diff --git a/libprocessgroup/include/processgroup/processgroup.h b/libprocessgroup/include/processgroup/processgroup.h
index ca6868c..9107838 100644
--- a/libprocessgroup/include/processgroup/processgroup.h
+++ b/libprocessgroup/include/processgroup/processgroup.h
@@ -65,8 +65,9 @@
 // should be active again. E.g. Zygote specialization for child process.
 void DropTaskProfilesResourceCaching();
 
-// Return 0 if all processes were killed and the cgroup was successfully removed.
-// Returns -1 in the case of an error occurring or if there are processes still running.
+// Return 0 and removes the cgroup if there are no longer any processes in it.
+// Returns -1 in the case of an error occurring or if there are processes still running
+// even after retrying for up to 200ms.
 int killProcessGroup(uid_t uid, int initialPid, int signal);
 
 // Returns the same as killProcessGroup(), however it does not retry, which means
@@ -75,9 +76,8 @@
 
 // Sends the provided signal to all members of a process group, but does not wait for processes to
 // exit, or for the cgroup to be removed. Callers should also ensure that killProcessGroup is called
-// later to ensure the cgroup is fully removed, otherwise system resources will leak.
-// Returns true if no errors are encountered sending signals, otherwise false.
-bool sendSignalToProcessGroup(uid_t uid, int initialPid, int signal);
+// later to ensure the cgroup is fully removed, otherwise system resources may leak.
+int sendSignalToProcessGroup(uid_t uid, int initialPid, int signal);
 
 int createProcessGroup(uid_t uid, int initialPid, bool memControl = false);
 
diff --git a/libprocessgroup/processgroup.cpp b/libprocessgroup/processgroup.cpp
index 4b49d09..f594f7f 100644
--- a/libprocessgroup/processgroup.cpp
+++ b/libprocessgroup/processgroup.cpp
@@ -22,7 +22,6 @@
 #include <errno.h>
 #include <fcntl.h>
 #include <inttypes.h>
-#include <poll.h>
 #include <signal.h>
 #include <stdio.h>
 #include <stdlib.h>
@@ -31,7 +30,6 @@
 #include <unistd.h>
 
 #include <chrono>
-#include <cstring>
 #include <map>
 #include <memory>
 #include <mutex>
@@ -55,9 +53,7 @@
 
 using namespace std::chrono_literals;
 
-#define PROCESSGROUP_CGROUP_PROCS_FILE "cgroup.procs"
-#define PROCESSGROUP_CGROUP_KILL_FILE "cgroup.kill"
-#define PROCESSGROUP_CGROUP_EVENTS_FILE "cgroup.events"
+#define PROCESSGROUP_CGROUP_PROCS_FILE "/cgroup.procs"
 
 bool CgroupsAvailable() {
     static bool cgroups_available = access("/proc/cgroups", F_OK) == 0;
@@ -78,29 +74,6 @@
     return true;
 }
 
-static std::string ConvertUidToPath(const char* cgroup, uid_t uid) {
-    return StringPrintf("%s/uid_%u", cgroup, uid);
-}
-
-static std::string ConvertUidPidToPath(const char* cgroup, uid_t uid, int pid) {
-    return StringPrintf("%s/uid_%u/pid_%d", cgroup, uid, pid);
-}
-
-static bool CgroupKillAvailable() {
-    static std::once_flag f;
-    static bool cgroup_kill_available = false;
-    std::call_once(f, []() {
-        std::string cg_kill;
-        CgroupGetControllerPath(CGROUPV2_HIERARCHY_NAME, &cg_kill);
-        // cgroup.kill is not on the root cgroup, so check a non-root cgroup that should always
-        // exist
-        cg_kill = ConvertUidToPath(cg_kill.c_str(), AID_ROOT) + '/' + PROCESSGROUP_CGROUP_KILL_FILE;
-        cgroup_kill_available = access(cg_kill.c_str(), F_OK) == 0;
-    });
-
-    return cgroup_kill_available;
-}
-
 static bool CgroupGetMemcgAppsPath(std::string* path) {
     CgroupController controller = CgroupMap::GetInstance().FindController("memory");
 
@@ -232,21 +205,38 @@
                                                        false);
 }
 
