• @[email protected]
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    10 months ago

    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!

    • @[email protected]
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      6110 months ago

      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.

      • @GlendatheGayWitch
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        610 months ago

        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.

        • @[email protected]
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          10 months ago

          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.

      • @Resonosity
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        110 months ago

        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.

          • @[email protected]
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            10 months ago

            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…

            • Album
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              1510 months ago

              You’ll need to turn off “ask where to save files” in chrome download settings.

              • @[email protected]
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                10 months ago

                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…

              • @[email protected]
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                410 months ago

                Yeah someone told me it’s the only option in the download settings that needed to be deactivated

            • @Zess
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              -110 months ago

              What is that like android 6

    • stebo
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      2710 months ago

      you guys don’t simply have a folder called “Downloads” where everything goes?

      • kase
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        10 months ago

        I have a Downloads folder where some things go. :(

      • @[email protected]
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        10 months ago

        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!

      • @Delta_V
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        10 months ago

        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.

        • @[email protected]
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          10 months ago

          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

      • @Squizzy
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        410 months ago

        Everything does not go there, different file types seem to go to different places. Successful downloads don’t ever appear sometimes.

          • @Squizzy
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            210 months ago

            Do I press download differently? There shouldn’t be skill in the default download location.

            • stebo
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              210 months ago

              yes you gotta press it on the right spot…

        • @[email protected]
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          310 months ago

          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.

        • @[email protected]
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          010 months ago

          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.

      • @[email protected]
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        10 months ago

        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/ and external to /sdcard1 /sdcard2 /otg, @google?

    • @[email protected]
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      910 months ago

      Annoys me every time. But as I remember you could click on the file and open it on older android systems.

    • enkers
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      10 months ago

      Not always, though. Some apps save images to /Pictures, and in there, some of them make their own folder. It really is kinda half baked.

      • @clearleaf
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        1610 months ago

        Sometimes it’s their own folder in their own sandboxed app directory. A lot of apps do that now to avoid permissions issues. Like the GBA emulator I use no longer puts game saves in the user’s root directory so you can’t even see them without a USB connection to a PC, and even if you do that it’s extreme obfuscated.

        • @[email protected]
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          410 months ago

          If you refer to pizza boy, the dev told me by email that there’s an option to save somewhere else (I sent an email complaining that hiding saves in /android/data/com.app.blabla is stupid (can only be accessed via USB and it gets wiped when you uninstall the app), at least use /android/media/com.app.blabla

        • @[email protected]
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          310 months ago

          Ok the first bit I can kinda understand, but obfuscating them? Now that has to be intentional

      • stebo
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        10 months ago

        if it’s images you’re looking for, have you checked your gallery? if an app saves an image in a way it doesn’t show up in your gallery, get a better app cuz that one sucks

    • @dadGPT
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      1210 months ago

      where exactly is the downloads folder?

      • KptnAutismus
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        2410 months ago

        /storage/emulated/0/Download

        that’s what total commander told me

          • @[email protected]
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            310 months ago

            Well /storage/emulated/0/ seems to be sort of like a home folder, so it is quite convenient

            • @AnUnusualRelic
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              310 months ago

              It’s the kind of /home you have when you don’t want people to stumble upon it… The kind of place you archive your “homework” in.

        • @50_centavos
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          210 months ago

          Who is this commander and why is he is fucking around with my downloads?

        • Joe Cool
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          110 months ago

          Total Commander is a godsend. I don’t know how people use Windows or Android without it.

        • @[email protected]
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          110 months ago

          We conveniently place that stuff in /home/$USER in Unix-likes. Even have standards to re-define Downloads & co. path.

          Guess Google wanted the share-to-app and share-to-cloud like Apple, but rven there users sometimes like s file manager.

        • @[email protected]
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          310 months ago

          Like the fictional village of Germelshausen, it only appears for a single day every 100 years.

        • @ummthatguy
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          3210 months ago

          The files are in the computer?

      • MentalEdge
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        210 months ago

        On Android it’s in the root folder. So basically if you just open any file explorer app, it should be on the first screen. The equivalent to the “C” drive or “My Computer” on Windows.

      • @[email protected]
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        110 months ago

        File manager --> Local storage (usually accessible through some hamburger or three dot menu) --> Emulated --> Downloads (usually in the root of the emulated storage)

    • @[email protected]
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      10 months ago

      Ever since like android 11 nothing saves in my download folder anymore on the SD card I have inserted.

      Everything gets saved deep in the android subdirectory, and then somewhere in a folder named loosely after the app that downloaded it, where the app has made ANOTHER folder to put the file.

