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This is a seemingly common problem and I viewed the dozen suggested posts before posting this but none of that helped since it was mainly things I already tried.

50 GB worth of MP3s in /sdcard/Music I can see all those files in various file browsing apps and terminal emulators but no music player app can see them. I tried three different players already. They can see music files in Download directory but not in Music. There was a .nomedia file in there but I deleted it days ago and re-scanned media multiple times and rebooted multiple times. I had all this music in the same location on my last phone Pixel 3 Android 9 but then got a new phone Pixel 5 Android 11, moved all the files onto it, just via file copy from Windows, but player apps can't see them. It's almost as if that .nomedia file was still in there, totally invisible to me.

prl77
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  • .nomedia files are not always visible. Try this app to scan and remove those //Next step, from your settings, show system apps and then locate media storage delete it's data (you won't lose anything), reboot, wait for a while and check //Other possible causes - windows file copy (does not Pixel 5 copy these files over using the transfer function with the cable provided)?;// – beeshyams Dec 07 '20 at 04:09
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    It could be the mandatory SAF restrictions at play, in which case you would need to find a player updated to 11 – beeshyams Dec 07 '20 at 04:12
  • See this, may help – beeshyams Dec 07 '20 at 04:14
  • @beeshyams, looking at that last Google link, it says that Music, Photos, and Videos except for hidden folders. My Music folder was certainly not hidden and it didn't get copied, I had to copy manually and even then, apps can't see the contents of that folder. – prl77 Dec 08 '20 at 00:50
  • Did you try the app + suggestion in first comment? – beeshyams Dec 08 '20 at 01:00
  • Tried the app, it never finished the search for .nomedia files, even hours later. Media Storage shows 67 GB of User Data and 0 Cache but both "clear" buttons are grayed out. Other files were copied from old phone to new but not Music, that remained empty so I copied using file transfer from Windows. – prl77 Dec 08 '20 at 20:47
  • That's very strange to me. No idea why it takes so long. I have used this on two devices across Android versions but was never a problem. All the best for a solution – beeshyams Dec 09 '20 at 01:59
  • I was thinking about this and it's really strange that the app isn't working. Try using app mentioned here and clean up everything that a free version offers. Next, try with that media scanner app – beeshyams Dec 11 '20 at 05:13
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    @beeshyams, I did a bit more troubleshooting and found that if I download a song, even from my own Google Drive, it is immediately seen by all music apps. I can then move the file from Downloads to Music using some file management app and that song is still seen in the new location. But I can't sideload the files, they have to be downloaded. Moving sideloaded files from Music to Downloads doesn't make them visible to music apps. Their original entry point makes a difference. – prl77 Jan 07 '21 at 00:01

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