Hi, new member, first post, hope this is right place to post this.
I know this has been discussed quite a bit but I came up with something a little different that I haven't seen yet.
When I got my first "smart" phone (HTC Incredible) one of the first things I wanted was a way to hide certain photos from all the people wanting to check out my new phone. I found several possible solutions but didn't like any of them:
1. use PC or file manager to create a .hidden folder. OK, but once it's hidden I can't access it without changing it back to unhidden, going back and forth requires connecting to a PC every time or unmounting/mounting to make media provider update the database. Too much hassle.
2. use one of these "vault" apps. Well, I just want a simple way to hide, not all this encryption and password protection etc. and I when I do want to access the files I want to be able to do it with the normal gallery, not some clunky interface built into the vault app.
So, not finding a solution I was happy with, I came up with my own:
I made a little app that, with the click of a button, renames a folder on the SD card with or without the "." dot in front to hide or unhide the folder, like using a file manager but easier. Then, to fix the media database issue, whenever the folder is renamed, a media mounted broadcast is issued forcing media provider to update the database.
Anything I want to hide goes into this special folder on the SD card and I can hide or unhide it by opening this app and clicking the button and the media provider database is automatically updated. It's not secure or anything but it does exactly what I need and has worked very well for me.
Seeing how many times people have asked about doing this sort of thing I thought I'd see if there was any interest in my app. It's not "ready for prime time" but I could probably fix it up, or if anyone better at developing apps wants to do their own feel free. Adding a password to unhide might be a good idea.
Anyway, just thought I'd throw this out there.
I know this has been discussed quite a bit but I came up with something a little different that I haven't seen yet.
When I got my first "smart" phone (HTC Incredible) one of the first things I wanted was a way to hide certain photos from all the people wanting to check out my new phone. I found several possible solutions but didn't like any of them:
1. use PC or file manager to create a .hidden folder. OK, but once it's hidden I can't access it without changing it back to unhidden, going back and forth requires connecting to a PC every time or unmounting/mounting to make media provider update the database. Too much hassle.
2. use one of these "vault" apps. Well, I just want a simple way to hide, not all this encryption and password protection etc. and I when I do want to access the files I want to be able to do it with the normal gallery, not some clunky interface built into the vault app.
So, not finding a solution I was happy with, I came up with my own:
I made a little app that, with the click of a button, renames a folder on the SD card with or without the "." dot in front to hide or unhide the folder, like using a file manager but easier. Then, to fix the media database issue, whenever the folder is renamed, a media mounted broadcast is issued forcing media provider to update the database.
Anything I want to hide goes into this special folder on the SD card and I can hide or unhide it by opening this app and clicking the button and the media provider database is automatically updated. It's not secure or anything but it does exactly what I need and has worked very well for me.
Seeing how many times people have asked about doing this sort of thing I thought I'd see if there was any interest in my app. It's not "ready for prime time" but I could probably fix it up, or if anyone better at developing apps wants to do their own feel free. Adding a password to unhide might be a good idea.
Anyway, just thought I'd throw this out there.
