If some of you are having some real 'bog downs', you may want to investigate your SMB and Shared Folder environment.
Basically, these devices scan your local network for media automatically and in turn tried to 'index' everything. This work really hits the CPU hard.
If you install OSMonitor, you'll see '/system/bin/mediaserver' with a high CPU usuage. I'm not sure right now how to disable it though. However, killing off the process makes the device really snappy.
It obviously indexes your internal and sdcard. It appears whenever you add or remove files or download new apps which create files on the public storage, it updates it's index.
I had a 300mb folder with thousands of small files and my mediaserver process went CPU crazy each time i installed an app.
smb should not be scanned by default.
If you look at /network folder, you will see a 0 byte file ".nomedia" - this prevents the system from scanning smb drives.
sondeu said:
smb should not be scanned by default.
If you look at /network folder, you will see a 0 byte file ".nomedia" - this prevents the system from scanning smb drives.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's a really good tip, thank you! I had done a copy of the Archos root over to my SDcard, that's what caused my mediaserver to peg out. It was only a few hundred mb, but there were a lot of files. Once I removed that off my sdcard, I was good.
Is there any way to add a .nomedia file to the directory where the Market downloads it's apps to? That should prevent the indexing that occurs every time you install a new app...
skeeterfood said:
Is there any way to add a .nomedia file to the directory where the Market downloads it's apps to? That should prevent the indexing that occurs every time you install a new app...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Assuming that would work, you'd have to do a temp root, then push the .nomedia file to the /data (or /data/data and /data/app) folders. I think .nomedia acts recursively and adding it to '/data' would do the trick.
what is the purpose of having the indexing of files at all? why not just read the directory when you open your file manager???
are directories with the .nomedia file are still read by the filemanager? can you still browse to them and open files within the directory?
This is not connected to Archos, this was introduced by google for use in Music and Gallery.
The first phones where a little slow indexing the memory and this way after putting something on the phone it would after some time show up in the std player with thumbnails and so on.
is it possible to turn off this scanning and indexing completely?
Only if you have the sources and access to /system
ok, another point for custom rom modifications
ok, any advice what to do? this mediaserver process drives me crazy. the tablet gets close to "unusable" while that process is eating up all the cpu and battery
[TIP/TRICK] Stop Stock Gallery From Creating .thumbnails Folder! Save SD Card Space!
First off, I'll start by saying: "I am not responsible if you brick your phone! Always make a nandroid backup before using my steps/messing with Autostarts! (It's a very powerful application!)"
If you use a 3rd party gallery app (Like QuickPic, my personal favorite...) - You are probably tired of wasting over 100mb of space on your SD card... (And waiting a long time for booting up as well...) I had no need for the /sdcard/DCIM/.thumbnails folder taking up space on my SD card, so this is how to disable the stock Gallery app from doing so!
I researched a little on how to accomplish this and came up with little information, so I thought I'd share:
What you'll need:
1.) Autostarts app (I used: Version 1.7.0)
---
Steps/Directions:
1.) Run Autostarts
2.) Look for these entries: Media ejecting/mounted
3.) Choose either entry (ONLY CHOOSE ONE, IT DOES NOT MATTER WHICH! Choosing one entry will disable both entries in Media ejecting AND Media mounted!)
4.) Click on BootReceiver
5.) Choose Disable (A popup will show saying "This is a system app, are you sure? etc.)
6.) Done! Reboot. On boot, go to /sdcard/DCIM/ and look inside for the usual .thumbnails folder, it should be contained with a few (SMALL) files now!
Note: (Make sure you disable the entry BootReceiver ONCE, it should "strikeout" (as in: draw a line through) the entry BootReceiver, to show it has been disabled on boot.) - zmag
Hmm, seems I just looked in my folder and I saw the darn .thumbnails file again... If anyone knows how to disable the stock Gallery app from wasting boot time & sd space; PLEASE TELL ME!!! - zmag
Well, it looks like this is not a big issue for anyone out there - but it still annoys me.
