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Wanting to exclude the Download from being scanned by the Gallery application, i do as required, and create a:

.nomedia

file in the Download folder. That correctly causes the Download folder to vanish from Gallery. And all is well.

But then

If i Save an image from Chrome, the Download folder reappears in Gallery. This coincides with Chrome adding a special file to the Download folder:

ic.bin

enter image description here

Deleting the ic.bin file does not cause the folder to disappear from Gallery. Deleting, and re-adding the .nomedia file to the Download folder does cause the Download folder to vanish from Gallery.

i could ask this a number of alternate ways:

  • how do i really prevent a folder from being scanned by Gallery?
  • how do i deny file creation permission of a file called ic.bin in the Download folder?
  • how do i deny file creation permission of a file called ic.bin in any folder?
  • how do i stop Chrome from creating an ic.bin file in the Download folder?
  • how do i stop the Download folder from reappearing in Gallery?
  • how do i prevent Chrome from causing the Download folder from reappearing in the Gallery?

What i'm really asking is, "How do i exclude a folder from the Gallery?", given that .nomedia doesn't always work.

Nexus 4
Android version: 4.2.1

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2  
That really looks very strange. Not sure if it helps, but lacking other ideas: Remove both files, then create an empty ic.bin (making it read-only) plus the empty .nomedia (in this order). It's a wild guess, but maybe the contents of ic.bin are a key to it. Thus having created a read-only ic.bin should prevent Chrome from placing its own copy. No guarantees, as said -- just a wild guess, but worth a try. – Izzy Dec 4 '12 at 23:10
Ian, it would be nice if you could let us know whether the hint solved your problem. If so, I'd convert it into an answer -- so other users with the same problem would know about the solution. – Izzy Dec 16 '12 at 17:45
@Izzy Sorry for the delay; my Nexus 4 broke and i'm using a spare. The problem is that there is no way to mark files as Read only; the MPC interface in Windows doesn't allow doing that. The other issue i discovered is that it's not just a problem with Chrome's download folder. Another app, that saves images into its own private folder with a .nomedia file, also appear in the Gallery once you save a file there. – Ian Boyd Dec 17 '12 at 19:27
As for marking r/o: You could use a file explorer on Android for that. Dunno about the other app you mention, sorry... – Izzy Dec 17 '12 at 19:31
@Izzy The point was that ic.bin is a red herring. It seems that .nomedia is only honored if it is the last file written to the folder. Edit: which might provide a solution. If it is date based, then perhaps Android has a way to alter the date of a file to December 25th, 3091 – Ian Boyd Dec 18 '12 at 0:30
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