topic Re: Z2 hangs / reboots every 1-2 weeks in XPERIA archive

Z2 hangs / reboots every 1-2 weeks

kprueckl — Mon, 01 Dec 2014 07:46:55 GMT

Hi,

I know there are already threads handling this topic, but those are partly drifting off the real topic or part of general "Android 4.4.4" issues where everything else is mentioned. I want to go into technical details and find out the root cause of those problems and personally I believe this is all about a software issue.

I have my Z2 now around 1 month and have seen the issue 3 times.

Symptoms:

- device is not reactive anymore and pressing the "on" button has a huge lag till the screen turns on

- device gots warm around the camera (I guess the SoC/CPU is located in that area)

- device constantly reboots every 5-10 minutes (I guess because of a watchdog)

- device recovers after some hours with lots of reboots (last time this weekend 27 times according to the diagnostics dialog) and after consuming around 50% of the battery

My facts:

- I'm using the latest 23.0.1.A.0.167 software - I can't clearly say if it started with this Android 4.4.4 version or if the first occurrence of the issue already has been with the previous Android 4.4.2 build.

- I'm using the Stamina mode constantly (reduced CPU power)

- I have a 64GB microSD card with lots (thousands) of .ogg music files

- with the tool "OS monitor", I can see that during this time at least android.process.media and storage manager (don't know the exact English translation since I'm using German settings - there it is "Speicher") consume 25% CPU (1 core/thread for 100%)

- in the diagnostics dialog I can also see really lots of application crashes at that time, but I guess this is simply because the CPU is overloaded and they are getting to little CPU time to be reactive anymore -> watchdog kills. These crashes are mainly also from android.process.media (379), "Speicher" (3), SmartKey (36), Goggles (43), Facebook (4). But as said, I guess this does not mainly mean that they are the culprits.

I don't know exactly what android.process.media is doing, but I can imagine that there is some kind of media inventory or media library refresh going on. I guess Stamina mode additionally triggers the problem and the watchdog gets active earlier because the CPU power is reduced. Overall my believe is that Android is simply doing it's work it should do and when done the device recovers from the problem - actually maybe not really intelligently running in the background and there is also no reason for it since the SD card is never removed. I guess having a huge music library should not be a problem since with the Walkman app Sony is placing the device to be perfect for that (and for most of the time it is, at least compared to my previous Galaxy S3).

Maybe someone from Sony or with Android developer background can give some insight if my believes are correct and suggest fixes or workarounds. This is really annoying if you cannot rely on your phone and it's a pity for the overall great product Z2.

Thx,

Klaus

Re: Z2 hangs / reboots every 1-2 weeks

Rickard — Mon, 01 Dec 2014 14:58:26 GMT

Hi and welcome to the community! Since you're new please be sure that you have checked out our Discussion guidelines.

Sorry to hear that you're having issues with your phone.

I talked to another user a while ago who had similar issues and it turned out to be a bad SD card causing it.

Do you see any bad removals or unexpected unmounts if you monitor it for some time using an app like https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sdcardmonitor?

If the card is unmounted and mounted again, Android will rescan all files which uses CPU, makes the CPU warmer and may affect the performance of other apps. If you have running apps which use the SD card as storage they may also crash if it's unmounted.

Re: Z2 hangs / reboots every 1-2 weeks

kprueckl — Mon, 01 Dec 2014 20:13:00 GMT

Hi Rickard,

thanks for the reply. I've did a chkdsk on my Windows machine for the SD card (incl. check for bad sectors) without reporting any problem. Additionally I've installed your mentioned SD card monitor to record those events.

BTW, I'm using a Transcend Premium Class 10 microSDXC card TS64GUSDU1E. Pls let me know if there are compatibility lists available.

As said, I'm not sure if android.process.media is really the culprit - it was just showing up at the time of lockups, but I've noticed that it generally randomly consumes CPU from time to time. Actually for the main issue there needs to be some kind of bug in the scheduler of the kernel or wrong process priorization to make something like this happen.

Next time the mobile is in that lockup state, I will remove the SD card to see if it immediately recovers.

Pls let me know if I can provide any for you useful information from the diagnostics dialogs to troubleshoot.

