[Q] Sounds missing from Media folder - Nexus 5 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi everyone, new to the XDA forums as a registered user. So anyway, I was recently browsing through my files through es file explorer file manager and noticed that the tones/sounds/ringtones that came with my nexus 5 have all disappeared from the folder including the sub folders for ringtones, alarms, ui.
From what I remember this folder does not simply allow the end user to move or add files to this folder. I did root my device and I did download a library of extra sounds as I didn't care for some of the stock nexus 5 sounds. Since I couldn't place these downloaded sounds into the media folder, I just placed these new sounds into the Ringtones folder which happily accepted these files. The downloaded library of the 1500 ringtones, alarms, ui sounds was subdivided similarly into the same 4 subfiles found in the media folder.
My question is: does the nexus 5 device automatically search for new directories to place similar files existing in a different directory and just dump it's files into the new newly created directory for ringtones? All of the original sounds are all there, but somehow relocated to the ringtones folder from media. It could also be that the nexus 5 sound library was part of the 1500 sound library, by then why would the media folder be affected? Does the media folder point to the ringtones folder if there are existing sound files?
I am running the latest 4.4.4 with stock android and stock launcher. I don't like heavily modifying my ui add that usually compromises device performance.
Thanks in advance for any input. I'm usually good at resolving problems with my device, but this issue is driving me insane. It's not affecting the way my phone functions or anything but since stuff is out of place, I just have to find out why that's so.

All built-in sounds are in/system/media/audio
Android on any device will look for any folder called ringtones,notifications, alarms and add the contents to the around picker menus. It does not relocate anything
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

5329
rootSU said:
All built-in sounds are in/system/media/audio
Android on any device will look for any folder called ringtones,notifications, alarms and add the contents to the around picker menus. It does not relocate anything
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh poop, how embarrassing, I was looking in the sdcard folder. Thanks for pointing that out! They are indeed in the system/media still. Thank you. Problem resolved.

Related

[Q] Standard Android Message Chime?

I'm missing it on my Nexus S. Either it's not here or I'm blind and stupid. Can someone point the way? It's become so iconic, to my brain, it doesn't recognize anything else quite the same way...
What was it called? PM me your email address.
It's called Pixie Dust. I grabbed my brother's Nexus One.
Grrrr! It's driving me nuts without that specific sound.
The Nexus S doesn't come with Pixie Dust notification sound. I just checked my stock phone and it's not there.
I pulled it out of a ROM file for the i9000 though, so here it is if you want to push it via adb to your phone's /system/media/audio/notifications folder. I may do just that myself...
Bit of a noob question lol but how do u push via adb.
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
@leerobson99
Can use root explorer also. All done from phone.
This is another option. Make a folder on sdcard partition name (Audio) and inside that folder make another folder named (notifications). Place the audio tone in the notifications folder. Then reboot. It should show in the listing for notifications.
here...
http://rapidshare.com/files/451884460/pixiedust.ogg
create these folders: "media", then "audio", then "notifications". throw the file into the last folder. throw the media folder into your phone.
not sure if the folder part was necessary, but that's what i read back when i got my g2. worked on both the g2 and ns.
Thanks to everyone!!!!
Brilliant! Thanks for this.
jerrycycle said:
@leerobson99
Can use root explorer also. All done from phone.
This is another option. Make a folder on sdcard partition name (Audio) and inside that folder make another folder named (notifications). Place the audio tone in the notifications folder. Then reboot. It should show in the listing for notifications.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it did, thanks!
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
jerrycycle said:
This is another option. Make a folder on sdcard partition name (Audio) and inside that folder make another folder named (notifications). Place the audio tone in the notifications folder. Then reboot. It should show in the listing for notifications.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did 2.3.3 fix the bug where ringtones and notifications on the sdcard got "lost" when randomly or after a USB storage mount? Even if they did, you still lose access to the sounds when USB storage mounted. That's a problem putting on the sdcard. It's why I got in the habit of just putting them into /system with the default onese.

[Q] Perhaps a dev or someone smarter than myself can enlighten me. Tones frustration.

