.nomedia / .noimage file not respected within "Your photos"

[lbdroid]

A partial fix was implemented in #159 for respecting .nomedia / .noimage files in a path, but unfortunately, it only applies to the "Your albums" tree.

The "Your photos" tree is still a disaster.

[skjnldsv]

Not sure if doable, let's see what we can do :)
Thanks for opening a specified one!

[Queuecumber]

Not sure if doable

Not exactly filling me with confidence. This is pretty important and should have been part of the design from the beginning especially since there was previous gallery app to learn from. "Your photos" view is a real mess right now.

[Queuecumber]

The problem seems to be that you've implemented "your photos" using a webdav search for any image type. (ref: src/services/PhotoSearch.js) It seems doubtful that the webdav search properties are going to be able to filter based on the existance of a file in the same directory.

I think using a search here is not the way to go, you should be walking the directory tree in the same way the album view is built, otherwise you risk the albums view and the "you photos" view being out of sync (exactly the cause of this bug).

Intuitively, the "your photos" view (called timeline in the code which is a MUCH better name for it) should be for showing you the exact same content from the albums view but with no hierarchy. This is in line with other modern photo sharing products such as google photos.

[skjnldsv]

This is pretty important and should have been part of the design from the beginning especially since there was previous gallery app to learn from. "Your photos" view is a real mess right now.

Agreed :/
We didn't thought there would be taht many people using the .nomedia trick :)
But what is done is done, we can only improve from there! :)

called timeline in the code which is a MUCH better name for it

You think it makes more sense to call it Timeline?
Not sure how well that translates to other languages though. I definitely prefer it in English, but I fail to think of one for French 🤔
But that's another issue :)
Mind to open a new one for it?
Maybe others can jump in and have opînions 🙇‍♀️

[Queuecumber]

I think the only way to implement it without a full re-architect is to do #141 and instruct people to move photos they dont want showing out of the root photos folder. Is anyone currently working on that? I can try to look at it when I get time.

[skjnldsv]

Is anyone currently working on that? I can try to look at it when I get time.

That would be awesome Thanks :)
Yes, the plan is to do #141 first anyway, as this is more discoverable and easy than weird .nomedia files, which most users don't know a single thing about.

[Queuecumber]

It's like I described above, they made this nice new photos plugin and repeated a bunch of mistakes of the old one. There's no way to fix it in the current architecture. The only sort-of solution would be for someone to implement #141 so you can restrict your photos to a single subtree. I haven't had time to do it because I live in the US and our country is kind of in shambles right now. Also I have other PRs I'm supposed to make this one is kind of lower priority.

[JoshuaPettus]

I'll be honest, I'd much rather have the "Your Photos" hidden until some sort of solution is implemented. Is that at least possible? What use is a broken feature that does nothing but make the project look bad? Especially seeing as it gets top billing when you open the photos app...

Really though what's the point? I segregate my photos for a reason. For logical, quicker access and loading. Why would I want a panel that un-does that? If that's what I wanted, I wouldn't go through the trouble to segregate them in the first place.

[0x4a]

@JoshuaPettus I agree, "your photos" does not have much use for me in the state it is in atm.

I wrote a quick userscript (tested only in Tampermonkey on Firefox) which:

• does navigate directly to albums when you open photos view
• hides "your photos" from the menu

It is not the most elegant solution for sure, but does the job 😉

You have to change the include in row 8 to point to your Nextcloud installation:
https://openuserjs.org/scripts/Jekyll/nextcloud_directAlbums

HTH

[bendschs]

@JoshuaPettus I agree, "your photos" does not have much use for me in the state it is in atm.

I wrote a quick userscript (tested only in Tampermonkey on Firefox) which:

• does navigate directly to albums when you open photos view
• hides "your photos" from the menu

It is not the most elegant solution for sure, but does the job 😉

You have to change the include in row 8 to point to your Nextcloud installation:
https://openuserjs.org/scripts/Jekyll/nextcloud_directAlbums

HTH

it's a nice hack, does not work for the mobile app though.

[skjnldsv]

Really though what's the point? I segregate my photos for a reason. For logical, quicker access and loading.

I personally use it all the time. It's also the default view on iOS and Android. I guess it's just a matter of preferences 🤷‍♀️ :)

[jippi]

Hi,

I'm just going to soft-bump this issue - I'm a huge fan of the photos app (thanks!) and use it multiple times a day for my work.

However -- I got a bunch of media folders with sensitive data that I explicitly want to exclude from the "timeline" (I agree, its a much better name) - and it's a huge bummer that the .nomedia / .nophotos trick does not work - today I have to look "over my shoulder" to ensure no one else is watching before scrolling the timeline view, as I'm under strict NDAs and such for some of this content.

Would it be possible in the implementation today, to add an exclude paths functionality as a stepping stone to a "iterate the filesystem for photos" - it would 100% solve my problem, as all my sensitive data is in a specific path prefix :)

[skjnldsv]

See #141 @jippi :)
Thanks for the kind words. We'll do our best!

