Media Scanner Madness!? - Galaxy S III Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I just installed an audio app and it screwed up my media scan, so now, it appears as though the files aren't there (I am pretty sure that they are still there) and no media application can see them. It seems as though the media scanner is trying to run. How long should it take to complete for a couple of gigs of audio files?
So annoying.
Any help would be appreciated. Is there a way to prevent this from happening again? I don't change media much on my external SD card, so I turned off media scanner entirely, but it seems that when I installed PowerAmp, it decided to scan again.

donalgodon said:
I just installed an audio app and it screwed up my media scan, so now, it appears as though the files aren't there (I am pretty sure that they are still there) and no media application can see them. It seems as though the media scanner is trying to run. How long should it take to complete for a couple of gigs of audio files?
So annoying.
Any help would be appreciated. Is there a way to prevent this from happening again? I don't change media much on my external SD card, so I turned off media scanner entirely, but it seems that when I installed PowerAmp, it decided to scan again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What is did as : download startup manager from Play and disabedled media storage in system, i also downloaded rescan media, opened it after installation and from then it scans automaticly and not at boot also,

gee2012 said:
What is did as : download startup manager from Play and disabedled media storage in system, i also downloaded rescan media, opened it after installation and from then it scans automaticly and not at boot also,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll do that after I can finally get the files to show up again. Any tips on that aspect?
This has got to be the Achilles heel of Android as a media platform. No way that media scanning for some audio files on a Class 10 card should take so friggin' long.

donalgodon said:
I'll do that after I can finally get the files to show up again. Any tips on that aspect?
This has got to be the Achilles heel of Android as a media platform. No way that media scanning for some audio files on a Class 10 card should take so friggin' long.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Make sure you install the rooted version of rescan media, it will add new media to the galery almost instantly

I have the rooted version installed, but I'm confused a bit. Do I want to enable it or disable it?
I just want the scanner to finish building the library or whatever got screwed up, so I can play the files again.
Crap.

donalgodon said:
I have the rooted version installed, but I'm confused a bit. Do I want to enable it or disable it?
I just want the scanner to finish building the library or whatever got screwed up, so I can play the files again.
Crap.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Enable it,

donalgodon said:
I have the rooted version installed, but I'm confused a bit. Do I want to enable it or disable it?
I just want the scanner to finish building the library or whatever got screwed up, so I can play the files again.
Crap.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't do either. Just launch the app and it'll automatically start the rescan.

Theshawty said:
Don't do either. Just launch the app and it'll automatically start the rescan.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, realistically how long should that take?
I'm still looking at nothing and I've been at it over an hour.

Okay, so I installed the app and launched it, but still my files don't show up in the apps, like Music Player or Play Music or PowerAMP. They are there, because I can go to the external SD and open them one by one, but the playlists don't show anything.
Any tips would be greatly appreciated.
Would reinstalling the firmware and a full-wipe deal with this issue, or would it be a waste of time?

Related

Media scanner running... preparing mass storage?

New to Android, so I'm wondering why this process is necessary on every single boot. What's happening during this time?
donalgodon said:
New to Android, so I'm wondering why this process is necessary on every single boot. What's happening during this time?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it scans your SD card and checks for music, videos, other files etc.
If this didn't happen on every boot, you video app your music app, would be empty.
all your apps would be set to how they first were when installed. etc.

PowerAMP "Too many failed files, Playing will stop now"?

