IssueTracker

Fix uploaded for review at https://android-review.googlesource.com/#/c/31110/

Thank you for posting this, I had a folder of all files in a directory with .nomedia in it, and this fixed it!

It is solved renaming the folder (you can rename it back again) with the .nomedia file already inside.

[Comment deleted]

I placed .nomedia inside my empty eBook folder. I force closed gallery, cleared its cache and data, rebooted. Loaded up gallery and deleted a few 'ghost' images that it displayed as black boxes somehow it still remembered them but couldn't load the images because they were deleted.

Then, I copied all my books into the book folder where .nomedia already exists, loaded up gallery, and its STILL ADDING EBOOK COVERS TO THE GALLERY! The strange part is its only adding SOME of them. Wtf how does this functionality even get programmed? I mean, I can't imagine the convoluted mess that the gallery must be coded with

How do I make gallery ignore ALL the book covers not just random ones?

@scott.mceachern, you need to clear data for "Media Storage" as mentioned at the top of this bugreport, not for Gallery. Or do the folder renaming trick mentioned in comment #5.
These issues are fixed in Android 4.1

Still have the same problem on Nexus7 with Jellybean 4.2 and still have to reboot/clear cache manually. Is there another issue for that mediascanner (mis)behaviour?

How did you add the .nomedia file?

It seems I also have this problem w/ Android 4.1.2 on Nexus S. I've added the .nomedia file using "touch" from within adb shell, but the Media Storage process is still trying to index this folder...

If you're going to use adb to manipulate files, you should run the media scanner afterwards (adb is a debugging/developer tool, extra care is needed when using it)

But if you go through MTP or USB mass storage, they will be picked up automatically, and in the case of MTP you should see files disappear from Gallery within seconds after adding a .nomedia file.

I'm a Java/Linux developer so I feel at home in the adb shell.

I triggered a media scan using "SDrescan" (from Google Play). I don't wait until Media Storage finishes its work because it takes forever and eats >90% CPU (and therefore, battery).

I had created /storage/sdcard0/Android/data/com.ideashower.readitlater.pro/files/.nomedia and using 'lsof' I can see that android.process.media is not respecting it, its scanning files/folders underneath /storage/sdcard0/Android/data/com.ideashower.readitlater.pro/files

Putting a .nomedia file doesn't mean that the media scanner won't scan anything else further down the folder. It just means that whatever it finds there won't be considered "media" as far as the Gallery and Music app are concerned.
The media scanner will still build a complete list of all the files.

Thanks a lot, that explains the behavior I'm seeing. But why does the media scanner keep scanning a folder it should ignore? Wouldn't it be more efficient to just remove this folder and its subfolders from the scanning altogether?

This is mainly to support MTP. The files you see when connected via MTP are the files in the media database. The reason that's not done "on the fly" is because MTP lets you query a device for "all music files" or "all pictures", so we need to know ahead of time what's there.
Hiding those files from MTP is not an option either, because then you would never be able to access those files (to clean them up, say), without the help of a debugging tool like adb.

OK, I'll try leaving it running overnight while it's charging to see it if finishes scanning. This is a huge folder thou (24359 files inside 16670 folders totaling ~950MB).

IMHO these should not be visible from MTP because MTP is for transferring media files and I'm explicitly telling Android that these are _not_ media files. Besides, they should still be visible from USB Mass Storage so they wouldn't be completely unaccessible from user tools.

Not all devices have USB mass storage. And showing only "media files" wouldn't really help, because there would still be corner cases like dropping a file onto the device and then seeing it disappear, because it wasn't a "media" file to begin with, or because you dropped it in a folder that has a .nomedia file in it.

In any case, 24359 files in 16670 files isn't all that huge, and should take no more than 30 minutes on 4.1 for an initial scan, or <10 minutes for a rescan. If it does take substantially longer, I'd be interesting in a copy of your media database so I can try to reproduce the problem.

Comment #5 resolve the issue for me.
Renamed the folder, restarted the device and now Google Play Music will not show all the podcasts (from BeyondPod) anymore. There was a .nomedia file in the Podcasts directory, which was previously ignored. Thanks!

im having a problem with .thumbnails file. whenever i copy a picture, a file with pics, or insert a new sd or flashdrive with pics, the .thumbnails file returns and either replicates or grows in file size. ive been googling for weeks for a solution. any help would be apreciated.

I have the same problem with whatsapp audio files. i don't like having them reproduced on the google play music app, so i pasted a .nomedia file in the folder. It worked at the beginning but as i receive new files they appear in the play music app. I tried pasting the .nomedia file again and it worked as well as changing the folder name, but i find it bothering to do this each time i receive a new audio file. is there anyway to resolve this problem once and for all? I have a motorola xt890 with android 4.1.2. Thanks

Same here on Nexus 4 and Nexus 7 :/
Adding .nomedia to a folder hides all its media from the gallery. But all pictures added to the folder after .nomedia has been created show up in the gallery. Renaming/Deleting and recreating .nomedia again hides all existing pictures from the gallery.
It's really annoying...

