On an unencrypted sd card that is removable.
Don’t forget “This file has already been downloaded, do you want to download it again?”
And the options are to cancel or download again but you can’t open the already existing file from the prompt, so you might as well just download that fucking PDF for the fifth time since it’s not as if you knew where the bloody thing’s been downloaded anyway!
This made me laugh more than the meme. Thanks.
Click the name. It doesn’t look like an option, because there are buttons for download or cancel, but the file name is also a link to the file.
It links to a file with that name. There have been times where I download a pdf and click the name only for my phone to open a different pdf than the one I was supposed to be downloading. Turns out they both had the same name.
It makes sense. I don’t think it’s possible to detect if the contents in two files are identical before downloading it, so all it can do is to compare the file name.
Anyway, the dialogue could be more helpful in this regard, but I guess that would also annoy or confuse some users.
Yeah if I ever come across this experience, I just click on the name of the file that I already downloaded. Comes up and no need for redownloading.
Nope, not on my Pixel 7 using Chrome
It works on my Pixel 7 using Chrome!
Show me a screenshot of where you’re able to tap to open the file because I certainly can’t find it…
If I tap the file name it opens the keyboard, if I tap the folder it shows how much space is available…
What is that like android 6
14 with Chrome 121.0.6167.164
Oh wow, mine presents differently:
Yeah someone told me it’s the only option in the download settings that needed to be deactivated
You’ll need to turn off “ask where to save files” in chrome download settings.
Thanks, it works! Funny how that’s an option considering it downloads files without asking anything the first first time and only ask for your input if you try to download it a second time…
Annoys me every time. But as I remember you could click on the file and open it on older android systems.
Someone told me what the issue was, settings > downloads > turn off the “ask where to download” option
Still works for me on current phone
you guys don’t simply have a folder called “Downloads” where everything goes?
Everything does not go there, different file types seem to go to different places. Successful downloads don’t ever appear sometimes.
Each application can have its own default download location. Reddit apps were particularly bad about that and it may have carried over into lemmy as well. But learning the settings for the software you want to use isn’t a terrible ask.
idk man, sounds like a skill issue
Do I press download differently? There shouldn’t be skill in the default download location.
yes you gotta press it on the right spot…
I don’t know what setting you’ve accidentally turned on, but all my browser downloads go to my Downloads folder by default. I’ll admit in-app downloads can end up in a few different spots, though. Most in-app picture downloads end up either in Downloads or in a subfolder inside the Pictures folder, though.
Yeah, where I’ve got a shit load of files that, the first time, automatically download with their default name which is usually a bunch of random letters.pdf, it’s quicker to just download it again than to find it!
I have a Downloads folder where some things go. :(
Some apps save to their internal storage; /data/data/funny.app.name or /storage/emulated/0/Android/funny.appp.name. It would be funny if not for wanting to cry.
Btw, why not just mount internal storage to /Internal, user home /storage/emulated/0 to /home/<name> and external to /sdcard1 /sdcard2 /otg, @google?
Yes, that’s exactly how the two android phones I’ve used have worked, and why this post is getting upvoted is a mystery to me.
There are also folders called “Camera” and “Screenshots”, and I’ll give you three guesses where photos and screenshots go.
DCIM probably. While my stuff is in Media, because pictures and videos are always a mixed bag anyway. OpenCamera allows changing the save path, luckily; Media/Camera
It’s the dumbest setup possible with how android handles saved files, and even worse by all the hoops to put files or look at files from specific folders on your phone due to all the permissions crap.
But the easiest way to find where something was saved is to open up “Files” which is “Files by Google” to be exact. It will whatever file you saved or modified right there in the “recent” section at the top so you can look at whatever goofball place it was actually saved to.
I really don’t understand why the whole finder/explorer/dolphin way of doing things wasn’t carried over to phones.
I’ve only really used Apple phones, but that was something that shocked me right away.
Back when I jailbroke my phones (before I got lazy) I had an awesome file explorer with the finder icon that made me feel at home for a bit.
It’s either in
/sdcard/Downloadsor/external/emulated/0/android/data/com.google.chrome/Downloads. Couldn’t be easier.chrome instead of anything besides that
🤢🤮
com.microsoft.iemobileOh god, i didn’t know such an atrocity exists on Android
oh yeah? now list paths for all the other applications
You have other applications?
