Background data transfer. How to enable background mode for programs on PC and mobile devices

In this article, we will figure out what background applications on Android are, what they are for and how to disable them.

What are background apps on Android

Background programs run background processes that are invisible to the device owner. The application seems to be closed, but it still consumes system resources, takes up space in RAM and reduces the battery life of the device. Such processes are launched without your knowledge and run in the background - hence their name. Basically there are good reasons for running these processes - it could be syncing, getting location data, or other activity related to the purpose of the application.

But not all background processes are necessary. For example, we rarely use some applications, and unnecessary background processes only load the device in vain. The Android system has built-in tools with which you can always see what applications are running in the background, how much memory they consume and how they affect battery power.

To see what background processes are currently running, you need to:

• Enable in settings developer mode
• Select the menu item " Process statistics»
• Select application

In the window that opens, you will see all the information on the selected background application.

You can also see which programs and how much affect the battery consumption of your device. To do this, go to the battery settings and select the menu item " Battery usage". You will get a list in which, in descending order, are the applications that negatively affect the battery level.

What background programs on Android can be disabled

The two main types of apps you probably don't need background processes for are games when you're not playing them, and music players when you're not listening to music. Look at other background processes as well. If you do not need this application at the moment, then the process can be safely closed.

The applications necessary for the operation of the device themselves will not allow you to close their background processes, this is how the Android system works. But do not close the system background applications and those that you constantly use. If, for example, you close the processes of social networks and instant messengers, then notifications of new messages will stop coming. Most apps and services that start with "Google" shouldn't be closed either. Here are the most important Google processes:

• Google Search
• Google Play services
• Google Contacts Sync
• Google Keyboard
• Google Play Store

You can either disable the background process or force the app to close entirely.

• To disable the background process, you need in the menu " Process statistics» Select the required one and press « Stop»
• To forcibly stop the application, you need in the menu " Application Manager» choose the one you want and press « Stop»

Some applications themselves automatically run in the background even after closing. To "sleep" them, you can use greenify. This utility prevents applications from starting automatically. If you have ROOT rights on your device, you can completely remove unnecessary applications from startup. You can read how to get ROOT rights in our other article.

What to do if you have disabled the background programs on Android that you need?

If you accidentally disabled system or background processes that you simply need, simply enable them again or reboot the device - the system will automatically turn on everything you need to work.

Mobile phones are increasingly using mobile traffic. Read on and we'll show you how to manage your data.

Just a few years ago, it was almost unheard of to be able to transfer multiple GBs of mobile data. Now apps are more "weighty" (it's not uncommon for the apps themselves and their updates to be over 100MB in size), and music and video streaming is becoming more and more popular, and with all this, you can easily use the data limit in a matter of days.

An hour of watching videos on YouTube and now you no longer have several gigabytes of traffic. And if you watch HD video, then the traffic flows like water ... Do you use streaming music services such as Google Play Music or Spotify? You can spend about 120 MB per hour. It doesn't seem like much, but imagine using these services every day for an hour, you already get 840 MB in a week. An hour a day for a month and you will already spend about 3.2 GB. If you use a tariff plan with a 5 GB traffic package included, then in a month you will spend 65% of the limit only on music.

Of course, you can buy extra traffic with money, but who wants to pay? Before paying for a more expensive plan or for an additional data package, we offer a few tricks to reduce transmitted data (and control).

How to view the amount of data transferred

First of all, you need to check how much data is transferred. If you do not know how much traffic you use, it will not be clear how you need to change the structure of data consumption.

The easiest way to check your data usage is through your cellular provider's web portal. If you never use the limit, then it might be worth switching to a cheaper plan. If you never fit into the traffic package allotted to you, then you should definitely read the article further.

You can also view data consumption statistics on an Android device. Go to Settings -> Data transfer. You will see a screen similar to this:

If you scroll down, you'll see the apps' mobile data usage, as seen in the second screenshot above. It's important to note that these graphs only show data sent over a cellular data connection, not a Wi-Fi connection. You can always "hang out" on youtube by connecting to Wi-Fi, but this will not be displayed in the statistics. If you want to see Wi-Fi data usage statistics, press the menu button and select "Show Wi-Fi traffic".

It is worth noting that you will need to enter your billing cycle here in order to accurately calculate data usage. Since your data will be reset on the first day of a new cycle, it does not matter what you used a month earlier, so the result will not be distorted.

In addition to the graphs, you can set a traffic limit, at which you will be shown a warning, or set a limit by adjusting the slider on the graph, at which the transfer of mobile traffic will be disabled. Don't forget to turn on the "Mobile data limit" option.

After reaching the limit, mobile traffic will not be transmitted until you turn it on again.

