Privacy Guides @lemmy.one gamedeviancy @discuss.tchncs.de 2 yr. ago

Best file menager on android?

I use material files but i don't know if it is still maintained? Last update is from may 2022. Any newer recommendations?

Edit. I forgot to add that I prefer open source apps

54 comments

I've been using solid explorer for years now
- Moved to Solid Explorer after ES got enshittified. No complaints here but will move to something FOSS when it gets 90% as good.
- Another vote for Solid Explorer. Two panes side by side and can connect to a lot of remotes, even Samba so you can use Windows shared folders.
- Same, the ability to access Google drive, OneDrive, and Dropbox files alongside your local files is awesome.
  
  As well as Nextcloud! It's my pick as well.
- same, I just checked, I bought the full version in 2016 (for like a dollar ?) and been using it since.
- I've still been using it, since it has continued to be reliable. I have Mixplorer too. Should probably try using that too to see how it compares.
Mixplorer has absolutely never failed me over the past decade or so.
- I downloaded MiXplorer today. It's really great. Thanks for the tip!
  
  Pro tip: You can host FTP servers from your phone. You can access that from your computer's file manager and just drag and drop things on and off of your phone.
- Ya everytime I reset my phone or get a new one I head to xda to download Mixplorer.
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- You mean Simple File Manager?
- @moe @gamedeviancy
  Simple File Manager Pro, for me. Just does everything I need. Been using it for years
  
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Mixplorer for sure
It's not open source but it's quite literally the best Android application I've ever seen, by a significant margin. It's from the good old days where apps were small, very well designed, very polished and did not collect data.

It's FX, a gem ever more lost to time. The site is a bit old and unmaintained so SSL certificates may give you a bit of trouble, but you can just ignore the warnings, it's just an info page.

FX, despite not receiving updates for years has so many features of such great quality, I've yet to find any alternative with a truly competing interface and feature set.

Been using it for 10 years and it has been the pinnacle of Android.

Edit: I know you'll be detracted from trying it since it's not FOSS, but seriously give it a shot.
Solid File Explorer, bought it forever ago, and it hasn't let me down yet.
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- Ghost Commander is a winner for me as well, because it's also an FTP client, and is dual-pane (and because it's FOSS, of course). Been using it for what must be at least 10 years now, across many devices, and have no complaints whatsoever.
  
  If anyone is intrigued, here's a link to Ghost Commander on F-Droid.
FYI material files is maintained, there just hasn't been a release since may 2022. The last update was June 9 which you can see on the git repo https://github.com/zhanghai/MaterialFiles
Total Commander. For FOSS, Ghost Commander, similar but not exactly on par yet, at least in UX.
- I also use Total Commander, latest versions also include WiFi Web download for easy transfer for other devices. Ghost Commander also seems nice, going to use it for a bit.
  
  The WiFi plugin was perfect to transfer game ROMs and other stuff to/from an older Android TV that didn't support much of anything else.
Mixplorer is the only answer
mixplorer FTW
- Is there a git repo for the code?
I've been using Amaze, it's nice, although I use it sparingly.
https://github.com/TeamAmaze/AmazeFileManager
- I'm always surprised at how few people seem to be aware of Amaze.
  
  Would you say it amazes you?
any app from the 'Simple' suite is always worth checking out. (search 'simple files' on f-droid). i personally prefer the stock grapheneos one, but use Simple gallery
I use Material Files and is so far the best you can get, as fa I know. Didn't seen any better Fime manager over the time and some applications just are not regulary updated, bjt still gets updates over the years. Same thing for Material Files.
Little File Explorer from F-Droid does for me the job.
I don't know which phone do you use, but I'm generally pretty satisfied with the default file managers which are preinstalled on Android devices (in my case, it's Samsung). Is there anything special you require from the file manager app which can't be done with the default one?
- Graphene os on pixel phones. It uses default android manager that personally I don't like. Lack of features like bookmarks, file shortcut etc.
FX file explorer has been my main for years. Local/remote/ssh
- Fx is a huge suite in its own. Earlier I realized that when you import settings back it also imports your Google drive mount configs too.
Material files. Seems to do the job for me.
The Material Files repo shows the last update was three weeks ago, but the latest version on the releases page and f-droid are from 2022. This is confusing...
- The last commit was three weeks ago. The last release was 2022.
  
  So anything after 2022 you need to build from source to use.
  
  Or download it from Google Play Store?
I use Simple File Manager Pro myself. It's available on F-Droid. The code is licesned using GPLv3.0.

https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.simplemobiletools.filemanager.pro/
I use material files too cause its been suggested a lot in r/degoogle in reddit. But I'm not sure if its still maintained. Anyone has a better app which is also FOSS?
- It's maintained, zanghai updates dependencies every week: https://github.com/zhanghai/MaterialFiles/commits/master
  
  Just no new releases. I haven't found any bugs and it has all the features I need, so I don't miss anything. When an app is finished, you don't need new releases every week.
I use Google files with disabled Internet permission.
- How do you disable they permission?
  
  With an app like NetGuard or Rethink: DNS + Firewall. Both apps can be found on F-Droid.
  
  You need an operating system like calyxOS or LineageOS or just a firewall that allows blocking internet access of apps

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