July 1, 2023

Android - what about internal files

The basic Google concept (at this point in time anyway) seems to be that applications are restricted to reading their own (poorly named) internal files, or else global media, video, and audio files. I don't see a way yet to do what I did in earlier versions of Android, namely put my collection of map files into a directory of my choosing and then letting the application read them from there.

No doubt this is all motivated by Google striving to provide a "secure" phone experience for the general user.

File application

This is a standard thing on my phone. It used to be called "My Files". You bring it up and it lets you look through folders. The main purpose seems to be to allow you to figure out why you have filled up your phone with whatever you filled it up with and to delete things accordingly.

It can also create new folders and move files around.

I previously created a directory /sdcard/Tom on my pixel 6 and this utility shows me that directory as "Tom". It has no trouble showing me the files in that directory and their contents.

More on the "rocket science" of file access under Android at a later time. Remember that it has been (and perhaps always will be) a moving target.


Have any comments? Questions? Drop me a line!

Adventures in Computing / [email protected]