Only Auto-Backup DCIM folder on SD Card

[AC Question]

Is this possible?

The photos app seems to upload the files inside DCIM located on internal storage and the external SD card.

I only ever store my photos on the SD card so would be nice to tell Auto Backup to ignore the DCIM on the internal storage.

Reason being, is because whenever I download an image from facebook it puts it in DCIM/Facebook on the internal storage - which then gets backed up. I only ever want to back up photos taken with the camera which is only ever on the SD card.

Hope somebody can help - cant believe Facebook dont allow you to change the download location for their app.

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Which phone? That's odd behavior, because on my Zenfone 2, downloaded Facebook images go to /Pictures/Facebook, not /DCIM/Facebook. EDIT: erroneous, see later post.
Open your Google Photos app, swipe in from the left, and tap Device Folders. Do downloaded Facebook images show up under "Camera" or "Facebook"? If they show up under "Facebook", then make sure the cloud icon next to that folder is toggled off.

 

[englishl1989]

Hi,

There are couple of forums which mention this behaviour with the facebook app on Android.

Facebook doesnt show in Device Folders. I assume its because its inside DCIM which cannot be excluded when auto-backup is turned on.

Would be solved if I could

a) Tell the facebook app to change where its downloading images to
b) Tell Google photos to exclude the Facebook directory inside DCIM.
c) Tell Google photos to only include DCIM on the SD card and ignore whats on internal memory (at the moment it just says CAMERA PHOTOS and collates all photos from the SD Card DCIM directory and internal storage DCIM directory).

Very frustrating indeed!

 

[englishl1989]

Sorry forgot to mention.

Its a Samsung Galaxy S5 running KitKat 4.4.4

Luke

 

[B. Diddy]

Whoops! Sorry, you're right, and I was wrong--I tried myself, and the downloaded photos do go to /storage/sdcard0/DCIM/Facebook.

Here's one possible workaround. If you don't need those downloaded Facebook photos to show up in your Gallery app at all, then you could use a file manager app and add a blank ".nomedia" file to that directory, which will instruct the system to ignore that directory when looking for photos to add to the Gallery database.

 

[englishl1989]

Hi, thats how I am getting round it. But obviously the reason I download them is to be able to share them from my gallery...so at the moment there is no point downloading from facebook as I cannot actually see the photos.

Shame I cant choose the folder to download to, would completely resolve the issue.

 

[B. Diddy]

Send Facebook some feedback about that.

 

[englishl1989]

Yeah I suppose that's all I can do, thanks.