I have since "frozen" the stock Camera and Gallery apps with Titanium Backup Pro, and still; no luck.
Now, granted when I reboot my phone and look in my DCIM folder it doesn't seem to be creating the .thumbnails folder 100% of the time. But the folder is still being created somehow, and my only guess is from a third-party app (and I can't seem to pinpoint which one) but I'm gonna test to find out which and post my results...
I wish someone out there could give me some input, I've been talking to myself here for too long. - zmag
This isn't the same, but you can create a filetype named '.nomedia' and place it at the root of the folder where you want and it will stop displaying the thumbnails in the gallery app.
http://smartadopter.wordpress.com/2...mbnails-showing-in-the-android-photo-gallery/
OK I believe I may have found the possible solution to this problem.
I was searching around on how to fix this problem as well, and tried a few things myself and believe I have found a solution, so I had to sign up for xda to share with everyone else. So please be gentle as this is my first post, although im a long time lurker.
I also got rid of the stock gallery (uninstalled with Titanium Backup) and now use Quick Pic. although I have removed the stock gallery it still builds that 60mb+ thumbnails directory on my SDcard. I was using SD Maid to delete it but it gets annoying that it kept reappearing even after the uninstall of stock gallery.
Now to start fixing,
I realized it was actually a large single file itself named ".thumbdata3-1967290299" in "sdcard/DCIM/.thumbnails/" that was taking up the 60mb+ , the smaller individual thumbnails Quick Pic created only added up to a 1mb or so.
So what I did was I just grabbed a random useless file from my SD card I didn't need anymore (an alarm clock plus backup .bak file, but I would assume the *new file" option in root explorer would do the same) and I renamed the unneeded file the same name as the file in /.thumbdata/ (the the .thumbdata3-19672902099).
Now I had a .thumbdata file that was only 1.75kb and just simply moved it to the sdcard/DCIM/.thumbnails/ folder and replaced the 60mb .thumbdata file with the smaller one.
After a few restarts of my phone, opening and browsing Quick Pic, checking my thumbnail size a few times with both SD Maid and Root Explore - I now have a much smaller 1.75kb file instead of the old 60mb file.
Hopefully this well help some of you out and solve your problem as well, as far as I can tell it is no longer making that thumbnail file expand so large on my phone.
Phone: HTC Hero CDMA
ROM: Cyanogenmod 7.1
Carrier: i-wireless/sprint
hewillmakehell said:
OK I believe I may have found the possible solution to this problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i've tried both your copied file trick and making a new file with root explorer, both to no avail. ".thumbdata3--1967290299" always reverts to its old size if any app associated with the gallery is opened.
has yours really stopped reappearing?
i can't figure out where the large thumbnail data is stored, but it must be in the system somewhere...
problem solved
hey i figured out how to fixed this on my atrix. should be the same for all android phones.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=28447099#post28447099
There's no "external.db" inside my "com.android.providers.media" folder.
However, I didn't even understood what I was supposed to do with this file. What he meant with "trim the thumbnails table with an sql editor"?
I quoted the post you linked below:
i found the place where the thumbnail data is stored, which was making the huge thumbnail file and crashing Entertainment Center.
it isn't storing the entire ".thumbdata3--1967290299" file (which can be hundreds of mb for some people), rather a large (tens of mb) .db database file that is being used to recreate it on demand.
/data/data/com.android.providers.media/databases
external.db
with Root Explorer i could view the file, and Speed Software also sells an sql editor which you can use to trim the thumbnails table.
*be careful: deleting entries from this file also seems to delete it from the device! i deleted all records from the thumbnails and images tables..
learn from my mistake. i thought it would regenerate, but it deleted all images from /sd card. good thing i backed up all my photos first, but better to use the filter option and trim out only the records for files that are no longer on the device.
".thumbdata3--1967290299" now reappears, but a whole lot smaller.
