Database Users

Mediaserver + SD card = 100% CPU (HELP!!)

Ok this is driving me off the wall. The process called "mediaserver" is using 100% of my CPU time even while the screen is off. It forces my phone to go to max clock the whole time.
When I unmount my sd card (which has music, files, etc) it goes back to 0% instantly and the CPU clocks down to normal. The SECOND I remount it, BAM it goes back to using 100% of my CPU. The battery drain is incredible.
I have googled the issue and there are several single post threads with no response or solution.
Can someone please help me?

whats is your rom and kernel? is it an app? if it is, uninstall it.

zeke1988 said:
whats is your rom and kernel? is it an app? if it is, uninstall it.
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Click to collapse
I am having this same problem. Here is my post over on CM forums.
http://forum.cyanogenmod.com/topic/5761-mediaserver-high-cpu-use/
I haven't found anyone that will even comment on the problem...

nopick said:
I am having this same problem. Here is my post over on CM forums.
http://forum.cyanogenmod.com/topic/5761-mediaserver-high-cpu-use/
I haven't found anyone that will even comment on the problem...
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Click to collapse
I know!! Just a sea of response-less cries for help.
zeke1988 said:
whats is your rom and kernel? is it an app? if it is, uninstall it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It was happening on virtuous and ultimatedroid. And from the above post we can see that it is happening on CM too. It is not app related. Ending everything using a task manager and/or restarting the phone doesn't fix. I did a complete wipe of data/chache/davik before flashing roms.
Simply put, if your sd card has media on it (music, pics, etc), mediaserver will go nuts.
Hoping the awesome people at x-da can help us out!

I just got the 32 GB SD card yesterday and the same thing started happening to me today. I did a factory reset, different roms, back to normal and it still is happening. My verizon extended battery lasted about 5 hours today...and it was unusually hot as well. Does this happen to others on smaller SD cards?

I had this problem a while back. Turns out it was a corrupt movie file. Something vlc played fine, but the media scanning app hated and drained my battery every 3 hours for two days until I figured it out.
Remove all media from your sd card, pics, movies, music and see what happens. Add it back slowly. If that is the problem.
Another potential issue is a corrupt sd card. You can try reformatting it or scanning it for bad sectors, but my guess is that its a bad file.
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App

Mediaserver is an app not part of the OS so just uninstall it. It hasn't been updated for Froyo anyway judging from whats on the market.

Memory card erased

That was too bad experience for me. I noticed today that the apps I moved to sd card, wouldn't respond and they also disappeared from the programs list but they were listed in remove programs list. So, I went a step further and looked at the contents of my sd card just to discover that everything was lost and returned to factory default folder configuration. All my photos, music, etc. are gone. The card isn't dead but only erased. It still has some folders but I assume they are the default data folder that were created when the programs are accessed.
Now, I removed the battery today without shutting down first. Could that have caused the problem?
Any way to recover my data back?

You could try to recover them the the program "Recuva " its very good freeware. I'm pretty sure its windows only, best of luck.

andyharney said:
You could try to recover them the the program "Recuva " its very good freeware. I'm pretty sure its windows only, best of luck.
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I am currently running active file recovery and had no luck with quick scan. I am now running thorough scan but I don't think it will help.

nope, only folder structure discovered but empty. Too bad but it shouldn't be like that. Some corrupt files would be acceptable, but thw whole card????

As andy suggests I would try recuva anyway you've nothing too lose and it may work even where the other didn't.

