Spyke
lemmy.world

Meanwhile Windows; Hi, you saved a file earlier? Let's search for it. Nope, can't find it, do you want to search Bing? No? [A few minutes later] Ooo, so sorry you're offline and can't download it. Too bad.

Ios; you want to open the file in an app? OK, click 7 buttons and we'll make a local copy stored in the app's specific folder you didn't know existed.

Chrome; what's a file?

Linux; which file browser would you like to use today?

153
jballsreply
sh.itjust.works

Windows is more like, oh that file you saved earlier? Yeah we moved that to OneDrive. You want it back? Sorry didn't pay your OneDrive subscription fee, so you don't actually have that file anymore. Hope it wasn't something irreplaceable like your kid's baby photos or anything lol.

46
lemmy.dbzer0.com

I use Windows and have never encountered what you are describing.

none of my files have ever been 'moved' to OneDrive and none of my files that are on OneDrive have ever been locked behind a paywall.

35

If you save some files on the desktop or documents, and OneDrive activates it's backups later, it will forcefully move your files to the cloud.

And if you're not a paying customer and have gigabytes of data, it will shit itself midway to bark at you to pay up because your free 5Gb is up.

Now, a normal, regarded dumbass (the target audience) would just pay the tax, but if you have an IQ above that of average coral reef you can take your data back by quitting onedrive, copying everything back, and disabling onedrive backup.

11

Well we all know OneDrive cost money but like you get 5 or 10GB free, and even then if you go over I'm 99% sure those files just stay on your PC.

But the moving files thing feels real. I remember testing out Fedora one time with a classmate who was trying to convince me to switch, and for some reason, even though I direct all downloads to the download folder, it was in my OneDrive somehow. So when my VM tried installing the iso, it was taking a million years to pull it from OneDrive.

Similarly, I didn't realize my Documents folder was backed up on the Cloud, so I had to find the dumbass settings to turn off backups for documents and other shit besides pictures. This is one of those moments where I understand why Linux users love a CLI, because Microsoft's menus are stupid to navigate sometimes.

The worst offender that I never managed to figure out was my ShareX files. It would save locally, but then switch to OneDrive for no reason, so my config and shortcuts would be lost, and the auto backups would also be lost. I fought with that thing for months, and only gave up cause I moved to Fedora Silverblue, in which Linux unfortunately has no app that is nearly as good as ShareX.

6
chunesreply
lemmy.world

I often see people saying stuff like this that I never run into. I wonder if the difference is whether your OS is tied to a Microsoft account or not. I used an exploit to bypass the account requirement when I set up Windows 11.

3

You are just making shit up 🤣

Just pathetic stuff, missing up stories to simp for an OS.

-2
epicstovereply
lemmy.ca

Linux:

ls

cd directory

ls

cd directory2

ls

cd directory3 ...

18
Honytawkreply
lemmy.zip

Funni, cause the comment below from AstralPath and lightnsfw tells a different story

1
lemmy.world

Use a system indexer like Listary or Everything and you never have to worry about finding a file ever again, just type its name and it'll be the first result

1
lemmy.ca

I really do wish that more packages on Linux had installation paths clearly noted in a readme.

I've been using Linux daily for over a year now and I still have a hard time tracking down config files and install paths. Its just not one of those tasks I do regularly so I always forget best practices when trying to find stuff. The CLI always gives me the best results but getting the commands right can be tedious.

I've started saving useful commands in a note on my desktop.

73

i just give up after a couple of minutes if it isn’t somewhere obvious and then search my whole system with grep lmao.

how wonderful to live in a world where compute is so cheap.

41
ms.lanereply
lemmy.world

Which readme?

The one on the github that has out of date instructions and tells you to check the discord?

The 6 year out-of-date one on your distro's wiki?

or The gnu-info/manpage that is only for the original upstream and doesn't tell you where all the files have been moved or that half of the software isn't actually installed since it was split out into extra packages for justdebianthings

23
Tetsuoreply
jlai.lu

Do I really need to remind this is free software made by benevolent developers? I get it it's infuriating but it's still in some way a gift you were given and seem unhappy with.

