.nomedia file not hiding images in default Gallery app as expected

zzz

I understand that normally in android, a .nomedia file is supposed to hide the images in a directory and all sub-folders from the Gallery app.
https://support.google.com/android/thread/60342076/what-are-these-nomedia-files?hl=en

A friend of mine uses Musicolet to play mp3s, and keeps the audio files + album art in the default "Pixel X/Music" folder.
Unfortunately, this means that hundreds of album art files appear in the default Gallery app for them, making it very difficult to pick out relevant photos.

I did a search in the Files app, then copied an existing .nomedia file from another directory into the Music folder. This failed, the system gives a failure notification.

Next I tried copying that .nomedia file into it's existing directory, which the system automatically renamed to "(1).nomedia". I was able to successfully copy that into the Music folder, then rename it to simply ".nomedia".

However, this did not successfully hide album art from the default Gallery app, even after several reboots.

Can anyone advise on how to solve this?

DeletedUser495

zzz copy album art to separate folder and rename it to .folder (i. e. hidden folder) where the "folder" is the name of folder of your choice. Such files will not show up in Gallery app.

zzz

DeletedUser495

Thanks so much for the suggestion, really appreciate it

In this case, they have hundreds of album folders in the Pixel X/Music directory, with each folder containing a single image file + audio files.
The file path for each image looks like this:
Pixel X/Music/ArtistName/AlbumName/CoverArt.jpg

I'm afraid that it's a tall ask for them to spend a lot of time reorganizing their library by pulling out the album images one at a time like that.
I believe Musicolet automatically adds the album art to the album folder in that format too. So when they add new music in the future they would have to spend time pulling out the image files and putting them into a new folder.

Is there a solution that could preserve their existing file structure?
Ideally something that marks the entire Music folder as off-limits to the Gallery app.

MetropleX

zzz First try clearing gallery cache/data and then rebooting the phone to see if it's respected.

If not do the suggestion adding the . to the folder and then clearing gallery cache and data and rebooting, if this is respected go back to the folders and remove the . and then see if the .nomedia file inside continues to be enforced.

Also you the .nomedia file might be getting attributes from whatever app the file was created with. Some File Explorer add data some don't. The default File Manager app doesn't have a file creation tool.

DeletedUser495

zzz rename Pixel X Music folder to .Pixel X Music

In Musicolet app add that folder to scan in the Settings > Song library and tags > Folders to scan > Add folder. Also remove Scan all folders which you are warned will not work reliably and it doesn't as I have found out.

Also in Settings > Song library and tags > Advanced, enable Scan inside hidden folders and then rescan the library.

Your album art should in the meantime disappear from Gallery app while preserving displaying of your library in Musicolet app. Enjoy uncluttered Gallery.

zzz

MetropleX

Thanks for the suggestions, I tried them all.

First try clearing gallery cache/data and then rebooting the phone to see if it's respected.

Unfortunately it didn't work, Gallery still shows album art images like
"Pixel X/Music/ArtistName/AlbumName/CoverArt.jpg"
after clearing data+cache and rebooting.

If not do the suggestion adding the . to the folder and then clearing gallery cache and data and rebooting,

This step succeeded in a limited sense. I renamed the folder "Pixel X/Music" to "Pixel X/.Music" .
It did prevent the Gallery app from accessing those image files.
But it also prevented the audio player Musicolet from accessing the audio files.

go back to the folders and remove the . and then see if the .nomedia file inside continues to be enforced.

Sadly this didn't work. The gallery app doesn't respect the .nomedia file once I rename the folder from ".Music" to "Music".

the .nomedia file might be getting attributes from whatever app the file was created with. Some File Explorer add data some don't. The default File Manager app doesn't have a file creation tool.

The .nomedia file that I'm using is listed in file explorer as "0B" in size.

Using the default Files app, I copied it from this folder:
"Pixel X/Music/.thumbnails/.nomedia"
(I think this folder was generated by Musicolet?)

The resulting file was:
"Pixel X/Music/.thumbnails/(1).nomedia"

Then I moved it to:
"Pixel X/Music/(1).nomedia"

Then I renamed it to:
"Pixel X/Music/.nomedia"

Is there a better way to generate a .nomedia file?

Thanks so much for the help troubleshooting

zzz

DeletedUser495

Worked perfectly!
Didn't even have to refresh the Gallery cache/data, it instantly removed the unwanted album art.

Thanks 'Sarge!