Hi all;
Can i know why the thumbdata3 file folder in /mnt/sdcard/DCIM is so big in size (nearly 1gb) in my internal storage? Actually, all my photos or videos are in my ext-SD.
I have tried to delete the thumbnail folder but it come back again in same location. As shown in the picture, the device memory bar is almost full,but the available space still show 7.24gb. Please advice. Thanks.............
Anyone can help..? Thanks.........
Big thumbdata3 file in internal storage
erictanyh said:
Anyone can help..? Thanks.........
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Using a disk space analyzer, I was surprised to see that my Android tablet had 1.03GB of photos. This was odd to me, because I knew there were only a couple of photos on the device.
I pinpointed the problem to thumbnails. These are tiny copies of photos used by some apps to more quickly display pictures. Specifically, the 1GB was being taken up by a thumbnail index file, and I didn't need to lose that 1GB to a function I don't use on the tablet. I erased the file as follows:
1. Open a file manager on Android. I use File Manager from Rhythm Software.
2. Ensure that it can display system or hidden files. This is an option somewhere under Settings. In File Manager, tap Menu > Settings > Show Hidden Files.
3. Navigate to \mnt\sdcard\DCIM\ .thumbnails. By the way, DCIM is the standard name for the folder that holds photographs, and is the standard for pretty much any device, whether smartphone or camera; it is short for "digital camera IMages." Another BTW: when a folder name is prefixed with a period, then it is a hidden folder in Android (such as .thumbnails).
4. Select and erase the file that's about 1GB and contains the word 'thumbdata." The exact file name will vary.
After I did this, image viewing apps like Gallery operated just fine, with no apparent slowdown from the loss of this file.
In this way I freed up 1GB on my Android v4 tablet, 1GB on my Android v4 phone, and 750MB on an older Android v2 phone.
Keeping the 1GB Free
Because .thumbdata is a system file, Android recreates it. Indeed, you may find more than one copy in the .thumbnails folder, if you have reinstalled Android or similarly redid the system in some way.
To keep Android from creating the 1GB file anew, we need to create a dummy file that fools Android. In short, we create a text file with a text editor, and then move it to the thumbnails folder. Here are the steps to doing this:
1. Use File Manager to determine the exact name of the thumbnail index file. On one of my Android devices, the name is .thumbdata3--1967290299. Write it down.
2. Start a text editor or word processor on the Android, and then create a new text file.
3. Use the Save As command to save the file in the DCIM folder. (We move it to the .thumbnails folder in a later step.) Save it with the same name at that index file, such as ".thumbdata3--1967290299". Now, depending on the text editor's capabilities, it might not allow the "." prefix or a blank extension. Thus, you might end up with thumbdata3--1967290299.txt as the file name. We fix this in a later step.
4. Exit the text editor, and then switch to File Manager. Now, it is important you use a file manager like Rhythm Software's File Manager app, because it does what some others cannot: it can (a) rename file extensions and (b) access hidden folders.
5. In File Manager, navigate to the \DCIM\ .thumbnails folder. If the thumbdata3 file is there again, erase it again.
6. Move up a level to the \DCIM folder, and then right-click the thumbdata3--1967290299.txt file name. ("Right click" means hold your finger down on the name until a menu appears.)
7. From the menu, choose Rename, and then rename thumbdata3--1967290299.txt to .thumbdata3--1967290299 -- (a) add the dot (.) to the start of the file name, and (b) erase the ".txt" from the end of the file name.
8. Click OK (or Rename) to finish renaming.
9. Right click the file name, and then choose Move (or Cut).
10. Navigate down to the .thumbnails folder, and then tap Paste.
The dummy file will now prevent Android from creating the huge index file.
Thumbdata files allow most devices to access the file it is in i.e if u give another device permission to access your device it will create a thumbdata file so it can browse your personal files so should be treated with caution as app developers would be able to illegally access your sensitive personal images or information on your phone or smart device without consent from the owner therefore maybe should be treated as spyware permissions for thumbdata should be an optional decision from the user in Android systems and currently is not
Related
Probably asked a billion times but can somebody quickly explain how i can have a custom startup picture instead of the cingular one? thanks
If u do a simple search, u will find many posts talking about it.
Anyway, here's the steps (WM5 ONLY):
Step 1)
Backing up the original Bootscreen image.
