Users are angry that Chrome scans files on the local drive. Downloads require access to device memory in Xiaomi what to do Chrome requires access to storage

Somewhere deep in the chest of your Android phone lies a storage device. It looks like HDD on the computer: the thing cannot be deleted, but that's not the point. The thing is, the storage is used for your apps, music, videos, pictures and a lot of other information. Here are a few things you can do to manage this storage.

Android phones come with internal storage of 8GB, 16GB, 32GB or more.

Removable storage in the form of a MicroSD card is available on some phones, although this option is becoming less popular. MicroSD card capacities range from 8GB to 64GB or higher.

GB is gigabyte, or 1 billion bytes (characters) of storage. A typical 2-hour movie takes up about 4 GB of memory. Most things you store on your phone don't take up that much space. In fact, media stored in the cloud has virtually no storage space.

View storage statistics

To find out how much free space is available on your phone, follow these steps:

Select Storage.

On Samsung phones You'll find the Storage item in the General tab of the Settings app.

A typical data storage screen contains information about the storage location on internal memory phone and, if available, on a MicroSD card.

Phone storage information.

If your phone has external storage, find the SD card category at the bottom of the storage screen.

Tap a category on the storage screen to view information about how storage is being used or to launch the associated application. For example, click "Applications" to view a list running applications. If you click "Images", "Videos", you can view images and videos.

Videos, music, and photos (in that order) consume the most space on your phone.

Media you download to your phone from the Google cloud, such as movies or videos, is tracked under the Apps category.

Don't cry for the Total Space value to be much less than the phone's storage capacity. For example, a 16GB phone only shows 12.55GB. The missing space is considered overhead, as are the few gigabytes taken by the government for tax purposes.

File management

You probably didn't get an Android phone because you loved managing files on your computer and wanted another gizmo to sharpen your skills. However, you can practice the same type of file manipulation on your phone as you would on a computer. Is it necessary to do this? Of course not! But if you want to infect files, you can.

On some Android phones there is an application for managing files. It is called "My Files" or "File Manager" and it is the traditional type file manager, which means that if you don't manage files on your computer, you'll experience the same pain and frustration on your phone.

If you just want to view files you've downloaded from the Internet, open the Downloads app found in your app drawer.

If your phone lacks a file management app, you can get one quickly. IN Google Play There are many file management apps available in the Store. Metago's ASTRO file manager/browser is a good option.

Disabling a MicroSD card

MicroSD card provides removable storage on multiple Android phones. When the phone is turned off, you can insert or delete microSD card at your own discretion. The MicroSD card can also be removed while the phone is on, but you must unplug the card first. Follow these steps:

Open the Settings app.

Select "Storage".

On some Samsung phones, open the General tab to find the Storage item.

Select "Disable SD Card".

This element is located at the bottom of the screen. Otherwise, your phone does not have the option to accommodate a removable MicroSD card.

Ignore the warning and click OK.

When you see the Mount SD Card action, you can remove the MicroSD card.

It is important that you follow these steps to safely remove your MicroSD card. If you don't do this and you simply pull the card out, it may damage the card and lose information.

You can insert a MicroSD card at any time.

Formatting MicroSD memory

Your Android phone is designed to instantly recognize the MicroSD card when you insert it. If it doesn't, you can try formatting the card to see if that fixes the problem.

All data on the MicroSD card is erased by the formatting process.

To format a MicroSD card, first insert it into your phone. Then follow these steps to determine if the format is in order:

Open the Settings app.

Select Storage.

Select SD card format.

Click the Format SD card button.

Click the "Delete All" button to confirm.

The MicroSD card is unmounted, formatted, and then remounted and ready to use.

Once the card is formatted, you can use it to store information, music, apps, photos, etc.

Do you have a question, why downloads on Xiaomi require access to the device memory, and what to do in this case? For independent decision we present problems step by step guide with pictures.

