Certain Android multimedia apps, such as music and video players, photo viewers, and image editing tools, can benefit from Nomedia files. This file format is used to create blank files that can be used to stop media scanning in Android folders.
This means that putting a .nomedia file in an Android directory tells Android apps to ignore any media files in that directory, which can drastically cut the time it takes for an Android app to load and speed up its media scanning activities. NoMedia files can be made by renaming any file and adding the extension .Nomedia to the end.
You can also rename blank text documents as NOMEDIA files and place them in such locations. Any Android text editing app that supports .nomedia files can be used to open it.
Text editing apps on your PC or Mac can also open these NOMEDIA files. Opening these .nomedia files, on the other hand, will be useless, therefore it’s best to leave them alone. If you want particular apps on your Android device to scan the media files in such directories, you may simply delete them.
What is Nomedia File?
An empty text file loaded on an Android mobile device or external storage card is known as a Nomedia file. The file declares that the folder in which it exists, as well as its sub-folders, contain no multimedia material. This instructs multimedia players, gallery apps, and other apps that scan for media files to ignore the folder when doing so. Nomedia files do not have a filename prefix; instead, they are simply named .Nomedia.
The Nomedia files in Android can be used in a variety of ways. For example, you can create a.nomedia file in a folder containing sensitive photos to keep it out of the Gallery app on your phone. The photographs in the folder will then not appear in Gallery.
Nomedia files can also be used to improve the efficiency of multimedia-viewing apps by removing folders with a significant number of photos, videos, or audio files from media searches. This will speed up the loading and display of your other multimedia files in the apps.
Nomedia files are recognized by many Android audio players, video players, and image browsers. Furthermore, some Android apps generate their own Nomedia files to ensure that the multimedia files they include are not displayed in multimedia players or picture browsers. A free program with adverts, for example, might utilize a Nomedia file to hide its ads from multimedia apps.
Uses of NoMedia File
The most obvious benefit of putting a Nomedia file in a folder on your phone is to hide private pictures or undesired or redundant ringtones, images, videos, and so on, because the file essentially hides a folder from other programs.
For example, on your Gallery app, you could place your sensitive photographs and videos into a Secret Content album and then add a Nomedia file to it so that a casual observer browsing through your photos only sees what you want them to see.
These files are especially useful in cases where a multimedia player would otherwise take a significant performance impact if it were to scan through a folder containing hundreds or thousands of images or videos.
You can save a lot of memory and battery life by setting a folder as a “no media” folder if you don’t want the program to explore through it.
If your multimedia program isn’t displaying all of your photographs or videos, knowing what NOMEDIA files are for will assist. If Google Photos won’t back up files in a folder, for example, you might discover that it’s because the folder contains a NOMEDIA file, in which case deleting or renaming the file will allow Google Photos to read the contents normally.
Is it possible to delete a NOMEDIA file?
In some cases, you may want to re-include a folder containing a NOMEDIA file in the media searches of multimedia programs. In that situation, you can safely delete the NOMEDIA file from your folder. Users can delete NOMEDIA files using Android file managers like File Viewer for Android and NOMEDIA management programs like g(x) labs Nomedia or Droida Nomedia.
What is the best way to open a NOMEDIA file?
NOMEDIA files should not be opened. You can use an Android file manager, such as File Viewer for Android, or NOMEDIA utilities, such as g(x) labs Nomedia or Droida Nomedia, to manually manage your device’s NOMEDIA files.
Open Nomedia File in Windows
- In Windows OS File Explorer, locate the NOMEDIA file in question and double-click it to open the relevant application.
- If you get a “Windows can’t open a file” error notice instead of a NOMEDIA file being opened in an application, try looking for an application that can open the file in question.
- If you don’t sure what application to use to open NOMEDIA files, try searching for “NOMEDIA wiki,” “application to open NOMEDIA file,” or “open NOMEDIA file” in your preferred search engine.
- Install the program you just downloaded and see if it can open the NOMEDIA file.
Open Nomedia File in Android
- Find the “My Files” or “File manager” app in your Android device’s app list and press it to open it.
- Inside the program, go to the “Downloads” folder.
- In that location, you should find your downloaded NOMEDIA file.
- Select the file by tapping on it. If your Android device can open the file you downloaded, it will do so in the appropriate app.
- If the file does not open, search the Android App Store for “NOMEDIA” to find the relevant app that can open it.
- If you are unable to open the file using Android App Store apps, it is conceivable that the file can only be opened on a desktop platform such as Windows or Mac OS.
- Try looking up “NOMEDIA file” on the internet to see if any desktop programs can open it.
- It’s also possible that the file you downloaded is no longer supported and outdated.