audio stuttering/skipping HELP! - Galaxy S 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I'm currently on stock 4.4.2 ROM on T-Mobile for my Samsung Galaxy S5 device and have been getting some rather annoying stuttering/skipping while listening to audio. My current player of choice is GMMP and have tried Rocket Player, Neutron, and doubleTwist... I've removed any use of equalizers and have cranked up buffer settings in all the players I've tried, but no dice. the stuttering happens randomly across my selection of MP3s and I can't figure out why! I've tried moving the files to the internal SD for faster access, but no luck. I've cranked up the read ahead on the SD reads, no change. The only thing I notice is that if I leave the screen on constantly then it plays stutter-free! Leaving the screen on in this manner is a waste of battery and raises the temp unnecessarily especially given that other S5 owners don't seem to have this problem. I've tried wiping my device, but that did not fix it. Anyone have any suggestions? Hoping to be able to tweak some kernel settings to fix this if needed!

dimm0k said:
I'm currently on stock 4.4.2 ROM on T-Mobile for my Samsung Galaxy S5 device and have been getting some rather annoying stuttering/skipping while listening to audio. My current player of choice is GMMP and have tried Rocket Player, Neutron, and doubleTwist... I've removed any use of equalizers and have cranked up buffer settings in all the players I've tried, but no dice. the stuttering happens randomly across my selection of MP3s and I can't figure out why! I've tried moving the files to the internal SD for faster access, but no luck. I've cranked up the read ahead on the SD reads, no change. The only thing I notice is that if I leave the screen on constantly then it plays stutter-free! Leaving the screen on in this manner is a waste of battery and raises the temp unnecessarily especially given that other S5 owners don't seem to have this problem. I've tried wiping my device, but that did not fix it. Anyone have any suggestions? Hoping to be able to tweak some kernel settings to fix this if needed!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Senor, not the right section..
This is for development etc.. go to Q & A

sorry, please move this if possible...

Since that guy won't help, I will.
-Have you tried ODIN back to stock and start fresh again?
-Did you wipe everything? Data, Cache, and Dalvik Cache?
-Have checked your phones clock speed? Try checking the CPU Governor/Scheduler settings?
-What kernel are you using? Stock or Custom.
As the guy* stated above me, this is a Q&A problem, not a development problem.
*=at least give the guy some tips, then tell him its not a development question.

De_Falt said:
Since that guy won't help, I will.
-Have you tried ODIN back to stock and start fresh again?
-Did you wipe everything? Data, Cache, and Dalvik Cache?
-Have checked your phones clock speed? Try checking the CPU Governor/Scheduler settings?
-What kernel are you using? Stock or Custom.
As the guy* stated above me, this is a Q&A problem, not a development problem.
*=at least give the guy some tips, then tell him its not a development question.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dont get me wrong, i didnt read the whole story.....
But wasnt it about sound?
If the phone was complete dead or something like that.... that would be a bigger issue, wouldnt you agree?

Hey op , disable 'adapt sound' app and the stuttering should be gone.
If not, install power amp music player and go into settings>audio>advanced tweaks and increase the audio thread priority (auto, +1, +2, or +3) and/or increase the buffer size (auto, +250, +500, +750ms)

Well I am too getting this on my Samsung Galaxy 3 Avant as well, android 4.4.2, but I did diagnosed something from it via an app called "CPU Monitor" and apparently some how it is tying into 2 processes sometimes 3 that over power my Music Player app Winamp, the Process seem to be from the Android System and System UI, possible triggers for higher than normal Processes, KLMS Agent and ELM Agent, part of Samsung KNOX which appears to be behind such problems as usual, because I tested this when I ended those processes, but when the 4G Status was updated or reconnected, it triggers the Stutter and already has loaded both KNOX apps, Package Disabler no longer adds them due to Samsung's Cease and Desist orders against blocking KNOX for Security reasons.

Related

Music player problem... Music skipping and clipping...

Hey guys,
Has anyone noticed that when playing music in the vibrant that their songs skip or cut out for a split second like 3 or 4 times a song? This is driving me nuts as I use my phone to play my mp3s in my car every single day and its very noticeable. I have tried other players like mixzing and same thing...
I have owned a bunch of android phones and haven't had this problem on any others.
Thanks...
Oh I should add that I am stock 2.1 with ryanzas oc lag fix but a friend of mine is still stock and experiencing the same problems just not as bad.
Ive noticed the same thing. Mostly when a notification or call comes in but sometimes when nothing else is happening. Yea really annoying.
My phone is completely stock except for being rooted.
It also happens when wifi is turned on when wifi is off it doesn't happen
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
I've never had this problem but I have experienced "the beat" being extremely loud and the lyrics being too soft, its a hardware problem, if the headphones aren't plugged.in the exact way, this will happen. Perhaps this is what is causing your problems as well, also this should be in the Q&A Section
I get a small skip every couple of songs using MixZing. I have Wifi off, so that's not the issue for me. I don't really notice it. Is your music on the internal or the SD card?
I have tried both the internal and a couple external memory cards...i actually swapped my vibrant at t mobile today to see if a new one would help...the new one does it but not as much. However given how much I use my phone for music its enough for me to return and go back to my android hd2...i like this phone better over all but music is pretty much number one cuz I am a musician... I tried lowering everything on the eq to the bottom...didn't help... Seems like an issue like you might get streaming pandora, where its running out of buffer so to speak...weird.
Wifi on or off and other stuff like syncing off doesn't help either...also have a task manager that will give me 200 mb free ram that doesnt help either.
sorry for postingin the wrong section btw
I would think this is fine in the General area.
fliplovin', when you talk about the EQ, do you mean in MixZing? Because the EQ in MixZing tells you it will cause high CPU usage, so I would turn that off completely.
no , there is an equalizer in the stock music player under settings... it allows you to not only do preset values, but also custom channel per channel... it also has effects like arena, and wide... etc..
i have tried EVERY setting possible... i am now about to flash a custom rom and see if that helps...
one thing that seemed to help temporarily was to use the system manager and close everything leaving me with 200 mb available memory and turn the eq all the way down, however, that made my max volume quite a bit lower... not exactly what i want to do.
fliplovin said:
no , there is an equalizer in the stock music player under settings... it allows you to not only do preset values, but also custom channel per channel... it also has effects like arena, and wide... etc..
i have tried EVERY setting possible... i am now about to flash a custom rom and see if that helps...
one thing that seemed to help temporarily was to use the system manager and close everything leaving me with 200 mb available memory and turn the eq all the way down, however, that made my max volume quite a bit lower... not exactly what i want to do.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You ever get this figured out? its been pissing me off really bad as of late. I want to keep the phone stock, but i would still like to know if flashing to a new rom helped
the only time it's skipped for me is when installing apps etc..
This same thing happened to me when I had Weather Widget installed. It seemed that every time it would try to update, the music player would skip. Using fancy widget now and never had the problem again
Music player and Google Listen both stutter a bit for me when playing a large file (over 5mb or so) and it tends to stop after the first 30 seconds. This is when wifi and gps are turned off and my phone isn't doing anything.
I did a clean flash today to JFD, then JI6. I noticed while listening to music on the way home from work tonight, there was no skipping in MixZing. I'm only doing the "/data/data to NAND" hack.
Do any of you have battery widgets/Accurate battery mods?
They can cause skipping and choppiness throughout the entire OS.
I had the same problem. I had world Analog and digital widget installed. I read on the T mo forums about some clock widget causing it so i uninstalled mine.
No more problems with the music.
I also use "Zimly" for audio player.
For Acurate battery info i use "MiniInfo" its not causing any problems.

