[Q] [Solved] Weird problems with files on external sd - Galaxy S II Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I am new to Samsung, coming from HTC Desire. And got into bizarre already )
A couple of days ago noticed a strange problem with photos in galery unreadable, appearing to be corrupt (all of them on external sd, internal sd photos are displayed properly). Then today happened that Music app couldn't play music files on external SD.
Read countless of similar issues on the internet, with lots of people blaming on the sd card. However, I found that it is not the case.
Put into a SD card reader and plug into PC, the files on SD card are all ok.
Put back card into phone and investigated further. First I thought maybe it's a problem with SD card reader in the phone. BUT! Noticed files are perfectly visible in ES File Explorer, and even display correctly when using Gallery App to open them from ES file explorer. But if Gallery is opened first, it cannot display files.
I'm sure somebody else happened the same, since the internet is full with such reports regarding Galaxy devices (even S1 and Note alike), but anyone identified the sorce of the problem and eventually solved it? I would be very much interested.

crisagatie said:
I am new to Samsung, coming from HTC Desire. And got into bizarre already )
A couple of days ago noticed a strange problem with photos in galery unreadable, appearing to be corrupt (all of them on external sd, internal sd photos are displayed properly). Then today happened that Music app couldn't play music files on external SD.
Read countless of similar issues on the internet, with lots of people blaming on the sd card. However, I found that it is not the case.
Put into a SD card reader and plug into PC, the files on SD card are all ok.
Put back card into phone and investigated further. First I thought maybe it's a problem with SD card reader in the phone. BUT! Noticed files are perfectly visible in ES File Explorer, and even display correctly when using Gallery App to open them from ES file explorer. But if Gallery is opened first, it cannot display files.
I'm sure somebody else happened the same, since the internet is full with such reports regarding Galaxy devices (even S1 and Note alike), but anyone identified the sorce of the problem and eventually solved it? I would be very much interested.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try to run Rescan Media app from Play store.
Maybe your media scanner service does not work properly and needs to refresh the list of media files on your sd card.
Good luck !

rescan is done automatically every reboot. doesn't help. thanx anyway.

investigated further and found out that the files are not corrupt, but the libraries of Music app and Gallery app created duplicated empty files (in fact 2 fake entries in library for every valid file on the card). Duplicate files don't exist physically on SD card, only in libraries of the two applications.
Already tried formatting cache and dalvik cache, but to no avail...
ICS 4.0.4 Orange Romania (BVLPH) stock ROM.
Later EDIT: This was an easy one. Unmounted SD Card and open Gallery app and Music app. Then re-mount SD Card, both apps will refresh libraries, wait a while for media scan in the background and voila: duplicate files disappear, everything is in god order.

I had a similar problem where both gallery and music files were duplicated, but the duplicates were unreadable.
My solution was Settings -> Applications -> All -> Media Storage -> Clear Data.
This forced a refresh and everything turned normal again.
Slightly annoying that the media scan data is stored under a separate application and not within the data of the gallery or music player applications, but once I discovered this it was an easy fix.

