`.nomedia` file being ignored and deleted on SD card
- /e/ version: v1.5-20221028230215
- Device model(s): Fairphone 3
- Device rooted: yes/
no
Summary
I store my phone music library on a 128 GB microSDXC card. On the previous version of /e/OS (v1.3) I added a .nomedia
file to my Music/
directory which, whilst I can't now go back and check, I am pretty sure resulted in all of the album artwork no longer appearing in the Gallery app (as intended). This suggests that #6089 (closed) may have been fixed at some point.
However, since upgrading to v1.5, the .nomedia
file is no longer having any effect. Also, my phone seems to be blocking it from even existing - if I look at the SD card in the Files app or on my computer, there is no .nomedia
file present. If I try to create one via my computer, touch
reports an ‘Input/Output error’ or just freezes on the command. If I take the SD card out of my phone and access it via my computer, I can create the file no problem; however, upon putting it back into my phone the file is deleted again.
This happened with a FAT32-formatted SD card, so I tried again with an ext4-formatted one. This time the .nomedia
file remained when I turned the phone on, but the Gallery app still showed the images anyway.
I have another .nomedia
file in a folder stored on my device itself, and that is correctly ignored in Gallery, so the issue appears to be specifically SD card related and (and as far as I can tell) was reintroduced in v1.5.
The problem
Steps to reproduce
- Add a
.nomedia
file to a folder containing images stored on an SD card - Go onto the Galley app to see the images anyway
- (I'm not 100% certain whether this will be reproducible) Do the same with a FAT32-formatted SD card, and then view it in the Files app to see the
.nomedia
file has disappeared.
What is the current behavior?
- Gallery shows images on SD card regardless of presence of
.nomedia
file. -
.nomedia
file itself is sometimes deleted automatically by phone, and creation of a new one via attached computer fails (unless SD card is removed from phone)
What is the expected correct behavior?
- Gallery should respect
.nomedia
files and not display images - Phone should not delete
.nomedia
files (or any files, for that matter) on SD card without user action
Solutions
Workaround
Unknown
Possible fixes
Unknown