Develop Bugs

myalbum folder appeared on SD-CARD out of nowhere

The other day while trying to look at my photos, I noticed a folder called 'myalbum' on the sd-card with really small picture of a blonde woman's face inside. The size was 38x38 and looked like a thumbnail.
It was the first time I saw the picture, and I definitely didn't save it myself.
Any thoughts on where that may have come from?

zonkkk said:
The other day while trying to look at my photos, I noticed a folder called 'myalbum' on the sd-card with really small picture of a blonde woman's face inside. The size was 38x38 and looked like a thumbnail.
It was the first time I saw the picture, and I definitely didn't save it myself.
Any thoughts on where that may have come from?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
An application you downloaded.

I ran the images I found in the "myalbum" folder thru google goggles and it returned:
Easy battery saver
I've uninstalled that app so I think it's safe to delete the folder
EDIT: ...and probably the "myrecord" folder came with it and can also be deleted

yes, it was perfectly safe to remove both the "myrecord" and "myalbum" folders after having uninstalled Easy Battery Saver.

Directories myrecord & myalbum
Directories myrecord & myalbum are created by the
"Easy Downloader" app and by the "Pro" variant also.
Creating empty files with equal names prevents directory
creation. But uninstalling is the only way to avoid this completely.
Best regards

How do you hide folders from HTC Album?

I tried making the folders hidden by adding a period, but it's still read by HTC Album. How do I get around this? Is there any tweak to change the read permission on folders?
Luckily I discovered this problem myself.

create a file named ".nomedia" and put it in the folders you don't want the media player to show.
Windows will not let you create such a file, so create an empty text file named "a.nomedia", copy in the folders, then using Astro rename it deleting the "a" and you're good to go

JapanLover said:
create a file named ".nomedia" and put it in the folders you don't want the media player to show.
Windows will not let you create such a file, so create an empty text file named "a.nomedia", copy in the folders, then using Astro rename it deleting the "a" and you're good to go
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have read elsewere that this method can erase the files in that particular folder. I'm not sure when or why it does it but watch out!!

Dodgy pics of the missus eh? Say no more.
I just moved a picture into a folder starting with a fullstop and it's not showing up in the gallery anymore. Are you running the HTC photo gallery or the Cooliris Gallery app?
[EDIT] I also just added a fullstop to the front of a folder on my SD card (/media/wallpapers became /media/.wallpapers) and it's no longer showing in the gallery.

Seems to work. Thanks!

I have read elsewere that this method can erase the files in that particular folder. I'm not sure when or why it does it but watch out!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not using it for sensitive documents
Are you running the HTC photo gallery or the Cooliris Gallery app?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's the HTC one. The widget doesn't display hidden folders, but when you list all media (where the app searches for pics and vids), it shows.

my (well, it's not mine of course ) method doesn't delete anything. Or at least I'm doing so in almost three cells and since... hmmmm let's say 6 months.
as for putting a dot in front of the folders... keep in mind that it can cause probs to the apps using that folder.
I.E. a GPS app will not find its icons and so on.
Just use the file methid, I'm pretty sure it's safe

JapanLover said:
my (well, it's not mine of course ) method doesn't delete anything. Or at least I'm doing so in almost three cells and since... hmmmm let's say 6 months.
as for putting a dot in front of the folders... keep in mind that it can cause probs to the apps using that folder.
I.E. a GPS app will not find its icons and so on.
Just use the file methid, I'm pretty sure it's safe
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I created the wallpapers folder so no apps should be using it.

Adding a .nomedia file worked for me, but only after a reboot. No more album art showing up.

samsanchez88 said:
I have read elsewere that this method can erase the files in that particular folder. I'm not sure when or why it does it but watch out!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you are right:
h_t_t_p://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=3692

Forget what I said. It doesn't work. I rebooted the phone, effectively refreshing the album cache, and .nomedia is listed when it searches for photos and videos.

Aitese said:
Dodgy pics of the missus eh?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
At first i read this as doggy pics, which sounded gnarly.
I also just added a fullstop to the front of a folder on my SD card (/media/wallpapers became /media/.wallpapers) and it's no longer showing in the gallery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What does "adding a full stop" mean?
And why is windows referenced above, vs android OS?

I just downloaded Pandora which essentially does the job.

