What is "Media" and how do I get it to stop eating my battery?

[kawana72]

I updated to Jelly Bean early Tuesday morning and the last 2 days (Wednesday and Thursday) my battery life has been horrible. When I go into battery usage I see an app called Media that is using 3/4 of the battery. The icon is the same one as downloads in the app drawer, but I haven't downloaded anything nor do I have any ongoing. When I touch the app for more info, the report button is grayed out, and I can force stop it, but it will start back up on its own. I also found an app with no name in the app list which freaks me out a little. I'm thinking that a factory reset is in order, but I thought I'd see if anyone knows what is going on first.

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[Ryan32973]

SAME issue here, sucks... I had EXCELLENT battery life preJB, after, one day of what used to be my "normal" usage and I am right now sitting at 25% left, as where prior, I would be close to 50%+

Sucks....

 

[isaacdibb1095]

Try clearing your cache and rebooting a couple of times. It may help with your battery.
Hope this helps

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[kawana72]

Try clearing your cache and rebooting a couple of times. It may help with your battery.
Hope this helps

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I would try that if I knew how.

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[JMcCarty22]

Here are the directions to clear your cache for the jb update, these are from the "how to clear you cache(stock)" thread which is right at the top of the razr maxx forums. The following directions thanks to eddiea, can be found in that thread on the third page.

"Thanks for the link B. Diddy. It seems these instructions on Verizon's site need to be revised a bit because Step 5 is somewhat misleading:
http://m-support.verizonwireless.com....html?id=66428

1. Power the device off.
2. Press and hold the Volume Up/Down then press the Power button.
3. When presented with the Boot Mode Selection Menu release all buttons.
4. Press Volume Down to select Recovery then press Volume Up.
5. From the Droid triage screen, [REVISED] simultaneously press Volume Down/Up (you should press and hold Volume Down first THEN press Volume Up while still holding Volume Down because pressing Up first won't work.)
6. Select wipe cache partition then press the Power button (use Volume keys to navigate options).
7. Select reboot system now then press the Power button.(use Volume keys to navigate options)."

 

[kawana72]

What exactly will this wipe out? What will I lose?

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[isaacdibb1095]

1. Power the device off.
2. Press and hold the Volume Up/Down then press the Power button.
3. When presented with the Boot Mode Selection Menu release all buttons.
4. Press Volume Down to select Recovery then press Volume Up.
5. From the Droid triage screen, simultaneously press Volume Down/Up (you should press and hold Volume Down first THEN press Volume Up while still holding Volume Down because pressing Up first won't work.)
6. Select wipe cache partition then press the Power button (use Volume keys to navigate options).
7. Select reboot system now then press the Power button.(use Volume keys to navigate options)."

 

[kawana72]

Thanks, folks. I just tried the cache wipe, I'll see how it goes.... Still unsure of what all gets wiped....

 

[kawana72]

Cache wipe didn't help, Media is still killing my battery.

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[EladII]

What exactly will this wipe out? What will I lose?

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There was never a reply to this question. When you cleared your cache what did you lose? Did it change anything?

 

[kawana72]

There was never a reply to this question. When you cleared your cache what did you lose? Did it change anything?

Nothing apparently. I lost more when I did the factory reset that didn't help either.

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[kawana72]

Update: when I press the refresh button in battery usage the media app in question changes to android . process . media.... Don't know if this helps, but I thought I'd share it with you all.

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[isaacdibb1095]

Update: when I press the refresh button in battery usage the media app in question changes to android . process . media.... Don't know if this helps, but I thought I'd share it with you all.

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I believe that the media is your background and lock screen, and possibly a process running for like a video streamer or maybe netflix?

 

[kawana72]

I'm not streaming any video and I have Netflix disabled, so that's probably not what's going on.

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[Jonathan Cousar]

Hey, I've had the exact same problem with the jb update from several months ago. I used to be able to stop this media app and it wouldn't start back. Then it started starting back again. But finally (after a few hours), it would stop. So I had to keep the phone plugged in during all that time. But whenever I had to fully stop the phone or change the battery, it would start back up and eat up 60% of the battery (in just an hour or so), before it would finally stop.

Last week I took it to the sprint store - they had no idea - but they ordered a replacement. Today, I go in, pick up the replacement, the guy starts it up - and the same thing happened. It started getting hot. He said maybe it was the sd card. So we took the sd card out. And it got hot again. Finally, he just looked at ME like I was the problem!!! He thought I had jinxed it or something!

They have absolutely no idea - but this is happening to everybody. It's all over the internet. Even Samsung, when you call them - they have absolutely no idea. Totally clueless.

This for me is a FATAL FLAW making the phone completely unusable. This phone needs a RECALL.

 

[B. Diddy]

Others have suggested that if a media file is corrupt, it might make the Media Scanner hang and cause excessive battery drain and CPU usage. That's why they tried taking the SD card out. If it still happened without the SD card inserted, could there still have been a media file on internal storage that was messing things up? One thing to try would be to delete all media files that you might have put in storage (music, videos, photos), then see if Media still causes a problem.

 

[kawana72]

I'm on my 4th or 5th replacement phone from my insurance and it's still happening. After it started happening the first time I took my sd card out and I haven't put it back in since. The last time I talked to the insurance company to order a new phone they said it was a known issue but it still keeps happening on the phones they send me so I'm not sure how to fix it or if it can be fixed.

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[jclake]

The fix:
Step 1: Remove all m4as from your sd cards to a folder on your desktop via usb storage; ringtones and all. I dont have any AAC files (itunes format) but they are m4as as well so I recommend removing them as well.

Step 2: Add them back one at a time, each time disconnecting from your computer and checking battery stats. If the file is ok you will see media server fall off the list within a minute. If media server hangs at 50% then that audio file is your culprit.

Step 3: If the offending file doesn't show itself, remove all audio files from your sd; mp3, wav, aiff, whatever. Use a mp3 repair app (I use MP3 Validator for Mac OS X | Christian Zuckschwerdt's blog for mac, theres eleventy-seven of them for pc. I dont claim to know which is best) to check and repair them and re-add them one at a time in the same procedure as step 2. Hopefully it wont come to this.

If none of these steps work start checking other media files. Corrupt video or image files might cause the same problem as they are all scanned by the media server.

Hope this helps

 

[kawana72]

I just transferred everything over to a new replacement phone 2 nights ago. "Media" wasn't present before I installed the apps that were on the previous phone, but as soon as I installed the apps, it's happening again after a hard reset. As I said before, there is no SD card present, and there hasn't been since March. When I get the replacements from the insurance company, I perform a factory data reset, then add apps. I do see "Media" on my Nexus 7, but the "Force Stop" button is grayed out, and I can't select it. Also, the "Media" on my Nexus 7 will only run for around 2-3 minutes as opposed to hours on the MAXX. I'm at a loss for ideas here.

 

[monsieurms]

I would try that if I knew how.

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There's good advice elsewhere here, but you can also download various apps. History Eraser Pro, for instance, will clear all caches for you. That's the principal reason I got it.

N.B. I don't use your phone, so I'm assuming the version of Android you have will work as it does on my S4. If not, sorry, but not much lost.