Related

[Q] Music Files and folders

Having a problem here and I hope someone can help.
Problem 1:
I have the Sandisk 64GB SD card. I have copied all my music to it. For the most part everything is fine. The strange thing is that it doesn't report all my songs. I did a search and the names are coming up strangely.
For example: What reports on my computer is "Strange Eyes.MP3". What reports on my phone when I search using My Files or look at the file with ES File Explorer is "Strange Eyes.MP3e.MP3". Some files are also changing to .mp3p. That's just what I have found so far.
Problem 2:
The other strange thing that if I read the SD card on my computer while it is in the phone it only shows the folders of my music up to the J's. If I use a SD card reader, I can see only up to the J's. If I use My Files or ES File Explorer I can see them all. This makes it extremely hard to copy the songs. For the one song I was able to fix (see below) I used Dropbox. BTW, I did try breaking up the music into folders like A2F, J2O, etc.
Other info:
Now, all the files look fine. All the tags, file names, etc. they are all MP3's that I had ripped from my own CD. I fixed one of the songs by going into (I know) iTunes and converting it to a MP3 (which it already was) and copied that file over. Now the phone sees it. There are a total of 4,167 songs and my phone is only seeing 4,087+1.
I originally had not formatted the card from when I had gotten it and had this issue, so I reformatted in the phone and still it persists. My old phone had no problems reading the music. It was a Thrill 4G.
Does anyone have any ideas on either of these issues? Thanks in advance.
EnderXXI said:
Having a problem here and I hope someone can help.
Problem 1:
I have the Sandisk 64GB SD card. I have copied all my music to it. For the most part everything is fine. The strange thing is that it doesn't report all my songs. I did a search and the names are coming up strangely.
For example: What reports on my computer is "Strange Eyes.MP3". What reports on my phone when I search using My Files or look at the file with ES File Explorer is "Strange Eyes.MP3e.MP3". Some files are also changing to .mp3p. That's just what I have found so far.
Problem 2:
The other strange thing that if I read the SD card on my computer while it is in the phone it only shows the folders of my music up to the J's. If I use a SD card reader, I can see only up to the J's. If I use My Files or ES File Explorer I can see them all. This makes it extremely hard to copy the songs. For the one song I was able to fix (see below) I used Dropbox. BTW, I did try breaking up the music into folders like A2F, J2O, etc.
Other info:
Now, all the files look fine. All the tags, file names, etc. they are all MP3's that I had ripped from my own CD. I fixed one of the songs by going into (I know) iTunes and converting it to a MP3 (which it already was) and copied that file over. Now the phone sees it. There are a total of 4,167 songs and my phone is only seeing 4,087+1.
I originally had not formatted the card from when I had gotten it and had this issue, so I reformatted in the phone and still it persists. My old phone had no problems reading the music. It was a Thrill 4G.
Does anyone have any ideas on either of these issues? Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is the exact same problem I'm having also with a SanDisk 64 gb card, files with weird extensions that I can't change and files, folders not showing up in Windows. I have no clue how to fix it but I was hoping that reformatting the card in the phone would work but it looks like it didn't for you. All the files worked fine with my Infuse but with a 32 gb card. Hope someone knows what's up with this.
I took my old 32GB card from my thrill and copied my music to it. Put it in my GS3 and it has no issues with any of the music.
The difference (besides size) is it is formatted Fat32. I'll format my 64GB card at work today to Fat32 and see if I have the same issues.
Stay tuned Tryptonite.
EnderXXI said:
I took my old 32GB card from my thrill and copied my music to it. Put it in my GS3 and it has no issues with any of the music.
The difference (besides size) is it is formatted Fat32. I'll format my 64GB card at work today to Fat32 and see if I have the same issues.
Stay tuned Tryptonite.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cool, let me know how it goes and I'll end up doing the same thing when I get back from work.
Formatted my card on a Mac at work to Fat.
Copied all my music to it with the SD card reader.
Checked on my PC. Shows as Fat32 and sees all the folders.
Checked on my phone. Sees all the folders when plugged into my computer.
As of right now everything is 100%.
You may loose a little space because of the allocation size, but it's worth it is it works.
Go for it.
Thanks, I was thinking I would need to return the card. One less thing to worry about.
No problem. I hope other see this that may have the same issues.

[Q] Media Storage acting up abnormally on stock ROM

A few days ago while I was on ICS 4.0 on my SGS3 (can't remember whether 4.0.3 or 4.0.4 - international stock ROM either way), I noticed that my phone was not displaying pictures correctly. For example, I took a picture with my camera and it automatically saved it to my SD card, after which it would say the picture cannot be opened. I then transferred my photos to the internal memory as I felt my SD card was getting corrupted, however the music on it still worked fine. Then I noticed a huge increase in battery usage, mostly consumed by the 'Media Storage' application (60-70%). I then updated my phone to JB 4.1.2, and my pictures would not show up at all (music was alright). After some research I found out that there could be a faulty Media Storage app, but it only mentioned the rooted ROM version for people wanting JB earlier than the release date. I did what the instructions I found told me and cleared the data on the Media Storage app (around 4 GB). This solved the problem momentarily but the data keeps going up and using the battery. Now I'm stuck with the Media Storage disabled since I need my battery, however it's annoying to hear a full ringtone for a simple notification, not to mention I want to listen to my music.
What I want to know is, is it a problem of a faulty SD card, corrupted (music) files, or a faulty Media Storage app?
I haven't tried removing the SD card and leaving it to see if it still consumes battery but I just formatted it and am looking to see what happens.
With the Media Storage off, there have been HUGE improvements on battery life! Wow.
istetz said:
A few days ago while I was on ICS 4.0 on my SGS3 (can't remember whether 4.0.3 or 4.0.4 - international stock ROM either way), I noticed that my phone was not displaying pictures correctly. For example, I took a picture with my camera and it automatically saved it to my SD card, after which it would say the picture cannot be opened. I then transferred my photos to the internal memory as I felt my SD card was getting corrupted, however the music on it still worked fine. Then I noticed a huge increase in battery usage, mostly consumed by the 'Media Storage' application (60-70%). I then updated my phone to JB 4.1.2, and my pictures would not show up at all (music was alright). After some research I found out that there could be a faulty Media Storage app, but it only mentioned the rooted ROM version for people wanting JB earlier than the release date. I did what the instructions I found told me and cleared the data on the Media Storage app (around 4 GB). This solved the problem momentarily but the data keeps going up and using the battery. Now I'm stuck with the Media Storage disabled since I need my battery, however it's annoying to hear a full ringtone for a simple notification, not to mention I want to listen to my music.
What I want to know is, is it a problem of a faulty SD card, corrupted (music) files, or a faulty Media Storage app?
I haven't tried removing the SD card and leaving it to see if it still consumes battery but I just formatted it and am looking to see what happens.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You could try formatting your SD card, if this doesn't work it may be the case that your SD card has bad sectors.
If you want to know wether that is the case, you can try this:
Click Start and then Run. Type cmd and then click OK. Type the following:
chkdsk [sd card drive letter] /r
That will scan for bad sectors on the card and repair any found.
on the PC, that is