How to control data usage

There are two types of traffic consumed: when the user is using the application and knows that it is working over the Internet, and data usage in the background. When watching a video or downloading a new album, you consume a data package if you use a mobile data connection and not Wi-Fi Internet. Obviously, in order to use less data, you need to stop streaming content and downloading files.

Less obvious data transfer is "background transfer" which uses a lot of traffic. Checking for new messages in the VKontakte application client or checking for new messages in email and other background processes constantly consume traffic. Let's see how to reduce background data consumption.

First, find out which applications are consuming data

First, let's look at which applications are actually using a lot of traffic. Go to Settings -> Data transfer and you will see the applications using data. Click on one of them to see more information. Here we see the normal data transfer and work in the background:

Now that you know which apps use the most data, you know what needs to be optimized.

Using Data Saver in Android Nougat

Android 7.0 Nougat has a new feature with the telling name "Data Saver". It allows you to limit the consumption of background traffic and provides the ability to maintain a "white list" of applications that are allowed to use data in the background.

To get started, pull down the notification bar and tap on the gear icon to access the settings menu.

In the "Wireless networks" section, click on the "Data transfer" item.

Under the used traffic, you will find the option "Traffic saving". This is where the fun begins.

The first thing to do is turn on the switch located on the top right. The new icon will be displayed in the status bar, as well as to the left of the other data icons (Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, cellular, etc.).

Remember that once you enable this, background data access will be restricted for all apps. To change this, click on Unrestricted Data Access.

After that, a list of all installed applications on your phone will appear. By using the slider next to apps, you can whitelist them by allowing background data transfer.

It should be borne in mind that this applies only to mobile traffic and will not affect the Wi-Fi connection in any way.

Limit background data transfer

If you don't have Android Nougat, then you have other options.

Open an app that uses a lot of data. Look at the settings of this application, it may be worth reducing the number of notifications (for example, VKontakte) or turning them off completely. This will have a great effect not only on the consumed traffic, but also on battery discharge.

True, not every application has such settings. There is another way...

Go to Settings -> Data transfer and click on the app. Turn on the "Restrict background mode" toggle.

Disable all background data transfer

If that's not enough, you can also disable all background data transfer with a single toggle - this will reduce data usage in most cases, but it can also be inconvenient. From the data transfer point, click on the menu and select "Limit background. mode". This will turn off background data for all apps.

Disable Background App Refresh

Google understands how valuable mobile data is, so app updates will only happen automatically when you're on Wi-Fi by default. To check this, open the Google Play Store. Go to the settings and make sure that in the item "Auto-update applications" "Only via Wi-Fi" is selected.

Buy frequently used apps (to remove ads)

Apps are often offered in a free version with ads and a paid version. The fact is that ads are not only annoying, but they also use traffic. Therefore, if you want to reduce traffic consumption, you can buy a paid version of a frequently used application.

The background mode in the Android OS is the execution of a program that is not visible to the user (runs in the background). In particular, programs run by the system itself or services run in the background. They do not have a user interface, and these tasks run at a lower priority than normal processes. In addition, applications that you have installed on your smartphone may be running in the background. For the most part, the purpose of programs running in the background is to communicate with the server. For example: the game constantly contacts the server to check for new updates, the messenger - to notify you of a new message, etc. Calling background tasks to the server requires a mobile or Wi-Fi network connection, which eats up traffic. Therefore, I will give some tips on how to turn off the background mode on android of all applications at once and each one individually.

Disabling data transfer for a single application

In fact, you cannot disable the background system process, but you can transfer it to the "Suspended" process. This is done through the application manager in the settings of the Android device. Also, in order for the application in the background to not be able to access the server, while saving battery power and mobile traffic, you must:

After that, the application will not be able to communicate with the server. As for system applications, such as "SMS" or "Phone", they cannot be disabled. We need the good old one.

Turn off data transfer for all applications

To block network traffic for all applications, you need to turn off Wi-Fi and mobile data. You can do this by clicking on the notification bar icons.

The same can be done in the settings:

You can enable the feature there.

Applications are moving to the clouds. Streaming services like Netflix and Spotify are huge. And almost every one of us is addicted to social media.

There is only one thing that never satisfies - the current tariff plan.

With unlimited data plans, most smartphone users are stuck with a plethora of options that sometimes make data usage more frustrating than joyful. Anyone who has crossed the threshold of unlimited knows this feeling.

But if you're on Android, you have a little more wiggle room, thanks to data-limiting options. With the right configuration, you'll find yourself consuming data at a much slower rate - so much so that you might be able to upgrade to a cheaper plan.

Tame voracious apps

Update apps over Wi-Fi only
Sign in to the Google Play Store and tap "Menu > Settings > Automatic App Updates". Here, make sure "Automatically update apps over Wi-Fi only" is selected. You also have the option to turn off automatic app updates altogether, but this is less preferable as you will need to remember to manually update the app.

