On my Umidigi A5 PRO, when I delete a photo, its JPG thumbnail also gets deleted from the dcim/.thumbnails folder, but there remains a fairly large file called thumbdata. Could that thumbnail still be stored within the thumbdata file?
What does the thumbdata file actually contain?
I don't know if the jpg thumbnails that the system deleted may still have remained within the thumbdata file
The thumbdata file you see in the dcim/.thumbnails directory on your Android device is a system-generated file that contains cached thumbnails of images. This file is used by the Android system to store thumbnails for images in order to provide a faster browsing experience in apps like the Gallery or Photos app.
The thumbdata file typically contains metadata and information about the thumbnails, such as their location, size, and possibly other details. It may not necessarily contain the actual thumbnail images themselves, as those are usually stored as separate files within the .thumbnails directory.
When you delete a photo from your device, the corresponding thumbnail image in the .thumbnails directory is also deleted to keep the thumbnail cache synchronized with the actual images. However, the thumbdata file may not be updated immediately to reflect this change. The thumbdata file might still retain information about the deleted thumbnails until the system decides to update or regenerate the thumbnail cache.
Its possible that the thumbdata file contains references to thumbnails of images that have been deleted. However, without proper analysis or tools to inspect the contents of the thumbdata file, its difficult to determine whether the deleted thumbnails are still present within the file or not.
If youre concerned about the size of the thumbdata file or suspect that it might be bloated with unnecessary data, you can try clearing the thumbnail cache from the devices settings. This action will delete the thumbdata file and regenerate it, resulting in a smaller file size and potentially removing references to deleted thumbnails. Keep in mind that clearing the thumbnail cache may temporarily slow down thumbnail generation in apps until the cache is rebuilt.