Gallery wiped majority of favorited media

[mgrandi]

Checklist

• I can reproduce the bug with the latest version given here.
• I made sure that there are no existing issues - open or closed - to which I could contribute my information.
• I made sure that there are no existing discussions - open or closed - to which I could contribute my information.
• I have read the FAQs inside the app (Menu -> About -> FAQs) and my problem isn't listed.
• I have taken the time to fill in all the required details. I understand that the bug report will be dismissed otherwise.
• This issue contains only one bug.
• I have read and understood the contribution guidelines.

Affected app version

1.2.1

Affected Android/Custom ROM version

Android 15

Affected device model

pixel 7 pro

How did you install the app?

F-Droid / IzzyOnDroid

Steps to reproduce the bug

Was viewing favorites
Moved away from the app
Came back to the app
Favorites media went from thousands to 30 entries

Expected behavior

To not wipe my favorites

Actual behavior

It wiped all but 30 of my favorited media

Screenshots/Screen recordings

No recordings

Additional information

This is an existing issue I found with SimpleMediaTools, where for some reason some how, the favorites storage is corrupted and it handles this by just nuking the entire or most of the favorites list, which is incredibly annoying and makes me not want to use this feature at all, as it has happened at least twice with simple media tools, and now once with the new version

[Aga-C]

It's possible to revert all your favorites by entering again into folders from where you've added media to favorites.

Also, here are some tips for easy bug reproduction:

• It seems that it appears when there are many directories with many files. I was only able to reproduce it on a phone with 32 folders with circa 2500 files.
• It's easiest to reproduce by adding files from multiple directories. I couldn't reproduce it by adding files only from one or two directories.

[mgrandi]

I force quit the app a few times but after a few times and navigating to the folder again it seems to have come back

This smells like a race condition with it not saving the favorites list in a safe manner, because a few times when this happened with simple media tools gallery, the favorites list did not come back at all

[Lppsoeht]

Maybe, if not too much work, adding a setting for regenerating favorites folder would make this bug become a very little inconvenience, whereas today, if you've hundreds of folders you're gonna have to click them all one by one...

[Lppsoeht]

A way to do this could be scheduling a favorites export inside the app storage

[naveensingh]

Couldn't reproduce this with thousands of files and 30+ folders. Does anybody have more tips?

[albert-softie]

I started running into this bug again recently after I had moved some favorited images to the recycle bin, and out of curiosity I tried restoring them and the favorites gallery was suddenly fixed and no longer wiping itself when refreshing in various folders. Since I've has the bug happen before when not using the recycle bin, I'm guessing it has something to do with deleting favorited images in general

[Lppsoeht]

I can confirm this(for me) seems to happen only when some fav files get moved/deleted externally, not by the app. After moving once I open the app it breaks favs folder.

The thing if this can't get fixed would be caching a backup file and allow the user to restore from the last known "working" favourites list. But idk since I also tried to import a old favs backup list but it seems to do nothing.

My fav list today went from hundreds to 12, the substraction isn't just about the moved/deleted files.

Returning to some folders forced the favs refresh and I assume cycling through every folder will restore all.