S4 Battery Drain Problem

[rpmurdock]

I am having a heavy battery drain problem with my i9500 octa-core S4. I have searched the forums and have not found a solution to my specific problem. I have already upgraded to the latest OS version. Which seemed to help initially. The problem is with a heavy use of the battery by "Media" (not Media Server). I have installed Gsam Battery Monitor and it shows that "Media" is heavy user. When I look at Media I hit "manage" to see what is the specific user. Gsam then shows me that "Downloads" is the heavy user. I have done a "Force Stop" on Downloads but that does not seem to solve the problem. I have already done the things stated in multiple threads. If possible I'd like to find out exactly what to do about "Download" that is causing the heavy battery usage. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[fantom305]

There is a threat going on about this right now............do a search on the forums and you will find it................

 

[rpmurdock]

As I clearly stated I have already conducted extensive searches on varying forums with no specific guidance regarding my specific problem. I would greatly appreciate any advice regarding my specific problem

 

[mhunter6378]

I am having a heavy battery drain problem with my i9500 octa-core S4. I have searched the forums and have not found a solution to my specific problem. I have already upgraded to the latest OS version. Which seemed to help initially. The problem is with a heavy use of the battery by "Media" (not Media Server). I have installed Gsam Battery Monitor and it shows that "Media" is heavy user. When I look at Media I hit "manage" to see what is the specific user. Gsam then shows me that "Downloads" is the heavy user. I have done a "Force Stop" on Downloads but that does not seem to solve the problem. I have already done the things stated in multiple threads. If possible I'd like to find out exactly what to do about "Download" that is causing the heavy battery usage. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I had the exact same issue with "media". In my case, I found the problem to be related to the external sd card. It was as though media was stuck trying to sync/read files from the sd card. What solved it for me was to remove the sd card, copy all my files to a folder on my computer, place the sd card back in the phone reformat it there and then copy my files back to the sd card. This cleared up the issue for me. I also read somewhere that files names with an underscore in them cause an issue, I don't know how true that is but I did look through my media files to make sure I didn't have any of those just to be sure. Good luck with this, hope I helped.

 

[rpmurdock]

Thank you very much, that was very helpful and did fix the problem. I'm sure it was not a coincidence that I was also having problems loading music onto the SD card. I replaced the card with another Samsung 32G card. I'm still having a file transfer problem using Kies, Windows media player and the normal Windows 7 file transfer mechanism. But at least this card is not sucking up the battery. Any suggestions on this problem or if I should use a different card? I've tried re-formatting the disc a couple of times. Since it looks like you've had the same problems any info would be very helpful. Thanx again.

 

[mhunter6378]

I'm using a PNY 32gb class 10 card. I have seen reports of issues particularly with Sandisk 32gb and especially 64gb. I'm not so sure it has so much to do with the card as the it is the higher capacities, 32 and 64, Sandisk just being one of the more popular brands in use. It seems at times the software glitches trying to read the media on the card and just keep trying to access it as a result causing the battery drain. Some have reported success using exfat formatting to handle larger files on the higher capacity cards. Doing what I reported earlier resolved my issues and it has not reoccurred so no further action has been required in my case.

On your second note regarding transferring files to and from the sd card. I use both PC and Mac. Have tried Kies on both and didn't like it, I got inconsistent results and it often duplicated music files on my phone. As a result I use Windows file explorer on the PC and Android file transfer on the Mac. Those methods simply read the phone as an external device like a flash drive. I simply drag and drop, copy and paste for moving files. Alternatively, I sometimes just take my sd card out of the phone and plug it directly into the sd card slot on my computers with a sd card adapter to accommodate the micro sd.

Hope this helps answer some of your questions.