[Q] New A500 owner, couple of noob questions - Acer Iconia A500

Hi folks, got my A500 refurb for 200 bucks last night. Its mint, and so far awesome. I am coming from a Nook Color as my last tablet so this is a huge jump. Updated OTA to ICS this morning.
Couple of simple questions:
1. How do I turn off haptic feedback? It wasn't on when it was on HC, but in ICS it has it, the vibrate on this thing is strong enough for it to be annoying. I looked under keyboard settings which is where it is on any of my old devices, and its not there, unless I missed it?
2. Does this thing go to sleep if you leave the screen off for an extended period, like shut off the wifi and go low power? my Nook does that, not sure if theres a setting I need to set. I left for work this morning and left it on my desk, on and connected to WiFi, am I gonna come home to 50% battery?
3. Tried the Hero of Sparta game on it last night while still on HC. Played great but the sound was choppy, I have heard some attribute sound issues to Dolby Mobile, is that the case? Should I try again with Dolby turned off?
4. I believe I read that you can't move apps to the SD card with ICS? Is that the case, because I bought an 8gb tab which means I'm gonna run out of space real quick. Can rooting fix that?

Rogue Leader said:
Hi folks, got my A500 refurb for 200 bucks last night. Its mint, and so far awesome. I am coming from a Nook Color as my last tablet so this is a huge jump. Updated OTA to ICS this morning.
Couple of simple questions:
1. How do I turn off haptic feedback? It wasn't on when it was on HC, but in ICS it has it, the vibrate on this thing is strong enough for it to be annoying. I looked under keyboard settings which is where it is on any of my old devices, and its not there, unless I missed it?
2. Does this thing go to sleep if you leave the screen off for an extended period, like shut off the wifi and go low power? my Nook does that, not sure if theres a setting I need to set. I left for work this morning and left it on my desk, on and connected to WiFi, am I gonna come home to 50% battery?
3. Tried the Hero of Sparta game on it last night while still on HC. Played great but the sound was choppy, I have heard some attribute sound issues to Dolby Mobile, is that the case? Should I try again with Dolby turned off?
4. I believe I read that you can't move apps to the SD card with ICS? Is that the case, because I bought an 8gb tab which means I'm gonna run out of space real quick. Can rooting fix that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. In sound settings
2. I'd be worried if I came home to find my battery at 50 per cent, you be fine
2. Check advanced wifi settings- can tell wifi when to sleep
3. Cant help with this, experiment and find out
4. Not heard of anyone running out - that usb port comes in mighty handy!!!
5. Welcome to the forum

dibb_nz said:
1. In sound settings
2. I'd be worried if I came home to find my battery at 50 per cent, you be fine
2. Check advanced wifi settings- can tell wifi when to sleep
3. Cant help with this, experiment and find out
4. Not heard of anyone running out - that usb port comes in mighty handy!!!
5. Welcome to the forum
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the tips, I came home and it was at 92 percent
Shutting off Dolby did fix the sound problem
I put a 32 GB micro SD in it. I was concerned games wouldn't install to it, and apparently they don't. I don't have a lot installed and yet I have less than 1.5gb remaining.
Thanks for the welcome

Rogue Leader said:
Thanks for the tips, I came home and it was at 92 percent
Shutting off Dolby did fix the sound problem
I put a 32 GB micro SD in it. I was concerned games wouldn't install to it, and apparently they don't. I don't have a lot installed and yet I have less than 1.5gb remaining.
Thanks for the welcome
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
awesome you're welcome Hows that 32GB Card working, had any issues apart from being too small what brand and class is it m8???

dibb_nz said:
awesome you're welcome Hows that 32GB Card working, had any issues apart from being too small what brand and class is it m8???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I got a sandisk class 4. It seems to work fine but the fact there's no way to move apps to it makes it a bit useless. I'm not much of a music/movie guy I usually use streaming so media space is wasted on me. Is there a fix for that yet?

app2sd
You might want to try App2sd from the google play store. The app won't move all apps to SD card, only apps that are moveable. So this app won't totally solve your problem but it should help.

partzman2 said:
You might want to try App2sd from the google play store. The app won't move all apps to SD card, only apps that are moveable. So this app won't totally solve your problem but it should help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I have that but it apparently doesn't work with ICS. I read somewhere else here someone complained about this as well. The button doesn't even show up to move apps to SD.

Rogue Leader said:
Yeah I have that but it apparently doesn't work with ICS. I read somewhere else here someone complained about this as well. The button doesn't even show up to move apps to SD.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A lot of games and other Database apps usually save the Data to the Ext SD Card by default, or give you an option for location. At least what I've come across.

