[SOLVED] Using Android/data/subfolder on External SD Card

[Deleted]

I spent a couple of hours yesterday trying to figure out how to get rsync (a utility for transferring and synchronizing files across computer systems) to work between my Linux machine and my Android phone's external SD card. I finally got around Android's frustrating file permissions by putting my music in the /storage/<identifier for my external SD card>/Android/data/com.arachnoid.sshelper/Music/ folder, where the files are readable by any app (supposedly) and readable/writeable by SSHelper, the SSH app I use with rsync. It works great, and now I can synchronize my music between my phone and my desktop in seconds, no cable required. There's only one problem; now GMMP can't find my music.

I can browse to the new Music folder and see all the files, but when I go into GMMP -> Settings -> Scanner -> Edit Scan Paths and enable all the folders in the path to my music, Scan does not add the music files to the GMMP music library. I don't have any paths enabled in Edit Ignore Paths. I've verified that I have Storage permissions enabled for GMMP. If I use My Files to browse to a music file and tap it, GMMP opens but doesn't play the file. I've gone through every folder in the path and there are no .nomedia files in any of the folders. I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling GMMP, restarting my phone, but no luck.

I should mention that GMMP works fine if I put the music in a "Music" folder in the root of the external SD card. I suspect it's a problem with trying to read files in my external SD card's /Android/data/* path, but the files should be readable by any app. Is there some setting in GMMP that I need to check, or another way to get this working?

[GoneMAD]

the reasons for not being scanned into gmmp would be a .nomedia being found when its traversing the file system (will go more into that later), the tag reader fails to read the file due to it being flagged as not a valid file in the tagging library (very unlikely), or the path was added to the ignore path list

Before a scan is ran.. the scanner goes through all the folders checked in the edit paths ui, and will remove any folder that also has its parent checked. Ie:

Lets say these 3 were checked:
/storage/Music, /storage/Music/artist/, /storage/Music/artist/album

Scanner would only scan /storage/Music because scanning that will also scan the artist and the artist/album folders as well. This is done to cut down on scanning the same files multiple times. However If you have a .nomedia file in at /storage/Music/.nomedia, the scanner is going to see that and skip the folder entirely and then finish.

My recommendations:
1) Disable the .nomedia option in the scanner settings
2) Go to the edit paths and only select the folders you want.. you do not need to select all its parent folders. So make sure only /storage/<identifier for my external SD card>/Android/data/com.arachnoid.sshelper/Music/ is checked off and not /storage/<identifier for my external SD card>/Android/data/com.arachnoid.sshelper/, /storage/<identifier for my external SD card>/Android/data/, etc.
3) Use gmmp's folder view and see if you can navigate down to your music. Any path added to the scanner will appear as a top level folder in the folder view and you should be able to dig down keep into that path you set

[Deleted]

I don't know if it was disabling .nomedia, even though I couldn't find any .nomedia files in the folders, or unchecking all the parent folders, but that worked, and I can access and play my music again. Thank you so much for the quick response and the solution!

[GoneMAD]

no problem!

[nick]

Having a similar problem since updating the app. My music folder is stored in a folder on my SD card. When adding new music it wasn't appearing so I went to edit scan paths to check that the folder location was correct.
It has by default set the scan path to storage/emulated/0 and I cannot go up a level in the menu to get to the folder on the SD card.

I tried the options listed below but with no success. If I go into the folder option in the app I can view the new music and select it from there.

Otherwise the new version seems great would just love to get this issue sorted.

Jun 18, 2019 14:51:06 GMT -5 GoneMAD said:

the reasons for not being scanned into gmmp would be a .nomedia being found when its traversing the file system (will go more into that later), the tag reader fails to read the file due to it being flagged as not a valid file in the tagging library (very unlikely), or the path was added to the ignore path list

Before a scan is ran.. the scanner goes through all the folders checked in the edit paths ui, and will remove any folder that also has its parent checked. Ie:

Lets say these 3 were checked:
/storage/Music, /storage/Music/artist/, /storage/Music/artist/album

Scanner would only scan /storage/Music because scanning that will also scan the artist and the artist/album folders as well. This is done to cut down on scanning the same files multiple times. However If you have a .nomedia file in at /storage/Music/.nomedia, the scanner is going to see that and skip the folder entirely and then finish.

My recommendations:
1) Disable the .nomedia option in the scanner settings
2) Go to the edit paths and only select the folders you want.. you do not need to select all its parent folders. So make sure only /storage/<identifier for my external SD card>/Android/data/com.arachnoid.sshelper/Music/ is checked off and not /storage/<identifier for my external SD card>/Android/data/com.arachnoid.sshelper/, /storage/<identifier for my external SD card>/Android/data/, etc.
3) Use gmmp's folder view and see if you can navigate down to your music. Any path added to the scanner will appear as a top level folder in the folder view and you should be able to dig down keep into that path you set

[GoneMAD]

you can manually add paths in the edit scan paths UI by clicking the pencil icon on the top toolbar and typing in the full path, or clear the apps data/cache and start fresh. The default scan path code typically finds sdcards fine in 3.0

[nick]

It has worked, thank you for your help.
The only other issue I have is when I scan for new music (and my music is sorted on date added) some of the new albums get sorted at the top of the list (most recently added) whereas some appear at the bottom (together with the album's that were first added to the player.

[GoneMAD]

date added in 3.0 is based on the "last modified" time associated with its files. Assuming things are stable and you dont have to delete the database / start fresh again.. all new content will show at the top when sorting by recently added.