As I fumble along with my first-ever "smart" phone (Moto G5 Plus; Android), I have managed to
install Google Earth, and it seems useable. But when I'm thru with it, I can't see any way to
close it. If I simply motor back to the home screen, and the next day open GE again, it's
right where I left it in the world. So is it on constantly? Any way to shut it down when I'm
done with it?

--
croy

croy <croy@spam.invalid.net> wrote:

> As I fumble along with my first-ever "smart" phone (Moto G5 Plus;
> Android), I have managed to install Google Earth, and it seems
> useable. But when I'm thru with it, I can't see any way to close it.
> If I simply motor back to the home screen, and the next day open GE
> again, it's right where I left it in the world. So is it on
> constantly? Any way to shut it down when I'm done with it?

Unlike Windows and Linux, Android does not close (exit) programs when
their windows are closed. Closing a program removes its window, but
leaves it running in the background. The OS will unload the
backgrounded process when its memory is needed to load a new program aka
OOM (Out Of Memory) optimizing.

https://developer.android.com/topic/performance/memory-management

Android operates under the premise that unused memory is wasted memory,
so it attempts to use all of memory all the time.

Some programs have their own Exit or Quit menu option to actually unload
the program. For example, Chrome does not, but Firefox has Quit in its
menu that actually unloads (exits) the app. There are task killer apps
that unload programs, but too often they are ineffective or incorrect.
Their users will complain a killed background program resurrects itself.
It was designated a sticky app or a service. If the OS sees it is not
running, it restarts it. There are background processes you should not
unload. And some you unload are reloaded by another process. At one
time, I use Ashampoo's Droid Optimizer, but eventually dumped it.

If you enable Developer Options mode on your phone (do an online search
on "enable developer mode <yourbrand> <yourmodel>"), there is a
"Background process limit" option. You can lower how many backgrounded
processes are allowed from standard (20 processes) or 0 to 4. The lower
the limit, the less apps will remain loaded in background, but that also
means some apps will become slow to load as you often have to reload it
afresh. I haven't played with this setting, but 0 (zero) seems it might
mean any app you close its window will get unloaded, so you can only run
1 program (foreground) at a time.

https://www.gadgetsnow.com/how-to/how-to-make-your-smartphone-run-faster-by-limiting-background-process-limit/articleshow/70557178.cms

Keeping processes loaded in the background is how Android pretends it is
faster than it is. Instead of putting the pistols and rifles back in
the gun safe, you carry them on shoulder straps and belt holsters ready
for immediate use.

I don't have the Google Earth app. Did you look in its menu options to
see if it has a Quit or Exit option to actually unload it? If not, you
can go into Android's settings -> App, pick an app, and see if there is
a Force Stop button, or use a task killer app to do the same. In
Android, closing the window is not the same as exiting the app in other
operating systems.

croy <croy@spam.invalid.net> wrote:

> As I fumble along with my first-ever "smart" phone (Moto G5 Plus; Android), I have managed to
> install Google Earth, and it seems useable. But when I'm thru with it, I can't see any way to
> close it. If I simply motor back to the home screen, and the next day open GE again, it's
> right where I left it in the world. So is it on constantly?

That is how most all Android apps work. You are not closing the app,
you are minimizing it to the 'recently used apps' screen. Android
will close the app if it needs the memory for other apps.

> Any way to shut it down when I'm done with it?

You may close apps from the 'recently used apps' screen. See
<https://en-us.support.motorola.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/116302/~/manage-applications---moto-g5-plus>

Anne de Royde <AdR@spam.invalid> wrote:

> croy <croy@spam.invalid.net> wrote:
>
>> As I fumble along with my first-ever "smart" phone (Moto G5 Plus; Android), I have managed to
>> install Google Earth, and it seems useable. But when I'm thru with it, I can't see any way to
>> close it. If I simply motor back to the home screen, and the next day open GE again, it's
>> right where I left it in the world. So is it on constantly?
>> Any way to shut it down when I'm done with it?
>
> You may close apps from the 'recently used apps' screen. See
> <https://en-us.support.motorola.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/116302/~/manage-applications---moto-g5-plus>

Clearing the list does not unload backgrounded apps. If the background
apps were actually unloaded, the Force Stop button would be disabled,
because the app isn't running. Try it.

