Unlisted or Hidden Background Apps

[anon(50597)]

I'm on a 950, build 14295. When I check there are 14 apps showing. Nothing is consuming battery to any negative degree.

 

[johnny77777]

Hi, I'm not on the Windows Insider program any longer. I was on it with my 1520 before I received my 950 XL, but I had opted out of the Insider Program and never utilized it with this phone. So I'm on the final build.

That said, there's clearly an issue and I'm certain that's why my battery is dying so quick -- mush quicker than my 1520 ever did. There is constant stuff running in background that doesn't show up when I long press the back arrow. If I start tapping the back arrow quickly, it starts scrolling through various programs I might have had opened even a full day or more ago that are still open somewhere in the background. If I then long press after tapping quickly the back button, some of the programs will only then show up on the carousel of open programs where I can close them down. Wish I could video the experience, difficult to explain and I'm not sure if my issue is

No idea what the issue is or how to resolve but this appears to my own issue then that not much of anyone is experiencing

800 Euro "Premium" smartphone my a$$ :/

 

[PGrey]

Hi, I'm not on the Windows Insider program any longer. I was on it with my 1520 before I received my 950 XL, but I had opted out of the Insider Program and never utilized it with this phone. So I'm on the final build.

That said, there's clearly an issue and I'm certain that's why my battery is dying so quick -- mush quicker than my 1520 ever did. There is constant stuff running in background that doesn't show up when I long press the back arrow.
No idea what the issue is or how to resolve but this appears to my own issue then that not much of anyone is experiencing

This is true of ANY OS out there, period. There are kernel and other ring processes that need to run, or you'd never be able to resume, get a phone call, a text, anything. Also, if everything was shut down (more or less the equivalent of S4 on a PC), you'd see incredible lag on response when you went to use your phone, although you'd have great "idle" battery life;-]

If you want to minimize this, simply go into the background processes list, and disable all non-essential apps. Things like Edge, for example, do you really want your weather radar on 3 tabs refreshing itself every 1-2 minutes (that's a LOT of data/battery)?
How about that cool game, does it really need to be allowed to run, even idle in the background, or do you want it to suspend-state and resume when you're ready to play?
If you take the time to walk through this, you'll see marked battery improvement, really.
If you have installed some apps that constantly update in the background, like whatsapp, you're going to take a battery hit, there's just no way around it, push-data is expensive, both in terms of data-use, and battery. Some of these can be changed (like the built-in email, for example) from "push" to an interval (mine checks hourly, and I can manually refresh whenever), which will dramatically reduce their overall footprint.
You have to choose, tons of background apps, low-data use, low-battery use, you simply can't have them all.
Android has done more for this in 6.0, with the "Doze" feature, that penalizes most apps that don't suspend. I think eventually Windows Mobile will head this direction, on more firm footing, long-term.

 

[johnny77777]

The problem is that the long press of the back button is "SUPPOSED" to show all open apps that I've opened and are running so that they can easily be closed by "X"ing them out or swiping each down. The problem is that this simply is not the case for me. Long press does NOT show all open apps as it should.

What you're explaining is totally different -- those are just best practices and is something I always do (i.e. games, Edge, and many other apps are always set to disabled in background). To compare, my 1550 and 930 on WP 8.1 never had this problem. Long press shows all open apps where I can then easily close them. Period.

 

[PGrey]

Yeah, I'd file a problem/bug, and let it upload your info. The queue that generates that task-list should be part of the data, if you choose "Full". That's my best-guess, for getting it looked at/fixed.
If yours is a one-off, obviously a reset is something to try, but as a "reset-hater" myself, I'm not exactly recommending it, particularly because restore seems to not be working so well currently.
Weird that your battery life is still so "off". Does the Battery Use list show anything that's revealing? Maybe there's an app that's not suspending properly, or you missed? I've had apps that seem to get "re-enabled", when I'd swear I had disabled them, probably some update weirdness.

 

[johnny77777]

I reluctantly did the full reset of my 950 XL several weeks ago, and didn't restore. It was a full clean reset. Didn't resolve anything, unfortunately and I'm in the same problem. I wonder if there's some issue tied to my account. Any idea where I should file a bug and upload the info where there's an opportunity to actually get help with the issue from MSFT?

 

[Maurizio Troso]

The problem is that the long press of the back button is "SUPPOSED" to show all open apps that I've opened and are running so that they can easily be closed by "X"ing them out or swiping each down. The problem is that this simply is not the case for me. Long press does NOT show all open apps as it should.

What you're explaining is totally different -- those are just best practices and is something I always do (i.e. games, Edge, and many other apps are always set to disabled in background). To compare, my 1550 and 930 on WP 8.1 never had this problem. Long press shows all open apps where I can then easily close them. Period.

Good news for you: Redstone removed the carousel app limit. It was a sad video memory economy choice. Coming soon as official

 

[johnny77777]

SOLVED!!!!!!!!!!!