Rogue Leader said:
I got a sandisk class 4. It seems to work fine but the fact there's no way to move apps to it makes it a bit useless. I'm not much of a music/movie guy I usually use streaming so media space is wasted on me. Is there a fix for that yet?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A Class 4 is a hair on the slow side, anyways. You would likely see a real world performance hit running apps off a class 4 card.

Moscow Desire said:
A lot of games and other Database apps usually save the Data to the Ext SD Card by default, or give you an option for location. At least what I've come across.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah the games do save there, but you can't move the actual app to the SD card which is nice to do. I bought an 8 gb tab and with only about 10 games on there and whatever apps I have I'm down to only 1.5 gb.
EDIT: I am wrong. The games do not save there. If I look in ES File Explorer the /mnt/sdcard folder shows a bunch of stuff, yet when I pull the SD card and put it in my PC, its blank except a couple of android insertd folders. I believe ICS DOES NOT save to the SD card? Can anyone else check? In ES File explorer, the sd card I inserted is shown as folder "external_sd" while theres a separate sdcard folder of which nothing in there is on the sd card.
I am wondering if I can just copy the data to the SD card, delete the "sdcard" folder and rename external to "sdcard"
Metallkasten said:
A Class 4 is a hair on the slow side, anyways. You would likely see a real world performance hit running apps off a class 4 card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Class 4 is the go to card on many many phones, the higher classes suffer on performance for many phone tasks which are I/O but work great for recording video or taking pictures. Class 10 especially really is made for digital cameras and actually performs worse than a 4 on a phone/tablet.

Related

Sense UI massive speedup

I've been using the hero for about a week now, pretty solidly. At first I was getting annoyed with laggy accelerometer, laggy screen switches, lagg keyboard... last few days it seems like it has sped up hugely. I normally have a few RSS feeds, hi msn, music player, browser, maybe last fm and a few other bits open, especailly yesterday and today have noticed no appreciable slowdown.
So for people who are getting annoyed at sense, give it a week. I think dealing with a slightly laggy phone for a few days is a decent enough tradeoff for eventually getting a fast one, that still has the joys of sense.
Does anyone have any idea why it gets faster? Could it be a mechanism similair to windows superfetch, or perhaps some kind of self-optimising code? Or just psychological Whatever is it, I no longer get those little flashes of annoyance with the thing.
snafle said:
Or just psychological .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It will be this.
Cheers, I feel enlightened.
I personally suspect there's some kind of profiling/prefetching going on in android, maybe based around the preload daemon.
Did you change to a class 6 microSD card? I have heard that android maintains a swap file on it and everything works better with a class 6 card rather than the slower class 4 one supplied in the box.
Just a thought...
I've been using a Class 6 card since i started using the hero and i haven't noticed any lag at all. For those who are experiencing lag, is you handset unbranded?
Hm. My UI actually slowed down instead of speeding up. This especially after I rooted the Hero and installed Chinese IME. Might also come from the fact that the number of apps on my phone keeps growing and growing...
I'm white unbranded (beautiful...) and there's quite literally no lag anymore. You know the bit where you type and get ahead of the keyboard? Stopped happening on tuesday.
Man and machine in perfect harmony
I've also experienced some terrible lag on the keyboard and am hoping that what you report is correct. I should also be getting my 8 gb micro sdhc card today or tomorrow (class 6) so hopefully that will speed things up a little also. I'll let you guys know how It goes.
Mansn said:
I've also experienced some terrible lag on the keyboard and am hoping that what you report is correct. I should also be getting my 8 gb micro sdhc card today or tomorrow (class 6) so hopefully that will speed things up a little also. I'll let you guys know how It goes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do you indentity the class of the sd card? is there a code printed on it?
Mansn, i've PM'ed you, check your message inbox.
mwatson said:
How do you indentity the class of the sd card? is there a code printed on it?
Mansn, i've PM'ed you, check your message inbox.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Depends, some cards there is a number in the top right corner, others just don't have anything. There is a program for the PC when you put the memory card in a card ready which will assess its speed, just can't remember what its called.
Mine is lagging as much as it was on the first day. I'm curious about the class6 sd. Maybe it's a solution. Thank you for keeping in touch about that
My keyboard has slowed back down again It's started lagging and selecting the alt-key at least once a text message. The rest of it seems to have slowed back down aswell. I'm going to try work out what's doing this, at the moment the two new apps I've used are Peep and imeem.
I believe I have an 8gig class6 sd. Might be class4.
Using a class 2, 4 or 6 won't speed up the UI since it's on the main memory not on the card.
I have a class6 and it is laggy
Whilst most of my experience with the Hero has been lagged it just seems to get worse day after day.
The keyboard for example which I loved at first has become quite appalling to use now, I mean i've never been a fast typer on virtual keyboards but I feel now that with the keyboard as it is now on my phone is actually slowing me down further!
The phone slows down a little for me to from time to time. I just reboot it and it is real fast again. Also I'm hoping that the Class 6 Transcend card will give a noticeable boost.
Klling peep really seems to help. It does seem like a good amount of the HTC software has lots of room for improvement, but it makes the phone so much nicer to use than standard android. Hopefully we'll get an update soon.
why don't the apps just close when you shut them? ok i understand peep and mail... still running as it updates at intervals but i had 10 apps running last night, albums, video player, barcode scanner, google maps, doggcatcher and more, the phone was almost unuseable.
i know mine has speeded back up after i uninstaled a few apps.
Locale seemed to really slow mine down, Peep does as well, and astrid kept causing the home button bug.
Since i got rid of those, it is a whole heap better.
mm i use astrid, what is the home screen bug? do use any other app in its place?
hadn't even started using it to be honest. got it as a plug in for locale so i could have GPS based reminders, but didn't get a chance to try it out.
basically the bug is in a few other threads, where once you hold the home key to view recent apps, it unlocks the binding to touchflo and it asks whether you want to use touchflo or the base android homescreen.
stopped as soon as i uninstalled astrid. also happens with Task Manager by Wing Shen. but that is another thread....