[q] a few questions (battery, missing market, fc youtube)

sorry if some of these questions have already been asked and answered. unfortunantely, my computer crashed due to a manufacturing flaw so I can only access google and this forum via my epic (which can be a pain sometimes). also, since heros threads are always deleted, I cannot ask these questions there. please, any feedback and help would greatly appreciated.
okay so I reflashed backed snack 1.6 w/ ultimate after testing some of the newest froyo builds. id rather wat until I get the official ota upgrade.
after reflashing 1.6 for some reason, android market doesn't appear to be installed. where can I download the application? I even tried reflashing 1.6 over itself but that didn't work.
also, I'm using the new gingerbread youtube but I signed in and now I get a constant fc when I try to open it. how can I fix this? if I can't, where can I download an earlier version of youtube?
another question. this time about battery. using 1.6 w/ ultimate, I get fairly decent battery. only problem is, my battery stats say that my display and standby are what is killing my battery the most. nothing ever runs in the background, every so often I unlock my phone to either check the time or texts or facebook real quick, brightness is on its lowest setting, silent mode, juicedefender running correctly (battery life: x1.56), no data running in the background, drm killed, battery calibrated and battery stats wiped, and everything else possible to to save battery.
and something I'm noticing now that the phone is charging, the battery is quite hot and I'm not even using the phone. it only overheats when its charging and I've also noticed that its only hot when I use certain roms/kernels. any insight on this issue? any way to monitor and regulate temperature?
once again, any help would be appreciated!
Sent through the Matrix
Ill take a stab at these. Reason for you market not showing, can't say? Did you wipe 3 times before flashing bs 1.6?
Also never sign in on gingerbread youtube on 2.1 build. I don't think anyone has got that working yet. Simply clear the cache for youtube and you should be set.
Lastly, I don't know what to say about your bettery.. what do you have setcpu running at? Do you have profiles to lower your phones speed when in standby? Couldn't hurt to give it a shot.
Sorry about your computer, all my info is based on personal experience don't really have a "dev" type answer for ya. But hope some of this helps.
Goodluck!
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
skelit0r said:
Ill take a stab at these. Reason for you market not showing, can't say? Did you wipe 3 times before flashing bs 1.6?
Also never sign in on gingerbread youtube on 2.1 build. I don't think anyone has got that working yet. Simply clear the cache for youtube and you should be set.
Lastly, I don't know what to say about your bettery.. what do you have setcpu running at? Do you have profiles to lower your phones speed when in standby? Couldn't hurt to give it a shot.
Sorry about your computer, all my info is based on personal experience don't really have a "dev" type answer for ya. But hope some of this helps.
Goodluck!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thank you for your reply.
yes I did wipe both data, cache, and davlik 3 times. I guess I will do that now and report back.
how would I go about clearing the cache for one specific app? I know I can do that when I open up my settings and go to app development but youtube doesn't show up in that list.
setpcu is oc at 1300 and uc at 200 conservative. profiles are as follows:
charging/full - 1000 and 200 conservative
battery < 15% - 800 and 400 conservative
screen off - 600 and 400 conservative
yeah, brand new computer too. all of a sudden it couldn't recognize the hard drive. and yes, most of my info is based on personal experience and creeping on forums.
edit: wiped everything 3 times and reflashed. market till not appear.
Sent through the Matrix
For youtube I just open it up without a data connection and step through the process of signing out only enabling data when needed.
If you're missing market then you need to flash back stock with odin then start fresh. Baked doesn't remove market at all. If anything it's the fastest responding market I've used.
Heat from the battery is usually caused by programs requesting cycles or data. Just restart the phone before bed after your initial battery calibration.
nadcicle said:
For youtube I just open it up without a data connection and step through the process of signing out only enabling data when needed.
If you're missing market then you need to flash back stock with odin then start fresh. Baked doesn't remove market at all. If anything it's the fastest responding market I've used.
Heat from the battery is usually caused by programs requesting cycles or data. Just restart the phone before bed after your initial battery calibration.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
as I stated, I have no computer at the moment. so using odin to go back to stock is out of the question as of now. hopefully there's got to be another way without using odin. if not then I suppose I'm stuck in this predicament until I get my computer back from geek squad. and yes, I've never had a problem with heroes work before. but for some reason, this is happening.
and as I've stated before, no programs or data run in the background on my phone. after initial calibration I rebooted it. and after every boot, I toggle airplane mode on and then off. ill continue to moniter battery temps and see if the problem persists.
Sent through the Matrix
fromchaos0646 said:
as I stated, I have no computer at the moment. so using odin to go back to stock is out of the question as of now. hopefully there's got to be another way without using odin. if not then I suppose I'm stuck in this predicament until I get my computer back from geek squad. and yes, I've never had a problem with heroes work before. but for some reason, this is happening.
and as I've stated before, no programs or data run in the background on my phone. after initial calibration I rebooted it. and after every boot, I toggle airplane mode on and then off. ill continue to moniter battery temps and see if the problem persists.
Sent through the Matrix
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry bout that, I did read over that you hadn't had a computer. I overlooked it though. It just sounds like you might have somehow of gotten a corrupt install somehow.
Maybe you can try reinstalling 1.6 over top of itself. I don't really see anything wrong with that, but as stated before though. Make sure you wipe cache and dalvichk 3 times each before you do so.
nadcicle said:
Sorry bout that, I did read over that you hadn't had a computer. I overlooked it though. It just sounds like you might have somehow of gotten a corrupt install somehow.
Maybe you can try reinstalling 1.6 over top of itself. I don't really see anything wrong with that, but as stated before though. Make sure you wipe cache and dalvichk 3 times each before you do so.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that's okay.
hm that might be what's wrong. ill download it again later. right now, I'm watching two dumbasses snort a line of fire ants on 1000 ways to die. xD (too lazy right now)
Sent through the Matrix

