Android refresh folder contents after moving/deleting - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hello,
If I move/delete/create files, Android OS doesn't seem to notice. For example:
– if I use the default music player, it shows deleted songs, doesn't show new songs;
– the picture gallery shows grey squares with file names of deleted pictures/videos;
– cannot select new notification sound after placing new file in Alarms/Notifications/Ringtones folders.
Many apps (e.g. Music Folder Player and Challenger Viewer that I use) have a "refresh file list" option to update folder contents. It seems strange to me that this is even necessary but isn't there such a function for the whole system without needing to reboot every time I move around files?
I've got an Android J7 but I had this issue since S3 already and it annoys me a bit that this hasn't been fixed yet. I wasn't able to find anyone else complaining about this issue though.
Thanks!

Related

[Q] .nomedia or dot doesn't work in the gallery

Does anyone a the solution to the problem where the gallery just indexes nearly everything it finds? i've placed .nomedia files in folders, i've tried putting a dot in front of the folders (which did make them 'invisible' for file explorer) which also worked for a couple of days, but suddenly gallery started to index even these .name folders.
Does anyone know how to fix this? it's pretty stupid that there is no include/exclude folder option or anything.
Use quickpic and disable the gallery. That's what I did.
You can also install audio manager and do it that way.
Theres only one way that works.
SexyAndIKnowIt said:
Does anyone a the solution to the problem where the gallery just indexes nearly everything it finds? i've placed .nomedia files in folders, i've tried putting a dot in front of the folders (which did make them 'invisible' for file explorer) which also worked for a couple of days, but suddenly gallery started to index even these .name folders.
Does anyone know how to fix this? it's pretty stupid that there is no include/exclude folder option or anything.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is only for music and the indexing of every single bit of album art that the Gallery Pics up, but in most casesthat's the biggest annoyance:
I have tried Gallery Replacements like QuickPic, and they are decent, but I want things to work the way I want them, not to just replace them with an alternative. Hers the only way that I know that works:
You need to have only one Album Cover picture per folder (assuming all your music is in folders) Name it albumart.jpg all lowercase; AlbumArt.jpg will not work (he says after naming DOZENS that way, LOL! It is time consuming, but only needs to be done once, preferably on the PC, where a major file cleanup/renaming operation goes a little faster.
Then just use Cover Art Downloader from the market for all future adds to your music files (it creates the correct filename) and you are set.
This is a known ICS bug. It has been submitted to google for fixing. Sorry I don't have the link to the bug report but a google search should work to find it.
It happens when the media scanner scans a folder prior to a .nomedia file being created. Once media scanner determines there is media in a folder it will forever ignore the .nomedia file.
A fix is to add the .nomedia files to whatever folders you don't want scanned then clear data for the media scanner (and possibly gallery too, although I think a reboot will remove the extra thumbnails).
I'm not sure how your media scanner is scanning your .folders, but whatever. Hopefully clearing media storage will fix that too.
I use the .nomedia trick & it seems to work. Maybe I placed them before the media scanner indexed them?
For example the app Bookworm makes thumbs of all the book covers - and I have 250 - and use this trick to stop them from showing up.
The .nomedia file has to be the first file in a folder in order to ignore media there. If files are already indexed, just rename such folders forth and back (opening the Gallery in the middle) and there you go.
You can use the Nomedia application for creating easily the .nomedia

