Stopping running applications without root.

J

jmh2002

Member
MacroDroidDev said:
Back to the main point of this thread. Could someone please list a selection of apps that can kill apps on a non-rooted device and I will take a look at exactly what they are doing. I would certainly like to add the ability to kill apps on non-rooted device as this will be popular I'm sure.
Click to expand...
Just search for 'task killer' in the Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/search?q=task killer&c=apps
Many of them are also included in 'Speed Booster' type apps, which also tend to clear Ram, Memory, etc too.

The most well known is Greenify. I have also used Hibernator. But there are dozens of others. As far as I am aware they all use Accessibility and in an automated manner call the App Info page and click the Force Stop button.

It's pretty low tech but it works. The nicer versions (Hibernator is a good example) display a progress screen to hide the activity process.

Most of them also have the ability to Whitelist apps that shouldn't be closed. And some have the ability to schedule runs, and/or run when the screen is locked, etc.

Another version is SuperFreezZ:
f-droid.org

SuperFreezZ App stopper | F-Droid - Free and Open Source Android App Repository

Entirely freeze all background activities of apps.
f-droid.org f-droid.org

SuperFreezZ

superfreezz.gitlab.io superfreezz.gitlab.io

That also has an "Intelligent" function whereby it will "only freeze (Force Stop) an app if it has not been used for X days".

That's a nice feature to have. My Samsung used to have that type of idea built into the stock ROM and was configurable per app.
Eg: a Travel app, it's not used most of the time, but when it is used, maybe it needs to stay open for a few days, to make sure to get flight notifications, etc.

Of course they all have the same problem that some apps will just immediately reopen after Force Stop, eg: most of Google's apps. But they are great for a whole lot of other apps which just don't need to run all the time.

Hope that helps :)
 
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J

jmh2002

Member
MacroDroidDev said:
In Kiwi you need to set: Settings>Accessibility>Enable External Applications.
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Thanks, that fixes it on my mobile device although it does mean some extra setup now for normal browsing. Eg: YouTube links will want to open in the YouTube app. Fortunately I'm given the choice to set it back to Kiwi Browser and not use the app.

But it doesn't solve the problem if I'm reading the MacroDroid forum on my desktop, which is what I mostly do.
 
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Jacob L

Jacob L

Moderator (Lawsonator)
jmh2002 said:
Thanks, that fixes it on my mobile device although it does mean some extra setup now for normal browsing. Eg: YouTube links will want to open in the YouTube app. Fortunately I'm given the choice to set it back to Kiwi Browser and not use the app.

But it doesn't solve the problem if I'm reading the MacroDroid forum on my desktop, which is what I mostly do.
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Have a look at NewPipe YouTube. On Github
 
MacroDroidDev

MacroDroidDev

Administrator
Staff member
The macro links will never work on a desktop. I certainly don't have time to create a complete web version of the template store.

But maybe the website should handle it bit better to make this clear.
 
Jacob L

Jacob L

Moderator (Lawsonator)
MacroDroidDev said:
The macro links will never work on a desktop. I certainly don't have time to create a complete web version of the template store.

But maybe the website should handle it bit better to make this clear.
Click to expand...
If you add a .htaccess at the root of your server, it is a text file that can warn users, and help them back to your website if they get lost
 
S

salash

New member
Jacob L said:
MacroDroid can kill background processes without root. The macro I made whose link is above, is just like Greenify (only I don't sell your data like greenify does). You need to allow the browser to launch applications and have MacroDroid installed before opening the link
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How do I kill an app? I am using a macro to launch Waze after starting Radarbot manually but I dont know how to close both apps by clicking on a single button.
 
Mr.Lon

Mr.Lon

New member
Hmmm...if Super Freeze achieved this without root...why MacroDroid can't? MacroDroid uses same Permissions.

I think it's all about forcing app standby buckets. If we could force an app into rare state everything's nice.
 
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MacroDroidDev

MacroDroidDev

Administrator
Staff member
I'm definitely not prepared to ask users to format their device in order to assign device owner functionality. MacroDroid is designed to be fairly user friendly so advertising this as a feature and then asking the user to go through all this is not reasonable.

I can look into doing something similar to SuperFreezZ where the app basically fakes UI Interaction events to force stop an app. However it's not fair to just say well SuperFrezZ can do it so why can't MacroDroid? In MacroDroid I will have to add this as an action that can be called from any macro you can think of (Unlike SuperFrezZ that can decide when to call this). This means it will be called when the device screen is off, or the device is locked. In this case then clearly faking UI interaction events cannot work. So this action will have to be very clearly labelled such that it can only work when the screen is on and device unlocked.

MacroDroid gets a lot of downloads from a users who don't read whatever details I throw in their face and just expect a function to work if it's available and this leads to numerous support questions and one star reviews. So yes I want to give users this functionality but not at the expense of my sanity.
 
Mr.Lon

Mr.Lon

New member
So what's about the ADB Hack? This is not user friendly at all but turn MD significant into a worth have tool....of course only for the real enthusiasts who don't want to root their phones. MD is the "facility manager" of my phone therefore MD of course have the device admin permission on my phone. So isn't it only a little step to make MD a device owner with a tuned ADB Hack?

Automagic for e.g.


I'm sorry, I definitely don't want to get on your nerves. But as a non-rooted user it would be nice to get the most out of MD.

Okay...as you mentioned perhaps this is not such easy going😆...just found this:

stackoverflow.com

Programmatically set package as device owner

I'm aware of the command "adb shell dpm set-device-owner pacakgename" I want to know if there's a way to programmatically ask and set device owner for one app after it's launched basically the
stackoverflow.com stackoverflow.com
 
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Jacob L

Jacob L

Moderator (Lawsonator)
I think it would be good to be able to make MD a device owner, good for emulators perhaps. I know a lot of devices can't be rooted either so they just miss out
 
M

Mruser35

New member
It's the closest thing I've found to accomplish at least a good majority of the same things you can with root. The setup isn't that difficult. In fact of you're on Android 11 you don't even need a PC and can set it up from the device itself through an emulator. It would be nice to see Macrodroid integrate that in without the need for a third party plugin.
 
Jacob L

Jacob L

Moderator (Lawsonator)
These are some of the features we are currently missing out on:
  • Create custom lock screen messages
  • Disable data roaming
  • Configure the kiosk applications by whitelisting the applications needed by the organization
  • Remotely reboot the devices
  • Apply certain configurations on the device like unlocking, hardware controls and factory resets
  • Ensure secure network connection
  • Set up a single wireless network ID across different regions
  • Quick enrolment options such as Zero touch enrolment and QR code enrolment according to https://www.hexnode.com/blogs/what-...r-mode/#features-of-android-device-owner-mode
 
FrameXX

FrameXX

Well-known member
Guys guys... It's important to mention and it was already mentioned in this thread, that there's an app called SecureTask that offer exactly this and it can be controlled by MacroDroid. I think SecureTask plugin is good temporary solution for these kind of features.
 
M

Mruser35

New member
I have a macro that remotely sets the screen lock, opens Google maps, turns on location and mobile data, and shows me on Google maps the shared location of the device. Most of that is from secure task. I don't like keeping my phone locked really at all and I don't like having my data enabled unless I'm actively using it. Secure task allows me to do that. That along with an anti-shutdown task makes it about as secure as it can be. Of course those who know how can still shut it off but I'm banking on most thieves not knowing how.
 
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