      And then you can’t even move it with a third party folder app. It’s gotten so annoying lately I’d swear they just want to kill the SD card from android completely.

      • @[email protected]
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        410 months ago

        On my Android 13 device browsers save in sd card/Android/data/com.my.browser. This folder can only be accessed on the default, hidden file manager or on a PC. Not even read-only access, but straight up nothing. At this point I just don’t bother directly downloading to my sd card anymore, I just download to internal storage and move it all to sd card/Downloads every so often

      • @[email protected]
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        2910 months ago

        There’s literally a thing you can click on called, get this…

        FILES

        It’s where all of the files on the device live, at least non-photo/video files.

        • @papalonian
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          1410 months ago

          I had an iPhone back when the 3Gs was the newest phone, then an iPod touch 4g after that. None of them had a file explorer while my android phone from the time did. I didn’t know they had added one until recently when I saw it on my roommate’s phone. So they probably didn’t know iOS had one

          • @[email protected]
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            1210 months ago

            You’re referring to some ancient history at this point. iPhones may look like they always have, but they’ve come a long way over the years.

            • @papalonian
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              510 months ago

              Yeah, I understand. It does make sense if you think about the demographic that usually uses iPhones vs Androids, I’d be willing to bet 80% of iPhones/iPods (do they even still make the iPod touch?) have only ever opened that app mistakenly haha.

              Not trying to start a flame war or anything, just most iPhone users I know would pretty much never need to use the file explorer.

              • Sjmarf
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                110 months ago

                Yeah, the average iPhone user probably doesn’t use Files at all. Photos stores all of your photos and videos, so it’s really just PDFs that go in there for me. And a lot people don’t ever download PDFs anyways, since you can view them directly in a browser.

                • @[email protected]
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                  010 months ago

                  That isn’t a negative though. You’re saying that it auto sorts downloaded content well enough that the user doesn’t even have to be aware of how to access the file manager to still use the phone effectively. That isn’t a flaw, it’s a feature.

                  For anyone who does have a baseline level of proficiency, the file manager is functional, and familiar. I use it to pass torrents to my server all the time.

                  With a terminal and a file manager on iOS, I don’t run into a single thing I need to do that I can’t.

        • @[email protected]
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          410 months ago

          Actually…android has the exact same app name. “Files” but I guess it’s real name if you want to make sure you’re getting the right one is “Files by Google”

          For android, it seems to be the best one for finding recent stuff and navigating around. Like any newly downloaded or modified thing saved to the phone shows up under a “recently” section in Files, so it works out well for dealing with such a screwball android filing system.

          • @[email protected]
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            510 months ago

            That’s fair, but not relevant to what I was responding to hahaha

            Also I don’t want anything by google, personally. I don’t use any google products or services.

            • @[email protected]
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              010 months ago

              I like being able to hold my phone however I want without losing a connection and not having updates pushed to me that degrade my performance to hide battery and power design flaws, myself ;-)

              • @[email protected]
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                110 months ago

                That’s pretty ignorant also. All phones throttle your power when your battery is old, so instead of just dying at 30% (like old android phones used to), you get a slow drain to under 5% before it dies.

                It’s not a “power design” or battery flaw, it’s literal fucking physics lawl

                • @[email protected]
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                  -210 months ago

                  No they don’t. You’re also an idiot, and Apple actually got in a huge amount of trouble for doing it.

        • @Bytemeister
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          210 months ago

          Nobody came here for answers, they came here for problems that they don’t care to understand!

          Now get lost like my restaraunt menus!

    • @[email protected]
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      310 months ago

      If anyone wants an actual answer: iPhone has an option to “Save to Files” that lets you select a folder to save to just like on a desktop OS. I’ve personally never lost a file when I do this.

  • @datelmd5sum
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    This is turning a generation of people tech illiterate. The young people I interact with are smart because they’re all employed by a tech company and mentored by us dinosaurs, but I’ve heard some horror stories of the tech literacy of the average young person.

    Touchscreen was a mistake.

    • @DillyDaily
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      6210 months ago

      I’m an IT teacher at a community centre, I genuinely never thought I would see the day when a student younger than me enrolled. I wrongly assumed my role as a public educator would just fade out as younger generations required generally less training around computers.

      Obviously courses in disability service centres would remain, and accredited training for people to kick off or retarget their careers would still exist.

      But the person at the local library who meets twice a week and teaches grandma how to close the tabs on her phone felt like a job that was destined to die.