-4
lemmy.dbzer0.com

If you give me a 1000 piece puzzle for free, but without the instructions or a box picture to go off of, you've done a nice thing by gifting me something but have also failed miserably as I'll never fuckin solve that puzzle

4

I’m not gonna say “most” but plenty of people prefer to do puzzles without looking at the box picture. It’s part of the challenge.

Alternatively “lol you can’t figure out how to solve a puzzle without looking at the solution? lol dumbass”

It’s a terrible analogy anyway because software is not analogous to a puzzle.

1
Tetsuoreply
jlai.lu

Terrible analogy honestly. Feel free to not use this software, nobody will ever force you to use it.

This is not software to entertain you. It's a tool that you don't understand how to use and choose to blame the people building it for free.

1
lemmy.dbzer0.com

It's a tool that you don't understand how to use and choose to blame the people building it for free failing to properly document their tool.

Ftfy

Just because it's provided free doesn't mean you're off the hook for not telling people how it works, dumbass

0
qqqreply
lemmy.world

Why so hostile and the name calling..? They're saying it's a lot of work for oftentimes a single person to do. That's just the truth.

2

You're a fantastic idiot if that's what you actually think. That's not what they're saying nor relevant to the discussion at all

-4

There is a lot of entitlement around free software. People expecting free things, often written in someone's spare time, to be really polished just don't understand I guess. On top of that, good documentation is hard to write and sometimes it's a completely different skill than writing the software itself.

1
sh.itjust.works

dpkg -L package-name

Or the inverse

dpkg -S /usr/bin/somefile

For apt based distros, obviously.

17
lemmy.world

I just tried this with Samba (so dpkg -L samba and dpkg -S samba, and I also tried adding grep "smb.conf" and running it with sudo) and I was unable to find the share config file.

It's located under /etc/samba/smb.conf but that command was returning a path under my local user. This is on Ubuntu

4

You might want to look into the locate package (it might be called mlocate) if you can't find a file. It can be helpful.

2
sh.itjust.works

dpkg -S requires a full path like the example I gave. dpkg -L samba should work fine. What is the error you got?

1
lemmy.world

No error or anything, but it just doesn't have the /etc/samba/smb.conf file. Just doesn't have it.

dpkg -S samba does find /usr/share/samba/smb.conf which isn't the right file either.

1
qqqreply
lemmy.world

This is a good argument for shipping an empty config file.

Your point stands, but this also isn't completely unintuitive. There is pattern there: you installed samba and the config is in /etc/samba/. System level installs will almost always install their config in /etc/ and the sub directory will typically match the name somewhat.

There is likely a general thought that if you're going to administer a samba server, you'll also be comfortable with conventions and man pages. Although, funnily enough, in the particular case of samba, man smb.conf doesn't show the path lol

3
lemmy.world

That's the thing though, when you install Samba it does create an empty config file at \etc\samba\smb.conf, or at least I've never created one

1

I see why it does this now. Debian does

CONFIG=/etc/samba/smb.conf
# stuff
ucf --three-way --debconf-ok /usr/share/samba/smb.conf "$CONFIG"

in the postinit inside the .deb file to create the /etc/samba/smb.conf file. They do it this way so they don't nuke an already created file. I take back that they should be shipping an empty file, this way is better, but it also means you'll never be able to query it without some changes to the packaging tools.

The man page should mention the path though that's a bit lame.

3
sh.itjust.works

You're confusing the command again

 -L, --listfiles package-name...
               List files installed to your system from package-name.
 -S, --search filename-search-pattern...
               Search for a filename from installed packages.

dpkg -S /my/file/path

Finds which, installed, package installed the file.

dpkg -L samba | grep .conf

Greps through the list of files installed by a given package.

If the file you want isn't in there then it wasn't installed by the package itself (could be created on the fly by the binary for example), in which case obviously the package system can't track it.

2
lemmy.world

Oh I see, this command didn't really do what I wanted it to do then. I just wanted to be able to see the locations of any files associated with a program. If I knew the file path I could just find them haha

1

dpkg -L PACKAGE_NAME does what you want. In my initial reply I mentioned that dpkg -S is the inverse.

2

This does not return all "config files and install paths" as it only ever considers files that came in the package, not files created by the package (such as /etc/samba.smb.conf, which is created during installation), so doesn't actually solve the problem.