SD card issue fix - Need testers!

Hi all,
A few of us on the SD card list thread have tried this and it seems to be stablizing things....the theory as we are working with now is that the problem is due to a power control issue in the Samsung drivers for the phone, not especially in the card itself.
No ill effects have been reported as of yet, and the battery life seems to be on par with before the switch was made. It is a simple fix, and can be reversed easily.
I ran the phone for 2 months without a card, and with these keys toggled, it is actually FASTER than it was. I don't fully believe it, but it has been over a week and rock solid.
First off, you need to dev unlock your phone. See the thread here for simple and complete instructions: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=938106
Next off, you need to toggle the following 3 registry keys in the Registry Editor provided in the above post:
The keys have to do with MMC (internal memory) power management.The big speed improvements is in games/apps (Fruit Ninja opens and operates leaps and bounds faster than it did when the phone did stock!)
Code:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE>Drivers>SDCARD>ClientDrivers>Class>MMC_Class>DisablePowerManagement (Change to 0)
Code:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE>Drivers>SDCARD>ClientDrivers>Class>MMC_Class>High_Capacity>DisablePowerManagement (Change to 0)
Code:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE>Drivers>SDCARD>ClientDrivers>Class>SDMemory_Class>DisablePowerManagement (Change to 0)
One point of note here, do not be afraid if the phone locks up the first time soft resetting after these changes, mine did and it was fine after a battery pull.
Also, I would be interested to hear any theories about why this one made such a big difference when it seemingly affects only the internal storage. Maybe because the two storage devices are "bridged" by WP7?
Comment below with your experiences please!
If this gets enough test results, we will submit it to Microsoft. Thanks!
As I already mentioned:
Up to now I just did the SD card registry hack. The device is now stable for over 3 days, longer than ever before.
Battery life wasn't noticable affected, lasted for around 40h with moderate usage (thumbs up indeed).
In fact without this registry hack I wasn't able to get down to an empty battery without those reboting/dataloss issues.
But I need some more days, then I will change the MMC registry key also.
No speed improvements mentioned up to now.
I applied the hack to all three keys. So far, it is much less laggy. Not sure if that will return after 4+ weeks as before, but here's a pretty cool side effect:
After the hack, my screen does not stop responding to touch when the phone is placed on my desk or a soft surface, like a couch cushon. It was getting really annoying because I often place mu phone on my desk during the day for easy access, but every time I tried to onlock it, it would not respond unless I picked it up. Sometimes, it's nice to leave it lying down and operate it. Couldn't do that before, but I can now! WooHoo! Thank you for this.
I'll report back if it starts up again in a couple weeks.
Sent from my Focus WP7 using Board Express
Whoa! I just tested this and you are correct! More proof that the Samsung power drivers are full of problems. Who would have thought?
For testing purpose I changed the MMC Keys also and made some Videos (no I won't upload them). There were absoluteley no differences in app loading times (ok, i know the longer loading apps are pretty much all stored on the sd card, ) and also not in overall performance, although this isn't provable easily.
I changed the keys back to normal, but kept the sd card key change to 0.
I address the positive speed effects to sdcard key for now. Perhaps i will make some tests without any reg change in the next few days.
Still stable as hell!
Edit: Damn I forgot to test the not responding problem (even though i didn't notice it that often and badly)
Sebo1985 said:
For testing purpose I changed the MMC Keys also and made some Videos (no I won't upload them). There were absoluteley no differences in app loading times (ok, i know the longer loading apps are pretty much all stored on the sd card, ) and also not in overall performance, although this isn't provable easily.
I changed the keys back to normal, but kept the sd card key change to 0.
I address the positive speed effects to sdcard key for now. Perhaps i will make some tests without any reg change in the next few days.
Still stable as hell!
Edit: Damn I forgot to test the not responding problem (even though i didn't notice it that often and badly)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As I mentioned above, I'm hoping it's not just a result of resetting something and it still returns in a few weeks. Although, the thing about the screen touch response not working when laying on something is COMPLETELY GONE! That alone is worth the setting change. It really was annoying for me the way I use the phone. Thank you to eveyone involved in finding this setting.
PS: From my perception, I don't believe my battery is behaving any differently. Although, I would imagine if it were scientifically tested, it surely would be using slightly more juice. But it still had the normal amount left in the evening, and I probably used it slightly more testing it out. Maybe getting the screen to perform better uses less power?
For the sake of completeness: I set the sd card key back to 1, and I do not experience any slow down in overall performance or in app loading times. Still I cannot reproduce any of those not responding issues you mentioned.
For today and tomorrow I will stay with this setting an will wait for a random reboot. Let's see what and when it happens.
tried this with a 16gb class2 sandisk... loaded it up to 9.25 left and the reboot monster came... but it was weird... it would rebllt like every 30 sec with no loss then poof all lost...then rendom self reboot all mem would reappear and start the reboot process all over.... now it didnt do this till it was unplugged.... plugged in it was fine... reformatted... re set up did the tweak... loaded and the same as before... so for me no... but im going to test it with another card on the list... heres to hoping....
but it does fix the sitting on the bed and unresponsive gimmick.....
