How to give an app All files access on Android

Last reviewed: September 19, 2026 · Markdown version

You cannot grant it from an ordinary permission pop-up, and it is not in the app's normal permissions list. Android treats it as "a special app access": the app sends you to a system settings page with one switch, labelled Allow access to manage all files. 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: the intent it fires opens that page already scoped to it.
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, which picks up the new state on return.

To revoke it, return to that page and switch it off — a setting, not a signature.

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 is not unlimited: apps holding it "still can't access the app-specific directories that belong to other apps". But shared storage is your documents, downloads and media — the broadest storage permission Android offers.

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, "the main purpose of the app. Without this core functionality, the app is 'broken' or rendered unusable." 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, storage in Android 11; Google Play: All files access. All read 19 September 2026. What the app does comes from its own code audit.