[Q] Stock Apps not recognizing external SD card (sort of)

Long story short: Just got my M8 so it is 100% stock, no mods, nothing. I copied my pictures and music from my M7 to an SD card and popped it in the M8. Go to load up the HTC music app, nothing. Go to Google Play music, still nothing. Go to Gallery, even more nothing.
The weird part is that ES File Explorer recognizes and can read the SD card just fine (Not write but I know that's a whole separate ball game), the storage section in settings reports everything correctly. I can even take a picture and move that to the external SD card using the Gallery app and it'll come up just fine, but I then tried moving one of my old pictures I had taken on my M7 into the same folder as the lone picture I took with the M8 and nada, only the new picture shows up. Any particular step I'm missing here?
Found the problem, I'll post the solution here just in case anyone else has the same issue (doubt it but still):
I somehow managed to have a ".nomedia" file in the root of my SD card. Deleting it fixed everything.

[Q] Galaxy S3 w/ Kit Kat - Unable to Play MP3's

Hi guys,
I was previously using a Galaxy Nexus but exchanged it for an S3. The main deciding factor was because the S3 has support for SD cards. I have a lot of music, and I wanted to benefit from more storage than the Galaxy Nexus had built in.
I immediately had trouble copying data to my SD card, but after some google searching I figured out how to get Bit Torrent Sync to sync music to my phone from my computer. It was just a matter of naming the folders a certain way. I also synced my picture collection to my SD card as well. That worked fine too.
However, my favorite music player (Player Pro) and my favorite picture viewer (Quick Pic) cannot see media on my SD card. Player Pro cannot see any MP3's and Quick Pic cannot see any pictures. I've been Googling for a couple of days, and I'm getting more frustrated. I find countless topics about how to write data to an SD card, but I can't find any good topics on how to READ data stored on an SD card. Both apps can't see a thing. I even tried Google Play Music (which I loathe and don't like using) and it can't see any of my music files on my SD card either.
It's almost as if the SD card is locked from reading. I read a lot of forum posts all over the Internet talking about being unable to write, but nothing about being unable to read.
Is there some magic to get these apps to see media on the SD card?
jlacroix82 said:
Hi guys,
I was previously using a Galaxy Nexus but exchanged it for an S3. The main deciding factor was because the S3 has support for SD cards. I have a lot of music, and I wanted to benefit from more storage than the Galaxy Nexus had built in.
I immediately had trouble copying data to my SD card, but after some google searching I figured out how to get Bit Torrent Sync to sync music to my phone from my computer. It was just a matter of naming the folders a certain way. I also synced my picture collection to my SD card as well. That worked fine too.
However, my favorite music player (Player Pro) and my favorite picture viewer (Quick Pic) cannot see media on my SD card. Player Pro cannot see any MP3's and Quick Pic cannot see any pictures. I've been Googling for a couple of days, and I'm getting more frustrated. I find countless topics about how to write data to an SD card, but I can't find any good topics on how to READ data stored on an SD card. Both apps can't see a thing. I even tried Google Play Music (which I loathe and don't like using) and it can't see any of my music files on my SD card either.
It's almost as if the SD card is locked from reading. I read a lot of forum posts all over the Internet talking about being unable to write, but nothing about being unable to read.
Is there some magic to get these apps to see media on the SD card?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Download any file manager from Playstore. I like "Es File Explorer". It's free and very good. And see manually if the MP3's are in the directory where you want them to be. :angel:
GeekyDroid said:
Download any file manager from Playstore. I like "Es File Explorer". It's free and very good. And see manually if the MP3's are in the directory where you want them to be. :angel:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I've already confirmed that the files are definitely there.
jlacroix82 said:
Yes, I've already confirmed that the files are definitely there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are they in MP3 format?
Well, I don't even understand. Try to tap on them and start through ES File Explorer manually. They should start playing.
What kind of SD card? What format is it in? If you go into Settings / Storage - does it display your SD card there? If you plug the phone back to the PC, can you play MP3s and see your pictures through the computers media players?
Thanks for your reply. Yes, MP3 format and yes, they do start playing if I tap individual files. It's just that apps can't find media on the sd card. I've read that kit kat changed the way apps access sd cards, so I'm wondering if that's why I'm having problems?
jlacroix82 said:
Thanks for your reply. Yes, MP3 format and yes, they do start playing if I tap individual files. It's just that apps can't find media on the sd card. I've read that kit kat changed the way apps access sd cards, so I'm wondering if that's why I'm having problems?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you are rooted, then that is an easy fix.
The other way to test this is to use the built in Music player from Samsung. If it reads all the MP3s, then it's probably the SD card issue.
es0tericcha0s said:
If you are rooted, then that is an easy fix.
The other way to test this is to use the built in Music player from Samsung. If it reads all the MP3s, then it's probably the SD card issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The stock music player doesn't see music either. I thought about rooting my phone, but it seems like all the instructions are for Windows. I don't have a Windows computer, I'm all Linux (even at work). I'd rather not install Windows just to root my phone if I don't have to.
jlacroix82 said:
The stock music player doesn't see music either. I thought about rooting my phone, but it seems like all the instructions are for Windows. I don't have a Windows computer, I'm all Linux (even at work). I'd rather not install Windows just to root my phone if I don't have to.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Best bet is towelroot. I had the same issue with player pro with it not playing them because even though they are in mp3 format it told me they weren't
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Xparent ICS Tapatalk 2
ShapesBlue said:
Best bet is towelroot. I had the same issue with player pro with it not playing them because even though they are in mp3 format it told me they weren't
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Xparent ICS Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you so much! The issue is now solved!
Here is what the problem was. Kit Kat prevents apps from not only writing to sd cards, but reading from them as well. Each app can only read and write to their own specific folder on the sd card. In my case, I was using Bit Torrent Sync to handle syncing music from my PC to my phone (as I always have) and in order to get Bit Torrent Sync to work, I had to set it up in the following folder on the sd card:
Android/data/com.bittorrent.sync/music
The problem was, that Kit Kat prevented all my media apps from scanning that folder, since it enforces it to belong to Bit Torrent Sync, and will not allow another app to even touch it. I have no idea why ES File Explorer was able to open it and play music from within that folder. Perhaps it bypasses Kit Kat's restriction somehow.
So, I used towelroot as mentioned above and installed SuperSU, then, I downloaded and installed the sdcard fix from the play store and ran it.
After running the sd card fix, it said it enabled normal sd card usage. But it STILL didn't work. But after rebooting my phone, all my media apps (including Player Pro) immediately started seeing my media and everything seems to be back to normal!
If Google patches Android to prevent this fix from working in the future, I am officially done with this platform. There's no excuse for someone to have to go to this extreme just to get something as simple MP3's seen by a music playing app. I can understand the security improvement of this, but they shouldn't be preventing normal usage of a device.
Thanks so much, I appreciate the help! I hope my steps above helps someone else.