Open your device's File Explorer and go to /Windows.
Search for an image named 'welcomehead.96.png'.
Copy that file (Tap & Hold on the image's name and tap on Copy).
Paste it somewhere else on your device. Preferably on a removeable storage card (SD, Mini-SD, etc)
Paste the file by tap & holding on an empty space in the file explorer and tapping on paste in the context menu.
Now the file is backed up!
Step 2)
Take the Bootscreen skin you've chosen, and put it on your device.
Now, you need a third party file explorer, because Microsoft, for security/safety reasons, disabled the Built-in File explorer (and ActiveSync Explorer)
from replacing system files.
Resco Explorer is a good 3rd Party explorer but there are tons of freeware explorers out there to do the job.
Paste the Bootscreen skin in the /Windows folder with the 3rd party file explorer.
A pop-up will appear asking you to overwrite the original file. Overwrite the file.
You will also probably get a system warning about replacing a system file. This can be ignored.
Please note, as stated above, that this only works on Windows Mobile 5 devices.
Okay, I searched for "change icons" and got two pages of threads on how to change program icons. Some provided great information; however, none addressed my need.
I'm interested in changing only FOLDER icons, and ONLY those in QuickMenu (see attached images). The folder icons are all the same except for two, the Games folder and the Office Mobile folder. They both have a small file inside the directory that's called "icon."
I would like to change any and all directories to whatever icon I choose, or design. Is this possible? If so, how?
Thanks,
Peter
Try PExplorer - it works magic!!!
http://www.heaventools.com/
Confused???
eenbox said:
Try PExplorer - it works magic!!!
http://www.heaventools.com/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the quick reply. I had a look at that program, and the web site, and I'm completely confused. It looks like a program for my PC, and not my phone. Furthermore, I don't see anything mentioned on how to change an icon.
HELP!
ADDENDUM: Furthermore, as I said in my original post, I DO NOT want to change program icons, such as exe files or dll files. From what I can tell, PExplorer is desiged to modify the inner workings of exe and dll files, etc.
I want to change the icons for a directory (folder image). These are not programs or dlls.
Thanks,
Peter
Figured it out ...
I figured it out. It took a bit of thought, and some weird manipulation using Notepad, but now I can change any QuickMenu icon to almost whatever I want, as long as there's either an EXE or DLL file that contains the icon.
Cheers!
----------------------------------
Since I don't plan to return to this thread, and since there may be someone who wants to know what I did, here's my solution:
REMEMBER: This solution ONLY works if you want to change folder icons WITHIN the QuickMenu subset of folders. It does NOT work on program icons, or for any other icons for that matter (ONLY QUICKMENU FOLDERS).
01) Find an EXE or DLL file with the icon you want. If this file contains more than one icon, then you'll need to know the icon number within the program. This can be quite difficult to determine. However, for the purpose of this discussion, I'm assuming you want to use the MAIN icon, which is usually designated as icon "0" (zero) within the EXE or DLL file. We'll go with "0" for this discussion.
02) Your phone should already have at least one (probably two) folder icon files. The two in question are usually used for the Start Menu Games directory and for the Start Menu Office Mobile directory. Using Total Commander or any similar program (File Explorer will NOT work), make your way to either the Games or Office Mobile directory within the Windows\Start Menu. Whether it's the Games folder or the Office Mobile folder, you should find a shortcut file called icon. This is the file that determines how the folder will appear within the QuickMenu structure.
03) Copy this file to your PC. Anywhere will do as long as you remember where you put it. Make a second copy of it just in case you "ruin" your attempt to change the icon using these instructions. At least you can go back to what you had before.
04) Right click on this file and select Properties. In the General tab, uncheck the Read-only box. Click on Apply.
05) Open NotePad on your PC.
06) Within NotePad, click on File and then on Open. The Open dialogue box appears. At the bottom of this dialogue box are three horizontal white boxes. The second box has the title "Files of type." The default entry is "Text documents (*.txt). Click on the down arrow and change this to "All files." Now find the icon file you copied to your PC in (3) above and open it within NotePad.
07) You will see a line of instructions at the top of the file. These instructions tell your phone where to find the icon image. What we need to do, therefore, is change the instructions to another icon image.