BR,

Klaus

Re: Z2 hangs / reboots every 1-2 weeks

Jason222 — Tue, 02 Dec 2014 05:04:30 GMT

I am also having similar problems so I will be following this thread

My phone is restarting itself at 7% and geting stuck in a loop where it constantly resets itself over and over
I have also followed the recommendations listed here with no reslove as of yet
i also have an sd card which is a 64gb samsung evo SDCX micro UHS-I

Re: Z2 hangs / reboots every 1-2 weeks

Rickard — Tue, 02 Dec 2014 08:34:24 GMT

It's hard to say for sure but to me this sounds like it's related to some sort of issue with the storage.

In case this happens without any removal of the SD card is logged i recommend that you go to Settings -> Apps -> All -> Media Storage -> Clear data -> OK and then restart the phone.

In case the issue should remain after that you may need to do a repair of the phones software to clear the phones internal storage and memory.

Re: Z2 hangs / reboots every 1-2 weeks

kprueckl — Tue, 02 Dec 2014 09:16:30 GMT

Done. Let's see how it performs after that.

Thx,

Klaus

Re: Z2 hangs / reboots every 1-2 weeks

mhendu — Thu, 04 Dec 2014 02:16:51 GMT

I've also had this issue on upgrading to 4.4.4, but I've had the phone for a few months prior to that with no issues, so it's definitely the upgrade causing it. Once I went back to 4.4.2 this problem disappeared.

I have a SanDisk 64GB MicroSD card and thousands of music files. Perhaps the problem is caused by having a large media collection? Not sure why this would be a problem in 4.4.4 and not 4.4.2.

Re: Z2 hangs / reboots every 1-2 weeks

kprueckl — Sun, 07 Dec 2014 20:00:02 GMT

Hi,

today the issue happened again - as exactly one week before on Sunday - and can tell some more facts:

1. it seems that it happens when an Internet connection is re-established. I'm always putting the phone in flight mode at night and it started again - as last Sunday morning - immediately after re-enabling the radios.

2. after I've noticed the first reboot, I've unmounted the SD card and ejected it gracefully. 10 minutes later I've inserted it again and no further reboot occurred.

So the SD card plays a role and I guess Internet also. Is there any task in the OS scheduled for Sunday morning? Is this task remote scheduled and needs an Internet connection?

Thx,

Klaus

Re: Z2 hangs / reboots every 1-2 weeks

Rickard — Mon, 08 Dec 2014 08:14:47 GMT

Sorry to hear that the issue remains.

When this happend, did the SD card monitor (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sdcardmonitor) log any unexpected removal of the SD card?

When you enable data or exit flight mode alot of apps in your phone will update or sync.

Re: Z2 hangs / reboots every 1-2 weeks

kprueckl — Mon, 08 Dec 2014 21:36:15 GMT

Hi,

no, there was no unexpected or "bad" removal.

According to the diagnostics dialog, the device restart was on 07-12-2014 at 07:58:28 and the non-responsive applications started at 07:48:21

Beside flight mode, I've configured the Stamina mode to only allow the E-mail app to send&receive data in the background. So then I should see the problem also at work when I'm having the device in standby for the work day. Additionally I need to say that the issue occurred at least for the last 2 weeks just on Sunday mornings and I have it in flight mode every day at night.

I would be really happy to get some ideas how to troubleshoot. Are there logs or can they be enabled? I have software developer background myself, but I have currently no time to dig into Android details.

Thx,

Klaus

Re: Z2 hangs / reboots every 1-2 weeks

Rickard — Wed, 10 Dec 2014 15:34:17 GMT

So it seems the SD card was ejected right before you started having issues with apps becoming non-responsive? Do you know of anything you did that could eject the SD card?

But i have also received information that a new software version will roll out soon so i would also recommend that you wait and test this again on the new version.

To get logs you need to enable USB-debugging under developer options (tap the build number 7 times under Settings -> About phone) and then connect the phone to a computer with the Android SDK installed and run the adb logcat command.

Re: Z2 hangs / reboots every 1-2 weeks

kprueckl — Fri, 12 Dec 2014 11:21:49 GMT

Yes, you are right - I first thought the indented EJECT lines are from the time of the phone restart, but the times do not match.

So from my understanding, EJECT means a request by any software (or just the Android internal storage dialog?) to all running apps to close all open files (handles) so the SDcard can be unmounted. Intrestingly this already happend on Dec. 2nd, without any influence on the device. The only occurrence I can correlate to anything done by myself is the last EJECT where I went to the storage dialog after the first watchdog reboot of the device to gracefully remove the SDcard (which solved the problem)

OK, thx for the infomation that another software update is pending, so I will hold off for the moment to collect any logs in the developer mode.

