Android Marshmallow RAM manager allows you to check memory (RAM) of the system and individual apps. This may help you understand and diagnosis some performance issues you may encounter for you phone or tablet.
You can then also Android Marshmallow RAM manager to force stop apps that use memory excessively. But rarely, you have to manually force stop an app. Android has a good resource manager already.
This means it is not necessary to install task manager apps or memory optimization apps in Android Marshmallow. Most of the third-party task manger apps actually do not improve the performance of your Android devices.
Please note, although Android Marshmallow RAM manager is offered in vanilla Android and most other Android devices with Marshmallow or later versions, some vendors, e.g., Samsung, may offer RAM manager through applications manager only.
Some Android vendors may offer their own task manager, including RAM manager.
There are two ways to access Android Marshmallow RAM manager.
For most Android devices, you can access RAM manager in Android marshmallow from Settings —Memory as shown below. Some vendors may just name it as RAM, or RAM manager.
After tapping Memory, you can find memory usage as shown below.
By default, the memory usage report is for last 3 hours. You can tap the arrow button next to 3 hours as shown below to change the report for:
To check RAM usage by individual apps, tap “Memory used by apps” as shown below.
All apps that were active in last 3 hours will then be listed. The amount of RAM used by individual apps is of course listed.
By default, the memory reported is average value in immediately last 3 hours. Sometimes, you may be interested in the maximum (peak) memory usage of some apps.
You can tap the menu key (3 vertical dots) as shown above. Then tap sort by max use as shown above to check the peak memory usage of these apps. The memory usage reported now is the peak (maximum) usage.
After sorting the apps either based on average RAM usage or max usage, you can then further work on individual apps.
For example, in this guide, I want to check RAM usage of Pages manager app.
Tap the app (Pages manager) as shown above.
The average memory usage and maximum memory usage will be listed as shown below.
Another important info you can get from memory usage is the running frequency of the app. For some apps with heavy background processes, the frequency can be close to 100% and therefore the app may drain a lot of battery juice.
You can tap the menu key (3 vertical dots, marked as 1) as shown below, then tap Force stop to stop this app. Please note some apps may restart automatically after you force stop it. By default, Android does not allow you to control auto-start feature of apps without rooting the phone.
You can also tap the info button (marked as 2) as shown below to get detailed app info for this app.
The app info as shown above is actually identical to what you get from application manager.
But in Android Marshmallow, if you scroll down, you can find one more entry for Memory. Memory usage (3-hour average) of this app is reported.
Tap Memory as shown above to go back to the memory usage page shown earlier.
A few Android vendors (e.g., Samsung) do not include Settings– Memory in their Android phones settings because they offer own task managers.
But such task managers may not be even good. For example, in Galaxy S6, S7 and Note 5, Samsung bundled Smart Manager, which is definitely not a good alternative.
So, in such devices, the alternative way to access Android Marshmallow RAM manager is from application manager, which is universal on all Android phones and tablets.
You can access application manager from Settings— Apps (some vendors may name it as Application Manager).
In Application manager, you can tap individual apps. As shown above, in the app info for individual apps, you can find the Memory entry in Android Marshmallow. Tap it to enter memory usage page for this app.
If you have any questions or encounter any problems on using Android Marshmallow RAM manager, please let us know them in the comment box below.
The community will help you.
For any questions or problems with Android Marshmallow, please check our Android Marshmallow Guide page.
If your question is about Android Lollipop, please check out Android Lollipop Guide page.
For other Android guides, please check our Android 101 page.
View Comments
Plz help my ram is .89 GB but I'm using mb only because of android os he use a lot ram plz help ASAP...
What's the problem got are facing?
Hello. I have an S7 with updated software. On those apps that allow one to disable, I cannot. The disable command does not respond (i.e. should then result in an "enable" command option on he screen if the disable successfully done). For example, I like to periodically go into such apps as google map (don't use that often) and hit disable. I do buy the BK disabler app but I still should able to do the previously described step and disable it.... Please advise
What do you want to disable? Why do you need the BK disabler app?
What do you want to disable? Chrome, Google maps, etc. I just don't want them running in the background until I need them ...for battery and data usage issues. I could block them via BK but I don't...thought it better to manage them outside of the BK disabler app...that way I don't have to search for them on the BK app listing and enable ah time I need them....Another example: Gear VR app...it offer a Disable and Force Stop option. Neither do anything
Why do you need the BK disabler app? same as above
Clear as mud?
It's not necessary.
Android Marshmallow and Nougat can manage background jobs effectively with Doze feature. You don’t need to do anything.
Data saver in Nougat or restrict background data on Marshmallow can do a better job.
If you want to manage them manually or with such apps, good luck.
Personally, I am against such apps. They cause more problems without solving any real problems.
Anyway, if the app is not working, you may check the app developer.
For memory management, I believe Android system does a better job than any apps.
Thanks a lot. I will take your advice to heart. Turns out after I disabled the BK disabler he issue disappeared.
Glad to know the phone works as expected.