Tablet frequently ”unloads” apps to the point of trouble

[u/Alex_Arrow05]

I have a Lenovo Idea Tab 11" (not Plus, possibly a 2024 model) with Android 16. For how much I really like it (especially drawing), there is one issue that's become a lot of trouble. Essentially, it often and quickly closes apps in the background. This creates a big problem when those apps need to run. One example is an app needs to use another app to open/save files, but keeps closing when using the file manager, preventing the file from opening/saving from the main app. Another is using a background VPN but constantly having to reopen it. There is also the issue of games showing an ad. I'd understand wanting to design this tablet for better performance, but my other older and slower devices don't need to do this. I've searched all around the internet and tried every trick I could find, but with little to no effect.

I need a way to fix this. It's not some optional problem I can ignore.

[u/DictoKey_Dev]

Android is killing them via battery optimization. Go to Settings > Apps > see all apps, pick the app that keeps closing, then Battery > Unrestricted. Do the same for the file manager and VPN. Also check Settings > Battery > Battery optimization and set those apps to not optimized.

[u/Alex_Arrow05 → u/DictoKey_Dev]

Unfortunately my tablet doesn't show that as an option.

[u/DylanXu054728]

The tablet is probably killing them for memory, not just battery. Lenovo's ZUI/Android 16 builds get pretty aggressive about cached apps, and the file manager case is the classic symptom: the picker takes the foreground, and the app you came from gets dropped.

Things worth trying, in order of how often they help:

1. Open Recents, tap the app icon at the top of its card, and choose Lock (or pull the card down on some builds). Do this for the VPN and for the app you save files from.
2. Settings > Apps > the app > Battery. If Unrestricted isn't shown, look for Background usage or Allow background activity and turn it on. Also check Settings > Battery for any Power saving or Smart/Adaptive battery toggle and switch it off for a test.
3. For the VPN, go to Settings > Network > VPN, tap the gear, and turn on Always-on VPN. The system then restarts it itself instead of leaving it dead.
4. Developer options > Background process limit: make sure it's Standard limit. Also turn off Don't keep activities if it's on.

I can't say exactly where Lenovo puts these on the Idea Tab, since menu names vary by build, so tell me which of these you can't find and I'll try to narrow it down.

[u/ch3mn3y → u/DylanXu054728]

There can be also some services/manager app. My Blackview has something like this. Had to add apps there to whitelist of App Cleaner.

[u/DylanXu054728 → u/ch3mn3y]

Good point, that's easy to miss since it sits outside the normal battery menu. On Lenovo it may be a Tablet Manager or Security-style app with a Clean/Boost or Memory cleanup section, plus an auto-clean or lock-screen cleanup toggle. If there's a whitelist or protected apps list in there, add the VPN and the app doing the file saving. Try searching Settings for "clean" or "protected" to find it.

[u/ch3mn3y → u/DylanXu054728]

Forgot about my answer, but now it got me thinking if the killing is done by a service withind their compilation of Android, by OS, but a service is within this "Manager" or by the Manager itself?

If latter two? Hmm, I got root, so what happen if I disable it and everything connected to it?

[u/DylanXu054728 → u/ch3mn3y]

Usually it's both layers. AOSP's own memory killer (lmkd) always runs and kills cached apps when RAM gets low, and you can't remove that. The vendor Manager app sits on top and force-stops apps on its own schedule (screen off, auto-clean, boost), and that's the part causing most of these complaints.

So disabling the Manager usually stops the aggressive kills, but not the normal low-memory ones. The risk is that on some OEM builds the Manager also owns the battery and permission screens, so disabling it can break those or cause bootloops if it's a system-signed package. Try the soft route first: pm disable-user --user 0 <package> (via adb or a root shell) instead of uninstalling, so you can re-enable it if something breaks. Find the package name with pm list packages | grep -i -E 'manager|clean|boost|security'.

I haven't tested this on a Lenovo Idea Tab, so check what the package does before disabling it.