Hmm, happened to me once on a crap sd card.. Had to reformat and suddenly the read/write speed drop drastically, around 150Kb/sec on class 4 card.. Luckily, i happened to keep my old class 2 sd, works like charm.. I think it had to do with the conditions of the sd card..

what did u do to yr card that made it happen that way?
like what the others said, try running it thru recuve to recover the files then run a scandisk on the card

As said, I removed the battery without shutdown or dismount. I believe that's what has caused the problem.

andreasy said:
As said, I removed the battery without shutdown or dismount. I believe that's what has caused the problem.
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Click to collapse
try running a checkdisk on the card then

andreasy said:
As said, I removed the battery without shutdown or dismount. I believe that's what has caused the problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think that's what caused the problem as i removed the battery a few times without shutting down and never faced this issue.
One time i got an error message and i could not access the files on the microsd. The solution was to run a checkdisk and fix any bad sectors.
I always backup my microsd at least once a week for a rainy day, i strongly suggest you do the same from now on.

panart said:
I don't think that's what caused the problem as i removed the battery a few times without shutting down and never faced this issue.
One time i got an error message and i could not access the files on the microsd. The solution was to run a checkdisk and fix any bad sectors.
I always backup my microsd at least once a week for a rainy day, i strongly suggest you do the same from now on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1, I have Titanium Backup, run a full backup (User apps + Data) every night and backup the card (using Simple backup on Ubunutu) as often as I remember then if i lose or damage my phone I can feasibly recover everything.

I was getting message from PC when I plugged my phone on USB from day 1. The message was that the card need to be scanned for errors and so I did that all the time. Last time I plugged my PC to cradle I got the same and the scan fixed some errors. If the battery removal didn't cause the problem then it should be that last scan. Maybe my card was faulty but not completely. It's the stock card.

Many users reported that their card died while they were using their DHD (most of them if not all got a Samsung microsd in bundle).
I use a SanDisk class 2 that i have for two years as it's more reliable and transfer speeds are higher than Samsung.

panart said:
Many users reported that their card died while they were using their DHD (most of them if not all got a Samsung microsd in bundle).
I use a SanDisk class 2 that i have for two years as it's more reliable and transfer speeds are higher than Samsung.
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Click to collapse
I know this but mine hasn't died. It has been doing this from the first day. It's working though. Can't tell for sure what has caused it to be erased but it was done in seconds.
Fortunately my photos were synced on the PC and so I recovered them from there.

andreasy said:
I knthis but mine hasn't died. It has been doing this from the first day. It's working though. Can't tell for sure what has caused it to be erased but it was done in seconds.
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so it has happened b4 on the same card?

Nichie said:
so it has happened b4 on the same card?
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Click to collapse
No, I m it has been asking to check for errors during connection. Data loss, never before.

andreasy said:
No, I m it has been asking to check for errors during connection. Data loss, never before.
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Click to collapse
oh this.
its likely caused due to when u mount yr sd card to yr pc and fail unmount it properly from the pc b4 disconnecting it.

Try photorec - if the data is physically still on the card, it will find it. No fancy interface but imo the best file recovery program out there
Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk

[solution] fix your battery on wls8

hey,
many of us have faced an issue with the battery after flashing the official JB
well this may not be a sol " cuz i don't know what happend!"
so what i did was
1. flashing LPF 4.0.3 wipe data before flashing , not after.
2. flashing the ls8 and the lpx modem at the same time no data wipe
thats it

I'll try this
Sent from my GT-I9100 using xda app-developers app

From the screenshot I see that you have a big problem with reception signal, which, most likely, causes many wakelocks. Change the modem with one from your country. And whats the solution btw?
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda premium

I don't get this too. Your screenshot is full of wakelocks, and the only reason your battery isn't empty yet is because your screen wasn't on all the time...
Sent from the Matrix

I found out that the new "google now" ate ALOT of battery in my case.
Try disabling this.

for the screen on! i was oppening the secreen or receiving calls
yesterday i stayed upto 6 hrs after the screen shot was taken, wifi connected and it last till 7%
for my modem, the area where i live having problems with connection, all the modems kh3 and lb7 did the same, at least this modem catched the gps here

eraser0 said:
for the screen on! i was oppening the secreen or receiving calls
yesterday i stayed upto 6 hrs after the screen shot was taken, wifi connected and it last till 7%
for my modem, the area where i live having problems with connection, all the modems kh3 and lb7 did the same, at least this modem catched the gps here
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay, but what's your point by opening this thread..?
Sent from the Matrix

look how much the battery last!!