[JoshuaPettus]

That's a ridiculous policy...and insulting. The only reason that would actually matter is if you prefer issues buried. I mean, how else are you suppose to gauge which issues actually concern people other than going to the top of the list?

Case in point, another NC patch release, but rather than fix the important problems that actually makes your software usable, (problems already addressed in the previous software you had I might add) you've made "your photos" into a timeline... So now I have all the work sensitive photos, screenshots, scanned documents, and others I don't want to see, in a timeline format... You guys aren't focusing on the right things. Clearly the emojis aren't working.

Now if this were some fun project someone did on their spare time, that's one thing. But this is Nextcloud. The rising star of the Open Source community. That strives to be commercial grade software. I hold you to a higher standard. After all this time, there isn't even a pull request.

[skjnldsv]

That's a ridiculous policy...and insulting. The only reason that would actually matter is if you prefer issues buried. I mean, how else are you suppose to gauge which issues actually concern people other than going to the top of the list?

By sorting by reactions?
Sorry if that was perceived as "insulting"? I'm quite surprised you have felt this way, and was of course not the original intent. Bumping just sent a notification to everyone (I get around 200 a day). And if it doesn't add anything constructive to the discussion, this is not how we work here.

Now if this were some fun project someone did on their spare time, that's one thing. But this is Nextcloud. The rising star of the Open Source community. That strives to be commercial grade software. I hold you to a higher standard. After all this time, there isn't even a pull request.

Soooo, would you be up to contribute? Should I work 80h a week to satisfy all your desires? Behind every project is a human being. If you can't understand that you're dealing with people and their own limits, please refrain yourself from posting such comments.

Nextcloud doesn't hire superheros, we're just regular people that want to make the open cloud storage a better place. I really have a problem with users coming on issues to rant on issues they feel entitled to get fixed for their personal usage.
I'll highly suggest you reconsider your collaboration expectation, as this is definitely not how I want to contribute here. The only thing those messages make me want to do, is unsubscribe. It's just sad :/

Our github issues tracker is not a place to rant, this is a place where we try our best to make things better with constructive criticism and positive discussions.
Thanks

[HannesJo0139]

Where do I actually find a documentation about .nomedia / .noimage files?

[LT-Lockdown]

Is there any chance that this issue will be worked on further? The Amazon Photos app was already able to hide individual photos from the Timeline and display them in a separate "Hidden Pictures" menu shortly after its release. I switched to Nextcloud because of the insecure feeling towards silicon valley etc xD and now I am missing such an important privacy feature here. In the meantime, it has already been 1 1/2 years since this topic came up here :-/

[saywebsolutions]

@LT-Lockdown there seems to be a low chance that this will be worked on; the photos app, and especially the android photos app receives relatively little attention despite the fact that photo sharing is one of the core use cases for nextcloud users, and especially important to attracting a wider / non-technical audience.

Here's to hoping for some improvements, though

[lbdroid]

I wouldn't say its a "core" use case, its actually pretty fringey. But if its going to be there at all, it should be done correctly. To be honest, I think the best way to "fix" the photos plugin is to simply disable it. It really only offers two semi-useful features; (1) integration with maps to project photo locations based on where they were taken, and (2) filtering out of non-photos files and paths.

But since any sane person will already sort their photos into dedicated paths, the second of those two points ends up being extremely minor.

[SimplyCorbett]

To be honest, I think the best way to "fix" the photos plugin is to simply disable it.

This is what I ended up having to do. Mixing sensitive photos/videos with my personal photo archive is a disaster.

Heck its not even just sensitive content. I don't want random files popping up from various folders in the photos app.

[lbdroid]

Given the use of the word "sensitive", lets keep in mind that it isn't restricted to "embarrassing" pictures (like of naked people). Images/video recordings of an assault or vandalism to be used as evidence tend to be "sensitive" and very inappropriate for mixing in with pictures of your children at the playground. Or pictures of financial documents or contracts sent in by your clients (because they can't figure out to send documents in PDF and often send JPG) -- very sensitive and highly inappropriate to mix in with pictures.

[ustrucx]

would be easier to just tell the photos app where my photos are than telling it where my photos aren't, disabling ¯_(シ)_/¯

[jcm4atx]

I also believe the Photos app needs to allow us to select the directories is scans and/or have it respect .nomedia files. I have pictures I took in one place and memes, screenshots, etc. in others. I don't want the latter getting displayed with the former.

[iluvatyr]

I agree to the former comments.

[HammyHavoc]

Why not RegEx for a quick bodge to restrict only looking in x directory? E.g. /Photos/, /Darktable/?

[RobMahn]

This problem best solved by selecting which directories you want to include in Photos as this makes the most sense ... not having to add exclude files every time you and another directory and wondering where those images are coming from before you do so.

Right now, my music artwork is smeared all over my photos.

[skjnldsv]

Thanks to @marcelklehr for implementing this! 🎉