Some of you might have heard about rclone. It’s an open source app that you can use to mount pretty much any cloud storage provider that you have to your native file system. Like you would plug a USB flash drive for example.
Someone apparently brought the idea over to Android, creating an app that uses Storage Access Framework.
For those who don’t know what this means, it’s a way of accessing an app’s files through Android’s native file picker (which, in turn, is Android’s native file explorer). See this screenshot as an example. In the displayed side pane, you can see both Google Drive and OneDrive displayed. They both make use of Android’s Storage Access Framework and you can access their files right there in the file picker, without having the apps open.
If you created multiple accounts on different cloud storage providers, then this is an actual lifesaver for your phone’s storage, as it’s simply better to only have one app for them all instead of having multiple apps for all the providers.
I’ve been using Solid Explorer for ever. I like the idea it’s FOSS, and I’ve recently got a new phone, so why not eh? Thanks
Amaze is basically a FOSS Solid Explorer clone. Not sure which came first.
Solid Explorer suppports multiple cloud providers too.
@mfat That is cool. But this is a more native solution I see
Damn, too bad it’s not on the Play Store, that’d be handy on my work phone but we have a security policy that blocks sideloading apps on them…
Try mixplorer silver. It isn’t exactly the same, but you can access most cloud services through it, with multiple accounts.
Does it use the Storage Access Framework? That’s my only gripe about Solid Explorer.
or f-droid… I’d love something like this, but I ain’t compiling shit from source for android, not nearly worth the hassle
@danhakimi there are apks as well under releases. You only need to download the right one. If you’ve downloaded anything from apkmirror then it’s just as easy.
Or you can add the GitHub URL into Obtainium for easy updating.
Something about Obtainium sketches me out, is it really safe?
I installed it and got a note that it’s not compatible with the latest version of android… is it?
Works flawless with latest android, speaking from a pixel. Might be some extra functionality i don’t use?
alright, well that seems to be working for now, thanks.
now to figure out how tf RSAF works…
@mp3 Don’t you have something like a custom version of play store that only allows certain apps? Maybe you could suggest it to the IT add it there.
I wouldn’t hold my breath on that one with my employer.
Interesting. I have similar options available via the built-in samsung files app.
There’s also RCX. But it doesn’t support all possible remotes through gui, however all remote types can be added by importing rclone conf file.
Seems interesting! I see I can access the remotes from Google drive (using the upload functionality), but I don’t see a way to just browse the files. Tried what the readme says, but I don’t see it there
RSAF is not itself a file manager, but any file manager supporting SAF, including the one built into Android (Settings -> Storage -> Documents), can make use of it.
With the Google files app I see the app, but surveying l selecting it just opens the UI, not the remote. Any idea?
Honest to God, if this works then there is nothing I can say iOS does better than android (for me)
@Railcar8095 Google Files doesn’t seem to support SAF. Android’s system file manager does it (it’s the one that opens as a file picker usually). You can access it by going to Settings>Storage then tap on Documents & Others. Or you can use this app as a shortcut to it
From the settings>storage>documents & others it opens the Files by Google app, not the android default, probably because it’s a Pixel.
The shortcut app you linked did the trick, thanks!
@Railcar8095 no worries. Perhaps it is set as default for some reason. Maybe if you clear the defaults for the Google Files app it should work from there as well 😁
But frankly, it’s great that the app did the trick. It’s way easier than heading to settings all the time and you can add it to the home screen and have it in the app list as well. I prefer this method myself as well tbh 😁
There is also Round Sync which is a fork of RCX, as RCX has been unmaintained for quite some time.