Android is a Linux based OS. A folder with a period in front of it means its hidden to any app that doesn't directly know its there

biemsy said:
Adding a .nomedia file worked for me, but only after a reboot. No more album art showing up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
And then I realised the .nomedia meant music players ignore the folder too. Doh!

I just do the full stop method and use astro file manager to view the items.

[Q] Is there a way to get Music to NOT scan directories?

I'm using the default music app. I just want to stop it from scanning and
adding directories from the microSD card that contain audio files that are
not music. (the system noises, content of phone calls, other data
that isn't intended for it to read). These are all in their own directories,
so filtering based on source of content should be fine.
If that's not possibly could someone suggest a music app that does support
where to read from?

fuzzynco said:
I'm using the default music app. I just want to stop it from scanning and
adding directories from the microSD card that contain audio files that are
not music. (the system noises, content of phone calls, other data
that isn't intended for it to read). These are all in their own directories,
so filtering based on source of content should be fine.
If that's not possibly could someone suggest a music app that does support
where to read from?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
you can make a new text file with nothing in it, but without the .txt (or watever) tag, rename it to .nomedia (AND NOTHING ELSE), and place it in the directories you do not want found. i am pretty sure this is the method as i dont have my phone with me
EDIT: confirmed this also works with images that you do not want to show up in your gallery... comes in handy ;D

ahh -- the .filename (so its invisable) and its a flag to the app to ignore that directory.
I follow.
Thanks

fuzzynco said:
ahh -- the .filename (so its invisable) and its a flag to the app to ignore that directory.
I follow.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Excactly

worked as expected

Thanks a million!
TheWizKid95 said:
you can make a new text file with nothing in it, but without the .txt (or watever) tag, rename it to .nomedia (AND NOTHING ELSE), and place it in the directories you do not want found. i am pretty sure this is the method as i dont have my phone with me
EDIT: confirmed this also works with images that you do not want to show up in your gallery... comes in handy ;D
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I always get folders of images that show up in the gallery app, full of cached map tiles. This should be helpful. Do you know if this works recursively? That is, if I put it in /system, would the app search deeper into /system/app or skip all directories below?
Either way, I really appreciate you mentioning this, I was curious about how the scanning was controlled.

pyroboy1080 said:
I always get folders of images that show up in the gallery app, full of cached map tiles. This should be helpful. Do you know if this works recursively? That is, if I put it in /system, would the app search deeper into /system/app or skip all directories below?
Either way, I really appreciate you mentioning this, I was curious about how the scanning was controlled.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sorry about the late post. i wouldve replied sooner, but my laptop broke down.
(using my schools internet xD)
but yes, the .nomedia file hides the main and sub directories
maybe clearing the gallary's cache from settings>applications>manage applications>gallery

Amazing, thank you!

This is how I hide naked pics of the gf.
Sent from my ADR6300

PhillyCheez said:
This is how I hide naked pics of the gf.
Sent from my ADR6300
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use this to hide the naked videos of the gf xDDD

Excluding Folders from Gallery

I've tried the .nomedia method but that doesn't seem to work in ICS. Does anyone know how to prevent a folder from being shown in the Gallery app?
Thanks.

I'd be interested in a solution to this too, don't really want all my album art and images from games etc cluttering the gallery.
Either a method to exclude certain folders or one to only include certain ones would do.

Tried .nomedia as well for my icons folder... doesn't seem to work.

This is driving me nuts. I tried the .nomedia thing too before I found this post. This is such an oversight for the gallery app.. it's pulling all of the downloaded icons/images from my mail app..

i was having issues with gallery not displaying thumbs & even wouldn't open some files. i ended up looking for an alternative and found this:
QuickPic
it is working well and you can specify folders to include/exclude.

