MediaRescue

MediaRescue is an open-source Android storage and media rescue app built with Flutter. It helps users find media and files buried inside folders that traditional gallery apps often miss.

📥 Download

Download the latest APK from GitHub Releases.

Note: MediaRescue is currently in Google Play closed testing and will be available publicly on the Play Store soon.

🔗 Links

• GitHub: https://github.com/everythingfreee/MediaRescue
• Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.shaheer.mediarescue.mediarescue
• Status: Closed Testing
• Version: 1.0.3
• License: MIT

🚀 Features

• Full device storage scanning
• Gallery view for discovered media
• Browse folders and subfolders
• Search scanned files
• Image, video, audio, and PDF previews
• Full-screen video playback
• Audio next and previous controls
• Large file detection
• Cleanup suggestions
• Suggested Gallery folders
• Smart Filters
• Filter files by type
• Filter files by size
• Filter files by modified date
• Filter files by storage location
• Filter hidden files
• Combine multiple filters
• Filter indexed files without rescanning storage
• Shared storage support
• Removable SD card support
• Offline-first design
• Modern Android interface
• Local file processing

🎯 Purpose

Android storage restrictions and deeply nested application directories can make files difficult to find.

MediaRescue provides a dedicated storage scanner and file browser to help users locate media and other files hidden inside their device storage.

v1.0.3 — Immersive Media Preview & Rescue Experience

Added: Immersive Media Viewer (TikTok/Reels-style preview with one-gesture rescue)

• Brand-new vertically scrollable media viewer used everywhere the app previews images or videos (Gallery grid & list, Browse, Search). Swipe up for the next file, down for the previous one; each item fills the screen with smooth page snapping and nearby preloading — distant videos are released from memory.
• Header shows a position indicator (23 / 1482), the filename (truncated with its extension preserved, e.g. vacation_video_from_bamyan...mp4) and the actual Modified date.
• Gestures:
  • Tap — play/pause the video with a brief fading indicator (no permanent play button).
  • Double tap — Rescue: copies the original file (with size verification) to the configured rescue destination, indexes the copy with Android's MediaScanner so it appears in gallery apps, shows a tasteful "✓ Rescued" flash (this is rescue — not a like), then asks Keep Original / Delete Original. The original is only deleted after the rescued copy is verified to exist; a failed deletion never loses data.
  • Long press — actions menu: Rescue, File information, Share, Open File Location, Delete (with confirmation). The menu is suppressed while the edge-hold speed gesture is active.
  • Edge hold — press & hold the left/right edge of a video (two ~48 dp zones) for a temporary 2× speed boost with a "2×" indicator; releasing restores the user-selected playback speed.
  • Pinch in/out (video) — clean fullscreen: fades away the filename, rescue and info chrome, keeping only play/pause, seek bar, durations and speed. Pinch out restores everything. A fullscreen button is also available for discoverability.
  • Pinch zoom/pan (images) — normal photo_view zoom; zooming pauses vertical feed paging until the image is restored, so the two gestures never fight.
• Video player: seek bar with immediate timestamp updates (seeking never restarts playback), play/pause button, current/total duration, playback speed selector (0.5× / 1× / 1.5× / 2×, default 1×) and correct playback state when swiping between videos.
• Controls auto-hide after inactivity and reappear on tap; the media stays the focus.
• One-time player tour: on the first video preview a 6-step guided tour explains swiping, tap to play/pause, double-tap rescue, edge hold 2×, pinch fullscreen and long-press actions. The system back button closes the tour first, and a help button in the video controls restarts it anytime. Shown only once (persisted natively via SharedPreferences through the storage channel).
• File information sheet: filename, size, resolution, duration, format, MIME type, frame rate, bitrate, audio details, original path, modified/creation dates — when Android can provide them; otherwise "Unavailable". Never crashes.
• Broken/unsupported media shows "Unable to preview this file." — Rescue, Info and other actions still work.
• The system back button closes overlays first (tour → clean fullscreen → viewer) and returns to the previous MediaRescue screen instead of exiting the app.

Added: Rescue Destination System (Settings)

• New Rescue Destination settings: one destination for everything, or per-type destinations for Images (Pictures/MediaRescue), Videos (Movies/MediaRescue), Audio (Music/MediaRescue) and Other (Documents/MediaRescue), each independently changeable.
• The preview always asks the rescue system for the correct destination — nothing is hard-coded in the viewer.

