Develop Bugs

"Who is this 'Mediaserver' and why is he sucking my battery dry?"

Just solved a really annoying battery drain issue. Figured I'd post the results...
I noticed last week that my phone was going through the battery MUCH faster than normal. A check of Settings/About Phone/battery use told me that the "Mediaserver" was using over 35% of my battery, surpassing the phone standby -- which is saying a LOT given what my T-Mo reception is like.
Now, I'm still learning, so when the description says is does something with running apps, I assume that the issue is an app I recently installed, so I remove apps I recently installed or updated. Nope.
I saw another post about a laggy G2 that seemed to also have battery issues. It recommended using Watchdog Lite to see what was happening. So, off to the Android Market.
After installing Watchdog Lite, I saw that the CPU was 0% idle with 75-95% "nice." Well, no idle = battery suckage, so off to see what tasks are using CPU. The initial check didn't show anything -- until I enabled monitoring "Phone Processes." The alerts for the "mediaserver" "linux task" showed that this process was taking every cpu cycle it could. Off to Google.
Did a search on "android mediaserver loop" and found a couple of bugzillas that essentially said that a corrupt media file (pic, movie or sound) could send mediaserverover the edge. So, I started to move *every* picture off the sd card onto my computer's HD.
Knew I was on to something when mediaserver stopped going crazy once usb storage was turned on. So, I moved all the image and movie files off and turned off usb storage. The CPU spun back to100% busy, but slowed back down to about 9o% or more idle.
Now all I have to do is find the bad file or files, and I can add it to the bugzilla.
EDIT: It seems that this has also made the cooliris gallery wake up and start updating again. So anyone seeing that the gallery isn't updating may need to see if their mediaserver linux task is unusually busy. If so, offload as many media files as possible and see whap happens...
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using Tapatalk

Very useful post. Thanks!

I saw this sucking down battery for me as well while playing around with CM7 nightlies, but never thought too much about it. Good find!

I've noticed this issue with mediaserver too but never managed to find what's causing this.
Thanks for the tips

there might be a difference here but media server from G1 (htc dream) was the music stock music player. it might be different here but thats what it was in the G1

lil-devil said:
there might be a difference here but media server from G1 (htc dream) was the music stock music player. it might be different here but thats what it was in the G1
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
actually the stock music player is /system/app/music.apk on all vanilla android phones.

I believe that music player depend of mediaserver.
I have installed system panel and noticed a 30% cpu usage when I play some music with Cyanogen 7 RC2.
I will try with another Rom to compare the result.

I found my cause for the problem
I got really frustrated with the Galaxy S2 because of this mediaserver issue...
From wat i have researched, I found that once the 'gallery' is opened and closed,
Phone keeps using the cpu 100%.
Phone's back becomes red hot.
The battery drains rapidly in 2-3 hours.
I plug it on to a charger it doesn't charge up
the mediaserver process comes up in the 'battery usage' with 60% usage
Now, I switch off the phone. Boot it up. Charge the phone to 100%. Its all perfect and no heating up too. After 7 hours of usage, no mediaserver process in 'battery usage'.
I went into the gallery once. Browsed some photos. And Closed it.
Now it all started again. I've tried this 3 times now.
And I have no idea wats wrong with the gallery.

Do what I did and either move all the media files off the sd card or drop ". nomedia" files in strategic locations. (Don't forget to look all over the card because they could be in unexpected places.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using Tapatalk

could this mediaserver also be caused by lots of Pandora listening?

Mr. Turbofan said:
could this mediaserver also be caused by lots of Pandora listening?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It seems to be related to streaming audio also. I'm trying to figure out why since moving to GB my battery is being drained by media server when I never had this issue on Froyo. It only seems to take up the majority of the battery time when I'm listeing to Pandora over Bluetooth during the day.

Very interesting and usefull find, indeed.

Solving the problem lies in the options build.prop
must be changed:
---
media.stagefright.enable-player = true
---
to:
---
media.stagefright.enable-player = false
---
If this option is not in the file, it is necessary to add.

stopservice said:
Solving the problem lies in the options build.prop
must be changed:
---
media.stagefright.enable-player = true
---
to:
---
media.stagefright.enable-player = false
---
If this option is not in the file, it is necessary to add.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't think that is the cause. Mine is already set to false and still have the problem.

