FP5: Android 15 killing background apps more aggressively

Help Fairphone 5
1

Hi!

Since the update to Android 15, the system is much more aggressive in killing background apps. For example, I’ve been using x-plore (highly recommended) for years to schedule backups. Since the update, these scheduled copy operations are no longer reliable, because the app apparently gets stopped/killed while it is working in the background.

Even if i manually start a longer copy operation, and then switch to another app, the background app seems to have been killed when I switch back, and I have to manually start again.

This happens to other apps, too, like games that I used to switch away from briefly to read a chat message and then switch back to. Before the update, I would just switch back and forth; since the update, the game app restarts when I switch back.

I have tried to make the right settings:
Settings/Apps//App battery usage/Allow background usage

..but this doesn’t seem to have any effect. Here I noticed a reduction in options via a vis Android 14: it used to have several (as seen here https://static1.makeuseofimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/changing-battery-profile-for-the-app.jpg)
Now there is just a single toggle for “Allow background usage”, which was already on (and appears to be on for all my apps!?)

Has anyone else noticed this?

Any ideas on how to prevent the system from killing apps as soon as you switch away from them?

Thanks,

eddi

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2

Hi

I’ve got the same problem. Even if there is no real process occurring, if I just switch to another app to check something, whe’and I switch back the first app restarts. This can be very annoying!

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3

Is this the same as this topic (title only mentions switching, but some posts indicate it happens also when e.g. just letting music/podcasts play while the phone is locked)?

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4

Thanks, I’m reading with interest.

For me, it happen suddenly after the update to Android 15. I had not noticed this issue for the 1.5 years before

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5

@Ingo, for me, that’s true with Spotify. I’ve an fp5.

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6

Same, I got AntennaPod killed while listening to a podcast and my phone in the pocket, locked. FP5, A15.

Didn’t experience it often on A14, maybe once or twice

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7

That’s really annoying and Fairphone soon should correct this in the next update!!

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8

I changed these two settings in the Developer Options and so far it seems to help a bit!

Background process limit to maximum (unfortunately, the maximum is only 4)

Stop execution for apps in cache: deactivated

See screenshots (German menu)

Screenshot_20250823-112750
Screenshot_20250823-1127501224×2086 155 KB

Screenshot_20250823-112816
Screenshot_20250823-1128161224×2149 150 KB

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9

I’ve had a few applications (F-Droid clients, mostly) fail to install APKs. This is likely why:

10

Thanks for this info. I hadn’t in the past ten years had a reason to activate the developer options, but now I do : )

I made the two settings you described; after 36 hours I have to report they don’t seem to have had any effect on the problem – apps are still dying when i switch away and back, and get killed randomly when they’re running in the background (x-plore, antenna pod)

Memory use reports 3GB free on average over several days

I don’t know if this is an upstream issue or caused by something the Fairphone devs customized, but I hope they can have a close look – for me these issues clearly started with the update to A15

Cheers,

eddi

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11

Unfortunately, for me these settings also had no positive effect in the long run :frowning:

I really hate Google for that bad performance management in Android, especially regarding apps in background being killed way too soon.

And yes, hopefully Fairphone Devs will have a close look on this issue, that at least worsened massively with the Android 15 update for FP5.

→ Can anyone file a formal bug report, please?

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12

Hello

in the past issues were prioritized given the number of tickets

I do not know the current support policy, but please - if you want to see the improvement, make sure to file a report yourself

That would not only allow devs to identify the number of devices affected but also possibly identify the significant (co)variables, as not all the users are affected

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13

3 posts were merged into an existing topic: Why was the GitLab instance (and FPOS) deprecated?

14

Same here with Deezer or Medito playing in background. It’s really annoying.

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15

So I thought and contacted them yesterday, tried the live chat. I waited less than 5 minutes and had a good conversation! I talked to Nica through the live chat about this app killing issue. She had not heard about it and I got promised a reply the same day (I explicitly asked about how long to wait and was surprised about same day, asked to confirm and got confirmed), but did not get a response yesterday in the end, nor today.

I had opened a ticket about the case to supply more details and the exact version of my phone and software yesterday as well. The ticket I had opened got closed as “solved”, without a reply.

Sometimes it just feels strange. I submitted a follow-up of the ticket, let’s see how long it takes

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16

Just to say that the same thing happened to my FP5 after upgrading to Android 15. I noticed that my browser tabs have to be reloaded muuuuch more frequently that before. I simply have to check on something else and come back and tada!, it reloads. Super annoying.

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17

Thanks! Can you provide a link to the tickets?

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#1305929 is the ticket marked as solved, without a response. My follow-up ticket is #1306308, still open and no response yet. But you shouldn’t be able to access them, what do you need them for?

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19

Thanks, sorry, I’m new here : )

I thought it might be a public tracker and I could have a look around

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Welcome to the forum! Sadly that doesn’t exist here. I’ll try to remember to post updates here! Might take a few months