13 replies to this topic

[JMSexton]

In an effort not to overload the forum with hundreds of miscellaneous questions, I've held onto them and decided to post them in this format. I'll try to keep it short and sweet, but these are questions I keep running into or have not been able to find a direct answer amongst the thousands of pages of forum, and there are a couple preference questions, I understand answers will vary. Here goes....

1. Cache Cleaners... Do they help much, if at all?
They seem to clear some but afterwards I can go into "Manage Apps" and several still have Mb's worth of cache. I know not all cache comes from apps and that caching has significantly changed with ICS. Also I've used SD Maid to help clean up. Any thoughts or ideas to help clean up and stay organized?

2. Beautiful Widgets vs Fancy Widgets? ...or Separate Apps for Weather, Clock, and etc?
Right now I use UCCW, Minimalistic Text, along with Apex Launcher, and WidgetLocker. There are tons I'd like to try like Beautiful Widgets, Fancy Widgets, mClock, Clockr, BeWeather, etc etc... Also, I downloaded MetaMorph but need to read up more on it and find out if its still relevant with ICS.

Now More "In-Depth" Questions....

3. Low Ram...Non-Issue? or are there adjustments I can make to free some up?
I know Android handles task-killing and memory/ram management pretty well by itself, but ever since SafeStrapping it only has like 5Mb of ram. I know its because its basically running two OS's. On unsafe side is stock ICS .215 with my entire setup, and my non-safe side is deodexed stock ICS .215.

- Would it be beneficial to make a backup of all my apps to update current data, and make a nandroid of the non-safe side how I had it prior to SafeStrap, and then (since I'm running mostly everyday on my safe side as my norm) remove as much as poss from that side to reduce consumption of storage and ram? Basically, since I'm not using that side, should I back it up and clear a lot off of it to free up space (not sure how safestrap works exactly in ref too this, I assume since its on the phone its at minimum shared). That way I have a backup in case, seems logical but just want to confirm.

4. How Many Apps is Too Many... I feel like I have waay too many apps on my phone...especially now that I'm getting into more modding/theming/editing, but almost all of them I use consistently (this also ties into question #3). I'll give a brief rundown below so its easier to read:

Droid Razr Maxx XT912
SafeStrap - Non-Safe: ICS .215 | Safe: ICS .215 Deodexed
39 Apps Installed // On Top of Stock Apps
**Feel Free To Skip**
List of Apps
Apex Launcher, Root Explorer, Titanium Backup, SuperSU, UCCW, WidgetLocker, Super Manager, QuickPic, SafeStrap, Pulse, AirDroid, Any.Do, Amazon AppStore, Dropbox, Box, FoxFi, n7Player, Perfectly Clear, Google+, GoogleNow, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Dolphin Browser, Tapatalk, DSP Manager, CacheMate, SD Maid, MetaMorph, MinimalisticText, Widgetsoid, Tasker, AppSales, Idear Apex, Reckless Racing 2, MiniMotor, + A Few Other Games (All Installed)
List of Apps Owned, but Not Installed ATT
ROM ToolBox Pro, LightFlow, Notification Toggle, A Few Large Games, MX Player, Elixir 2, PdaNet, Mint, PicShop, doubleTwist, SwiftKey 3, SwitchMe, ChargeBar
....and there are tons of other apps I have noted that I want to try...
**To Here**

I have a bunch of system apps frozen, but I'm thinking that it would be beneficial to make a current backup of safe side and then actually uninstall some of the dumb system apps (debloat literally) to help also.

Thanks for everyone's help and suggestions, I know I missed a few of my questions I can't seem to remember right now, but I'm sure ya'll are thankful for that..haha. I hope that this community doesn't die with the releases of newer phones and other unlocked bootloaders, I love the info and help so freely given. Thanks again and take it easy on me!!!

-JMSexton

[JMSexton]

Ahhh waaaaaay longer than I thought...sorry guys! I supposed if time is of the essence my main focus is 3&4

[Brad92]

39 apps isn't really that much. I've seen people with way more and their phones function great. As far as Safestrap is concerned, the things shared by both sides are just the important stuff like the kernel and radios. You aren't running 2 sets of apps.

It sounds like you've already tried wiping cache and are still having low ram issues. It sounds like an app is going rogue (or apps) and eating ram. Did you ever perform a factory data reset when you upgraded to ICS? If not, you can backup your apps using titanium backup or another backup app and clear data. Or, better still, you can fastboot back to .211 for a clean slate. Then add the essential apps and see how it runs. Slowly add apps back one at a time to see if one of them is the culprit.

Sent from my DROID RAZR

[JMSexton]

Yea good idea. It was pretty recent because it was running around 15 then jumped to 5 one day. A good wipe would probably be good. Also you refreshed one of my other questions. Fastboot files...Idk how they work exactly except to get back to stock. My thing is I never put them on my phone myself and from what I gather the updated ones don't come with it because we never had them? Right lol

Sent telepathically from my Droid X... I mean Razr Maxx

[Brad92]

To fastboot, you are going to need a Windows PC and the Razr Utility 1.81 found

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.

Just download, unzip it using Winrar and fastboot using option 1. Make sure your battery is at least 80%.