Is there a process we can freeze to stop this.

You really *don't* want to kill this process as it is the cataloger for *both* the music player and the picture gallery. Your best bet is to do something like I did to work around the issue.
Sent from my HTC Desire Z using Tapatalk

I started having the same issue (on Galaxy Note) today. Glad I found this thread in any case.
Once thing I noticed is PowerAmp plays sound files from games if you don't give it a media folder to stick to. I can only assume that it's using the media server to find these based on what someone in this thread said.
So it would seem that the .nomedia file method is definitely the best (to stop game sound files being found).
[Edit:] Oddly the behaviour stopped now. Mediaserver is no longer raping my battery. What do you think of the idea of putting .nomedia in every folder and then removing it from only folders you need (images, video and audio folders)?
You can easily do this by running:
Code:
for i in *; do cp file $i; done
from cli in Android (I think). "file" = <path to .nomedia>

No inherent reason you can't do that...
Sent from my HTC Desire Z using Tapatalk

mediaserver was not a notable issue for me untill 2 days before i installed "sprit fm".... then boom ...... mediaserver just gone mad and taking upto 65% of my battery..... now uninstalling "spirit fm" and will see what happens.

Mediaserver and Arel WARS
Hey all! Glad I found this thread. Got a Samsung Galaxy SII Skyrocket I727 from AT&T. From what I researched mediaserver is part of a standard for DLNA. I am a newb on xda so I cannot post links however search on youtube "Android DLNA MediaServer" and you can get a downlow as to what it is meant for.
Anyways mediaserver gets to be 400+ and sometimes even 500+mb according to Watchdog when playing a GAMEVIL game called Arel WARS. This is the first time I have ever had a problem with mediaserver and ONLY happens when I play Arel WARS. I reboot my phone and see mediaserver at 2.7mb. I start Arel WARS and BAM 100+mb already. After playing for about 20 minutes my phone becomes laggy and the game freezes up. I check Watchdog and it shows 400+mb being used by mediaserver. I then kill Arel WARS and mediaserver is still sucking 400+mb. I try several types of app killers but none can even see the process in order to kill it. I try an app called "reboot" that is supposed to simulate a reboot by killing apps and processes but mediaserver is still sucking the life out of my phone. Bottom line the only way I can kill mediaserver is by rebooting the phone and then its back to 2.7mb and it stays that way ONLY until I start playing Arel WARS. I can launch gallery all day long and media player and mediaserver is good.
Just giving my two cents. I emailed Watchdog dev to see if he can help me out since Watchdog seems to be the only app that can actually see mediaserver and also emailed GAMEVIL to see if they might have a memory leak problem somewhere. I will update when I get word from either.
UPDATE:
I recorded my phones screen to show you mediaserver and it sucking the life out of my phone. There is no way to kill it to my knowledge and the more I play Arel Wars the more it consumes precious ram. Copy this link into your browser to download the video. Its about 10 minutes long and about 18mb.
dl.dropbox.com/u/6778642/Android/Mediaserver_ArelWars.mp4.
You should be able to play it in your browser.
BTW I am still waiting on either GAMEVIL or the dev of Watchdog to hit me up with an email so I'll update if and when I get word.

Media Server service using 25% of battery,where did it come from?

Media Server service using 25% of battery,where did it come from?
I have 3 android phones,usually when i check the battery status it goes like this:
Screen
Android System
But on my GS3 it goes like this:
Screen
Media Server
Android System
It eats about 25 percent of the battery.Do everyone has this process running on GS3?Because my GS1 and GS2 with ics dont.
Here is a screenshot:

Can someone look and see if they have this process running before i restore my cwm backup and have to recalibrate battery again.

lviv73 said:
Can someone look and see if they have this process running before i restore my cwm backup and have to recalibrate battery again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am on a fully stock Sprint GS3. Today i was playing music stored on my SD card via poweramp for about the length of time that media server is listed. I would assume you played some sort of stored media on your device and that's why its listed.
hope that helps explain things.

topdawgy9 said:
I am on a fully stock Sprint GS3. Today i was playing music stored on my SD card via poweramp for about the length of time that media server is listed. I would assume you played some sort of stored media on your device and that's why its listed.
hope that helps explain things.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had few servers installed trying to stream to ps3 since ics cant mount to ps3 any more but i uninstalled them all.
And the phone been rebooted too,i dont know why its still there and taking 25 percent of battery.
I just did cwm restore of clean Blazer backup i had,im charging tje phone now to calibrate the battery,hopefully it will be gone when i boot the phone,if not then its a GS3 thing because my GS1 and GS2 dont have that service draining the battery.