Since beginning my foray into android at cupcake, some tones do NOT show in the list of available notifications and ringtones. Ive placed the sounds and folders of sounds on the usb storage in folders named accordingly. I also tried putting the same folders/files into the /system/media/ringtones and /media/notifications folder to no avail.
Theyre either in the .ogg format, .mp3, I think there are even a couple of .wav files...some of which are available, some are not.
Why might this happen? Is there a solution other than converting the sounds that I dont have listed? Thank you...
EDIT: Hmmm...is it a file size issue?
Create a folder called "media" on the root of your sdcard. Then in that folder make another folder called "audio". Now in the audio folder make two more folders, "notifications" & "ringtones". Now put your tones in the correct folder.
Reboot and they should now be available to you via sounds in settings
snandlal said:
Create a folder called "media" on the root of your sdcard. Then in that folder make another folder called "audio". Now in the audio folder make two more folders, "notifications" & "ringtones". Now put your tones in the correct folder.
Reboot and they should now be available to you via sounds in settings
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's an issue of certain files not showing. I'll try this method regardless. Thanks for your input.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G via XDA Premium
Ok. Sorry
Wipe dalvik after adding files in media folder.
Sent from my Nexus S 4G
Two ideas:
1. Download and run an sd card media scan app.
But much more likely
2. Using the PC, edit the properties of the files so that the Title field is filled in.