Gallery opens so much faster now, and Entertainment Center works again!
hope it helps!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i bet it is hiding somewhere. maybe it's slightly different on other phones.
the issue was that i had an ever-expanding sdcard/dcim/.thumbnails/.thumbdata3--1967290299 file being recreated every time i accessed the gallery viewer, even after that thumbnails folder was erased.
my device was keeping track of ALL the media files that were ever on it, not just the ones presently on it. so the more files that passed through my device, the bigger the thumbdata file kept getting. the external.db file contains a table that lists all media files along with a bunch of attributes for each. apparently this db file is used to generate the thumbdata file. all the info for deleted files just leads to more padding inside the thumbdata file, so it keeps getting bigger.
by trimming the table i meant to delete the records in the external.db that correspond to thumbnails for media no longer on the device. that file is an SQLite file, so to open it you need a special viewer/editor. i first used the SQLite Viewer that comes with Root Explorer. with that, i could see the all the redundant thumbnail entries. to edit it, i got the SQLite Editor, though i'm sure there are other ways. then it's a matter of recognizing which files it lists that are no longer on your device, and getting rid of those rows from the table. in my case the external.db file went down from 8mb to 500kb after i did that.
screenshot 1 showing tables inside external.db, using SQLite Editor
screenshot 2 showing 'thumbnails' table
TBN FILE 2gb
hi
i have a huge thumbnail file in he sd card its almots 2GB
i have already came to opeing the list for thumbnails in the editor
but i dont know how to filter it that i can delete only the files which are not in the sd card (i.e already deleted ) plss guide me throught ,,, this and u will be a star:good:
whitebreadstyle said:
i bet it is hiding somewhere. maybe it's slightly different on other phones.
the issue was that i had an ever-expanding sdcard/dcim/.thumbnails/.thumbdata3--1967290299 file being recreated every time i accessed the gallery viewer, even after that thumbnails folder was erased.
my device was keeping track of ALL the media files that were ever on it, not just the ones presently on it. so the more files that passed through my device, the bigger the thumbdata file kept getting. the external.db file contains a table that lists all media files along with a bunch of attributes for each. apparently this db file is used to generate the thumbdata file. all the info for deleted files just leads to more padding inside the thumbdata file, so it keeps getting bigger.
by trimming the table i meant to delete the records in the external.db that correspond to thumbnails for media no longer on the device. that file is an SQLite file, so to open it you need a special viewer/editor. i first used the SQLite Viewer that comes with Root Explorer. with that, i could see the all the redundant thumbnail entries. to edit it, i got the SQLite Editor, though i'm sure there are other ways. then it's a matter of recognizing which files it lists that are no longer on your device, and getting rid of those rows from the table. in my case the external.db file went down from 8mb to 500kb after i did that.
screenshot 1 showing tables inside external.db, using SQLite Editor
screenshot 2 showing 'thumbnails' table
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had the sam issue, but unfortunately your solution didn't help me. I have only a couple of pictures on my phone, but a lot of GBs of music on SDCard and I think this is he reason why .thumbdata3 file is so large on my phone.
I also tried using SDRescan as proposed here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=28516079&postcount=6, but that didn't help either.
I've done some more research and found a solution here: http://www.mobilephonetalk.com/show...in-memory-card&p=311954&viewfull=1#post311954. After I deleted the .thumbdata3 file, created a blank one with Root Explorer and removed write permission to it, the file stays at 0 bytes and Camera and Gallery apps still work fine.
mihir880 said:
hi
i have a huge thumbnail file in he sd card its almots 2GB
i have already came to opeing the list for thumbnails in the editor
but i dont know how to filter it that i can delete only the files which are not in the sd card (i.e already deleted ) plss guide me throught ,,, this and u will be a star:good:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it sure would be nice if android did that automatically
i don't know how though, sorry.. maybe there is a way, but it is surely safer to backup the media files to another drive, trim the db, then move them back if necessary.
