My M8 is scanning all the app media files so music and images and icons from apps are showing up in gallery and music apps, I'm not sure which directories these are coming from so I can't add the .nomedia file, and when I did try to add it it wouldn't allow me to save the file with that name. So how can I stop android from processing the images and music from apps I just want it to use the music and pictures files where music and photos are saved
1 Answer
The media scanner scans everything on your S.D. card. Adding a .nomedia to any of the subdirectories will allow the media scanner to skip everything in that sub-tree.
Your S.D. card will be F.A.T.-formatted so there are no permission restrictions. If you are receiving access denied on the S.D. card then it may be locked read-only due to damage to the card, or worse some malware you have installed. There isn't enough information to say for certain. You can scan the card properly by connecting it to a computer and running fsck (Linux and other *nix) or chkdsk (Windows). Remember to back up any important files before doing so.
Applications can access a directory on the S.D. called Android, and sometimes just data. Add a .nomedia file to those directories to stop those directories from being scanned.
The command for doing so in a terminal emulator would be:
touch /path/to/SD/Android/.nomedia
touch /path/to/SD/data/.nomedia
where /path/to/SD/ varies depending on your version of Android. To do the same under Windows would be something along the lines of "Create new blank file" from within Explorer.
