Help .thumbnails folder EXPLODES while charging

[En4cer2k11]

Its recently come to my attention that, for the last week or so, my phone will start manufacturing TONS of files inside a hidden folder called ".thumbnails" whenever I plug it into the charger while powered on. As I type this, there are currently 765MB worth of thumbnail files accumulated from every video file on my phone. And the longer I leave it, the larger it gets. This has happened over the last 3 hours. I can delete them, but it will start all over again unless I either unplug the charger or turn off the phone. It also appears to SIGNIFICANTLY slow down my phone's ability to charge. This is very odd.
Has anybody else experienced this?

 

[Wisheezy]

Its recently come to my attention that, for the last week or so, my phone will start manufacturing TONS of files inside a hidden folder called ".thumbnails" whenever I plug it into the charger while powered on. As I type this, there are currently 765MB worth of thumbnail files accumulated from every video file on my phone. And the longer I leave it, the larger it gets. This has happened over the last 3 hours. I can delete them, but it will start all over again unless I either unplug the charger or turn off the phone. It also appears to SIGNIFICANTLY slow down my phone's ability to charge. This is very odd.
Has anybody else experienced this?

what the f***. Never heard of this.

I'd start with...


When did this start?
Are you rooted?
Are you on the stock firmware?
Did you download any apps recently just before it started happening?
What happens if your phone is off and you charge it, when you turn it on are these files there or not?

 

[En4cer2k11]

what the f***. Never heard of this.

I'd start with...


When did this start?
Are you rooted?
Are you on the stock firmware?
Did you download any apps recently just before it started happening?
What happens if your phone is off and you charge it, when you turn it on are these files there or not?

1. To my knowledge, probably about a week or so when I first noticed a sudden SHARP reduction in storage space. I looked in the storage tab in settings to find out what it was.

2. No.

3. Yes.

4. The only apps I've downloaded in the last month were a barcode scanner app (which I also had on my Galaxy Player, with no problems) and a clipboard manager app. Anything else was way back when they had that $0.25 sale.

5. If I turn my phone off while charging, nothing is there when I turn it back on. But I specifically noticed that it was full of thumbnail files (not even pictures, just "files") within 2 hours after plugging it in while powered on last night. The longer I left it plugged in, the more it kept making more files. Even after I deleted the entire folder, it started making more after a while.

 

[Wisheezy]

1. To my knowledge, probably about a week or so when I first noticed a sudden SHARP reduction in storage space. I looked in the storage tab in settings to find out what it was.

2. No.

3. Yes.

4. The only apps I've downloaded in the last month were a barcode scanner app (which I also had on my Galaxy Player, with no problems) and a clipboard manager app. Anything else was way back when they had that $0.25 sale.

5. If I turn my phone off while charging, nothing is there when I turn it back on. But I specifically noticed that it was full of thumbnail files (not even pictures, just "files") within 2 hours after plugging it in while powered on last night. The longer I left it plugged in, the more it kept making more files. Even after I deleted the entire folder, it started making more after a while.

That's pretty weird. Why don't you try removing one of the apps..see what happens? then remove the other then see after that. If no change then we know it's not those newish apps causing any issues (you never know, right?)

 

[En4cer2k11]

That's pretty weird. Why don't you try removing one of the apps..see what happens? then remove the other then see after that. If no change then we know it's not those newish apps causing any issues (you never know, right?)

So here's the latest update. I deleted both of the most recent apps I downloaded, but it still hasn't stopped the video thumbnail files from being created. But now I noticed a rather sneaky twist to it. Not only do these files mysteriously create themselves while my phone is plugged into the charger while powered on, but I NOW noticed that they ALSO only create themselves when I turn my screen off. I was watching YouTube videos for a few hours and my storage was the same as it normally is. But as soon as I turned my screen off (with the phone still powered on) and left it for a while, I came back to find out another CHUNK of storage space was suddenly gone. And the .thumbnails folder was the culprit yet again. Full of random files which, upon further review) seem to match the filenames of all of the videos I have on my phone. But the thing is, I don't even have ANY of my video apps (MX Player and Super Video) set to auto-cache video thumbnails. So I really don't know what's going on here.