Media Server is still there and i have no media servers running, is it part of android? I have ics on my Epic Touch and it does not have that service running.
I cant be the only one having this "problem", im on clean installed Blazer 1.6.

I had the same problem as you. Tried wipes, new ROM installs, was a no-go. Phone would always be hot and media server was usually ~50%. I reformatted my SDcard and it worked! Turned out there was some rogue file that kept the media scanner running.
Now screen takes up a good 80% with everything else staying in 1-10% range.

yousefak said:
I had the same problem as you. Tried wipes, new ROM installs, was a no-go. Phone would always be hot and media server was usually ~50%. I reformatted my SDcard and it worked! Turned out there was some rogue file that kept the media scanner running.
Now screen takes up a good 80% with everything else staying in 1-10% range.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanx a lot man,im gonna give it a try.
Update:It worked i deleted a few folder off the sdcard,rebooted and its gone!Thanx again,now i dont have to Odin.

Damn its still there but its not eating up the battery like it was,here is another screenshot.Can anyone confirm that this service supposed to be always running?

lviv73 said:
Damn its still there but its not eating up the battery like it was,here is another screenshot.Can anyone confirm that this service supposed to be always running?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, 1-10% is normal for mediaserver.
Sent from my Sprint SGS3

I was having this issue yesterday after some searching I found that there might be some (corrupted) media files causing the Media Server to loop.
In my case I deleted some m4a files I had and now it seems back to normal. Right now I only have mp3 and ogg music files. I'm been playing music for about 25 minutes now and the phone is not as hot as it was yesterday when I was trying to play music.
Original thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1583653
lviv73 said:
Media Server service using 25% of battery,where did it come from?
I have 3 android phones,usually when i check the battery status it goes like this:
Screen
Android System
But on my GS3 it goes like this:
Screen
Media Server
Android System
It eats about 25 percent of the battery.Do everyone has this process running on GS3?Because my GS1 and GS2 with ics dont.
Here is a screenshot:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

LasherHN said:
I was having this issue yesterday after some searching I found that there might be some (corrupted) media files causing the Media Server to loop.
In my case I deleted some m4a files I had and now it seems back to normal. Right now I only have mp3 and ogg music files. I'm been playing music for about 25 minutes now and the phone is not as hot as it was yesterday when I was trying to play music.
Original thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1583653
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you still have Media Server process running but its not using battery like it was or irs not running at all?
Mine is still running but only uses 2 percent of the battery now instead of 25%.
You dont have to delete files but put .nomedia file in the folder that your media files are at and it wont scan that folder.

.nomedia
lviv73 said:
Do you still have Media Server process running but its not using battery like it was or irs not running at all?
Mine is still running but only uses 2 percent of the battery now instead of 25%.
You dont have to delete files but put .nomedia file in the folder that your media files are at and it wont scan that folder.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the same issue of media server killing my battery even after exiting all media players. If I use .nomedia where the music is, how will the media players be able to find the music or play it?

[Q] Galaxy Nexus extremely laggy after loading music into storage

Hello all,
I have a question about an issue that has been plaguing my phone for about the last month. I have tried numerous ROMs, kernels and basebands (which shouldn't make a difference but it's worth a try). Basically what is happening is when I have a clean install of a ROM with nothing loaded into storage, my phone is snappy and works perfectly, like butter, no matter the ROM or kernel. As soon as I load music on to my phone, the phone slows down dramatically. I start having "xxx is not responding" messages from every app I load up and the phone slows down to a crawl. I have tried many ROMs and kernels. If I install a new ROM without wiping my internal storage, the phone boots up with the newly loaded ROM slowly and can barely make it through the Android setup without crashing. If I wipe the internal storage and load a new ROM it works perfectly and snappy.
Does anyone know of a reason why this would happen? I am surprised that some music files could slow down the phone so much. Any thoughts are appreciated. I haven't tried going back to stock, but that is my next step. Somehow I think it would still slow down. I got the phone with ICS on it and immediately rooted and loaded JB ROMs on it. It didn't really start at first until I loaded my 10GB music collection on there. Any ideas?
Thanks!