08) Now let's assume that you have a Start Menu folder within QuickMenu called PDF files, and you would like that folder to have the Adobe Reader icon. To do this, change the line of instructions from what it currently reads to the following:
1#AdobeReaderLE.exe,-0
09) Make sure there's a carriage return after the final "0"
10) Re-save the file. The file name must not be changed. It must always remain as "icon."
11) Now copy this new file to the actual PDF directory within your phone's Start Menu. Soft reset your phone and the PDF folder will now have the Adobe icon.
DONE!
Here are some tips:
The above example assumes that the AdobeReaderLE.exe file is in your main Windows directory. If the EXE file you want to use is anywhere else, you need to direct the instructions appropriately. Here's an example for an EXE file contained on your Storage Card, and within the Program Files directory. Let's say you installed BsB Tweaks to the Storage Card, and you want to use the main BsB icon for one of your Start Menu folders. Here's how the instructions would look:
1#\Storage Card\Program Files\BsB\Tweaks\BsB Tweaks.exe,-0
Remember to always save the file with the name "icon." Always put the revised icon file inside the directory whose appearance you want to change.
Happy Changing!
Peter
P.S. Since I can't seem to add images to a post after the fact, I will submit another post shortly with images to show you what I did with my phone.
Before and After Images
As promised, attached (below) are images to show you what I did with my phone.
Peter
thanks alot man, i have been looking for days, to find a way to do this!!!!
You just need to find the way to put a dot before the name of folder.
In XP this would be easy but in Vista or Seven this might be harder.
When you put a dot for exemple on the folder .TEMP the system will say that you need to name the file.
Use an ftp client and connect to your pc and you will be fine renaming the folder.
To disable pics and movies to show up in the interface. you just need to put a file named .nomedia in the folder that contain those pics or movies.
In windows you can create a folder with a . by using CMD and the command "MKDIR" eg.
F:\>mkdir .private
Or simply use a file manager on your phone to create the folder.
Just use Astro file manager on the market.
Long press the file you want to hide/edit/rename/insert dot before filename.
Android then hides any pics you have from the gallery app.
Assign any video apps to scan the file without the dot, they will also be hidden under dot mode, but a rescan may be required.
Suggest app protector pro to put a security pattern on Astro.
I personally don't have any pr0n on my phone... No, really.
useful for thumb in album mostly...
don't need to hide porn if it's your phone
This isn't necessarily a nexus question, but I thought you guys would probably know anyway.
If I look at the file structure over a USB cable from my PC, I see what I think is on the "SD card". I have a list of directories and I can see the files.
However, if I use ES File manager, I can go to /SDCARD0 and I see the same file list but an additional directory called "maps" (created by my mind map application).
if I use ES File manager and just look at where it starts off (the Home directory), I don't see that "maps" directory.
So, how can I get my PC to see that extra directory? Is it some sort of permissions or is it more complex than that?
regards
Alan
Hey all -
Have a question.
I want to call the Camera intent, but have the camera save to a custom file.
I've read this: https://developer.android.com/training/data-storage/files#WriteExternalStorage
And the only two options it gives is 'Save to a public directory" (like \Pictures, \Ringtones, etc), or "Save to a Provate Directory".
The latter sounds like it's what I want to do - but mentioned 'getExternalFilesDir()' function retrieves my application's custom data directory (which is (1)removed when the app is uninstalled, and (2)difficult to find when the phone is plugged into a computer - to copy the saved files from.)
What I'd REALLY wanna do is save my files to a root directory in the external storage. (Like, "/<sdcard mount path>/PicLogger/<file>").
Anyone know of a guide, or examples that show how to save images through the camera into a custom directory like this?
Thanks!
-Mike
You can save the file wherever you want, given that you have permission to write to SD card, by passing the file URI as MediaStore.EXTRA_OUTPUT in the MediaStore.ACTION_IMAGE_CAPTURE intent. See Save the full-size photo.
That being said, you should prefer something like "DCIM/YourAppName" or "Pictures/YourAppName", which apps like Google PhotoScan etc have been doing.
Code:
new File(Environment.getExternalStoragePublicDirectory(Environment.DIRECTORY_DCIM), "YourAppName")
Apps should not create their own directories directly under the SD card root directory, and if they want to make something visible to user, it should be under one of the standard directories, preferrably under a subdirectory named after your app.
Or if you want to support scoped storage since Q, you can check out this SO answer.