Media Storage on Android: Can You Disable Data in Media Storage

What Is Media Storage on Android

Media Storage is a system process that is needed when you view, download, play, and stream images, videos, audio files, and other media files. As a system service, it is not available from your phone desktop. Then where is Media Storage in Android? You can access it from your phone:

Step 1. Go to "Settings" > "Apps".

Step 2.  Click the "More (three dots)" button and choose "Show system processes". (the options may be slightly different on different phone models).

Step 3. After you open "Media Storage", there are always several options shown, like Disable and Force Stop (when 'unfortunately app has stopped' error occurs, you can try to force stop it). If you click "Storage", you will see another two options: Clear Data and Clear Cache. 

Without knowing the details about these options, some users attempt to disable Media Storage or clear data in Media Storage, aiming to free up space on Android or save battery, only to find that their device cannot work properly or some files are missing. Can you disable Media Storage? Will clear data delete your photos, videos, or audio files? Read on to get the answer.

Frequently Asked Questions About Media Storage on Android

Many users feel confused about the options in Media Storage, here we will explain some of them in detail.

1. Can You Disable Media Storage?

No, you can't. As mentioned, this system process is needed when you download, play, or stream media like videos and audio files. If you disable the options, you won't be able to do things like viewing photos/videos, playing videos/music, and taking photos. Therefore, you cannot disable Media Storage with the purpose of extending the battery life of your device.

2. How to Enable Media Storage on Android?

If you have disabled Media Storage on your Android phone, you should re-enable it to make sure you can use your device as normal.

To enable Media Storage on Android:

Step 1: Go to "Settings" > "Apps" (> "Apps").

Step 2: Click the three dots in the top-right corner and choose "Show system processes".

Step 3: You can search for "Media Storage" and click the option.

Step 4: Click "Enable" to re-enable the service.

3. Will Clear Data Remove Your Media Files?

No, it won't. When you click "Clear Data" in Media Storage, all the app's data, including the files produced during the using of the service, settings, accounts, database, and more will be deleted permanently (if you want to recover the deleted files, you can use the Android data recovery software - EaseUS MobiSaver to have a try). It WON'T remove the media files stored on your device like your photos, videos, and audio files. If the media files are gone or missing after you choose "Clear data", it's probably because you have accidentally disabled Media Storage. Have a check on the option and make sure Media Storage is enabled.

How to Recover Deleted Media Storage Data on Android?

If you are sure that your media files are lost after your misoperation under Media Storage, don't worry. You still have the chance to recover them. Here we've listed 4 methods, try them one by one to recover your deleted Android data.

Method 1: Restart Your Android Device

If you're trying to get back all the sounds, simply restart your phone and this will bring all ringtones and gallery pictures back. It's a matter of the Android OS restoring metadata during the restart.

Method 2: Sync Lost Data from Your Google Account

Tap on "settings" > "Applications" > "Accounts" > "Google account", uncheck the boxes for sync and check the boxes again. In this way, the cleared data is synced again and will reappear in Media Storage.

Method 3: Find Cleared data in lost.dir folder

If reboot your Android device does not help you find lost data files back, you can try to locate lost.dir folder and look for the lost files there.

Method 4: Download Android data recovery software

Still, none of the methods above finds your lost media files? It's time to apply the best Android data recovery software to recover deleted files from media storage.

Option 1: Recover Lost Files from Android SD Card

If the files lost are saved on your Android SD card, you can apply the EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard - EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard to recover them.

Step 1. Connect the SD card, memory card, or CF Card to your computer and launch EaseUS memory card recovery software on your PC. The SD card will be listed under the Devices section. Choose the SD card and click "Scan" to start looking for your lost data.

Step 2. The software will start a scan automatically. The scan is powerful enough to find all lost files that even lost file names. After the scanning process, you can find deleted items from the tree-view panel on the left. Then, click "Filter" if you are looking for a specific file type, like photos, documents, videos or emails.

Step 3. You can directly double-click the files to preview the content. After this, you can choose wanted files and click "Recover" to restore them to a secure location on your PC or other external storage devices.

Option 2: Recover Lost Files from Android Internal Storage

To recover your lost photos, videos, or songs from the internal storage of your Android phone, you will need the Android data recovery software - EaseUS MobiSaver. (The prerequisite to recovering data from your Android device is that the phone has been rooted.)

Step 1. Connect your Android phone to the computer

Install and run EaseUS MobiSaver for Android and connect your Android phone to the computer with a USB cable. Then click the "Start" button to make the software recognize and connect your device.

Step 2. Scan Android phone to find the lost data

After connected your Android phone, the software will quickly scan the device to find all the existing and lost data. You can easily find the lost files you want by choosing the correct file types.

Step 3. Preview and recover data from Android phone

Preview all the recoverable files and select the items you want to recover quickly. Then, click the "Recover" button to get the selected files back once.

The Bottom Line

Knowing the importance of Media Storage, you won't easily disable this system process next time you want to clean up your Android phone or save battery on your device. To prevent yourself from disabling needed system processes, you can hide the system processes via Settings. Hope the information presented in this article is useful to you.