Hi Justin,
Your request is noted and, as always, if we get enough users requesting the same, we look into providing a solution.
Some file explorer apps can still access everything, but this is only a temporary solution. Once these apps start preparing for Android 11, this temporary storage permission will no longer be available. At least that's what the documentation says:
https://developer.android.com/training/data-storage/use-cases#opt-out-scoped-storageYou can check the explanation on Special App Access, available in the Android Developers channel about file manager apps:
https://youtu.be/UnJ3amzJM94?t=1259In Google’s own words it’s something that will be enforced, so it will become mandatory (Scoped storage enforcement):
"Apps that run on Android 11 but target Android 10 (API level 29) can still request the requestLegacyExternalStorage attribute. This flag allows apps to temporarily opt out of the changes associated with scoped storage, such as granting access to different directories and different types of media files. After you update your app to target Android 11, the system ignores the requestLegacyExternalStorage flag."
https://developer.android.com/about/versions/11/privacy/storage#scoped-storageThis is a limitation that Google have decided to impose. In addition to that file manager apps will probably have to go through some process (I imagine a very easy one) of being approved by Google in order to gain full access to the storage. Note that this is simply subject to my own speculation for now.
By the way, there are literally hundreds of requests in Android’s issue tracker. Most requests asking for a more adequate behavior towards accessing the storage are closed as “Won’t Fix (Intended behavior)”:
https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/131947381“Request: don't kill storage permission and File API and don't harm file manager apps in any way”:
https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/129629193“User should be able to choose any of these paths”:
https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/160577049“Scoped storage should add "Documents”:
https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/128646855And something I just noticed… Clipboard access is also going to be limited:
https://www.androidpolice.com/2020/01/26/here-are-11-features-that-need-to-be-in-android-11/Thanks for staying vigilant and sharing your thoughts!