Sent from my DROID RAZR

[tucstwo]

I've never run out of RAM, like RAM? As in Random Access Memory? Our phones have 1gb of ram, there are times when I'm on the nonsafe side, and theres a million bloatware apps running, plus all my other stuff and I've never gone low on ram. That's weird. You could use an app like Advanced Task Killer and set it to kill background processes every 30 mins or sobut I have way more than 40 aps (a lot of the same ones as you) and have never run into this problem. I've never even heard anyone complain about ram shortage before.

[tucstwo]

39 apps isn't really that much. I've seen people with way more and their phones function great. As far as Safestrap is concerned, the things shared by both sides are just the important stuff like the kernel and radios. You aren't running 2 sets of apps.

It sounds like you've already tried wiping cache and are still having low ram issues. It sounds like an app is going rogue (or apps) and eating ram. Did you ever perform a factory data reset when you upgraded to ICS? If not, you can backup your apps using titanium backup or another backup app and clear data. Or, better still, you can fastboot back to .211 for a clean slate. Then add the essential apps and see how it runs. Slowly add apps back one at a time to see if one of them is the culprit.

Sent from my DROID RAZR

I wouldn't waste time fastbooting the entire phone. Doing a Data wipe will erase all of his apps and their data. Doing a fastboot restore will only erase his system apps. I doubt he's added very many (if any) system apps so reflashing the system partition won't change anything within his phone at all.

Doing a data wipe in safestrap along with wiping cache should be plenty. Then, he can reinstall whatever apps he uses the most and slowly add in some other non essentials to try and figure out what's eating up his system memory.

[JMSexton]

Thanks for everyones help. Its actually system ROM. I always seem to get ram, rom, memory, CPU, hdd, etc etc....all mix together. In most other apps (Elixir 2 & Super Manager) everything appears fine. I will post a few screenshots to show what I mean, chances are I'm interpreting something incorrectly. If you could just give a brief description I can figure the rest out.

Also, can you tell me what are my options to change status/notification bar icons (besides diff roms/themes)

Once again thanks so much!

Sent telepathically from my Droid X... I mean Razr Maxx

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[Brad92]

Oh OK, that makes sense.

Your data partition (/data) is where all your apps are stored. It shows that the partition is 3 gigs before you install your apps. Apps are pretty small and it would take a lot to fill up 3 gigs.

The system rom that you are referring to is the system partition (/system). That's where all the system files and system apps are stored. You really don't need much space there.

So your phone is acting normal and you don't have anything to worry about. Looking at my stats, they look similar.

Sent from my DROID RAZR

[JMSexton]

Only thing is when I try to convert an app to a system app it denies it because of that but I could always go and uninstall some of the ridiculous bloatware that is only frozen. Thanks again!

Sent telepathically from my Droid X... I mean Razr Maxx

[stealthmouse]

Thanks for everyones help. Its actually system ROM. I always seem to get ram, rom, memory, CPU, hdd, etc etc....all mix together. In most other apps (Elixir 2 & Super Manager) everything appears fine. I will post a few screenshots to show what I mean, chances are I'm interpreting something incorrectly. If you could just give a brief description I can figure the rest out.

Also, can you tell me what are my options to change status/notification bar icons (besides diff roms/themes)

Once again thanks so much!

Sent telepathically from my Droid X... I mean Razr Maxx

You may want to check /data/dalvik-cache to see how much memory is being used. Sometimes safestrap, depending on the one you're using, references a different dalvik location and doesn't wipe. If that's the case, use a utility to do it, or you can use terminal emulator to do it manually:

su
cd /data/dalvik-cache
rm *
exit

A word of warning - you need to reboot after because all of your programs will start to FC once you've wiped dalvik. If it wasn't wiped well before, you will see a significant boost in speed.

You should fix permissions too. In cwm/safestrap menu, go to advanced/fix permissions. You can fix permissions from most utility apps as well.

Also, I've had as many as 400 programs on my device when playing around and comparing them (not a recommended setup!). Though the background processing slowed my device down, I never experienced FC issues or RAM low problems. Most of those, imho, are caused by failure to fully wipe when changing ROMs or upgrading/downgrading OS.

Sent from my DROID SPYDER using Xparent Blue Tapatalk 2

[JMSexton]

Awesome, thanks for the advice. I may just give it a good wipe and start fresh.

Also, thoughts on removing some of the bloat instead of just freezing it (on safe-side) or they are prob linked as might have been mentioned earlier, so there isn't double apps. Regardless its all backed up via nandroid and TB.

Thanks for your help!

Sent telepathically from my Droid X... I mean Razr Maxx

[tucstwo]

Freezing an app on the non safe side Mae no difference when you flash ROMs on the safe side. ROMs flashed on the safe side typically don't even include any bloat apps that you would normally freeze so it makes no difference. Non safe can have almost. Nothing done to, installed, flashed, frozen as it just sits there. The only reason to ever go back there is if you have a major problem.

[JMSexton]

Cool, thanks for that clarification! I've wonder that a while, if it's doubled or pulls from same. Thanks again!

Sent telepathically from my Droid X... I mean Razr Maxx