Is there a way to disable media scan on KitKat? I have a rooted Sony Z3 with an external microsd card.
I know there was an app for Gingebread, but I understand it's not compatible with Android 4+.
I understand it used to be common to place a .nomedia empty file in folders not to be scanned, but is this still possible/does it still work now that Kitkat has made it harder to write to external SD cards?
I am asking the question because android.process.media is draining my battery. I use poweramp as a music app and I have disabled background scanning, but something else must be triggering it.
Btw, I tried formatting the card with the phone, and I also tried removing the card altogether (so i don't know what on earth is being scanned), but android.process.media keeps running and draining battery!
Thanks!
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I've never had problems with moving apps back and forth from my phone's internal storage to the SD card. But recently, I've noticed that apps I used to be able to store externally (Shazam, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) have the "move to SD" option greyed out, making it impossible to move them off my phone. I'm running stock 2.3.4. I've combed the internet trying to find a fix to this issue, but have found no results so far. I'm contemplating doing a hard reset to hopefully fix this as a last resort if nothing else works... Anyone have any suggestions?
Unfortunately, not all applications support moving to SD card. This is typically because the developer has good reason for not allowing this. For example, apps like facebook that make use of widgets would error every time your SD card is unmounted. Now you may be thinking: "I never take out my SD card so why would this bother me"
However, every time you plug in your phone to a USB port to transfer files such as photos and videos the SD card automatically unmount.
Download App2SD from the market for an easy way to see a list of apps installed on your phone that are programmed to support moving to SD card.
Conclusion: without manipulating your device, there is no way to transfer the apps you've mentioned to an external storage device.
Having the same problem
blastindamusic said:
Unfortunately, not all applications support moving to SD card. This is typically because the developer has good reason for not allowing this. For example, apps like facebook that make use of widgets would error every time your SD card is unmounted. Now you may be thinking: "I never take out my SD card so why would this bother me"
However, every time you plug in your phone to a USB port to transfer files such as photos and videos the SD card automatically unmount.
Download App2SD from the market for an easy way to see a list of apps installed on your phone that are programmed to support moving to SD card.
Conclusion: without manipulating your device, there is no way to transfer the apps you've mentioned to an external storage device.
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Hmm...that would make sense. But I've had Pandora stored externally on my SD card since I was running 2.3.3 and that has a widget feature as well. I'm assuming that the update to 2.3.4 made it impossible to store apps that have widget functionality to the SD once you move them onto internal storage. Thanks for the help.
I'd really like to completely disable automatic media scanning on my GS3 and run it on a schedule via Tasker.
1) Is it possible to disable it completely? I tried Rescan Media Root from the Play Store and that prevents it from running at boot, but it still runs every time I modify a file on the ext sd card. Not to mention it seems to cause some other strange behavior (every time a scan was triggered the TouchWiz file explorer opened and asked for root).
2) Is anyone using the Scan Card action in Tasker? I tried running this and pointing it to the ext sd card, but nothing happens.
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.
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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
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?
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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:
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Yes, I've already confirmed that the files are definitely there.
jlacroix82 said:
Yes, I've already confirmed that the files are definitely there.
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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?
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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.
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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.
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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).