As some of you may remember, my first Note 3, which I got a week ago yesterday, was returned for a full refund the next day due to a Nandroid restore failure through TWRP.
However, some of you may also remember that I had an extremely annoying error message pop up continually for the entire 24 hours I had the device.
The error: Unfortunately IndexService has stopped
This error revealed itself every 1-2 minutes. I could not figure out why as there was little information anywhere on the Internet.
However, after picking up a new Note 3 yesterday, and after many hours of trial-and-error file transfers, I think I found the reason ... a corrupt or otherwise damaged/flawed PDF file.
All other files, Word, Excel, Images, Videos, etc., were NOT the cause, and it had nothing to do with the SDCard. It doesn’t matter if you use a 64MB, 32MB, Class 6, Class 10, or UHS-1 type card. The card is not the problem. I know this because, this time, with my new Note 3, I never put in an SDCard. I transferred all files directly to internal storage and, unfortunately, the IndexService error still appeared … every 1-2 minutes.
This time, however, I noticed that the error message appeared only AFTER I transferred all my files to the device, so I knew it had to do with these files, and that’s where I focused my attention.
It took about 9 hours last night and early this morning. I began by deleting all personal files from the device. Result: No error messages. Then, directory-by-directory (I have 12,554 files and 371 directories), I transferred them back to the device, each time waiting about 3-4 minutes to see if the error message would appear. I read in other forums that the problem might be related to PDF files, so I first transferred all other file types. Result: No error messages. Then I begin transferring PDF files. I did so in groups of about 50 at a time. Yes, I have many PDF files; about 2,100 of them. It all came down to two PDF files. Wow, 2 out of 2,100! I can’t explain why, but when I transferred those two files to the device, the error message appeared, and when I deleted them, the error message disappeared.
Fortunately, the two files were not important, so I permanently deleted them; however, before doing so, I thought that they might have originally been written using a very old version of Adobe, and that they simply couldn’t be “read” by the Adobe reader on the Note 3. With this in mind, I opened them in the latest version of Adobe on my PC, and then re-saved them with a new file name; however, the result was the same. They still caused the indexing error. So, at this point I have no idea why they are causing the problem.
Finally, after all my files were transferred to internal storage, without the 2 problem files, I waited 1 hour. No error message. I then put in my Sandisk 32GB UHS-1 card, copied all the files over, and then waited another 30 minutes. No error message. This morning I deleted all the files from internal storage so that I only had them on the SDCard. No error message. It has now been over 24 hours, and still no error message.
SUMMARY:
1) The indexing error is NOT caused by the external SDCard.
2) The indexing error is PROBABLY caused by a problem PDF file(s)
3) The size of the PDF file is irrelevant. My problem files were each about 10MB; however, all smaller sizes, and even the remaining larger-sized PDF files do not cause a problem.
4) Others have suggested that I turn OFF a particular service, but it didn’t work for me.
5) Others have suggested that the error relates to files larger than 200MB. This does NOT appear to be the case in my situation. I have many files that are more than 200MB, and there isn’t a problem.
6) Another xda member said to create a file called .nomedia and place it in the root of the directory where the problem files are located. I tried this, but I still get the error message.
I hope this helps others.
Peter
PeterGuru said:
As some of you may remember, my first Note 3, which I got a week ago yesterday, was returned for a full refund the next day due to a Nandroid restore failure through TWRP.
However, some of you may also remember that I had an extremely annoying error message pop up continually for the entire 24 hours I had the device.
The error: Unfortunately IndexService has stopped
This error revealed itself every 1-2 minutes. I could not figure out why as there was little information anywhere on the Internet.
However, after picking up a new Note 3 yesterday, and after many hours of trial-and-error file transfers, I think I found the reason ... a corrupt or otherwise damaged/flawed PDF file.
All other files, Word, Excel, Images, Videos, etc., were NOT the cause, and it had nothing to do with the SDCard. It doesn’t matter if you use a 64MB, 32MB, Class 6, Class 10, or UHS-1 type card. The card is not the problem. I know this because, this time, with my new Note 3, I never put in an SDCard. I transferred all files directly to internal storage and, unfortunately, the IndexService error still appeared … every 1-2 minutes.
This time, however, I noticed that the error message appeared only AFTER I transferred all my files to the device, so I knew it had to do with these files, and that’s where I focused my attention.
It took about 9 hours last night and early this morning. I began by deleting all personal files from the device. Result: No error messages. Then, directory-by-directory (I have 12,554 files and 371 directories), I transferred them back to the device, each time waiting about 3-4 minutes to see if the error message would appear. I read in other forums that the problem might be related to PDF files, so I first transferred all other file types. Result: No error messages. Then I begin transferring PDF files. I did so in groups of about 50 at a time. Yes, I have many PDF files; about 2,100 of them. It all came down to two PDF files. Wow, 2 out of 2,100! I can’t explain why, but when I transferred those two files to the device, the error message appeared, and when I deleted them, the error message disappeared.
