Location for custom Ringtones/Alarms/Notifications that hides them from Play Music?

Question

There seems to be a lot of misinformation about the proper location and format for custom Ringtones, Notifications, and Alarms in Android and I'm wondering what is correct.

I've read that the path could be any one of the following:

• /sdcard/Ringtones/
• /sdcard/ringtones/
• /sdcard/media/Ringtones/
• /sdcard/media/ringtones/
• /sdcard/media/audio/Ringtones/
• /sdcard/media/audio/ringtones/
• /sdcard/Notifications/
• /sdcard/notifications/
• /sdcard/media/Notifications/
• /sdcard/media/notifications/
• /sdcard/media/audio/Notifications/
• /sdcard/media/audio/notifications/
• /sdcard/Alarms/
• /sdcard/alarms/
• /sdcard/media/Alarms/
• /sdcard/media/alarms/
• /sdcard/media/audio/Alarms/
• /sdcard/media/audio/alarms/

Any of the Ringtone and Notification paths seem to work but nothing seems to work for Alarms.

Regardless of where the files are, Google Play Music still adds them to it's library unless a .nomedia file exists. The .nomedia file however hides the files from the Ringtone and Notification lists.

Is there a correct location for the 3 media types that will make them show in their respective lists and hide them from Google Play Music?

I'm running Lollipop 5.1.1 on an unrooted Nexus 4.

Answer 1

Just create a new folder/directory in internal storage of your phone with name 'Notifications' and place all your notification tones that you have downloaded in this folder.

Finally go to settings > sound > notifications > you'll find your tones there, select and enjoy.

Answer 2

All of my ringtone and notification files are on my external SD card and don't show up in Google Play Music:

/extSdCard/Notifications
/extSdCard/Ringtones

Also, on my Galaxy S3 my alarm uses the Ringtones for alarm sounds.

Answer 3

I converted some of my ringtones and notifications to .ogg and .m4a format and stored in media/audio/ringtones now the music player not listing them in library. I think this will also work in your case.