# Nexus Has Been Acting Very Sluggish Lately



## imail724 (Jan 3, 2012)

For the past few weeks, maybe longer, my phone has been running much slower than it used to, particularly when leaving an app and going back to the home screen. Quite often I will click back or home and my home screen will be blank for a few seconds before everything shows up on it. I have tried wiping cache multiple times, I've wiped data and flashed a new ROM, tried different kernels, I've tried clearing space on the SD, nothing seems to help. Is this just an issue of old age (got the phone when it came out) or is there something else I could try? Running XenonHD if it matters

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


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## akellar (Jun 11, 2011)

Most of the feature heavy roms are pushing the bounds of what this device can handle. I think it's just a limitation of the RAM.


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## masully84 (Jul 17, 2012)

Wiping cache won't help speed up anything. That's not how android works.

Sent from my Nexus 7


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## Art Vandelay (Jan 4, 2012)

Do this. Return to factory settings (unroot and lock). Run stock 4.2.2 (you can unlock and root it, but try stock rom) for a little while and decide if you really have a reason to run a custom ROM?

4.2.2 pretty much has everything I needed and when I still had my Gnex I ran stock and loved it.

Doing a factory reset to return the device to stock is what is going to instantly make the phone faster. You really don't have to run stock if you don't want to I just suggest it so you have a baseline of what the Gnex is.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using RootzWiki


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## imail724 (Jan 3, 2012)

Alright I'll probably do that at some point soon. I think the main reason I run custom ROMs is to have an ad blocker installed and to have the battery percentage shown in the status bar, something I have no idea why it isn't a stock feature.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


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## LoH_Mobius (Jun 6, 2012)

I had a similar issue and changed my minfree values from default to aggressive via AutoKiller Memory Optimizer: http://goo.gl/w4OGw

As far as the home screens redrawing (loading slow) what launcher do you use? Default? Nova? Check if there is a "Aggressive Desktop" or "Persistent Desktop" check box in settings (Or the launcher's settings are different from your ROMs try there) somewhere.

Not sure if it's placebo but it seems to have worked wonderfully for me. Short of that i defer to what everyone else posted








Good luck.


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## imail724 (Jan 3, 2012)

I have apex launcher and I checked the box to keep launcher in memory the other day, didn't help

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


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## yarly (Jun 22, 2011)

Wiping cache is basically doing something like this.

A cache is sort of like an index, "dictionary" or "phonebook" for applications. When you know what you want to find, you can look it up instantly without having to search. Android uses that in the same way. Think of data stored for apps as being in buckets--as if it were physically in front of you in real life, you could look into the bucket and pull out that data. Buckets can also be "tied" together with virtual rope/chain to form a collection of buckets with related data (which is sort of what an Array is in programming). You can also have buckets tied together with buckets inside of buckets as well with a unique value as a lookup index for each bucket (sort of like putting a label on the front of the bucket so you can see what is in it without looking directly in it). That is kind of what a cache does for Android or your web browser.

This is a very basic example, but say you have some value that starts with "A", then it can directly go to the "A" bucket of data and pull out whatever was already stored in there without having to do a bunch of searching it would normally do. Also, no repeat data is stored in a cache either and typically data that is too old is thrown out. If two pieces of data have the same lookup index, it either warns the application and it has to account for that or it overwrites what was already there. For anyone interested, a cache is basically a specialized type of hashtable (for anyone familiar with Java, they're used for HashMap collections). Hashtables are the most efficient/fastest data structures in programming, but only if one knows what they want to look for ahead of time.

If you go and clear that cache though, Android has to redo all that over once again, so all initial loading for each app will now take longer until the cache for that app is built back up. During that time, what would have happened nearly instant because the data was stored in the cache could take 2 or more times longer, depending on how efficient the operations to restore the data into the cache are (generally they're not overly efficient or they wouldn't be using the cache).

Anyone interested in demystifying some of the seemingly complex terms and concepts used in programming, I made a basic write up of some of the more common ones a while ago to help explain things to someone learning the basics. It's by no means complete or perfect, but it will hopefully give anyone interested a better idea of what goes on under the hood for building an application or the OS as a whole.

