yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[AT&T, Rogers HTC One X, Telstra One XL] craig0r:
The issue definitely needs addressing, and I'm sure it's not a "what was HTC thinking" situation so much as a bug that they'll fix.

I've noticed the issue myself, but it hasn't annoyed me to the point of complaining. Maybe it's better on my phone. It'll almost certainly depend on what background services you have running. By that, I mean GMail, Email, Twitter/Facebook updates, playing music. Also, some apps seem to handle multitasking pretty well. NFS Hot Pursuit was obviously coded to accommodate Android multitasking, as I can quit it, check my email/twitter, maybe browse a website, and when I go back to NFS, it's on the pause screen and I can pick up the race where I left off.

Different processes receive different priorities as far as Android memory management go. If you're playing music (in HTC Music, Play Music, PowerAmp, etc,) then Android recognizes that this app is actively doing something, even if you consecutively load up every other app on your phone. You can go back to the music app and it won't have to reload anything. That's just an example. Other apps can do this too, as long as the programmers coded it right. I'm guessing NFS Hot Pursuit does this as I've never had a problem with it.

Of course, none of that excuses the poor multitasking, since the gnex seems much better at it. (And I'm assuming you people who have tried both have been running virtually identical apps on each phone.)

I don't know a ton about memory management and multitasking in Android, so I could only speculate as to where the problem really lies. Could be that Sense takes up too much memory (surprise surprise!), could be that HTC made the memory management too agressive, could be weird other things that I don't even know about, such as some sort of time-out for background apps.

I'm going to do some playing around and let you know if I can find any ways to improve it easily.
[AT&T, Rogers HTC One X, Telstra One XL] mobilehavoc:
It seems to be working better for me personally. Hard to say for others because it depends on your setup and apps that you use.
[AT&T, Rogers HTC One X, Telstra One XL] polarbearmc:
HTC asked me to do a system restore in the process of troubleshooting... Gonna be a pain after spending the last week setting this phone up but I guess I gotta do what I gotta do... Bah...
[AT&T, Rogers HTC One X, Telstra One XL] amswak:
Ick. And from what I have read, the leaked upcoming update also requires a fresh start. Sucky.
[AT&T, Rogers HTC One X, Telstra One XL] stoked:
Just got my one X this week and noticed this oddity after having several android phones. While the multitask button exhibits this behavior the back button doesn't seem to. Haven't read through this entire thread, but are others seeing the same thing?
[AT&T, Rogers HTC One X, Telstra One XL] kamui957:
Out of curiosity, does this affect anyone just pressing the home button to leave an app and then going back to that app from it's icon in the drawer or your home screen?
[AT&T, Rogers HTC One X, Telstra One XL] polarbearmc:
HOLY CRAP DUDE... seriously. i'm gonna e-mail back htc as soon as I get a chance (at dinner right now so I can't until i get home) but that seriously worked. i'm gonna have to try it with other apps too BUT...

Have a bunch of stuff open in my recent apps list - Go to maps and find directions from my house to a store - Hit Home - Go to text messages - Hit App Switcher Button - Use it to go back to Google Maps and my directions are gone and it's reloaded back to the main first screen of Google Maps

THEN

Have a bunch of stuff open in my recent apps list - Go to maps and find directions from my house to a store - Hit Home - Go to text messages - Hit Home - Click on Maps from my App Drawer and ITS STILL IN MY DIRECTIONS... No refreshing/reloading!

I gotta try this with some more apps... It could totally be their multitasking / app switcher menu...
[AT&T, Rogers HTC One X, Telstra One XL] greyhulk:
Interesting. But that still doesn't explain music apps getting killed in the background. Unless they just aren't quite compatible with this phone yet.
[AT&T, Rogers HTC One X, Telstra One XL] BBock9:
After some testing, I find that the same thing happens when pressing home and returning to the app with the icon. Good idea, though. Is this working for anyone else? Fyi I'm on 1.82 and haven't noticed this improving at all.
[AT&T, Rogers HTC One X, Telstra One XL] katamari201:
Wow this thing sounds so fundamental that it shouldn't have been overlooked in the first place. If you can't even multitask twp apps, what next? Phone calls don't work. Camera doesn't save images. Battery doesn't charge past 10%...