@andreasbernhofer What version of Android, how are you copying the files, and at what point do they show up in gallery? As far as I know this issue was fixed in 4.1, and I cannot reproduce the problem you describe.

Both 4.2.2.
Steps to reproduce:
1) Make a Screenshot (press and hold Power+VolDown)
2) Open Gallery and make sure the folder "Screenshots" appears
3) Use "ES File Explorer" (show hidden files activated) to create new file ".nomedia" in "/sdcard/Pictures/Screenshots"
4) Open Gallery, folder "Screenshots" will disappear soon (or show "0" images and disappear after reopening Gallery)
5) Make a Screenshot (press and hold Power+VolDown)
6) Open Gallery, folder "Screenshots" will soon appear again but with only "1" image in it (the new screenshot)

So this only happens with screenshots then?

no... It's all media. It's the same with "WhatsApp Images". I hide them by creating /sdcard/WhatsApp/Media/.nomedia but when I send/receive new images, "WhatsApp Images" again appears in the Gallery.

Sounds like WhatsApp inserts these images into the database directly (which is also what the screenshot service does)
The .nomedia file is really just a flag for the media scanner to prevent it from marking files as pictures for gallery or music for the music app. But if an app directly inserts entries into the database, the media scanner is not involved.

It has nothing to do with Whatsapp!

Different steps to reproduce:
1) Download a picture (tap and hold in Chrome Browser)
2) Open Gallery and make sure the folder "Downloads" appears
3) Use "ES File Explorer" (show hidden files activated) to create new file ".nomedia" in "/sdcard/Downloads"
4) Open Gallery, folder "Downloads" will disappear soon (or show "0" images and disappear after reopening Gallery)
5) Download another picture
6) Open Gallery, folder "Downloads" will soon appear again but with only "1" image in it (the recently downloaded picture)

OK, found the problem. It occurs when an app requests the mediascanner to scan a specific file (as opposed to scanning the entire storage). In that case, .nomedia is disregarded.

Was searching the net for a solution to this problem and found this page. I was wondering if there is a solution yet as the workarounds solve this issue temporally.

I am glad I found others having same problem. I will be eagerly waiting for the fix.

I have written the script that deletes the .nomedia file and copies it from somewhere else, but this did not help either.

I would be really glad to see this solved. To clear the data of Media Storage and re-run the media scanner is simply annoying.

l'reason that's not done "on the fly" is because MTP lets you query a device for "all music files" or "all pictures", so we need to know ahead of time what's there."

You think you need to Know ahead of time ... time to think out of the box.  Reason disagrees... in principle one doesn't inconvenience someone now for something NOT needed Now but MIGHT be needed later.  IF later someone ASKS for"ALL"of Something the implication is that they must be willing to wait for the required effort to be completed.  However, juxtaposed against actually bringing the UI to a complete halt because of a perceived need LATER this concept is just childish nonsense!  Which is exactly what recent versions of Gallery did!  Now, if this can be done, and it can, in the background , than Reason may release Some of this constraint but as developers we need to remember we Serve the user and even a 30 minute wait IS inappropriate when this can be mitigated with good Science rather than GW !  Past Versions of the Gallery Were laughable in that NOT ONLY did they completely block they provided NO indication to the user that they were "touching" every file .  ok, officially the Media Scanner, but it makes no difference at the UI level.  You don't'touch'every file in advance because You think you Should (Gw) you communicate with the user. To do otherwise is to keep software development a blue-collar endeavor!

This is laughable.... Jimburns' comments are bang on.
It's perfectly acceptable to have an SD card with a music library that contains album art etc (isn't it)...many, many other applications have supported this without any problem. Yet here, we find all the album art is getting added to the Gallery!?

Same problem in my Galaxy S4 running Android 4.2.2
*I put .nomedia file in the whatsapp folder.
*Open Gallery and NO images from the whatsapp is shown.
*I get an image from my friend OR I send an image to a friend through whatsapp.
*Open Gallery and the same picture appears!

Conclusion: .nomedia file will not hide whats app folder(.)

Recommendation: Fix it please!

Hi all, I have the same problem in my "Xperia V" (Android 4.1.2), when I do all the procedure (put .nomedia,clear cache gallery, clear media storage and reboot my phone) for hide my whatsapp image folder for the gallery, it works very well, but when I receive/sent a new image, this appears in the gallery again.

I don't know why it happens! Please help to find a solution!

Thanks!

Have same problem with whatsapp images
Android 4.1.2 galaxy s3
Please fix.

There can be a solution, if someone makes a script that deletes and add .nomedia file again, in time intervals.

Or


If gallery cache is deleted in time intervals. So, new photos will dissappear from the .nomedia folder

Any chance of fixing this in near future or any temporary solutions? I think we must provide an option in Gallery to ignore some folders as well from scanning.