Thanks - just downloaded this as well. Should work until someone can find a fix to the .nomedia thing..
Does anyone know what the Scrapbook Photos folder is? I think it may have come from picasa or G+.. but mine is empty and cannot be deleted in the regular gallery.

after putting the .nomedia, try rebooting, or downloading "sdrescan" from the market (free). the android media scanner indexes your files, but its often slow and doesn't update unless the camera puts something there. chances are it just hadn't known there was a .nomedia sucks, they'll probably have a fix eventually

cancerouspete said:
after putting the .nomedia, try rebooting, or downloading "sdrescan" from the market (free). the android media scanner indexes your files, but its often slow and doesn't update unless the camera puts something there. chances are it just hadn't known there was a .nomedia sucks, they'll probably have a fix eventually
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately it seems that there are certain folders where .nomedia will never work. So far I've found this with the downloads folder. No amount of rescanning or rebooting will stop images in the downloads folder appearing in the gallery.
I found that creating a subfolder with a dot in front of it (ie, .stuff) inside the download folder, moving the images into this folder, then rescanning will work.

you guys are honestly just unlucky. .nomedia works perfect for me. i even have a .nomedia file in my music folder and it works.

neok44 said:
you guys are honestly just unlucky. .nomedia works perfect for me. i even have a .nomedia file in my music folder and it works.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which application did you use ?
Cheers~

The .nomedia method works for me too in the Gallery app.

no media does not work for me and its extremely frustrating...bump.

sluflyer06 said:
no media does not work for me and its extremely frustrating...bump.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After trying many solutions , finally this one is working for me : https://market.android.com/details?id=com.theronrogers.vaultyfree&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS50aGVyb25yb2dlcnMudmF1bHR5ZnJlZSJd
Good luck !
Cheers~

tossero said:
After trying many solutions , finally this one is working for me : https://market.android.com/details?id=com.theronrogers.vaultyfree&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsImNvbS50aGVyb25yb2dlcnMudmF1bHR5ZnJlZSJd
Good luck !
Cheers~
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It looked to me like Vaulty physically moves the selected files to a folder and renames them so they're 'protected' because when i tried it out (it did work) but the location where the files were was not empty in root explorer.

voxigenboy said:
i was having issues with gallery not displaying thumbs & even wouldn't open some files. i ended up looking for an alternative and found this:
QuickPic
it is working well and you can specify folders to include/exclude.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Been using this for a bit now. Seems to work really well.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App

I second QuickPic. I used to use it on my HTC Magic because it was too slow for the 3D galley and I've used it ever since. Very efficient, fast, and allows you to zoom in to 100%.

Why don't you guys just put a dot in front of whatever filer its in? So like if the folder was "Pix" then make it ".Pix"....

nomedia is working for me too

It seems that Gallery mostly respects hidden (.foldername) folders and the .nomedia flag, but some process is alerting the Gallery to new folders and files as they are created, and that process does NOT respect hidden folders or .nomedia.
If you believe your problem is solved with the nomedia app, I suggest you move a photo into your hidden and/or .nomedia-ed folder and see if Gallery does not show it afterwards.
The only workaround that I have found is to Force Stop the system app called "Media Storage", clear it's cache and reboot. When media storage runs again at startup you'll find .nomedia and hidden folders are treated correctly (i.e. ignored) again. Beware though, my ringtone and notification tones were reset and I suspect it was a side-effect of doing this.

DELETES PICTURES!! -possible bug?

Really strange bug....follow me on this:
take pictures, pictures are automatically stored on phone in directory /mnt/sdcard/dcim/100andro....
move pictures to hidden directory called /mnt/ext-card/.specialuse
pictures move just fine, and are readily availible in hidden directory....until I restart the phone, at which point, only the pictures from this phone (not other files or videos) are deleted from the .specialuse folder, no warnings, no pop up...just GONE.
The strangest thing is, it only deletes the files I have added to that directory recently....not the older video files already present.
I have created a .specialuse folder on the phones memory at /mnt/sdcard/.specialuse and it does the same thing....
When I remove the . in the folder name (making it visible) and copy the picture and reset the phone...nothing happens (meaning it keeps the pictures like it should).
WHY does having a .directoryname cause the phone to automatically clear pictures from said directories? My X10 did not do this, only my ION does this.
Anyone have any ideas? Has anyone else had this happen? Thanks.

