Help Gallery Grabbing Everything

[jabbawest]

Once again I have an issue with the wife's LG Optimus M and not on mine; this is her second LG Optimus M and her first one had this same issue.
We have some of the same apps but her Gallery is grabbing every image file from every application and displaying them, even fonts!
I know most app devs have learned to hide these directories so this won't happen, so why is her Gallery ignoring this basic rule?

Thanks,
Stephen

 

[Aplus]

Just create a .nomedia file in whatever folder you don't want the system to scan.

 

[jabbawest]

Just create a .nomedia file in whatever folder you don't want the system to scan.

Thanks Aplus and I read another thread that suggested doing that but why is this happening on her phone and not mine? Not that I won't try the .nomedia file but I really shouldn't have to.

 

[Darnell0216]

By default the phone only looks in certain locations for media. Most apps install to their own folders on the SD or special subfolders ignored by the Gallery app. Can you tell what folders the media is currently in?

 

[jabbawest]

By default the phone only looks in certain locations for media. Most apps install to their own folders on the SD or special subfolders ignored by the Gallery app. Can you tell what folders the media is currently in?

That's what I thought and expect.
I've included a screen shot of my Gallery. By the way, the app for taking the screenshot is here.
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.geeksoft.screenshot&feature=search_result
It's not supposed to work on unrooted phones but it did on mine.
CAUTION: After installing and doing a reboot hours later, my screen went dark a few minutes afterward. The phone was still on as I tried to blindly shut it down using the on screen prompts but I couldn't so I had to pull the battery and quickly uninstall Screenshot. It went dark for a few seconds when I did my first screen capture but I thought nothing of it after it came back on. whew

Anyway. I have four folders showing in Gallery that shouldn't be there and my wife has many more.
The location for the gk folder is /sdcard/gk. (AKA Grocery King application)
The location for the 3 numerically labeled folders is sdcard/droidbackupdir/1301505426171, etc, etc.
and has drw permissions as does the gk folder.

I just discovered that the numerically labeled folders under sdcard/droidbackupdir/ were created by the Backup Apps function in AVG Pro. Since I've replaced that function with a more reliable app, I can delete those folders which solves that problem but doesn't explain the gk folder.

 

[Darnell0216]

After bouncing around my SD card I noticed the apps installed on it all have included .nomedia files. So I guess it's not so much the fault of Gallery but of the developers of the particular apps in question. I only have one stray picture and it hadn't bugged me until this thread. I finally found it's source folder while bumping around and added the exclusion on my own. Sucky part is unless they ask or search no one knows how to exclude excess media from Gallery, Music Player and Video Player.

 

[jabbawest]

Google's response:

Updates:
Status: Declined

Comment #1 on issue 16127 by morri...@google.com: Gallery Displays Every Image on Phone
Issue 16127 - android - Gallery Displays Every Image on Phone - Android - An Open Handset Alliance Project - Google Project Hosting

Thanks for your report. However, in this case it is best that you bring this issue to the attention of your phone manufacturer. The Android Open-Source Project allows companies to bring devices to market by customizing the Android source code as they see fit. Therefore, the Android team is unable to help with issues regarding specific devices.

--
You received this message because you starred the issue.

I finally broke down and placed a .nomedia file in the offending folders which, on my wife's phone, were associated with Bejeweled.
What I don't understand is why Gallery would display images from a folder located in /sdcard/Android/
Maybe I'm wrong, but I also thought capitalizing the first letter of folder name kept any media in it from being displayed in Gallery.

Oh well.

BTW. For anyone else needing to hide media using a .nomedia file, you create a blank text file name .nomedia and save it as All Files, not a .txt file.

 

[Darnell0216]

Seems the only folder locations that are fixed are those used for system related sounds: Alarms, Ringtones, Notifications, etc. Those same folders are excluded from the Music Player. However Gallery has no such fixed settings or limitations.

 

[ChazzMatt]

Interesting information, thanks!