Database Users

File management?

How do you access the hard disk/storage card from the device? I can't figure it out for the life of me.
Thanks!

you need to download an app from the market, i use ASTRO

Cool...thanks...I appreciate it.
Anyone have any other suggestions?

Astro is normally the file manager of choice for Android users (non-rooted, at least).
OI file manager is another popular one, and it even adds an option in your email app so that you can attach any file.
I have both, I recommend you do the same.

sccafun said:
Cool...thanks...I appreciate it.
Anyone have any other suggestions?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use Astro as well, but I have used Linda Manager in the past and that was pretty decent, but it's been a while since I used it.

Thanks for the feedback everyone, I hope this helps other new Android users.

What about for the internal memory?

What about for the internal memory?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
internal is located in /emmc
the sdcard is /sdcard
Sent from my ADR6300 using the XDA mobile application powered by Tapatalk

deekjx said:
internal is located in /emmc
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks I had no idea, it looks like a folder in my file browser so I couldn't be sure that was it.

astro is nice because it has a built in ftp client that supports sftp. that's my favorite part of it. just installed oi for email. pretty excited about being able attach any files now instead of only pictures
EDIT: forgot to say thanks thanks!!

And EStrongs is good if you want to do network shares (and supports samba).
It has ftp too. Not sure about secure ftp though, I havent installed Estrongs on my Incredible and never thought to try secure ftp on my Droid.

qwho said:
Thanks I had no idea, it looks like a folder in my file browser so I couldn't be sure that was it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was in the same boat. Thanks a bunch.

AwsmAdm said:
I was in the same boat. Thanks a bunch.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Me too Thanks

Using Astro, I cannot copy/paste/move ringtones into the media/ringtones folder on the phone's hard disk....has anyone noticed this? Is there another program that will allow you to do this?

sccafun said:
Using Astro, I cannot copy/paste/move ringtones into the media/ringtones folder on the phone's hard disk....has anyone noticed this? Is there another program that will allow you to do this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On the sdcard or the emmc folder?
I have no problem with either. I just used Astro and went into the emmc folder and created a "ringtones" folder and copied and pasted one of my ringtones into it.
Where exactly are you copying from and pasting to? If you put the ringtones into a folder on the emmc or sdcard the phone will see them.
Ringtones go in a folder called "ringtones", notifications in "notifications" and alarms in "alarms". That's all you need to do to get them to show in the list of available sounds.

Thanks for responding….my ringtones are on my SD card…I'm was trying to copy/paste or move the ringtones from there into the system/media/audio/ringtones directory.
Ah-ha, I see… you can't move the files directly from your SD card to the system directory, you have to place the ringtones in the emmc directory first….well, that's different…I'm used to Win Mo….love Total Commander…..
Ok, really..I'm not a dunce…I was able to move the files from my sd card to the emmc folder, but I cannot move to the ringtones directory from the path listed above…. :-?

sccafun said:
Thanks for responding….my ringtones are on my SD card…I'm was trying to copy/paste or move the ringtones from there into the system/media/audio/ringtones directory.
Ah-ha, I see… you can't move the files directly from your SD card to the system directory, you have to place the ringtones in the emmc directory first….well, that's different…I'm used to Win Mo….love Total Commander…..
Ok, really..I'm not a dunce…I was able to move the files from my sd card to the emmc folder, but I cannot move to the ringtones directory from the path listed above…. :-?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is no reason or need to put them on the "system". I suspect we need to root to do that. But the phone will use your ringtones whether they are in the system folder, the sdcard, or the emmc. It is the name of the folder that matters. Just name them like I mentioned and they'll show up in all the right places.

