Important Information for Samsung Users

[sirandar]

I don't really use MMA yet but I do know a bit about Samsung Phones ....

If you plan to use MMA with a Samsung Phone (S2, 3, or 4) with 4.1.1 you really need to prevent the Samsung Android program "Mediaserver" from cataloging your tracks.

Mediaserver is the Samsung program that catalogs all the contents of the internal and microSD storage space.

Unfortunately it is buggy as hell and it cannot be disabled or your Galley App won't work BUT if you create a directory on your phone or microSD card and put a .nomedia file in it and put all your music as sub-directories, mediaserver will ignore that entire directory structure. If you use PowerAmp you should definitely do this too.

Even without MMA trying to catalog a microSD card full of music, mediaserver can suck your battery dry for days trying to work its way through all those music files. Often the card gets corrupted too.

If both mediaserver and MMA try to catalog the music at the same time, a powerful S3 phone will be reduced to a stuttering battery sucking mess for days on end.

The PowerAMP catalogger has no such problems and can catalog a whole 64Gb microSD card in 10 minutes.

[thebertster]

The Mediaserver scanner is not unique to Samsung devices, it is part of Android (though some vendors do not use it). The idea of the media server is to create a database index of media files on the device which can be shared by applications, rather than each application creating its own index, which is obviously inefficient. There have been quite a few bugs with the mediaserver service for sure, though in the latest builds these seem to be largely fixed.

The problem with creating a .nomedia file in the root of your music folder is that it will prevent other applications which rely on the mediaserver index from seeing your music; this is OK if you plan on only ever using MMA of course and don't need other applications to see your music library.

There is a secondary issue here in the way that MMA is currently creating low-res albumart.jpg files in each album directory for the artist/album list view thumbnails as these also get indexed by the mediaserver scanner and will show up in image apps that use the media index (e.g. the default gallery app on many devices). This should in my view be treated as a bug and I've created another post to ask that question.

[sirandar]

Thanks for the info .... I thought Mediaserver was a Samsung creation.

As of Android 4.1.1 mediaserver is still very buggy and is almost certain to choke on any decent sized Media Monkey library ....

I heard rumblings that it was fixed with Android 4.1.2 but my carrier hasn't released that yet so I can't really say.

Anyone having battery problems with MMA ....... it probably isn't MMA .... it is mediaserver choking on your library.


It would be very nice for a single routine to catalog all the files on Android drives ... clearly the most efficient .... but in reality it almost never works out because nobody ever seems to have comprehensive knowledge of all file types. The Android devs don't understand cataloging music files and that is why mediaserver chokes on a card full of MP3s. The PowerAmp devs do understand MP3 and their cataloger can whip though a full 64GB card in 10 min with no errors. Another issue with having Android catalog all file types is that it does a very incomplete job. For example, when mediaserver catalogs a MediaMonkey library it doesn't even database the track ratings let alone Mood, tempo and all the other good Media Monkey data. Sadly, the "one program" cataloging of Android drives has been a dismal failure IMO ...... stuck in the early 1990s.

That is basically why I don't use MMA .... there are no Media Monkey specific library features and MMA doesn't do anything PowerAmp can do except sync. With a decent phone and a microSD there is really not much need to sync either (although most phone devs except Samsung are positioning to block this by not supporting micro SD and opening up On-line music services).

It is the same with Android apps not having a exit function because Android can manage memory and power with everything open ...... in reality one misbehaving app brings your phone to its knees and sucks your battery dry. Sooner or later some app update or combination of apps cause your battery to be sucked dry and a reboot is necessary. Doesn't happen all that often any more as Android improves.

When I got my S3 the battery was lasting 1/2 day and I thought I had a bad phone ...... it was just mediaserver trying an failing to catalog my music.

The Mediaserver scanner is not unique to Samsung devices, it is part of Android (though some vendors do not use it). The idea of the media server is to create a database index of media files on the device which can be shared by applications, rather than each application creating its own index, which is obviously inefficient. There have been quite a few bugs with the mediaserver service for sure, though in the latest builds these seem to be largely fixed.

The problem with creating a .nomedia file in the root of your music folder is that it will prevent other applications which rely on the mediaserver index from seeing your music; this is OK if you plan on only ever using MMA of course and don't need other applications to see your music library.

There is a secondary issue here in the way that MMA is currently creating low-res albumart.jpg files in each album directory for the artist/album list view thumbnails as these also get indexed by the mediaserver scanner and will show up in image apps that use the media index (e.g. the default gallery app on many devices). This should in my view be treated as a bug and I've created another post to ask that question.

[thebertster]

I heard rumblings that it was fixed with Android 4.1.2 but my carrier hasn't released that yet so I can't really say.

I do have 4.1.2 on my GS3 (build I9300XXELLA) and have no issues with mediaserver sucking battery life...but then I don't recall ever having any specific issues on earlier versions either, though a quick Google backs up that many people did.

My battery has always lasted anything from 12 hours on a bad day (moderate/heavy use during the day, no WiFi, constant cellular data connectivity) to about 24 hours on a normal day (moderate use, WiFi connected all day - uses less battery than cellular data). The only time I had issues with unexpected battery drain was due to specific "naughty" apps (Skype being by far the worst).

The only time I ever really have my battery run flat is if I have to train it up to London as I'm using the phone heavily for pretty much the whole train journey there and back and it's using cellular data all day. Right now, my battery is at 82% after a full day at work (not London!) using the phone a fair bit - the only charge top up it's had is on the 15 minute drive home. Certainly not Nokia 6310 battery life, but not bad I think for the stock battery.

The main things I've done to improve battery life are to choose dark visual themes in every app that supports them, have WiFi auto turn on and off (using an app called Auto WiFi Toggle), Bluetooth automatically turn on and off when I am in the car (Bluetooth Auto Off app), removed all the carrier-installed rubbish that can be removed, turn off notifications in all apps where I am not interested in getting notifications and use push notifications whenever possible where I do, turned off all NFC functions as I don't need them and set the screen brightness to automatic.