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Mediaserver?

shelliewnj

shelliewnj

Android Expert
What is mediaserver and why is it keeping my phone awake? The only thing I have that could be considered media is an audiobook. is that it? Thanks :)
 
Mediaserver has been in every version of Android (as far as I can remember, at least). It's not an app per se, but built-in service that Android uses for accessing (and playing) locally-stored media - usually music, but it may also apply to videos. It generally shouldn't cause any problems, but it can occasionally get hung up and refuse to sleep. The best resolution in such a case is to find it in Settings > Apps > All and Force Close it. If it hangs again, it could be due to file or file system corruption on your SD card or Internal Storage; you can try removing all media files to make sure that clears up the problem, and then slowly copy stuff back onto the phone.
 
I moved this thread to the forum dedicated to discussing this phone.

I wonder if it could be caused by an app that you added. You could try running in Safe Mode (disabling all apps you added without uninstalling them) and see if the problem stops. If it does it was caused by an app you added.

... Thom
 
thanks. i'll try those one at a time and see what happens :)

Okay, apparently because mediaserver is a process and not an app, it can't be stopped, force closed, et cetera. it's not listed anywhere to do that. How do I run safe mode, Thom? Thanks :)
 
shelliewnj said:
thanks. i'll try those one at a time and see what happens :)

Okay, apparently because mediaserver is a process and not an app, it can't be stopped, force closed, et cetera. it's not listed anywhere to do that. How do I run safe mode, Thom? Thanks :)
Click to expand...

Doh! You're right, I completely forgot that it didn't show up as something that can be killed.

If you're rooted, you can do it with a handy-dandy script though:
Code: 
#!/system/bin/sh
killall -9 android.process.media
killall -9 mediaserver
I know some people that set that as a cron job to just kill the media server process every hour to keep it from getting hung in the background.

You can get to Safe Mode by holding the Power button, and then tap-and-holding the Power off option in the Power Menu. You'll then be asked if you want to reboot into Safe Mode.
 
Ok started it in safe mode and determined that it might be an app. Only thing that comes up in safe mode is "media", not "mediaserver". So I put it back in regular mode, and other than loosing my defaults, I have no idea where to go from here. Lol
 
Often times a reboot is sufficient to smack the mediaserver back into behaving properly, so I'd just roll with what you've got for now. Check back in a few hours and see if it's still causing problems.
 
Darn. This time it kept the phone awake more than 1.5 hrs. I never even started my audio book app. I haven't watched YouTube or Netflix. Don't have any music on my phone at all.
 
shelliewnj said:
Darn. This time it kept the phone awake more than 1.5 hrs. I never even started my audio book app. I haven't watched YouTube or Netflix. Don't have any music on my phone at all.
Click to expand...

I hate to say it, but it sounds like it's probably some manner of file system corruption at this point. The media scanner is trying to look at your files to see if there is any media and it is getting hung for some reason. When I have encountered that in the past and the other solutions haven't worked the way I solved it was with a full wipe and reinstall.
 
Could she put a .nomedia file in the folder?

Would that keep it from hanging there by telling it there isn't any media?

Also, though it may not do anything, I would try wiping cache before a factory reset. It may do nothing for your issue but it also can't hurt anything either and you won't lose your data.
 
The .nomedia approach never did anything for me when I encountered the same issue, though I suppose it may be worth a shot. The trouble is that the mediaserver will be trying to scan/index all of the internal storage and not just a specific music directory.
 
Mediaserver can get stuck if you have Apple MP4 files on your phone. It can also get hung up if you have corrupt MP3 files. You can find programs on the Internet that will scan and locate corrupt MP3 files. I just removed all the MP4 files from my phone and the corrupt MP3 files and my mediaserver issues went away.
 
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