The restriction on access to phone memory for most applications was noticed by many users Xiaomi smartphones, as well as owners of devices under Android control. After all, before the first launch of any downloaded application from Play Market, the system requests access to the device’s memory, location, calls, and more. Previously, each application automatically received permission to manage data, and the user could know about the requirements of the programs only from their descriptions in the Play Market. Now the device owner can add restrictions independently.

Important: Many programs ask for permission to track your location. This not only compromises privacy, but also negatively impacts energy consumption. After all, the smartphone will be forced to constantly access GPS or increase the load on the network in order to calculate the coordinates.

The error itself occurs because the application has not been granted permission to access memory. Accordingly, without this, the “Downloads” program cannot work, which is what Xiaomi smartphone owners are notified about. The error may also be caused by third party browsers, which contain prohibitions on some points.

How to fix

The solution is very simple and does not require special knowledge. The culprits are the browsers used, as well as the “Downloads” application; in some smartphones of this brand it is called “Downloads”. You need to check the settings of both applications and set them correctly.

Browser check

Check your browser functionality. If it opens without any warnings, then you need to take other steps:

1. Enter device settings. In order not to look for the corresponding icon in the menu, you need to slide the top curtain down and click on the gear icon.
2. Go to the “All applications” item.
3. In the list, find the browser from which you plan to download. For convenience, you can use the search by name and click on it.
4. After opening, you will need to enter the “Application Permissions” section.
5. In them, in order for the download to begin, you need to allow access to memory. To do this, move the slider in the “Memory” column.
6. Next, you need to press the “Back” button on the device body, return to the previous item and open the “Memory” line.
7. In it, click on “Erase data” and “Clear cache”.
8. Again, go back a step and go to the “Traffic” item.
9. In it, move the slider to the right in all points.

Note: “Background traffic” can be disabled (do not move the slider to the right). In this case, the application will not be able to connect to the Internet when it is not in use. Because of this, it will stop sending notifications.

However, there are programs that can waste up to 300 MB of traffic in 2 weeks during idle periods (games are especially guilty of this). And thereby significantly reduce the volumes provided by operators cellular communications. Therefore, you need to check your consumption and deny background Internet access to such programs (consumption in the background is displayed opposite the “Background traffic” item).

Checking downloads

The algorithm of actions is identical. You need to repeat everything described above, but for the “Downloads” application (or “Downloads” for more earlier versions smartphones). However, here the use of background traffic must be allowed. Since during idle time megabytes are practically not used. Denying this may cause an error, so it is not recommended to disable background traffic consumption in this situation.

The described steps will help to completely eliminate the occurrence of errors. By doing everything exactly, you will prevent the “Downloads require access to device memory” error from appearing on Xiaomi of all models and will be able to start downloading any files.

When you install an app from Google Play on a device running Android 6.0 and up or on a Chromebook, you control which capabilities or information that app can access-known as permissions. For example, an app might want permission to see your device contacts or location. You can control which permissions an app can access after the app installs on your device.

Tip: To find which version of Android your device uses, open your device"s Settings app. Then, tap SystemAbout phone or About tablet.

When you install an app

When you download apps from the Play Store, some apps will ask for permission to use information before you install. When you download apps that are built for Android 6.0 and up, you can allow or deny permissions once you start using them.

When apps are installed on your device

When an app is installed on your device updates, there may be changes to the permissions for that app.

If you have automatic updates turned on

For apps built for Android 6.0 and up: You won't need to review or accept permission changes for the app to update. The first time you use a feature that uses a new permission, you can allow or deny the use of that data or capability.

For other apps: You won"t need to review or accept permissions you"ve already accepted for an app again. If the app needs access to new permissions groups or permissions in the "Other" group, you"ll be asked to accept the update even if you"ve set up automatic updates.

If you prefer to review each update manually, you can turn off auto-updates with the instructions below.

Turn off auto-updates

If you want to review each update before installing it, you can turn off auto-updates.

