Android Cleaning/Optimizing/Crap deleting?

[boy&hisdogs]

So I've got a Galaxy S4 that over the past couple weeks (since the last "update") I've noticed has had a drastic reduction in battery life. So I go to my app manager and what do I see?

Half of my ram eaten up at idle! HALF, and at IDLE. Just the crap running in the background! WTF??? It's all factory junk too! I keep the location services turned off, disable mobile data when I'm not actively using it, and have only downloaded a handful of things.

So, what's the best way to uninstall this junk and keep it gone? I've axed a lot of this crap before and it manages to find it's way back. Is there like an android equivalent of a .bat file that I can write to terminate these processes on startup? Any good task killer apps?

[afteractionreport]

Remove sd card and Factory reset..../thread.....

[boy&hisdogs]

Remove sd card and Factory reset..../thread.....

But it's the factory garbage that's eating up my memory, not the stuff I downloaded.

[afteractionreport]

Ive got "battery saver" mode on my phone that allows it to last twice as long...do you?

[ren]

i have an s4 for work, i'm interested in this as well... i was always entertain by the apple haters, the s4 has just as much factory crap on it that's equally annoying.

[moond0ggie]

The first thing before doing any mods is to install a backup-restore utility like CyanogenMod-clockwork mod.
Android ROMs after 4.1.3 have KNOX Security & a locked bootloader. It can be difficult to obtain Super User ability under these circumstances, although there are work-arounds.
You will need to have a data cable for your phone & dL the correct Samsung drivers...you will then need to install ODIN on your PC, which will allow you to flash files to your phone.

You will need to find the correct SuperSU file for your S4-carrier specific. You will need to do a lot of searching & reading to understand the proper procedures or you could damage your phone.
After you get SuperSU installed on your phone you will need a "Root Browser-File Explorer".

That is what will give you access to the files you want to delete.....before you are able to do that, you will need to disable Knox Security, you do that when you first start SuperSU.

It took me hours to research all this when I modded my S3....it had Android 4.3 .

You will need to do some reading.....search for Android Developer forums.



PS, you will need to enable Developer Mode in your phone before installing files thru the USB cable.....


Tap on Settings, About, Software information, and then More.
You should see a short list of items that includes “Build number.” Here’s what you do: You tap on “Build number” seven times. When you’re done, your phone flashes a message: “You are now a developer.

[fasteddie5]

Settings-> app manager-> all-> turn everything off you don't want.

[3006]

I use a app called android assistant it let you turn off programs running in the background
It's in the play store.

[fasteddie5]

Edit: after all-press on apps, then press turn off.

[jpscoot_21]

My nephew told me about "Battery Doctor" and "Clean Master."
They work great. Free, on the play store.

[Spyder]

Tagged for the same problem.

[FreedomIsNotFree]

This is a common mistake with folks running Android. With early versions of Android, 1.6 to 2.0, running task killers were actually useful. That was years ago.

With later versions of Android, running task killers are actually detrimental to battery life as the OS does a solid job multi talking and simply restart the processes.

With that said, after multiple updates on top of one another, the OS can slowdown. The fix is to remove all data you want to keep and perform a hard reset.

Also, with later versions of the OS you can permanently stop and hide many programs that run in the background so long as they aren't needed by the OS.

Of course, if you are an advanced user you can mod your OS and permanently remove many apps that are preloaded on the device, but other than creating additional space there is little advantage.

Bottom line, Android is smart enough to multi task properly in most cases. Let it do its thing.

[f308gt4]

This is a common mistake with folks running Android. With early versions of Android, 1.6 to 2.0, running task killers were actually useful. That was years ago.

With later versions of Android, running task killers are actually detrimental to battery life as the OS does a solid job multi talking and simply restart the processes.

With that said, after multiple updates on top of one another, the OS can slowdown. The fix is to remove all data you want to keep and perform a hard reset.

Also, with later versions of the OS you can permanently stop and hide many programs that run in the background so long as they aren't needed by the OS.

Of course, if you are an advanced user you can mod your OS and permanently remove many apps that are preloaded on the device, but other than creating additional space there is little advantage.

Bottom line, Android is smart enough to multi task properly in most cases. Let it do its thing.

This is the correct answer. If you don't want to do a factory reset, you could try clearing the system cache first. Not sure how to do it on the S4, but on the S5, you press the volume up, home, and power button at the same time, holding them until it boots to the system menu. From there select wipe cache (or, alternatively, system reset) and you should be good to go.

The other thing to consider, is depending on the age of your device, the battery may be going bad. In that case, just replace with a new battery. I imagine the device would have to be well over a year old before battery starts to degrade to the point that you would notice it.

[FreedomIsNotFree]

Great point about possibly replacing the battery. Lithium Ion batteries degrade after many charge/discharge cycles and can greatly affect battery life. They also expand. A simple spin test on the battery can clearly show expansion.

[2DoorImpala]

Its also recommended to restart your phone once in a while. I restart mine once a week. Keeps it from slowing down