      I’m in my 30s and this year I have a few teenagers in my class. The conversations are hilarious, they don’t know how to read a file location adreess or open a program that isn’t pinned to the taskbar, but at the same time, I don’t know how to access the notifications bar on an iPhone or quickly find the wifi settings without going through general settings…because I went from windows to 98, to a blackberry, to an Android, just like they went from an ipad toddler to an iPhone teen, and only now are they having Windows 11 thrown at them, and of all the computers to try and learn to use, this wouldn’t be my first recommendation (but it’s what our government funds us to teach 🤷‍♀️)

      The skill divide is so hard to explain too. My elderly students just stare blankly at one screen, overwhelmed and confused, unsure how to recognise anything. Nothing stands out as a link, or a click able button, because the entire visual landscape is new to them. There is often a lot of hand holding which can be frustrating especially when you made a huge breakthrough in their confidence and independence only to have come in the next week feeling insecure about their skills because they’ve forgotten a little bit, or had a bad spam caller over the weekend who made them want to never touch a computer again.

      Then the teens, who know what links look like and generally what they do will rush ahead, they may not know what it is exactly they’re trying to do, but they think they know what end result is expected and they generally know how to avoid catastrophic issues so they just barrel ahead, I’ll see them make 40 clicks a second for something that usually takes 2, because they’re throwing spaghetti at the wall.

      I had a project last week. Dead simple. Save a linked file to a target location, import the file into another program through either drag and drop or browsing for the file, then change 1 thing, and export the final file into another target location, as specified on the activity sheet.

      Barely 5 minutes in, I’m still helping Brenda get her mouse dongle plugged in, and one of the teens is finished. And yes, they have every file I asked for, and every edit I asked for, but both are just sitting in the downloads folder. And now we’re at the end looking back, the teen is confused because they have the edited file that is required to "finish*, how is it wrong, and I’m trying to explain why skipping the steps about target locations means they’ll have to start again because this activity is all about target locations and I don’t actually give two shits about this file I just need them to put things in and out of a folder until they can explain to me “a folder is a container” and not just stare into space because a folder is a black hole on their phone things they save go to until they need them again and just download them again.

      • eatham 🇭🇲
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        1610 months ago

        Stuff like that are infuriating. I’m in high school and there’s an animation class.

        The teacher has very clearly told the class about a million times to save the files in OneDrive/2024/Animation/

        People are still saving it in downloads or documents or somewhere else and then saying they forgot where they saved it and did nothing the whole class.

      • @[email protected]
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        I’m a Millenial, and it’s been wild to see how i’m basically near the top of the bell curve when it comes to understanding the basics of using computers. Like you, I thought general computer illiteracy would die with the Boomers… but here we are.

      • @Blue_Morpho
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        Nothing stands out as a link, or a click able button, because the entire visual landscape is new to them.

        That’s because modern UI designers are all about form over function. UI rules were worked out 40 years ago with the first gui’s. But you don’t get a promotion for maintaining code. So everyone has to do something different to get noticed.

        So now we have UI’s where interactive and non interactive elements are mixed without any visual distinction.

    • @[email protected]
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      4210 months ago

      For better or worse, we’re going the way of “the car guy”. It used to be something everyone needed to know a little bit about, but now fades into the background with a handful of experts.

      • @[email protected]
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        1710 months ago

        I’m car guy, IT guy, home maintenance guy, and electronics repair guy.

        I learned how to do everything because I’m a cheap ass that won’t replace what can be fixed and won’t pay to have something be fixed when I can manage it myself.

        I got 240,000 miles on a car right now and it’s never seen the inside of a shop. Last big screen TV was free because it was broken and then I soldered new LEDS on to fix it. Paid $25 for an $800 dishwasher that just needed disassembling and cleaning. Also $25 for a front load whirlpool washing machine with a broken internal lock mechanism that I repaired. Same for a dryer with bad rollers inside.

        People blow way too much money on buying new stuff instead of just learning how to fix and maintain things now. /old man rant

      • @CptEnder
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        1010 months ago

        Damn that’s a good way to put it.

      • @datelmd5sum
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        610 months ago

        As long as the non-experts somehow manage to make a living to pay for our expertise. I heard a coworker vent about her son who wants to drop out of school (assuming elementary / middle) to focus on his streaming career…

      • @[email protected]
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        1110 months ago

        Yup. I teach at a university. It used to be adequate for instructions to say something along the lines of

        open the file C://Folder/anotherfolder/subfolder/document.ext

        I encounter more and more students every year that have no idea how to do this.

    • @AnUnusualRelic
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      1010 months ago

      To be fair, Android is absolutely atrocious whenever files are involved.

          • @datelmd5sum
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            Is there some higher level thing preventing this?

