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Android Scoped Storage Demystified
Use scoped storage to prevent apps from having unrestricted access to the file system and to help reduce file clutter
If I talk about the recent improvements in Android at the OS level, it is all about protecting the app and user data and providing access in a more organised form. The reason for a change is good, but it means more work for developers.
With Android 11, Some major changes and restrictions are added to enhance user privacy, including, as listed in preview to behavior changes, the following:
Scoped storage enforcement: Access into external storage directories is limited to an app-specific directory and specific types of media that the app has created.
Permissions auto-reset: If users haven’t interacted with an app for a few months, the system auto-resets the app’s sensitive permissions.
Background location access: Users must be directed to system settings in order to grant the background location permission to apps.
Package visibility: When an app queries for the list of installed apps on the device, the returned list is filtered.
Recently, I took a deep dive into the concept of scoped storage to understand the intention and to prepare my Android app for the change accordingly.
Storage Structure (Before Android 10)
Before going into the implementation part, let’s first understand the way data was organised before Android 10:
- Private Storage: All apps have their own private directory in internal storage, i.e., Android/data/{package name}, not visible to other apps.
- Shared Storage: Apart from private storage, the rest of the storage was called shared storage. This includes all the media and non-media files being stored, and an app with storage permission can easily access them.
