Android has had scoped storage for a decade now. Time to get with the program and start using the SAF.
It does feel very odd to be actually agreeing with the Goog on something...
It's hard to fathom just how much damage smartphones have done to personal computing, but statements like these are a grim reminder.
An app that syncs your files just needs access to those file, not the entire filesystem - which is what MANAGE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE gives it. Scoped storage and the SAF would allow syncthing to do exactly what it needs to do. The problem is that the app maintainer is unwilling to do the work to bring this app into the modern era.
> It's hard to fathom just how much damage smartphones have done to personal computing, but statements like these are a grim reminder.
Grim? Really? Personal devices containing highly personal information, coupled to a virtually friction-free global app marketplace, need on-device and supply-chain protections. As an Android dev I can find plenty to be critical of when it comes to Google's api designs and app review criteria. But in this case I agree with them.
If I want to back up my entire filesystem, accessing all my files is not too much permission. If I don't want to back up my entire filesystem and I don't want to allow an app all those permissions, there is a very simple solution: don't install the app. There's also a more complicated workaround: use GrapheneOS and set up storage scopes for the app. Now instead of these perfectly functional options that already existed, the choice has been removed.
> But in this case I agree with them.
I am not an android dev but I'm reading in this thread that there are other apps like file managers that still get this permission approved? If google were removing the permission entirely I could see an argument from an api maintenance burden perspective, but if it's a permission they're still granting to some apps then I simply have to disagree.