• JoJoGAH
    16•2 years ago

    Some forced Google bloat ware snatched it and ran

  • @[email protected]
    144•2 years ago

    Android’s file structure is so incomprehensible. I’m genuinely surprised there hasn’t been any significant effort made to make it more readable. Pictures saved in app directories, downloads, camera, images, pictures, media, DCIM???.

    • @[email protected]
      103•2 years ago

      I’m genuinely surprised there hasn’t been any significant effort made to make it more readable.

      Quite the opposite. They’ve tried to make it better, and in turn, they’ve made it worse.

      They used to have a pretty straightforward Linux file structure, and you were expected to put things in the external Pictures folder. And downloads went to the external Downloads folder. Back then, internal storage was small and SDs were large, so apps couldn’t really afford to store these things locally and the SD structure was well enough defined that it was pretty clear where pictures would go.

      Now, Google has pushed against SD cards. They also started requiring more permissions for external storage. They’ve added some “documents” APIs that were supposed to make it easier to tag/find files, but it’s a tangled mess and most apps don’t touch it. And they’ve rewritten their storage model multiple times at this point. If you’re writing a new app, it’s unclear which model to even follow anymore because Google has created a giant cluster fuck of options and paradigms.

      Google is actively making this problem worse and worse. I wish they had never tried to “fix” this in the first place.

    • stebo
      35•2 years ago

      Tbh it doesn’t really matter since your gallery shows all of them in one place.

      That is until you want to transfer your pictures to a pc…

    • @[email protected]
      62•2 years ago

      Open source developer and Linux enthusiast here. Although cluttered, Android’s home directory is fairly simple to understand

      The nightmare begins when you take a look at the root filesystem.

      One time I was trying to port an OS to my phone and I had to figure out the Android init system. Went to source.android.com and what. the. fuck. Just as a side-by-side comparison:

      Linux boot sequence: Android boot sequence (unmodded, SIMPLE):

      There are so many wrong things about it like why are there 11, 12 places to put programs (/system/bin, /bin, /usr/bin /system/usr/bin, /sbin, /system/usr/share/bin…)

      Why the fuck drivers are scattered around folders instead of just /lib/modules

      Why is the home directory /storage/emulated/0/ instead of just /home/0/ (also why the user is named “0”)

      Where the fuck is everything???

      God (Linus Torvalds) forgive me but even Windows is better than that shit

        • callyral
          11•2 years ago

          It’s a graph, showing a red oval with the text “Linux Kernel”, an arrow points from the red oval to a light-green oval titled “Init”.

          “Linux Kernel” --→ “Init”

      • kopper [they/them]
        30•2 years ago

        i wonder if that graphic is up to date with system as root and A/B dynamic partitioning and whatever crazy new bullshit google invents with every release

        • @[email protected]
          25•2 years ago

          I raise you all of these monstrosities:

          • Phones launching with Android 13 without a dedicated partition for recovery mode

          Phones launching with Android 13 without a dedicated partition for recovery mode

          • Phones launching with Android 13 with two dedicated partitions for recovery mode (two because of A/B partitioning scheme)

          Phones launching with Android 13 with a two dedicated partitions for recovery mode

          • Phones launching with Android 13 with one dedicated partition for recovery mode (only one because A/B partitioning scheme is not used)

          Phones launching with Android 13 with one dedicated partition for recovery mode

          • Phones that launch with or upgrade to Android 12, that use a generic kernel image, without a dedicated partition for recovery mode

          Phones that launch with or upgrade to Android 12, that use a generic kernel image, without a dedicated partition for recovery mode

          • Phones that launch with or upgrade to Android 12, that use a generic kernel image, with two dedicated partitions for recovery mode (A/B partitioning scheme)

          Phones that launch with or upgrade to Android 12, that use a generic kernel image, with two dedicated partitions for recovery mode

          • Phones that launch with or upgrade to Android 12, that use a generic kernel image, with one dedicated partition for recovery mode (non-A/B partitioning scheme)

          Phones that launch with or upgrade to Android 12, that use a generic kernel image, with one dedicated partition for recovery mode

