# How can I hide local MP3 files from Google Music ?



## bekyndnunwind (Jan 20, 2012)

So I have a directory on my phone with some MP3s. I put a ".nomedia" file in the directory because I don't want these files to show up in Google Play Music

When I open 'Play Music', these files show up no matter what.

Anyone know how to fix this?? It's driving me crazy!









I just want Google Play Music to stream files, and I want to use an alternative player for the local Mp3s.


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## mentose457 (Aug 26, 2011)

I haz redin diserders...

Did you reboot after adding .nomedia?


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## abqnm (Jul 3, 2011)

bekyndnunwind said:


> So I have a directory on my phone with some MP3s. I put a ".nomedia" file in the directory because I don't want these files to show up in Google Play Music
> 
> When I open 'Play Music', these files show up no matter what.
> 
> ...


It may be referencing the app cache and therefore it already knows they are there so it ignores the .nomedia. Maybe try wiping the app data and it may ignore it then. I haven't tried to hide music from the app in a while so I am not certain that it will work but it is a logical possibility.

Sent from my brain using human to phone transport technology.


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## bekyndnunwind (Jan 20, 2012)

Strange...I cleared the app data and cache and restarted, still lists my local files.

I'm wondering if Google Play Music has a bug where it ignores the .nomedia file ??

Edit: I cleared data/cache for Media Storage (app), and restarted and it worked!!! But now my other music app won't see them either even though I pointed it to the correct directory...


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## abqnm (Jul 3, 2011)

bekyndnunwind said:


> Strange...I cleared the app data and cache and restarted, still lists my local files.
> 
> I'm wondering if Google Play Music has a bug where it ignores the .nomedia file ??


I know it used to follow it but it may have been before Google Music went live... I haven't done it in a long while. I am wondering if it is just set up that way now. I forgot that it puts the .nomedia in its own cached offline music folder so that other local apps don't see the media so it must be set to ignore it.

Sent from my brain using human to phone transport technology.


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## bekyndnunwind (Jan 20, 2012)

This is a bummer. So basically I have to either stream using Play Music, or use local files using a 3rd party app.

If I (ridiculously) want to do both (at separate times of course), I'll just have to live with the duplicate album entries, etc in Google Music.

I think Google needs to fix this.


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## abqnm (Jul 3, 2011)

bekyndnunwind said:


> This is a bummer. So basically I have to either stream using Play Music, or use local files using a 3rd party app.
> 
> If I (ridiculously) want to do both (at separate times of course), I'll just have to live with the duplicate album entries, etc in Google Music.
> 
> I think Google needs to fix this.


Agreed. It should only ignore the .nomedia in its own cache folder but respect it elsewhere.

Sent from my brain using human to phone transport technology.


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## bekyndnunwind (Jan 20, 2012)

I starred this issue on Google Code. Hopefully they will fix this!


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## abqnm (Jul 3, 2011)

bekyndnunwind said:


> I starred this issue on Google Code. Hopefully they will fix this!


I think that is a different issue... I am seeing that as the poster wants the google music app to ignore the cloud music when the same album is already on the SD card. You may wish to post your own issue there.

Sent from my brain using human to phone transport technology.


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## mentose457 (Aug 26, 2011)

Im curious as to why you want to play your local files in a different player. Is it because you have duplicates in the cloud, or do you just not like the Google music player? Im not trying to be knob or anything. Im just curious.


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## coldconfession13 (Jun 15, 2011)

I have this same issue. The music on the cloud and the music on my sd card. It will play a song twice if using google play music. This drives me crazy


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## mentose457 (Aug 26, 2011)

coldconfession13 said:


> I have this same issue. The music on the cloud and the music on my sd card. It will play a song twice if using google play music. This drives me crazy


Why have _any_ music on your SD card? Why not just "Make available offline" the music you want to listen to when you don't have a connection? It actually donwloads it to your sdcard sdcard/Android/data/com.google.android.music/cache/music. When you are without connection you can hide all of the songs that arnt available offline by checking "Offline music only".

If you have a tiered data plan "Make available offline" when you have a wifi connection.


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## bekyndnunwind (Jan 20, 2012)

abqnm said:


> Im curious as to why you want to play your local files in a different player. Is it because you have duplicates in the cloud, or do you just not like the Google music player? Im not trying to be knob or anything. Im just curious.


Well, I like to stream music to my car stereo through bluetooth using the google music app, or else I'd ditch it altogether. Very seemless and no user interaction required for music play to start/stop with the car.

But for headphone use I'm trying to get as accurate sound reproduction as possible. I like FLAC files (instead of the 320kb or lower mp3s that google music streams...) since they are lossless...

I use n7player (<-awesome + free) to play the FLACs. I hate that Google Music displays duplicate albums when I have the FLAC and its also on the cloud. My OCD really kicks in









The thread title says MP3, I didn't say FLAC because I figured more people would know what I was talking about...

Now, if someone could convince me that G music isn't transcoding my local FLACs on the fly back to mp3s (this is what it does when you upload songs to the cloud), then I'd gladly delete my music from the Google Music cloud and use the app to play FLACs from SD card all day....


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## abqnm (Jul 3, 2011)

The only reason it transcodes flac files is for bandwidth reasons for streaming. Local files are played directly without transcoding. It would use more resources to transcode them locally for playback and doesn't make sense why it would work that way when it can just play them natively.

Sent from my brain using human to phone transport technology.


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## bekyndnunwind (Jan 20, 2012)

abqnm said:


> .....Local files are played directly without transcoding. It would use more resources to transcode them locally for playback and doesn't make sense why it would work that way when it can just play them natively.


You know, that does make a lot of sense.

I guess I'll have to get rid of my duplicates on the cloud then...

Streaming mp3s is nice for bandwidth reasons, but I guess I can't justify sacrificing the quality when we have phones with so much space.


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