For the record, my OG iPad with 256MB of RAM can save the state of games, apps, and the browser without problem if I only use 2 or 3 and switch between them.

Just. Wow.

Edit: I want to ask, is this problem only on the AT&t version and not the international version?
[AT&T, Rogers HTC One X, Telstra One XL] V@no:
Here is another unacceptable issue with this nonsense:

Using ES Explorer start playing a video file that is located on another computer with "external" player (I'm using mVideoPlayer), after about 5 minutes the player stops because ES Explorer got killed and link to the video file is broken.
[AT&T, Rogers HTC One X, Telstra One XL] oxeneers:
Most of the fundamental stuff mentioned in this thread makes sense, and I don't know why HTC went this route.

However, with that being said, I'm such a battery life freak that I don't mind the aggressive memory management and all that. I enjoy the amazing battery life, and if this is what we have to have for the tradeoff, I'll take it.
[AT&T, Rogers HTC One X, Telstra One XL] louis.b:
SO much drama over a phone. Srsly....
[AT&T, Rogers HTC One X, Telstra One XL] mobilehavoc:
Seriously if its this big a problem for you either return it or wait until you can put a ROM on it. Its annoying but not that serious.
[AT&T, Rogers HTC One X, Telstra One XL] dgcruzing:
What is the point of having a multi-processor in a phone if you cant use it..

Honestly, i want this phone..but the more i read the more i am put off..

The ability to swop between apps (where you left off) should be a fundamental right of having so much power under the hood.

Hell my evo does it..cough..cough..

This could be a good device once the bootloader is unlocked, production problems are fixed..

Until then..purists are going to look else where..granted the gen public dont care..

As long as it turns on and doesn't lag, and they get a full days batt, millions will put up with it unfortuantly
[AT&T, Rogers HTC One X, Telstra One XL] paz2005:
no drama. when an iPhone gets released; if there is a problem, it's top news everywhere.

in this case, it's a few threads in a forum.

there is no drama about having a phone which under-performs compared to other phones with half the specs -- just confusion.
[AT&T, Rogers HTC One X, Telstra One XL] greyhulk:
I'm not sure I realized how bad this issue was until I started using my Gnex again. Seriously, I can have 10 apps open at once and they will all go right back to their state (or simply stay running) when I use the multitask button. I also receive my e-mail the second it arrives, no delay. Last night, with both the One X and my Gnex on Wifi, I sent myself several test e-mails and would receive them within seconds on the Gnex and sometimes not until 10 minutes later on the One X.

The kicker for me, though, was multitasking. Tested it again between 3 phones: Gnex, One X, iPhone 4s. Even the iPhone did a better job, resuming back to the previous state of the app/game. I tested the same exact apps/games on the 3 devices (Angry birds, browser, messaging). Gnex handled it best, of course, but iPhone was second.

The way the One X completely wipes the state of an app, especially the browser, reminds me of an older Moto android phone I used to have (can't remember the exact model). I would be reading a web page, multitask out to change songs or look at the song info, come back to the browser and it would completely reload the page. Every. Single. Time. I got rid of that phone.

That was several years ago. Are we regressing in technology now? More importantly, and the $600 question for me is: Is this a bug they can/will fix, or is it the way they intended multitasking to behave? If it's the way they intended it, I'm completely baffled. I'm even more baffled that I haven't seen more posts/threads about this.
[AT&T, Rogers HTC One X, Telstra One XL] Bigjim1488:
We need that unlock and after that everything will fall in line. Like may have posted before this seems like HTC's way of being very aggressive with battery life. I personally would give up some battery life to have the phone run the way it truly should.
[AT&T, Rogers HTC One X, Telstra One XL] nugzo:
I agree that unlocking will help to fix this issue...but we shouldnt have to..This is a serious flaw.. No one knows why, the battery life statements may be true but no one knows at this point, they are just guessing. This phone was just released a week ago today...It takes time to fix things.. Hopefully this is important to them and we'll see some fixes real soon though... hopefully...
[AT&T, Rogers HTC One X, Telstra One XL] V@no:
I think the problem is that they didn't give user ability to control how and when user wants to kill applications. For example they could've added press and hold on back button that would exit/kill application.

