GrapheneOS provides Storage Scopes as a fully compatible alternative to the + standard Android storage permissions. Instead of granting storage permissions, + users can enable Storage Scopes to grant the requested permissions in a highly + restricted mode where the app can create files/directories in the user's home + directory but can only access the files it has created itself. Users can then + optionally add files and directories as storage scopes to permit the app to + access files created by other apps.
+ +For more details, see the usage guide + section on storage access.
+GrapheneOS inherits the same baseline approach to storage access as modern + Android and extends it with our Storage Scopes feature as a fully compatible + alternative to the standard Android storage permissions. This section provides a + brief high level overview of the standard approach to storage access primarily to + provide context for explaining Storage Scopes.
+ +By default, Android apps can only access their own sandboxed storage (internal
+ storage) and their own scoped directory within the Android/data
+ directory in the user's home directory (external storage).
Android apps can open the system file picker interface to have the user store + or load one or more files/directories on their behalf. Using this approach gives + the user control over where files are stored in their home directory and which + files/directories can be used by the app. This is based on the Storage Access + Framework (SAF) introduced in Android 4.4. SAF allows the user to grant access to + the files/directories in their home directory, external drives and also app-based + storage providers such as network shares, cloud storage, an encrypted volume, an + external drive with a filesystem the OS doesn't support for external drives, etc. + This is the only way to use those app-based storage providers and modern Android + has removed the legacy approach for accessing external drives.
+ +The more traditional approach to accessing files outside of the app's storage
+ directories is requesting storage permissions to obtain broad access to the user's
+ home directory. The traditional Storage permission toggle was renamed to Files and
+ Media for legacy apps and Media for modern apps. For legacy apps, it gives access
+ to most of the user's home directory other than certain special areas. For modern
+ apps, it only gives access to files created by the app and indexed media. Media is
+ indexed if it's in a directory scope without a file called .nomedia.
+ You can see the indexed media collections via the categories for Photos, etc. in
+ the system file manager. These aren't directories themselves but rather all of the
+ indexed media from all directories in the user's home directory. These are not the
+ same thing as the standard top-level directories for Pictures, etc.
Since the Storage permission became a limited Media permission for apps built + for modern Android, a separate "All files access" special access permission was + added for file management. As a special access permission, it can't be directly + requested via a dialog and is listed in a dedicated section rather than a toggle + with the other permissions. This gives full management access to nearly all of the + user's home directory.
+ +The media management special access permission can be granted to apps with the + Files and Media / Media permission or All files access in order to grant further + access beyond the home directory to media on connected storage devices.
+ +GrapheneOS provides Storage Scopes as a fully compatible alternative to the + standard Android storage permissions. Instead of granting storage permissions, + users can enable Storage Scopes to grant the requested permissions in a highly + restricted mode where the app can create files/directories in the user's home + directory but can only access the files it has created itself. Users can then + optionally add files and directories as storage scopes to permit the app to access + files created by other apps.
+