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Help Galaxy S5: Media server and Android System draining battery, this is getting ridiculous.

R

roflnub1111

Newbie
Not sure if this is normal:

http://i.imgur.com/KJtCOYa.png

But, I barely even used my phone. All I did was just use Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat for like 2-3 minutes. As you can see, the % for those apps are so low. I didn't stream music, videos, nothing. Just instagram, facebook and snapchat, idk why Media Server is so high. I tried finding a solution, and they said it's something with a corrupt file. So how the hell do I fix this? It's like, if I use Instagram for like 5 minutes, the battery goes down by like 5% from 100%.
 
Presuming any media is stored on the SD Card, what other media do you have there? I know you've said you don't stream, but are there any MP3's etc on there?

As a little experiment, can you take the SD Card out for a little while and see what happens to your battery then?
 
EarlyMon said:
That's the symptom of a corrupted media file, definitely.
Click to expand...



El Presidente said:
Presuming any media is stored on the SD Card, what other media do you have there? I know you've said you don't stream, but are there any MP3's etc on there?

As a little experiment, can you take the SD Card out for a little while and see what happens to your battery then?
Click to expand...

Well, I don't have an SD Card, so there's that. But yes I did some research beforehand and they said it was something with a corrupt file. What I did was I took all of my images: pictures, screenshots, downloads, videos, etc. alongside with my Music and put them on my PC. Then I deleted them all from my phone, now I'm charging my phone to 100%.
 
Update: So it's at 100%, now 99% after 7 minutes. The stats are:

Android System: 29%
Screen: 19%
Media Server 15%

Android OS 11%

And other apps I'm using to test out the battery...

Why the hell does Media Server keep coming back? I'm using apps like Snapchat and Instagram.
 
Media server runs to update the database used for the gallery and other apps. It runs periodically and usually doesn't consume much power.

You can clear its data, restart your phone, give it 10 to 30 minutes and it will rebuild the database. Until it completes your Gallery will likely say that you've lost all your pictures - not true.

When you charge, it hits 100%, shuts down the charger (and never trickle charges) and runs off the battery until about around 96%, then the charger kicks in and the process repeats.

The phone will often just lie and say that it has a full charge while that is going on.

When you take it off the charger, it takes several minutes to settle down and tell the truth.

You didn't lose a percentage point in 7 minutes - it was never there.

This is exactly how laptops work as well.

Misunderstanding this has sold many batteries unnecessarily and fostered a lot of myths and snake oil.

If you have any automatic ram cleaners or automatic task killers, uninstall them immediately.

They flat out lie and don't save power, they use it.
 
EarlyMon said:
Media server runs to update the database used for the gallery and other apps. It runs periodically and usually doesn't consume much power.

You can clear its data, restart your phone, give it 10 to 30 minutes and it will rebuild the database. Until it completes your Gallery will likely say that you've lost all your pictures - not true.

When you charge, it hits 100%, shuts down the charger (and never trickle charges) and runs off the battery until about around 96%, then the charger kicks in and the process repeats.

The phone will often just lie and say that it has a full charge while that is going on.

When you take it off the charger, it takes several minutes to settle down and tell the truth.

You didn't lose a percentage point in 7 minutes - it was never there.

This is exactly how laptops work as well.

Misunderstanding this has sold many batteries unnecessarily and fostered a lot of myths and snake oil.

If you have any automatic ram cleaners or automatic task killers, uninstall them immediately.

They flat out lie and don't save power, they use it.
Click to expand...

Well, my Media Server is always literally at 33%, it's at 33% right now again, higher than all of it. I've cleared a bunch of data from the apps in settings. I don't know where exactly I can "clear" the data for media server, because it's not an application for me, it just shows as like a service/process.

So anyways, I'm not sure if I should put back my photos and music on yet. Or when to.
 
Update: Just restarted my phone, now suddenly "Google Services" is at 29%. I'm at 96% battery. Media Server is gone strangely. Now Android System is at 40%.

