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So, I have amassed quite a collection of music on my phone, which runs Android 4.1 (yes, I know this is old… the phone works better than many newer devices)… about 3300 odd tracks.

I also have 3 files that have been on the SD card (actually, on a previous card, and they've been migrated from card to card for the past 8 years or so) which I actually wish to use as ringtones. They're in MP3 format (in contrast to my music which is in Ogg/Vorbis format).

  • /sdcard0/music is where my music is being kept.
  • /sdcard0/ringtones is where my ringtones are being kept.

How do I exclude /sdcard0/music from being "seen" by the ring-tone selection screens, whilst still permitting the files therein to be "seen" by media players? (Using features native to Android 4.1 please, NO THIRD PARTY APPLICATIONS. Due to this device's age, I do not have Google Play Store available. So this solution won't work for me as I can't install software from Google Play store.)

Reply to the comments:

The solution there in the link, have you tried it?

No, because I specifically stated NO THIRD PARTY APPLICATIONS. I'm looking for a solution that uses the features shipped with Android 4.1.

Create a folder and place those files in it. In the same folder create .nomedia…

Kindly read the question again. That excludes the files from everything, media players included. I only want to exclude these files from notifications/ringtones. I have a media program that excludes the ring-tones from the playlist, that's a solved problem, and NOT what I asked about.

Andrew T.
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Redhatter
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  • The solution there in the link, have you tried it? You can download the Apk using APKMirror or Racoon software. None of them require Google Play. – Firelord Dec 18 '20 at 13:38
  • Create a folder and place those files in it. In the same folder create . nomedia file using file explorer. This will hide the folder from media scanning. Use a media player that allows you to select the folders from which music can be played. Power amp is one which does that, though haven't used that in last couple of years – beeshyams Dec 18 '20 at 13:55
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    @beeshyams Poweramp needs Android 5+. But your suggestion to use alike apps is valid of course. :) – Firelord Dec 18 '20 at 14:25
  • If limiting to the in-built features of Android 4.1, then the option might be very limited, not to mention additional feature customization/restriction by the vendor (we don't know the device model, so we also don't know the limitation). The problem is, there's nothing differentiating a ringtone from a song, both are audio files, except, one is stored on /ringtones folder, and the other is on /music. Android by default should only consider those in the /ringtones as ringtones, but I don't know if it behaves like that for external storage (e.g. SD card) – Andrew T. Dec 21 '20 at 08:47
  • @firelord, No, because I do not have APKMirror or Racoon on my device. – Redhatter Jan 01 '21 at 00:45
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    @beeshyams Please read the question. You've just answered how to exclude ring-tones from media players. I wish to exclude songs from the ring-tones selection menu. I already use a media player that restricts media to a specific directory. – Redhatter Jan 01 '21 at 00:48
  • @AndrewT. The device is a ZTE T83, using what looks to be a fairly vanilla Android 4.1 installation. Ring tones were originally on the SD card under /ringtones and have been moved to the on-device storage with no change in behaviour for the ring-tone selection. Music has always been on /music on the SD card since they won't fit on on-device storage (and it's a pain to load). Ring-tones are a bult-in feature of Android 4.1, so controlling what directory they are stored in should be configurable that way too. – Redhatter Jan 01 '21 at 00:50

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