Entertainment Center stuck

hello my atrix's entertainment center gets stuck upon selecting to browse each media category. Once I select videos or music I just get that "orange waiting box" for like eternity. I am using this rom http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1169409&highlight=keyboard+language which is the standard international rom for atrix. Any ideas? I have some videos I want to play from internal storage
Freezing on Motorola Entertainment Center Splash Screen
Similar issues on a Bell Atrix 2.3.6.
Mine used to hang when going through the pictures or videos menu..
Now it hangs on the splash screen and doesn't even load. Sometimes the glimmering bit shows and freezes, sometimes it just says "Motorola Entertainment Center." After 30s or less it asks to Force Close or just closes on its own.
System 45.21.78.MB860.BellMobility.en.CA
Android 2.3.6
Webtop WT-1.2.0-167_BELL
Build 4.5.2A-51_OLL-17.8
Any help's appreciated!
Thermanshs said:
hello my atrix's entertainment center gets stuck upon selecting to browse each media category. Once I select videos or music I just get that "orange waiting box" for like eternity. I am using this rom http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1169409&highlight=keyboard+language which is the standard international rom for atrix. Any ideas? I have some videos I want to play from internal storage
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
have you tried reducing the number of media files on your device?
I'm still trying to get mine to work too, but trimming the files got me past the splash screen at least. now i'm just stuck with the "Loading" circle and "waiting" inside each category - same as you i guess.
I would say my dcim/thumbnails definitely has an influence on the entertainment center. so maybe the gallery also plays a part. still messing around with deleting the thumbnails folder, refreshing it, etc.
problem solved!
i found the place where the thumbnail data is stored, which was making the huge thumbnail file and crashing Entertainment Center.
it isn't storing the entire ".thumbdata3--1967290299" file (which can be hundreds of mb for some people), rather a large (tens of mb) .db database file that is being used to recreate it on demand.
/data/data/com.android.providers.media/databases
external.db
with Root Explorer i could view the file, and Speed Software also sells an sql editor which you can use to trim the thumbnails table.
*be careful: deleting entries from this file also seems to delete it from the device! i deleted all records from the thumbnails and images tables..
learn from my mistake. i thought it would regenerate, but it deleted all images from /sd card. good thing i backed up all my photos first, but better to use the filter option and trim out only the records for files that are no longer on the device.
".thumbdata3--1967290299" now reappears, but a whole lot smaller.
Gallery opens so much faster now, and Entertainment Center works again!
hope it helps!
whitebreadstyle said:
i found the place where the thumbnail data is stored, which was making the huge thumbnail file and crashing Entertainment Center.
it isn't storing the entire ".thumbdata3--1967290299" file (which can be hundreds of mb for some people), rather a large (tens of mb) .db database file that is being used to recreate it on demand.
/data/data/com.android.providers.media/databases
external.db
with Root Explorer i could view the file, and Speed Software also sells an sql editor which you can use to trim the thumbnails table.
*be careful: deleting entries from this file also seems to delete it from the device! i deleted all records from the thumbnails and images tables..
learn from my mistake. i thought it would regenerate, but it deleted all images from /sd card. good thing i backed up all my photos first, but better to use the filter option and trim out only the records for files that are no longer on the device.
".thumbdata3--1967290299" now reappears, but a whole lot smaller.
Gallery opens so much faster now, and Entertainment Center works again!
hope it helps!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for that, but what if the images are not the problem, but music or videos? I have tons of music on my SDCard and I don't know exactly what to delete in that database.
I tried using SDRescan as proposed here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=28516079&postcount=6, but that didn't help.
I've done some more research and found a solution here: http://www.mobilephonetalk.com/show...in-memory-card&p=311954&viewfull=1#post311954. After I deleted the .thumbdata3 file, created a blank one with Root Explorer and removed write permission to it, the file stays at 0 bytes and Camera and Gallery apps still work fine.
strom87 said:
Thanks for that, but what if the images are not the problem, but music or videos? I have tons of music on my SDCard and I don't know exactly what to delete in that database.
I tried using SDRescan as proposed here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=28516079&postcount=6, but that didn't help.
I've done some more research and found a solution here: http://www.mobilephonetalk.com/show...in-memory-card&p=311954&viewfull=1#post311954. After I deleted the .thumbdata3 file, created a blank one with Root Explorer and removed write permission to it, the file stays at 0 bytes and Camera and Gallery apps still work fine.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you still have all the music, deleting entries from the database won't solve anything because they will just be recreated the next time you open gallery.
your fix is probably the best for your situation.
solution... maybe...
Maybe you will find solution here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=35259164&postcount=7
Kyonex said:
Maybe you will find solution here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=35259164&postcount=7
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just want to add, that it's the camera app causing the thumbdata3 to grow, each picture you take. (I verified file size change after taking pictures.) I'm trying the solution by creating the dummy file and making it read only now.

