Welcome to the third part in our series of troubleshooting articles dedicated to the Sony Xperia Z1. As you may have noticed it has been quite some time since the last part was published. This is due to the fact that we have been concentrating mostly on Samsung devices as this is the bulk of the emails that we receive. Today is different as we will be answering the latest emails sent to us by our readers regarding their Z1.
If you own an Xperia Z1 or any other Android device for that matter feel free to email us at mailbag@thedroidguy.com. We will be more than happy to help you with your concern. This is a free service we are offering to our readers with no strings attached. We do however ask that when you send us an email try to be as detailed as possible so that an accurate assessment can be made and the correct solution can be provided.
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Xperia Z1 Can’t Play Music Files Copied to 64GB microSD
Problem: Hi, I need some help! I recently purchased a Samsung 64GB micro SD for my Z1 running 4.4.4. I then proceeded to copy some music from the PC to the card via a USB cable and the folder and I get the message ‘ cannot play the file’. When I use a file manager to view the folder there but empty! When I take the card out, put into an adaptor and put into the PC, the files copy across and I can play and see them! The Z1 can see the card and the full capacity of nearly 64 GB. Any advice would be great!
Solution: This could probably just be an issue with the card format. You could format the microSD using your phone or if you want you can even use your PC. If your files will consist mostly of music then the FAT32 file system will do.
Take note that in this file system you won’t be able to save a file over 4GB in size. If you are going to save files that are more than 4GB in size then I suggest choosing the exFAT file system when you format the microSD.
Xperia Z1 “Insufficient storage available” Error
Problem: I’ve been getting this error ”Insufficient storage available” for some time and it’s starting to drive me crazy! Keep in mind that I have like 3.2 GB of free space on my internal storage (just so you know I can’t use my microSD for apps) and I want to download apps that are at most 1.05 GB. It especially happens when I want to download updates or small apps which require at most 100 MB. Any ideas how can I fix this?
Solution: A lot of Z1 owners have been experiencing this problem at one time or another. Despite the fact that there is lots of free space available they will get the “insufficient storage available” error. This usually happens when downloading an update for a particular application.
There may be various reasons why this error message is popping up but it’d mainly due to a false reading of data. What you need to do first is to wipe your phone cache partition to clear out any data that is causing the conflict.
- With the Xperia powered on, press and hold the “Power” and “Volume Up” buttons at the same time
- The screen will turn off and the phone will vibrate once, after about 3 seconds
- Once the screen turns off, release the buttons
- Press the “Power” key to turn your smartphone back on
If you are still getting the same error message after performing the above procedure then you might want to try master resetting your device. Take note that this will delete all data in your phone so it’s best to make a backup of it first.
- While on the home screen, tap the “Applications” icon
- Go to “Settings”
- Tap “Back up & reset” under “Personal”
- Uncheck the “Automatic restore” check box
- Scroll to “Personal Data” and tap “Factory data reset”
- Tap “Reset phone”. Assuming that you’ve set a PIN or password, you’ll need to enter it and tap “Continue”
- Select “Erase everything” to confirm
Xperia Z1 Drains Battery Fast On Wi-Fi
Problem: Hi, my Xperia Z1 is draining battery & heating up. This is occurs when I turn on the Wi-Fi and I connect to my home network. It even occurs in my work wireless network or any other wireless network I connect to so it means this isn’t a router issue. If I switch Wi-Fi off, the surplus heat dissipates, and the discharging rate goes down. I can keep the phone alive for a full working day without Wi-Fi. I am on the latest official 4.4.4 release from Sony – I have not rooted my handset. Any help or assistance would be much appreciated!
Solution: This issue might be caused by an app that is constantly connecting to the Internet. This causes your device to drain its battery faster. Before troubleshooting first make sure that your phone is using the latest software update. The update contains improvements and fixes that may resolve this issue.
One known issue that may be causing this issue is your Google Play Services that’s known to consume more battery since KitKat. If this is the case then follow the steps below.
