The Google Nexus 4 has been a tremendous hit among Android enthusiasts. The device sold out within a few minutes every time it went on sale in various countries, leaving thousands of potential buyers disappointed by the shortage of units. Being a lucky owner, Using the phone has been an amazing experience for me since it arrived, but it’s plagued by a major battery life problem with a process named as ‘mediaserver’ eating up a significant portion of battery life. Strangely, this process bug seems to be limited only to the Nexus 4 since I never experienced it in other phones that I’ve used such as the Galaxy S II or Galaxy S III.

Solution to Mediaserver Battery Drain Problem?

Turn off Google Play Music sync.

Yep, it is the Google Play Music sync option that is causing this drain. To turn it off, go to your Google account settings and uncheck ‘Google Play Music’ sync option. This will, however, disable the synchronization of your songs stored on Google Play Music service between your phone and the cloud.

Doing so should certainly reduce the battery consumption by mediaserver process and increase your battery life, as it did for me.

Update: Please note that this will only reduce the battery drain which the mediaserver process causes when NO music or video is being played.

Excessive battery drain caused by the process when music is being played might still be present. I’ve no idea why is it happening and it surely is a firmware problem. Google, are you listening? Please fix this problem ASAP.

Mediaserver Problem Still Not Solved?

If the Google Nexus 4 mediaserver problem does not settle for you even after disabling Google Play Music sync, then chances are that it’s being caused by some corrupt media file. The mediaserver process is responsible for scanning media files stored in your phone’s storage and there may be some file(s) that is pushing the process to be stuck in a loop.

It could be any media file of any format — .jpg, .gif, .mp3, .mkv, .mp4, .aac — anything. So what you need to do now is search your phone for corrupt media files. Corrupt images and videos are easier to find and will appear as blank or size-less files or incomplete in case of videos. For finding MP3s that are corrupt, you can use an MP3 repair utility such as MP3Val to search your music library and repair song, if required. This might finally solve your battery drain problem.

What’s Mediaserver and Why is it Draining My Battery?

Mediaserver is simply a service that apps such as music and video players use to play music and videos. Further, it is also responsible for scanning of media files stored in your phone. So the culprit behind this battery drain problem in Nexus 4 is not the process itself, but an app that uses the service or any corrupt media file that is making it go crazy.