            If I open a terminal on my galaxy s23 I don’t see anything special with file extensions:

            $ echo foo > shit.txt

            $ mv shit.txt shit.mp4

            $ cat shit.mp4

            foo

            • @[email protected]
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              110 months ago

              Don’t need the terminal for that. I can use Google Files to rename a pdf to .txt and it opens in a text editor

              • @datelmd5sum
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                110 months ago

                Don’t need the Google Files for that. I can use the terminal to rename a file.

    • @hperrin
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      Yes, this is much worse than when a bunch of old people were upset when young people didn’t know how to use a telegraph/party line/rotary dial/gramophone/touchtone/turntable/fax/dialup modem/cassette deck/etc. Because now it’s happening now, and back then it was happening then.

      • @[email protected]
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        810 months ago

        The difference is all that stuff went away, traditional desktop computers aren’t going anywhere. Sure, you can probably manage fine at home with just a phone, but not in a lot of jobs.

      • @datelmd5sum
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        710 months ago

        Your phone is measuring time by counting how many seconds has passed since 1970-01-01 00:00 UTC. Doesn’t matter if you’re on android or apple, the OS is based on ideas of Bell Labs people’s ideas from the 1960’s.

  • @hperrin
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    5110 months ago

    It’s either in /sdcard/Downloads or /external/emulated/0/android/data/com.google.chrome/Downloads. Couldn’t be easier.

    • @JustUseMint
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      3010 months ago

      chrome instead of anything besides that

      🤢🤮

    • @[email protected]
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      2110 months ago

      Couldn’t be easier.

      Would certainly be easier if there wasn’t an or in your statement.

      • @hperrin
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        1510 months ago

        Best I can do is three more ors.

    • @[email protected]
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      1310 months ago

      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.

      • @hperrin
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        1510 months ago

        I was being facetious. Yeah, every app saves into a different location. It’s bonkers.

        • Kogasa
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          510 months ago

          Sandboxing is a good thing. It makes it a lot easier and safer for billions of devices to run millions of apps.

          • @somethingp
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            810 months ago

            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?

              • @[email protected]
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                210 months ago

                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).

            • Kogasa
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              310 months ago

              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.

              • @somethingp
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                210 months ago

                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.

                • Kogasa
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                  110 months ago

                  All of that interest is from people making computers,

                  like the people who make phones for other people to use

          • @[email protected]
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            110 months ago

            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.

            • Kogasa
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              110 months ago

              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.

              • @[email protected]
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                010 months ago

                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.

                • Kogasa
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                  210 months ago

                  The people who build the device and software ecosystem you take for granted.

      • bitwolf
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        310 months ago

        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.

    • @lobo
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      710 months ago

      oh yeah? now list paths for all the other applications

      • @hperrin
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        310 months ago

        You have other applications?

  • @BustinJiber
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    4510 months ago

    file - downloads

    me: /storage/emulated/0/Android/data/org.mozilla.firefox/files/Download or /storage/3564-3130/Android/data/org.mozilla.firefox/files/Download here I come!

  • @Heavybell
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    4310 months ago

    Android has ways for app devs to specify where files get saved. App devs just usually don’t give a shit, because they want to write a single lowest common codebase for android and iOS.

    • @[email protected]
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      4810 months ago

      Developers not bothering with Android features because they don’t exist on iOS is both infuriating and gives me IE6 era vibes.

      • @QuaternionsRock
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        10 months ago

        IE6 era vibes

        But… this is a nearly opposite situation, no? Microsoft added a bunch of their own shit with no attempt at standardization, and instead of simply not using those features, a ton of websites started making IE a hard requirement.

  • @Shardikprime
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    3510 months ago

    ITT: people who have no working knowledge of file system navigation complain about the lack of such knowledge

    • KillingTimeItself
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      810 months ago

      honestly it’s not this, is just the fact that android puts so much shit in between you and whatever you’re trying to do.

      The concept of downloading a file is simple, it’s courtesy to tell you where it downloads at the very least. Android doesnt exactly have the most sane of defaults.

      dont get me wrong, im a linux user, im a certified power user, even i can’t stand android.

      • @[email protected]
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        410 months ago

        It’s easier to just redownload the file at points. I think I got like 6 copies of the same utility bill on my mobile because it was easier.

  • @[email protected]
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    3210 months ago

    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.

    • @theangryseal
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      1210 months ago

      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.

  • @[email protected]
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    3110 months ago

    Isn’t the opposite?

    Saving in downloads on Android doesn’t need additional storage permissions, so apps will save in the big “trash can” downloads folder

    Instead, who the fuck knows where iOS saved that file, where every app is sandboxed and isolated

    • @Heavybell
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      1610 months ago

      The worst is when an android app is clearly an iOS port. E.g Patreon app saves all files under a generic name rather than the one you get when saving the same file from a browser, because I guess on iOS it just goes into your camera reel without a filename anyway. Or how Bluesky app just straight up says “saved to your camera reel” and puts it in your DCIM folder, with no option to specify a different location.