Fixed: Gallery indexing after copy/move

• Files copied or moved by MediaRescue are now explicitly handed to MediaScannerConnection.scanFile() (with MIME type) once the operation finishes, so rescued/moved media appears in normal gallery apps immediately — previously it could take minutes or require touching the file in an external file manager first.

Improved: Open File Location

• Now opens the phone's built-in file manager directly at the file's folder using a properly encoded DocumentsContract directory URI with EXTRA_INITIAL_URI, with explicit DocumentsUI and generic file-manager fallbacks.

🔎 Smart Filters

MediaRescue v1.0.2 introduces Smart Filters, allowing users to quickly narrow down thousands of discovered files without rescanning the filesystem.

Filter Types

• Images
• Videos
• Audio
• Documents
• PDFs
• Archives
• Hidden files
• File size
• Modified date
• Storage location

File Size Filters

• Any

• 10 MB

• 100 MB

• 500 MB

• 1 GB

Modified Date Filters

• Any
• Today
• Last 7 days
• Last 30 days
• Older than 1 year

Storage Location Filters

• Internal Storage
• SD Card

Combinable Filters

Filters can be combined to create precise results.

For example:

Type = Video
AND Size > 500 MB
AND Modified > 1 year
AND Hidden = true

Filtering Architecture

Filters operate on the existing indexed FileItem data instead of triggering another filesystem scan.

text Scanner ↓ FileItem List ↓ FilterEngine ↓ Filtered Results ↓ UI

The scanner already provides metadata such as:

• Path
• Name
• Size
• MIME type
• Modified date

This allows filtering to happen quickly after the initial scan.

🎵 Media Playback

MediaRescue includes an integrated audio player with next and previous controls.

Audio playback works from:

• Browse
• Large Files
• Search

The player receives the available audio files from the current folder and allows users to move between them without manually returning to the file list.

🎬 Video Playback

Video previews use dedicated top-level routes.

• Full-screen video playback
• Bottom navigation is hidden while watching videos
• App bar remains available with the back button and file name
• Video playback stops when leaving the preview screen
• Video sound stops when leaving the preview screen
• Route observation provides additional playback safety

🖼️ Gallery

The Gallery provides a dedicated way to browse discovered media.

Suggested folders include:

• Android
• DCIM
• Pictures
• Download
• Movies
• Music
• Documents
• WhatsApp

Selecting a suggested folder scans the folder and its subfolders and displays the discovered files through the same Gallery workflow.

🔍 Search

Users can search through scanned files without performing another storage scan.

Search results open files through dedicated preview routes for:

• Images
• Videos
• Audio
• PDFs

Returning from a preview brings the user back to the Search screen.

📂 Browser

The Browser provides manual folder navigation similar to Android file manager applications.

Users can:

• Browse folders
• Browse subfolders
• Open files
• Navigate through storage manually
• Open media using the appropriate preview screen

🧹 Cleanup Suggestions

The Home screen provides quick links to useful file discovery and cleanup areas.

• Large video files → Large Files
• Many images → Gallery
• Unknown files → Browser

📦 Large Files

MediaRescue detects large files and provides a dedicated Large Files screen.

Users can inspect large files and open them using the appropriate preview screen.

Back navigation from the Large Files screen returns to Home.

🔒 Privacy

MediaRescue is designed around local processing. Files are scanned and displayed directly on the device without uploading personal files to a remote server.

MediaRescue processes discovered file metadata locally to provide scanning, searching, filtering, browsing, and preview functionality.

🛠️ Tech Stack

• Flutter
• Dart
• Kotlin
• Android SDK
• Gradle
• Material Design
• Git
• GitHub

🧪 Testing

MediaRescue is currently available through Google Play closed testing as part of the preparation for its public release.

Testing covers:

• Storage scanning
• File discovery
• Gallery
• Smart Filters
• Search
• File browsing
• Audio playback
• Video playback
• Image previews
• PDF previews
• Large file detection
• Navigation
• Storage locations

👨‍💻 Development

MediaRescue was developed independently, covering:

• Android application development
• Flutter development
• Dart development
• Kotlin development
• Storage and file management
• File scanning
• Recursive folder scanning
• File metadata indexing
• File filtering
• Media playback
• File previews
• UI/UX design
• Android storage permissions
• Release signing
• Google Play deployment
• Privacy documentation
• Closed testing

📄 License

MediaRescue is released under the MIT License.