Hey everybody, having some trouble with my PowerAMP fairly regularly. It starts up and plays music fine, but after a while it always comes through with this error (Too many failed files, playing will stop now.) If I reboot and go back into PowerAMP, it all works fine again. This keeps happening though. I guess I'll try uninstalling it and loading again to see if that fixes it. Was wondering if anyone more software savvy had some other ideas. Maybe something is jacked up with the sd card? But if this was the case wouldn't i run into a similar problem when flipping through pictures and videos?
I"m not sure if Fixing Permisions would help but it could just be an SD card issue or it is running into files that are in the playlist but aren't on the SD Card anymore?
Shouldn't be running into any of those given it forms the available songs by scanning the card. Seems to be something with the sd card. I'll try permissions, I haven't done that in a while anyway (if it aint broke don't fix it! lol) The reload didn't work. I know the songs are there as it gives the name of a file that is supposedly failed, but after the reboot it plays fine. Kind of strange.
Was going to be adding some music, maybe I'll try wiping all the files I have on there and just reload em through my pc.
Let me know if permissions works.. other then that I can't think of anything that would cause the issue.
Alright, went through and wiped out the music folder then reloaded a bunch of songs. Still having the same problem. Fixed permissions too. Seems pretty damn weird to me, anyone else having similar problems?
Tried uninstalling and reloading again and that seams to have fixed things...I'll let you guys know after a day or two of usage. Weird.
Hey im having the same issue i have my music on the internal sd card all the files are wma the app will play like 5-10 songs then says too many failed songs. Then going to look at what folders it is looking at it says that could not find sd card. if i restart the app it'll install native libraries then scan then able to play 5-10 songs again....wierd
Try going to SETTINGS>APPLICATIONS>MANAGE APPLICATIONS> then go to the "all" TAB. Scroll down and clear both the MEDIASYNC and MEDIASTORAGE. The problem is due to a double sync where there are empy place holders for songs thus looking like "failed files" reload poweramp and it will scan music folder again and wallah... Fixed!
Like I said before, I just uninstalled, made sure everything was deleted, then redownloaded the app from the market and all is well. Haven't had any problems since.
aw3sk3r said:
Try going to SETTINGS>APPLICATIONS>MANAGE APPLICATIONS> then go to the "all" TAB. Scroll down and clear both the MEDIASYNC and MEDIASTORAGE. The problem is due to a double sync where there are empy place holders for songs thus looking like "failed files" reload poweramp and it will scan music folder again and wallah... Fixed!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried that and still did the same thing and by the way though the stock music player plays all the songs with no problems
Same for me... Since I have been using the current ROM (FLB_R9), PowerAMP can not play a single file, while the stock player is really happy with any of them!
Go to SETTINGS/Applications/Manage Applications/PowerAMP
Under Storage press "Clear data"..
Rescan music folder again.
Worked for me
Had the same problem. Even though I loved Poweramp, I switched to Mixzing. I even had the paid Poweramp. Haven't had any issues with Mixzing. It has an E Q just like Poweramp,and it plays folders too. Got tired of Poweramp and its foibles. Very happy with free version of Mixzing.
Sent from my SCH-I500 using XDA App
aw3sk3r said:
Try going to SETTINGS>APPLICATIONS>MANAGE APPLICATIONS> then go to the "all" TAB. Scroll down and clear both the MEDIASYNC and MEDIASTORAGE. The problem is due to a double sync where there are empy place holders for songs thus looking like "failed files" reload poweramp and it will scan music folder again and wallah... Fixed!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Should point out clearing MEDIASTORAGE will seemingly delete all your ringtones! However a reboot of the phone will restore those ringtones again.
Just a heads up.
This might be the answer
aw3sk3r said:
Try going to SETTINGS>APPLICATIONS>MANAGE APPLICATIONS> then go to the "all" TAB. Scroll down and clear both the MEDIASYNC and MEDIASTORAGE. The problem is due to a double sync where there are empy place holders for songs thus looking like "failed files" reload poweramp and it will scan music folder again and wallah... Fixed!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This condition just started on my Galaxy S3 after using PowerAmp for months. I looked for the both the suggested sync files on the S3 but found nothing. No other stock music player on the S3 will play the music either. Your thoughts please.
maguentert said:
This condition just started on my Galaxy S3 after using PowerAmp for months. I looked for the both the suggested sync files on the S3 but found nothing. No other stock music player on the S3 will play the music either. Your thoughts please.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi.
I have the same problem.
Someone could solved it?
Thanks and sorry for my english!
I've been having this issue as well, running all my music from my SDcard, will try a few things and report back. I'm using poweramp because the stock player doesn't seem to work with my card, says songs are unplayable, doesn't show all my music etc. I just tried disabling system media scanner/MTP in advanced folder library options and I'll report back.
My solution
I found this problem after disabling APOLLO in my MAKO ROM PACMAN
As soon as i enabled it, POWERAMP started working. Check if such coincidence works for u too
guys here is how I fix mine : FIX PERMISSION
if still not working try uninstall and install again.