It might not be so much of a problem for some people, but when an app started by another app, so the child app depends on parent, they might share resource or whatnot, user working in child app and all of the sudden it might crash simply because memory management decided that parent app no longer should be active in the background and closes it.

And hell, that thing closes LAUNCHER! how more ridiculous can that be? I mean, it takes 10-15 seconds before you can make a call when that happens!

This falls into the idiocracy category where everything is become simplified for "our benefit"
[AT&T, Rogers HTC One X, Telstra One XL] BarryH_GEG:
Since the phone gets about five hours of screen on time to a charge, let's talk about how big an issue this really is.

- Of those five hours of use, what percentage of your time is spent toggling between apps?

- If an app that you'd expect to be resident loses focus and has to restart, what's the true impact?

- Do apps lose focus consistently or is it just a few particularly memory intensive apps that are having an issue?

- Is the problem with two apps? Three? More than three? Does it happen the same way every time?

Two weekends ago I took my phone on its first trip. It's a good test of how well it handles things you typically don't do using it at home. I was also anxious to see how it compared to my i9100.

I use CoPilot for navigation and it's a memory pig. While using it I was streaming Rhapsody over BT in the rental car. I took calls, did some web lookups, and created a task while both were active. I noticed no memory management issues. I certainly would have noticed if either Rhapsody or CoPilot lost focus and restarted. The others may have but I didn't notice. If I didn't notice, at least to me, it's not really much of a problem

Instead of harping on the theory of bad multi-tasking, why don't you guys that are experiencing it give some real examples and describe what the impact is? And quantify the impact as a percentage of what you do and how an app restarting is actually creating harm. Is this a problem or a nuisance? Problems are a lot easier to understand in the context of what's real as opposed to what they could mean. Perhaps this could have been implemented better by HTC but for now it is what it is. People reading this thread would be more interested in what the impact of the problem is rather than the *****ing that it shouldn’t exist.
[AT&T, Rogers HTC One X, Telstra One XL] leletyM3:
A new ROM will fix everything, I have to go back with my 4S when I am using my phone heavyl.
[AT&T, Rogers HTC One X, Telstra One XL] V@no:
@BarryH_GEG : seriously dude?

Here are my observations so far:

1) running two apps: Slacker Radio and SportyPal

While Slacker Radio playing one or many items (I'm listening news podcasts) start SportyPal and leave it active. When Slacker Radio finished with one item it closes instead of continue with a new item in the playlist. If it's "focused" it plays everything just fine.

No, this does not happened every time, but it's been doing it too often to be not upset about it.

2) Using ES File Explorer I connect to a LAN computer and start playing a video file from that computer with a non-ES player. After few minutes ES File Explorer which was running on the background that time get forcibly closed, cutting the link between video player and remote computer.

3) after using phone for a while Sense launcher can get FC, making phone unusable for 5-15 seconds until it's load up launcher again.

4) when you type something on the web and have to switch to another app or make a phone call, returning to the web page will reload the page and you loose everything you typed. Same goes to most other apps, not just web browser, basically you must save EVERYTHING manually before you switch to another app.
[AT&T, Rogers HTC One X, Telstra One XL] muzzy996:
It's a nuisance to me at this point but one that I'll just live with for now since I have my galaxy tab 10.1 to do more intensive things anyway. The biggest irritation for me is how going back to an application via it's home screen icon is deemed a relaunch vs going back to it via the recent applications list. Maybe it's just an ICS thing but on my HC 3.2 tablet going back to tapatalk a day or two later via the homescreen icon for it brings me right back to the very post I was reading. With the One X it returns to a brand new instance of tapatalk forcing me to dive all the way back to the forum and thread I was in (if i even remember what that was). It'll take getting used to relying on the recent apps screen more than I used to on the tablet (never use it on the tab).