---------- Post added at 09:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:42 PM ----------
strom87 said:
I've done some more research and found a solution here: http://www.mobilephonetalk.com/show...in-memory-card&p=311954&viewfull=1#post311954. After I deleted the .thumbdata3 file, created a blank one with Root Explorer and removed write permission to it, the file stays at 0 bytes and Camera and Gallery apps still work fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i guess that's one way of doing it. it just means all the thumbnails have to be recreated every time you open the gallery or file browser.
strom87 said:
I had the sam issue, but unfortunately your solution didn't help me. I have only a couple of pictures on my phone, but a lot of GBs of music on SDCard and I think this is he reason why .thumbdata3 file is so large on my phone.
I also tried using SDRescan as proposed here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=28516079&postcount=6, but that didn't help either.
I've done some more research and found a solution here: http://www.mobilephonetalk.com/show...in-memory-card&p=311954&viewfull=1#post311954. After I deleted the .thumbdata3 file, created a blank one with Root Explorer and removed write permission to it, the file stays at 0 bytes and Camera and Gallery apps still work fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How did you removed write permission from the thumbdata3 file with RootExplorer. If I try this, then I get a message, that that is not possible on the SD-Card and nothing happens!! The permissions stay !!!
Sunnymen1975 said:
How did you removed write permission from the thumbdata3 file with RootExplorer. If I try this, then I get a message, that that is not possible on the SD-Card and nothing happens!! The permissions stay !!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can try creating a folder instead of a file(no need to set permissions). So far, it's working
lbrfabio said:
You can try creating a folder instead of a file(no need to set permissions). So far, it's working
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Another quick way that seems to work:
Code:
rm -rf /mnt/sdcard/DCIM/.thumbnails && touch /mnt/sdcard/DCIM/.thumbnails
rm -rf /mnt/sdcard/external_sd/DCIM/.thumbnails && touch /mnt/sdcard/external_sd/DCIM/.thumbnails
Hello, I also have this problem. Now I put another file with that name and that seems to work.
However, I came on this because my device went suddenly very slow.
Is it possible that the application that writes these .thumbnail files is still searching through the complete device, even when it cannot update the file?
And, how can I inspect what app is causing this file or slow down?
Fixed!... deleted .thumbnails folder and then created a file called .thumbnails using root explorer....thats worked for me in my THL w1..saved 1.2 gb of space!
Is there anyway to stop the stock camera from posting pics in the DCIM folder? I am somewhat ocd and would like them to be posted in a folder of my choosing.
estranged1977 said:
Fixed!... deleted .thumbnails folder and then created a file called .thumbnails using root explorer....thats worked for me in my THL w1..saved 1.2 gb of space!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Created a file or a folder?
petrsiri said:
Created a file or a folder?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
try create folder (I do this and see no more thumbdata3-files yet two months)
hey all iv noticed this a lot with the stock 2.2 rom on my POV Mobii tegra 2 (advent vega rebrand).
e.g i uninstalled a game called jelly defence, then tried to install an updated version of it. the install fails saying aplication not installed.
ok so i then tried to reinstall the first version i had working on the tablet, and that also fails to install saying again application not installed..
why would this be happening? iv noticed that it happens on a fair few number of apps that i install, then uninstall, then try to install again and they fail to install.
installation is done via apk file from sd card. even tried over wifi and still same error.
I know this might sound rude, but did you try Google?
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4226132/application-not-installed-error-on-android
ahh, could be something to do with the certificates or the AndroidManifest.xml file.
where is this file located so that i can check its permissions?
This might be a tough nutt to crack...
"AndroidManifest.xml" file is inside .apk files.
ok i managed to fix the problem. i mounted my sd card to the pc with card reader, and in the android.secure folder there was a file called smdl2tmp1.asec , i deleted that and now the app installs fine. got both jelly defence and few others installed with no issues.
strange how i cant see that folder on the tablet itself because its hidden. need an app to see the folder and its contents directly on the tablet so i can delete it again if needed.
Yeah, folders and files with a dot infront of their names are invisible.
It's a Linux thing!
Glad you got that sorted out!
is there no file manager app that can see these files directly on the tablet?
Just tried "iFileManager" app I got with stock tablet software and it can see hidden files/folders.
I also tried Root Explorer and it can see hidden files/folders, but this is a paid app.