That limitation should've been made clear in the advice itself so as not to send users that don't know better down dead ends, though the subsequent discussion between this and the previous user is a great illustration of how the way some give Linux "advice" just ends up frustrating those seeking advice.

(It even eventually frustrated me because over the years I've had to teach plenty of junior developers to not give advice like that, only they're seldom so bad that they insist they actually know what the other person wants even in the face of a user providing proof that they do not)

1
Kecessareply
sh.itjust.works

People can say what they want about Windows, having stuff installed in a folder called Program Files with sub folders using the brand/program name is so much simpler than whatever the fuck is going on on Linux.

16
guyreply
lemmy.world

Until an app decides to install in the hidden AppData folder with the confusing sub-folder names, or even the root of the user folder, or god forbid in a folder in the root of the C drive

30
macnielreply
feddit.org

Local, LocalLow, Roaming really are confusing names ngl, but %AppData% isn't really hidden.

17

It's funny because it seems like it's all just familiarity with conventions on both platforms. I've used Linux for around 15 years and I'm completely lost trying to find anything on a Windows computer.

1

It's hidden enough that I have had to provide tech support to my friends a few times on this. I think it's easy to forget how expertise shapes our perspective on these things

1
Zagorathreply
aussie.zone

Also the two Program Files folders that have existed since the switch to 64-bit systems.

And third-party software installers that install stuff into their own secret places. Like Steam games.

12

And don’t forget that syswow64 is where 32-bit os programs are, system32 is where the 64-bit programs are… and I guess system is still for 16-bit OS programs, if there still are any.

(Edit: just checked, it seems to have only xsd documents for windows speech synthesis.)

2
Kecessareply
sh.itjust.works

I don't remember seeing something get installed in appdata, but having other files it depends on in there sure does happen though

2
guyreply
lemmy.world

I've seen Electron based apps do this sometimes. GitHub Desktop, for instance

6

Oh right, it's the only one I've seen doing it. You still get the prompt to ask where you want to install it and it just needs to not be in Program Files or you need to give it administrator access so it can update itself...

It's pretty ridiculous

2

WinXP times are long gone, my friend. These days I will sooner dig out where vim plugin source code resides on Linux than figure out config file location for a fucking game on Windows

1

For user specific files a lot of modern programs try to adhere to https://specifications.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/latest/. You should set those environmental variables and check there first.

For system level.. it's definitely more complicated. I check /etc first and then then /usr dirs. If you're using your system package manager there is generally a way to query it for that information, but it's typically CLI based.

Or just use our lord and savior NixOS and configure everything in a single directory

1
lemmy.ml

I've started saving useful commands in a note on my desktop.

Great idea

hard time tracking down config files

Usually under ~/.config/ or ~/.local/share/

8
gensreply
programming.dev

As a long time linux user, I think all programs should have a config gui. (Not all, but you get what I mean)

8

I think it should be GUI config or detailed man page/readme. The amount of assumed end-user knowledge by devs is way too high.

3

Every time I touch a config file/setting I document it in my notes. I would be lost without it.

4
Goodtoknowreply
lemmy.ca

you likely can with another file manager like Amaze

9

"The only exception is like Stardew Valley, where they put the save directory in a normal folder."

It's been years since I played Stardew Valley, but stuff like this is why I consider myself a fan.

2

You typically won't have permission to write them with ADB.

1
lemmy.world

I can find files just fine on my Android phone, BUT when saving files on my iPad this meme would be true.

I was editing a document on my iPad, saved it in a folder labeled 'documents', searched with the files app and the document folder wasn't on my iPad or iCloud.

Come to find out the app itself made a folder named documents within itself. So in order to get it on my iPad itself i had to share the file to dropbox then redownload it 🤨

54
Ansis100reply
lemmy.world

Yeah, developers can't access those folders without some super specific permissions, so most just use the dedicated app folder.

17
lemmy.world

I have learned the horrors of Apple since getting this thing. Like it for drawing and 3D sculpting, but that's about it.

10
vivendireply
programming.dev

You should see how much developing for apple hurts when using a multiplatform ecosystem.

