GPLAY: Google revoked "all files access" permission #14409
Comments
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Thanks Tobias for all the work you do on this topic. Much appreciated! |
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Wanted to add that I'm experiencing issues related to this as described in #14379 which I saw is likely to be merged/linked here. Some time in December, my auto-uploads stopped as it seems permissions (including photos/videos) was revoked. Last night, I manually added the photos/videos permission back. New files are auto-uploaded, but any of my photos/videos that were created between then and now are not being detected for upload. If there is any option to manually sync a folder to remedy this, please let me know. EDIT: It's also worth noting that when I opened the auto-uploads management UI, the photos/videos permission pop up froze the app, and I was unable to use it - I had to go into my android settings and add the permission manually |
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Thanks @tobiasKaminsky for your effort on this. I know that your hands are tight with google released the rule for removing permission but this function in particular is what's so good about nextcloud as it automatically create free space on mobile devices. I'm missing this feature sorely and hope that it can be re-instated with the new version. |
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@drumstick77 in the meantime I uninstalled Nextcloud, installed 3.30.5 via Obtainium, and disabled auto updates in Google Play. I had to re-set-up my auto upload folders and manually upload/delete stuff that got missed, but at least it works how I want it. |
I am also experiencing that problem that new images get automatically uploaded since I re-granted the auto upload permissions, but existing ones doesn't, even tho I enabled the "upload existing files setting". Also I am getting this "changes to auto upload" notification dozens of times. |
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Hi I as many I have issue with auto upload and do some testing. What I see if I do clean install of application (from google store beta version or manually install apk from git hab) and enabe auto upload all working fine untill I remove one photo and after that auto upload stop woring and need to onece again start from scrach. You can reproduce that issue:
I do this on Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6. Can somone check if has same ? |
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I use two devices which sync to nextcloud (both use the Google Play Version). Client Version 3.30.7 and 3.30.8 Client Version 3.30.7 Both devices stopped syncing after the 17.12.2024. I updated the permissions for Fotos&Videos and the Devices startet to sync again, but they only sync files starting with the day I granted the permissions. All files between 17.12.2024 and the day I granted the permissions are not picked up. Additionally: None of the deivces gives me the option to grant full file access the nextcloud. Only access to Fotos & Videos can be granted. UPDATE: the update to 3.30.8 does not change this. Files created between 17.12.2024 and the date of the permission grant are not picked up. |
I cannot confirm that on my Poco F3 running Nextcloud 3.30.8. |
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I got a modal inside the app today which explained the situation. Automatically uploading new files works again. However, existing files that were missed since December had to be uploaded manually. EDIT: Google Play user here |
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Thanks for confirming, @st3iny |
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Initially, the app asked me for permissions, which I granted completely. Afterward, newly created photos taken with the camera were successfully uploaded. However, a few minutes later, the auto-upload stopped working again. Details: |
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Exact same situation as lieblinger. Granted the permissions asked for as allow always, it then successfully uploaded one photo, and now it won't upload anything anymore. Tried revoking, re-enabling permissions. Force stop, clearing cache, disabling/enabling auto upload... it won't detect new photos/videos on my device. The upload queue is empty (it does see the photos in settings -> autoupload, however... just won't queue them. Details: |
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I can't even upload things to my next cloud myself without auto upload because I can no longer see them in the next cloud app. For example, if I have an MP3 on my phone and I open the next Cloud app and want to load this MP3 into the next Cloud, I can't see the file. Why is Google sabotaging the app? Do they want to force you to use their own cloud services? |
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Hi I once again remove app. Then I delete DICM folder on phone. After that i install app from google store and connect to my nextcloud. And at the end do some photo and configure auto upload on detected new folder (DICM/Camera). Now looks like all working fine new photo are automaticly uploaded even if I delete some of them on phone. The only things is that upload take random time ... Sometetimes it's few minutes sometime hour or two ... but finly auto upload working for me. Need to test if all photo will be uploaded (in december there was issue that not all photo was uploaded) Client version: 3.30.8 (google version) |
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Same problem here no matter what I do items won't upload at all when I make a picture it does not upload and does also not upload already existing pictures and other items. It's only the auto upload feature because manual uploads still work without problems. Google pixel 7 pro |