-static int RemoveCgroup(const char* cgroup, uid_t uid, int pid) {
-    auto path = ConvertUidPidToPath(cgroup, uid, pid);
-    int ret = TEMP_FAILURE_RETRY(rmdir(path.c_str()));
+static std::string ConvertUidToPath(const char* cgroup, uid_t uid) {
+    return StringPrintf("%s/uid_%u", cgroup, uid);
+}
+
+static std::string ConvertUidPidToPath(const char* cgroup, uid_t uid, int pid) {
+    return StringPrintf("%s/uid_%u/pid_%d", cgroup, uid, pid);
+}
+
+static int RemoveCgroup(const char* cgroup, uid_t uid, int pid, unsigned int retries) {
+    int ret = 0;
+    auto uid_pid_path = ConvertUidPidToPath(cgroup, uid, pid);
+
+    while (retries--) {
+        ret = rmdir(uid_pid_path.c_str());
+        // If we get an error 2 'No such file or directory' , that means the
+        // cgroup is already removed, treat it as success and return 0 for
+        // idempotency.
+        if (ret < 0 && errno == ENOENT) {
+            ret = 0;
+        }
+        if (!ret || errno != EBUSY || !retries) break;
+        std::this_thread::sleep_for(5ms);
+    }
 
     if (!ret && uid >= AID_ISOLATED_START && uid <= AID_ISOLATED_END) {
         // Isolated UIDs are unlikely to be reused soon after removal,
         // so free up the kernel resources for the UID level cgroup.
-        path = ConvertUidToPath(cgroup, uid);
-        ret = TEMP_FAILURE_RETRY(rmdir(path.c_str()));
-    }
-
-    if (ret < 0 && errno == ENOENT) {
-        // This function is idempoetent, but still warn here.
-        LOG(WARNING) << "RemoveCgroup: " << path << " does not exist.";
-        ret = 0;
+        const auto uid_path = ConvertUidToPath(cgroup, uid);
+        ret = rmdir(uid_path.c_str());
+        if (ret < 0 && errno == ENOENT) {
+            ret = 0;
+        }
     }
 
     return ret;
@@ -370,47 +360,38 @@
     return false;
 }
 
-bool sendSignalToProcessGroup(uid_t uid, int initialPid, int signal) {
-    std::set<pid_t> pgids, pids;
+// Returns number of processes killed on success
+// Returns 0 if there are no processes in the process cgroup left to kill
+// Returns -1 on error
+static int DoKillProcessGroupOnce(const char* cgroup, uid_t uid, int initialPid, int signal) {
+    // We separate all of the pids in the cgroup into those pids that are also the leaders of
+    // process groups (stored in the pgids set) and those that are not (stored in the pids set).
+    std::set<pid_t> pgids;
+    pgids.emplace(initialPid);
+    std::set<pid_t> pids;
+    int processes = 0;
+
+    std::unique_ptr<FILE, decltype(&fclose)> fd(nullptr, fclose);
 
