Apps closing immediately when switching to another app

derekhansell

I am having a huge quality of life problem with grapheneOS. A very common thing that I do is start working on a form in a website and then I switch to another app to look at a different piece of information to fill into that form. Almost 100% of the time when I go back to my browser in this case Firefox, the app seems to be launching from zero and all of the information I have previously entered into the form is gone. All apps seem to behave this way, where if you switch to another app, it closes all of the background processes for the app that you're not actively looking at. Is this an intended behavior, and if so, is there a way to selectively disable it for specific applications? This is one of my biggest pet peeves about the OS, and if I can solve it, my desire to switch back to Google Android on my Pixel would be greatly mitigated.

DeletedUser69

derekhansell are you using battery saver? What are for example Firefox's battery usage settings? Did you allow background battery use? Does changing it to unrestricted help? Have you by any chance changed anything in background process limit or Don't keep activities in Developer settings?

other8026

derekhansell This isn't normal. If you have developer options enabled, try turning them off and then see if the problem continues.

ErnestThornhill

derekhansell This is one of my biggest pet peeves about the OS

This is not at all related to GrapheneOS itself.

de0u

derekhansell How many user profiles are on the device, with how many applications running? How many tabs are open in Firefox? If lots of memory is in use Android stops non-foreground processes.

Maybe see if this happens immediately after a reboot? If it doesn't, then memory pressure is probably the issue.

derekhansell

Hello! Thanks for all the responses and the willingness to help.

DeletedUser69 No battery saver. Firefox is using optimized background battery setting. However, Firefox is not the only app that exhibits this behavior. "Don't keep activities" is toggled off. I have the background process limit set to Standard.

ErnestThornhill This behavior didn't start until I switched to GrapheneOS. Could just be a coincidence, admittedly.

de0u I have a single profile and don't allow multiple users. I do not run that many apps at once. See linked screen shots.

Here's a video of this behavior happening not only to Firefox, but also to other apps: LINK Here's a link to screen shots showing that my answers to your questions are legit. LINK On average the system seems to have, like 500 MB of RAM free at any given time.

DeletedUser69

Yes running even ONE memory intensive application can kill all other apps in background.

derekhansell

DeletedUser69 In the linked video in my prior post it seems the other apps all go back to zero after I open YT Music. But I don't consider the apps I've opened to be overwhelming. Maybe I'm mistaken. Here's a more thorough recording trying to show how little I have running before showing the behavior happening again.

traveller

This started to happen to me as well, a few days...a week ago, with some update.
It seems like Android has gotten more aggressive on killing background apps, attempting to save memory/CPU/Network resources?
Wondering if this behaviour can be adjusted. The app I am using has (and always had) "Allow background usage" on, but this doesn't seem to help anymore, it's like this setting is ignored now.

Probably9857

traveller

You can set background usage to unrestricted by tapping on the text Allow background usage.

derekhansell

Probably9857 I just set allow background usage to Unrestricted for Firefox and it made no difference in the behavior.

HansWorst7

If I may bring this up again.

I'm facing the same "issue".
For example using Komoot and GrapheneOS Camera. No other apps open.
Using Komoot to navigate me along the route.
Then, I switch to camera (GrapheneOS Camera app) to take a picture of the nice scenery. I don't do anything more than that - just switch to camera, take a picture and switch back.
Komoot restarts instead of just opening the hike so far. IMHO this is too aggressive of a battery management. And no, no battery saving mode. And I haven't changed any setting regarding battery usage for Komoot. This is just one of many examples of apps closing when I switch to another app for a few seconds. Is this how it should be?

other8026

HansWorst7 one common reason for this issue is developer options. If you have developer options enabled, try disabling them.