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Do anyone have news or a notification of Google for this change? I don't find anything about it. Its not good for customers, who use the cloud in company and need other files than media for upload. The switch to fdroid or optanium is in company's no good option, if you use a device management or similar. |
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I have something to add. I was doing those tests 2 days ago (see above). Took a picture, a video, put it on charge (the condition to upload), and unlike in the past nothing appeared in the queue (Uploads). Like mentioned above, this after I cleared the cached, revoked and granted the permission, and disabled/enabled autoupload to those folder. When it didn't work (I gave it about half an hour), I was set to wait for any news in the future. Yesterday, I left it on the charger all day. Around 8pm, grabbed it off the charger, took a couple of pictures and returned it to the charger overnight. This morning, I read some of these comments and I figured Id manually upload... where low and behold was surprised that they had been uploaded (along with my test pictures from two days ago). Took a test picture and video and put on the charger; those were added to the queue within a minute. So I don't know if by changing the permission or clearing the cache or something -- it had to iterate a ton of old photos... but it eventually started working. Wanted to share! Details: |
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Similar to everyone else. Auto-Upload stopped working sometime in December. I noticed in mid January and granted the permission again and new photos/videos after that moment would auto upload but photos/videos taken between when it stopped working and when I granted permissions again would not upload. An uninstall of the app and re-install fixed it for me. What I noticed was different upon re-install of the app was more granularity in the photos and videos permissions. Previously in settings I only had "Always allow", "Ask every time" and "Don't allow". But upon re-installing I was prompted for the permissions again and it showed that I could select specifically which photos and videos Nextcloud could access (or all photos and videos which is what I chose). Now in the settings the "Always allow" permission is "Always allow all". My guess is that even though I'd re-enabled the permission, for some reason, the photos taken during the broken permission period still had broken permissions. But I had no way of changing that in settings. |
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Because I really want my backups auto-uploaded again (I'm desperate) , I gave another app a try FolderSync. Now I am even more confused. With FolderSync it is no problem to grant the necessary permissions and autoupload (or on schedule) non media files. What is the difference between them and this app? Why are they allowed to access the data, and you don't? Is it maybe because they just 'tag' their app as File Manager and you don't? To be honest, I have no clue how Android apps are created and if such tags exist or not. But I wanted to let you know that there exists at least one app that somehow managed this challenge. |
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Very interesting information, so if nextcloud doesn't get it right in the next few days then I'll probably have to switch too. I also find it unacceptable whoever is to blame for the fact that such serious errors occur with a data backup app that data has been missing during upload since December. What's even worse is that there is no quick solution. Who knows how many people who aren't so technically savvy have not even heard of the problem. And the fact that the data could possibly be manipulated, e.g. GPS data could be deleted from photos, is also unacceptable. Can Next Cloud please present a solution roadmap? |
I totally get that you are mad. I am also not happy, that the sync stopped working. But please don't forget that this is an open source project, which is (largely) maintained by people who are volunteering their free (!) time to provide you software for free. I am sure they are doing their best to get the whole thing working again - but dealing with 3rd party changes is sometimes really hard and time consuming. So, give them some love and treat them with respect. They don't owe you anything. It's free software, you can always fork it and improve it yourself :) |
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Still no progress here, i guess? EDIT: Strange is, after upgrading Nextcloud to a version >30 now uploads my pdf files inside the download folder on my Google Pixel. |
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I don't know what I should think about this - I am also using the app mega (link to GPlay) which also just shows the permission for "Photos and videos", "always allow all", just as the GPlay nextcloud app version 3.31.1 currently installed. Does google give them a different kind of access/permissions? There are some things, I really want to be synced only to my self-hosted (next)cloud instance at home, and not some cloud provider, however much privacy they claim. |
I'm curious too as to why Mega can sync files and NC can't. Maybe it's down to the way files are stored on NC and Mega? In case of Mega, their cloud space users pay for to access and in case of NC user's cloud (home server or any other server set by user). Either Google has strange policy regarding how apps handle files on people's phone or NC wants to make money and try push people into paying for the stuff. That's my wild loose theory. It would be nice if the developers of Nextcloud made an effort to clarify this issue clearly. |
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I use 1.31.1 from fdroid on pixel 8 (stock android). |
That would be one point of mine, is it just due to the permission?
