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Help android.process.media

Stevepup

Stevepup

Newbie
I'm really happy with my update to ICS but I am having one small but annoying problem... a window pops up quite often that states "android.process.media has stopped unexpectedly". This happens most often shortly after starting up the tablet, but happens at other times, as well. It seems to be random other than happening a few times at startup. I don't recall it happening before I updated to ICS. I just close the pop-up window and continue with whatever I want to do and don't notice any other difficulties. It's just very annoying.

Any clues as to what is causing this? Or how to fix it?
 
I have heard of this happening when people had corrupt or otherwise incompatible media files on SD or USB drives. It could also be some corrupt files somewhere within the internal "sdcard" folder.

On the options below, if the first item (unplugging external storage devices) does not work, I'd probably actually start with the last item (factory data reset), because it is so easy and typically effective for many problems, but that depends on your preference.

A few options to try (one of the following may work):
--remove sd cards and usb flash drives (or other usb media)
--remove media files from the internal sdcard folder
--put a file named .nomedia in top level folders if you do not want to remove files. If you do that, you may also have to clear data and cache on the Media Storage service and Gallery service under Setting/Apps.
--Backup data that you really need to keep, store it in a safe place off of your tablet, and then perform a factory data reset. Be careful copying files back in so you don't cause the problem again.
 
Mrhelper said:
A few options to try (one of the following may work):
--remove sd cards and usb flash drives (or other usb media)
--remove media files from the internal sdcard folder
--put a file named .nomedia in top level folders if you do not want to remove files. If you do that, you may also have to clear data and cache on the Media Storage service and Gallery service under Setting/Apps.
--Backup data that you really need to keep, store it in a safe place off of your tablet, and then perform a factory data reset. Be careful copying files back in so you don't cause the problem again.
Click to expand...

Well, I have removed my SD card and deleted all the files on the internal sdcard folder, but I still have the problem. So, just how do I do a factory data reset? Is that done by pressing the pinhole button that is next to the usb port? And will this totally reset my tablet back to Honeycomb or will it stay on ICS? And will I have to totally reinstall all my apps and wigets? I've spent so much time getting my tablet set up how I want it... I'd hate to have to go through that all again, but I guess if I have to do that, then I will.
 
Sorry to hear that the other steps did not help. I probably should have included a note about the factory reset in the first post.

The factory data reset will clear all data from the internal storage and will clear all apps and associated data. It will boot you to a revovery image as if you had never used the tablet. You updated to ICS, so Honeycomb is no longer on your tablet. The OS will be the same you have been running, which in this case is ICS. After the boot, you'll be presented the initial startup screen as if you just bought the device from the store.

There are two ways do this:
1.) The first and easy way is to go to Settings-->Backup & Reset-->Factory data reset
2.) There is also method to use that is intended for when you can't even boot the system, and it is described here: Acer Support: Frequently Asked Questions list for Internal Only - How do I perform a Factory Data Reset if my Acer ICONIA TAB A500 does not boot?

The second one can be tricky, but if you do it correctly, it will work. I'd use the one from Settings at this point, but I just wanted to let you know there are two options.

When you get the screen to automatically restore apps and data after the first sign in, I suggest that you uncheck that option so you can manually install apps after testing first with the builtin tablet software. I do this so I don't automatically recover problem data and apps from Google Play. There are times when you may want to use the automatic data restore service from Google, but this is probably not one of them because of the peculiar problem you are seeing.
 
Thanks so much! I did the factory reset and I'm in the process of getting all my apps back on... it's going to take a while because I have tons! But, I think I'm getting the Tab set up even better than before... which is a good thing!

I restarted the tablet a few times and the issue hasn't popped up, so I think I'm good. Thanks again, Mrhelper!
 
I had this problem for months, was hoping that ICS would fix it but no luck, still getting the android.process.media message. Thanks for the help you have given on this.

I just bought an SD card, inserted it and moved all the media files I had added to the internal memory onto it. Then (because I mis-read your instructions) I deleted the cache and data in Gallery and Clearfi. Good news is I haven't seen the old message, bad news is none of the apps can find any media files. Is there a way to get something to generate the media files database that these things must use? Sorry to be a pain if this is simple ... I am new to Android.

Maybe I should just do a factory reset and reinstall everything.
 
I don't know what else you may have already tried, so I'll just throw out some tips and you catch the ones you like:

* verify that you do not have .nomedia files in the directories where your files are. These may be hard to see. With ES File Explorer, for example, you have to select an option to "show hidden files" to see files starting with a period.

* Go to Settings-->Storage-->Unmount SD card.... then use the same to then mount the SD card again. This causes the system to detect the card again as if you had just inserted it. See if this triggers the media app(s) to scan your SD card again as if it was just inserted.

* if you have not powered down the tablet completely by using a 2-3 second hold of the power button to pop up the power down window, do that. The power-up system reboot will cause all services to restarted, and storage volumes remounted, which may cause devices plugged into the unit to be scanned.

* factory data reset. It's really not that bad, and is a very useful feature. I do one periodically to clean up the system, restore filesystem perfomance to new (like defragmenting), etc.
 
I had previously tried the shutdown restart option. I tried the SD unmount approach and that did no do it. So I bit the bullet and did the reset, and now after a couple of hours I'm just about back with everything reinstalled and configured. You are correct, the reset does a good clean up job and the tab seems to be even more responsive than after the ICS update. And its a good opportunity to clear out the garbage that is little or never used. All the media files on the external SD are found by the media apps from the get-go, and I have not had a message from android.process.media yet.

I use Astro as my file manager, and, after skimming though the forums, thought I would use that to back up my old apps before the reset. I was prevented from reinstalling anything from the backup by Android saying that I can only install apps from Play. Is there any way of getting round this? Anyway, no harm done except more time taken to get everything back.

Thanks for the assistance Mrhelper.
 
Settings-->Security-->Unknown sources

Then be careful where you install apps from, because it will let you install apps from anywhere with no warning. You can turn the option back off after installing from your backups. I do the same to save download time, using ES File Explorer.
 
I used to have this problem in HC and I consistently ignored it - I did not experience any problems, but my tab was definitely lagging. Since the update to ICS, the problem has disappeared unlike in the case of the OP.
 
I did a Google search for this issue and one result brought me to this page, even though I'm not using that tablet. I solved my issue by clearing the data from the Download Manager in Settings>Apps. Hope this helps, even though it might be too late.
 
Was in the middle of securing a tablet and ran into this alert after removing some unnecessary apps....

Apps that are required for Media refreshes when filesystem changes occur are
MediaProvider.apk

as soon as i put that app back on all was fixed and the background service ran again.
 
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