So would this be worthwhile even for someone without an sdcard? For the screen response issue i mean. It's so annoying haha.
edit: Screw it i went ahead and did it hah. It def fixed the touch screen responsiveness issue!
Which cards?
Can you guys post the specific SD cards you are testing this with. I am curious to see if somebody has tested it with the Sandisk class 2 32gb card. Thanks.
knwldg0010 said:
Can you guys post the specific SD cards you are testing this with. I am curious to see if somebody has tested it with the Sandisk class 2 32gb card. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sebo's testing with a SanDisk Class 4 32GB card which ended up being more stable (before it failed and before he tried the registry stuff) than the Class 2s from Sandisk.
Based on what you have read, would it be best to get rid of the class 2 32gb card or wait to see if there is an actual fix? Since this seems to be a power issue based on the fix, does it really matter what class it is then? Thanks.
knwldg0010 said:
Based on what you have read, would it be best to get rid of the class 2 32gb card or wait to see if there is an actual fix? Since this seems to be a power issue based on the fix, does it really matter what class it is then? Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Something to keep in mind is that this registry hack is relatively new. Some people managed to go for weeks without issues on an unmodified WP7 with a card. It's entirely possible that these hacks are just a stopgap, or a reset, and actually *fix* nothing.
Theoretically, the card shouldn't matter. If I hadn't locked my 32GB Class 4 Kingston to my old (bricked) Focus, I would try it with the current one and see if doing the registry tweaks fixes the slow sync issue on it. Someone in the SD Card List thread claims to have done the registry tweaks and it ended up failing badly too with a 16GB Class 2 Sandisk. However, the 16GB Class 2 Sandisk is one of the more reliable ones (without tweaks) through the limited testing this board has done, so it's possible he has a bad card.
In brief, it shouldn't matter (within reason) what brand/class/capacity you use. If this tweak is the real deal, it should work, especially if your only concern is random reboots. However, you still would want to avoid cards with extremely high class ratings at typically their random read/write is slow (which the most common usage of the storage in WP7). In terms of performance, there's no guarantee as to what these tweaks will do as the only consistent change has been that phones that would constantly reboot due to their cards aren't (yet).
However, to answer your initial question, I don't believe anyone has tested a Class 2 Sandisk 32GB card. I wouldn't put too much faith that your card will have the exact same results as Sebo's class 4 because we aren't certain what the cause is. We believe it's power, but we're not 100% sure. If you're already using the card in your phone, you don't really have much to lose. If you're not using it yet, then you only have something to lose if you, like me, don't have a Nokia/Symbian phone that you can use to reformat the card if it fails.
Good post fishface.... That's where most are thinking its a fix.. This is just a theory right now.. That's why there's another post wanting testers... my find was it did fix the sensitivity issue...theres no doubt on my end.. But card wise my 16gb class2 SanDisk worked before I tried this until I hit 15gb used... Then it went goofy... I tried it 5 times.. Same thing. Just about 15gb used was where the instability happened. Soon as the reg hack hit I read thru it.. I love reg edits.. Made my Omnia 2 &hd2 quite decent phones... That's when I saw the mention of others thinking this too.. So I took my 16gb class2 SanDisk that I freshly brought back to life, and decided to test it out... I posted the results before... Plugged in no issue.. Unplugged it went goofy at 12.7 used... I was stable at that point before without the edits... Not saying it doesn't help but it made mine worse... I'm still going to try other cards though .. I do think there is something to this... I might try different scenarios of the edit... What's it going to hurt..i mean were here for the same goal to help find a solution... Well except the lurkers..you all know who you are..lol. But again. Great post fishface...
Thanks for all of the info. I guess fix is the wrong word to use, but i was just trying to get an idea of what others have done. Whenever i would pass the 10gb mark, mine would do a full wipe after a couple of restarts. I still have my 32gb card in my phone, because there really is no point of taking it out and possibly loosing it. Plus i was hoping an official fix would come out so i could just apply the patch. I have been waiting to see when the MS update would come out so i could do a full backup before running test. Thank you for your help.
anyone tried messing with block sizes? Default is 128. I'm wondering if maybe your sd card has trouble with that block size its causing the lagginess. Who knows lol....
Sent from my SGH-i917 using Board Express
Also I'm still using my 32gb Kingston class 4. I have all 3 keys set to 0. And its still going strong other than that one reset I had. MMC block size 128 sd block size 128. If my sd card can't handle that large of a block size I would have instability.
Sent from my SGH-i917 using Board Express
Anyone know if this also fixes the song stuttering issue? That's definitely power related since it only happens in the last couple of seconds of a song if the screen is off. One you turn it back on, the music plays perfectly.
jeffgeno said:
Anyone know if this also fixes the song stuttering issue? That's definitely power related since it only happens in the last couple of seconds of a song if the screen is off. One you turn it back on, the music plays perfectly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't had a chance to test that yet but I'll post if I have any issues
Sent from my SGH-i917 using Board Express
I'm stuck. Made it through the first three downloads and have my phone unlocked.
Followed Registry Editor link and downloaded RegistryEditor 1.1.0.0.xap. My computer will not open up this file because it doesn't know what program to use, so I tried to download it straight to my phone and my phone says it doesn't support xap. What steps am I missing?
How do I get into the registry to change the three tabs?