What I gotta wonder though is what data usage is going to be like for people with all of these reloads. Jumping in/out of email and browser results in constant refreshes in both. I'm guessing that these refreshes pull more from cached data than anything but sometimes the delays on browser refreshes are enough to make you wonder if it's completely reloading the page and thereby pulling data you already downloaded over and over. Thankfully I'm still grandfathered into unlimited data so it's no biggy to me other than the wasted seconds of my life waiting for refreshes LOL.
[AT&T, Rogers HTC One X, Telstra One XL] amswak:
Most the time. I practically run my business from my phone.

lets take a simple one - I am writing an email response, get a phone call, then try to go back to writing the email after I hang up. I have to start over. EVERY time. All day.

it is at least every app I use. Music: Spotfy, Pandora. Stock browser. Gmail and Gtalk apps for email and text. Google Navigation for directions.

Anything more than one.

Congrats! But this has not been not my experience.

Not meaning to start a tangential argument here, but please read previous posts within a thread before making a post like this. Several real examples have been given (I even posted one myself) and EVERY line you posted has been addressed no less than once already.

To everyone posting saying we are whining about a non-issue, if we dont speak up about the nuisance nothing will be done to fix it (squeaky wheel gets the grease and what-not). If you find it nothing more than a minor annoyance, then this probably isnt the thread for you to be wasting your time reading (life's just way too short to waste on things that don't affect you...)

I personally find this phone amazing with only two shortcomings: it does not multitask and it sucks at holding a data connection (or at least properly telling me whether I have a connection or not, but 'tis a topic for another post...). With something so very close to being perfect, I am damn sure going to speak up with the hopes of fixing these two completely addressable issues
[AT&T, Rogers HTC One X, Telstra One XL] gn0s1s:
This has worked for me as well, I ve just relegated the multitask button to close apps. If you use home button and shortcuts to app, it seems to multitask as expected.
[AT&T, Rogers HTC One X, Telstra One XL] amswak:
!!!! I think I just fixed something! Try this (or at least here is what I did): First, I have the standard limit on background tasks in developer options. Then, I went to the "Task Manager" App and went to settings and unchecked Automatic startup. I restarted the phone and went to Settings->Apps->Running and killer the "Wiper" process. Then multitasking worked like a charm!!

I decided to try this when I noticed the 'Task Manager' app processes did not match the 'Running Apps' application management list. Let me know if anyone else has this work for them!
[AT&T, Rogers HTC One X, Telstra One XL] dylando808:
also noticing the multitasking issue on the One X. it doesn't bother me as much because i don't do too much on my phone at once. but the times i mostly notice it when i'm listening to Pandora, when i wake the phone use another app (Facebook/Plume) then go into the Pandora app the music stops then starts to buffer then plays a completely different song.

heres to hoping theres a quick fix or a timely update from HTC/AT&T.
[AT&T, Rogers HTC One X, Telstra One XL] myrideishot:
I just did this and it seems to work. i tried with facebook, instagram, chrome, and my gmail and none of them refreshed while switching around to them. thank you very much.
[AT&T, Rogers HTC One X, Telstra One XL] greyhulk:
Did you read ANY of this thread? I have given several examples, as have others.

The multitasking is gimped to the point that it's not even a smartphone. For your particular usage scenario, it was sufficient, but others are having their music apps killed in the background and even the timer. WP7 has better multitasking than that. I'm pretty sure this isn't how it was intended to be and if it is, HTC is retarded.

Do I spend all day multitasking between apps? No. Do I need it to work correctly the few times I do use it? Absolutely. I want to be able to start a game, check an sms that just came in, then multitask back to the game and pick up where I left off. I can't do that right now.
[AT&T, Rogers HTC One X, Telstra One XL] dragunbayne:
I froze the wiper app with tibu and so far I'd does seem to have solved the problem. Good call!
[AT&T, Rogers HTC One X, Telstra One XL] greyhulk:
Update: This did not work for me. Followed the steps exactly.

Multitasking Methodology:

1) Open Angry birds and start playing

2) Hit home

3) Open web browser and go to endgadget

4) Open messaging and open message

5) Multitask button => go to Angry Birds. Game reloads from start

6) Multitask button => go to web browser. Page completely reloads

7) Multitask button => go to messaging. Messaging app reloads.

