My first smart phone.

These past few days Misix was suffering form memory so low, the OS would keep warning about it.

I found out Audible was storing data in the internal memory rather than the SD card, despite being installed in the card.

At least one device is improving.

Lately the Nexus tablet had slowed down to the point of near-uselessness. It ran, but loading some web pages, playing games, even checking emails took forever, and was plagued by the tablet freezing. Often it was even funny, as the browser would freeze completely and I could do nothing, not even engage the app switcher. Then the system would pop up a dialogue box telling me "Chrome is not responding. Do you wish to close it?" And once you tapped on "no" everything worked again.

So, I pondered looking for cleanup utilities or reinstalling the OS (tricky, as the tablet wants to switch to Lollipop, which bricks it), but first I decided to look at memory usage. Lo and behold, a few apps I seldom use were running int he background, consuming large amounts of RAM. These were apps i could do without, so I uninstalled them. Now the tablet runs reasonably well, and it doesn't freeze mid-game or mid-page any more.

My older phone, Gloria, is suffering from recharge problems.

It used to be I could run Waze (with the screen on) and Audible, with BOINC on background, while plugged to the car charger, and the battery would go up and up. Now the battery goes down if I do this. If I turn the screen off, switch off BOINC, and turn the volume down, the battery levels off.

The only unusual thing I've found, is that on the battery use stats "Android System" appears to take up more power than other software, sometimes even more than the screen.

So i think it's an OS problem. I'll try to upgrade to Lollipop and see if that helps.

It may also be a battery problem, seeing as the battery is about 5 years old. Fortunately Gloria's battery is easily replaced.

Quote: Nareed

It may also be a battery problem, seeing as the battery is about 5 years old. Fortunately Gloria's battery is easily replaced.

Do you have a decent digital voltmeter? Tenths of a volt are huge in electronics. That sounds like it's battery memory? Five years is pretty good utility. Fully charge her, and check the voltage, somebody you know can tell you what she's putting out.

I'm zeroing in on it, I think. Enough to delay upgrading the OS.

See, there are several symptoms, like Waze kept crashing often. So i decided to use Maps instead, but the problem persisted.

then I noticed the Futurama Game of Thrones game was lagging where it hadn't before. Yesterday I rebooted the phone and tried again. This time the battery charged almost normally, but only when the screen was off.

Next step is to reinstall Futurama and see what happens.

I reinstalled Futurama and Waze. Thus far, it seems to be working. On the way to work, Gloria had her screen on running Waze and a podcast app, and charged her battery normally.

Looking back, Waze started going loopy shortly after I succumbed to the nagging and signed in to the app. So I won't be doing that again. I saw no benefit beyond the fact that it kept score (on what??) and let me use the map chat (what for?)

We'll see.

I'm glad I didn't need to dust off the atomic force microscope :)

Well, the fix stopped working.

So it's either a software problem or a battery problem. As Waze keeps crashing on a daily basis, I'll try upgrading the OS first (while the IT guy si still willing). If that doesn't work, I'll get a new battery.

It's Waze.

Charging problems plain go away if I don't run it. besides, it keeps crashing, freezing or otherwise trump-functioning.

I've already reinstalled it, and that worked for a bit. The next logical step is to upgrade the OS to Lollipop (and doesn't that feel faintly ridiculous to say?). We'll see.

Why does Android take such a long time to determine the amount of memory used by apps?

I'm close to a new hand-me-down upgrade. the "new" old phone will also be a Samsung, I expect with either Lollipop or Marshmallow. I'm unsure whether to name that one Gloria ][ or Ryla.

This does solve Gloria I's battery problem.