Suggestions for Samsung phones to prevent apps from closing

[Aadam-Marshall]

It is known that Samsung closes background apps very aggressively, and no matter how you configure the settings in your phone, it will still close background apps/tasks (like downloads that take a long time, a 10GB file for example) after some time, no matter what your battery level is or how much free memory you have.

Here are my suggestions to add to the dontkillmyapp website, to the Samsung section:

1. Keep open

There's an option to "keep the app open". Screenshot: https://r2.community.samsung.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/2508942i166FF8509182311C/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999
Go to Recents screen, tap on the icon of any open app - tap Keep open. This will prevent the app from closing in the background, I tested it myself and it works nicely. The tragedy is that you can only do this for one app.

2. Good Guardians

Samsung develops an app named Good Guardians. This app is tightly integrated with the phone on a low-level and has many modules. In the app, there's a module named Memory Guardian, and in the "Customize" tab of the module, there are two modes: "Default" and "Quick switching mode". Regarding this feature, I don't know to what extent it prevents background apps/tasks from closing, but here's the description of the "Quick switching mode": "Keep more apps in the background. When using the previously used app again, it is more likely to run with the last state of the app, not starting from the beginning."

3. Here's a trick that works on Samsung phones and may apply to other manufacturers as well: if you want an app to keep running in the background when you turn off your phone's screen/lock your phone, then don't go to Home (Home screen) of your phone and then turn off the screen. Open the app and let it stay in the foreground, and only then turn off your screen/lock your phone. This will prevent the app from closing. When you unlock your phone, you will see that the app is running in the same state.
   3.1 Also, with the help of the above-mentioned trick, you can make 2 apps run in the background. You simply "Keep open" one app, and the second app you open and let it stay in the foreground, then you can turn off your screen/lock your phone. When you unlock your phone, both apps will be running and preserve their state.

[rl885]

Hi @Aadam-Marshall, may I ask a few questions?
ad 1 - Is it possible to have "keep open" only one app or more? What Samsung phone and Android version do you have?

ad 2 - Is the Memory guardian keeping only memory optimizations at bay, or also the battery ones?

ad 3 - Have you tested this when the phone is idle for longer periods?

[Aadam-Marshall]

Is it possible to have "keep open" only one app or more? What Samsung phone and Android version do you have?

Only one app can be set to "Keep open". I noticed that this is a surefire way to prevent an app from closing.
I have Samsung A34 5G, Android 14.

Is the Memory guardian keeping only memory optimizations at bay, or also the battery ones?

Most likely it only keeps memory optimizations at bay, because for battery ones there's another app/module called "Battery Guardian". It's from the same family of apps ("Good Guardians" collection of apps made by Samsung).

Have you tested this when the phone is idle for longer periods?

I can only vouch for my 1 and 3 points, which are "Keep open" feature and the trick of opening an app and then turning off your screen/locking your phone, letting the app stay in the foreground this way. These two things really do work, 100%. I can't say anything about Memory Guardian - never tested it. However, people on the Internet (Reddit etc) say good feedbacks about this feature and say that it really helps in preventing apps from closing in the background.

Also maybe you could do something about countless empty issues that people open...

[rl885]

I am sorry we are behind, we are only two devs...

If you have more details about the guardians, I can update the description. I added the rest, thank you so much!

[Aadam-Marshall]

Opening an app trick might be universal and work on all Android manufacturers, not only Samsung. It's probably how Android works: if you leave an app in the foreground and lock the screen - the app will stay in memory. You can test this on your phone if you have Android.

I'm not a native English speaker and when I explained the "trick" thing, it was more of a draft/quick explanation. It would be good to rewrite that "trick" thing in a more clear and correct way:

If you want to lock your phone/turn off your screen while having an app run in the background and prevent it from being flushed out of memory, simply open an app and then lock your phone. Do not open an app, go to Home screen and then lock your phone - this may flush the app out of memory after some time. Open the app and let it stay in the foreground, then lock your phone.

To have two apps run in the background with the phone being locked, you "Keep open" one app, and the second app you open and let it stay in the foreground, then lock your phone. Via two different methods, this will reliably prevent both apps from being flushed out of memory and let them run in the background while the phone is locked and the screen is turned off.

[Aadam-Marshall]

Also, regarding Good Guardian's Memory Guardian module: it actually has 3 modes, see this. I guess it depends on the model of the phone: high-end Galaxy S series have an additional mode. My phone is from A series, a line of mid-range phones.

In the link I sent you, judging by the description of the "Speed up top app mode" - it's worse than quick switching mode, because the former is designed to clear memory to have more memory for a memory-demanding app, such as a game. Quick switching mode is what we need - keep more apps in memory and don't flush them out.

[rl885]

Hi, I found some details on the internet - it should have a Memory Guardian, Battery Guardian, and App booster.
When I get a Samsung phone, I will explore the Guardians thing a bit more.
There are a lot of users with Samsung coming to our page, so hopefully someone will be able to provide more details as well.
It was all added to Samsung's guides, including the trick with the screen. Thank you for all the details you shared!

[Aadam-Marshall]

App booster.

I don't know what Galaxy App Booster module does exactly, I haven't found good, technical info about it on the internet. It doesn't seem to be related to memory-management. I would better skip mentioning it for now, as it seems to be related to optimizing apps' performance, which is out of focus of dontkillmyapp.com website.

As for Battery Guardian module, there's a toggle "App power saving", with the description

When battery-draining app has been found, app will be put to sleep automatically to extend your battery life.

I turned it off because it basically says that it will close an app if it thinks the app takes too much battery. Browsers for example use quite lot of battery, so it may close them. This feature can be included in the website.

[rl885]

I will keep it for now, I hope someone with some info will join and explain. Optimizing an app's performance can have an impact on the apps running in the background, but who knows?

I added the App power saving to the guides.