Moving files to SD card

[Willoughby]

I am not experienced enough to completely understand this issue.  Is it now (on Marshmallow) not possible at all to move a file from the internal storage to an SD card with Tasker alone?  Am I understanding this correctly?  If not, can someone explain it to me like someone who has spent all of 1 hour with Tasker so far?

All I'm wanting to do is move any .dng files from the default internal Camera folder to a folder I've created on the SD card - and have this task execute on every launch of Lightroom.  Is this not possible anymore?

[Mike Wilson]

You can do it, but Tasker can only write to a specific folder (or a subfolder within it) due to an Android limitation.

If you create a folder at the root of your SD card named net.dinglisch.android.taskerm you can write to it using Tasker.

[Willoughby]

This either doesn't work, or I've done it incorrectly.  How do I know when I'm in the root of the SD card?

Ultimately, I'll want to move, but I'm just trying copy for troubleshooting purposes. 

I'm copying from :  DCIM/Camera/[the file I choose (arbitrary for now, will ultimately be all .dng files via variable)]

Copying to : /storage/142C-F1CC/net.dinglisch.android.taskerm/RAW (142C-F1CC is my SD card "volume" I guess?)

It also doesn't work if I try writing to just the "net.dinglisch.android.takerm" folder directly.

[Mike Wilson]

Seems like I managed to mangle my previous post.  You actually need to create the folder in the "data" directory of the "Android" directory that is at the root of the SD card, not at root itself.

But in case I messed it up again, here's the link where I found that:

https://www.reddit.com/r/tasker/comments/3hysc7/how_to_write_to_sd_card_without_root_acces/

Sorry for any confusion.

[Willoughby]

This works! Thanks a bunch!

Strangely, it still gives me the "can't rename" error when I try to move the files, but it does copy them to that folder, so I just need one extra step to delete the originals.

[Willoughby]

I wonder why the dev(s) of Tasker don't just create this folder on install and make it known. Anyway, thanks again.

[Pent]

Note that these files will be deleted if Tasker is every deleted.

Pent

[Mike Wilson]

Glad you got it working.

[Willoughby]

Just info for anyone coming across this thread and having the same issue as me. The above works, but if you are moving media files that you want picked up by the stock Gallery, you need to put the net.... folder in the "media" folder rather than the "data" folder. It doesn't appear that the Gallery (or my downloaded SD re-scanner program) scans the "data" folder for media files.

I've also noticed it can be a little buggy. If Tasker copies the files over then deletes the originals, and you go to the Gallery, there will be a folder where the original files were that's just greyed out. If you delete that folder within Gallery, the folder where you moved them will then appear. It's a painless step, but I still wonder if anyone knows how I can throw that step into Tasker - have it remove a folder from the Gallery.

I won't delete Tasker! Or I'll remember to back all the pictures up before I do.

[Rich D]

> I've also noticed it can be a little buggy.  If Tasker copies the files over then deletes the originals, and you go to the Gallery, there will be a folder where the original files were that's just greyed out.  If you delete that folder within Gallery, the folder where you moved them will then appear.  It's a painless step, but I still wonder if anyone knows how I can throw that step into Tasker - have it remove a folder from the Gallery.
>

Not sure about a folder but the action / media / scan card  will remove the 'blank' thumbnail pic from the gallery. 

[Pent]

You can try Scan Card to update Gallery.

Pent

[Juergen Gruen]

Hi,

I do not use it, but there is Action->Media->Scan Card. Maybe this will do the job.

Juergen

[Juergen Gruen]

... and is there any Action to force Google Groups updates? ;-)

[Willoughby]

Wow, you guys are awesome! I added a step at the end to scan the card, but the original folder still shows up empty instead of the new folder. I tried running two scans, one of only the original folder, then a second of only the new folder, and then the Gallery shows both folders (identical to each other other than their names), but when you click on the original, no pictures. I still have to manually delete the original folder within the gallery - which actually removes that folder. It gets recreated every time a new photo is taken. Like I said, it's really a painless step, but I like automation!

[Willoughby]

Well, I can't come up with a way to remove the old folder from the Gallery. 

Re-scanning at various steps.  I've tried scanning the Camera directory directly.  I've tried removing the directory after deleting the files within it, and re-scanning.  I've tried removing the directory, recreating it again, then re-scanning.  I've tried renaming the directory .Camera so that the Gallery never picks it up to begin with, but the phone just recreates the original folder as soon as a new picture is taken that it wants to put there.  I noticed that if you delete the pictures from within the Gallery app - OR - delete them manually using My Files, this also removes the related thumbnail from the hidden .thumbnails folder, but when Tasker deletes the files, it doesn't also remove the related thumbnails, so I thought I had it figured out.  I took a test shot, ran my task (which does not remove the thumbnails).  As expected, the Gallery did not remove the old Camera folder.  I went in and deleted the thumbnail files manually (using My Files), and presto!  The folder in Gallery was gone.  So, I threw this last step into Tasker and ran it.  The old folder was STILL in the Gallery.  This makes no sense to me.  In short, if Tasker does the deleting, it will not remove the folder from the Gallery app - seemingly - no matter what I do.

By the way, I found it interesting that the thumbnails don't seem to do anything.  I deleted a few for photos that existed thinking that the thumbnails would be removed from the Gallery, but they weren't.  I deleted all of the thumbnails, and there was no change in how the Gallery displayed the previews.  It makes me wonder if there are other thumbnails out there that I don't know about.  If not, then what exact purpose do they serve if deleting them has no effect on the previews in the Gallery?