Gallery Folders

looks a very simple request but can't find anything so far.
The Stock Gallery or any other Gallery app I installed show "EACH" Folder there. It does not matter if i have a Subfolder or 3 Subfolders each will be shown on the FIRST level .
Get som3 personal folders i.e. Per1 Per2 with PER1/A Per1/B etc. Same with Business folders . Biz1 Biz1/a Biz/2/A/B with pictures
Android does not care about this and IGNORE ANY Structure. Open a Gallery it Shows a,A,B,B,BIZ1,BIZ2 etc each on the Same level.
This is horrible.
The Stock Gallery even have a crazy sorting, some like Quickpics least does it in Alphabetic order.
Is there any way I can keep and use "MY Structure" with SUBFOLDERS.
With File organizeres and I can do but they are not appropriate to show pictures.
Thanks

[Q] .thumbnails is huge, its growing and coming back every time

hello dear members,
i tryed to get rid of the .thumbnails folder (found on internal Storage - DCIM) because its that huge (3 GB) and every time i deleate it it slows down my Phone, the ZU gets really hot and that for about 10 minutes and after that the folder is back again containing all my Photos in a smaller version + an huge file that is as big as all the original Photos on my SD-Card. I would be very happy, if the folder would be history.
Does anyone has this Problem too and would help me, please? Thanks :laugh:.
Lightbird said:
hello dear members,
i tryed to get rid of the .thumbnails folder (found on internal Storage - DCIM) because its that huge (3 GB) and every time i deleate it it slows down my Phone, the ZU gets really hot and that for about 10 minutes and after that the folder is back again containing all my Photos in a smaller version + an huge file that is as big as all the original Photos on my SD-Card. I would be very happy, if the folder would be history.
Does anyone has this Problem too and would help me, please? Thanks :laugh:.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you use the Album app this will happen. The .thumbnails folder has reduced size images of every .gif, .jpg, .mp4, etc type media file on your phone. Not 100% sure if this works but if you create a file " .nomedia " in directories you don't want to show up it will not cache them. Delete the .thumbnails and reboot, bring up Album (I use QikPic instead) and it will re-cache them.
If you have a rooted phone I believe you can use Titanium Backup to disable the Album process. That will keep it from creating the cache but it will also mean Album won't work.
By the way, I have had an instance where the process was running continually and would never complete. The reason turned out to be a corrupted file. I had to go through thousands of pictures to find the one causing the issues. If you see a file that doesn't have a thumbnail that's a likely candidate.
Marc
By removing this folder, your gallery would have black squares and with no chance at getting any ideas about what was what. You can delete the folder, but it'll come right back again once you open your gallery. It's not possible to permanently remove it. The problem here is that you have way too many photos on your Ultra.
I have 279 thumbnails which uses 86MB. You must have thousands of photos, so there's nothing wrong with that folder, it's the amount of stuff you have in your gallery that is the problem. Time to clean it!
---------- Post added at 06:14 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:11 PM ----------
mknewman said:
By the way, I have had an instance where the process was running continually and would never complete. The reason turned out to be a corrupted file. I had to go through thousands of pictures to find the one causing the issues. If you see a file that doesn't have a thumbnail that's a likely candidate.
Marc
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, that's the media_scanner running wild. But no wonder it takes several minutes to scan when he has thousands of photos on his phone. Move them to your Dropbox instead and use that as a gallery when you want to look at them. No caching or thumbs.
ok, i`ve got a solution i think (works for 30 mins right now):
deactivate the Album App under apps
deleate the .thumbnails folder
create a new file whith ES Explorer named .thumbnails
reboot (dunno if necessary)
activate Album again
reboot
open Album, wait 10 minutes
check if the folder is still there, if not its a sucess - (till now...)

