cobordism
commented
11 months ago as an addendum - if there really is a way to exclude folders by placing in them a special file (.nomedia?) then it would already help out if that could be enabled in the 'settings' tab of the photos app.
Describe the bug Photos automatically reads all media from folders shared via "Group Folders" and shows them under "All your media". At the same time one is unable to select those shared folders under "Folders".
Setup: Have a folder containing your photos uploaded from you phone - the default name is "InstantUpload" (see also https://github.com/nextcloud/photos/issues/141#issuecomment-577737903)
Create a Group Shared folder that may contain all kinds of data including graphics, presentations, videos, the works. Specifically graphics that really have no business being in a photo album.
The photos app will show all the files from the group shared folder in "All Media" and there is no option to disable that or hide the folder (Hello: https://github.com/nextcloud/photos/issues/141)
In the Photos app under "Folders" the group shared folder is not visible.
Expected behaviour / suggested fixes I expect to be able to choose which photos to display by limiting to a folder or a subtree. As a workaround I'd like the ability to create albums from folders or subtrees. I want to be able to exclude all shared folders from my photo view and "show only my photos in All Media". (It is titled All your Media" after all). On the other hand, it should of course also be possible to be able to select folders from a groupshare and display (only) those images. I expect to be able to exclude certain folders from appearing at all - i.e. I want to be able to exclude work_shared/presentations/.
Absolutely would love to have the ability to Limit Photos to a single folder + subtree or to choose which folders to show or to be able to make albums out of folder automatically (shared albums from share folders?) or otherwise just be allowed to choose things myself because auto-mis-configuration is one of the most frustrating things ever in software.
Disclaimer:
I understand that this must be a mix of bug report and feature request. However I feel that in the current state the app is so broken for me that it is basically unusable as a photo viewing app. Further, especially in light of issue 141, I no longer know what is a bug and what is a design decision. At the very least I think it must be a bug that group folders do not show up under "Folders" while their contents are automatically added to "All your Media". The inability to exclude such folders is either a bug or a bad design decision.