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  • Regression in GrapheneOS? Apps are aggressively killed by OS in the background

In short, apps are being killed extremely aggressively. As far as I know, this issue does not exist on stock Android.

It surely must be pretty detrimental to battery life, as we all know that keeping apps for as long as possible in memory is preferable rather than starting them up again and again and again (which was the problem with all the resource optimizer apps that falsely claimed to free up resources and improve battery). :/

The issue:

It's driving me crazy that I now can't be sure whether an app will be killed off if I go into a different app for a few moments before returning.

Whenever I'm opening my browser, which I use a lot and often need immediately, it takes ages to start up again. My tabs are waiting to be loaded and opening new tabs doesn't work either during this start up.

Sessions/progress being reset is now just a normal system behaviour. :/

Friends and family, which I convinced to get Pixel phones and install GrapheneOS on them, all have reacted to this as it's pretty hard not to notice. It really does affect usability.

My phone is a Pixel 8 Pro and even with an older Pixel phone this has nothing to do with limited resources. Apps are being thrown out of memory rather aggressively, when they should be kept in memory as long as it's room for it.

What I've tried so far:

Of course, allowing background usage and setting "unrestricted" in "App battery usage".

I've tried to disable the things in the app info page that are GrapheneOS related. I initially thought that "Exploit protection compatibility mode" solved it. It seemed to do so, until it didn't.

I can't disable memory tagging, as Brave Browser opts in and the other options are greyed out.

I don't actually want to disable security and privacy related features, but the current behaviour is pretty broken and at times (literally) unusable (when I have to sit and stare at my phone while waiting to be able to use the app that I used literally seconds ago).

Are there any known workarounds until (hopefully) it's fixed by the developers?

I really hope this is not intentional behaviour. And even if it has a purpose relating to security, it's just way too intrusive and should be opt-in.

I'm wondering if setting the limit of background processes in developer options to something way too high would resolve the issue, but that too is undesireable (even though it would be better than the current behaviour).

Any ideas? :)

    Eudyptula It's very unusual behaviour. Glitches can occur if one messes with settings in Developer options or use adb for various stuff. Has adb and Developer options ever been used on your device and your friends and family's devices?

        I have also noticed the same behaviour. I use the browser for pretty much everything. If I switch to another profile while tabs are open and switch back all the tabs are unloaded from memory. This causes some sites to logout and payment pages to fail. And I have
        not used developer options or adb.

          I just checked and yes you are right. Almost all the apps I used today were shut down and had to "cold boot" despite my device having 16GB of RAM (Pixel 9 Pro XL).

          fid02

          Developer options has been used, but not for things that should affect process and memory management. :) ADB has not been used at all.
          My friends's and family's configuration is more default than my own. I'm not sure if any options are changed in developer options on their phones.

          The developer options I have set :

          • Enable Wi-Fi verbose logging (enable) (provides useful info about Wi-Fis in the Wi-Fi network view)
          • Show taps (enable) (personally really fond of this option for various reasons)
          • Always show crash dialogue (enable) (I want to know about system events, this seems like a novice-oriented user friendly-oriented default)
          • Show background ANRs (enable) (same as the above, I want to know about system events rather than it happening in silence)
          • Force full GNSS measurements (enable) (force full duty cycle when an app actively is using GPS, e.g. for navigation. It considerably improves accuracy at the expense of increased power draw)

          The options for animation scale are all 0x, but they were set in the accessibility settings. The accessibility settings for disabling animations will set all the 3 animation scale settings in developer options to 0x, so it seems to be just a user-facing shortcut and remote that saves you the trouble of having to go into developer options.

          Developer option that I'm not sure whether is in default state or not:

          • Show notification channel warnings (enable) (warning when an app posts a notification without a valid channel)
          Correction due to not being able to edit main post anymore:

          I mentioned the developer option that let you adjust the background process limit and wondered whether this could be a possible workaround (even though it's the sort of "substitute a broom for a toothbrush because of large teeths" sort of solution). Though, upon looking at that setting, the options seem to only limit the amount instead of being able to adjust the limit to a higher number. Highest limit value is up to 4. I would assume that the default limit is considerably higher.

              Eudyptula Developer option that I'm not sure whether is in default state or not:
              Show notification channel warnings (enable) (warning when an app posts a notification without a valid channel)

              Disabled is the default.

                Eudyptula Developer options has been used,

                I'm not sure

                Disable Developer options as a whole, reboot the device, use the device as normal and see what happens.

                Developer options is a likely factor and should be ruled out before spending time on further troubleshooting.