[Q] TPT extremely slow with SD card installed

Hi guys,
I recently got the TPT 3G 64GB and was pretty happy except for the occasional lag. But it was bearable. Also, I found that widgets slows it down a bit, so I got rid of most of them.
Then I got the Transcend 32GB Class 10 SDHC card to expand the memory. I put all my photos in there which is around 20GB. Then I suddenly found the TPT to be really laggy all the time. I couldn't figure it out. I thought it was beacause of some apps I installed. But nothing helped. Then I just removed the SD card from my TPT and did a reboot. Immediately I saw the difference!! It's back to its normal speed.
This is very alarming. Does anyone have any idea why this is happening? This is not normal, right?
- Surja
Try adw ex launcher ....
Sent from my HTC EVO 3D X515a using XDA App
maek_it_happen said:
Try adw ex launcher ....
Sent from my HTC EVO 3D X515a using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I thought there was a problem with the native launcher, but I would like ta have a better understanding before switching to adw.
Could you tell me more about what is happening ?
Thanks
Just try any other launcher
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Android_Launchers
Zeam has a reputation for being clean (very essential), fast, and good on older phones.
you also may want to try:
1. a physically different card, perhaps a much smaller one to see if that makes a difference
2. a card you have formatted in the machine you intend to use it primarily
3. if you create a Linux Ubuntu boot CD and load up GParted (I'ts a bit to get into, but once you're in, you're in, and it's so incredibly handy) you can inspect and create partitions with whatever format you like. I don't, but could in a pinch use Ubuntu as a daily driver for a PC/laptop, so if my Windows dies, I have a slower, but free backup plan.
4. take a flashlight and a magnifying glass and check to make sure the pins that connect to the card look absolutely tidy. They're fragile, and if something's .1mm off, it could, on the outside chance, confuse things just enough to slow things down a lot rather than stopping things entirely.
5. Call Lenovo. It's your civic duty to report a problem. They may already have a fix, they may just escalate pursuing a fix they've gotten some/not enough calls on, or they may blow you off but you know & have record that you alerted them if there ends up being a class action lawsuit or whatever. It's just the smart and upstanding way to go.
6. Try the card that's giving you problems in a store model if you can find one. See if it does the same thing.
HTH