In Flutter for example, there are entire documentation sections on "Apple is incredibly stupid and needs special care"

10

Ohhhhh yes. Flutter + Apple has tested my will to live multiple times.

3
lemmy.world

Home puter is a Mac which I only use for the Logic DAW but they have a primary app called Finder which has never found anything I asked for. Its a Finder that doesnt Find.

13
slaacaareply
lemmy.world

Same, I always have trouble with finding saved files on ipad/iphone. Often it saves a pdf as “document”, and overwrites the previous download with similar name.

2

That's annoying. I have not yet had the displeasure of experiencing the overwrite problem, but i am sure it'll happen soon enough. Thanks for the heads-up!

1
lemmy.world

Don't you know? Users being told the exact location of a file is not user-friendly!

49

There are not files. There are only vibes. If your surf the vibe ocean well enough, you will find what you were looking for.

28
lemm.ee

Bit by bit? The move to mobile was like getting hit in the face with an inaccessibility bat. I hate mobile OSes with a passion. Unfortunately, they're overwhelmingly the way through which people interact with the Internet or do any kind of tech stuff anymore. I do a lot of audio work, and Android lacks even simple routing software. It just uses the last audio device plugged into it. Never mind you only want to use the mic on that and not the output. Forget using multiple devices. It's infuriating. You'll pry my desktop away from me through my cold, dead hands.

45
Johannoreply
feddit.org

Sounds like you should install Ubuntu touch on your phone

4

Android is built in the Linux kernel. That's actually some of what causes this - Android's permissions model takes the Linux model and amplifies it. Apps are treated like users to prevent them from messing with each other's files. If an app uses Android's downloads manager it can write to the downloads directory, but it can only see the files that it put there.

4

Sorry, best we can offer is renaming Control Panel again and shuffling around the place you can find certain settings

4
lemmy.world

It's almost as if this is a computer architecture designed for idiots who don't know or care what a file is or for what purposes their data is being harvested. Everywhere I hear people falling over themselves to declare that the tablet smartphone was apple's golden gift to the world. Try to do any serious work on one, it's fucking annoying.

Whenever we make technology accessible to stupid people it becomes irritating to use and a privacy nightmare.

30

It’s almost as if this is a computer architecture designed for idiots human beings who don’t know or care what a file is interact with computers on a non-file oriented basis or have been lied to and systemically unsupported in their education for what purposes their data is being harvested.

No hate. No useful conversation starts with calling large swaths of people idiots, is all.

12
lemmy.world

Opens the files app which shows all files that were recently downloaded from any app to the file system.

29
feddit.org

That's like piling all your paperwork on your office desk in a giant tower in the order they came in and arguing that's just as good as sorting them into files and putting them in the cabinet.

14

There was a legend I heard of in an engineering office. There was an engineer at this company I worked at, long before I was there. On the first day of work, he created his first file, file 000001. He pulled out a notebook, and wrote the file number and the document title. Later that day, he moved on to file 000002. And so he continued. For many years, one document after another, all in sequential order. No one ever bothered to inquire about his numbering system. He simply sent files off when needed, renaming as necessary. No one ever needed to poke through his work computer. Then, one day, he got laid off in a company downsizing.. He simply took the notebook with him, took it home, and burned it.

3
StereoCodereply
lemmy.world

Is this your first file system? It literally does sort it into "videos" if I have a video or "images" if it's an image. What do you crack heads want it to do?

-4
Shanmughareply
lemmy.world

Exactly the fucking following: put my fucking files in the directories I fucking created for my fucking files, show me the fucking file system the way it fucking looks when traversed by fucking ls

5
StereoCodereply
lemmy.world

I'm sorry I don't know how to traverse the FS by fucking. Can you show me ;)

5

took me a while to understand what you had written. Had a good laugh :)

1
Lightorreply
lemmy.world

I literally do this on my Android, what are you people on about. My download go into my Downloads folder. I can browse my phone just like a computer....

3
Lightorreply
lemmy.world

You said you wanted to be able to do that. I'm saying you can.

1
Illecorsreply
lemmy.cafe

Tell me you don't understand what you're talking about without saying you don't understand what you're talking about.

2
JackbyDevreply
programming.dev

The meme says saved, not just download.