eraser0 said:
look how much the battery last!!
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Click to collapse
and why did you recharge 75% through the cycle? the main solution has been posted numerous times and it has to do with media scanner running in the background

d1rX said:
and why did you recharge 75% through the cycle? the main solution has been posted numerous times and it has to do with media scanner running in the background
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Click to collapse
well, i roam around here a lot, must've missed this one, any link on that, or any solution?

PlutoDelic said:
well, i roam around here a lot, must've missed this one, any link on that, or any solution?
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Click to collapse
Sure, but first post what apps you're running in background -- maybe it's not media, but something else like Google Now, location service (maps)? How does your phone "sleep"? Does it wake up?
Anyway, media fix that seem to resolve my problems (no more media scanner in task manager)

d1rX said:
and why did you recharge 75% through the cycle? the main solution has been posted numerous times and it has to do with media scanner running in the background
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Click to collapse
no i connected it to the pc for some time
also i didn't disable any service and the battery is lasting for me more than ics

d1rX said:
Sure, but first post what apps you're running in background -- maybe it's not media, but something else like Google Now, location service (maps)? How does your phone "sleep"? Does it wake up?
Anyway, media fix that seem to resolve my problems (no more media scanner in task manager)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hmm, im having a hard time understanding whats going on there, but i do switch my cam to sd card as location storage.
regarding your question, i tend to kill tasks always after i finish using my phone, in fact i clear the ram.
this is what im having right now, considering that i slept 8 hours of these 18 there, it's way too much, oh and yeah, i have the extended battery kit (official one), one more reason to moan.

This is the best battery performance I have ever had from my sgs2 (using siyah kernel and the scripts from the neat rom and siyah optimisation thread
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

PlutoDelic said:
hmm, im having a hard time understanding whats going on there, but i do switch my cam to sd card as location storage.
regarding your question, i tend to kill tasks always after i finish using my phone, in fact i clear the ram.
this is what im having right now, considering that i slept 8 hours of these 18 there, it's way too much, oh and yeah, i have the extended battery kit (official one), one more reason to moan.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just as a precaution, copy cache folder from SD internal to SD external and delete everything in SD internal DCIM folder. Something else is draining your battery. That 18 hours is too little IMO

d1rX said:
Just as a precaution, copy cache folder from SD internal to SD external and delete everything in SD internal DCIM folder. Something else is draining your battery. That 18 hours is too little IMO
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
/storage/sdcard0/DCIM only contains Photo and Video folders, both empty. im using the stock file manager, i guess what u've asked me for may be hidden. However, there is a "/storage/extSdCard/DCIM/Camera/cache"

It is hidden in mine, but if you see the one on excard than you should see one in internal card. You have to look for wakelocks -- install BetterBatteryStats. I don't know any other method. That app will basically tell you anything.
Give this a read. It will get you started on how to find what's causing the wakes

mediaserver is killing my battery!

Mediaserver killing anyone else battery? Media server is is working while my phone is idle.

Better Battery Stats and figure out which program. Its something you loaded 100% sure... Start uninstall till you find out which one.