Solved: Android System eating battery

So, I've seen quite a few posts now about Android System eating way more battery than it should, and I'd noticed the same thing on my phone since day 1. I tried turning features and settings on and off, disabling apps etc etc all to no avail, but I've finally cracked it
Format your external SD card via the phone settings, and use Kies to re-sync your content. Mine was originally formatted as FAT32 and I'd dragged and dropped the music and photos onto it via my computer. I don't quite understand the mechanism responsible, but this seems to be the source of my phone's unusual battery drain. Android System battery utilisation has dropped markedly, and battery life is greatly extended. I noticed the media scanner working for a few hours after I initially inserted the SD card, however after formatting and reloading via Kies the media scanner didn't run, yet all the content shows up where it should. I can only guess that some process responsible for indexing the media was running amok? Either way it's now able to sit in flight mode overnight without dropping a single %, whereas previously it'd drop at least 6%. In active use the display now always sits at the top of the battery use table rather than Android System, usually by a large margin :victory:
vanButton said:
So, I've seen quite a few posts now about Android System eating way more battery than it should, and I'd noticed the same thing on my phone since day 1. I tried turning features and settings on and off, disabling apps etc etc all to no avail, but I've finally cracked it
Format your external SD card via the phone settings, and use Kies to re-sync your content. Mine was originally formatted as FAT32 and I'd dragged and dropped the music and photos onto it via my computer. I don't quite understand the mechanism responsible, but this seems to be the source of my phone's unusual battery drain. Android System battery utilisation has dropped markedly, and battery life is greatly extended. I noticed the media scanner working for a few hours after I initially inserted the SD card, however after formatting and reloading via Kies the media scanner didn't run, yet all the content shows up where it should. I can only guess that some process responsible for indexing the media was running amok? Either way it's now able to sit in flight mode overnight without dropping a single %, whereas previously it'd drop at least 6%. In active use the display now always sits at the top of the battery use table rather than Android System, usually by a large margin :victory:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What if we don't have an external SD card?
thegame2388 said:
What if we don't have an external SD card?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then this isn't what's causing your issue.
vanButton said:
So, I've seen quite a few posts now about Android System eating way more battery than it should, and I'd noticed the same thing on my phone since day 1. I tried turning features and settings on and off, disabling apps etc etc all to no avail, but I've finally cracked it
Format your external SD card via the phone settings, and use Kies to re-sync your content. Mine was originally formatted as FAT32 and I'd dragged and dropped the music and photos onto it via my computer. I don't quite understand the mechanism responsible, but this seems to be the source of my phone's unusual battery drain. Android System battery utilisation has dropped markedly, and battery life is greatly extended. I noticed the media scanner working for a few hours after I initially inserted the SD card, however after formatting and reloading via Kies the media scanner didn't run, yet all the content shows up where it should. I can only guess that some process responsible for indexing the media was running amok? Either way it's now able to sit in flight mode overnight without dropping a single %, whereas previously it'd drop at least 6%. In active use the display now always sits at the top of the battery use table rather than Android System, usually by a large margin :victory:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So what should we format the memory card to? Fat32 still?
Joe0113 said:
So what should we format the memory card to? Fat32 still?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just let the phone format it, there are no options for which file system you would like.
vanButton said:
Just let the phone format it, there are no options for which file system you would like.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting. And what's your battery like now?
Joe0113 said:
