It seems the setting ‘Scan only specific folders on devices’ only works with the base directory of the device. DirA works but DirA/DirB doesn’t. I need to scan only DirA/DirB not the whole DirA.
Hi @RuralHunter,
If I understand your problem/wishes correctly, here is a way to wiggle around the problem…
I am on Ubuntu 18.04 beta, use Rapid Photo Downloader 0.9.9 (RPD) and for this experiment I have set up my folders like this:
disk = the SDHC card from the camera.
It contains a folder named DCIM.
DCIM contains one folder = 112_FUJI, where the camera stores the photos. Inside 112_FUJI I created an additional folder, called pelle, and placed a photo there.
Now, in Preferences, tick Scan only specific folders on devices.
The RPD shows every photo in a certain folder as well as in every sub-folder below that. In the left column in RPD, activate This computer and a folder tree appears (as in my image above).
Select DCIM, and RPD will report that we have two photos (one in folder 112_FUJI and one in its sub-folder pelle).
Now, select sub-folder pelle instead, and RPD will show what is in that folder only (i.e. one photo in my case). And this, hopefully, is the result you were after?
If not, please re-phrase your question 
Have fun!
Claes in Lund, Sweden
What are you downloading from? Please be specific about the exact folder structure, the device, and what you are hoping to achieve.
I want to download images I saved within an specific IM APP. It saves images in the application’s data path and the path can not be changed by user.
@Claes, thanks for the detailed guide. I believe this should work. But it is a bit complicate since I just want to download images from my phone. If RPD could support the feature I requested, it will be much easier for me and maybe others. If RPD can not provide the feature, then I will use your way.
Aha. In that case, you will need to add the parent folder, and then from the program’s main window, choose the files you want to download and those you want to exclude.
The feature to scan a child folder only cannot be implemented. To be able to locate a child folder on a device means scanning all the parent folders, which on a phone is bad for several reasons. One of which is that scanning certain folders on some phones can cause libgphoto2 to lockup. Not good.
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I can’t find a way to select certain folders from a phone in the main window. The main window only shows the folders on my computer if you means that. The actual path of the storage of my phone is a MTP path(mtp://[usb:002,004]/…) on my Ubuntu desktop. It will not easy for users to locate it on the computer.
If you means to add the whole folder of the APP data path on my phone, it’s not possible as I tried. Because the parent folder of the APP contains too many sub folders and files such as chat logs etc. The scan seems to take forever to complete. I waited an hour and aborted.
Yes, that’s right, scanning phones can be problematic. I think you will need to simply use the file browser to get those files. In any case, I suspect they do not have exif information embedded in them.
Actually I don’t understand the difference of adding path “DirA” and “dirA/dirB”. Why adding path “dirA/dirB” requires to scan the whole phone storage while adding “dirA” does not?
You are correct if the parent folder (dirA) is in the root folder of the device.
But in my case dirA is not the root folder. I can set ‘DCIM’ or ‘MYAPP’, why cann’t I set ‘MYAPP/SUBDIR’?
Because I never anticipated anybody wanting to do that.
In your use case, please be aware that if the images you want to download do not have EXIF metadata, Rapid Photo Downloader will not download them, no matter where they are located.
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Yes, I’m aware of that. Most of my images do have EXIF metadata since they come from others phone cameras.
Feature requests are best filed here: Bugs : Rapid Photo Downloader , marked with the importance set to wishlist.