The ability to toggle the automatic creation of auto-upload folders

[jcklpe]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.

Personally I think it would be a good idea for the user to have the option to toggle off and on the automatic creation of auto-upload folder connections.

Describe the solution you'd like

Having the auto addition of folders can be helpful but it can also be annoying. The ability to toggle that behavior off and on would be a good start.

I think this is a good idea because sometimes users will upload a massive number of media folders, such as a music library and they don't want every single album with album art in it to get it's own connection.

Describe alternatives you've considered

I have uninstalled the NextCloud android client and set up a bunch of syncing folders with FolderSync [link]

I would prefer to support/use/test the NextCloud client though. The foldersync is not specifically made for NextCloud so it has a more cluttered interface, setting up syncs is less straightforward, and because it relies on a webdav connection the instant sync feature only works when adding or deleting files on the android side of things, and can not work the other way around.

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This request is part of a more general issue I have with the lack of control that the nextcloud android client provides clients in their syncing process.

A lot of my issues can be tracked by this previous bug report when I originally thought that this was possible and the difficulty in doing this thing was not by design: #3161

See related feature request issue here: #3263

[nextcloud-android-bot]

GitMate.io thinks possibly related issues are #2281 ([Deleted]), #382 (Auto upload: manual sync shared folder), #769 (Target folder after auto upload), #2365 (App not uploading old pictures automatically), and #2554 (Auto uploaded files are not deleted).

[m0qui]

This. I have a large music collection on my phone, and every single time I add an album (incl. album artwork) I get it added to the auto upload section and a notification. Would be nice to have an option to disable media folder detection or at least the notifications.

[AndyScherzinger]

@nextcloud/designers your input here is highly appreciated. Issue described by the reporter here is:

• auto upload list shows any folder that contains media (images and/or video) found on the device's storage (so you can easily activate it)
• auto upload notifies you via a OS notification everytime it detects a new folder of this kind (for you to easily activate it for auto upload)

This reports argues to have some kind of "setting" to disable both things. Any ideas/input on how this could be solved? Personally I consider this an edge case to be honest which doesn't mean we shouldn't look for a solution but I think most users don't hae these scenarios.
For notifications there has been a separate discussion on how to handle this, already discussing with @tobiasKaminsky how to solve this. Idea for the notification solution would be:

• have a separate notification chanel, so on modern Android OS version you can disable such notifications
• have a "ingnore" action on the notification to disable such notifications
• if these notifications are set to ignore then the settings screen will show an option to activate them again (else this will be hidden).

As for the auto upload list, I have no real clue on how to solve this. We could add a hide-option but that wouldn't help in case of massive amounts of folders containing media files.

So notifications is something where we are having ideas on how to solve this, as for the auto upload folder list, I don't :/

Looking forward to your feeddback.

[jcklpe]

The hide option would be much appreciated. It wouldn't help with the case of adding a massive number of media folders, but that is really a separate issue. I should have perhaps made two separate tickets as there is really two feature requests here.

1. Being able to toggle control of the auto upload folder connection creation behavior.
2. Being able to manually hide/delete inactive auto upload folder connections that we don't desire to use or are no longer relevant.

I can divide this out into two separate tickets if you believe that would be helpful or better form. Apologies for me not thinking through the issue fully.

[AndyScherzinger]

@jcklpe no worries and thanks for taking the time to discuss this and for offering to split the issue. We highly appreciate if you could split the issue since that would make it easier for designers and developers to comment on it since it is then a single matter per issue/ticket and that makes it easier for people to follow the disscussion and to get to a decission on what to do and how to do it. ❤️

[jcklpe]

Done 😄

also this might be too granular but I think one could talk about the ability to toggle off and on the automatic creation of auto upload folder connections on 2 levels. 1. The ability to toggle it off and on and 2. The ability to edit the rules or limitations which guide the behavior of the automatic creation of autoupload folder connections. IE, being able to keep it on, but limit it to only watching certain folders, exclude certain folders, or allowing it to first ask permission before creating the folders, etc.

[AndyScherzinger]

Thanks for creating the issue @jcklpe ❤️ I'd say let take it from here and see if it improves the situation. as for the granular detailing: I'd leave that out of the discussion for now since it would lead to more settings added to the app and increases complexity for the typical user while we follow the principle to have a s little configuration as possible and rather have smart defaults and in-app logic so the users don't have to deal with the complexity. Like I posted in the other issue, maybe we can come up with a smarter way for the detection.
I also check Google Photos and that app simply notififies you about any media folder it finds (which is what we do now) and yes that isn't the best way of dealing with it.

[jcklpe]

I also use Google photos and I think the asking permission first is a good idea, at least as an option. Totally get you on keeping things simple though. I think the simplest version of this, the ability to toggle whether it autodetects and creates, would be very helpful and the simplest approach with the most immediate benefit.

[AndyScherzinger]

@jancborchardt @jcklpe @m0qui can you discribe folder/file structures you have on your device that shouldn't show up in the auto upload section? From what I understand it is mostly

• music/album folders mit 1 image (cover art)

• other folders with just 1 image

• Anything else?

• Are these folders/images located in a special place (or where are they located in general)

In general, as kind of asked for by @m0qui there is already an option present in the notifications themselves to disable the detection notification (the list entry is still there nevertheles due to the discovery mechanism in that activity), While the last part is what I like to improve as discussed within this issue already. What I don't understand is the exact structure to be able to come up with a pattern. Looking forward to your feedback and input. ❤️