Most definitely not working for me. Wiper app is not running.
[AT&T, Rogers HTC One X, Telstra One XL] polarbearmc:
umm... i just tried this and not only does it not seem to work, but now my phone runs as slow as my old g2 haha... no bueno...
[AT&T, Rogers HTC One X, Telstra One XL] greyhulk:
Glad I'm not the only one. Not sure why this would work for some people and not others, unless the people who claim it is working haven't really tested thoroughly.
[AT&T, Rogers HTC One X, Telstra One XL] amswak:
Did you also set the 'Task Manager' app to not Autoload and restart the phone? Not sure if this is an HTC App, but it is not the same thing as viewing the running processes. Oh, I also have quick boot off so it does a full reboot.

Sorry if it doesnt work! I thought I was on to something here...
[AT&T, Rogers HTC One X, Telstra One XL] greyhulk:
I restarted twice. I even shut down the second time and waited a few seconds. I did not turn off quick boot, though. Let me try that.

Update: I did indeed have fast boot off. Looks like no go for me.
[AT&T, Rogers HTC One X, Telstra One XL] BarryH_GEG:
You guys need to read this...

Multitasking the Android Way

Posted by Tim Bray on 28 April 2010 at 11:41 AM

[This post is by Dianne Hackborn, a Software Engineer who sits very near the exact center of everything Android. — Tim Bray]

Android is fairly unique in the ways it allows multiple applications to run at the same time. Developers coming from a different platform may find the way it operates surprising. Understanding its behavior is important for designing applications that will work well and integrate seamlessly with the rest of the Android platform. This article covers the reasons for Android's multitasking design, its impact on how applications work, and how you can best take advantage of Android's unique features.

http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2010/04/multitasking-android-way.html

Here's Dianne's blog...

https://plus.google.com/#105051985738280261832/posts

She participates in quite a few of the XDA forums and if you have specific questions about what's going on with the One XLs memory management ask her and she'll respond. She was incredibly helpful with some issues the Asus Prime was experiencing.
[AT&T, Rogers HTC One X, Telstra One XL] amswak:
Update: I have been playing with this a bit now. With Task Manager app not autoloading at startup, things are definitely better. Killing the wiper app doesnt seem to really have an effect, so ignore that part.

It still only allows for switching between about three apps without reloading them. If any one is left inactive for more than a few minutes, it will still clear the cache on it (though it still appears to be a running process).

Is this Task Manager app installed by HTC or Android ICS? It does not show up in the list of running apps (accessed through the Android Settings Apps list), even when it is obviously running.

---------- Post added at 01:32 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:27 PM ----------

Did exactly this and it did not work for me either. But multitasking between only two apps did work, which (sadly) is more than I could do before.
[AT&T, Rogers HTC One X, Telstra One XL] xdp:
A web page reloading isn't the end of the world (but still annoying), but things like your music app or navigation being killed are deal-breakers. I can open 4-5+ other apps and still switch back to Pandora on my EVO 4G without losing my place with no issues, with half the RAM. This is probably HTC's attempt to maintain battery life and protect against rogue apps, but I think they dropped the ball on it. Combine this with the inability to flash CM9 due to the locked bootloader and this phone is currently a no-go.
[AT&T, Rogers HTC One X, Telstra One XL] mgfjd:
The multitasking on this phone sucks period. There is not justification. I should not be here looking for an answer. XDA devs should be enhancing the phone not trying to fix basic functionality. I hope HTC solves this problem before my trail period.
[AT&T, Rogers HTC One X, Telstra One XL] greyhulk:
Also, just for reference, guys, I did a test with music streaming on the One X and my Gnex yesterday. I did the following:

1) Started slacker on both devices

2) Picked the same station

3) Hit the home button

I left them both running. After 2-3 songs, the One X would stop playing. Opening Slacker back up using Multitasking showed slacker still running but frozen at 0:00. I could manually skip stations and get it going again, but it would stop again a few songs later. It NEVER stopped playing on the Gnex.

This goes above and beyond any kind of active task management. It's not even lettings apps run that should be allowed to run. It's like we're back to iOS 3.0.
[AT&T, Rogers HTC One X, Telstra One XL] doaneramma:
I ran into this this morning while driving. It was force closing Play Music after about 30seconds of the screen off! This is actually a deal breaker for me as I am on the highway a lot and all my tunes are on GMusic (cause our limited on board memory forced me into it). I love the camera, and the hardware is exceptional. This and the bluetooth problems are intolerable.