Interesting. And what's your battery like now?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Much, much better. Oddly the Gallery app now shows more album artwork that was always located on the external SD card, but obviously was not being properly indexed. So far today I've got 3.5 hours of screen-on time and still have 58% battery capacity. Previously it'd have been that low with no screen time.
vanButton said:
Much, much better. Oddly the Gallery app now shows more album artwork that was always located on the external SD card, but obviously was not being properly indexed. So far today I've got 3.5 hours of screen-on time and still have 58% battery capacity. Previously it'd have been that low with no screen time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Couple more questions thn I'll stop annoying you :silly:
1. What's your Android System vs Screen now in terms of usage of the battery (% wise). And how was it before you did this little trick?
2. How should I go about putting everything back onto my SD Card (backups, pics. apps, etc.)? I've never used Kies before so I have no idea what to do lol.
3. All you did was go to settings, then storage and hit format sd card, correct?
Joe0113 said:
Couple more questions thn I'll stop annoying you :silly:
1. What's your Android System vs Screen now in terms of usage of the battery (% wise). And how was it before you did this little trick?
2. How should I go about putting everything back onto my SD Card (backups, pics. apps, etc.)? I've never used Kies before so I have no idea what to do lol.
3. All you did was go to settings, then storage and hit format sd card, correct?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're not annoying me, honest, that's why I shared my results here ;P
1: Android System is currently 13%, screen is 29%. Previously Android System would be over 30% no matter what and often much higher if I didn't use the phone much that day.
2: Copy everything off your SD card onto your computer using whichever method you currently use. In Kies there's a file browser icon that lets you browse the contents of your phone, as well as copy things to and from it. You don't have to use the automated sync tools in Kies, you can simply drag and drop using the Kies browser.
3: Yup, that is correct. Not sure if it's maybe formatted using exFAT now, but I believe that's Android's preferred format these days.
I think I formatted my new SD card when I put it in the phone but not sure.
Is there any way to check and see what the card is formatted to? exFAT? Fat32? It was a brand new Samsung card.
I'm not really seeing bad battery life at all just curious.
vanButton said:
You're not annoying me, honest, that's why I shared my results here ;P
1: Android System is currently 13%, screen is 29%. Previously Android System would be over 30% no matter what and often much higher if I didn't use the phone much that day.
2: Copy everything off your SD card onto your computer using whichever method you currently use. In Kies there's a file browser icon that lets you browse the contents of your phone, as well as copy things to and from it. You don't have to use the automated sync tools in Kies, you can simply drag and drop using the Kies browser.
3: Yup, that is correct. Not sure if it's maybe formatted using exFAT now, but I believe that's Android's preferred format these days.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So when I re copy everything to my phone... Can I put it on my SD card again or should I place it in the internal storage? (using kies as you stated) thanks a lot buddy
Sent from a Galaxy 5 light years away
Joe0113 said:
So when I re copy everything to my phone... Can I put it on my SD card again or should I place it in the internal storage? (using kies as you stated) thanks a lot buddy
Sent from a Galaxy 5 light years away
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup, you can put everything back on to the external SD card via Kies.
Maybe it is also caused by kitkat bug, which is Not only triggered by skype, but also hangouts etc etc http://www.zdnet.com/kitkat-giving-...-says-google-as-it-prepares-a-fix-7000027051/
Verstuurd vanaf mijn GT-N7100 met Tapatalk
Dumb. Not related to battery drain
Follow Me @Bash_array
thegame2388 said:
What if we don't have an external SD card?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i'm also getting massive android system use for seemingly no good reason, and it started like 4 days ago, my phone was fine before that.
I'm new to android so I don't even know where to start with regards to uncovering problems of this nature
das7982 said:
Dumb. Not related to battery drain
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Even dumber, you didn't read the article ? It is indeed related to battery drain and is a common bug in kitkat