          • Phones that upgrade to Android 12, that does not use a generic kernel image, with no dedicated partition for recovery mode

          Phones that launch with or upgrade to Android 12, that does not use a generic kernel image, with no dedicated partition for recovery mode

          • Phones that upgrade to Android 12, that does not use a generic kernel image, with dedicated partition(s) for recovery mode

          Phones that upgrade to Android 12, that does not use a generic kernel image, with dedicated partition(s) for recovery mode

          In Android’s defense however, a phone would likely use only one of these layouts at a time. The question of which of these layouts does a said phone uses though, that’s a more complicated question.

  • SamXavia
    15•2 years ago

    Still can’t find 90% of the images i’ve downloaded, probably will factory reset my phone and them to still take up space.

    • @[email protected]
      54•2 years ago

      Ah see, the problem is you were looking in /sdcard0/ which of course, refers to your internal storage and not your SD card which is probably called /0xgg0gdjdsjgg/ or something.

  • @[email protected]
    1•1 year ago

    Can one of many the actually-tech-competent humans in the comments please explain why i can never download a pdf of an online recipe unless i send it to myself through a messaging app from my laptop 😭 😭 😭

  • @[email protected]
    13•2 years ago

    Credit where it’s due, iOS / iPadOS’s Files app is really good. I use both iOS and Android on the daily and I prefer working with files on my Apple devices.

      • @[email protected]
        3•2 years ago

        Matter of getting used to how it works I suppose? My iPad Pro is my main work machine right now. I have no issues handling files.

        • @[email protected]
          2•2 years ago

          Could be, also this is officially my wife’s so I haven’t used it all that much… She’s also an android user so still getting used to it too…

      • @[email protected]English
        5•2 years ago

        Yeah, I can see that. I got through college with only an iPad for the Math degree, and the most common issue I see there’s two locations in the Files app: iCloud and Local Storage. Once you get comfortable you can start mounting a tiny version of Linux running onto the file system and then it gets REALLY fun :)

        Any question just ask!

      • @[email protected]
        3•2 years ago

        What really grinds my gears is that metadata on pictures you have in iCloud gets stripped when downloading to Windows. I take pictures of stuff for work and label them to know what the hell I’m looking at, but the descriptions disappear on file transfer.

        So I gotta either:

        • Re-add in the description in the metadata

        • Label something else, like a sheet of paper or something and put it in the frame

        • Manually name each individual file after transfer, which is just as laborious as adding back in the metadata.

      • @[email protected]English
        6•2 years ago

        I have no issues on Linux 🤷

        That being said, the most reliable method of getting arbitrary file off the iPhone onto the machine is to store it in VLC’s (or some other app that has folder access enabled) app folder.

    • luna
      18•2 years ago

      The iOS Files app only lets you access a tiny part of the OS so you don’t accidentally install a non-Apple approved app or god forbid, modify something on a device you own 🥴

  • @[email protected]
    18•2 years ago

    Please someone tell me why androids filesystem structure is so damn confusing, I’ve wondered this forever but have never looked it up

    • @[email protected]
      14•2 years ago

      I have spent weeks setting up LineageOs for my unsupported phone and I think I understood it.

      • So /storage/emulated/0 is practically your home directory, all folders you can easily change are there.
      • I don’t understand these memes, everything gets saved to /Downloads. The default file explorer is just crap. I use amaze
      • the only really weird directory is the camera, it is saved in DCIM
      • If you care about app specific app data go to /Android/data (for me its like the .config directory)
      • @[email protected]
        4•2 years ago

        I’m just guessing here, but if I recall correctly, android was started as an OS for digital cameras. So saving camera files to DCIM (Digital Camera Images) makes sense as that is standard to most other cameras

    • @[email protected]
      3•2 years ago

      Well usually you had your Download folder like in pc. Now every app has its own secured workspace where only it can access it’s files. If you want to download to the original download folder your app needs full storage access. And since people don’t know how to code they download into the secure app storage often.

      So now your download is in Android/media/domain.app.name/Download

      Great, isn’t it.