Re: Z2 hangs / reboots every 1-2 weeks

DanielOchoa — Fri, 19 Dec 2014 02:43:10 GMT

Hello Gentleman,

Finally I find someone with a very similar issue as me.
My device keeps unexpectedly removing the SD Card, and Android scan it every time.
It's annoying, mainly, to hear music for me.

I'll briefly describe my "Facts" and "Symptoms".

Facts:

I also have an Xperia Z2,

Have exactly the same SD Card as Klaus, and

Similarly store tens of GB of.mp3 files.

Android 4.4.4.
However, I must say this issue is not new for me.
I've had it since Android 4.4.2, I believe is the previous version, and not only that... I experienced it on my old Xperia T, exactly the same issue. Long story short, I format the Card, and copied the music back, and didn't solve it, among other things. On that phone the issue was solved after some update.

After that I lived happy, until I bought the Xperia Z2, and experienced the same thing.
I'm very tired of this, and I'm not very acknowledged on software, I barely find solutions through forums.

My Symptoms:

Same symptoms as Klaus besides from the reboot. Apparently mine doesn't do it.

I must say the issue is present, in general, when the phone awakes. I also use Stamina Mode.

I have the idea the problem is caused by the large music storage, as I said, I have like 40GB of audio files, and about 5GB of pictures.
When I use the Album App ti scroll through my images, the Card is not removed, but is constantly removed when I listen to music using the Walkman App.

"Spontaneous" removals (something has to be causing it).

It is sad to use a >$500 phone that "supports" 128GB.
I'm an old Sony user and it's disappointing to experience this.

I've barely installed the monitor app.
I hope you guys find a solution, and my info works.

Thank you for your Time,
Daniel

Re: Z2 hangs / reboots every 1-2 weeks

kprueckl — Sat, 20 Dec 2014 13:03:51 GMT

Hi,

I think I can now clearly say what the issue is. I had another occurrence on Dec. 11th - the last so far, so it was just coincidence that it happened the 2 Sundays before.

Again it was another "EJECT" command for the SDcard which was NOT triggered by myself. After 3 reboots I've noticed the problem and simply manually unmounted and remounted the card with the storage settings dialog - without physical removal of the card inbetween. This fixed it again, but is always followed by a full media rescan which takes some percent of the battery.

It would be interesting if any Application can send this EJECT command or if it needs to be from the firmware itself. Anyhow, the behavior is clearly a bug that the device gets warm, burns battery, hangs and restarts itself.

And as Daniel also experienced, I'm quite sure the first occurrence of this problem had shown up with the older 4.4.2 firmware.

Regards,

Klaus

Re: Z2 hangs / reboots every 1-2 weeks

eric_jennings — Sun, 21 Dec 2014 09:28:36 GMT

I've had this too, will install the sd card monitor and check for reject commands. I can confirm that I used the same sd card (SanDisk 128gb, 18000 mp3s in 90gb) on 4.4.2 with no problem. Since getting 4.4.4 it happens every couple of days. I always wipe Media Storage as a workaround. I have swapped my sd card for a new one but that didn't help so I don't believe it's the card itself. When it reboots by itself the phone gets very hot. If this is scanning the sd card it takes a long time and e.g. the clock does not become responsive, eg to set an alarm tone. If I clear media storage and restart phone then the rescan of the card does not cause the phone to overheat, and clock/sound settings etc become responsive quite quickly

Re: Z2 hangs / reboots every 1-2 weeks

DanielOchoa — Fri, 02 Jan 2015 22:50:40 GMT

Hello People,

I'm just writing to let you know that, apparently in my case, the SD Card was the cause of the unexpected removals.

I installed the SD Card Monitor after writing my last post, and this is the result from Dec 18th to Dec 21th.

I'd been waiting for holidays to have the change to replace my phone's SD Card with my Tablet PC one, which is exactly the same model as the one I have on my phone, but newer.

I did it, and now my phone is running the Tablet PC's card very smoothly, with tens of GB of files.

Although, for some reason, Windows didn't find any errors on the phone's original SD Card, and Windows runs it as smooth as its original one.

No unexpected removals have been present since then.

I'm glad to say my Sony Xperia Z2 is, apparently, not the issue.