to check the spec. When I switched back to my ad, the app completely restarted!

  • I don't play often but I tried to see what the phone is capable of. I tried with Plants VS Zombies. And it is the same. If I switched back and forth the game will restart.

To sum up, I feel like the multitasking on my Moto G is only remembering the list of apps in use and restart them when needed!

I read that this may be due to a lack of RAM (the Moto G has 1Go of RAM). But I never experienced that with an old Galaxy S with Cyanogen ICS (512Mo RAM), nor with a more recent Nexus 4 with KitKat or older releases (2Go of RAM).

So I just made few tests:

  • The classified ads app + chrome with with one tab + the task manager => no problem when switching (and the phone has ~300Mo of free RAM)
  • The classified ads app + chrome with with two tabs + the task manager => apps are cached and refreshed if needed (and the phone has ~300Mo of free RAM)
  • A game + the classified ads app + chrome with with two tabs + the task manager => apps are cached and refreshed if needed (and the phone still has ~300Mo of free RAM!!!)

I feel like the hardware of the Moto G is exactly what I need. So do you think that this behaviour is due to a specific issue of my Moto 4G or it will be the same with any other one. At the moment I think the problem comes from Android. But since the phone is praised everywhere on the internet I don't understand.

I feel like Google completely screwed up their last release of android (It is another problem but they probably destroyed the battery of my Nexus 4 with Kitkat). I can't understand why a phone like this shouldn't be capable of real multitasking. Depending on your answers I'll sent back my Moto 4G or not!

Thank you for your help.

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    It's certainly not normal Android behaviour. Even if an app gets evicted from RAM, it should save its state to storage so that it comes back in the same place. Many apps are buggy and don't do this properly, but it sounds like you've tested quite a few. – Dan Hulme Aug 19 '14 at 11:17
  • The more I use it the more I feel I don't want this phone anymore. And probably, that I don't want to pay for a high end android phone that will so soon be absolete, regard android evolution... – Plouff Aug 20 '14 at 20:47
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This is normal behavior, my brother has a moto e (same amount of ram), and it ends up unloading lots of recent apps, if this was a priority you maybe should have gone with a different phone (the moto g has a good processor, so can run plants vs zombies, but it can't multitask as well.

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  • Do you know if it was the same with older releases of Android? – Plouff Aug 20 '14 at 20:48
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    With kitkat android got much better at ram management, however in the past you wouldn't have had this problem with 1gb of ram, however that is due to the apps being lighter and more efficient, not the os. – ollie299792458 Aug 21 '14 at 8:40
  • In other words, from you point of view the apps use to much space? And the OS is doing handling the RAM properly? So I have to accept that I need to get a phone with 2Gb at least of RAM no matter what. Thanks! – Plouff Aug 21 '14 at 13:29
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    Well, in theory the apps should properly save their state when killed, but most don't bother, as a result you notice when they have been killed more so (chrome does it properly, it reloads the webpages you had open), however when you bought your phone you made a compromise, you got a cheap phone, with a good processor, good screen, good modem, but relatively poor multitasking, you could have gone with some phone with 2gb of ram, but some bad mediatek processor, this would have multitasked well, but wouldn't have been able to run some apps (due to its inferior processor). – ollie299792458 Aug 21 '14 at 13:45
  • Ok! I thought there where high end phones for intensive users (let's say gamers), and cheap phone for users like me (mainly communication, ie mails and social networks). And I though they would all handle multitask properly. Now I realize why it is not the case. Thanks for your help! – Plouff Aug 22 '14 at 10:42

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