Adding custom notification tones / ringtones / alarms

On my nexus 4 I could create new directories ("Ringtones","Notifications", "Alarms") on my virtual sd card and place tones in there. Then the preference lists for choosing these notification types showed the extra tones.
On the nexus 5 this doesn't seem to happen. Does anyone know of a different way to do this?
andrewpmoore said:
On my nexus 4 I could create new directories ("Ringtones","Notifications", "Alarms") on my virtual sd card and place tones in there. Then the preference lists for choosing these notification types showed the extra tones.
On the nexus 5 this doesn't seem to happen. Does anyone know of a different way to do this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm getting files show in the preference lists up from /sdcard/media/audio/ringtones - however they're just playing a "bong" noise, not the actual mp3.
andrewpmoore said:
On my nexus 4 I could create new directories ("Ringtones","Notifications", "Alarms") on my virtual sd card and place tones in there. Then the preference lists for choosing these notification types showed the extra tones.
On the nexus 5 this doesn't seem to happen. Does anyone know of a different way to do this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm having the same problem. Any solutions found yet?
all my ringtones and custom notifications are working just fine
Sent from my Nexus 5 using xda app-developers app
Not working for me either on n4, n5, or the n7 with stock Rom. Worked fine when I used aokp.
The only way I can get it to sort of work now is use rings extended then select es file explorer and naturally navigate to the file. Then it plays fine. They just won't show up to preview them the way it normal did.
It does work I put them in the system audio notification ect folder, but I'm trying too avoid messing with system for the first time.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
I got it working. Very frustrating. Initially what i did was download all my notifications and such from dropbox directly to my phone and put them in the correct folders. Rebooted ect and it didn't work. I was told to try plugging my phone into the computer and moving the folders and around and back into the right folder. Then I disconnected from computer then they showed up. I wonder if the media scan isn't working unless you unplug USB? IDK, but it works now.
Sounds silly, but try it.
http://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-5980
If the device rooted, you can move the files the /system/media/audio/ringtones, notifications etc. folder. Work like charm!
Sent from my Nexus 7 using xda app-developers app
Thanks!
frigidazzi said:
I got it working. Very frustrating. Initially what i did was download all my notifications and such from dropbox directly to my phone and put them in the correct folders. Rebooted ect and it didn't work. I was told to try plugging my phone into the computer and moving the folders and around and back into the right folder. Then I disconnected from computer then they showed up. I wonder if the media scan isn't working unless you unplug USB? IDK, but it works now.
Sounds silly, but try it.
http://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-5980
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This did the trick for me too, thanks for the tip!
frigidazzi said:
I got it working. Very frustrating. Initially what i did was download all my notifications and such from dropbox directly to my phone and put them in the correct folders. Rebooted ect and it didn't work. I was told to try plugging my phone into the computer and moving the folders and around and back into the right folder. Then I disconnected from computer then they showed up. I wonder if the media scan isn't working unless you unplug USB? IDK, but it works now.
Sounds silly, but try it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On my Nexus 4 I had my ringtones in /sdcard/Ringtones and that doesn't work with the Nexus 5. I also tried /sdcard/media/Ringtones and that didn't work either. In both cases I even tried rebooting the phone after putting the mp3 files to hopefully trigger a media scan.
So what would the correct location be?
Thanks in advance,
Bernhard
tangofan said:
On my Nexus 4 I had my ringtones in /sdcard/Ringtones and that doesn't work with the Nexus 5.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that works for me...I select the tones in any app via the default Media Storage picker
Sent from my Nexus 5 using xda app-developers app
n7of9 said:
that works for me...I select the tones in any app via the default Media Storage picker
Sent from my Nexus 5 using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Now I'm wondering, if it's a problem with the mp3 format of my ringtones. Could you please do me a favor and see, if the ringtone in the attached zip file works for you, when you put it in /sdcard/Ringtones .
Thanks so much,
Bernhard
tangofan said:
Now I'm wondering, if it's a problem with the mp3 format of my ringtones. Could you please do me a favor and see, if the ringtone in the attached zip file works for you, when you put it in /sdcard/Ringtones .
Thanks so much,
Bernhard
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i downloaded it, AirDroided the mp3 to my phone (default is storage/emulated/0) /notifications, and selected it as my Hangouts sms tone...sent an sms to myself, turned off the screen, and bazinga, it works
when you say /sdcard, do you mean you made that directory via pc, or are you referring to ESFileExplorer (or the like) reporting the directory as /sdcard? on Nexii, '/sdcard' just points to storage/emulated/0 [i think it's something called a simlink, but i don't know what that is]
Works for for me... I use ASTRO File Manager
Notification MP3 went into SD Card > Media > Audio > Notification
Ringtone MP3 went into SD CARD > Ringtone
n7of9 said:
i downloaded it, AirDroided the mp3 to my phone (default is storage/emulated/0) /notifications, and selected it as my Hangouts sms tone...sent an sms to myself, turned off the screen, and bazinga, it works
when you say /sdcard, do you mean you made that directory via pc, or are you referring to ESFileExplorer (or the like) reporting the directory as /sdcard? on Nexii, '/sdcard' just points to storage/emulated/0 [i think it's something called a simlink, but i don't know what that is]
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am referring to the way ES FileExplorer reports it, so /sdcard/Ringtones is in fact /storage/emulated/0/Ringtones.
Could you please try it with putting it into /sdcard/Ringtones as well and see, if Media Storage shows it as a Ringtone.
No idea, why this doesn't work for me, when it works for others.
Bernhard
tangofan said:
Could you please try it with putting it into /sdcard/Ringtones as well and see, if Media Storage shows it as a Ringtone.
No idea, why this doesn't work for me, when it works for others.
Bernhard
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sorry mate, I'm not doing it again, the result is going to be exactly the same
After some testing I can confirm this on a NON-ROOTED Nexus 5.
You can place notification sound files in either of these two locations, they work equally well. Note that this post, unlike many is typed with care and shows the EXACT path names from root with proper capitalization. I did not try all the bastardizations but case and plural/singular actually matter a lot of times.
/sdcard/Notifications (/storage/emulated/0/Notifications)
/sdcard/media/audio/notifications (/storage/emulated/0/media/audio/notifications)
HOW-EVER-ER...
You must move at least 1 file to the directory from your PC before ANYTHING will show up. It seems, and stands to reason, as others noted that moving from the PC while attached as a media device causes Android to rescan the directories. I did not test if you only need to move 1 file on the whole file system or if you have to do it per directory. But by moving one file out and back FROM THE PC all files in those directories became visible in notification pick lists.
I also rebooted after moving the files around. I probably should have checked before since it may not be necessary. But I am so accustomed to rebooting I forgot to test that.
Hope this clears things up.
tangofan said:
I am referring to the way ES FileExplorer reports it, so /sdcard/Ringtones is in fact /storage/emulated/0/Ringtones.
Could you please try it with putting it into /sdcard/Ringtones as well and see, if Media Storage shows it as a Ringtone.
No idea, why this doesn't work for me, when it works for others.
Bernhard
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hey I got the same problem as you
The ringtone is not being picked default media storage and even it picked in some cases im getting the bong sound
so here is the work around
dont use the media storage as default ringtone picker .if you already did that ..go to settings->apps->all apps->media storage and clear defaults of it
then go to settings ->sounds->ringtone and use esfile explorer in this case ..select the ringtone you got using the file browser then it works
another file manager
as said some posts before i suggest to use another file manager than the stock one, it worked for me
I pluged the phone into the computer USB. Cpoied the ringtone of my choice to the ringtone folder. Did the same with the notification ringtone. Go and select the file in Settings...Sound. Mine were .ogg files
Once you install the sound files in the various locations on the sdcard, such as /sdcard/Ringtones, you can update media storage by doing either of the following:
Go to settings -> apps -> all -> media storage and clear data, then reboot
Or
Use the app ScanMedia to update