Fortunately, the two files were not important, so I permanently deleted them; however, before doing so, I thought that they might have originally been written using a very old version of Adobe, and that they simply couldn’t be “read” by the Adobe reader on the Note 3. With this in mind, I opened them in the latest version of Adobe on my PC, and then re-saved them with a new file name; however, the result was the same. They still caused the indexing error. So, at this point I have no idea why they are causing the problem.
Finally, after all my files were transferred to internal storage, without the 2 problem files, I waited 1 hour. No error message. I then put in my Sandisk 32GB UHS-1 card, copied all the files over, and then waited another 30 minutes. No error message. This morning I deleted all the files from internal storage so that I only had them on the SDCard. No error message. It has now been about 6 hours, and still no error message.
SUMMARY:
1) The indexing error is NOT caused by the external SDCard.
2) The indexing error is PROBABLY caused by a problem PDF file(s)
3) The size of the PDF file is irrelevant. My problem files were each about 10MB; however, all smaller sizes, and even the remaining larger-sized PDF files do not cause a problem.
4) Others have suggested that I turn OFF a particular service, but it didn’t work for me.
5) Others have suggested that the error relates to files larger than 200MB. This does NOT appear to be the case in my situation. I have many files that are more than 200MB, and there isn’t a problem.
6) Another xda member said to create a file called .nomedia, and place it in the root of the directory where the culprit files are located. I tried this, but I still get the error message.
I hope this helps others.
Peter
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Click to collapse
I have been trying to get this problem solved as well -- thanks for spelling out what *isn't* working; I've tried several of these things as well. Killing the app/service, asking the s-finder not to index files, putting the .nomedia files in place have all failed to make it go away. It is a little mind boggling that this is an issue as I've had the same loaded SDcard data (fresh card now, same data) on a note1 and note2 and never had this sort of trouble.
Even when I've killed the indexing service it seems to come back without power cycling, perhaps there is something triggering it to come back.
Hopefully there is an official answer on this soon, the phone becomes unresponsive for seconds all too regularly.
Lance
Looks like we've gone through the same thing ...
lance_lascari said:
I have been trying to get this problem solved as well -- thanks for spelling out what *isn't* working; I've tried several of these things as well. Killing the app/service, asking the s-finder not to index files, putting the .nomedia files in place have all failed to make it go away. It is a little mind boggling that this is an issue as I've had the same loaded SDcard data (fresh card now, same data) on a note1 and note2 and never had this sort of trouble.
Even when I've killed the indexing service it seems to come back without power cycling, perhaps there is something triggering it to come back.
Hopefully there is an official answer on this soon, the phone becomes unresponsive for seconds all too regularly.
Lance
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It looks like we've gone through the same thing. Sadly, when the IndexService error exists, it REALLY sucks battery power.
I hope you get yours resolved.
Peter
P.S. So far today ... no errors.
Peter a big thank you for the effort on this one. Im not having the issue(yet) but i had been wondering about the cause after reading your posts.
Sent from my SM-N900W8 using xda premium
PeterGuru said:
It looks like we've gone through the same thing. Sadly, when the IndexService error exists, it REALLY sucks battery power.
I hope you get yours resolved.
Peter
P.S. So far today ... no errors.
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Click to collapse
Since I'm going to be travelling this week and need the phone to be reliable, I tried just deleting my document archives for now ( ~ four thousand PDF files mostly)... and what a difference in battery life and keeping that error message away. I hope they fix it so I can have my docs back.
Lance
I'm not sure if they will fix it ...
lance_lascari said:
Since I'm going to be travelling this week and need the phone to be reliable, I tried just deleting my document archives for now ( ~ four thousand PDF files mostly)... and what a difference in battery life and keeping that error message away. I hope they fix it so I can have my docs back.
Lance
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Click to collapse
To be honest, I'm not sure if "they" will ever fix it.
At least you know, for sure, that it has to do with your PDF files, just like my situation. Perhaps you can now do what I did, and start copying all the PDF files back to your device, but in large groups ... perhaps 100 at a time. Then wait about 5 minutes, and try another 100.
Logically speaking, though, it would be best to try half your PDF files, so about 2000 first. Then, if you get the error message, remove them all, and re-copy 1000 of them. Slowly but surely you'll narrow down the culprit files. Yes, it may take you a few to several hours, but it can be done, and you'll probably discover that it's simply a few files, or even just ONE file that's causing all the problems.
Peter
PeterGuru said:
To be honest, I'm not sure if "they" will ever fix it.