     if (CgroupsAvailable()) {
-        std::string hierarchy_root_path, cgroup_v2_path;
-        CgroupGetControllerPath(CGROUPV2_HIERARCHY_NAME, &hierarchy_root_path);
-        cgroup_v2_path = ConvertUidPidToPath(hierarchy_root_path.c_str(), uid, initialPid);
-
-        if (signal == SIGKILL && CgroupKillAvailable()) {
-            LOG(VERBOSE) << "Using " << PROCESSGROUP_CGROUP_KILL_FILE << " to SIGKILL "
-                         << cgroup_v2_path;
-            const std::string killfilepath = cgroup_v2_path + '/' + PROCESSGROUP_CGROUP_KILL_FILE;
-            if (WriteStringToFile("1", killfilepath)) {
-                return true;
-            } else {
-                PLOG(ERROR) << "Failed to write 1 to " << killfilepath;
-                // Fallback to cgroup.procs below
+        auto path = ConvertUidPidToPath(cgroup, uid, initialPid) + PROCESSGROUP_CGROUP_PROCS_FILE;
+        fd.reset(fopen(path.c_str(), "re"));
+        if (!fd) {
+            if (errno == ENOENT) {
+                // This happens when the process is already dead or if, as the result of a bug, it
+                // has been migrated to another cgroup. An example of a bug that can cause migration
+                // to another cgroup is using the JoinCgroup action with a cgroup controller that
+                // has been activated in the v2 cgroup hierarchy.
+                goto kill;
             }
+            PLOG(WARNING) << __func__ << " failed to open process cgroup uid " << uid << " pid "
+                          << initialPid;
+            return -1;
         }
-
-        // Since cgroup.kill only sends SIGKILLs, we read cgroup.procs to find each process to
-        // signal individually. This is more costly than using cgroup.kill for SIGKILLs.
-        LOG(VERBOSE) << "Using " << PROCESSGROUP_CGROUP_PROCS_FILE << " to signal (" << signal
-                     << ") " << cgroup_v2_path;
-
-        // We separate all of the pids in the cgroup into those pids that are also the leaders of
-        // process groups (stored in the pgids set) and those that are not (stored in the pids set).
-        const auto procsfilepath = cgroup_v2_path + '/' + PROCESSGROUP_CGROUP_PROCS_FILE;
-        std::unique_ptr<FILE, decltype(&fclose)> fp(fopen(procsfilepath.c_str(), "re"), fclose);
-        if (!fp) {
-            // This should only happen if the cgroup has already been removed with a successful call
-            // to killProcessGroup. Callers should only retry sendSignalToProcessGroup or
-            // killProcessGroup calls if they fail without ENOENT.
-            PLOG(ERROR) << "Failed to open " << procsfilepath;
-            kill(-initialPid, signal);
-            return false;
-        }
-
         pid_t pid;
         bool file_is_empty = true;
-        while (fscanf(fp.get(), "%d\n", &pid) == 1 && pid >= 0) {
+        while (fscanf(fd.get(), "%d\n", &pid) == 1 && pid >= 0) {
+            processes++;
             file_is_empty = false;
             if (pid == 0) {
                 // Should never happen...  but if it does, trying to kill this
@@ -440,8 +421,7 @@
         }
     }
 
-    pgids.emplace(initialPid);
-
+kill:
     // Kill all process groups.
     for (const auto pgid : pgids) {
         LOG(VERBOSE) << "Killing process group " << -pgid << " in uid " << uid
@@ -462,174 +442,101 @@
         }
     }
 
-    return true;
+    return (!fd || feof(fd.get())) ? processes : -1;
 }
 
-template <typename T>
-static std::chrono::milliseconds toMillisec(T&& duration) {
-    return std::chrono::duration_cast<std::chrono::milliseconds>(duration);
-}
-
-enum class populated_status
-{
-    populated,
-    not_populated,
-    error
-};
-
-static populated_status cgroupIsPopulated(int events_fd) {
-    const std::string POPULATED_KEY("populated ");
-    const std::string::size_type MAX_EVENTS_FILE_SIZE = 32;
-
-    std::string buf;
-    buf.resize(MAX_EVENTS_FILE_SIZE);
-    ssize_t len = TEMP_FAILURE_RETRY(pread(events_fd, buf.data(), buf.size(), 0));
-    if (len == -1) {
-        PLOG(ERROR) << "Could not read cgroup.events: ";
-        // Potentially ENODEV if the cgroup has been removed since we opened this file, but that
-        // shouldn't have happened yet.
-        return populated_status::error;
-    }
-
-    if (len == 0) {
-        LOG(ERROR) << "cgroup.events EOF";
-        return populated_status::error;
-    }
-
-    buf.resize(len);
-
-    const std::string::size_type pos = buf.find(POPULATED_KEY);
-    if (pos == std::string::npos) {
-        LOG(ERROR) << "Could not find populated key in cgroup.events";
-        return populated_status::error;
-    }
-
-    if (pos + POPULATED_KEY.size() + 1 > len) {
-        LOG(ERROR) << "Partial read of cgroup.events";
-        return populated_status::error;
-    }
-
-    return buf[pos + POPULATED_KEY.size()] == '1' ?
-        populated_status::populated : populated_status::not_populated;
-}
-
-// The default timeout of 2200ms comes from the default number of retries in a previous
-// implementation of this function. The default retry value was 40 for killing and 400 for cgroup
-// removal with 5ms sleeps between each retry.
-static int KillProcessGroup(
-        uid_t uid, int initialPid, int signal, bool once = false,
-        std::chrono::steady_clock::time_point until = std::chrono::steady_clock::now() + 2200ms) {
+static int KillProcessGroup(uid_t uid, int initialPid, int signal, int retries) {
     CHECK_GE(uid, 0);
     CHECK_GT(initialPid, 0);
 