  1. Open Recorder app.
  2. Record and press save.
  3. Open Files app.
  4. The file is not in recent.
  5. The file is not in audio.

Delete this bullshit.

11

Oh, so I am not alone. Good to know, but damn what a crap of "software"

7
StereoCodereply
lemmy.world

It literally does show up under recent for me. I used the screen recorder built in stock and it shows up as a recent file. Did you even try to do this exact thing?

-2
StereoCodereply
lemmy.world

Ok I see the confusion, on your end. You assume this file is being saved to the global FS and this app has its own resources. So to save it globally you have to share it to the files app. i get that's confusing to normies. But it took me 20 seconds to figure it out. I'm guessing chatgpt didn't give the answer.

-3
JackbyDevreply
programming.dev

Ok I see the confusion, on your end. You assume this file is being saved to the global FS and this app has its own resources. So to save it globally you have to share it to the files app. i get that's confusing to normies. But it took me 20 seconds to figure it out. I'm guessing chatgpt didn't give the answer.

I'm sorry, did you or did you not say the files app just shows everything? Does the meme imply that finding files on Android is difficult? Did you not just explain something extremely counterintuitive that's contradictory to your own first post? 🙄

4
StereoCodereply
lemmy.world

I def did not say the "files app shows (everything)" . I hope the reading skills improve. If we are being pedantic.

0

You said "shows all files that were recently downloaded from any app to the file system". I pointed out that the meme you were replying to specifically said save not download and that the Files app definitely does not do that.

2
lemmy.world

mine doesn't do that. also, what if you're looking for a file that's older than three weeks old? should I go fuck myself then?

8
raefreply
lemmy.world

You could use a different file manager. And there's a few places I would look for files : downloads, pictures, etc, or in a folder named for the app under one of those places

4

I do that with my email. Email has a search function - if I don't know a key word in the email or approximately when it came in, how would I know that I found it if I ever found it in some other way?

1
lemmy.world

Firefox: oh you just saved 3 files to a folder, allow me to save the next one to a folder you haven't downloaded anything to in months.

Thank the allmaker for KDE recent files.

23
pawb.social

I really lost my shit when Firefox downloaded some Belfort & Lupin subtitles and I could not for the fucking live of me find them.

Turns out it put them in the "Movies" folder instead of "Downloads" where it actually put the corresponding video files.

23
spujbreply
lemmy.cafe

sounds like your pitiful mind cant understand the unix file oriented philosophy and you should stay 10 feet away from all information technology /sarcasm

14
grrgylereply
slrpnk.net

I've got a bad feeling this might catch on…

5
FauxLivingreply
lemmy.world

Luckily, we technology enthusiasts are all special snowflakes and don't engage in anything as banal as copying other people.

8
Sidheanreply
lemmy.world

Luckily, we technology enthusiasts are all special snowflakes and don’t engage in anything as banal as copying other people and sarcasm :)

5

Luckily, we technology enthusiasts are all special snowflakes and don’t engage in anything as banal as copying other people and sarcasm :) :)

2
Noxyreply
pawb.social

now look here you little... oh actually it would be nice to get away from tech honestly......

7
lemm.ee

just be glad you don't have an iphone. at least on android there are easy ways to remedy this.

23
lemmy.world

Pretty sure you've never used an Android, iPhone file managemt is locked down and dumbed down garbage, made so to make people more dependent on paying for and using the app store apps, without understanding the underlying system at all, and the primary reason I'm moving back to Android. Can't let some shit tech company dictate how I use my own devices file system, or what apps I can and can't install on it.

10

Merely just naming the app, not here for a debate. FYI I used to own a Pixel.

I don’t care what phones you do or do not use as you shouldn’t with me. Got more to worry about than which evil company we each give our money to.

4
lemy.lol

Using OwlFiles pretty much fixed it for me on the iPhone. Having extensively used android for many years, and now iPhone for a couple, I think both have their pros and cons.

