How to give an app All files access on Android

Last reviewed: September 23, 2026 · Markdown version

It is not an ordinary tap-Allow pop-up. Android calls it "a special app access": the app sends you to "a system settings page" where you turn on one option, Allow access to manage all files (Manage all files on a storage device, read 23 September 2026). The friction is the feature. What the permission is is a separate page; this is the mechanics.

The steps

Install and open the app. The reliable route is the app's own: per Google's developer guide, it uses the ACTION_MANAGE_ALL_FILES_ACCESS_PERMISSION intent to open the settings page where you "can enable the following option for your app".
Let it ask. A file tool that needs this should ask on its first screen, and say what for.
Turn on the switch on the page that opens, then go back to the app.

To take it back, Android Help documents the general route for any app's permissions: Settings › Apps › the app › Permissions, then "choose Allow or Don't allow". Its list of permission types includes "Files: Access all files on your device" (Change app permissions on your Android phone, read 23 September 2026). It adds a caveat of its own: "On Pixel phone, some of these steps work only on Android 11 and up."

What you are handing over

Android's documentation is plain. Among the things it grants: "Read and write access to all files within shared storage", and "Write access to all internal storage directories except /Android/data/, /sdcard/Android, and most subdirectories of /sdcard/Android." It also opens "the root directory of both the USB on-the-go (OTG) drive and the SD card".

It is not unlimited: apps holding it "still can't access the app-specific directories that belong to other apps". But shared storage is where Android tells apps to keep "files that your app intends to share with other apps, including media, documents, and other files" (Data and file storage overview, read 23 September 2026) — in practice, most of what you think of as your files.

How to decide

The useful question is not "is this dangerous?" but "could it have done its job without it?" Google Play asks developers the same: "You should only access the All files access permission when your app cannot effectively make use of the more privacy-friendly best practices, such as the Storage Access Framework or the MediaStore API."

The same policy names who it is for — "file managers, backup and restore apps, anti-virus apps, and document management apps" — and the bar: "Core functionality is defined as the main purpose of the app. Without this core functionality, the app is "broken" or rendered unusable." (Use of All files access (MANAGE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE) permission, Play Console Help, read 23 September 2026.) So: is managing files the point of this app, or a side feature? Before you let an app move your files is four questions in that shape.

Our own app asks for it, and here is why

Adinand Auto File Sorter declares it and needs it on Android 11 and newer; on Android 10 it falls back to the older storage permissions. It asks from its first screen, and uses it to read the name, extension, size and modification time of the files sitting directly in the folders you selected — Downloads by default — and to move them into Downloads › Sorted Files. It never reads what is inside a file to decide where it goes; bytes are read only to compare two files that share a name, and by the duplicate finder to hash them.

It reads only the folders you chose. There is no account and no sign-in, no analytics, no crash reporting, no advertising code, and the only network use is Google Play Billing. It asks for no exemption from Android's battery management. The security page states it, and a demo on sample data lets you watch it work first.

Sources: Android developers — manage all files, data and file storage overview; Android Help: change app permissions; Google Play: All files access. All read 23 September 2026. What the app does comes from its own code audit.