What keeps Android apps from looking into specific folders ? ((music/pics/vids))

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There's been ongoing discussions for a long time about the best way to "hide" certain media to keep them from showing up in media players.
Every 3rd party App Ive dled for Music/Movies/Pictures has had the same issue of scanning all the media in the SD card.

Is this some inherent mandate in Android ? Or lazy dev programming ?

I have podcast apps that only pick up podcasts. NYC subway map app that only picks up its MAP images...
Yes open up any media player and I see all of these included with my media.

Obviously the function is in there

add a file called .nomedia and Android will not index that directory

The no media trick does not solve the problem.
Android apps are scanning the entire SD for media instead of letting you pick a default directory.

I want to know if this is an android OS problem or an app development problem.

Originally Posted by xManMythLegend

The no media trick does not solve the problem.
Android apps are scanning the entire SD for media instead of letting you pick a default directory.

I want to know if this is an android OS problem or an app development problem.

well i wouldn't call it a problem.. it's just the way the mediascanner works... it scans each directory on the sdcard for media files.
and both the gallery and music app relies on the system mediascanner to fetch pics/videos/music: it's called intended design

There is no way to set a default location for those apps.

3rd party apps can be developed for scanning predefined dirs at the developer's liking.

so for the stock apps the only option is the .nomedia file trick.
note that if u put the .nomedia into a directory, all the sub directories are going to be skipped too.

just rename the folder with a "." in front of the folder name, this makes it a hidden folder and the gallery and what not wont search it.

Originally Posted by rastacre

well i wouldn't call it a problem.. it's just the way the mediascanner works... it scans each directory on the sdcard for media files.
and both the gallery and music app relies on the system mediascanner to fetch pics/videos/music: it's called intended design

There is no way to set a default location for those apps.

3rd party apps can be developed for scanning predefined dirs at the developer's liking.

so for the stock apps the only option is the .nomedia file trick.
note that if u put the .nomedia into a directory, all the sub directories are going to be skipped too.

THANK YOU !!
I somewhat figured this out when I saw this option in Doggcatcher.

This answers my question.

making a folder invisible doesn't help me.

I have ringtones in one folder and when I playback music, I don't want to hear ringtones.

hmmm is there anyway you can adb push the ringtones to the ringtone folder on the system? So you wouldn't need to have it in your sd card?

download MixZing music player. It will let you select which folder on the memory card to scan for music. Select music folder and your done. No more ringtones playback

This .nomedia trick dosnt work 100 percent. I placed it in my music folder and yes it makes the album covers disappear in the gallery but it also makes the music disappear from the music player. I can no longer scroll through artists, songs, etc from within the music player...

I am not running a rooted phone just the stock firmware with the latest Android update.


Hooligan