What is MediaServer and why is it killing my battery?

winste

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Sep 11, 2010
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I did a search for MediaServer and only found one reference.

My phone went from 59% to 9% in 2 hours while in my pocket with screen off.

I checked baterry usage and it was 43% MediaServer and 39% Lotus Notes. I know Lotus is a baterry killer. But what is mediaserver? I have not used it to play music or pandora or any video.

I checked the running apps and couldn't figure out which app would fall under MediaServer.

I am rooted and on 4.0.4 with franco's kernel. I changed from standard to OEM extended battery Monday and since my battery life is much worse.
 

rickt1152

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On my Gnex, Media Server shows when I play my podcasts on Beyond Pod. I don't remember if it shows when using other media apps.

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Droid800

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I did a search for MediaServer and only found one reference.

My phone went from 59% to 9% in 2 hours while in my pocket with screen off.

I checked baterry usage and it was 43% MediaServer and 39% Lotus Notes. I know Lotus is a baterry killer. But what is mediaserver? I have not used it to play music or pandora or any video.

I checked the running apps and couldn't figure out which app would fall under MediaServer.

I am rooted and on 4.0.4 with franco's kernel. I changed from standard to OEM extended battery Monday and since my battery life is much worse.

Any time you play music or videos the mediaserver process is used. What were you doing before the battery drain?

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
 

DriveEuro

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Dec 18, 2011
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I'm assuming Lotus Notes = Traveler?
If so, change the sync schedule from "always connected" to something else. Traveler will eat up battery on any android phone. You'll see a nice battery life increase by changing it from being always connected to a scheduled sync.
 

adambomb6

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I'm assuming Lotus Notes = Traveler?
If so, change the sync schedule from "always connected" to something else. Traveler will eat up battery on any android phone. You'll see a nice battery life increase by changing it from being always connected to a scheduled sync.

This.....change it to 15min.... HUGE difference,trust us

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
 

winste

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Sep 11, 2010
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It must have been some app. I forced close everything I could and my battery drain returned to normal. It was just shocking to lose 50% in the span of 95 minutes.

I don't watch videos, at least I didn't before the problem. I changed lotus traveller to 15 minute synchs in the evening. I really can't do that during the day.

Oh well. I will chalk it up to some app and be better about force closing apps more regularly.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk
 

gregs1213

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Dec 19, 2011
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I don't know what the hell happened, but my battery was draining like 1% every two minutes or so... Media Server drained almost all of my battery.

Looked into Apps in Badass Battery and couldn't see one that was killing..

Looked into Wakelock on BetterBatteryStats and didn't see anything, besides Media Server..

My phone was constantly awake and running hot.. I was in the movies so I put it in airplane mode, and it didn't make a difference. I just went into recovery and wiped Cache/Dalvik and now it seems to be running normal... Really weird. I do use Beyond Pod though, but I don't think that was the cause of it.
 

anon(701772)

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Any time you play music or videos the mediaserver process is used. What were you doing before the battery drain?

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

I'm not convinced of this. I'm running PlayerPro all day at work and MediaServer only accounts for 2% of my usage. I thought MediaServer was activated anytime there was a change in media type files. So whenever a picture was taken and the image stored, MediaServer would fire up and let Gallery know there's been a change in media files.
 

gregs1213

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Yes, I do.. I forgot to mention.. At the same time.. My notifications weren't making any noises.. I was missing phone calls and text messages.. I have Volume+ and I believe around that time i got an error message "Volume+ has stopped working"..
 

dannyboy204

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Just so you know. About 90% of the time. Android batteries are very good. But once in a while. You can wake up one day with yesterday it being perfectly fine. (Hence when you realize one day that your phone is doing this to your battery) Keep in mind that a lot of the times, batteries just go. One suggestion I can say, is don't constantly have your phone plugged in to your charger while at home, or while sleeping, or whatever. Having said that. A constant power source is entering the phone, even while at 100% battery, its also why they tell you to unplug the charger once full. You shouldn't have a constant power source going into the battery just it keep it at full charge at all times. Eventually, your battery is going to explode from the inside. You can also check if your battery if fat in the middle, or bigger looking then normal. If so. More then half of posts like this, end up being a faulty battery. (not always at the brand new stage) but after having it for quite some time. Try warrenty for a new battery, or if you really have to, just buy a new one. Your phone is worth more then a faulty battery. Don't let a bad battery actually start to break your phone after a while of such abuse from the battery. The OS is trying its hardest to live off the battery, but if the battery is hurting the phone, the phone eventually will end up like the battery. If you have a friend that has a similar phone or even the same phone. Ask to see if you can use the battery for a day and see if that helps. (saves you a waste of time and money buying a new one if that ends up not being the case.) but i definitely suggest looking into the fact that it very well may be your battery.
 

wrighttt

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This is a reply to an old post but I believe battery drain by MediaServer is still a problem. I'm going to venture a guess of an answer.
I have also found MediaServer draining my battery and when it does the drain is very severe. To stop it I goto into Settings>Battery and ForceStop MediaServer several times within a few minutes just to make sure it keeps itself off.

However, I then became aware of a new observation. I noticed that the MediaCenter battery drain often showed up right after I changed my battery. If I kept the battery in the phone for a long time by recharging it inside the phone cradle with a USB charger it would become less of an issue. However my usual habit is to have a second battery on a charger outside the phone and when battery #1 drained I'd take it out and insert battery #2 and recharge battery #1. In this way I always had a 100% battery ready to go. I began to notice that the MediaCenter BATTERY DRAIN PROBLEM did not show up (to do it's drain the battery dead thing) if, when I changed my battery, I first powered down the phone using the power button rather than ripping the battery out of the phone for my normal quick change. I am starting to think that Android/Samsung??? (or MediaCenter) is performing some sort of disk check on either the FlashDisk or it's main memory when one arbitrarly powers down the phone by suddenly cutting power to the unit via taking out the batteries. I have a 64 GB SanDisk Memory stick with a 16GB Galaxy S3 phone so if a "Check Disk" is occurring on the 64GB it would take a longer time to complete. Those of you who 1) have no memory stick or 2) have a very small one....would be interesting to know if its less of a problem since the check disk would finish quicker. All this is guess work... :)

So, I am now powering down the phone via the power off switch before I change batteries and I have not seen MediaCenter going nuts (so far). However, I am Keeping my fingers crossed.
 

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