 

[En4cer2k11]

And another thing. Now that I really think about it, I'd say the first time I noticed this weird problem came shortly after this one night where I woke up in the middle of the night and checked my phone for the time. My phone was EXTRA hot and I also noticed a notification that my phone had actually STOPPED CHARGING because the battery was too hot (I think the GSam Battery app indicated something like 120 degrees for the battery). I had never seen that happen before, and I don't think I noticed this problem occurring any time before that. I wanna say his may have happened maybe 2, 2 and a half, or maybe even three weeks ago. I can't recall exactly.

 

[Wisheezy]

And another thing. Now that I really think about it, I'd say the first time I noticed this weird problem came shortly after this one night where I woke up in the middle of the night and checked my phone for the time. My phone was EXTRA hot and I also noticed a notification that my phone had actually STOPPED CHARGING because the battery was too hot (I think the GSam Battery app indicated something like 120 degrees for the battery). I had never seen that happen before, and I don't think I noticed this problem occurring any time before that. I wanna say his may have happened maybe 2, 2 and a half, or maybe even three weeks ago. I can't recall exactly.

I wish I could help you mate but I just don't know what else to suggest. I hope bumping this can get some more hardcore Android experts in here to help you..i'm only new to android myself! Good luck

 

[En4cer2k11]

I wish I could help you mate but I just don't know what else to suggest. I hope bumping this can get some more hardcore Android experts in here to help you..i'm only new to android myself! Good luck

Damn. Well thanks anyway

 

[SUroot]

I've heard of this bug elsewhere. Only yesterday though. I've not seen a fix yet...

 

[En4cer2k11]

See, this is precisely what I'm talking about. I left my phone on charging last night because I needed the alarm, and THIS is what I wake up to...

A whole GB of worthless files magically created overnight. Apparently it never stops, if left unchecked.
In addition, my phone was very hot when I woke up, and a notification said that charging was "paused" because the battery was too hot (117

 

[Wisheezy]

See, this is precisely what I'm talking about. I left my phone on charging last night because I needed the alarm, and THIS is what I wake up to...

A whole GB of worthless files magically created overnight. Apparently it never stops, if left unchecked.
In addition, my phone was very hot when I woke up, and a notification said that charging was "paused" because the battery was too hot (117

 

[Bearcats]

Do you have any idea what the files are?

Are they copies of pictures/videos already on your phone?
Are they readable filenames or just gibberish?
Have you tried to clear the cashe on your browser?

You mention that they are videos on your phone.

Here is what I would do:

1) Charge your battery.
2) Remove (backup) all your videos/pictures.
3) After they are safely and securely backed up, DELETE them off of your phone.
4) Make sure anything YouTube/Video/Picture related is cleaned as well (flush your browser cache)
5) Hard boot your phone (not a restart, power it totally off for a minute or so).
6) Immediately check all your folders for new gremlins.
7) Monitor.

Also where did you get those two apps in question? Google Play or alternate source?

 

[SUroot]

Just had a thought. Maybe check the battery in settings and see if anything strange is up high?

Its charging at the time, so battery is not being used. The results will not show anything conclusive.

 

[jdmimportboy]

Its recently come to my attention that, for the last week or so, my phone will start manufacturing TONS of files inside a hidden folder called ".thumbnails" whenever I plug it into the charger while powered on. As I type this, there are currently 765MB worth of thumbnail files accumulated from every video file on my phone. And the longer I leave it, the larger it gets. This has happened over the last 3 hours. I can delete them, but it will start all over again unless I either unplug the charger or turn off the phone. It also appears to SIGNIFICANTLY slow down my phone's ability to charge. This is very odd.
Has anybody else experienced this?

My galaxy s5 does this too I think it is a android and samsung problem

 

[Asim Siddiqui]

So here's the latest update. I deleted both of the most recent apps I downloaded, but it still hasn't stopped the video thumbnail files from being created. But now I noticed a rather sneaky twist to it. Not only do these files mysteriously create themselves while my phone is plugged into the charger while powered on, but I NOW noticed that they ALSO only create themselves when I turn my screen off. I was watching YouTube videos for a few hours and my storage was the same as it normally is. But as soon as I turned my screen off (with the phone still powered on) and left it for a while, I came back to find out another CHUNK of storage space was suddenly gone. And the .thumbnails folder was the culprit yet again. Full of random files which, upon further review) seem to match the filenames of all of the videos I have on my phone. But the thing is, I don't even have ANY of my video apps (MX Player and Super Video) set to auto-cache video thumbnails. So I really don't know what's going on here.

Skynet is finally here.