2
lemmy.world

What's a pro of the iOS app based file system, it's never not been an artificially created frustrating and limiting experience for me. I had to print a bunch of documents that were scattered across a couple of folders on my gDrive recently and I thought I'll download them to my iPhone, move the necessary docs from the sub folders into a single folder that I'll zip and send to the printing service email, the amount of frustration I had to deal with just to do something simple like that made me want to chuck my phone into a wall. Also one time I had to send a single pdf from my android phone to my sister's iphone, in a place with no cell signal or wifi. and that to was a god awful experience, purposefully designed so by apple so people stick to only using airdrop and Icloud. I had to basically setup a file server + wifi Hotspot on my android phone to be able to transfer that one file and because it was an android I could actually do that in the first place. So many apps I used to use can't work on iphones cause apple just won't allow it.

1
lemy.lol

The file system ain’t a pro. But the stock one ain’t so bad, and OwlFiles improves it. Just like on Android I feel something like CX Explorer is a lot better than the stock one. I meant overall as an OS, both have pros and cons. An ios pro for example is AirPlay, a lot better than casting, you can play music to multiple speakers at the same time higher quality. Or FaceTime audio calls, more private and much clearer than WhatsApp/Signal/Duo calls. Or generally apps working and looking better on ios than android, with less chances of spammy crap. Samsung/android has a dex advantage, and multitasking, and miracast which is more common than AirPlay screens. Airdrop is great, but there’s equal things in android. LocalSend is great for both android and Apple and between both too. Apple had shitty charging support till usbc came in and now it’s cool. Android is selling your soul to Google who sells your soul to everyone in the world. iPhone is selling your soul Apple which does lesser stuff with it in comparison. Like I said, both are great, both suck, both have pros and cons. The ideal life is to have a dummy phone and live real life, but next best is to probably have one of each device if you have the need, or suck it up and choose one. Phones are taking up too much of our lives to worry about having loyalty to one anyway…

1

I can put a degoogled OS on an android phone to keep Google at bay, cause I bought and own the device. The iOS pros you mentioned are just apps, not even specifically tied to the OS itself, and most of them only work well within the apple ecosystem and purposefully don't work at all or work poorly with non apple devices. Android has tons of apps that do the same thing, or even better and they work with every device and OS regardless of who made them. So far the only iOS specific things I liked are the dynamic island functionality, the custom focus modes with customizable home and lock screens, the activity usage locks and analytics, most of these I can replicate on Android as well when I move to it.

1
lemmy.world

This is a real problem with young people coming into the office. They don't know how to navigate a file system. They've never had to do it.

20
pelespiritreply
sh.itjust.works

No, it's a file system issue. It randomly makes folders and decides where to put things. A photo could be in the dcim folder, a photos folder on my outside card or a photos. It may or may not be in recents.

12
chiliedoggreply
lemmy.world

I'm saying that people who have grown up in the world of smartphones and apps are used to files just going into the ether and the app knowing where it is, and they never learned how to navigate a file system.

6
kamenreply
lemmy.world

I suppose those are the same people who make a full screen screenshot in order to share a picture.

1

No, they're taking a picture of the screen with their phone.

2
lemmy.world

It used to be so much simpler. I remember having a Galaxy S3 and whenever I saved a file I knew exactly where it went. There was a file explorer built in, and downloads went to the downloads folder.

19
lemmy.world

That was Samsung doing the work of dumbing things down for you. Stock Android has always been fast and loose with the locality of saved files. Especially if you are doing anything with an image processing app. They tend to make their own dump folders and don't bother telling you that they e made them in their own directory under the .data folder or someplace in .bin

9

You say 'dumbing things down' I say 'that's kinda condescending talk that implies that anything else isn't shut when it clearly is'

4
lemmy.world

Is that not how it still works? When I download a file, it either goes straight to the Downloads folder, or to an app-specific subfolder within Downloads. And there's a Files app that lets you go through the file system (although I'm sure there are some system folders that aren't accessible without rooting). I don't think I've ever been confused about where a file is saved.

9

cc @[email protected]

i think there’s lots of different flavors of android or something, such that different phones handle the user-facing file system totally differently. it might also be that nicer phones the devs put more effort into making UX have a more forgiving learning curve but because android isn’t truly open source those developments are inaccessible to other users

7

My 2022 android still has a file explorer. But it seems to randomly drop files all over into multiple download folders it created

5
lemmy.world

Android? you mean iphone maybe. i can directly access the file directory of Android both from an app or from my PC with a USB connection.

