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Comment by Noluris | Hacker News Reader

Scoped storage is going to kill all the most useful apps that I use that require full access to storage (such as SyncThing). I'm going to keep using Android 10 until I die. Or just switch to Apple, since if they're going to lock everything down, I might as well go with the company that supports their phones longer than two years.

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An application can require MANAGE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission to access all files.

I have a feeling that certain apps will end up forcing their users to accept the popup for this permission in order to continue scanning their storage for "bad" filenames. (A few mobile games rolling their own "protection" by looking for TWRP-related folders, for example)

Unlikely. It's going to be a restricted permission on Google Play, which means the application must have a good reason to use it. Specifics will be provided later, but I'm pretty sure a mobile game won't have a reason to use this permission.

> Note: The MANAGE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission allows apps to access potentially sensitive data on shared storage. In an upcoming policy announcement, look for Google Play to provide guidelines for apps that need this permission.

My guess would be that apps that target an earlier Android version will continue to work properly, even on Android 11.

Ok, maybe that's more my hope than my guess. We'll see.

Yes, but the other half of that is that Google will require that new uploads to the Google Play Store target newer Android versions. That is, older applications will not break, but newer applications (and newer versions of older applications) will not be allowed to use that loophole anymore. (Of course, you can still sideload...)

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