Ringtone Folder Missing

I'm not sure how or when but I just went to change my ringtone and noticed that the Ringtones folder I used before is now gone. Did one of the recent 8.1 updates change/delete it? Likewise for the Alarms folder. Right now, when I look at folders on my phone all I see are:
Android
Notifications
Download
DCIM
Under Android, the only folder is "data."
How do I change ringtones now?
Ok...I just added new folders with the titles of "Ringtones" and "Alarms" and that seems to have restored the functionality for Sound Settings to see them in their respective sections. What other default folders am I missing and does anyone know how or why this happened and if something is wrong with my phone...e.g. do I need to do a reset?
mikeynavy1 said:
I'm not sure how or when but I just went to change my ringtone and noticed that the Ringtones folder I used before is now gone. Did one of the recent 8.1 updates change/delete it? Likewise for the Alarms folder. Right now, when I look at folders on my phone all I see are:
Android
Notifications
Download
DCIM
Under Android, the only folder is "data."
How do I change ringtones now?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Emulated/0/Android/media/com.google.android.talk/ringtones
Sent from my walleye using XDA Labs
Do you need root access to see that now? For some reason I have 0 access to any folders/files except the ones listed in my original post(s). Fortunately, I've been able to restore the ability to add Ringtones and Alarms by creating folders with those names. However, I did used to be able to see a lot more files. I may try hooking my phone up to my computer and see if that allows me to see more.