Disabling Media Scanner

Does anyone know how to disable the media scanner, that runs on every boot?
I don't want to uninstall it, because sometimes you'll need to run it manually to detect new media files, but I don't want it running on every startup
I thought it was necessary so it can see what you have on your SD card?
Apo11on said:
Does anyone know how to disable the media scanner, that runs on every boot?
I don't want to uninstall it, because sometimes you'll need to run it manually to detect new media files, but I don't want it running on every startup
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is this your first samsung phone? It always runs at the start by design in every samsung android phone, as far as i know there is nothing you can do about it unless a dev can find a way to change it in a custom rom.
camaroz28 said:
Is this your first samsung phone? It always runs at the start by design in every samsung android phone, as far as i know there is nothing you can do about it unless a dev can find a way to change it in a custom rom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Media Scanner is a process and just like any other process it either runs as a service, or invoked by some init.* startup script. I'm simply asking for guidance how to modify phone configuration to disable the startup of this process.
Contents of /sdcard are cached, so the only price you pay if it doesnt run is that it wont see any changes, occured since it was last active. If you dont add/remove files on your phone all that frequently - disabling it wont have much impact and it will noticeably improve startup performance
Back in the captivate days there was a script that as created to disable this but it proved to be more of a hinderence than a help, I don't recommend it. But if you really insist search the threads over there and see if you can find it. Who knows it may work maybe with a mod here or there
Rescan Media Root from the Market will disable the media scanner.
iirc Nitrality in the market can disable media scan too
Apo11on said:
If you dont add/remove files on your phone all that frequently - disabling it wont have much impact and it will noticeably improve startup performance
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I disagree. I added a 32 GB card a few days ago, nearly full with songs, and my time from power button to lock screen didn't change at all. Yes, the scan takes a while and doesn't finish until well after the lock screen appears but it is a background process. It doesn't prevent you from using the device.
techntrek said:
I disagree. I added a 32 GB card a few days ago, nearly full with songs, and my time from power button to lock screen didn't change at all. Yes, the scan takes a while and doesn't finish until well after the lock screen appears but it is a background process. It doesn't prevent you from using the device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you use the camera though?
I too have a 32 Gb card installed with a mixture of films, music and apps. My media scanner can take 2-3 hours to run and whilst I can use the phone for most things, it does prevent me from viewing photos and more critically taking photos.
I have on numerous occations not be able to take photos of the kids doing something funny, hours after unplugging my Note and it is very inconvenient at work when I need to take a photo of a business card or reciept or something.
To me this is a serious flaw on a device which is, as much as a phone, my on the go camera - and not a welcome feature of my first android phone!
I have tried a couple of methods (apps) but most of these seem to fill my notification area with adverts!
ChemicalJasper said:
Can you use the camera though?
I too have a 32 Gb card installed with a mixture of films, music and apps. My media scanner can take 2-3 hours to run and whilst I can use the phone for most things, it does prevent me from viewing photos and more critically taking photos.
I have on numerous occations not be able to take photos of the kids doing something funny, hours after unplugging my Note and it is very inconvenient at work when I need to take a photo of a business card or reciept or something.
To me this is a serious flaw on a device which is, as much as a phone, my on the go camera - and not a welcome feature of my first android phone!
I have tried a couple of methods (apps) but most of these seem to fill my notification area with adverts!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow. Could there be somethinks wrong with your sd card? Have you switched it from using on one device for a while to your note? I have 23gb out of 29 gb available filled with 10gb of that being music and 3gb of pics and my start up media scan takes about a minute max. Maybe not even that long. I initially had a 16gb card that i used in my LG thrill that when i switched to the not would take forever to scan. It eventually quit working so i bought the 32 and no problems now.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using xda premium
ChemicalJasper said:
Can you use the camera though?
I too have a 32 Gb card installed with a mixture of films, music and apps. My media scanner can take 2-3 hours to run and whilst I can use the phone for most things, it does prevent me from viewing photos and more critically taking photos.
I have on numerous occations not be able to take photos of the kids doing something funny, hours after unplugging my Note and it is very inconvenient at work when I need to take a photo of a business card or reciept or something.
To me this is a serious flaw on a device which is, as much as a phone, my on the go camera - and not a welcome feature of my first android phone!
I have tried a couple of methods (apps) but most of these seem to fill my notification area with adverts!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
2-3 hours is ridiculous.
What class card are you using? You may need to upgrade to a faster card.
Apo11on said:
Does anyone know how to disable the media scanner, that runs on every boot?
I don't want to uninstall it, because sometimes you'll need to run it manually to detect new media files, but I don't want it running on every startup
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Run this in Terminal Emulator or Adb Shell:
Code:
su
pm disable com.android.providers.media.MediaScannerReceiver
an app can help you
You should try this:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=753294
You can use System Tuner to disable it from starting up at reboot
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using xda app-developers app
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.addz.mediascannerroot
I have used this in the past....but requires root.
But i do agree maybe an upgrade of your sd cards class...
Trolling via Tapatalk 2, on my GNote...
I suggest formatting your card or replacing it. Bad sectors can cause funny stuff to happen. I couldn't even copy files using a card reader till I formatted it. Warning. This will erase all you files from the card, but you will have a clean slate to start.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using xda app-developers app
Before erasing put the card in an adaptor and copy your stuff to a pc.
"oh yes it does..."
techntrek said:
I disagree. I added a 32 GB card a few days ago, nearly full with songs, and my time from power button to lock screen didn't change at all. Yes, the scan takes a while and doesn't finish until well after the lock screen appears but it is a background process. It doesn't prevent you from using the device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well,on my NOTE, I cannot use the camera until Media Scanner Runs off round the corner - if I just unlock my phone (even when it is on) to take a photgraph, then I get this annoying message and the camera turns itself OFF repeatedly... finally the photo opportunity has gone... buggerit!
Pav, Edinburgh