Whenever I restart my phone, the MediaScanner eats through all my battery.  If I plug in the phone and let it proceed to completion, it fills up the RAM.

I'm not interested in using Gallery or MTP.  Can't an option be added to disable the MediaScanner? Or at least to limit the scanning to particular folders?

I'm happy to have it scan my "Music" and "Camera/Photos" folders but really don't want it to spend battery and RAM scanning the whole SD card.

Hello.

This is still happening on my S4 i9500 4.2.2. Do someone have a workaround to fix this issue??

Best regards.

Android 4.3 fixed this issue on my Nexus 4.
I guess you will have to wait for an ota on your S4.

@ the project member for google, when a fix is released, could you please specify which android release the fix is in?  I'm sure it will help everyone immensely.  Thank you.

That's great, so those of us with devices that can't be updated to Android 4.3 will stick with this bug forever. I've given up on Android, even Nexus devices can't be properly updated for bug fixes and security fixes.
My next phone will be an iPhone.

Slightly off topic, but here are two workarounds...

There are many free apps that allow you to disable MediaScanner or fire it as required, but they do require root. I have been running Android as root for over three years without issue - in conjunction with a SuperUser app to govern which apps have access - and have never encountered any issues with virii/etc so would recommend taking this route.

An alternative is to flash your firmware with a build of CyanogenMod specifically compiled for your device. I've been using a custom ROM called JellyBam on my S3 for the last 6 months and am generally pretty happy with it, barring occasional bugs in new releases. A new v10 release (based on 4.3) is on the way and the list of supported smartphones & tablets (i.e. different builds) is impressive indeed so anyone with a handset which is unlikely to ever get official support for Android 4.3 but is supported by JellyBam could wait for this and give it a go.

It looks like project member marc found the underlying issue on Feb 27, 2013.  I was just hoping for a little clarification on it.  My S4 is doing the same thing that has been reported after clearing the data in the media manager and re-booting.  It will show nothing in a folder that contains '.nomedia' until a media file is somehow added to that file.  It doesn't seem to matter what app I use (built-in screenshot, kik, or any other app).  Marc mentions a call for mediascanner to run.  Is that from within the app (kik, whatsapp, etc.) or is that something in the core?  If it's within the app itself, then we can ask the developers of those apps to look into this.

Thanks!

I understand that the .nomedia file tells Google Music to ignore any .mp3 files it finds in the directory, but what option is there for ignoring customized ringtones or notifications? If I put a .nomedia file into those folders, not only does Google Music not recognize the .mp3s, but neither am I able to find and choose them in the sound settings (only the stock ringtones and notification appear). I think the only solution to this can be for Google Music to build in code that allows users to exclude particular directories from indexing. Does anyone have a different solution to this issue?

If you put your ringtones in a folder named "ringtones", they should be automatically marked as ringtones and appear in the system ringtone picker.

@marc...@google.com. I don't have any problem with the ringtones being recognized as such. The problem is that Google Music also indexes them unless I add .nomedia to the ringtones folder (in which case they no longer appeal in the ringtone selection area). Sort of a "catch 22."

They shouldn't appear in music unless the path *also* has "music" in it.
In other words:
/sdcard/Ringtones/foobar.mp3 -> appears in ringtones, not in music.
/sdcard/Music/ringtones/foobar.mp3 -> appears in both music and ringtones.

At least that's how it works on stock Android.

Still an issue with my S4 i9500 on Android 4.3
Tried putting .nomedia files on my dropbox and the files still show up, it worked on my old android phone as I still have the previous .nomedia files from before. It seems android 4.0 messed everything up.

Hello,

would it be possible to modify the media scanner to ignore a folder and ALL of the subfolders inside it if it would find a .noscan file?
I would love that since it would not imply to stop the media scan service, the device would boot up much faster and the media database would be so much smaller.

Best regards,

my workaround,

● place a .nomedia file in the directory
● rename the directory
● power off the machine completely
● power on the machine
● change the name of directory back
● power off the machine completely again
● power on the machine again

then the media scanner will skip the directory.

A .noscan and/or a .noscanandnomtp file/flag would solve a lot of problems easily! PLEASE!
I also can not stand, that the battery is drained every time I need to reboot. Android simply is unable to cope with a music collection of > 100k files.

Thomas

@elender this .noscan and .noscanandnomtp not work after restart phone still media scanner finds images and show in gallery app. i have checked in 4.4.2 Version.

Is this problem solved now ? (July 2016)

IS there a Custom ROM that solves this?


I have more than 90GB of mp3 etc. on my SDcard, and it's impossible to use it with my phone : fast battery drain, overheat, etc.    The funny thing is : with my Android 2.3 phone, it works perfectly because .nomedia files are supported ;)

November 2016, same problem on Asus Zenfone 2.