                  Also, you seem to not be aware that GrapheneOS has a user facing toggle to enable notifications about system process crashes. It's in Settings > Security & privacy > More security and privacy

                  I'm afraid that i do have similar experiences with my p7a. Since 1... 3 GOS releases, my Samsung smartwatch fails to receive steps counting updates from the Samsung Health app.
                  Surely I've given the Samsung Health app unrestricted battery privileges and yet, the update to the watch is only initiated once i actually open the app. Background sync is lost.

                    Okay, so here definitely is a real bug. I have been able to reproduce it.

                    The bug does not occur if one only use owner profile and private space, which is my current setup. That is why I haven't noticed it before. The bug also does not occur when merely switching between secondary user profiles. However, when switching to a secondary user profile that is not running, and having to enter your primary credentials to access it, it does seem all apps are unloaded in all other profiles, leading to loss of unsaved data. This should of course not be the case, and definitely is a regression from before, as I did not experience this back when I was using secondary profiles prior to Android 15 release.

                    Can you who are experiencing issues in this thread confirm that switching between user profiles works fine, as long as they all are already running and logged in, that is, you only have to authenticate using secondary credentials such as your fingerprint? But the problem happen only when opening a not running secondary user profile?

                      I have noticed the same behavior. My incognito Vanadium tabs are killed as soon as I lock the screen. This was not the case before.

                        Upstate1618 My incognito Vanadium tabs are killed as soon as I lock the screen.

                        I cannot reproduce this. Which profile did you run Vanadium in? For how long did you leave the screen locked? Does it only happen in incognito mode, or also for regular tabs? It seems odd to me only incognito tabs would be affected, as that does not indicate the Vanadium app itself was terminated.

                            For me it happens in regular tabs in vanadium. Vanadium is running in a secondary profile. When I switch to another secondary profile and switch back the tabs are unloaded.
                            Edit: The issue happens when switching between secondary profiles whether they are running or not.

                            Yes, i can reproduce thing with unloading active tabs when switching between profiles. But i don't remember how it was in previous GrapheneOS versions (for example with Android 14). It would be interesting what GrapheneOS developers would say (is it a bug or normal behaviour).

                            Tested with Pixel 8.

                              I've noticed the same thing, not just from Vanadium but with different apps. This needs to be addressed by the devs.

                                It's not clear that people in this thread are talking about the same issue. The OP never mentioned profiles. ryrona's post is the first post with clear steps to reproduce.

                                Eudyptula It's driving me crazy that I now can't be sure whether an app will be killed off if I go into a different app for a few moments before returning.

                                You didn't mention profiles. Does it only occur when switching between profiles?

                                0289380427 I've noticed the same thing, not just from Vanadium but with different apps. This needs to be addressed by the devs.

                                What have you noticed exactly? Are you in a position to provide steps to reproduce (which apps are affected, what do you do when the issue occurs)?

                                    ryrona However, when switching to a secondary user profile that is not running, and having to enter your primary credentials to access it, it does seem all apps are unloaded in all other profiles, leading to loss of unsaved data.

                                    That has always been the case for me as far as I remember, since I started using GrapheneOS on a 6a about two years ago. Although it's annoying, I've always attributed that to a lack of available system memory, and the OS "unloading" apps to free up resources. But I don't really know.

                                    To be clear, I'm talking about switching from Owner -> secondary profile -> Owner. Not sure if we're referring to the same thing.

                                    Upstate1618 My incognito Vanadium tabs are killed as soon as I lock the screen.

                                    I've never had this issue. I can't reproduce it on GrapheneOS 2025021100.

                                          ryrona
                                          I run Vanadium in the main profile. incognito tabs are killed immediately after screen locked. This does not happen 100%. I don't use regular tabs so I can't say.
                                          P8P 2025021100. I have only 2 profiles: main profile and private space.

                                              fid02 That has always been the case for me as far as I remember, since I started using GrapheneOS on a 6a about two years ago. Although it's annoying, I've always attributed that to a lack of available system memory, and the OS "unloading" apps to free up resources. But I don't really know.

                                              Ah, okay. I never noticed it before. Still, it shouldn't happen. There shouldn't be more system resources needed at first start of a profile as opposed to the profile being actively running, and it does lead to data loss, any unsaved changes are lost.

                                              To be clear, I'm talking about switching from Owner -> secondary profile -> Owner. Not sure if we're referring to the same thing.

                                              Yes, we are.

                                              Upstate1618 I run Vanadium in the main profile. incognito tabs are killed immediately after screen locked. This does not happen 100%. I don't use regular tabs so I can't say.

                                              Okay, so then probably it is the Vanadium web browser that gets unloaded, and it would affect non-incognito tabs for you as well. That is the most likely.

                                              If you open the Settings app, go to Apps, Vanadium, Battery Usage, is Allow background usage enabled?