- Settings -> Apps -> All -> Google Play Services
- Clear cache
- Click Manage Space, then Clear all data
- Back, disable, it will ask you to revert to older version, say YES
- If you have Uninstall Updates, do it.
- If it says you can’t disable because of administrators, click manage administrators and deselect the softwares (there were 3, one of them is Sony My Xperia, disabled it)
- Once disabled, restart Xperia phone
- You may notice errors etc…, its ok, its only temporary
- Once rebooted, go again to apps, and enable Google Play Services
- If the phone says you need to update Google Play Services, Update and you are good to go, if not, open Hangouts, and it will tell you to update…
- Once the update is complete, you are done.
- Make sure you have your location service enabled (because you may have disabled it in the past to preserve battery)
Check your phone and see if the battery drain issue is still present. If it is still present then it’s probably caused by a third party app you installed from the Google Play Store. To verify this you have to boot your phone in Safe Mode. In this mode all third party apps are disabled.
- Press and hold the “Power” button
- Tap and hold “Power off”
- When you get the safe mode prompt, tap “OK”. Your device will now reboot in safe mode
If battery performance improves in this mode then find out what app is causing this issue and uninstall it.
Xperia Z1 Media Not Found In microSD Card
Problem: My z1 told me my memory was getting full and to transfer photos and videos to my SD card like I’ve done before. But this time, in the main album every picture that was transferred has a black background with a broken white mountain thing and when I find them in the sd card file I can see the pictures but when I click on them it says ‘media not found ‘ I am going to throw it out the window if I can’t get the pictures back as they are all of my newborn baby. Any help would be really appreciated. Thank you in advance.
Solution: This could just be an issue with the media scanning of your phone that is slow in indexing the files. Try going to settings-apps-all-media storage, force stop and clear data. Restart. Don’t worry as this will not erase the photos saved in your device.
If that does not solve the issue then you should get the latest version of the Sony PC Companion and install it in your PC. You will use this software to backup the media files stored in your phone.
- Make sure that the PC Companion application is installed on a PC or the Sony Bridge for Mac application is installed on an Apple Mac computer.
- Connect your device to the computer using a USB cable.
- Computer: Open the PC Companion application or the Sony Bridge for Mac application. After a few moments, the computer detects your device.
- Computer: Click Back up & restore, then follow the on-screen instructions to back up data from your device.
Xperia Z1 Can’t Hear Sound During Incoming/Outgoing Calls
Problem: I can’t hear any sound during Incoming or Outgoing calls. The person on the other end can hear me perfectly. However sound available when call is on loudspeaker or wearing headphones and even during videos or songs. Latest software update done. Help!
Solution: It’s very likely that this could be a hardware issue (probably a defective microphone) however let’s first check any software related issues that may be causing this.
Try to disable noise suppression in your call settings then check if you can now be heard. If not proceed to the next step.
The issue may be caused by certain third party apps downloaded from the Google Play Store. To verify if this is the case you will have to start your device in Safe Mode.
- Press and hold the “Power” button
- Tap and hold “Power off”
- When you get the safe mode prompt, tap “OK”. Your device will now reboot in safe mode
Try placing a call in this mode and see if you can be heard. If the problem goes away then you will have to find out what app is causing this and uninstall it. If you still can’t be heard then proceed to the next step.
One final troubleshooting procedure that can be done in cases like this is to do a master reset of your phone. Make sure to backup your data first.
- While on the home screen, tap the “Applications” icon
- Go to “Settings”
- Tap “Back up & reset” under “Personal”
- Uncheck the “Automatic restore” check box
- Scroll to “Personal Data” and tap “Factory data reset”
- Tap “Reset phone”. Assuming that you’ve set a PIN or password, you’ll need to enter it and tap “Continue”
- Select “Erase everything” to confirm
If this is a software issue then it should be resolved by now. If not then this might already be a hardware related issue. Your best course of action is to bring your phone to an authorized service center for checking.
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The post How To Fix Common Sony Xperia Z1 Problems and Errors [Part 3] appeared first on The Droid Guy.