CM10 media scan problem.

Hey.
I'm on CM10 and when i open gallery,or Apollo,or something else,there's no music or pictures showing...
Has anyone have this problem,how to fix it?
Yarman2000 said:
Hey.
I'm on CM10 and when i open gallery,or Apollo,or something else,there's no music or pictures showing...
Has anyone have this problem,how to fix it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This maybe isn't useful to you, but I'm having exactly the same problem. I'm running CM10 FXP133 on my Xperia Ray. Wrote a post a bout it here.
So I guess we're both equally desperate. Anybody please help!
/Daniel
Not sure if this is any good (I don't have time to try it out right now), but I found this.
/Daniel
edit: Nope. Sorry. Didn't work. Crap.
Looks like its a problem with the latest nightly.. it was working fine last release...
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2
I partially solved my problem. Something had put a .nomedia file in /sdcard, which quite naturally led to problems. I removed the file and did a new scan and now I got photos in the gallery again. Apollo is still empty though, so I'm kinda pulling my hair here. Done the obvious stuff (reboots, clearing cache, purging app data).
/Daniel
Ha! Found the rest of the solution. Seems the media scanner doesn't scan all folders anymore but just some (found out about it in this post). I moved some of my music to /sdcard/downloads, run a scan and suddenly it's there in Apollo.
Oh, and the .nomedia in sdcard root appeared again. No idea where it comes from, but it seems like a good idea to check for it and delete it once in a while. Strange things happen...
Oh. And sorry to the OP for hijacking this thread. I hope some of my mumbling is useful to you
/Daniel
I reflashed rom again,and now in gallery and apollo,media is showing.
Maybe it's a problem with Rom Manager,because that pushed .nomedia files in wrong folders.
DanielMalmgren said:
Ha! Found the rest of the solution. Seems the media scanner doesn't scan all folders anymore but just some (found out about it in this post). I moved some of my music to /sdcard/downloads, run a scan and suddenly it's there in Apollo.
Oh, and the .nomedia in sdcard root appeared again. No idea where it comes from, but it seems like a good idea to check for it and delete it once in a while. Strange things happen...
Oh. And sorry to the OP for hijacking this thread. I hope some of my mumbling is useful to you
/Daniel
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
on galaxy nexus, paranoid android 1.99:
after using Rescan Media Root https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.addz.mediascannerroot
there's a folder in DCIM called 100ANDRO.
put the music files in there and stock player detects them
put pictures in DCIM>Camera and gallery finds them.
check out Mountain Laurel Handrails http://awoodrailing.com
Similar thing happened to me on CM9, Xperia mini. I deleted the .nomedia file and cleared the app data on music players and things are fine now.
My status on this one right now is that scanning mostly works. It refuses to scan some directories though. If I move all my music to /sdcard/music it's scanned, but in /sdcard/subsonic/music where it's always been before it's not. The only big problem with this is that for example /sdcard/ringtones is not scanned. So according to the system I no longer have any custom ringtones. This gotta be a bug, right?
/Daniel
Maybe you could try another music app like winamp. Because there you can do a manually media scan and as far as I know you can choose the folder where it should scan manually, too. Maybe give it a shot
DanielMalmgren said:
My status on this one right now is that scanning mostly works. It refuses to scan some directories though. If I move all my music to /sdcard/music it's scanned, but in /sdcard/subsonic/music where it's always been before it's not. The only big problem with this is that for example /sdcard/ringtones is not scanned. So according to the system I no longer have any custom ringtones. This gotta be a bug, right?
/Daniel
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
at first i couldn't find my ringtones, put one in sd/ringtones and in the system/media/audio//ringtones
in doing all this i ran SDrescan and rescan media root multiple times.
now i've got two of the same showing up.
one thing the messed me up is that the ringtone filename is not used on the menu.
instead, the ringtone menu is pulling the metadata to tile it.
so I've got my filename 'ringtone.mp3' but it show up in the menu as 'song'
jimmypader said:
at first i couldn't find my ringtones, put one in sd/ringtones and in the system/media/audio//ringtones
in doing all this i ran SDrescan and rescan media root multiple times.
now i've got two of the same showing up.
one thing the messed me up is that the ringtone filename is not used on the menu.
instead, the ringtone menu is pulling the metadata to tile it.
so I've got my filename 'ringtone.mp3' but it show up in the menu as 'song'
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok. I also ended up putting my ringtones in /system/media/audio//ringtones which solves my problems. The media scanner still doesn't want to have anything with the ones in /sdcard/ringtones to do. Guess the media service will need some polishing before CM10 is released
/Daniel
jimmypader said:
on galaxy nexus, paranoid android 1.99:
after using Rescan Media Root https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.addz.mediascannerroot
there's a folder in DCIM called 100ANDRO.
put the music files in there and stock player detects them
put pictures in DCIM>Camera and gallery finds them.
check out Mountain Laurel Handrails http://awoodrailing.com
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the method helped me resolved the music files issue but still Im having problem with the gallery pictures...tried to reboot coz that made the music problem solved but it doest worked on the pics...got any other idea?
but all in all THANKS really :laugh:
info: after restarting my phone music is not again detected by the phone. THis is a head exploding problem.