Android 11 and .nomedia file

I was about to post a question about this, but I just figured this out myself. My phone recently updated to Android 11. I have an SD-Card which has music on it - along with a lot of album art. Since the update, all these album art photos have been cluttering up my gallery. Every time I add a .nomedia file in here (which also was there before the update), it seems to get automatically deleted (no, not hidden). I tried copying a .nomedia file from elsewhere on the phone. I even tried popping out the SD-Card and adding the file via PC. As soon as Android touches it, it deletes the file again.
So, here is the issue. With Android 11, it is creating some default folders (I wish it wouldn't clutter up things with these empty folders that I never need or use). Those default folders include: Music, Pictures, Movies. These are created at the top level on the SD-Card and on internal storage. So, if you are also using one of those folders for something, it's going to auto delete the .nomedia file. In my case, I just moved my music into a Musics folder instead(and ensured it has a .nomedia file, of course.
Hopefully this will save someone else from wasting their time trying to figure out why this is happening!
pacaveli420 said:
I was about to post a question about this, but I just figured this out myself. My phone recently updated to Android 11. I have an SD-Card which has music on it - along with a lot of album art. Since the update, all these album art photos have been cluttering up my gallery. Every time I add a .nomedia file in here (which also was there before the update), it seems to get automatically deleted (no, not hidden). I tried copying a .nomedia file from elsewhere on the phone. I even tried popping out the SD-Card and adding the file via PC. As soon as Android touches it, it deletes the file again.
So, here is the issue. With Android 11, it is creating some default folders (I wish it wouldn't clutter up things with these empty folders that I never need or use). Those default folders include: Music, Pictures, Movies. These are created at the top level on the SD-Card and on internal storage. So, if you are also using one of those folders for something, it's going to auto delete the .nomedia file. In my case, I just moved my music into a Musics folder instead(and ensured it has a .nomedia file, of course.
Hopefully this will save someone else from wasting their time trying to figure out why this is happening!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This makes no sense, please explain in more detail.
android1977 said:
This makes no sense, please explain in more detail.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you're storing your music files in any of the default folders, Android is going to auto delete your .nomedia file if you try to put one there. Ergo, the solution is you need to store your music in a folder named something else.
pacaveli420 said:
If you're storing your music files in any of the default folders, Android is going to auto delete your .nomedia file if you try to put one there. Ergo, the solution is you need to store your music in a folder named something else.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks that's what I did and got lucky, I was so desperate I signed up to XDA just to comment I gotta say XDA I love your site and been reading for a couple year's now, enjoy the information provided, thanks guy's for all your hard work
pacaveli420 said:
If you're storing your music files in any of the default folders, Android is going to auto delete your .nomedia file if you try to put one there. Ergo, the solution is you need to store your music in a folder named something else.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for saving my media library! I've been tortured by this issue since using the new phone, finally!
hello, i just get Android 11 on my MI A3, and those folders ( music, pictures, movies )appears on my sd card, they are useless for me, is there a way to delete them?
before Android 11, i didn't have this problem because i choosed " use sd as external support " instead of "use sd as extended memory" when inserting the sd card, but now even if i make the same choice, the folders are there and i can't delete them.
Sort of off topic but not really:
How do I stop it from creating these default folders? It's extremely annoying. I don't have my SD card structured that way and never have. I've deleted the default music, movies, etc folders numerous times now as they just clutter up the root directory and they keep reappearing. Is there a solution to this?
This seems to be a part of Android 11s default folder structure which no one ever bothered to do something about. I wouldn't be surprised if it's there for "security reasons" as well as a communist one. As in you only have the option to use these "secure" folders or else it won't show up in your apps at all.
This might be a way for Google to slowly faze out SDCards entirely while only giving you the option to use said folders for your "private" stuff akin to how IOS (kinda) works. In other words, they are doing it on purpose and no one ever bothered to read the fine print.
Obviously private music and other media collections is the root (see what I did there) cause of the problem. They don't want you to have those at all, And want you to use streaming services instead (tinfoil hat). Which is probably what these folders will probably end up being used for.
Netflix and Spotify allow you to store music on your device, but it's encrypted and will probably end up there at some point in Androids lifecycle. Obviously these files don't need .nomedia since the files are encrypted and will only show up in said app either way which makes the above meaningless.
Most of this is speculation obviously, but we've slowly been moving towards this trend if you look at how System apps were split into app and priv-app and so on. At some point in time only certain apps that has had the blessing of Google will be allowed to read anything off your storage. This happened with Chrome not to long ago where they blocked side-loaded extensions from running.
You will slowly see Android turning into IOS because they (Google) and big-tech in general wants 100% control of what you can and can't do. And everything based on AOSP or LOS is gonna follow suit because no one gives a flying fudge because that's too bothersome. The fragmentation of custom builds based on LOS/AOSP in general already shows that this has always been the case for the last 10 years. Linux in general is no different either as can be seen with wokeism. Except that was through decimation via woke people and not big-tech.
I was going crazy thinking this issue was specific to my samsung's stock rom. I started searching about this once I noticed it on LOS 18. Glad I'm not alone
I tend to be a little OCD about my folder structures but at this point I don't mind making a separate folder to avoid album arts in my gallery.
I believe I found a solution to this. It's been about a week or two with no further incident now. My solution was to delete the default folders from the root of the SD card because I don't use them, then create blank files that used those names. Haven't had a problem since.
I use the top level pictures folder because of a compatibility issue with programs that have small file path character limits that cause the program to hang. I don't use them anymore but I haven't had a reason to move it back where I had it previously and that would only make the default folder issue worse if I did. Or at least it would have until now with this discovery.
I do not use the movies and music folders, and if I move my pictures folder back where I had it I won't use that one either. Having them pop up on their own to clutter my root directory on both my SD card and my phone itself was very annoying. After deleting the movies and music folders off of the root of my SD card for the billionth time and getting rid of the empty default folders on my phone again, I created two blank files on my SD card root called Music and Movies. Ever since then the default folders haven't reappeared. On top of that, it hasn't created any ".thumbnails" folders all over the place like it always used to do either. That includes doing so on the internal phone storage. Creating those files on the SD card seems to have broken the whole process. I imagine the same would work vice versa for OP since it sounds like they use those default folders. Find an empty default folder on internal storage, delete it, create a file and name it the name of the folder you deleted (case sensitive), and that should disable the annoying default folder management process too. I can't vouch for that method, but I can vouch for it working when you do so on the SD card.
I just noticed this today on my tab s7+.
From what I can tell, the .nomedia file nolonger does anything on its own. However, if I add the .nomedia file to a folder, then rename the folder placing a . in front, of course it hides the entire folder. When I rename the folder again, removing the ., the .nomedia file now works. No matter how many times I rename the folder, the gallery does not see it until I remove the .nomedia file.
pool_shark said:
I just noticed this today on my tab s7+.
From what I can tell, the .nomedia file nolonger does anything on its own. However, if I add the .nomedia file to a folder, then rename the folder placing a . in front, of course it hides the entire folder. When I rename the folder again, removing the ., the .nomedia file now works. No matter how many times I rename the folder, the gallery does not see it until I remove the .nomedia file.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thank you pool shark.. i tried what you did/suggested and it worked. thanks.

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