How do I uninstall the Samsung My Files app?

Last reviewed: September 23, 2026 · Markdown version

You cannot uninstall it, and Samsung says so directly. From Samsung's support page on removing pre-installed apps: "Some pre-installed apps on your Samsung Galaxy device can be deleted, while essential apps such as Phone, Messages, Contacts, Gallery, and My Files cannot because they are required for basic device functions." (How to delete pre-installed apps, read 23 September 2026)

What you can do instead

The same Samsung page gives two options: "If an app cannot be deleted, you can hide it from the Home and Apps screens or disable it if the option is available." It also notes which of those you can count on — "The hide apps option is available for all pre-installed apps, but the disable option is available only for some apps." Disabling, in Samsung's words, is how you "stop their functions and remove them from the Home and Apps screens".

So in practice: hide it if you never want to see the icon again, and check whether Disable is offered if you want it inert. Samsung's page does not say what disabling does to other apps that open files through My Files, so if something stops working afterwards, the same Settings › Apps screen has an Enable button to undo it.

What happens to your files

Samsung's page does not address this. Android's developer documentation does, in general terms: media and "other types of shareable content, including downloaded files" live in shared storage, and its storage table answers "Files removed on app uninstall?" with No for both; only an app's own app-specific files are removed with it (Data and file storage overview, read 23 September 2026). A file manager browses that shared storage rather than owning it. If you want to browse it with something else, Files by Google lists files by category and can sort them by name, date or size (View your files, read 23 September 2026). How that one works.

If the real problem is what the app shows you

A storage warning, a downloads folder with thousands of items in it, or the feeling that the phone is full of things nobody chose — a file manager is the thing that shows you those, which makes it an easy target and a poor one. Removing the viewer leaves the files exactly where they were. What is actually taking the space.