Couldn’t be easier.
Would certainly be easier if there wasn’t an or in your statement.
Best I can do is three more ors.
Except when it is not…
For example Boost saves photo is some photo folder somewhere.
The only way i can find anything is using a photo app and scanning my entire phone to find things.
Boost saves in
/Pictures/Boost.Don’t you pick on first run?
It’s a newer api but I know Sync does that, as well as mgit and a few others.
I was being facetious. Yeah, every app saves into a different location. It’s bonkers.
Sandboxing is a good thing. It makes it a lot easier and safer for billions of devices to run millions of apps.
Sure except that we already have computers where every app uses the same folder structure, just with some files/folders protected with elevated permissions that aren’t accessible to every app. We already have a solution that works and every desktop OS uses. Why would mobile go for a solution that isn’t actually usable?
Eh then you get everyone saving random shit in the Documents folder.
That’s what people don’t realise… There were very clear distinctions laid out many years ago with how and where data should go places (with win 95, I believe).
The desktop solution isn’t feasible in the mobile context. Even for desktops, you see an increased interest in reproducible/containerized/sandboxed environments with docker, flatpak/snap, immutable operating systems, and so on. It’s all about managing complexity.
All of that interest is from people making computers, or people who manage security. Not from people that use computers as part of their life/work (in contrast to those who’s work is entirely about the computer itself). From a usability standpoint, this type of sandboxing for every app is cumbersome and all it leads to is users finding unsafe work arounds. I used to be able to use my android phone much more as a regular computer than I can now. And I wanted to make a simple app for myself to allow me to automatically copy and catalog photos from my cameras sd card to an external HDD, and I literally cannot do this without jumping through a million permissions and API hoops on Android even though I never plan on publishing this app for others to use. It became such a pain to figure out how to get access to the folders I would need, I just gave up on the entire project. I essentially needed a tool to systematically copy and rename files, and it’s nearly impossible because of these nonsensical policies.
All of that interest is from people making computers,
like the people who make phones for other people to use
Until it stops me from doing something I want to do and know is safe like modifying my Obsidian notes that are on Nextcloud from my phone. Why can’t it simply prompt me to give Obsidian rw access to that directory or even have some way to allow me to manually change the permissions myself to get it working.
The right design decision isn’t necessarily the best for a specific use case. Making the system overall rigid and strict by default makes the whole thing more manageable. Adding features like “user initiated opt-in shared filesystem access for sandboxed apps” increases complexity, hence cost and maintenance burden and likelihood of bugs. Not to say this feature isn’t worth it, but it’s necessary to accept some rough edges in some use cases.
Making the system overall rigid and strict by default makes the whole thing more manageable.
More manageable for who? Certainly not me. Which, considering I own the device, is bullshit. Desktop apps have had this figured out for decades.
The people who build the device and software ecosystem you take for granted.
Android 14 :/
In the Downloads or Pictures folder , under the name of the application. I am shocked that this isn’t common knowledge.
I feel like this meme only makes sense for people who don’t know basic file system navigation…
Literally never had this problem, not once, starting at Android 2.3 when I got my first android phone. It’s literally just files and folders, like any other OS.
Even when dealing with apps that don’t have a way to check where a file is, any file manager app worth a damn, will have a way to easily find the most recently saved/modified files.
Hey did you work with any of the fuchsia people who got laid off? Do you know if the project is planned to be cancelled any time soon?
?
No, and I’ve no clue.
I had a photo on my Galaxy I needed to delete, I had to delete it from three separate folders.
Is that a Samsung problem, not an Android problem?
Almost certainly, I for one don’t remember having to do it that on my Pure, but you can bet I was pretty pissed at everyone involved anyways.
my opinion might be biased as someone who deliberately avoids samsung products because of horrible software and bad quality control (on some devices).
yes, that’s a samsung thing.
Delete it all you like, if you run Google photos, it will still end up stuck in there.
Don’t use
someone else’s computerany cloud services…easy.You got me paranoid and I had to check!
No, as it happens, I have a habit of denying all the permissions I can so at least Google pretends it’s not in the cloud.
