Help Galaxy Note 4.1.2 Update caused battery drain, memory card unmounting, other problems

[Raschied]

Hi All,

Brand new to the forums. Thought I'd share a problem (and the fix) caused by the Jellybean 4.1.2 update.

First off, my Note was purchased in Singapore, is unlocked, and had recently been updated at the official Samsung store with whatever the firmware was prior to 4.1.2. It was working great, no problems.

I got the notification of a firmware update last week, and installed over the air with the 4.1.2 update.

Immediately, I noticed several problems:

1. The power and Home buttons would become unresponsive. The phone would behave as if it had powered off completely. Hitting them multiple times would finally get the phone to come to life again.

2. Extreme battery drain. Phone began eating batteries in a few hours.

3. Random messages saying that the SD card was dismounted unexpectedly. Apps like Neutron Music Player stopped recognizing the MP3 files on the SD card.


Here's the fix:

Evidently, Jellybean needs to make some type of change to the directory structure used on the SD card. It tries to do this automatically, but if the card is pretty full, it can't. Since it's hitting the card constantly, it's draining the battery, and when it runs out of space, it dismounts the card and tries again.

Pull the card out. Check the behavior of the phone. If the problems go away, try backing up the card to your computer via a card reader, then re-insert the card in the phone and format it. If the behavior goes away, then start copying your media back to the card.

This just fixed a week of nightmare performance issues. Hope it helps you.

 

[Howard Hopkinson]

Thanks for taking the time to post your issue and it's fix mate.

 

[PiscesCloud]

Thank you! That's a first in some 14 months of following this forum.

 

[Omar Days]

samsung dont seem to have much of a good record when it comes to updating and their galay note to run smoothly afterwards.

my battery has never been the same since it updated from gb to ics.

 

[newbie4]

must agree here my battery gets like 6 to 8 hours running wifi and sync to get the emails every set time no data. This and the screen on time is a little over 2 hours with moderate to light use. I think the wifi and sync is not draining battery like pass firmware so improvement here but I hope there is a upgrade to make it a little better. No complains yet with 4.1.2 slight sticks but in time it runs. I could complain how I miss my setting are light widget which had 3 different bright setting and other like the combo widget with wifi sync and other togethter but I have worked with the upgrade and no complains thus far after a month.

 

[curioustechy]

where is ' call forwarding' option in settings in JB

 

[jasonmoh]

After searching, at last a solution... I had the "mediaserver" issue draining my battery so bad that in 1 hr, I loose 20% of my battery without doing anything. Removing the SD card solve this problem. Everything went back to normal. I then formatted the SD card using my laptop and insert the empty SD card back. Unfortunately I now have a "media" issue draining my battery again... I then tried to format the SD card using my phone but the issue remain. Thus to have my phone back to normal, I remove the SD card... Any clues? Do I have to leave with a phone that cannot use SD card?

Updates: Looks like I might have found the problem...

"SanDisk has been made aware of potential product issues involving a very small percentage of its 32GB and 64GB SanDisk Mobile Ultra microSD cards. Under certain circumstances the cards may lock up and the card becomes inaccessible. The issue has been identified and a manufacturing fix has already been put in place. SanDisk stands behind its products and any customer who experiences this issue with the microSD cards cards is asked to contact the SanDisk support center for a resolution immediately. So it is an issue with the card itself and we will replace the card with a functional one."

 

[slowfast]

Galaxy Note battery ruined by very rapid battery drain immediately after android update t. Have read a few suggestions like unmounting and mounting cards etc etc. I don't have a clue about such technical things and don't want to. I just want a device that works.

Can I do a rollback ???

GET WITH IT SAMSUNG !! Your reputation is slipping.

 

[jasonbosch]

I had the same issue, except before the latest Android update on Verizon, it just said "Media" was using all of my battery. Much more than the screen even! All the time. After the update, the Media changed to Gallery, which gave me the clue that the Gallery was causing the issue. I had already tried disabling the Picasa sync, and that didn't fix the issue. I had also tried disabling about 50 other things and could never find the problem. I just couldn't get the draining to go away.

As a last ditch effort, I tried Disabling the entire Gallery App. Not just stopping it, clicking "Disable" in the Gallery app settings. Sol ed the problem instantly. If you don't already, you should totally be using the QuikPic app as your photo gallery since it's waaay faster and better than Samsung's gallery. The only problem is that the default camera app only uses the stock gallery app, so you can't quickly view your photos after you take them. But I found a better camera app in ProCapture anyhow. The panoramic and customizations are way better. So I just use that now.

Also lost my picture frame widget, which I loved. But worth it to not have a dead phone anymore. If anyone knows a good photo frame app, I'd love to hear about it. I couldn't find a comparable one, despite a lot of searching.

Hope this helps someone!

 

[montyblue13]

I sooo loved my Galaxy note 2 until I thought I'd lost everything from my SD card, including my son's prom photos and photos taken to date whilst on vacation in Florida. Thought I'd have to buy new battery too, but I had my faith in gadgetry restored when I followed the advice given and was able to view all the photos again. I sooo love my note 2 again. Thank you

 

[glassyaya]

Thank you very much for this information since the exact same thing happened to me but I didn't connect it with an update. I purchased an Otterbox Commuter cover and placed it on my phone which I've been using for the past few months with excellent battery life. It was probably a coincidence that I did this the same time as update because all of a sudden I experienced extreme battery drain. My phone was hot on the back as well. I removed the cover last night and don't have the heat but I still get the SD card message. It seems as if the battery is holding a charge now as well. I'll try your SD card solution and then replace the Otterbox.