Is it normal that I'm losing 1% in like 2-3 minutes of just using my phone?

8 minutes,and my phone went from 97% to 94%... Wtf?

3-4 minutes and it goes down 1%.. Is this normal?
 
Last edited:
roflnub1111 said:
Update: Just restarted my phone, now suddenly "Google Services" is at 29%. I'm at 96% battery. Media Server is gone strangely. Now Android System is at 40%.

Is it normal that I'm losing 1% in like 2-3 minutes of just using my phone?

8 minutes,and my phone went from 97% to 94%... Wtf?
Click to expand...
It's not strangely gone, you didn't understand what I said earlier.

It runs periodically and at a lower priority. If your phone isn't busy doing stuff for you, it's going to try to run faster to get out of the way faster.

Then it goes away until scheduled again or triggered to help.

I already answered your question about the initial battery drain, I don't think that repeating myself will help.

Stop trying to believe and predict what your phone is doing in the first - let's say - 10%, down to 90% iow.

Your constant monitoring is probably eating more power right now than the services.

The media server doesn't have its own data reference, my bad - it's under Media storage in standard Android.

Not sure if or why Samsung would call it something else, but sometimes they do that, sometimes not.
 
EarlyMon said:
It's not strangely gone, you didn't understand what I said earlier.

It runs periodically and at a lower priority. If your phone isn't busy doing stuff for you, it's going to try to run faster to get out of the way faster.

Then it goes away until scheduled again or triggered to help.

I already answered your question about the initial battery drain, I don't think that repeating myself will help.

Stop trying to believe and predict what your phone is doing in the first - let's say - 10%, down to 90% iow.

Your constant monitoring is probably eating more power right now than the services.

The media server doesn't have its own data reference, my bad - it's under Media storage in standard Android.

Not sure if or why Samsung would call it something else, but sometimes they do that, sometimes not.
Click to expand...

I actually didn't understand what you wrote on the first post, something about how you said "the phone lies" and doesn't "trickle charge"
 
roflnub1111 said:
I actually didn't understand what you wrote on the first post, something about how you said "the phone lies" and doesn't "trickle charge"
Click to expand...
OK, sorry, fair enough.

The phone comes off the charger, usually saying 100%.

The phone dies saying it's about 0%.

Rarely are either of those two things absolutely true.

Safety circuitry and software control the system to keep you safe first, your battery safe second - and the actual charge percentage update comes in a distant third. It's a lower priority.

When you take it off the charger and it says that it's at 100%, it's really anywhere from 96% to 100% - by design.

It takes several minutes of doing anything or nothing before it settles down and tells the truth, increasing accuracy as it goes along.

A few years ago the percentage range was 92% to 100%.

The 96% to 100% range is a design rule of thumb, it can vary a little from unit to unit.
 
EarlyMon said:
OK, sorry, fair enough.

The phone comes off the charger, usually saying 100%.

The phone dies saying it's about 0%.

Rarely are either of those two things absolutely true.

Safety circuitry and software control the system to keep you safe first, your battery safe second - and the actual charge percentage update comes in a distant third. It's a lower priority.

When you take it off the charger and it says that it's at 100%, it's really anywhere from 96% to 100% - by design.

It takes several minutes of doing anything or nothing before it settles down and tells the truth, increasing accuracy as it goes along.

A few years ago the percentage range was 92% to 100%.

The 96% to 100% range is a design rule of thumb, it can vary a little from unit to unit.
Click to expand...

Ok I get that now, but still, is it safe for me to put back my music and pics on my phone?
 
roflnub1111 said:
Ok I get that now, but still, is it safe for me to put back my music and pics on my phone?
Click to expand...
Let it run for a charge cycle to make sure that nothing we haven't thought of is lurking and then go right ahead.

If the problem comes back, remove them and restore in small groups until the bad file reveals itself.

That's not the only way, but it's what I would do.
 
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