Google+ instant upload screenshots

Question

I just switched to using Cyanogenmod 9 on my HTC EVO 4G (and it works very well!). In CM7 and with other (stock included) ROMs, when I took a screenshot, it was automatically added to the Instant Upload reel in the Google+ app.

I liked this.

After switching, the screenshots no longer upload, even on forced "Upload All". I suspect it is because they are being saved to a location which is not scanned by the G+ app for instant upload. So does anyone know how to force a folder to be included? Or to change the default screenshots folder?

EDIT: Note, my screenshots are being saved to Pictures/Screenshots/, which, to my knowledge based on Zuul's post, is included in the MediaScanner. Still no screenshots uploading.

UPDATE: Found this talking about a .nomedia file, and tried to scan the Screenshots folder, but there is no such file to be found.

Answer 1

The default Android external SD file structure

You should have a default structure used by Media Scanner to collect data present on your system, that gets stored on a database, allowing it to keep track of all the media content present on the device:

Music/ - Media scanner classifies all media found here as user music.
Podcasts/ - Media scanner classifies all media found here as a podcast.
Ringtones/ - Media scanner classifies all media found here as a ringtone.
Alarms/ - Media scanner classifies all media found here as an alarm sound.
Notifications/ - Media scanner classifies all media found here as a notification sound.
Pictures/ - All photos (excluding those taken with the camera).
Movies/ - All movies (excluding those taken with the camcorder).
Download/ - Miscellaneous downloads

Adittionaly, when taking screenshots, by default the folder used is:

Pictures/Screenshots/

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The media scanner service

When your device boot's up, the media scanner service is launched and runs through the entire external storage to find if there is any new media content.

If new media is found:

• It adds an entry of that media content into the content database
  Each entry in the content database contains the media meta-data (name, date, file size, etc...)
  When changes are made to a media content, the database needs to be updated, otherwise, third party applications will not be able to access that particular media content.

Applications make use of the public class MediaScannerConnection, as to "force" Media Scanner to perform an instant scan. That's with applications like Instant Upload are able to work properly.

MediaScannerConnection provides a way for applications to pass a newly created or downloaded media file to the media scanner service. The media scanner service will read metadata from the file and add the file to the media content provider. The MediaScannerConnectionClient provides an interface for the media scanner service to return the Uri for a newly scanned file to the client of the MediaScannerConnection class.

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Google+ Instant Upload

With Instant Upload enabled, photos and videos taken with your phone are automatically uploaded to a private album on Google+.

For this APP to work, make sure Sync Instant Upload is enabled on your phone:

• Go to your phone's Settings > Accounts & sync.

• Touch the account you'd like to enable sync on.

Learn more about how to Configure account sync options, where you can:

• Configure general sync settings

• Sync information manually

• Change an account’s sync settings

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Possible Solutions

After the above introduction on how things work, in order to try and solve this issue, one can:

1. Check for the Pictures/Screenshots/ folder presence.

   e.g., using a file manager.

2. Check if Instant Upload is Enabled and set to sync with your account.

If all checks out but still no avail, try rebooting the device to see if Media Scanner will properly recognize and add the missing media content to the database.
Not likely, but a recent update or crash may have disrupted the Media Scanner service.

Answer 2

Use this app my friend.

PhotoSync (Sync to Picasa) automatically syncs local folder to Picasaweb instant upload album. You can set your local folder and Picasa folder and sync them on eg. hourly basis.

Answer 3

I had the same problem. It turns out that, by default, Google+ is seeing the screenshots, but it has instant upload disabled for screenshots.

You need to:

1. Go to the app Google "Photos" (separate from Google+)
2. Click the three lines in the top left corner
3. Click on "device" (just above "Bin" at the bottom)
4. Click the greyed out cloud so it turns blue (like the for the "Camera" folder)