While it is annoying to people like you and me, this is a good thing for the average user. Your average downloads folder probably contains sensitive information that shouldn’t be visible to apps. Same with Android/data. Locking it down is annoying for sure, but it’s admittedly a good privacy&security measure.
I THINK THIS HAS TO DO WITH APP PERMISSIONS. IF YOUR APP NEEDS A PLACE TO READ/WRITE FILES, IT MAKES SENSE TO KEEP IT OUT OF YOUR DOWNLOADS FOLDER THAT COULD CONTAIN SENSITIVE INFORMATION LIKE BANK STATEMENTS OR OTHER THINGS. YOU DON’T WANT SOME RANDOM APP LOOKING AT EVERYTHING THAT ENDS UP IN YOUR DOWNLOADS FOLDER!!!
GET RILED ABOUT GIVING THESE GREEDY DATA SNOOPING APPS THE LEAST PERMISSION POSSIBLE!!
The mildly infuriating part of this post is OP thinking that his consumer phone OS was made just for them and not millions of tech-illiterate people.
I would be okay with an off button in the developer options, hidden from those people
Then, the scam apps will just come with instructions to turn that feature off
I understand the security implications, but I think I should at least have a say about what happens on my own phone
The app in question is popular and open source. My SD card’s downloads folder is also unused and empty, as you can see. There is absolutely zero risk here
But…… if you’re allowed to install into the downloads folder, then it wouldn’t be unused and empty…… ?
Is this Schrödinger’s file system?
OP isn’t trying to install into the downloads folder; they’re trying to grant an app access to the downloads folder to read and write data.
Why not just state what the app is, would make a lot more sense when you make it clear why it is required
Seal - Video/Audio Downloader for Android, based on yt-dlp, designed with Material You. It’s the directory where downloaded videos get saved
Sounds like you’re part of the group they’re protecting if you refuse to understand and value the need for permission management ;)
Unlucky!
This is so every app can only read it’s own subfolder. Unless you think it’s better that advertisers and app developers can have access to 100% of your personal files
There’s nothing wrong with this lol