Figured I'd post this, even though it appears I'm one of the only people if not the only person that was having it. Maybe there's a lurker out there that this will help.

The problem appears to be the firmware I had was old and wasn't updating. Firmware, as opposed to the OS build. I did a full clean using the Windows Device Recovery Tool Windows Device Recovery Tool: FAQ - Windows Help and a new firmware version was found. Much newer than what was sitting on my 950 XL.

OLD: 01078.00038.16025.39013
NEW: 01078.00038.16082.36014

After countless device resets from "Settings/About/Reset your phone" and not pulling in any backups didn't fix the issue over the last 6 months, this is the one that did it. After the fresh install using the WDRT, I purposely opened a bunch of apps, settings screens, emails, etc and right away by long-pressing the back button, I can see the carousel showing all open apps (even if it's more than the 6) and am now able to close them all.

I expect to see a significant improvement in my battery life now since there won't be mystery apps running in the background that I had no visibility were still running.

I hope this helps someone else out there that may be watching this thread now or who may come across it in the future.

I'd highly recommend anyone else having this or other problems they're stumped on using Windows 10 Mobile to utilize the Windows Device Recovery Tool and do a full refresh this way if it finds a new firmware version there for your device. This was the biggest head-scratcher for me in all my years as a Lumia owner (starting from my original Lumia 800 and Lumia 710).

Cheers!

 

[johnny77777]

Disregard, still an issue. Only difference now is that I can see up to 8 open apps in the carousel. Before it was just 6. If anything else is still open say from this morning or from last night, they don't show with the long press of the back button. I need to continuously tap the back button after closing the 7-8 that appear in the carousel and then only they will show as still there open in background.

Where can I file an official request for Microsoft to resolve this for me. I'm happy to send them whatever data they need if it resolves the issue.

 

[Maurizio Troso]

Disregard, still an issue. Only difference now is that I can see up to 8 open apps in the carousel. Before it was just 6. If anything else is still open say from this morning or from last night, they don't show with the long press of the back button. I need to continuously tap the back button after closing the 7-8 that appear in the carousel and then only they will show as still there open in background.

Where can I file an official request for Microsoft to resolve this for me. I'm happy to send them whatever data they need if it resolves the issue.

For the last time: that was changed in Redstone, so you will see when it will be official released in Anniversay. That's not a bug, but a past programming choice for not overloading RAM on older chipsets, then insiders' feedbacks asked for a change

 

[hprvez]

I don't know how many times I'll still have to write it on this forum, but let's try again. Suspended apps in the "task view" are not running at all, they are not using any single cpu cycle. Background tasks are something completely different and their load on the cpu is limited and controlled. Apps that can run under lock screen are another thing and they can easily use a large amount of energy while working under lock screen. This is not a secret bill gates told me in a meeting with him, these are public informations on the os and how it works, you may find it useful for yourself to learn them. Keywords: execution, suspended, tombstoned, background task, lock screen execution. Good luck

 

[johnny77777]

I don't know how many times I'll still have to write it on this forum, but let's try again. Suspended apps in the "task view" are not running at all, they are not using any single cpu cycle. Background tasks are something completely different and their load on the cpu is limited and controlled. Apps that can run under lock screen are another thing and they can easily use a large amount of energy while working under lock screen. This is not a secret bill gates told me in a meeting with him, these are public informations on the os and how it works, you may find it useful for yourself to learn them. Keywords: execution, suspended, tombstoned, background task, lock screen execution. Good luck

Actually this thread is full of different opinions as to what my issue could be, which appears very rare as no one else seems to be experiencing the same on the latest production build.

As for your hypothesis that these hidden apps that remain open in background aren't running, I don't think that's true as my phone heats up even when lock screen is up. That's how I always know there's stuff still open in background even after I close the apps that show up in the carousel.

As the previous poster mentioned that the carousel limit will be removed in Redstone final build, I can only hope that it resolves my issue, whenever its pushed out for final release. Because if you go through this thread I don't see anyone having the same issue as I'm having, maybe just the original poster, which is what brought me here. :/

I do appreciate the open discussion about it from everyone here though, but at this point I'm just hoping it will be fixed when Redstone is released.

 

[Maurizio Troso]

In Redstone is fixed yet since 3 builds (more or less...)

 

[johnny77777]

In Redstone is fixed yet since 3 builds (more or less...)

Thanks, I'm thinking of jumping in the current slow ring. How is it in terms of operational speed with the latest build? Can you or anyone recommend or is it still in the "too much not ready for prime time stage?"

 

[Maurizio Troso]

Thanks, I'm thinking of jumping in the current slow ring. How is it in terms of operational speed with the latest build? Can you or anyone recommend or is it still in the "too much not ready for prime time stage?"

The difference btwn fast and slow ring is only ONE:

we in fast we fight against bugs, receiving 2/3 builds a week for trying fixing them, and we spread our workarounds to forumers.
You in slow got straight the stablest latest version of every build update.
O.s. speed is the same