Sound Drop Outs While Tablet is "Off."

Hi Folks:
Is anyone else having this problem?
New Info as of 16 July. Sound Still Skipping
Unfortunately, I'm still having sound file skips when the tablet is off.
I did some more Google research on this, and I found several instances with regard to phones having sound problems with skipping and popping sounds while playing. Nearly all of those seemed to be related to either headphone issues or the Bluetooth xceiver.
I originally though this problem was specific to Overdrive Media console, but it has also turned up in the Music app. I also installed a couple of other music/sound apps to see if it may be app specific, but all of them had the same consistent behavior of the sound file...pausing at random intervals....and then continuing after a few seconds when the screen...was turned off. The skips DO NOT happen when the screen is on.
Going through Erica Rene's thoughts I went into the Running Applications Manager and turned off several services I wasn't using, including Neo Player, 3d Gallery, Skype, and even Music. I initially thought that worked, but I was wrong. Same behavior.
This morning I did a factory reset. No change in behavior.
Since I just started using the tablet for audio books and podcasts I honestly don't know if this problem was there in 3.0. When I did the factory reset I thought the tablet might go back to 3.0, but I was wrong. I am still on build Acer_A500_4.010.08_COM_GEN2 after the factory reset.
There seems to be nothing wrong with my hardware that I can see. These skips happen with the headphones in or out. The only thing that triggers it is turning off the screen.
Insofar as software is concerned, I've not done anything more except rooting the tablet (which survived the factory reset process, which did surprise me! ). Beyond putting in another ROM - which, unless I can get some specific thoughts that it will fix the problem, given my experience level I'm a bit leery of doing - I can't see how software would fix it now.
Is anyone else seeing this???
Thanks!!!!
=============================
I've searched Google and here on XDA for this and not found anything, so I'm hoping that someone can say something.
When I play a sound file on my A500, and then turn it off, the sound continuing to play is a very iffy thing. This works on my Nexus One phone, so I assumed it would work here. On my phone I start a sound file running (music, podcast, audio from an audio book or Google reader) and then I turn the phone "off" to conserve the battery, of course. The sound continues to play.
When I do the same thing on the A500 it is very rare that the sound continues to play. Sometimes it will stop as soon as I turn the tablet off, sometimes it will continue for several seconds and then stop, sometimes it will continue for several seconds and then pause for a couple of seconds and continue in this loop for the life of the file.
I originally thought that this was a specific issue with the audio books in the Overdrive Media Console program, but I've now encountered it with Google Reader and playing things through either Music or Rockplayer Lite.
Has anyone seen this yourself, or does anyone have any thoughts? Details on the tablet are below:
OS: AndroidOS 3.1
Build: Acer_A500_4.010.08_COM_GEN2
Rooted
Could be some of the apps not playing fair.
Do you have a task killer or any add on management app.they can cause this
Also in settings sounds.there is a check button to control this.
Also do not hit the back button on the apt this will kill it
I had Google music going off when I would hot the power buttonbtobturn off display and it was ina task killer ibaccidently installed something I had on USB drive for my cell.it had a setting to close all apps on display off or sleep.
Erica:
Thank you for your reply. Oddly enough, something along those lines may be it.
I've not modified my tablet much beyond rooting it. I've not uninstalled applications and don't have a custom ROM.
You mentioned that something might not be playing fair. I have no add on management application, nor any task killer I'm aware of. The Applications area of Settings has been doing what I need in that department fine for me. So I went in and looked at what services were running, and specifically turned off the services and programs I know I was not using: Skype, NemoPlayer, PhotoBrowser, Acer Sync. I then tried a sound file, turned off the tablet and it did continue to play steadily.
Now I guess I just have to figure out which program is the culprit, but it seems evident that one of them is.
Along those lines, perhaps you can answer something else for me: Those programs I mentioned above basically started running services on bootup. How do I stop that? I don't use NemoPlayer, for example, and so have no reason to have any service from it starting. I took a look at the Settings->Applications area and don't seem to see anything there that indicates what gets started upon bootup.
Thanks!
-----
Doc Kinne
I use titanium backup. It has a option to not only backup. But can freeze apps.Im not sure but you might need to have root for this feature.there are other apps on market to freeze them maybe someone can help by telling the app they use.just do not remove any apps Acer put on your tab.
You can get root easky look in Dev area
Put some new information in teh original post.
My sound also cuts out when tablet goes to lock mode. I thought it was certain apps. Removed everything as far as widgets anything running in backround on home screen but I still have the same issue its random. Tried a clean wipe/install basic apps root explorer and still had it happen. I thought it might be a audio codec problem. In Honeycomb 3.0 I was able to play AVIs with AC3 in mobo and nemo player now I cant in 3.1.
HC 3.1
Acer 4.010.02 Gen1
i have the probleme too with the sound when it goes to sleep when i stream webradio !
Just a thought, along similar lines when my screen is off sound will cut out after about 15 to 20 mins. I think for you as others have said you have something else that is causing the problem. For me I think it's just a system timer. Don't know how to fix it.
i have experienced a similar thing with some Roms I've tried and with them it was the built in overclocker that was the culprit. I had to change the profile in the overclocker to enable the playback while the screen was off. Same goes for overclocking apps such as setcpu.
I'm experiencing a skip with my email notification. I recorded a short notice (similar to you got mail) & it does a 5 second pause 1/2 way through. Didn't do it prior to 3.1