-    // Always attempt to send a kill signal to at least the initialPid, at least once, regardless of
-    // whether its cgroup exists or not. This should only be necessary if a bug results in the
-    // migration of the targeted process out of its cgroup, which we will also attempt to kill.
-    const bool signal_ret = sendSignalToProcessGroup(uid, initialPid, signal);
-
-    if (!CgroupsAvailable() || !signal_ret) return signal_ret ? 0 : -1;
-
     std::string hierarchy_root_path;
-    CgroupGetControllerPath(CGROUPV2_HIERARCHY_NAME, &hierarchy_root_path);
+    if (CgroupsAvailable()) {
+        CgroupGetControllerPath(CGROUPV2_HIERARCHY_NAME, &hierarchy_root_path);
+    }
+    const char* cgroup = hierarchy_root_path.c_str();
 
-    const std::string cgroup_v2_path =
-            ConvertUidPidToPath(hierarchy_root_path.c_str(), uid, initialPid);
+    std::chrono::steady_clock::time_point start = std::chrono::steady_clock::now();
 
-    const std::string eventsfile = cgroup_v2_path + '/' + PROCESSGROUP_CGROUP_EVENTS_FILE;
-    android::base::unique_fd events_fd(open(eventsfile.c_str(), O_RDONLY));
-    if (events_fd.get() == -1) {
-        PLOG(WARNING) << "Error opening " << eventsfile << " for KillProcessGroup";
+    int retry = retries;
+    int processes;
+    while ((processes = DoKillProcessGroupOnce(cgroup, uid, initialPid, signal)) > 0) {
+        LOG(VERBOSE) << "Killed " << processes << " processes for processgroup " << initialPid;
+        if (!CgroupsAvailable()) {
+            // makes no sense to retry, because there are no cgroup_procs file
+            processes = 0;  // no remaining processes
+            break;
+        }
+        if (retry > 0) {
+            std::this_thread::sleep_for(5ms);
+            --retry;
+        } else {
+            break;
+        }
+    }
+
+    if (processes < 0) {
+        PLOG(ERROR) << "Error encountered killing process cgroup uid " << uid << " pid "
+                    << initialPid;
         return -1;
     }
 
-    struct pollfd fds = {
-        .fd = events_fd,
-        .events = POLLPRI,
-    };
+    std::chrono::steady_clock::time_point end = std::chrono::steady_clock::now();
+    auto ms = std::chrono::duration_cast<std::chrono::milliseconds>(end - start).count();
 
-    const std::chrono::steady_clock::time_point start = std::chrono::steady_clock::now();
+    // We only calculate the number of 'processes' when killing the processes.
+    // In the retries == 0 case, we only kill the processes once and therefore
+    // will not have waited then recalculated how many processes are remaining
+    // after the first signals have been sent.
+    // Logging anything regarding the number of 'processes' here does not make sense.
 
-    // The primary reason to loop here is to capture any new forks or migrations that could occur
-    // after we send signals to the original set of processes, but before all of those processes
-    // exit and the cgroup becomes unpopulated, or before we remove the cgroup. We try hard to
-    // ensure this completes successfully to avoid permanent memory leaks, but we still place a
-    // large default upper bound on the amount of time we spend in this loop. The amount of CPU
-    // contention, and the amount of work that needs to be done in do_exit for each process
-    // determines how long this will take.
-    int ret;
-    do {
-        populated_status populated;
-        while ((populated = cgroupIsPopulated(events_fd.get())) == populated_status::populated &&
-               std::chrono::steady_clock::now() < until) {
-
-            sendSignalToProcessGroup(uid, initialPid, signal);
-            if (once) {
-                populated = cgroupIsPopulated(events_fd.get());
-                break;
-            }
-
-            const std::chrono::steady_clock::time_point poll_start =
-                    std::chrono::steady_clock::now();
-
-            if (poll_start < until)
-                ret = TEMP_FAILURE_RETRY(poll(&fds, 1, toMillisec(until - poll_start).count()));
-
-            if (ret == -1) {
-                // Fallback to 5ms sleeps if poll fails
-                PLOG(ERROR) << "Poll on " << eventsfile << "failed";
-                const std::chrono::steady_clock::time_point now = std::chrono::steady_clock::now();
-                if (now < until)
-                    std::this_thread::sleep_for(std::min(5ms, toMillisec(until - now)));
-            }
-
-            LOG(VERBOSE) << "Waited "
-                         << toMillisec(std::chrono::steady_clock::now() - poll_start).count()
-                         << " ms for " << eventsfile << " poll";
+    if (processes == 0) {
+        if (retries > 0) {
+            LOG(INFO) << "Successfully killed process cgroup uid " << uid << " pid " << initialPid
+                      << " in " << static_cast<int>(ms) << "ms";
         }
 
