Android file questions, answered
Last reviewed: September 19, 2026 · Markdown version
One answer per question, written from the documentation rather than from memory, and saying where the app itself fits only where it honestly does.
Where do downloaded files go on Android?
Chrome saves to your default download location and the Files app shows the lot. Screenshots are filed elsewhere, and since Android 11 no app can simply ask for the folder.
What is “All files access” on Android?
Read and write access to all files within shared storage — granted by you, on a system settings page, and still not covering other apps' private folders.
Why apps can't open Downloads on Android 11
The folder picker stopped being able to grant the Download directory, the root of internal storage and an SD card root. That is the operating system, not the app.
Why does a background app stop running on Android?
Doze and App Standby defer background work on purpose, and Play policy bars most apps from asking to be exempt. What an app can honestly promise, and what it cannot.
Android app standby buckets, explained
Five buckets, assigned by how recently and how often you use an app, deciding how freely it may run jobs and alarms. The restricted one gets ten minutes a day.
Where do deleted files go on Android?
In Files by Google, to Trash for 30 days. But a trash belongs to the app that keeps it — the number differs per app, and some have none at all.
How to find duplicate files on Android
The Files by Google route, step by step — and the two rules any duplicate tool should follow: compare contents, not names or sizes, and always keep one copy.
Why moving a file is really copy then delete
Within one filesystem a move is a rename and nothing travels. Across two it is a copy and a delete, and the order those happen in is the whole safety story.
What is scoped storage on Android?
Since Android 10 an app gets its own directory plus the media it created, and everything else through MediaStore or the file picker. Google's reasons, in Google's words.
Where are screenshots saved on Android?
Photos → Collections → On this device → Screenshots, or Gallery → Album view on older Android. Screen recordings are one album over, under Movies.
Why is my phone storage full?
Measure first, then work through downloads, duplicates, large files and old screenshots. And the honest note that sorting a folder frees no space at all.
Before you let an app move your files, ask this
Four questions you can answer from an app's own documentation: the order of copy and delete, whether there is an undo, whether the permission is permitted, and whether it admits being stopped.
A question these do not answer? Tell us — the honest version of that answer is the page we will write next.