Sound lags during music playback

Hi guys. I got myself a 32gb, wifi only version of N7. Upgraded it instantly to 4.2.2 . Nothing to complain about in the first 2 days.
After that, I noticed that, when I play music (stream through upnp on local network or play mp3 / flac files on local storage - tested several players, bsplayer, google player, poweramp...), and do some other stuff on the tablet at the same time - surf, or just 'click around', or swipe through my documents - occassionally I experience short sound dropouts, like the I/O-load would be too high or something. Please note this isn't bluetooth thing some people experienced, I use regular phones. It happens sometimes when I do some trivial stuff...noticed it all over the place, while starting an app, surfing, writing something in the Google search window, searching people on FB, opening a browser (empty) tab, even clicking on application button to see the list. It can be really anything, it doesn't happen a lot but it's there.
I googled the problem but couldn't find anyone with similar issues. Read on the other hand a lot about general performance issues of the Nexus 7 after 4.2.2 upgrade, about (visual) lag, so I figured, even though my eye didn't catch that on my device (this is my first experience with 4.x.x so it looked fast and smooth enough to me), I decided to revert to 4.1.2 and see whether there would be any difference. I can't say I could see/hear improvement, maybe a slight one, but I still get to experience occassional chops in my music, which is very annoying, this should be ridiculously easy for a 4-core processor to accomplish. It's unacceptable. I even checked that CPU wasnt overloaded when these chops occured (in fact, it was only around 25%-30% when the chops occured, perhaps the peaks were too short for program to register them - I dunno)...
I also tried everything people suggested here regarding general performance issues, disabling this and that, Currents, factory resets, cleaning cache partition...you name it. Nada.
Anybody experienced similar thing? Don't know if I have faulty unit or if this is bug in software (Samsung Galaxy S3 had a similar thing when it got out, even though the sound pops were of different nature and occured under different circumstances - took several software upgrades until it got fixed)...I'm thinking of returning it and go for iPad mini or something.
Thanks in advance for any feedback.
The results of this have varied but there are some who attest that this works.
Have you disabled auto-sync in Google Currents (Blue Circle Icon)?
If not, try that; this has worked for me.
Open up "Google Currents" Hit the 3 dots on the top right -> Settings -> Scroll down and UNCHECK "Enable background sync"
Remember these results have varied, but it fixed the issue with my tablet. Also I heard there were some issues (although if someone can confirm them further for us--that'd be appreciated!) with the RAM in many Nexus 7s so stressing out the ram and filling up your SDcard to the max will cause it to have stutter issues too.
Hi and thanks for the suggestion,
Disabling the background sync in Google Currents was actually the first thing I did. I believe I tried out everything that was suggested so far on the net regarding the general performance issues. I used Forever Gone app to fill up all space and then delete it, I wiped the cache partition in bootloader mode, I even did a factory reset, and eventually I re-flashed it back to 4.1.2 (it did improve then but the music lag / pops were still not entirely gone). SD-card space-thing cannot be the issue either as I have like 23gigs free.
Now I even noticed that video playback is effected by occasional sound pops. When I play video in full screen, not doing anything else, it still happens. Rarely but it does happen.
TheAltruistic said:
The results of this have varied but there are some who attest that this works.
Have you disabled auto-sync in Google Currents (Blue Circle Icon)?
If not, try that; this has worked for me.
Open up "Google Currents" Hit the 3 dots on the top right -> Settings -> Scroll down and UNCHECK "Enable background sync"
Remember these results have varied, but it fixed the issue with my tablet. Also I heard there were some issues (although if someone can confirm them further for us--that'd be appreciated!) with the RAM in many Nexus 7s so stressing out the ram and filling up your SDcard to the max will cause it to have stutter issues too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Returned it and took money back. Will look for other options soon. This thing was too 'beta' for me.

[Q] Note 3 - Alarm / Music issues?