EDIT: clarifying a few things, hopefully everything makes sense, but if not, just ask


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## yarly (Jun 22, 2011)

akellar said:


> Most of the feature heavy roms are pushing the bounds of what this device can handle. I think it's just a limitation of the RAM.


Yeah, it makes me wonder if Google will officially release Android 5 for the Gnexus or if Android 4.3 will be the end of the line. If going by previous Nexus devices, it probably will be 4.3 and that's it. Hard to say though, since Android 4.2.x has been the buggiest, most unstable version of Android since maybe the Android 2.2 or before days. Android 4.3 will probably give us a good idea of how well the Gnexus still holds up since it should hopefully be a release to fix all the crap of 4.2.


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## imail724 (Jan 3, 2012)

Do we have any sort of eta on 4.3?

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


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## akellar (Jun 11, 2011)

yarly said:


> Yeah, it makes me wonder if Google will officially release Android 5 for the Gnexus or if Android 4.3 will be the end of the line. If going by previous Nexus devices, it probably will be 4.3 and that's it. Hard to say though, since Android 4.2.x has been the buggiest, most unstable version of Android since maybe the Android 2.2 or before days. Android 4.3 will probably give us a good idea of how well the Gnexus still holds up since it should hopefully be a release to fix all the crap of 4.2.


Agreed but on the other hand stock runs ok still.

Sent from my SCH-I605 using RootzWiki


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## shiznu (Jun 14, 2012)

I have to agree about the feature full ROMs starting to slow the GNex up and hit the battery a little harder. I'm not saying I really know anything but would 4.3 really have that much of a kernel or CPU bump from what we have now? It seems it would be mostly bugfixes with maybe an extra feature or two.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


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## thepsyntyst (Jul 12, 2011)

I've been running AOKP since like day one. I clean wipe maybe once every 5 to 8 dirty. My GNex speed honestly seems faster than in the past. And for battery its always been consistent since I got the phone. Consistently terrible but consistent. I'm guessing you don't have any task killers installed?

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using RootzWiki


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## shiznu (Jun 14, 2012)

The battery life is actually not that much different, just noticeable. I do not use task killers but have never really had a problem with wake locks and such. Jellybean has always been faster/smoother than ICS IMO.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


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## imail724 (Jan 3, 2012)

Nope, but I usually clean flash every update

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## wtherrell (Sep 17, 2012)

Try this. Go to settings > developer Options > background process limit and change from default to 4 or less. Also check Force 4x MSAA and force gpu rendering. It works for me. 
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


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## yarly (Jun 22, 2011)

Forcing 4x [background=rgb(245, 245, 245)]MSAA only affects 3d stuff like games and won't matter with normal usage (but it may improve the performance of some games). Pretty much every app made for ICS and beyond already uses GPU rendering as well so enable force mode won't help any of them. Not saying it wont' help, just that it would only affect legacy apps.[/background]

[background=rgb(245, 245, 245)]More info on MSAA and other methods of pixel smoothing for anyone interested: [/background]http://hacksoflife.b...ittle-time.html and http://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/31801/what-are-the-differences-between-the-different-anti-aliasing-multisampling-set


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## MidnightNinja (Dec 10, 2011)

yarly said:


> Yeah, it makes me wonder if Google will officially release Android 5 for the Gnexus or if Android 4.3 will be the end of the line. If going by previous Nexus devices, it probably will be 4.3 and that's it. Hard to say though, since Android 4.2.x has been the buggiest, most unstable version of Android since maybe the Android 2.2 or before days. Android 4.3 will probably give us a good idea of how well the Gnexus still holds up since it should hopefully be a release to fix all the crap of 4.2.


Honestly, after seeing how the Gnex runs on 4.2.2(even stock) I'd be hard pressed to think that Google would officially release Android 5.0 for it. The Gnex is almost 2 years old now, and hardware for android is aging more and more rapidly--even if the hardware could handle it, Its been almost 18 months since the Gnex's release, which is(I believe) the point where Google stops updating the Nexus devices.