- Load an app, like a web browser.
- Close its window.
o For Firefox, don't use Quit menu entry which does unload it. Just
close its window.
- The app is listed in the Recent list. Do not yet clear the list.
- Go to Android settings -> Apps -> web browser (navpath varies on brand
of phone) to see the Force Stop button is enabled.
o Force Stop = enabled: app is running.
o Force Stop = disabled: app is NOT running.
- Clear the Recent list.
- Again look at the app in Settings. If the app had truly been
unloaded, the Force Stop button would now be disabled, because the app
isn't running to stop it.

Since clearing the Recent list still shows the Force Stop button is
enabled then the app is still running.

On 10 Jan 2024 19:52:38 -0800 croy wrote:
>As I fumble along with my first-ever "smart" phone (Moto G5 Plus; Android), I
>have managed to
>install Google Earth, and it seems useable. But when I'm thru with it, I can't
>see any way to
>close it. If I simply motor back to the home screen, and the next day open GE
>again, it's
>right where I left it in the world. So is it on constantly? Any way to shut it
>down when I'm
>done with it?

I've used Google Earth on Android for ages. It always starts at the
location I was last viewing, even after the device has been off, so
nothing to do with closing it.

--
(Remove numerics from email address)

croy wrote:

> As I fumble along with my first-ever "smart" phone (Moto G5 Plus; Android), I have managed to
> install Google Earth, and it seems useable. But when I'm thru with it, I can't see any way to
> close it. If I simply motor back to the home screen, and the next day open GE again, it's
> right where I left it in the world.

That's how all android apps (should) work, if the phone wants some
memory back, it will ask the app to save its place, then kill it, when
you restart it will pick up where it left off

> So is it on constantly? Any way to shut it down when I'm
> done with it?

In most phones there are gestures to switch between and kill apps, e.g.
swipe up from off the bottom upf screen, slide sideways to move between
apps and flick one up and off the top ... but check gestures on your phone

There are also background task killers, but *DON'T* use them, they're
not necessary, android can kill tasks by itself if it needs to.

On 2024-01-11 08:10, VanguardLH wrote:
> Anne de Royde <AdR@spam.invalid> wrote:
>
>> croy <croy@spam.invalid.net> wrote:
>>
>>> As I fumble along with my first-ever "smart" phone (Moto G5 Plus; Android), I have managed to
>>> install Google Earth, and it seems useable. But when I'm thru with it, I can't see any way to
>>> close it. If I simply motor back to the home screen, and the next day open GE again, it's
>>> right where I left it in the world. So is it on constantly?
>>> Any way to shut it down when I'm done with it?
>>
>> You may close apps from the 'recently used apps' screen. See
>> <https://en-us.support.motorola.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/116302/~/manage-applications---moto-g5-plus>
>
> Clearing the list does not unload backgrounded apps. If the background
> apps were actually unloaded, the Force Stop button would be disabled,
> because the app isn't running. Try it.
>
> - Load an app, like a web browser.
> - Close its window.
> o For Firefox, don't use Quit menu entry which does unload it. Just
> close its window.
> - The app is listed in the Recent list. Do not yet clear the list.
> - Go to Android settings -> Apps -> web browser (navpath varies on brand
> of phone) to see the Force Stop button is enabled.
> o Force Stop = enabled: app is running.
> o Force Stop = disabled: app is NOT running.
> - Clear the Recent list.
> - Again look at the app in Settings. If the app had truly been
> unloaded, the Force Stop button would now be disabled, because the app
> isn't running to stop it.
>
> Since clearing the Recent list still shows the Force Stop button is
> enabled then the app is still running.

Yes and no.

In my case, with a Motorola G52 I use gestures. On home display, or
inside an app, slide finger from centre-bottom up to centre. I get a
carousel of recent apps. If I swipe then one app upwards, then return to
the home display, and tap on the app again, it reacts as is freshly
started. I see that behaviour in WhatsApp, it flashes the starting up logo.

If I do it with FireFox, with an opened page, I see that it reloads the
page (maybe from cache). I can see it takes some time. If I simply go to
home, then tap on the FF icon, the reloading is instantaneous.

In the case of WhatsApp it is obvious that the app is not fully killed
because something is active to receive new messages. But the human
interface part is out.

--
Cheers, Carlos.

"croy" <croy@spam.invalid.net> wrote

| So is it on constantly? Any way to shut it down when I'm
| done with it?
|

I don't know if all Androids work this way, but after
I use any app I use the icon to show all open windows,
then close them all.

On Wed, 10 Jan 2024 19:52:38 -0800, croy <croy@spam.invalid.net> wrote:

Wow! Excellent, informative answers from all! A nice group of folks here--thanks!