super annoying scared bug, PLEASE HELP

So whenever I put my sd card into my Xperia z3tc I can't open any apps apart from a few like settings and it often freezes and no buttons work, and if I boot with it in my tablet has a black screen with notification center usable and only a back button. FYI I'm using the SGP12 which is the 32gb WiFi model, no root and it only started happening since I updated to 5.0.2. PLEASE HELP
Perhaps the SD Card is bad?
I experience a similar issue (on KitKat) and it has to do with the media scanner (I have many MP3s on my SD card). Basically, before I reboot my device, I need to use a root app to delete my media library. If I do not do so, upon reboot, the phone is slow, nothing media-related works (including ringers and alert tones), and opening media-using apps or setting menus freezes the device (until I delete my media library, which gets reformulated next reboot). I tend to assume that maybe your SD card is triggering a media-rescan and that is causing your issue. Don't know if this is Android or Z3TC specific, but yes it is annoying.
thref23 said:
Perhaps the SD Card is bad?
I experience a similar issue (on KitKat) and it has to do with the media scanner (I have many MP3s on my SD card). Basically, before I reboot my device, I need to use a root app to delete my media library. If I do not do so, upon reboot, the phone is slow, nothing media-related works (including ringers and alert tones), and opening media-using apps or setting menus freezes the device (until I delete my media library, which gets reformulated next reboot). I tend to assume that maybe your SD card is triggering a media-rescan and that is causing your issue. Don't know if this is Android or Z3TC specific, but yes it is annoying.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The sd card should be fine it's a SanDisk and it only has a few pics on, this happened immediately after I updated to lollipop and then stopped and now it's happening again.
AryG15 said:
The sd card should be fine it's a SanDisk and it only has a few pics on, this happened immediately after I updated to lollipop and then stopped and now it's happening again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Images are still media. Try using the SD card without any images saved to it. Or try deleting your media library - to rule this out if nothing else. I use an app called Music Database Repair to delete my media library (although other features of the app don't seem to work).

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