Importing videos is a very awkward experience for beginners

So my workflow is typically that I sideload videos from my GoPro to my phone via my laptop with a card reader.
As a result, the video is placed in some random place in phone storage.

When I try to add a video from within a session, it gives me three choices (*):
1) Linked videos (empty)
2) Internal storage (empty yet)
3) DCIM/RaceChrono (empty, unless I put a video there)

I don't like putting things into DCIM/RaceChrono, as this triggers Google Photos to start backing it up, and I don't want the video straight from the camera to occupy storage in my Google account.

So given that none of the options work for me, I end up saying "ah, riiight", going to the RaceChrono home screen, then using "Import", then going back to the session, and the video is now in "Internal storage".
I select it there, and RaceChrono throws me into the "Analysis" screen.
More often than not, it doesn't show the video to me, as in between sessions I want to show the squiggly lines as large as possible, and hide the useless-at-that-time empty video pane. In fact I frequently hide the map panel too.

So ok, then thanks to my past experience using RaceChrono I click on the [▶] button (otherwise it's very hard to discover!), and then go ahead and sync the video to the correct session, autox run, etc.
For autox, I wish it gave me some hints on which cluster of squiggly lines is which run :)

I just had to explain this voodoo dance to my girlfriend, and realized how beginner-unfriendly this user journey is.
Consider revisiting some of this.

Suggestions:
1) Allow importing videos right from the (*) choices screen
2) Allow configuring custom path for videos other than DCIM/RaceChrono
3) Force-open the video panel when linking a video to a session
4) [somewhat related] Also allow customizing the export directory / path to prevent Google Photos from unconditionally backing up the exported video

Comments

  • You're correct @timurrrr and I've been considering some streamlining.

    2) 4) The DCIM/RaceChrono is the phone's "media store". I can add and read video files there through special MediaStore API. On Android 10+ this is the only way my app can read/write a file outside the app's own file system sandbox. I don't think changing that Media Store folder's name would change anything... Also cannot change how Google Photos works. So 2) and 4) are not feasible.

    1) I was thinking I should remove the video downloading from cameras from the Video list screen, and place it to the Import screen. And then have a button to open the Import screen from the video list... But this is maybe a longer TO-DO rather than something immediate.

    3) I think that always showing the video window, when opened from the video list is reasonable. Not only for videos that are not linked, as the difference could get confusing...

  • 2) 4) I believe when working with Media Store, you can still pick the path where to put things? Can you put it under /sdcard/RaceChrono?
    Looks like as long as it's not a subdirectory of DCIM, it should be fine:
    https://medium.com/@levihassel/stop-google-photos-from-automatically-uploading-screenshots-on-android-4d53dc5809ec

    1) Longer TODO is fine :smile: Just FTR, neither me now my gf use downloading from the camera through RaceChrono, so we might be walking a slightly different path.
  • @timurrrr It does not have to be under DCIM folder. But note these folders are in no relation to the file system, they are folders in the media store database. Thank you for the Google Photos tip, I will have to investigate this.
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