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## DR3W5K1 (Feb 19, 2012)

MidnightNinja said:


> Honestly, after seeing how the Gnex runs on 4.2.2(even stock) I'd be hard pressed to think that Google would officially release Android 5.0 for it. The Gnex is almost 2 years old now, and hardware for android is aging more and more rapidly--even if the hardware could handle it, Its been almost 18 months since the Gnex's release, which is(I believe) the point where Google stops updating the Nexus devices.


This is true but they have jellybean on the droid one. That being said I'm pretty sure we will get 5.0 one way or another.


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## yarly (Jun 22, 2011)

DR3W5K1 said:


> This is true but they have jellybean on the droid one. That being said I'm pretty sure we will get 5.0 one way or another.


It'll get it from the community for sure. 4.3 will probably be the EOL though. 18 months is usually the cutoff or close for most phones in general (Android or otherwise).


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## shiznu (Jun 14, 2012)

yarly said:


> It'll get it from the community for sure. 4.3 will probably be the EOL though. 18 months is usually the cutoff or close for most phones in general (Android or otherwise).


Not that I would wait for an OTA anyway but I'm gonna be shocked if VZW pushed out 4.3 or anything past this point. Not saying it will not happen, but it would really surprise me.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


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## MidnightNinja (Dec 10, 2011)

shiznu said:


> Not that I would wait for an OTA anyway but I'm gonna be shocked if VZW pushed out 4.3 or anything past this point. Not saying it will not happen, but it would really surprise me.
> 
> Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


Honestly, I wouldn't bother going to 5.0 if Google drops support for it. I cant see how Nexus S users still use the device with the amount of issues Gnex owners have. 4.3 will definitely be EOL, if 4.2.2 isn't--either way, we will know soon enough. Verizon might push the update-I've heard various reports that stock works better than custom ROMs, but I haven't used stock for longer than 72 hours.


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## picassokat (Aug 22, 2011)

MidnightNinja said:


> Honestly, I wouldn't bother going to 5.0 if Google drops support for it. I cant see how Nexus S users still use the device with the amount of issues Gnex owners have. 4.3 will definitely be EOL, if 4.2.2 isn't--either way, we will know soon enough. Verizon might push the update-I've heard various reports that stock works better than custom ROMs, but I haven't used stock for longer than 72 hours.


Why wouldn't you bother with 5.0? The gnex will probably run better with it. It is being developed to run on older phones with less memory.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


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## shiznu (Jun 14, 2012)

I will always at least try the latest OS developed for the GNex. In reality though I hope I've moved on to nexus4/nexus? by then.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


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## rester555 (Jul 20, 2011)

I am noticing the sluggishness as well. The options for replacement of the galaxy nexus are depressing being a customer of Verizon with unlimited data. Still waiting for a phone on their network that is pure Google software without having to hack the phone for aosp...

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using RootzWiki


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## DR3W5K1 (Feb 19, 2012)

rester555 said:


> I am noticing the sluggishness as well. The options for replacement of the galaxy nexus are depressing being a customer of Verizon with unlimited data. Still waiting for a phone on their network that is pure Google software without having to hack the phone for aosp...
> 
> Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using RootzWiki


Give me and unlocked bootloader with the possibilities to flash custom kernels and im fine. Still using like 15-30 gigs a month so losing my unlimited and awesome network coverage is not an option for me either.


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## sodequis (Dec 21, 2011)

Have any of you tried this...

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1971852

From what I've read some(not all) Gnex devices do not have trim working by default for the storage. Causing the device to slow down over time. Wiping the device does very little to help your speeds if you have this problem. For those that are unaware, trim is the feature that solid state drives use to make sure each sector of the memory is in fact erased when whatever was originally written to that sector is set to be deleted. In traditional hard drives this was not neccessary because new information could just be written over top of the old.


