What is “All files access” on Android?
Last reviewed: September 23, 2026 · Markdown version
All files access is a special Android permission that grants an app read and write access to all files within shared storage. You grant it yourself, on a system settings page, rather than in an ordinary permission pop-up. It is broad, but it is not total: an app that holds it still cannot reach the private directories that belong to other apps.
What the permission actually grants
Android's developer documentation is unusually plain about it. The MANAGE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission grants "Read and write access to all files within shared storage" — the shared part of your storage, where your downloads, documents and media live. And then the limit, in the same document: apps granted this permission "still can't access the app-specific directories that belong to other apps, because these directories appear as subdirectories of Android/data/ on a storage volume" (Manage all files on a storage device, read 23 September 2026).
You are the one who switches it on. The documentation tells developers to "direct users to a system settings page where they can enable the following option for your app: Allow access to manage all files". That is a deliberate piece of friction — an app cannot obtain this quietly in the flow of a dialog.
What Google Play allows it to be used for
Play's policy on the permission names the categories directly: "For apps requesting access to the All files access permission, intended and permitted use includes file managers, backup and restore apps, anti-virus apps, and document management apps." The same policy defines the bar those apps have to clear — "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 permission, read 23 September 2026)
So the useful question to ask of any app holding it is not "is this scary?" but "is moving or managing files the point of this app, or a side-line?" Android's own documentation lists the same sorts of use cases: file managers, backup and restore apps, anti-virus apps, document management apps, on-device file search, disk and file encryption, and device-to-device data migration.
Where Adinand Auto File Sorter fits
It declares MANAGE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE and needs it on Android 11 and newer; on Android 10 it falls back to the older read and write storage permissions. It asks for it from its first screen, by sending you to that system settings page, and it uses it to look at the files in the folders you selected — their names and extensions decide where each one goes — and to move those files into Downloads › Sorted Files. File contents are read only to compare bytes: when a same-named file already exists at the destination, and when you run the duplicate finder. It asks for no battery-optimisation exemption. The security page sets out the rest.