Are you playing music?
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using xda premium

tvp480 said:
Mediaserver killing anyone else battery? Media server is is working while my phone is idle.
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Click to collapse
I have been in the habit since my S2 LTE i727 of clearing out my background apps. With the S4, I hold down the home button which will show all current apps, click on the icon at the right (three lines with an X). This will kill the apps you last run and should help.

rsarwar said:
I have been in the habit since my S2 LTE i727 of clearing out my background apps. With the S4, I hold down the home button which will show all current apps, click on the icon at the right (three lines with an X). This will kill the apps you last run and should help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This usually doesn't kill the background process. I had issues when I first got the phone with Google services hogging battery. Used Gsam battery to figure out what is running and then you can disable whatever you don't need. But first you have to figure out what exactly is using the battery.
I thought I read somewhere that if your SD card is bad and you are playing media off of it, it was causing something to stay awake and eat battery. Though, I could have just imagined that???

hamzer11 said:
This usually doesn't kill the background process. I had issues when I first got the phone with Google services hogging battery. Used Gsam battery to figure out what is running and then you can disable whatever you don't need. But first you have to figure out what exactly is using the battery.
I thought I read somewhere that if your SD card is bad and you are playing media off of it, it was causing something to stay awake and eat battery. Though, I could have just imagined that???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I read about the SD card issue as well. I had issues initially with Google Maps eating battery, not as bad as some have reported but still it bothered me. Media Services running was a bit of a pain as well. Then I read someone mentioned that a factory reset should be done, so then I backup what little I had and did the reset. Now, the phone is much better than before along with me doing the home button, removing apps thing .. battery easily goes for 2.5 days (data usage via LTE and wifi on when needed and gaming / music) I also turn on airplane mode at night. My SD card is a 16gb Class 10 Sandisk which previously used on my S2 LTE i727 from Rogers which I formatted prior to using on the S4.
Hope my little tid bit helps

Mediaserver is a biotch. If you have a bad Media file on your card the phone looks for a way to decode whatever .ext (extension) the media file has and will continue to do so until it finds the correct decoder. When you have a bad file mediaserver continues to loop over and over until you get rid of that file. Best bet is to back up all your stuff onto your pc and format the card. Then re-load the card and this should rid of your mediaserver drain.

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[Q] indexservice issue

hi guys,
I'm having an issue which is after i transfer some file to this Note 3 and now i'm facing a problem is the battery is discharge very fast and it always pop up one message 'unfortunately, indexservice has stopped.' It will freeze few second before this message was pop up.
anyone of you have encounter the same problem?

wai999 said:
hi guys,
I'm having an issue which is after i transfer some file to this Note 3 and now i'm facing a problem is the battery is discharge very fast and it always pop up one message 'unfortunately, indexservice has stopped.' It will freeze few second before this message was pop up.
anyone of you have encounter the same problem?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had the same issue but when i took out my toshiba 32 gb sd card, it went back to normal. how's yours?

ronyjarod said:
I had the same issue but when i took out my toshiba 32 gb sd card, it went back to normal. how's yours?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i don't have any extra sd card. i store the stuff at my built in storage. but if the problem is fix only you take out the sd card, what for we need extra storage?

It's just the file indexer. Obviously it needs to rescan the entire storage when you add new files. Sounds like it runs into a corrupt file it can't index.

wai999 said:
i don't have any extra sd card. i store the stuff at my built in storage. but if the problem is fix only you take out the sd card, what for we need extra storage?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also don't know how to solve and i've been googling since 25th sept till now.
---------- Post added at 03:05 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:30 PM ----------
ShadowLea said:
It's just the file indexer. Obviously it needs to rescan the entire storage when you add new files. Sounds like it runs into a corrupt file it can't index.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have mp3 songs, photos and some microsoft documents. i don't think these files are corrupted. any solutions? thank you.

ronyjarod said:
I have mp3 songs, photos and some microsoft documents. i don't think these files are corrupted. any solutions? thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try removing all of them temporarily. If that stops it, put them back a few files at a time.

ShadowLea said:
Try removing all of them temporarily. If that stops it, put them back a few files at a time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
but the guy above 'wai999' also got similar error message even he didn't use sd card

ronyjarod said:
but the guy above 'wai999' also got similar error message even he didn't use sd card
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, and as I have also said this indexes EVERYTHING, not just the MicroSD. It indexes every file on the phone.