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## imail724 (Jan 3, 2012)

Yeah I tries that app, didn't work

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


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## Armada (Oct 13, 2011)

This is going to sound crazy but turn off auto-rotation. This eliminates pretty much all of the lag on the stock firmware, at least. Probably a bug in some sensor code in 4.2.2.


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## imail724 (Jan 3, 2012)

That definitely did not work

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


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## kochoid (Jul 11, 2011)

maybe try wd-40


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## DR3W5K1 (Feb 19, 2012)

imail724 said:


> This is going to sound crazy but turn off auto-rotation. This eliminates pretty much all of the lag on the stock firmware, at least. Probably a bug in some sensor code in 4.2.2.


If you want buttery smoothness like you've never seen from this phone. All you have to do is install one of [tiny's] linaro cm10 builds. You can find them the development section. Trust me you won't be disappointed. Not sure if he makes builds for anything other than toro though. Have no idea which variation of the gnex you have.

[EDIT]
Sorry been drinking


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## imail724 (Jan 3, 2012)

Giving it a shot now

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## DjCalvin (Aug 4, 2011)

I dropped down to 4.2.1 and my lag has gone away completely.
I've seen numerous posts about this on different forums and every one has had to do with 4.2.2
That has been the common factor..

Try it..


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## imail724 (Jan 3, 2012)

So far everything has been running pretty smoothly on Tiny's cm10.1 build

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


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## DR3W5K1 (Feb 19, 2012)

imail724 said:


> So far everything has been running pretty smoothly on Tiny's cm10.1 build
> 
> Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


Your welcome


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## jova33 (Oct 19, 2011)

I used to use the V6 supercharger on my old phone, the Casio Commando. That thing was a lag monster. It would lag when I'd try and answer the phone lol. V6 supercharger helped a lot.
I used it for awhile on the GNex, but was like, I don't really need this, I've got a GB of RAM. But recently with all this lagging, I think I'll give it another go.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4 Beta


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## shiznu (Jun 14, 2012)

jova33 said:


> I used to use the V6 supercharger on my old phone, the Casio Commando. That thing was a lag monster. It would lag when I'd try and answer the phone lol. V6 supercharger helped a lot.
> I used it for awhile on the GNex, but was like, I don't really need this, I've got a GB of RAM. But recently with all this lagging, I think I'll give it another go.
> 
> Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4 Beta


Only had that kind of lag on a couple ROMs. Usually a flash clean or sometimes dirty always helped.

Zen Family Mafia
Its Blood In and Blood Out


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## jova33 (Oct 19, 2011)

I haven't experienced that kind of lag on my GNex, thank Glob. It was my first smartphone.

I just did a clean install of Rootbox last night and haven't had any stuttering today. One of the lags I've experienced on the GNex though is when I'm swiping on Swype, then if stutters, then the trace line starts crawling across the keyboard and the letters start appearing slowly in the text field.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4 Beta


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## DjCalvin (Aug 4, 2011)

imail724 said:


> So far everything has been running pretty smoothly on Tiny's cm10.1 build
> 
> Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2


I give it 96 hours before it starts to act sluggish. New 4.2.2 Roms always run great at first.

Sent from my Shiny Galaxy Nexus.


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## shiznu (Jun 14, 2012)

DjCalvin said:


> I give it 96 hours before it starts to act sluggish. New 4.2.2 Roms always run great at first.
> 
> Sent from my Shiny Galaxy Nexus.


Never ran his ROM but I haven't experienced this in a while now. I usually dirty flash for weeks at a time but have been ROM hoping a bit so I wipe between those. I haven't had the sluggish behaviour for several weeks. Maybe a memory leak or something that most ROMs have fixed by now.

Zen Family Mafia
Its Blood In and Blood Out


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## imail724 (Jan 3, 2012)

DjCalvin said:


> I give it 96 hours before it starts to act sluggish. New 4.2.2 Roms always run great at first.
> 
> Sent from my Shiny Galaxy Nexus.


its already been 3 days and its still running great. When I was running xenonhd I would clean flash whenever he released a new version and that would start getting laggy usually later that day or the next.

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