Saved (bitmaps) images take a while to appear in gallery

Question

I have an app that do some edits on bitmaps and then save them to media store . It saves successfully to the file browser but it takes a time to appear in the gallery (up to hours ) or until i restart the device .

Note : the image is saved instantly to the file browser and it's just fine

Here is my imagesaver class :

public class ImageSaver {


public static final String insertImage(ContentResolver cr,
                                       Bitmap source,
                                       String title,
                                       String description) {

    ContentValues values = new ContentValues();
    values.put(MediaStore.Images.Media.TITLE, title);
    values.put(MediaStore.Images.Media.DISPLAY_NAME, title);
    values.put(MediaStore.Images.Media.DESCRIPTION, description);
    values.put(MediaStore.Images.Media.MIME_TYPE, "image/jpeg");
    // Add the date meta data to ensure the image is added at the front of the gallery
    values.put(MediaStore.Images.Media.DATE_ADDED, System.currentTimeMillis() / 1000);
    values.put(MediaStore.Images.Media.DATE_TAKEN, System.currentTimeMillis());

    Uri url = null;
    String stringUrl = null;    /* value to be returned */

    try {
        url = cr.insert(MediaStore.Images.Media.EXTERNAL_CONTENT_URI, values);

        if (source != null) {
            OutputStream imageOut = cr.openOutputStream(url);
            try {
                source.compress(Bitmap.CompressFormat.JPEG, 50, imageOut);
            } finally {
                imageOut.close();
            }

            long id = ContentUris.parseId(url);
            // Wait until MINI_KIND thumbnail is generated.
            Bitmap miniThumb = MediaStore.Images.Thumbnails.getThumbnail(cr, id, MediaStore.Images.Thumbnails.MINI_KIND, null);
            // This is for backward compatibility.
            storeThumbnail(cr, miniThumb, id, 50F, 50F, MediaStore.Images.Thumbnails.MICRO_KIND);
        } else {
            cr.delete(url, null, null);
            url = null;
        }
    } catch (Exception e) {
        if (url != null) {
            cr.delete(url, null, null);
            url = null;
        }
    }

    if (url != null) {
        stringUrl = url.toString();
    }

    return stringUrl;
}

/**
 * A copy of the Android internals StoreThumbnail method, it used with the insertImage to
 * populate the android.provider.MediaStore.Images.Media#insertImage with all the correct
 * meta data. The StoreThumbnail method is private so it must be duplicated here.
 * @see android.provider.MediaStore.Images.Media (StoreThumbnail private method)
 */
private static final Bitmap storeThumbnail(
        ContentResolver cr,
        Bitmap source,
        long id,
        float width,
        float height,
        int kind) {

    // create the matrix to scale it
    Matrix matrix = new Matrix();

    float scaleX = width / source.getWidth();
    float scaleY = height / source.getHeight();

    matrix.setScale(scaleX, scaleY);

    Bitmap thumb = Bitmap.createBitmap(source, 0, 0,
            source.getWidth(),
            source.getHeight(), matrix,
            true
    );

    ContentValues values = new ContentValues(4);
    values.put(MediaStore.Images.Thumbnails.KIND,kind);
    values.put(MediaStore.Images.Thumbnails.IMAGE_ID,(int)id);
    values.put(MediaStore.Images.Thumbnails.HEIGHT,thumb.getHeight());
    values.put(MediaStore.Images.Thumbnails.WIDTH,thumb.getWidth());

    Uri url = cr.insert(MediaStore.Images.Thumbnails.EXTERNAL_CONTENT_URI, values);

    try {
        OutputStream thumbOut = cr.openOutputStream(url);
        thumb.compress(Bitmap.CompressFormat.JPEG, 100, thumbOut);
        thumbOut.close();
        return thumb;
    } catch (FileNotFoundException ex) {
        return null;
    } catch (IOException ex) {
        return null;
    }
 }
}

Answer 1

You aren't telling the system the file exists. You need to do that, it doesn't magically detect it. Check out MediaScannerConnection for how to do that.

Answer 2

Try using the below code:

MediaScannerConnection.scanFile(
    context,
    new String[] { "path/to/file.jpg" }, 
    null,   // optional mine type
    null    // optional callback
);

At the point you saved the image in storage, is still needed to tell the Gallery Application to scan your file.

Answer 3

You have a few options. You can tell Android to rescan itself, "not recommended" as that is time consuming and slow. Or you can update Android with just the one new record.

So what I typically do when I create or delete an image. I make an AsyncTask for updating the media on the android device with a post execute for success.

Simply put this code in your onExecute.

 MediaScannerConnection.scanFile(mContext, new String[]{ mPassedInURLToAddedOrRemovedImageString }, null, null);

Android will do the rest. But I do recommend putting in an async task.