ShadowLea said:
Yes, and as I have also said this indexes EVERYTHING, not just the MicroSD. It indexes every file on the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks for yr comments

Any news guys about this bug. It is really annoying as the phone is almost unusable. I tried installing my apps on phone only without SD. The same problem appeared. I even exchanged my Note 3 with a new one from our local SAMSUNG store and guess what, exactly the same message poping up on the new phone.
Has any of you tried to root its Note 3 and freeze Indexservice with Titanium Backup? Any feedback would be appreciated

Argh same problem
es_hicham said:
Any news guys about this bug. It is really annoying as the phone is almost unusable. I tried installing my apps on phone only without SD. The same problem appeared. I even exchanged my Note 3 with a new one from our local SAMSUNG store and guess what, exactly the same message poping up on the new phone.
Has any of you tried to root its Note 3 and freeze Indexservice with Titanium Backup? Any feedback would be appreciated
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm having exactly the same issue and having trawled the forums I'm yet to find a fix. I have a Galaxy note 3 and, with or without 64gb memory card, the 'Unfortunately IndexService has stopped' message continues to roll and I get a temporary freeze everytime it does (roughly every couple of minutes!). It's draining my battery and rendering the phone almost useless. I'm stuck for what to do and would be very very grateful for any help or suggestions. Thanks

I am facing the same issue. It's draining the battery and the screen freezes

rhony said:
I am facing the same issue. It's draining the battery and the screen freezes
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have exactly this same situation. I also have the 64GB card so I am thinking that it is related to that. That card is full and 70% of that is probably pdf documents. I am thinking that it is choking while trying to index all of that data.
I am familiar with indexers and I also suspect that there is a absolutely massive index file somewhere on the unit - most likely in primary memory. I'm interested to know what types of files you have on your card. If empty then it would seem that the indexing service has a problem with 64GB cards.
I will also confirm that it drains the battery so quickly you can almost watch the % tick down. I completely drained a full battery in 3.5 hours on a flight from Detroit last night. Without an external battery to charge from I would have been SOL half way through the flight.

I have same problem for the second note 3 strange that Samsung can't solve this issues my phone almost unusable

Mine settled down eventually but I swapped my sim (I run several different ones) & I get the issue come back. .. that's effectively telling me I may have to live with it after each swap of SIM. For example to write this post I had to wait twice for phone to unfreeze
Sent from my SM-N9005 using xda app-developers app

I found out that diactivating Air Commande in Control Tab in Settings for few minutes allows IndexService to finish indexing and solved the problem for me. Please try and confirm
Sent from my SM-N900 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
---------- Post added at 12:33 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:19 AM ----------
es_hicham said:
I found out that diactivating Air Commande in Control Tab in Settings for few minutes allows IndexService to finish indexing and solved the problem for me. Please try and confirm
Sent from my SM-N900 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can activate Air Command afterwards. It works
Sent from my HTC One using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

es_hicham said:
I found out that diactivating Air Commande in Control Tab in Settings for few minutes allows IndexService to finish indexing and solved the problem for me. Please try and confirm
Sent from my SM-N900 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
---------- Post added at 12:33 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:19 AM ----------
You can activate Air Command afterwards. It works
Sent from my HTC One using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not on mine. Air command is switched off on mine anyway.
Sent from my SM-N9005 using xda app-developers app

This bug is complete and utter bs. The indexing is a miniscule benefit when it works correctly. I am shocked that no reviewer caught onto this problem as the first thing I did when getting the device was move over my 64 gb micro-sd from my note II. I lost power in the gym tonight after only 7 hours on-time which is absurd given how my Note II lasted easily 2-3 days before and how every review seems to say that the Note 3 has better battery life.

I had to re format my sd card and so far no issues with index services. Wish there was a better way around it.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using xda premium

same problem here, but after 2 days of trying, I solve it. I had a corrupt file on my SD and the index service was trying to index that file in a loop. After removing the corrupt file, all works.