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Google Play: All files access (MANAGE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE)

apps/readest-app/docs/google-play-all-files-access.md

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Google Play: All files access (MANAGE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE)

The Play Store build ships MANAGE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE, same as the direct download build. Play requires a declaration for it in Play Console → App content → Permissions and APIs → All files access, and the declaration has to be re-confirmed whenever a release that uses the permission is submitted.

Keep the answers below in sync with what the app actually does. If a release changes how shared storage is used, update this file first, then the Console.

Declaration form answers

Which core feature of your app requires access to All files access?

Readest is an ebook reader and library manager. Its core feature is a user owned book library that lives in a folder the user picks on shared storage, not inside the app sandbox. The app has to enumerate, read, write, rename and delete arbitrary document files (EPUB, PDF, MOBI, AZW3, CBZ, FB2, TXT, Markdown) anywhere the user keeps them.

Why can't your app use a more privacy-protective alternative (SAF, Media Store, app-specific directories)?

  • The library folder is a stable, absolute filesystem path that is shared with other apps the user runs on the same files: Syncthing, KOReader, Calibre companion tools and desktop sync clients. SAF hands back opaque per-grant tree URIs that are not usable as paths, are not stable across a factory reset or app reinstall, and are not resolvable by the app's native (Rust) file and database layer.
  • The library is a directory tree, not a media collection. It contains documents plus sidecar files the app maintains alongside them (covers, annotation and reading-progress databases, per-book config). MediaStore does not index document formats and cannot represent those relationships.
  • Books must survive uninstall and must be readable by the user with any file manager. App-specific directories are wiped on uninstall and are hidden from other apps, which is exactly the failure users report.
  • The app performs recursive scans of user-selected folders for bulk import and for watched auto-import folders, over libraries of thousands of files. Per-file SAF document URIs make this prohibitively slow and require a separate grant for every folder.

Features that depend on the permission

  • Change Data Location: move the whole library and its databases to a folder on shared storage or an SD card (issues #5372, #2862).
  • Import books from a folder, including recursive scans and watched folders that are re-scanned on launch.
  • Backup and restore of the library archive to a user-chosen folder.
  • Save the current book cover to a user-chosen folder for lock screen use.

Video demonstration

Play asks for a short screen recording showing the feature in context. Record: open Settings → Change Data Location, pick a shared folder such as /sdcard/Books, complete the migration, then show the imported books opening from that folder and the same folder visible in a third-party file manager.

Notes for the release submission

  • Do not remove the permission from AndroidManifest.xml for the Play build. scripts/release-google-play.sh fails the build if it is missing.
  • REQUEST_INSTALL_PACKAGES is still stripped for Play: the in-app updater is disabled on that channel.
  • The permission is requested at runtime only when the user picks a shared folder, never on first launch. Denying it leaves the app fully usable with its default in-sandbox library.