[SOLVED] Media Server battery usage increased by CF-autoroot

Is it normal to have a steady 10% battery usage by Media Server?
Re: Media Server battery usage
Do you listen to a lot of music, or listen regularly, more to the point? 10% usage indicates to me you are just listening to music, if it jumps right up then you might have the media bug, but doesn't sound like it to me, from that stat
slaphead20 said:
Do you listen to a lot of music, or listen regularly, more to the point? 10% usage indicates to me you are just listening to music, if it jumps right up then you might have the media bug, but doesn't sound like it to me, from that stat
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually I don't listen to music at all (with the phone), that's why I don't understand the media server running constantly.
I have the latest BTU EMB1 firmware. Installed wiping all data.
Re: Media Server battery usage
jurijvi said:
Actually I don't listen to music at all (with the phone), that's why I don't understand the media server running constantly.
I have the latest BTU EMB1 firmware. Installed wiping all data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm, well you can disable the media scanner with rescan media root from Play, do you have a lot of pictures or other media?
It can also run a lot if your sd card is corrupt, if you ever get messages that your card has been ejected then the media scanner will run again after each mount.
Another problem can be nandroid backups, if you use the wrong format you end up with thousands of tiny files which makes the scanner run for ages.
Re: Media Server battery usage
Just to share, yesterday I changed my stock battery for an extended Hyperion 4400, media scanner drain 5% of it in 15 min, the device was also hot, I had to force close the media scanner several times until I reboot twice and it stopped, got annoyed by it, and it's also first time it happens, nothing abnormal in my sd or internal.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 2
boomboomer said:
It can also run a lot if your sd card is corrupt, if you ever get messages that your card has been ejected then the media scanner will run again after each mount.
Another problem can be nandroid backups, if you use the wrong format you end up with thousands of tiny files which makes the scanner run for ages.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have problem with the card being ejected. However I have titanium backup running twice a week. It does create a fair amount of files.
Could that be the issue?
slaphead20 said:
Hmm, well you can disable the media scanner with rescan media root from Play, do you have a lot of pictures or other media?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have a "normal" amount of pix, like less than a hundred. Few videos and that's about it.
jurijvi said:
I have a "normal" amount of pix, like less than a hundred. Few videos and that's about it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I turned off Google+ while having the same issue and it fixed the problems. Turn off all the settings for it.
wga22 said:
I turned off Google+ while having the same issue and it fixed the problems. Turn off all the settings for it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have all the settings deselected for Google +. No notification, no instant upload etc..
I just re-flashed the latest BTU rom. No more media server draining the battery. However after rooting with CF-root, the media server started to show up with a steady 10% rate!

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