      • @aulin
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        310 months ago

        The worst is when an android app is clearly an iOS port.

        This always means there are zero settings. If there’s no way of configuring the app, I find an alternative. There are few things more frustrating than software that assumes one size fits all.

    • Funkytom467
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      910 months ago

      True, the folder is pretty easy to find and always the same.

      Although the big problem is how quickly that folder can get messy.

      Mine is filled with so much pdf files that i never want to sort, sometimes there’s duplicates because i didn’t want to scroll to find the first one so i downloaded it a second time.

      • @kautau
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        1010 months ago

        Yeah lol I love how this commenter is mad about apps being sandboxed. There’s a downloads folder in the files app, or apps can have their own virtual filesystems, also accessible within the files app. Stupid iOS and ensuring that apps can’t just write to wherever they want on the filesystem

        • @[email protected]
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          310 months ago

          To be fair, you can’t write wherever you want on Android, either. For example, you can’t write to most of the files in /Android unless you use one of the many, many exploits to do so since it’s basically a protected system area.

          • @kautau
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            310 months ago

            That’s fair, I was more concerned with someone getting mad at increased security like sandboxing is a bad thing

            • Human Penguin
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              110 months ago

              He was more mad at the app developers for not putting effort into mzking the android port appropriate for android. And the fact that they don’t bother providing common needed functions for android apps. Like configurable settings.

              Im not an expert on either as I tend to be a linux pc developer.

              But user accounts is the way linux handles a program having its own space. Andriod has def made a choice from the begging not to have, and now to limit. The multi user part of linux. Assigning a user and group account to programs. Works great as a way of limiting programs ability to interfere with files of other programs without su access to allow the approval of only assess to those approved.

              So I agree android makes a bad choice to ignore any extra protection.

      • @Katana314
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        410 months ago

        Unfortunately, any save prompt using it often defaults to iCloud shit.

  • @[email protected]
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    2110 months ago

    First android I ever had was a Galaxy S2. Goddammit that phone was so nice. I even bought a 2nd one when the first one died. But android file trees are way easier to navigate than iOS.

    • @Osito
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      1110 months ago

      There’s a app called files that takes you to your saved storage, it’s not even difficult

      • @optissima
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        810 months ago

        And Fossify File Manager if you don’t want to deal with Google.

        • @Mahonia
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          610 months ago

          If you’re using a stock android device, the OS on your phone still has permissions to read and write to storage, by necessity. If what you’re concerned about is privacy, you have very limited ability to set storage scopes if you don’t trust the OS, and this doesn’t really change if you install an app.

          If you’re using fossify file manager or any other file manager, you’ve given that app+the default Files app access to your storage. This is not more private. Most of those similar apps are essentially just skins on top of the default manager (which I suppose could be useful). This only really adds attack surface and doesn’t have any meaningful privacy benefits, and potentially some detractors depending on the app you use.

          If you don’t trust the operating system and its utilities, the best option is to find an operating system you trust, and not to just install new skins on top of existing apps.

          • @[email protected]
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            210 months ago

            You probably can disable google files on most phones(and similiar google apps, even though not completely)

          • @optissima
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            210 months ago

            No I was alluding to the fact that google files layout I find difficult to work with.

  • MentalEdge
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    10 months ago

    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.

    • @gibmiser
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      2510 months ago

      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.

      • Cyborganism
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        810 months ago

        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.

        • MentalEdge
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          10 months ago

          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/Media now. 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.

        • @[email protected]
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          010 months ago

          Most can be cleaned by going into Settings, Apps, Whatsapp, Storage and clicking delete cache. permanently saved ones may be more problematic

          • Cyborganism
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            210 months ago

            No. It’s not deleted with the cache. It’s like everything is saved in a separate folder.

            • @[email protected]
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              110 months ago

              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

      • MentalEdge
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        10 months ago

        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.

      • @[email protected]
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        410 months ago

        Sorta makes sense.

        It’s like my generation not knowing how to fix cars because our fathers all did it.

      • KptnAutismus
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        110 months ago

        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.

    • @[email protected]
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      210 months ago

      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.

      • KptnAutismus
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        410 months ago

        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.

        • FiveMacs
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          410 months ago

          Don’t use someone else’s computer any cloud services…easy.

        • @[email protected]
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          310 months ago

          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.

    • @clearleaf
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      110 months ago

      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?