Media storage scans new media and logs it into the appropriate apps.
Even with what I drop on (~4 gigs of music) it can lag for a few hours even.
Without you doing further testing and diagnosis I would guess that is your problem.
Settings>Battery should show media scanner high on the list.
Have you tried to let it settle (build up caches and read the files) for a day?

Yes, I was on a trip last week and let it sit for three days. I figured as much for the media scans, so I let it sit for a day. I don't see media scanner anywhere on my battery list. Just mediaserver, as I try to listen to the music that is on the phone as much as I can without locking anything up. I have:
Screen
Phone Idle
Mediaserver
Cell standby
Winamp
FBTouch
Android OS
Chrome
Android System
Voice Calls

jlink38 said:
Yes, I was on a trip last week and let it sit for three days. I figured as much for the media scans, so I let it sit for a day. I don't see media scanner anywhere on my battery list. Just mediaserver, as I try to listen to the music that is on the phone as much as I can without locking anything up. I have:
Screen
Phone Idle
Mediaserver
Cell standby
Winamp
FBTouch
Android OS
Chrome
Android System
Voice Calls
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe you need to defragment (I kid, I kid)

danielsaenz said:
Maybe you need to defragment (I kid, I kid)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sometimes I wish I could.

Figured it out. I re encoded my music to VBR and copied it to my phone and all is well!
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

Hi, sorry for my eng., I have the same problem as you. But I think it's not only music. Tested read\write speed on clean stock, it's awesome. Then filled storage with music (6 gigs) and movies (6 gigs) - write speed decreased from 12 MB\s to 0,7 MB/s!!! WTF?! Then I deleted all music and movies (+12 Gb free) and ran tests again - read\write speed still low! Forever Gone (Nexus 7 memory lag's solution) doesn't helped.
Any ideas?

Well, reported to google about this problem. Others should look for an Issue 39154 on google code threads and join discussion
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app

[Q] High CPU usage by Media (Downloads and Media Storage processes)

I've seen the CPU usage by "Media" (android.process.media?) to be always extremely high (as seen by "Battery Usage" and "GSam Battery Monitor") - and seemed to be the culprit of my very fast battery drainage.
So using Titanium Backup, I Froze "Downloads 4.x.x" and "Media Storage 4.x.x" which seemed to have helped a LOT - I get much better battery life, and the CPU usage by "Media" is 0-1% as opposed to 80-98%.
Just wondering - anyone know why this is - and what side-effects I could have by freezing these two processes?

I have been dealing with this issue for the last couple of days too. I ended up having to clear the data in Google Music and start fresh.
I froze pretty much everything possible. Those two processes will make your music stop playing and prevent you from using system sounds. It might also keep the market from functioning.
I think the latest google music update messed something up though. My problem seems to have cleared up, but I also have not played music in a while to see if it comes back.

Gersonian said:
I have been dealing with this issue for the last couple of days too. I ended up having to clear the data in Google Music and start fresh.
I froze pretty much everything possible. Those two processes will make your music stop playing and prevent you from using system sounds. It might also keep the market from functioning.
I think the latest google music update messed something up though. My problem seems to have cleared up, but I also have not played music in a while to see if it comes back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've had this for quite a while - I don't play music - and I have not had any problems with notifications or sounds, or even downloads.
I read that it does affect Gallery - which I did just try - and yes it seems to force close. But I have always used QuickPic instead which does not seem to have a problem with me freezing these two processes.
I assume they scan the internal and external data locations for media/files... I've read that it's possible that the scanning process gets stuck in a loop if there is a corrupt file or if there is something wrong with the SD card... *shrug*
I'm just wondering if I should be worried.
I'm on CM10 by the way... amazing how much faster my GS3 is over stock...