I've had my Verizon Galaxy Note 3 since 10/13-10/14, pretty close to when it was released at Verizon. I've loved it, loved its tons of features, since I got it, and have had many people jealous. (I upgraded from a Galaxy Nexus, a heck of a reliable phone, when I realized that the Nexus 5 would also not go to Verizon.) In the past 6 weeks, i've encountered some curious behavior that i'm stumped and frustrated by. Overall, I love the phone.
Notes: I have searched and searched and searched for help, via Google and via XDA / AndroidCentral / other sites. My phone is un-rooted (never rooted), and has not been factory reset, dropped, submerged in liquids, or in any way mishandled. My phone uses the stock launcher and aside from some games, does not have a ton of apps installed.
However (Stated verbosely but with detail):
1) On two separate occasions, my Alarm has crashed. I used my Galaxy Nexus for nearly 2 years without ever having it fail to wake me (with many roms in between); I used my Droid X for nearly a year prior without ever having it fail to wake me, and before that my Blackberry Storm 2 for nearly a year without it failing. I'm not used to my phone failing me as an alarm.
In both cases, last Thursday (11/21) and today (11/25), I woke up to my phone acting as though the Alarm was still going off. (The notification bar indicated I should either Snooze / Dismiss the Alarm). I woke up about an hour after it should have went off, and there is absolutely zero possibility that I slept through the alarm going off that long. When I unlocked my phone, in both cases, it indicated the Alarm app had crashed.
I was using Timely on my Galaxy Nexus for the last few months of it as my daily driver, and then for the first few weeks on this phone. I immediately assumed it was the culprit, and went back to Alarm Clock Plus (the app I had used for nearly the entire time on my Nexus). This morning, Alarm Clock Plus crashed (with the 'Wait / Report / Close' options), and i'm now more confident that Timely was not the culprit.
In both cases, with both apps and on both days, after I clear the error, I had a similar experience.
- On Thursday, I pressed the power button to turn off the screen, and when I pulled the phone out of my pocket about 20 minutes later, it was completely powered off. However, I could not power it back on by pressing the button, and had to perform a battery pull to turn it back on.
- Today, I had pressed the button to perform a restart, and only tapped it instead of pressing + hold. Same thing happened: it turned off the screen but also somehow powered it entirely down, and required a battery pull to start it again.
- After Thursday's debacle, I have rebooted my phone multiple times, so it's definitely not because of an uptime related issue.
The only thing I can think of for the above scenario, is that I did have it work (the alarm) without any issues for a few weeks, and both issues (and some other random crashing of Google Plus, etc) have been following the update that was released by Verizon.
2) This is an issue i've experienced for the entire life of the phone, and is flummoxing me and extremely frustrating. I loved using the Droid X and then Nexus as my music player (both via headphones and definitely in the car via the Aux on my older stereo). On my Nexus I experimented with different Equalizers, including ones from Google Play (I liked 'Equalizer' quite a bit actually), and then I tried out and enjoyed Beats (or whatever it is now called, NexusLouder or whatever), to great enjoyment. Music sounded awesome.
On my Note, I expected at least a marginally similar level of audio (to that of the Nexus without Equalizer), until I rooted (which I have not done yet). I am facing (like others have sporadically reported) and issue where it appears that my Audio or Equalizer or something is turning off or turning on between songs. I'll plug it in to my car stereo, slap it in the window mount thing, and let it ride. It plays one track (sometimes two) without issue. Then, it will play a song either really quietly or really loudly. (I don't mean the volume has changed; it has not and I have verified this). The solution i've found is to go back (or forth) a track and then return to the same track, which has resolved this 100% of the time .... until a few tracks later. /rinserepeatrage
- I have tried this with the same Equalizer app, a few other Equalizer apps, and even without a Google Play Equalizer app (using only the built in one).
- On my Nexus and now my Note, i'm using Google Music, and use the pre-downloaded/cached songs.
- I have tried clearing the data / cache for Google Music and uninstalling / reinstalling it, to no effect.
- The only interesting thing i've noticed is that after the Verizon Note update (I believe), the audio appears to only get softer, rather than getting ear splittingly louder.
- Additionally, this seems to occur much more frequently when the screen is off.
Today I am going to the Verizon store and they will likely tell me they have to perform a Factory Reset (which is why I haven't already done one) before they'll give me another one, in the case that it is a hardware issue. I will very carefully be monitoring and see if this corrects / resolves either issue. I also intend to NOT install the update if I have any say (I don't know how not-rooted phones work with updates, i.e. if it is required or prompts for update, etc) If any of you have any ideas, solutions or suggestions, i'd be very open to them. I love this phone, but I absolutely hate that these two very important functions are not working consistently.
Well, i've been to Verizon and as expected, they heard my issue and thought that a factory reset might be the solution.
Their logic, which is not terribly shaky, was: the recent update (or even the factory pre-load of the OS) could have config or factory fragments / blahblahblah that a clear of the data / cache / etc could resolve. This made sense to me.
After the reset, we tried to recreate the Google Music bug in the office, no such luck, all looked good on the home front. I tried a few more songs on the way home, still not able to recreate the issue. I got home, all my stock apps updated, then I went through and installed apps, blah blah blah. I also cached the songs for an album so I could continue to confirm my confidence in this as being resolved.
I then went for a drive not too long ago, and the issue occurred again. I also noticed (though it may have existed prior to the factory reset) a new issue / symptom. When I scrub, like clockwork, the issue shows up. Song plays perfectly, I scrub (even only a few seconds forward), equalizer is gone and the music is much quieter. I have no clue what to think now. I will be hesitantly trying to recreate the alarm clock bug over the next few days. I also may try the old 'uninstall apps until I can't recreate' method too, for at least the Music bug.
If any of you all have thoughts, that would be extremely appreciated. Else, i'll keep reporting info as I get it, maybe this will help someone else.
Mine crashed Saturday. Woke up to the force close message.
Sent from my SM-N900V using xda app-developers app
kickenwing13 said:
Mine crashed Saturday. Woke up to the force close message.
Sent from my SM-N900V using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry to hear that! I know i've seen other reports on the interwebs saying similar things, but did not see any threads with discussions about theories or investigation, beyond the 'me too' I see often (which is entirely fine, and unfortunate for those who also have this issue!). Having the volume helps a ton, but i'm surprised I didn't see more analytical or critical thinking / discussion happening in the many threads, and figured i'd just get the ball rolling and hope this helps others (even if it's just mostly me putting findings down).
