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First off, if this is the wrong board to post this on, please tell me the correct board.
That said,
What's the point of having a .nomedia file inside the PortableApps folder? .nomedia files do nothing on any OS except Android, and the platform doesn't have an Android version.
Also, what's the point of the Documents folder that gets created upon installation?
Android used to give you the option to mount its external storage (microSD) as a USB drive when connected to Windows. So, you could plug in your phone and run your apps off of it. This let you us faster/cheaper internet at work or home at the time to download something and to use your apps. Then eject, remount your microSD, and have anything you got accessible to Android. The .nomedia was to prevent the built in Android photo gallery from indexing all the image files within various app's help, UI, etc folders and cluttering up your gallery. It's still there for any edge case when mounting a drive in Android via USB OTG or similar. And if you sync a whole cloud folder to your Android tablet.
Documents, etc is used by the Platform and the portable apps within. It's a portable Documents folder separate from the local PC for use on external drives and synced cloud folders. Eventually an option to use the local folders for local installs will be added.
What functionality would be missing if the Documents folder is removed?
Also, why would you be syncing the PortableApps folder to Android?
Removing Documents is unsupported. The folder icons in the menu will fail to open anything. Some apps may have issues with those folders not existing. It is not tested for or supported to remove it.
Some folks sync their whole cloud folder to Android. And have PA.c in their cloud folder.
The .nomedia files don't affect any operation you're using so just ignore them.
What apps? Is there, for example, a photo gallery app that can only open images if they're inside the Documents folder? The folder icons in the menu just open Windows File Explorer, so I don't see what the point of them is either.
The default for most apps will be those folders. If they can't open them, they may switch defaults to their own program folder (AppNamePortable\App\AppName) and if you save stuff there, you'll lose it as that directory is wiped on upgrade. Or they may switch to the local folders and then they won't save to your external drive if that's where you're using the apps. There may even be an app that can't open its open dialog if the folder it is trying to open doesn't exist.
Like I said, deleting Documents isn't supported. It's never been tested for, so odd stuff could happen. That's as much information as I can give you on it. I can't think which of the nearly 500 apps may have issues with it, but I'd wager some will.
I still don't understand, but I don't think this conversation is going anywhere. Thanks anyway for trying to explain.
The platform runs App X. App X knows it is run from the platform and is, thus, expecting to be able to open the directory %PLATFORMROOT%\Documents. When it tries to open it, it doesn't exist. In this case, depending on the app, it could revert to opening from its working directory (the App directory inside the portable app). Anything you save to there will get deleted when you upgrade the app. Not every user will pay attention to where something saves to. The app also might realize that %PLATFORMROOT%\Documents doesn't exist and default to the PC's local Documents directory. If you use it on your own PC, no big deal. If you use an external drive for portable apps and move between PCsm you might accidentally save something to the local PC you didn't mean to. Lastly, if %PLATFORMROOT%\Documents doesn't exist, the app may not be able to open its file open/save window if it uses a custom one. I don't think it's possible to explain these possibilities in any more detail. Simple answer, don't delete the Documents directory.
Every app I've seen that opens media can open it from anywhere on the PC. Why would portable apps be different? I refer you to my earlier comment - what kind of shitty photo gallery can only access the documents folder? Also, why would media be saved inside an app folder? The only media that should be in that folder is assets that are part of the app.
The two questions you asked are separate and have nothing to do with each other. I have no idea why you're hung up on a photo gallery app. I'm saying any theoretical app. An app installed to X:\PortableApps\AppNamePortable may have X:\Documents set up as the default place to open based on the way it's setup in X:\PortableApps\AppNamePortable\App\DefaultData. If X:\Documents doesn't exist, it may default to its working directory X:\PortableApps\AppNamePortable\App\AppName to open/save files. Notepad++ does this for example. Some users may not realize what directory is selected and save their files to X:\PortableApps\AppNamePortable\App\AppName. When you later update AppName Portable, it will wipe everything within X:\PortableApps\AppNamePortable\App\AppName as you upgrade, including any files you saved there. That's why I suggested not deleting the X:\Documents folder (or equivalent wherever it is installed).
The .nomedia file is an ENTIRELY separate question and has nothing to do with it. That is so that the Android photo gallery app won't index things like the app icons within X:\PortableApps\AppNamePortable\App\AppInfo, the help file images within X:\PortableApps\AppNamePortable\Other\Help, or any icons, images, etc that are a part of the apps themselves within X:\PortableApps\AppNamePortable\App\AppName.
I can't explain this any more clearly, so I'm going to refrain from responding further. Short answers: .nomedia doesn't affect you at all so ignore it. leave Documents alone or don't but be aware that default open/save folders may be affected.
i TOLD you this conversation was going nowhere...
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