I miss CM10 from when I was on my Epic. Eventually the day will come that I will flash something. For now I am still just tooling with the way I like things.
I read about the corrupt file issue too. I am keeping an eye on this. Every time I froze media the media-related processes, something inevitably got screwed up. Hopefully I have fixed the issue on my end.
Do you have Google Music on your phone? Just because you do not listen to music does not mean the application isn't draining your battery. It could be starting up and keeping your phone awake if there is something corrupt going on there. Probably better to seek out a solution that allows the core processes to run than to keep them frozen. More than likely you will lose some additional functionality than just the gallery FC'ing.

Gersonian said:
I miss CM10 from when I was on my Epic. Eventually the day will come that I will flash something. For now I am still just tooling with the way I like things.
I read about the corrupt file issue too. I am keeping an eye on this. Every time I froze media the media-related processes, something inevitably got screwed up. Hopefully I have fixed the issue on my end.
Do you have Google Music on your phone? Just because you do not listen to music does not mean the application isn't draining your battery. It could be starting up and keeping your phone awake if there is something corrupt going on there. Probably better to seek out a solution that allows the core processes to run than to keep them frozen. More than likely you will lose some additional functionality than just the gallery FC'ing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope - I don't use Google Music - and I use a separate MP3 player for playing music (I'm one of those weird people who doesn't believe in wasting my phone battery on playing music.. haha)
I don't see anything else eating away at my battery life according to Gsam (well, ok, except the evil Amazon App Store - which I can't freeze since some apps I bought from Amazon require it - UGH).

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Questions go in Q&A
Thread moved

Instead of freezing these processes, when you reboot after a couple of minutes go to settings>battery and then to MEDIA and force stop. It will turn itself back on later if need be but that stops the ruanaway service with no apps force closing when used.

kennyglass123 said:
Instead of freezing these processes, when you reboot after a couple of minutes go to settings>battery and then to MEDIA and force stop. It will turn itself back on later if need be but that stops the ruanaway service with no apps force closing when used.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My phone is set to reboot every morning after Ti Backup does a backup of apps/data and I'd hate to have to go through that every morning.
(the SmartPhoneMate app also requires 1-2 reboots a day so that's why I also do that)
Yeah I'm just lazy
One day I'll take the time to figure out if it's something on my SD card...
I just wanted to make sure if there was something else I should be worried about... so far nothing major as far as I can tell.
P.S> Sorry about posting in the wrong place - as you can see, I'm total n00b here (been lurking for a while though)

Here is a good set of solutions and workarounds: http://geeknizer.com/fix-android-media-server-scanner-sdcard-cpu-battery-drain/
In addition, a further one may be helpful/needed: disable (freeze) the Downloads app (com.android.providers.downloads)
What was most helpful in my case is to use the Rescan Media Root app to disable the buggy image scanner altogether.

ddvo said:
Here is a good set of solutions and workarounds: http://geeknizer.com/fix-android-media-server-scanner-sdcard-cpu-battery-drain/
In addition, a further one may be helpful/needed: disable (freeze) the Downloads app (com.android.providers.downloads)
What was most helpful in my case is to use the Rescan Media Root app to disable the buggy image scanner altogether.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good stuff... thanks!

[Q] High CPU usage/battery drain when uploading to Google Music on PC

Hi guys,
Bit of a strange one here. I've noticed that over the past few days (since starting to upload my music library to Google Play) that my Note II's battery life has plummeted.
When the PC is switched on and uploading music, the 'Android System' (system_server) process sits at a consistent 30-50% CPU utilisation and the phone will lag. If I kill the Play Music process, then CPU usage returns to normal and the phone works as expected.
This only happens when I am uploading music - if the PC is off, then Play Music behaves perfectly.
Has anyone got any ideas as to how I can solve this issue? I've tried removing all applications and restoring the phone to no avail. Have got 10,000 songs to upload yet!
Thanks
Chris

The obvious answer is to upload when you're asleep
Try turning off the google music sync for the account(s), as it's likely trying to update your phone cache with the new music.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using xda app-developers app