--
croy

On Thu, 11 Jan 2024 09:00:01 +0000, Andy Burns wrote:

> That's how all android apps (should) work, if the phone wants some
> memory back, it will ask the app to save its place, then kill it, when
> you restart it will pick up where it left off

Is there a way to tell which apps are in memory without killing them?

I went to Developer options Memory which said "60 processes used memory in
the last 3 hours" and it gave me all 60 with the "Average memory use" with
a choice of 3 hours, 6 hours, 12 hours and 1 day - but it didn't tell me
what apps were using memory at that moment. Just averages over time.

On Wed, 10 Jan 2024 22:44:23 -0600, VanguardLH wrote:

> Android operates under the premise that unused memory is wasted memory,
> so it attempts to use all of memory all the time.

I wondered if there is a way to tell which apps are still in memory?

I couldn't find an app that just /listed/ apps currently in memory.
Most of the related apps were "memory cleaners" which isn't it.

Looking I found these but I don't know if they tell me all apps in memory.

This one had many unrelated features (like a screen recorder, permissions
manager, APK extractor, storage analyzer, empty folder finder & duplicate
file finder which searched by the file hash and not by the file name) but
it didn't list the apps in memory as far as I could tell from the GUI.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=tuple.me.dtools

This one "cleaned cache" (whatever that means) but didn't list apps in RAM.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=collections.com.proccesslimit_en

This one also "cleaned cache" (again, what is that?) but didn't list them.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.andmobile.cleaner

This one kept crashing so I immediately deleted it.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.devicemanager.deviceinfo

This is the only one that made you agree to a license and asked for so much
access that I got scared and deleted it without checking what it does.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.velox.mobile.scanplusmobilesecurity

Is there a way to list the apps currently in memory & how much they use?

Wolf Greenblatt wrote:

> Is there a way to tell which apps are in memory without killing them?

Settings / System / Developer Options / Running Services

On Fri, 12 Jan 2024 10:10:48 +0000, Andy Burns wrote:

>> Is there a way to tell which apps are in memory without killing them?
>
> Settings / System / Developer Options / Running Services

Thank you. Since I had found memory, I thought that was all there was.
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5523718/how-to-check-all-the-running-services-in-android

Thanks for letting me know these are different activities.
Settings / Developer options / Running services
Settings / Developer options / Memory

As you know, the Developer options listing is an unorganized mess, so when
I had seen one, I hadn't even considered looking for the other. Thanks!

On 2024-01-12 04:32, Wolf Greenblatt wrote:
> On Wed, 10 Jan 2024 22:44:23 -0600, VanguardLH wrote:
>
>> Android operates under the premise that unused memory is wasted memory,
>> so it attempts to use all of memory all the time.
>
> I wondered if there is a way to tell which apps are still in memory?
>
> I couldn't find an app that just /listed/ apps currently in memory.
> Most of the related apps were "memory cleaners" which isn't it.

My relatively old Asus tablet has one. The widget dynamically lists the
running apps, AND it allows to kill them all or one by one with the
appropriate clicks.

--
Cheers, Carlos.

Wolf Greenblatt, 2024-01-12 04:32:

> On Wed, 10 Jan 2024 22:44:23 -0600, VanguardLH wrote:
>
>> Android operates under the premise that unused memory is wasted memory,
>> so it attempts to use all of memory all the time.
>
> I wondered if there is a way to tell which apps are still in memory?

This is not important since Android will automatically remove inactive
apps from memory if needed.

And on the other hand: if an app will not be removed, because it runs an
active service in the background, then trying to remove it will not help
since it will start again automatically anyway.

> Is there a way to list the apps currently in memory & how much they use?

None that I am aware of. The "recent apps" feature provided by Android
will not show all running services provided by apps (e.g. messenger,
phone app, calendar etc.) but only apps which got recently used and
*may* still be in memory.

--
Arno Welzel
https://arnowelzel.de

Arno Welzel, 2024-01-14 13:34:

> Wolf Greenblatt, 2024-01-12 04:32:
[...]
>> Is there a way to list the apps currently in memory & how much they use?
>
> None that I am aware of. The "recent apps" feature provided by Android
> will not show all running services provided by apps (e.g. messenger,
> phone app, calendar etc.) but only apps which got recently used and
> *may* still be in memory.

Edit: of course using Developer Options you can get more information.

--
Arno Welzel
https://arnowelzel.de