On my Incredible, I can only select the default ringtones from the system/media/audio/ringtones directory. The device will not recognize ringtones from anywhere else when trying to assign ringtones for my contacts, or for the device in general.... so as is, I can only select the default ringtones, or buy new ones....ha,ha...yeah, right....I'll send the device back first....

sccafun said:
On my Incredible, I can only select the default ringtones from the system/media/audio/ringtones directory. The device will not recognize ringtones from anywhere else when trying to assign ringtones for my contacts, or for the device in general.... so as is, I can only select the default ringtones, or buy new ones....ha,ha...yeah, right....I'll send the device back first....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Either you are doing something wrong or your phone is broken. Or maybe you are using a bad/incompatible file for a ringtone?
Do this for me.
Create a folder on your sdcard called "ringtones". Put it on the root of your sdcard and name it EXACTLY like that (without the quotes, of course). Place your mp3 ringtone in there. It will then show up as an option for your phone's main ringtone. Use a known good ringtone if you are having issues.
Now, that ringtone will not show up for notifications or alarms. You have to also create a folder called "alarms" and "notifications" and put the ringtones in there as well.
This works 100% for me and my Incredible (it was the same on the Droid and Devour as well - those are the only Android devices I have so far).

Ok, renaming the folder to "Ringtones" worked. Like I said, I'm not a dunce or new to PPC/smartphones...however, I am new to Android....with WM you don't have to jump through these hoops just to get the device to recognize the sound files, or to move files from one directory to another. Thanks for your help again, I hope this helps other new Droid users!

[Q] Hide music and pics from Gallery and Media players?

So on other android devices to hide music and pics from the media players and gallery you would just set the folder to hidden.
I've tried this and it didn't work.
Also i've created a blank file named ".hidden" with the names of the folders i want hidden in the file and still no go.
The folders are hidden, i can see that when i connect my microSD to my PC (on ubuntu and XP) yet unwanted files still show up in the media player.
This is really annoying because i have a bunch of games and apps and all their little sound effects and pics are showing up in my gallery and music players. Theres nothing like going from one good song to sound effects of a game... :/
Anybody know how to do this right?
2.1 build 6941

Create a file called .nomedia in The directory you want to hide from the music player. Use astro.
Sent from my Dell Streak using XDA App

rodjordan said:
Create a file called .nomedia in The directory you want to hide from the music player. Use astro.
Sent from my Dell Streak using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, worked perfectly!
Learn something new everyday!
I'm still adjusting to android after 7 years of windows mobile... i kind of miss registry edits though.

rodjordan said:
Create a file called .nomedia in The directory you want to hide from the music player. Use astro.
Sent from my Dell Streak using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How are you creating a .nomedia file?
I've just renamed a folder to .nomedia with stuff within the folder that I wanted to hide via Astro and now my phone has decided to deleted all my media on my phone ( music, photoss and videos ) but the media within the renamed folder is fine, I've even tried returning the folder back to it's original name and I've plugged the card on a PC and they're all gone, just the folders remain......bugger...... take it that there's no way to recover the files?
Running Streak 1.6

He means create a file called ".nomedia"
Like a word document would be ".doc" but don't add any other name before the dot, just worked for me too, thanks!

I just copied a small file (eg adwsettings.xml) to the directory and renamed it to .nomedia. when you start the gallery it will rebuild the thumbnails minus the files in The tree where the .nomedia file lives.
I am using the 2.1 o2 build 8xxx.
Sent from my Dell Streak using XDA App

The Estrongs File Explorer allows you to create a new file with whatever name/type you want.

Keethos said:
How are you creating a .nomedia file?
I've just renamed a folder to .nomedia with stuff within the folder that I wanted to hide via Astro and now my phone has decided to deleted all my media on my phone ( music, photoss and videos ) but the media within the renamed folder is fine, I've even tried returning the folder back to it's original name and I've plugged the card on a PC and they're all gone, just the folders remain......bugger...... take it that there's no way to recover the files?
Running Streak 1.6
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you sure there gone and not just hidden?
What I did to create the file in astro, I created a new zip archive, named it .nomedia and then selected the zip file and chose to rename it and just removed the .zip from the end.
Sent from my Dell Streak using XDA App

I know this is not really related, but it does change my album art to it's own default on some albums, which i find really annoying!!!!

