Android's Media Scanner: How do I remove files?

Question

I'm writing an app that removes files that may or may not be listed in any one of the types of media libraries such as music or pictures. While I can use the MediaScannerConnection.scanFile method to add files to the media library there doesn't seem to be any call to notify the service that the file has been removed. Sending it the path of the file that no longer exists doesn't result in the desired behavior either. How should I go about removing items from the library that no longer exist on the Android storage?

Answer 1

I was able to put a method together using bits and pieces from these two questions

1. What is the String 'volumeName' argument of MediaStore.Audio.Playlists.Members.getContentUri referring to?
2. How can I refresh MediaStore on Android?

Basically I just run a query on each one of the MediaStore types (Audio, Video and Images) selecting by path and deleting any records I find.

public static void RemoveAllForPaths(String[] paths, Context context)
{
    private static final String[] FIELDS = { MediaStore.MediaColumns._ID, MediaStore.MediaColumns.DATA, MediaStore.MediaColumns.TITLE };
    if(paths == null || paths.length == 0) return;
    String select = "";
    for(String path : paths)
    {
        if(!select.equals("")) select += " OR ";
        select += MediaStore.MediaColumns.DATA + "=?";
    }

    Uri uri;
    Cursor ca;

    uri = MediaStore.Audio.Media.EXTERNAL_CONTENT_URI;
    ca = context.getContentResolver().query(uri, FIELDS, select, paths, null);
    for(ca.moveToFirst(); !ca.isAfterLast(); ca.moveToNext()){
        int id = ca.getInt(ca.getColumnIndex(MediaStore.MediaColumns._ID));
        uri = ContentUris.withAppendedId(MediaStore.Audio.Media.EXTERNAL_CONTENT_URI, id);
        context.getContentResolver().delete(uri, null, null);
    }
    ca.close();

    // More of the same just setting the URI to Video and Images
}

I'm not entirely sure how safe this is to do but it's the only solution I've found so far and some initial testing seems to be working. I invite others to submit other answers if anyone has any further information on this approach or a better method for performing this functionality.