-        const std::chrono::milliseconds kill_duration =
-                toMillisec(std::chrono::steady_clock::now() - start);
-
-        if (populated == populated_status::populated) {
-            LOG(WARNING) << "Still waiting on process(es) to exit for cgroup " << cgroup_v2_path
-                         << " after " << kill_duration.count() << " ms";
-            // We'll still try the cgroup removal below which we expect to log an error.
-        } else if (populated == populated_status::not_populated) {
-            LOG(VERBOSE) << "Killed all processes under cgroup " << cgroup_v2_path
-                         << " after " << kill_duration.count() << " ms";
+        if (!CgroupsAvailable()) {
+            // nothing to do here, if cgroups isn't available
+            return 0;
         }
 
-        ret = RemoveCgroup(hierarchy_root_path.c_str(), uid, initialPid);
-        if (ret)
-            PLOG(ERROR) << "Unable to remove cgroup " << cgroup_v2_path;
-        else
-            LOG(INFO) << "Removed cgroup " << cgroup_v2_path;
+        // 400 retries correspond to 2 secs max timeout
+        int err = RemoveCgroup(cgroup, uid, initialPid, 400);
 
         if (isMemoryCgroupSupported() && UsePerAppMemcg()) {
-            // This per-application memcg v1 case should eventually be removed after migration to
-            // memcg v2.
             std::string memcg_apps_path;
             if (CgroupGetMemcgAppsPath(&memcg_apps_path) &&
-                (ret = RemoveCgroup(memcg_apps_path.c_str(), uid, initialPid)) < 0) {
-                const auto memcg_v1_cgroup_path =
-                        ConvertUidPidToPath(memcg_apps_path.c_str(), uid, initialPid);
-                PLOG(ERROR) << "Unable to remove memcg v1 cgroup " << memcg_v1_cgroup_path;
+                RemoveCgroup(memcg_apps_path.c_str(), uid, initialPid, 400) < 0) {
+                return -1;
             }
         }
 
-        if (once) break;
-        if (std::chrono::steady_clock::now() >= until) break;
-    } while (ret && errno == EBUSY);
-
-    return ret;
+        return err;
+    } else {
+        if (retries > 0) {
+            LOG(ERROR) << "Failed to kill process cgroup uid " << uid << " pid " << initialPid
+                       << " in " << static_cast<int>(ms) << "ms, " << processes
+                       << " processes remain";
+        }
+        return -1;
+    }
 }
 
 int killProcessGroup(uid_t uid, int initialPid, int signal) {
-    return KillProcessGroup(uid, initialPid, signal);
+    return KillProcessGroup(uid, initialPid, signal, 40 /*retries*/);
 }
 
 int killProcessGroupOnce(uid_t uid, int initialPid, int signal) {
-    return KillProcessGroup(uid, initialPid, signal, true);
+    return KillProcessGroup(uid, initialPid, signal, 0 /*retries*/);
+}
+
+int sendSignalToProcessGroup(uid_t uid, int initialPid, int signal) {
+    std::string hierarchy_root_path;
+    if (CgroupsAvailable()) {
+        CgroupGetControllerPath(CGROUPV2_HIERARCHY_NAME, &hierarchy_root_path);
+    }
+    const char* cgroup = hierarchy_root_path.c_str();
+    return DoKillProcessGroupOnce(cgroup, uid, initialPid, signal);
 }
 
 static int createProcessGroupInternal(uid_t uid, int initialPid, std::string cgroup,
@@ -669,7 +576,7 @@
         return -errno;
     }
 
-    auto uid_pid_procs_file = uid_pid_path + '/' + PROCESSGROUP_CGROUP_PROCS_FILE;
+    auto uid_pid_procs_file = uid_pid_path + PROCESSGROUP_CGROUP_PROCS_FILE;
 
     if (!WriteStringToFile(std::to_string(initialPid), uid_pid_procs_file)) {
         ret = -errno;