At least you know, for sure, that it has to do with your PDF files, just like my situation. Perhaps you can now do what I did, and start copying all the PDF files back to your device, but in large groups ... perhaps 100 at a time. Then wait about 5 minutes, and try another 100.
Logically speaking, though, it would be best to try half your PDF files, so about 2000 first. Then, if you get the error message, remove them all, and re-copy 1000 of them. Slowly but surely you'll narrow down the culprit files. Yes, it may take you a few to several hours, but it can be done, and you'll probably discover that it's simply a few files, or even just ONE file that's causing all the problems.
Peter
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Click to collapse
Peter,
I appreciate your comment -- but the issue is pretty widespread and I suspect the noise level will rise as people start really using their devices (only released on Verizon in the US this past week). They would be unwise not to fix it; the two previous generations of the stock note phones did not show this problem. A bit selling point is the ability to have so much storage (between internal and SD). It is possible that I will someday put the effort in to find any specific files that cause the problem, but the whole directory is synchronized with dropbox and I don't want to have to separate it and lose sync just to work around samsung's bug.
I guess I will give some of it a shot, at least I will copy the folder with mostly books (large files, a few hundred) before the archives of technical literature -- that is a start to see if I can narrow it down. I'll have my nexus7 with me, which happily deals with the same files...
Cheers,
Lance
So if I let this service to run long enough to do its job, will it ever finish? As I noticed it runs only when the screen in on. And the culprit pdf (600Mb) in my case is the only one I really need. Is there any way to block it without root access and permanently?
Thanks!
I think if you add a file named .nomedia to a folder it will prevent any indexing in that folder. A very similar problem can occur with a corrupt music or video file. In that case also, the battery life is killed quickly since it can't complete its scanning. Best to identify the bad files and get rid of them, but if that's not an option, add a .nomedia file to the directory.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317
This is what I was going to suggest; however, it doesn't always work ... but give it a try.
The ".nomedia" file should be created within your device.
Peter
Sent from my mobile device
Im surprised you couldn't find anything on the Internet about this issue as it was discussed here in several threads a couple of weeks ago & corrupted .PDF files were seen to be the cause.
I think you could have saved yourself A LOT of time by simply searching XDA for posts "Note 3 indexservice" ....
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2463788
Sent from my SM-N9005 using xda app-developers app
I'm astounded at your brazen reply. Yes, I searched everywhere, including xda, and there were, at the time, no concrete answers. There were many ideas, but nothing definitive.
Case in point, the ".nomedia" idea from another member on xda seemed believable, but it didn't work for me. Also, and I repeat, AT THE TIME, the majority of suggestions had to do with files over 200MB, but this was also not the case with me.
If you want to help, offer ideas and suggestions. Simply trying to make a person feel bad is counter-productive.
Peter
Sent from my mobile device
Please don't blame the messenger.
Search is your friend.
Sent from my SM-N9005 using xda app-developers app
What you don't seem to understand is that the unit I have now is the second Note 3. My problem began with my first unit, which I got on release day in Canada, which was October 4. I returned this particular unit the next morning for a full refund. Believe me, I looked at your link, and the date was October 5, AFTER I returned the original unit.
Peter
P.S. Had YOU done a search, you would have known about my issue, which I posted in a few threads on October 4.
Sent from my mobile device
Yes so anyway just in case it's still not clear, i just posted to explain that we found out about the .pdf file corruption causing it a week or so ago.
Sent from my SM-N9005 using xda app-developers app
So is there any way to change pdf files so our Note would not go ballistic about it? How to distinguish between ''good and bad'' pdfs?
Deleted lost interest...
Yeah... I use ezPDF from my S2 on, mainly because it does not have problems with handling any kind of pdf... Adobe and Polaris on the other hand are inferior in my opinion. Any way I am thanking everybody who contributed information on the issue! Hope permanent solution emerges and it should not be the one by eliminating pdf files from my collection.
Regards!
Hi,
This is my temporary solution to the problem…
1. Create folder named ''.nomedia'' (not file in folder) - (I didn't try, but I think that you can name it whatever you want as long as it starts with ''.'')
2. Reboot
3. Copy pdfs to your phone or SD card
4. Unplug USB and move pdfs to folder .nomedia
5. Reboot – because as soon as pdf file that is causing the problem is on the phone's memory, Index service starts and will not stop until you reboot your phone
6. You can access your pdfs through file manager and open them from there.
Unfortunately there is no option to sync your files with any cloud storage, but at least they can be in the memory of the phone to make good use of them.
IMPORTANT: if my solution is already mentioned somewhere on XDA I sincerely apologize!
(and there was a bit of a sarcasm in the final notice)
Pat. said:
Deleted lost interest...
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