Turn off auto-updates for specific apps

Turn off auto-updates for all apps

Turn permissions on or off

You can change the permissions that apps can access in the main Settings app on your device at any time. Keep in mind turning off permissions may cause apps on your device to lose functionality.

Note: If you"re using a work, school, or government Google Account, your administrator may use the Device Policy app to control certain permissions.

See all permissions for each app

For apps installed on your device

For instant apps

See all apps installed on your device that can access particular permissions Check app permissions if an app isn't working

If a feature within an app isn't working as you would expect, try the steps below.

The Sysinternals diagnostic utility showed that the process chrome.exe reads files on local disk.

The nature of the activity of the process makes it clear that chrome.exe It is most likely performing an anti-virus scan. But why does the browser do this kind of work? Some were outraged that Chrome started this without notice - and didn't even ask permission to access the My Documents folder. Nowadays this looks extremely suspicious.

Specialist in information security Kelly Shortridge of SecurityScorecard writes: according to the logs, such browser activity has been noticed since last fall.

Kelly herself found the answer in help center Chrome, which provides a mechanism for removing malicious software using Chrome.

According to the help, to remove viruses from your computer you need to do the following:

1. When Chrome prompts you to remove unnecessary programs, click "Delete". After this, Chrome will eliminate the malicious software or extension, and also return the changed settings.
2. If you are asked to restart your computer, click Restart.

In other words, antivirus already integrated into Chrome browser and working.

“Now I understand why my computer crashes so often in Lately, - writes Kelly. “Before, I googled error codes and received advice to get rid of fraudulent antiviruses, but until now I thought that I didn’t have any... motherfucker.”

Indeed, back in October last year, Google announced upcoming browser updates, including the addition of a basic antivirus Chrome Cleanup Tool for Windows, developed by the antivirus company ESET.

The antivirus works as follows. It looks for malware in the system software, which negatively affects the browser (for example, changes home page and other default settings). It then sends the file's metadata, including some system information, to Google. And then it asks the user for permission to delete the file. The user is asked to refuse sending reports to Google.

Chrome Antivirus seems to work well and is aimed at protecting the user. But Kelly Shortridge's tweets caused quite a stir. Nowadays, amid the Facebook user data leak scandal, such news is truly unpleasant.

“Nobody likes surprises,” says Haroon Meer, founder of cybersecurity consultancy Thinkst. “When people are afraid of Big Brother and the tech giants are going too far... a browser snooping through personal files it has nothing to do with is sure to raise alarm bells.”

Naturally, after the hype Google I had to make excuses. The head of the security department played the role of “devil’s advocate” Google Chrome Justin Schuh. He

I really want to access the files in Android system. I am able to read files and directories in android external storage. My questions:

1. How can I access internal storage directories and files (especially for videos, pics all apps that run in android).
2. Where is the data of each application that is installed on the internal storage stored?
3. Is it possible to transfer data that exists in internal storage (from internal memory to external storage?
4. I read that external storage is world readable? what does it mean? (if you create an application, then this application can access all files installed in external storage?)

2 answers

By default, an application cannot access data stored in another application. Permissions apply to internal storage that make data written by an application inaccessible outside of that application (your application cannot read anything written by another application). This can be changed where the application can specify different permissions for OWN data; Basically, the application can allow others to read its data. However, unless an app specifically sets its permissions to allow this, other apps cannot access its data. This is a fundamental principle of Android's security/isolation model and is executed at the Linux/kernel level, as each application runs under its own Linux UID and permissions are set on the file system allowing that UID access to the application's directory structure (group and world permissions set to 0 default).

All of this goes out the window if you have root access on the device (built-in phone and the app works with root rights), but we have to consider that is out of scope for your question.

External storage (SD card) is different in that it is considered free for everyone and permissions do not apply there (this is originally due to file system, usually used in SD, which does not support resolutions). Any app can usually read anything written to the SD card by any other app, unless the original app does something to protect it (encryption, etc.).