fone_fanatic said:
Are you sure there gone and not just hidden?
What I did to create the file in astro, I created a new zip archive, named it .nomedia and then selected the zip file and chose to rename it and just removed the .zip from the end.
Sent from my Dell Streak using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah, I've plugged my card into a PC with show all hidden files and they weren't appearing and Astro has Show Hidden Files on too
Ah well, I'll know for next time, think I've only lost a couple of photo's but most of my media has been backup....I think

There are a couple of free apps in the market that can hide what every file you like one is called HIDEIT i think

Right, copied almost all my media back onto my SD Card, I have now created a New.txt file on my PC, copied that over to a folder with media I wish to hide, then on the phone, I used Astro again to rename the New.txt file to .nomedia file and this has worked fine. Gallery doesn't see it and the files are still there, however, I then decided to test copying the newly created .nomedia file to another folder to hide some other media. Once I backed out of Astro, then entered the native photo app, the media from that folder has disappeared, however, I then return to the folder with the media I just wanted to hide and they have now been deleted again Proper random. I'm guna leave the one I have created first time as for some reason they are still present, but I'm not guna bother with this method of hiding things.
So be warned, this method of creating a .nomedia file, if not done properly, may result in you losing your media!

Keethos said:
Right, copied almost all my media back onto my SD Card, I have now created a New.txt file on my PC, copied that over to a folder with media I wish to hide, then on the phone, I used Astro again to rename the New.txt file to .nomedia file and this has worked fine. Gallery doesn't see it and the files are still there, however, I then decided to test copying the newly created .nomedia file to another folder to hide some other media. Once I backed out of Astro, then entered the native photo app, the media from that folder has disappeared, however, I then return to the folder with the media I just wanted to hide and they have now been deleted again Proper random. I'm guna leave the one I have created first time as for some reason they are still present, but I'm not guna bother with this method of hiding things.
So be warned, this method of creating a .nomedia file, if not done properly, may result in you losing your media!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thats really weird, and you scared me, i just went and checked and everything is still there for me...
In most of the places i put it was in the parent folder of images/sounds i wanted to hide, not the folder they were in. For example the sounds from Lets Golf game by gameloft were showing up in my music player which are in the folder /sdcard/gameloft/games/letsgolf/ but since i have more then one gameloft game installed i put the .nomedia file in /sdcard/gameloft/ Ofcourse this wouldn't work if the files you want the media apps to ignore were only in one folder on the sdcard because then you put the .nomedia in the root of the card it would ignore all the media on the card.

[Q] game sounds in my music :(

anybody know of a way to specify which folders my music player scans? I have several hundred sound files infecting my music from assassins creed game
EDIT:
Problem is solved! Thanks!!

I THINK you can just find the folder with the undesired files and put a period at the front of the name... (.likethis)
Let me know if that works. :]
Edit: grammar...
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

Since I don't own Assassin Creed, I don't know where the game stores the music files. Some one else may be able to assist you there.
But one you find the correct folder, drop the ".nomedia" file attached with this post in that folder and Media Scanner will skip that folder the next time it runs. (probably want to reboot the phone after doing this so media scanner runs). This will work with all folder that you don't want scanned.
P.S. You need to extract the actual ".nomedia" from the zip, it is not a cwm flashable file.

Poweramp has a setting where you pick which folders the music comes from
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

PaiPiePia said:
Since I don't own Assassin Creed, I don't know where the game stores the music files. Some one else may be able to assist you there.
But one you find the correct folder, drop the ".nomedia" file attached with this post in that folder and Media Scanner will skip that folder the next time it runs. (probably want to reboot the phone after doing this so media scanner runs). This will work with all folder that you don't want scanned.
P.S. You need to extract the actual ".nomedia" from the zip, it is not a cwm flashable file.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That Worked! Thank you very much!

Why aren't my deleted files being deleted?