I would rather suspect that google has strange policies, than that NC developers want you to pay for anything, being the issue here. After all, this is NC's official android app, so even if you were to pay for a hosted enterprise server, your users would still use this app, and no other app, in which things were to magically work better than in the free version. My post here should just point out, that there are (specific) other apps which work in such a way as google seems to prevent for NC, and possibly provide more arguments for a discussion with google - if that would at all be necessary. Also, I want to encourage to continuously press google... The case I have right now involves phones of family members, who are not necessarily tech-savvy enough to open their phones to sideloading of apps, so FDroid is no option for me at the moment. |
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Still not possible select for backup folders on external sd cards ... only internal memory |
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@bklebel, I'm using F-droid but the auto upload isn't working for me anymore. March worked great, april stopped working. It's really inconvenient because if I lost my phone there was at least 2 weeks of photos missing of my child. |
If it is NC: Is the iPhone client free of sync problems? I just wonder which part I shall ditch, NC or Google 😎 |
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My only question is how others are able to do this. I use Immich as my secondary photo location and have no issues. So, I wonder why Nextcloud cannot do this, but others can. How are they doing it, and why is it allowed for them but not Nextcloud? Immich is open source, too. |
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Hey, is there any Update? We cant still autoupload non-media Files with Play store, Fdroid or Obtanium (direct github) Version. |
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In your official response at https://nextcloud.com/blog/nextcloud-android-file-upload-issue-google you are saying "SAF cannot be used, as it is for sharing/exposing our files to other apps, so the reviewer clearly misunderstood our app workflow.". I'm confused by that, because at least from the documentation, it is possible to get full access to (public) directories from other apps, see https://developer.android.com/training/data-storage/shared/documents-files#grant-access-directory It clearly says: "Your app can then access any file in the selected directory and any of its sub-directories." So why can SAF not be used? |
Well, they do not deny access to other directories than those stated in that documention:
and individual files under these directories:
Every other directory should be fine, right? |
Basically, yes. The main complaint currently is that non-media files cannot be auto-uploaded. SAF would fix that as long as this data is not in the restricted folders, which for most users should be the case. Yes, you cannot give access to root partitions. This is by design, users need to explicitly chose directories (but only once, the app will keep that permission). So to me, these restrictions look pretty sensible. |
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Android developer here. |
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That sounds nice. And yes, I also advocate for keeping the "least
privilege" principle when using SAF.
Den ons 14 maj 2025 13:33bubbleguuum ***@***.***> skrev:
… *bubbleguuum* left a comment (nextcloud/android#14409)
<#14409 (comment)>
Android developer here.
The SAF can definitely be used as a workaround. You just have to let the
user pick the root folder(s) he wants to backup.
Sure the root of storage and the Downloads folder cannot be picked, but
that's a minor inconvenience.
Once a folder has been given access by the user via the SAF folder picker,
an app can crawl that folder recursively all its wants.
It can absolutely be done with the SAF.
Most apps in fact do not need the "All files access" permission while
their developers seems to think they absolutely do.
Using the SAF is ubiquitous, no complication or problematic special
permission required from Google to use it.