Sorta makes sense.
It’s like my generation not knowing how to fix cars because our fathers all did it.
some of them really don’t, but people in my circle (all of them gen z) are familiar to a degree. many of them use android phones and/or windows, which very much require that if you want to do anything useful.
So I had a problem with this, and I am a cd… cd/ format . person who loves computer file systems.
I think what messed me up is that certain apps have different default save folders, and I wouldn’t know where they were or forget.
This ☝️
And when your storage is full from videos and gifs that friends exchange in WhatsApp or whatever, or Instagram keeping everything you post, and you want to clean up, there’s no easy way to do it.
Oh boy. Do I have a bone to pick with whatsapp. Their message data management is a complete clusterfuck.
Though if you just want to delete media, that’s easy.
Whatsapp has it’s own folder in root that contains a folder for each file type. Edit: Not anymore, it’s in/Android/media/whatsapp/WhatsApp/Medianow. You can safely delete them all, though media files will no longer be accessible in your message history, as WhatsApp has literally no way to keep that stuff around without monolithically saving all of it on your device, locally, forever.Instagram saves content to a couple folders, all in easy to find places like root, Movies, DCIM and Pictures.
As for Instagram app data, you can clear that from app settings.
Most can be cleaned by going into Settings, Apps, Whatsapp, Storage and clicking delete cache. permanently saved ones may be more problematic
No. It’s not deleted with the cache. It’s like everything is saved in a separate folder.
Yeah for that it is launch files app, choose device, android, data, app/com/org folder, then there will be a files subfolder. which is often split into pictures, audio, movies, etc.
it’s a deep dive for sure
A given program having a default save location is true on any platform. The “My Documents” folder on windows is used for anything but. So many applications throw files in there it’s basically useless.
With Android, application files are kept in application specific locations, while user files basically always end up in Download or Pictures, sometimes, rarely, Documents. DCIM for system camera photos.
If you need to clear an applications files, that can be done via that apps page in settings.
The only difference I can see is that on phones, default file system behaviour is designed so that it gets out of most people’s way, while those of us who know how it works can still use a file explorer app just fine.
While normies rely on the default file picker showing a monolithic list of what’s on their phones in chronological order, we don’t have to. When that thing appears, you can find any file management apps installed from the hamburger menu, and find your files using them instead.
Never had the problem, strange. Using Total Commander as file manager, just don’t use the stupid ones, I guess, idk.
MiXplorer, Solid Explorer or Material Files
(in order of power user needs + features -----> ease of use)
MiXplorer on XDA is king.
Isnt that the fault of some apps which doesn’t show where the file is? Or does android itself doesnt show it when you save it using system app??
This is going off my memory of an explanation I read a while ago, so I could be off on the fine details, but I believe it’s one of those things that devs do indeed have the option to do, the vast majority are just lazy as shit (I’m well aware this is likely a management decision, not he individual devs themselves in most cases) and don’t want to add anything that wouldn’t be useful on both android and ios
That’s a helluva run-on sentence but I’m too lazy to fix it.
I find the Files app (from Google) helps me manage what files I have where on my phone. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.nbu.files
As far as I know Files was preinstalled on my Moto G phone.
It’s so bad that it even can’t remember file sorting options.
I recommend Material Files from f-droid, it seems more barebones, but is superior in terms of functionality, especially for power-users and rooted devices (also available in the Play Store)
I know! It’s saved in [DEFAULT FOLDER]
I’m not sure where things are on any device other than desktops tbh
You can usually see this as a notification - and tapping on that notification should open the file, wherever it is. As for the specific location, I’d expect it to be
/storage/emulated/0/Downloadmost of the times.It’s pretty relatable. A lot of apps like to use their own folders, like my lemmy app.
If I download files from my banking app they get saved to root (sdcard), most others save to my Download folder. Then there is DCIM where I have photos, but Telegram does not care, for Signal I have to export each file to the file system seperately.The worst thing though is that the files in Downloads/ are ordered A-Z by default. No idea if this is a LineageOS thing, but it drives me crazy.
for Signal I have to export each file to the file system seperately
To be fair, files being isolated inside of Signal is the whole point
And it’s a good thing too!