My phone doesn't see a lot of the media on it. (not a .nomdeia issue)

Ok, so I've been trying to sort this issue out for almost half a year now.
All of a sudden my phone just stopped being able to 'see' all the current media on it, I initially noticed this because my ringtone changed back to a standard one, when I checked the gallery it was empty.
At first I thought it was a .nomedia file hiding everything but I couldn't find any, and when I took new photos they appeared in the gallery as if everything before them had just been deleted.
I installed a different gallery app that had the option to "view hidden files" and there it all was, but the thing that puzzled me was that the new photos and videos were in the same folders as the old ones.
Even weirder anything I downloaded couldn't be seen, literally the only media the phone would see is media it created ITSELF (photos, videos, sound recordings and screenshots).
I became curious and checked the files on the PC and the main difference was that many of the media details like photo dimensions and video duration were missing on all the old non-visible media while it was present on all the new media.
I copied a few photos and videos over to the PC, let it add it's own info to the files, checked them to make sure dimensions and durations were all there, then copied them back to the phone to see if they would show up and all the information disappeared! Which explains why I can't see new files downloaded from the internet ect.
List of things I've tried:
- .nomedia files
- force stop/delete cache of gallery
- force stop/delete cache of media storage
- wipe phone cache from boot menu
- repopulate/rescan for media using a large number of app including fx, ex file explorer, media re.scan ect ect
- backed up all media onto PC and deleted from phone, then replaced from back-up
I'm honestly at a complete loss, does anyone know what could be causing this?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Do you have any app locker/privacy locker apps installed?
Thanks for the reply, I had a look through and wasn't able to find anything, I never knowingly installed an app like that.
There is the standard 'private' setting on the phone but turning it on or off makes no difference.
Faawks said:
Ok, so I've been trying to sort this issue out for almost half a year now.
All of a sudden my phone just stopped being able to 'see' all the current media on it, I initially noticed this because my ringtone changed back to a standard one, when I checked the gallery it was empty.
At first I thought it was a .nomedia file hiding everything but I couldn't find any, and when I took new photos they appeared in the gallery as if everything before them had just been deleted.
I installed a different gallery app that had the option to "view hidden files" and there it all was, but the thing that puzzled me was that the new photos and videos were in the same folders as the old ones.
Even weirder anything I downloaded couldn't be seen, literally the only media the phone would see is media it created ITSELF (photos, videos, sound recordings and screenshots).
I became curious and checked the files on the PC and the main difference was that many of the media details like photo dimensions and video duration were missing on all the old non-visible media while it was present on all the new media.
I copied a few photos and videos over to the PC, let it add it's own info to the files, checked them to make sure dimensions and durations were all there, then copied them back to the phone to see if they would show up and all the information disappeared! Which explains why I can't see new files downloaded from the internet ect.
List of things I've tried:
- .nomedia files
- force stop/delete cache of gallery
- force stop/delete cache of media storage
- wipe phone cache from boot menu
- repopulate/rescan for media using a large number of app including fx, ex file explorer, media re.scan ect ect
- backed up all media onto PC and deleted from phone, then replaced from back-up
I'm honestly at a complete loss, does anyone know what could be causing this?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you know the folder where they are all saved the just check the name because maybe there can be a dot(.) Before the folder name thus making it hidden
If yes,then just rename it without the dot and your work will be done
It is also possible that the properties of the folder maybe somehow changed thus in that case, connect your device to pc and right click on the folder and goto properties. If you see 'read only' , 'hidden' etc.. Then goto advance settings and change the properties to 'full control'
Hope this helps
Regards,
milkyway3

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