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Hi folks, It's true some of our functionality can be rebuilt if we rewrite this functionality with SAF - even though it makes the user experience a bit worse. We have a file manager/document management app, which fits the use case for the full permission. There are some functions that are popular with some users like syncing a whole SD card, the download folder or the data of specific apps (in Android/data - some users use our app in a way as backup) that are just not possible with SAF. We get the security concerns from Google, but Box has this permission, so do quite some others, so our preferred solution is to re-gain the permission rather than bring back part of the functionality. The good news is that this morning Google got back to us and told us that on resubmission we will regain the permission we need and our users regain all functionality within a few days. |
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So, what you say is that the decision on who is trustworthy and who is not
lays in the hand of Google alone?
How do you handle the situation that Google is not trustworthy anymore?
Your approach couples the Nextcloud app tighter to Google as needed. I'm
talking about an exit strategy here, which became more relevant for EU
companies than ever. And the Nextcloud app would be quite unattractive for
companies with such kind of dependency.
Den tors 15 maj 2025 12:35Andy Scherzinger ***@***.***> skrev:
… *AndyScherzinger* left a comment (nextcloud/android#14409)
<#14409 (comment)>
Hi folks,
It's true some of our functionality can be rebuilt if we rewrite this
functionality with SAF - even though it makes the user experience a bit
worse. We have a file manager/document management app, which fits the use
case for the full permission. There are some functions that are popular
with some users like syncing a whole SD card, the download folder or the
data of specific apps (in Android/data - some users use our app in a way as
backup) that are just not possible with SAF. We get the security concerns
from Google, but Box has this permission, so do quite some others, so our
preferred solution is to re-gain the permission rather than bring back part
of the functionality.
The good news is that this morning Google got back to us and told us that
on resubmission we will regain the permission we need and our users regain
all functionality within a few days.
—
Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub
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Well, it's their app store, people use it - their choice - that is not something we can control or fix. Of course people can (and perhaps should) move to FDroid or other app stores, and there this problem did not occur. |
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I know, I just wanted to highlight this perspective as well. Of course it is their baby and their decision. |
So your blog post helped in getting the right attention 😁. |
Yes, indeed, they did refer in their reply to 'the obvious reason' they reached out. Well, all good of course. And we appreciate the input you all gave here - this might help us, in the future, do better. Perhaps the API's will be extended or changed again, and change is constant in the Android ecosystem. So the large amount of feedback here in this item (100+ comments, 40+ people) is really encouraging to me - it shows many people care, and it's the power of us all together that make things better. So I want to, again, thank everyone for their input. And the wider community - as well as press and everyone who commented everywhere, as that noise was obviously the reason we got the permission back. We'll update the blogpost shortly as well ;-) |
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3.31.2 with permission back was released today 🎉 |
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btw, don't see 3.31.2 on: github, google play, f-droid UP. Available on Google Play. |
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Hello, During the whole 'you've been Googled' phase, I never removed the Google Play version of the app. Meanwhile 3.31.2 has landed on my device, but unfortunately I don't see any of the fixed stuff. Neither automatic non-media files upload, nor manual ones (files are not shown). Is there any step that I'm missing to get full functionality Back? |
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I had the same problem on the one device I left in PlayStore Version. Maybe I'd tried to reinstall PlayStore version when the trouble started, so the previous active permission to access all files may be lost on this. |
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Thanks, that configuration was what was missing. Now its working again. |
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Thanks for your persistence and glad that you managed to regain the file permissions. I wonder whether this will have any impact on #14810 . I started to notice this behaviour at the same time the permission trouble began. On the other hand the f-droid version showed the identical behaviour, so I guess this is unrelated? Still annoying, though, because it makes the upload inherently unreliable. |
and others
Hello,
this is a meta ticket to explain current state.
Google revoked our "all files access" permission.
This means that
We are trying to convince Google to let us use the permission again.
With upcoming 3.30.8 (we released RC1 today), we try to make this more easy understandable to users.
You can use F-Droid (https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.nextcloud.client/) as there the permission is still working.
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