That said, I have more information to offer.
1) Alarm - Day 1, following the Factory Reset yesterday, it started without issue (not unexpected). I expect that the issue (if it does) will re-appear sometime around Friday - Saturday.
- Other than installing some apps (as mentioned previously) mostly things like Netflix and some games, I have not installed anything that (from what I can see) should interfere with an Alarm app
- I am presently using Alarm Clock Plus (the second of two apps I encountered the issue in); this is for consistency, and also because the app worked without issue for over a year prior to this
- I have not 'Turned off' any apps, though previously (prior to the Factory Reset) I had turned off some apps mentioned in other XDA threads as not required by the system to run (mostly Verizon and Samsung apps)
- I am not and have not rooted this phone at any time; this is 100% stock Android at this point (well, as Stock as a Samsung phone gets)
- After speaking with a few friends, they have confirmed that: this issue has occurred with the stock Alarm Clock app and another 3rd party app (one I have not tried yet) as well; but one friend has not experienced any Alarm issues at all (though he may just not be aware of them, so i'm taking his account with a grain of salt)
2) Music - To add to my previous notes about the issue around the equalizer ..
- I am able to (as indicated previously) re-create the issue on-demand by scrubbing
- I can re-create the issue relatively reliably by hitting 'Pause / Play', and I didn't see a difference (in ability to reproduce) whether it was from the lock screen or in the app that I hit 'Pause / Play'
- It does appear that (with inconsistent results) I experience the Equalizer turning off / on by itself, if I keep listening to songs the issue seems to reverse. (i.e. Song 1 is fine, Song 2 - Equalizer turns off, Song 3 or Song 4 - Equalizer turns back on) I encountered this just a bit before this post, and sure enough, after hitting 'Pause / Play' I was able to verify that the Equalizer had turned back on.
- I am now 100% positive it is the Equalizer being horked by the phone / OS / something. This is based on replication of the issue (where it sounds like it gets soft) being the exact same sound as when the Equalizer is just turned entirely off.
A few things to test today / next few days:
Alarm issue:
-None at this time; keep observing
Music issue:
- Google Play Equalizer app (see if issue occurs still outside of the stock Equalizer)
- Try non-Cached music to see if this is a factor (including 'Pause / Play'; song scrubbing; etc)
- Try an alternative to Google Music (this is not a practical solution to me, but would provide comparison data)
Last note:
- After completing the Factory Reset and hearing my story yesterday, the Verizon rep did inform me that I could bring the phone back, if the issue keeps happening, and exchange it for a refurb. I'd rather avoid this if possible, as I feel like i'm not as confident it is a hardware issue as before, but this is an option (and may be an option for others wishing to try this path). Obviously, I hadn't rooted, so the Manufacturer's Warranty was available, so YMMV.
verziehenone said:
Sorry to hear that! I know i've seen other reports on the interwebs saying similar things, but did not see any threads with discussions about theories or investigation, beyond the 'me too' I see often (which is entirely fine, and unfortunate for those who also have this issue!). Having the volume helps a ton, but i'm surprised I didn't see more analytical or critical thinking / discussion happening in the many threads, and figured i'd just get the ball rolling and hope this helps others (even if it's just mostly me putting findings down).
That said, I have more information to offer.
1) Alarm - Day 1, following the Factory Reset yesterday, it started without issue (not unexpected). I expect that the issue (if it does) will re-appear sometime around Friday - Saturday.
- Other than installing some apps (as mentioned previously) mostly things like Netflix and some games, I have not installed anything that (from what I can see) should interfere with an Alarm app
- I am presently using Alarm Clock Plus (the second of two apps I encountered the issue in); this is for consistency, and also because the app worked without issue for over a year prior to this
- I have not 'Turned off' any apps, though previously (prior to the Factory Reset) I had turned off some apps mentioned in other XDA threads as not required by the system to run (mostly Verizon and Samsung apps)
- I am not and have not rooted this phone at any time; this is 100% stock Android at this point (well, as Stock as a Samsung phone gets)
- After speaking with a few friends, they have confirmed that: this issue has occurred with the stock Alarm Clock app and another 3rd party app (one I have not tried yet) as well; but one friend has not experienced any Alarm issues at all (though he may just not be aware of them, so i'm taking his account with a grain of salt)
2) Music - To add to my previous notes about the issue around the equalizer ..
- I am able to (as indicated previously) re-create the issue on-demand by scrubbing
- I can re-create the issue relatively reliably by hitting 'Pause / Play', and I didn't see a difference (in ability to reproduce) whether it was from the lock screen or in the app that I hit 'Pause / Play'
- It does appear that (with inconsistent results) I experience the Equalizer turning off / on by itself, if I keep listening to songs the issue seems to reverse. (i.e. Song 1 is fine, Song 2 - Equalizer turns off, Song 3 or Song 4 - Equalizer turns back on) I encountered this just a bit before this post, and sure enough, after hitting 'Pause / Play' I was able to verify that the Equalizer had turned back on.
- I am now 100% positive it is the Equalizer being horked by the phone / OS / something. This is based on replication of the issue (where it sounds like it gets soft) being the exact same sound as when the Equalizer is just turned entirely off.
A few things to test today / next few days:
Alarm issue:
-None at this time; keep observing
Music issue:
- Google Play Equalizer app (see if issue occurs still outside of the stock Equalizer)
- Try non-Cached music to see if this is a factor (including 'Pause / Play'; song scrubbing; etc)
- Try an alternative to Google Music (this is not a practical solution to me, but would provide comparison data)
Last note:
- After completing the Factory Reset and hearing my story yesterday, the Verizon rep did inform me that I could bring the phone back, if the issue keeps happening, and exchange it for a refurb. I'd rather avoid this if possible, as I feel like i'm not as confident it is a hardware issue as before, but this is an option (and may be an option for others wishing to try this path). Obviously, I hadn't rooted, so the Manufacturer's Warranty was available, so YMMV.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My stock alarm crashed yesterday. Woke up to a completely black phone. Only the pulldown would get out of the crashed alarm app. Quite unfortunate. 100% stock, unrooted.
Botond said:
My stock alarm crashed yesterday. Woke up to a completely black phone. Only the pulldown would get out of the crashed alarm app. Quite unfortunate. 100% stock, unrooted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry to hear that
On a similar note, if anyone can re-produce the Music issue i've mentioned, that would help me confirm i'm not crazy or alone in my issue.