Astro File Manager can also see hidden files/folders, but you need to go into Preferences-->Look and Feel-->and enable "Show Hidden Files" option.
Maybe your current file manager app also has such an option?
Hope I helped, and don't forget to give a thanks!
ahh, i have stock ifilemanager, but i dont use it, i use ES File Explorer since i can access my LAN shares with it easily over the wifi. will give ifilemanager a go in few mins time.
thanks again.
just checked ifilemanager can see the folder but it cant see any of the file which are inside the folder.
Just checked some "hidden" folders myself on my tablet.
Some have files / sub-folders inside and some don't.
Not all folders need to have files inside.
but when i check the folder on the pc via sdcard reader, there are files in the folder.
cant see them directly on the tablet, but when connected to pc i can see the files in exact same location.
Hi everyone,
I need your help. I sometimes face strange issues with my Nexus 4 (Stock Room, Rooted, Matrix Kernel v5). Yesterday I wanted to copy a apk-file for installation on my phone from my home-server. I use ES File Explorer for that. I failed to copy the apk-file to /sdcard/folder-name (operation failed). then i navigated to /data/media/0/folder-name and tried it from there, also it didn't work.
i then copied the file to /sdcard/download and was able to copy it to that and to install it.
i don't really understand why it behaves that way, i was always able to go to /sdcard/folder-name and do what i want. i also noticed another strange thing. i connected my phone via USB (MTP-mode) to the PC and uploaded a few GB of MP3s to it (Folder: Music).
when browsing this folder with ES File Explorer, I cannot delete anything from that folder /sdcard/Music. THOUGH it reports "deletion successful" the files or folders do not get deleted but just remain on the internal SD-card. i could only delete the music successfully via "/data/media/0/Music".
who can explain briefly WTF is going on? i obviously do not really understand the concept and logic behind this. is there a maximum file/path length that must not be exceeded?
thanks in advance and best regards,
hallu
need to bump this, sorry...
does anyone have any idea as to why this phone is behaving the way it is?
I use root explorer and have ZERO issues. That includes pulling apk's.
Try a different file explorer to see if that makes a difference so at least you can determine if the issue is just app specific and not something else.
Check to see of ES isn't mounting certain folders with RW permissions.
Also the actual internal storage is /data/media/0/ so /sdcard/ is just a symlink to that folder. ES seems to be having problems with the symlinks.
cannot transfer files via usb- stuck in "calculating the time required to copy files"
been trying all afternoon to copy files from the phone memory to the computer (pc) but no luck. i am connected via MTP but it hangs at "calculating the time required to copy the files" then craps out. tried to boot in safe mode but still no luck. any help would be appreciated.
thanks!!
nycdave said:
been trying all afternoon to copy files from the phone memory to the computer (pc) but no luck. i am connected via MTP but it hangs at "calculating the time required to copy the files" then craps out. tried to boot in safe mode but still no luck. any help would be appreciated.
thanks!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try copying smaller groups of files at a time.
Ex
The Android folder will cause this issue when trying to copy it and all sub folders at once by simply selecting the Android folder and copying it.
Instead, create an Android folder in your destination folder (where you are copying to) then create each subfolder as well (data, obb, etc). Then just copy each folder within data, obb, etc, individually. It's a PITA, but this is how I've always bypassed the problem.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N910A using Tapatalk
did it work ?
I just had the same problem. It may be some sort of corrupted folder. Here's what worked for me:
I think it started when I tried copying multiple folders instead of just one at a time, as I usually do. I cancelled because it was taking so long.
After that I constantly got the exact same thing you describe ... Had to kill Windows Explorer over & over.
What I noticed: Windows Explorer could surf into other folders, but clicking on one particular folder always hung Explorer.
So, I went in on the phone's My Files app, and did the following:
1. Looked at the folder - It appeared fine.
2. I copied all the files out of the folder
3. Deleted the folder
4. Recreated it
5. Copied the files back in
It took a few tries, but after that everything is back to working normally.