lmbea4 said:
Really strange bug....follow me on this:
take pictures, pictures are automatically stored on phone in directory /mnt/sdcard/dcim/100andro....
move pictures to hidden directory called /mnt/ext-card/.specialuse
pictures move just fine, and are readily availible in hidden directory....until I restart the phone, at which point, only the pictures from this phone (not other files or videos) are deleted from the .specialuse folder, no warnings, no pop up...just GONE.
The strangest thing is, it only deletes the files I have added to that directory recently....not the older video files already present.
I have created a .specialuse folder on the phones memory at /mnt/sdcard/.specialuse and it does the same thing....
When I remove the . in the folder name (making it visible) and copy the picture and reset the phone...nothing happens (meaning it keeps the pictures like it should).
WHY does having a .directoryname cause the phone to automatically clear pictures from said directories? My X10 did not do this, only my ION does this.
Anyone have any ideas? Has anyone else had this happen? Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's because of the "dot" at the beginning of the folder name. Android uses this method by default for it's own purposes. It's a possibility that this phone is seeing that and it "confuses" it so to speak. Try this...
Make your folder and name it whatever you like, with NO punctuation in the name..
Now... Inside that folder, add a ".nomedia" file, but without the quotes
The photos should remain hidden in the gallery, but only visible in a file manager of sorts.
Quickpic in the market is an alternative gallery, that has the ability to hide folders, using the nomedia method. Works great.
...And now I'm gonna go check if all of mine are still there....

yeah but BUG
I agree, and that's what I had been doing after I noticed the deletions....but my x10 didn't behave that way, and my tablet (running 4.0.3) doesn't behave that way.....so, yes, this is a bug.

lmbea4 said:
I agree, and that's what I had been doing after I noticed the deletions....but my x10 didn't behave that way, and my tablet (running 4.0.3) doesn't behave that way.....so, yes, this is a bug.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, not necessarily... Depending on how the overlay of Android is set up...The overlay from Sony I mean... It "could" be written to behave this way. Bear with me for a few days... I'm going to run some tests on my own phone with some pictures to see if I can reproduce the issue, and if so, try and find a solution.
If you like, I can use the same pictures you were, with the same folder names. That is completely up to you, as only you know what these are... But if you like, PM me, and I'll give you my email address, so we can resolve this.

CONFIRMED!!! At least on my phone... There is no pattern to it, that I can determine... I used several folders in my experiment. Some with, and some without a .nomedia file. And some with and without a dot before the folder name. At random, 5 different folders, still have their folder names, but have no pictures. All 4 possible scenarios were effected, and the fifth actually goes to a standard folder name with a .nomedia file in it.
So basically, my experiment proves nothing more than this is still unsolved, and not specific to one person.
(Just for sh**s and giggles, I am attempting to recover the lost files using some software I have... Just to see if its do-able, should this effect someone else... I'll report back later tomorrow)

Quick question, which file manager are you guys using to move these files? There was some update to Astro a while back that made my files get deleted when I moved them, anywhere regardless of the folder name on my Aria. Same thing still occurred on my Ion when I got it. Ever since I switched to ES File Explorer, I have not encountered this issue of deletion. Astro deleted not only pictures when I moved them, but ring tones, pdf, etc.
Sent from my LT28at

BUG!
Astro moves the files over just fine...and they are there..and accessible... until you reset the phone. Then...BAM, gone. It is disturbing to think that it may delete pictures in regular directories....BUG BUG BUG. hopefully the ICS update will address this.

That's exactly what I am talking about. They didn't disappear on the spot when I moved them. Everything seemed fine. Just give es a try and thrnreboot to see if it's the app or if it's the phone deleting your media.
Sent from my LT28at

iJudgeMAN said:
Quick question, which file manager are you guys using to move these files? There was some update to Astro a while back that made my files get deleted when I moved them, anywhere regardless of the folder name on my Aria. Same thing still occurred on my Ion when I got it. Ever since I switched to ES File Explorer, I have not encountered this issue of deletion. Astro deleted not only pictures when I moved them, but ring tones, pdf, etc.
Sent from my LT28at
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My experiment with this was done via a PC. these files were moved from my PC, via the USB cable, on a freshly formatted medium. I'm not sure when the deletion of these files occured, but it was within the first hour or so. the phone was NOT restarted, nor did anything FC.
I will be running more tests on this issue over the weekend to see if I can find some sort of pattern to this madness. I will be using various Galleries and File Managers, as well as my PC to perform these tests. I'll also be checking this time around to see if videos are effected at all. I will report back my findings on Monday...
Sidenote: The files that the phone deleted are very easily recoverable. the program I used (which I legally own) is called Easy Recovery Professional. Took about an hour to recover the 300+ deleted pictures.