Of note:
Music:
- I have attempted to recreate the issue in Pandora, but was unsuccessful. The audio remained unchanged when I did a Pause / Play (I was unable to scrub, unsure if that's a Premium feature or just not a thing with Pandora). I will not be able to try a local song with another music app until I am home this evening.
- I was able to recreate the issues (scrubbing, between track loss of equalizer, pause/play) with the Google Play equalizer app 'Equalizer' reliably.
- I was able to recreate the issues (scrubbing, between track loss of equalizer, pause/play) using both Cached music and Streaming, with stock and 3rd party equalizer
After searching for awhile for an already open bug report, I have opened up a bug report on the AOSP site, in case you are interested, for the Music issue: 62864 is the defect number; I am unable to link it since i'm still not yet a real boy.
I will hold off on creating one for the Alarm issue until I am able to recreate it post-Factory Reset.
This will likely be the last update until post-Thanksgiving, and will hopefully bring a measure of consistency (if the Alarm error returns) or confidence (if it doesn't) to the information I have.
Music:
- I was able to recreate the issue with scrubbing and 'pause/play' with a song located directly on the phone (not downloaded/cached via Google Music)
Other notes:
- I've seen other sites with similar sounding issues for different phones, such as the Galaxy S4, well before the Note 3 came out
- This is noted as being a bug with the equalizer, but not specific to the .api or .dll or whatever Android calls reusable things (as this is an issue with not just the stock equalizer, which points to some system dealie rather than the specific equalizer)
- I have not yet tested another app such as PowerAmp or similar, but suggested workarounds on the GS4 issue thread (on AndroidCentral) indicate disabling the equalizer altogether (not a great workaround) or using another app (not confirmed as a workaround; by me or the thread)
- One other forum suggests it is due to a bug in the OS with the equalizer not having a persistent icon in the notification bar, and suggests using another app (the 'Equalizer' app from Google Play is suggested) to resolve; this thread was started in May of 2013, but does point to it turning off during playback, not in between songs
- Still another person does report the issue I have experienced, with the issue displaying when the screen is off during the change from one track to another; this person also indicates WinAmp did not resolve this issue (implying that: A) local tracks are not the fix, and B) that another player is not)
Alarm:
- Day 2 after Factory Reset, the alarm went off again without issue
- I have had difficulty with finding many other threads or information; if you are reading this and have experienced this, it would be helpful for information to note that you have had it, and if you have the MJ7 update (or whatever) that too would help
- I might end up doing a bit of 'set an alarm for 5 minutes' testing and see if I can recreate the issue with any reliability
Learning is fun! Happy Thanksgiving and/or Hanukkah everyone!
verziehenone said:
Alarm:
- Day 2 after Factory Reset, the alarm went off again without issue
- I have had difficulty with finding many other threads or information; if you are reading this and have experienced this, it would be helpful for information to note that you have had it, and if you have the MJ7 update (or whatever) that too would help
- I might end up doing a bit of 'set an alarm for 5 minutes' testing and see if I can recreate the issue with any reliability
Learning is fun! Happy Thanksgiving and/or Hanukkah everyone!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My alarm crashed a couple times with my unrooted Note 3. After I rooted, no more problems with Alarm or anything else crashing.
My advice??
Root & load SafeStrap 3.65 HAppY Thanks Giving
Are you using any battery-saving apps? That could create issues like this, especially if the app messes with wakelocks.
I am rooted with the stock MI9, and alarm crashed one morning. Apparently there is a bug, root or no root. All I had to was restarting the phone and it worked after that, but it may crash anytime, I'm afraid.
Sent from my SM-N900V using xda app-developers app
Update (12/2):
So, after a Thanksgiving break and more time for more research...
Alarm:
- Since the Factory Reset, I have not had the alarm fail
- From Thursday Morning to Sunday Morning, I did manually / individually set an alarm for each day; unknown if this is a factor
- I do not use any power saving anythings (I don't even use the built in Note power saving mode)
Music:
- Audible (the Amazon Audiobook App) did not display this behavior
- I have not had a chance to try to uninstall until I cannot recreate this
Related to above?
- Once more I set the phone down (this time after using it very liberally for the past few days, and then on an 8 hour drive home yesterday) on a coffee table, not hard or anything, and it would not turn on
- Weirdly enough, although the power button, home key (or whatever the physical key in the middle of the phone is called) would not turn the screen on, but when I pulled the stylus out (on a whim), the screen turned on but was not responsive
- Battery pull resolved this, but I never saw any errors / errored apps / etc
- I am more firmly believing that at least this part is related to a hardware issue and will be going to Verizon tonight for my Manufacturer's Refurb or whatever
Notes:
- I am not using any crazy apps, mostly games and such, all straight from Google Play and none are those obviously suspect apps (like the many strip poker, etc, that are very shady)
- Although I have a decent volume of apps (probably about 40 or so from Google Play, not including the Verizon pre-loaded), I have fantastic battery life still
- I do not have any power saving anything turned on, on the phone, and do not use auto-dim, or anything like that
- Since the factory reset, I have not 'turned off' any apps
- I do have a Sandisk Ultra 32GB microSD card, this could be a factor
- I have a Model: SM-N900V UD (in case the Refurb is a different model)
That's all for this update, will keep updating as I have more information to share. (Still assuming that at least someone is finding this helpful, if not, i'll keep playing quietly in the corner)
More updates -
Alarm:
- The Alarm functioned without issue once more this morning (this time the result of a recurrent alarm, and not a manually set alarm)
- I am beginning to suspect that after the latest OTA, it gummed up something and just required a Factory Reset to un-gum
- The alternative is that the issue with the unresponsive screen is related, but the times I experienced the Alarm issues were accompanied with an error indicating the Alarm app had crashed
Music:
I played around with a few settings and did some app-investigation and learned stuff.
- I DO have 'All Access', though i'm unsure how that would impact the equalizer
- Surround vs. Stereo does not make a difference, issue is still present
- Adapt Sound On does not make a difference
- Adapt Sound 'Turned Off' does not make a difference
- Having the S Pen out does not make a difference
- I went through and wrote out every single app installed on my phone, Google, Samsung, Verizon, Play, etc ... and found a total of 356 apps. The breakdown was: 326 Pre-Loaded/Verizon, and 30 that I installed. I have uninstalled all but about 5 apps (Alarm Clock Pro, Business Calendar, Facebook, Outlook.com, A Better Camera, and Safe In Cloud) and the issue is still present