App data settings
To give you more options, many apps ping the server in the background to check for updates to their content. For example, Google backs up photos and videos as they are taken, and another app can be set to update banking data.

These conveniences are important, but they come at a cost, so it's best to go into the settings in the apps and turn off data consumption options that aren't absolutely necessary.

Then click on view used app data and look at the two numbers next to the pie chart. "Foreground" refers to the data used when you are actively using applications, while "Background" is based on data used when the application is running in the background.

If you notice that an app is using too much background data, scroll down and check the "Limit background data" checkbox. Just note that this setting overrides any conflicting behavior of applications (for example, applications that might update bank account information every few hours).

Preloading and caching

Preloading Streaming Application Content
While we're getting more picky about reducing our cellular data usage, more apps offer caching (or preloading), which allows you to download content over Wi-Fi and watch it at any later time. Spotify, for example, allows users to download playlists. In addition, YouTube uploads subscriptions and videos to your Watch Later list.

Most apps that offer preloading are the ones that need it the most. So use them. Go to the settings menu of any app (especially streaming media apps) to see if this option is available. In addition, you may find that the application allows you to reduce the quality of the stream while using a cellular connection to receive data.

Download files only over Wi-Fi
If you don't want to stop downloading songs, movies, or large files when using cellular, it might make sense to download files while there's a Wi-Fi network nearby.

Map caching before travel
With the new offline Maps feature, Google now allows you to cache maps. The download process will take some time and require storage space, but once the map is downloaded, you can view and navigate without using a data connection. .

Check your sync settings

Fine-tuning sync options
When you configured your phone, you probably chose to sync your account. By default, everything is set to sync, including things like photos, the Play Store, Google, and other apps. You don't necessarily need all of these sync elements - especially heavy data like photos.

To set up sync options, go to Settings > Accounts > Google and select an account. Here, uncheck the box next to items that are not important when syncing. Repeat the same for all accounts.

After that, you can manually sync your accounts by visiting their respective apps.

Temporarily disable sync
Are you going far? Are you sitting at your desk? Prevent your phone from syncing data by turning it off, either from the notifications panel or by going to Settings > Statistics > Menu > uncheck "Sync data automatically".

Reduced browser data loading

The simple answer to these woes is data compression. With it, web pages first compress data in the cloud before sending it to your phone, which greatly reduces the size of the downloaded file.

There are, however, some disadvantages. First, even if your data is encrypted and anonymous, the browser still needs to process your actions during compression. Not everyone is happy with this.

Secondly, sometimes compression means compromising quality, with slightly modified web pages.

However, there is an option for those on an expensive data plan (or on a slow connection). Opera, much loved by many browsers, is one such application that offers data compression. Just enter the settings menu to enable compression. After some use, Opera will tell you how much data you've saved.

In addition, Onavo Count offers a similar solution, but by including widgets, allowing you to monitor your data usage in real time at any time.

Activity Information Compression
As a last resort, Onavo Extend offers an application that actively compresses almost all incoming data. For example, e-mail messages are simplified, web pages are compressed on the server side, and photos are optimized as much as possible.

Keep this app in your app drawer in case you need to conserve data traffic.

Most users of smartphones and tablets running on the Android operating system, one way or another, have heard about such a feature of these devices as the background mode of programs. It is able to have a significant impact on the functioning of the device, as well as on its performance, therefore, it makes sense to learn more about such features.

What is background mode?

Any applications running on a device with the Android operating system installed can work both in the background and in the active mode. Active mode is the explicit operation of an application that requires attention or some kind of user action. Answering the question, what is the android background mode, we should mention the category of background applications.

Such programs include various programs whose work is suspended rather than closed, as well as antivirus applications and other processes. Working in this mode allows you to save them during idle time, and not lose them, as happens when you restart the application. This mode has a lot of advantages. These include:

• Multitasking implementation. Thanks to the ability to switch applications from active to hidden format, the user is able to work in several applications at the same time.
• Saving data. If it is necessary to perform any action, the user can pause the application in order to restore it later without losing the entered data (progress in games, etc.).
• Using background services that make the smartphone or tablet work correctly and conveniently for the user. At the same time, most of these services work unnoticed by him, in a covert mode.

In view of this, the emergence of the possibility of using background programs has become a truly important breakthrough in the development of devices based on this OS.

Disadvantages of background mode

There is a certain list of disadvantages inherent in running applications in the background. Firstly, all of them, as a rule, spend a certain number of gadget resources, which negatively affects performance. Secondly, a similar situation is observed with the battery charge, which perceives many running applications in the same way as a continuous conversation.