When deleting files on my tablet sometimes its still there when I plug it into my PC. What's causing this?

rquinn19 said:
When deleting files on my tablet sometimes its still there when I plug it into my PC. What's causing this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What file manager are you using to delete the files? I have found that some managers / programs do not delete files without issues for some reason, for example when I play video files via MX video player, if i delete a file using MX it is often not removed, whereas with Root Explorer or ES file explorer I have never had any issues like that.
Also are you sure the files are really there? Maybe your PC is just showing you cached data, try a refresh/rebot of both devices, check again? Are the deleted files still intact if you copy them from tab to PC, or are they damaged?

entropy.of.avarice said:
What file manager are you using to delete the files? I have found that some managers / programs do not delete files without issues for some reason, for example when I play video files via MX video player, if i delete a file using MX it is often not removed, whereas with Root Explorer or ES file explorer I have never had any issues like that.
Also are you sure the files are really there? Maybe your PC is just showing you cached data, try a refresh/rebot of both devices, check again? Are the deleted files still intact if you copy them from tab to PC, or are they damaged?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've tried all the popular file managers and the files are indeed there and intact. I think I ruined file permissions or something, I have no clue.

rquinn19 said:
I've tried all the popular file managers and the files are indeed there and intact. I think I ruined file permissions or something, I have no clue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you alter the permissions of the files in question? Are you rooted? Does a root access file explorer (ie root explorer) cause the same issues when deleting a file?
Where is the file you are deleting, /sdcard/* or is the file actually in the system root (/)?
Is it on microsd?
Possibly a corrupt file system, or perhaps you are deleting a file that is currently locked by a running app?
Can you post a logcat of what happens when deleting a file? The clue to solve your problem might be in the system logs, snag a free copy of catlog if you don't have it, launch catlog, have catlog start recording, start a file explorer, delete the file, switch back to catlog and stop recording and then post/examine the log, might be a clue in there.
Also, as a wild idea - assuming the issue is coming from files, snag a copy of "sdrescan" from market, it is free, and give it a run. Perhaps you have a corrupted gallery view or something.
Hope we can figure it out

Guide for how to hide files in Gallery without deleting them

Here the steps to hide the files in your Gallery.
Crate folder and move all the files into that folder which you want to hide. after moving files, create a new folder named as ".nomedia" inside the previously created Folder. Restart device and let it scan for media files. Thats it all done. Now files are in that folder wont appear in Gallery.

There are apps that automate this for you too - I use Gallery Excluder.
Regards,
Dave
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk

Thanks for the advice, always wanted to know how to hide those old pictures
Sent from GT-N7000

I just put a fullstop in front of folder name and it hides it from gallery
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium

tks for the tips

foxmeister said:
There are apps that automate this for you too - I use Gallery Excluder.
Regards,
Dave
Sent from my GT-N7000 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thats the one i use aswell

ranjan.alva said:
Here the steps to hide the files in your Gallery.
Crate folder and move all the files into that folder which you want to hide. after moving files, create a new folder named as ".nomedia" inside the previously created Folder. Restart device and let it scan for media files. Thats it all done. Now files are in that folder wont appear in Gallery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This works for the stock Gallery, but if you generally don't want the media to appear in similar apps, it's best to create a file called .nomedia rather than a folder. The reason is that the Gallery is coded to check for the existence of a folder or file called .nomedia, whereas other apps may simply check for a file.
Small point, coming from a programmer (most languages have different functions for checking if a file or folder exists).

good tip. thank you.
ranjan.alva said:
Here the steps to hide the files in your Gallery.
Crate folder and move all the files into that folder which you want to hide. after moving files, create a new folder named as ".nomedia" inside the previously created Folder. Restart device and let it scan for media files. Thats it all done. Now files are in that folder wont appear in Gallery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

I use media hidden.
Sent from my GT-N7000 using xda premium

Guys,
Is there a easier soloution for music album art? I added a .nomedia file to the music folder (of sdcard/media/music) - great all album art pictures no longer show in the Gallery - problem is my music also 'disappeared' as it is a literal no-media to be shown! .
Is there a work around as my album art is tagged to the music files?

Does the gallery not have a tracker? Thats what im used to with maemo

Thanks for the tip

It can also be used to hide audio and video files