- I cleared the Cache / Data and 'reverted' Google Music to the pre-installed/factory installed version: v5.1.1107K.753159 and after this was completed, the issue was NOT re-creatable (at least the 'scrubbing' part)
- I re-installed the most current Play version: v5.2.1301L.891271 and the issue was NOT re-creatable (at least the 'scrubbing' part)
- My working theory is ... well, no, I don't really have any idea now; I thought the version could be an issue, but that doesn't appear true. After the Factory Reset, the version would have been reset as well, but the issue returned, so maybe it takes time?
Note:
Due to the other mentioned issue (where I set my phone down and it randomly is unresponsive) I will be receiving my Manufacturer's Refurb on Wednesday-ish (depending on whether or not FedEx tries to deliver when i'm at work or not). The hope is threefold: 1) that this resolves the issue with the random unresponsiveness, 2) this resolves the issue with Google Music, and 3) this resolves the issue with Alarms. This would confirm a hardware related issue as being the source of all three, but if either of the other issues return, this means one of two things: 1) the issues are software related, or 2) the statistically unlikely but possible situation where I received two bad units.
To any readers: I've asked before, but figure i'll ask again.
1) Have any of you experienced the issue with Google Music's equalizer shutting off when scrubbing, in between tracks, or similar?
2) Have any of you experienced the issue with the Alarm not going off, AFTER receiving the latest OTA?
3) If you have experienced either of the above issues, have you performed a Factory Reset after the OTA?
Update: 12/5
Alarm:
- No issues since the Factory Reset still
- Really starting to think the Factory Reset was the key
Music:
- Still all kinds of things going on; tried another reset to 'stock' Google Music but issue came back
- More research seems to find this issue with other 4.3 phones like the Galaxy S4, etc
Notes:
I have now received my Manufacturer's Refurb. I'm about to go through the process of the switchover, but I wanted to note something I found interesting. On the sticker behind the battery, (where the IMEI and all that business is), I noticed one difference between the one I bought in the store and the refurb.
Model is unchanged, so is SKU and FCC ID. Right below 'Made in China' and above 'IMEI' I see a number. On the one I bought was '13.09', but the refurb is '13.10'.
Does anyone else have any other numbers? Is that a revision or something like that? Just wondering if that could mean another run of the hardware or something. Or if it's nothing of course, whatever.
I'll update again once I have more info from the refurb. /crossingfingers
I have the same problem. I have had my Note 3 for a week, and yesterday a third party alarm crashed (Sundroid). Then today, the stock alarm app crashed. Do you use a widget for your alarm? I do. This is stock, unrooted, very few apps. Is there more information I can give to you?
Alexander_Q said:
I have the same problem. I have had my Note 3 for a week, and yesterday a third party alarm crashed (Sundroid). Then today, the stock alarm app crashed. Do you use a widget for your alarm? I do. This is stock, unrooted, very few apps. Is there more information I can give to you?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good questions I do not use a widget, and with regard to the Alarm, I think the one big question is: Have you received the MJ7 OTA? (If you go into About Phone and look at Build Number, the last 3 characters tell you if you have the latest OTA). If you do, I would suggest a Factory Reset, which is painful but appeared to resolve the issue for me.
Updates: (12/6)
I have received my Manufacturer's Refurb and have completed the process of switching over (including a Factory Reset after the OTA update). I am still curious what the 13.10 means on the sticker with the IMEI (since my previous phone at 13.09).
Alarm:
- The alarm worked without issue on Day 1 with new device
- All signs right now point to: If you have Alarm issues, and have received the MJ7 OTA, perform a Factory Reset; seems to resolve it
Music:
- On the Manufacturer's Refurb I was able to quickly confirm the presence of the bug
- This is looking more and more like an issue with either 4.3 or some Samsung software issue
- I would suggest submitting a bug report to Google and also posting a review on the Google Music software, see if we can get Google to look into it
Thoughts:
- Is there a Google Music .apk for 4.4? Does it require Root to side-load if so?
- I wonder if anyone with a Nexus 5 (or other device with 4.4) can recreate the issue
I didn't read thru everything here, but I use Alarm Clock Plus (the paid version) and it has never crashed once on me.
I bought my N3 the day they where released and used it everyday on first the stock ROM & now Beans ROM..
I am on the updated mj7 firmware etc.etc.
jmorton10 said:
I didn't read thru everything here, but I use Alarm Clock Plus (the paid version) and it has never crashed once on me.
I bought my N3 the day they where released and used it everyday on first the stock ROM & now Beans ROM..
I am on the updated mj7 firmware etc.etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How long ago did you root it? I'm assuming you performed a factory reset or a cache/data clear (or similar) as part of the rooting process, so i'm leaning towards that being the reason it has been stable. That said, if my theory holds that it is related to the MJ7 firmware and needing to be cleared out or whatever, that also means that it likely wouldn't be affecting everyone.
Are you able to replicate the issue with equalizer? I hadn't thought to ask if Rooted users experience it too.
verziehenone said:
How long ago did you root it? I'm assuming you performed a factory reset or a cache/data clear (or similar) as part of the rooting process, so i'm leaning towards that being the reason it has been stable. That said, if my theory holds that it is related to the MJ7 firmware and needing to be cleared out or whatever, that also means that it likely wouldn't be affecting everyone.
Are you able to replicate the issue with equalizer? I hadn't thought to ask if Rooted users experience it too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When the mj7 tar was released, I did an odin flash of that to reset everything in my stock ROM slot.
I still had beans ROM in slot one with safestrap and it didn't affect that.
I have had no music problems whatever, but I use WinAMP with the viper sound mods. I have 800 gigs of music on my 64 gig card that I play thru headphones or hdmi out in my truck.
jmorton10 said:
When the mj7 tar was released, I did an odin flash of that to reset everything in my stock ROM slot.
I still had beans ROM in slot one with safestrap and it didn't affect that.
I have had no music problems whatever, but I use WinAMP with the viper sound mods. I have 800 gigs of music on my 64 gig card that I play thru headphones or hdmi out in my truck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That helps
Unfortunately, i've already heard that a good way to resolve this issue is to install the Viper sound mods, but was hoping to prove whether or not Rooting / Rom-ing it (without Viper) made a difference.
Of note -
Music:
- I turned off the equalizer entirely, figuring i'd just deal with it with a more flat sound, and after playing 2-3 songs, the music got really loud; after doing a pause/play, it went back to normal. I verified (before pause/play) that the equalizer was still off
- I am still unsure why my friend couldn't recreate this, as if it is a software issue, any Note 3 should be able to recreate it

Categories

Resources