I think I found a solution to the stupid Android System battery drain...

This is REALLLYYY a PITA but as of right now I'm pretty sure it actually worked. So if your Android System is taking up 25%+ and higher than your screen for taking up battery (in Settings--->Battery stats), then try this. As of right now my screen is #1 and Android System is only at 15%!
**Try this while your charging your phone to 100% to see if it actually worked!!**
1. Download and install Kies3.
2. Copy all contents of your ext SD Card to your computer.
3. Go into Settings-->Scroll down to System and click on Storage.
4. Format your ext SD Card by pressing "Format SD Card".
5. Go into Kies3 and and copy all of your contents back onto your SD Card.
6. Once that process is finished, download SD Scanner.
7. Go into the SD Scanner app and scan the internal storage (default one) and ext SD Card (/storage/extSdCard <-- must be typed exactly like that).
8. Reboot your phone once your phone has hit 100%.
9. See if it worked for you, hope this helps, and if it doesn't then I'm sorry but it worked well for me!
What exactly does this do? Just wondering but thanks for your active posts you have some really helpful stuff here
Sent from my SM-G900P using xda app-developers app
timothylockhart said:
What exactly does this do? Just wondering but thanks for your active posts you have some really helpful stuff here
Sent from my SM-G900P using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It made the Android System battery drain go down, and instead of Android System being the #1 battery drainer, screen is!
But what does it actually do? Put media scanner to sleep (something that was a HUGE problem on the s3 - media scanner always running)?
crazymook said:
But what does it actually do? Put media scanner to sleep (something that was a HUGE problem on the s3)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is more what I was asking what cons does this have
Sent from my SM-G900P using xda app-developers app
crazymook said:
But what does it actually do? Put media scanner to sleep (something that was a HUGE problem on the s3)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It scans ALLL of your media for you (hence why I said to scan internal, then your ext Sd Card). Thus eliminating the need for Android to scan your media.
Pretty sure media scan would still run tho...no? Especially if ure taking pics, adding music, etc etc.
crazymook said:
Pretty sure media scan would still run tho...no? Especially if ure taking pics, adding music, etc etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes but if you're like me and have a 32GB EXT SD card and have 28 Gigs worth of stuff on it... Then it deff works and is worth it lol.
Sent from a Galaxy 5 light years away
Well i tried it... Will hope for the best but..... Kies wouldnt let me add any of my files I carry on my SD card like my titanium backup youtube apk or ceberus apk....
only media files...
Also I have heard of people just removing their sd card and getting god like battery maybe we just have junk sd cards? Planning on getting a 32gb micro class 10 soon enough....
---------- Post added at 06:57 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:52 PM ----------
Joe0113 said:
Yes but if you're like me and have a 32GB EXT SD card and have 28 Gigs worth of stuff on it... Then it deff works and is worth it lol.
Sent from a Galaxy 5 light years away
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So how do you add non multimedia files through kies? what does this sd scanner do? caches it or? Like i dont see how this does anything at all i have heard people talking about removing their micro sd card and getting a huge boost of battery so maybe I just have a junk one planning on getting a micro sd 32gb class 10 soon
Joe0113 said:
This is REALLLYYY a PITA but as of right now I'm pretty sure it actually worked. So if your Android System is taking up 25%+ and higher than your screen for taking up battery (in Settings--->Battery stats), then try this. As of right now my screen is #1 and Android System is only at 15%!
**Try this while your charging your phone to 100% to see if it actually worked!!**
1. Download and install Kies3.
2. Copy all contents of your ext SD Card to your computer.
3. Go into Settings-->Scroll down to System and click on Storage.
4. Format your ext SD Card by pressing "Format SD Card".
5. Go into Kies3 and and copy all of your contents back onto your SD Card.
6. Once that process is finished, download SD Scanner.
7. Go into the SD Scanner app and scan the internal storage (default one) and ext SD Card (/storage/extSdCard <-- must be typed exactly like that).
8. Reboot your phone once your phone has hit 100%.
9. See if it worked for you, hope this helps, and if it doesn't then I'm sorry but it worked well for me!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Noticed this method of Wipe SD Card in another thread, seemed to have worked for me as well. Now battery drain most from screen.
I'm getting terrible Android System drain as well. I've greenified everything and battery life is noticeably improved, but AS drain is still top battery hog. Guess I'll try removing my SD card and if that works I'll wipe it. Pretty frustrating though that this is an issue
Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk
What are you guys formatting your SD Card to? (what format)
Formatted it to whatever phone formats too... this actually really worked and helped but can I add files to my sd card and such as normal or am o limited now
Sent from my SM-G900P using XDA Free mobile app
I'll try this and report back also. I'm on a Note 3 with the S5 port. It's going to take a long time to move over 50gb of stuff back and fourth though lol
MikeyLee said:
I'll try this and report back also. I'm on a Note 3 with the S5 port. It's going to take a long time to move over 50gb of stuff back and fourth though lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Literally took almost 2hrs to move 28 GB worth of stuff... Good luck brotha haha.
Sent from a Galaxy 5 light years away
Use usb 3.0 its faster.
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note 3 using KitKatKillered Tapatalk.
JoshBeach said:
Use usb 3.0 its faster.
Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note 3 using KitKatKillered Tapatalk.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did -__-
Sent from a Galaxy 5 light years away
I'm in the process of moving around 50gb of files from the card to my PC and then will go back tomorrow and do this. It is actually high time that I re-organize all of the thousands of images on my card anyway. I think I'll store them by quarter to keep to only a few thousand per folder. Thanks!
This doesnt work. After you start an app or scan folders, for music player for example, Android OS and Android System are right back at the top
MikeyLee said:
This doesnt work. After you start an app or scan folders, for music player for example, Android OS and Android System are right back at the top
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Worked for me. I'm averaging one day six hrs total use with 5hrs on screen time per charge.
Sent from a Galaxy 5 light years away

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