16
pyrereply
lemmy.world

yeah, i figure I'd kill myself if my PC was structured like that. but for a phone it does the job and if you need something it's not that hard to find it really.

3

I mean, your phone (or at least mine) has Documents, Downloads, Photos etc. just like windows (and linux) have. The Android folder is akin to windows's AppData folder too, there is a lot of overlap in folder structures imo

3
lemmy.world

I find it funny that there's a bunch of people here who know how to use android's file system. Like, of course the Linux nerds figured out how to use it (and I love you all the more for it)

15

It's one of the most frustrating things ever. Anyone acting like navigating Android's files is anything similar to navigating any desktop computer's files needs some perspective. "You said this is difficult, but for me it's easy, therefore it's actually easy."

18
Natanaelreply
infosec.pub

Varies a ton between apps, some use private app storage on Android too (only accessible with root) or in appdata storage (restricted to system apps), or in scattered folders under the regular "user data" folders (easiest by far)

Bonus points if you have an SD card, double bonus points if you manage to have 2 of them, because then you have multiple copies of these standard user data folders

9

MediaStore recreating the standard Android library folder layout on my SD card no matter how many times I deleted them was infuriating.

8

Unfortunately this also applies to Flatpak software in Linux. That's one area where distros really need to focus on improving usability.

13

Maybe flatpack should do a better job of exporting the application data into the user's home.

You can't insist on sandboxing the applications and expect them to export the data on a main user directory.

2
Tilgarereply
lemmy.world

Solid Explorer has always been my go to. I never understood why basic file explorer functions essentially required the use of a separate app, but it's functionality is superb and the now-baked-in-but-terrible file explorer in android can never hope to match it.

9
lemmy.world

If you think about it, its always a separate app. WIndows Explorer is an app and so is Dolphin on KDE. ls is an app.
Android just has a bit of an identity problem with how to present files. Considering its made for the most common denominator, and everything revolves around 'apps' now, the concept of files, what they are and what they do is new to many. Most people wont even consider the photo they took is a file. Its a photo, not a file, what are you talking about?. So I'm not surprised the representation of files is on the lower priority list.
I'm old school, I want to know where everything is in the file system and this part of android messes with me.

2
Tilgarereply
lemmy.world

I guess I meant that it shouldn't require a 3rd party app. When I discovered and began using Solid Explorer, there wasn't even a viable system app for file management in Android, you had to use a 3rd party app. They did eventually add a system app, but it's next to useless.

2
lemmy.world

Oh, Samsung has a files app. I just assumed all vendors provide one. I dont consider this third party though.
I guess it would be similar if you used GNOME and it didnt come with the app 'Files'. Linux isnt a desktop so there wouldnt be any system app for files either, just the CLI. Does stock Android provide a system files app? I cant find it.

2

I'm using a Samsung device now as well, but as I recall, my last Pixel phone did have a very basic files app. But stock Android didn't always - I was using ES File Explorer and eventually Solid Explorer on my HTC phones back in the day to restore basic functionality.

2

"Akshually, photo is not a file" is how iOS did it. Blew my mind when I tried to sync my files (Syncthing/Möbius) and it would not show any of the photos in file lists. Apparently it's for "security reasons".

This was several years ago so IDK if it's the same still.

2

Yeah, I feel you on that. It's my go to file manager as well.

2

dont forget on some phones OS, you can actually pick and choose the download location. After you downloaded though, the files arent there....

Had to question my sanity many times....

9

I thought I was losing it because this app wanted to save things to a "downloads" folder. Only to find out it saves it in something like

documents/app name/downloads Instead of

Downloads/

3
lemmy.world

For real? Never used Android, but isn’t it built on Linux? It doesn’t use the same path /home/username/Downloads?

7

It does not, but on all of the Android devices I've used there's simply a "downloads" folder in the root location (or what is exposed to the user as root location, anyway) where downloads go by default. From web browsers, at least.

The problem is that where things are saved is more or less up to the developer of the app in question, and sometimes they make some very nonsensical choices. The app could create a folder for itself in root, or it could create a folder for itself in "documents," or it could simply park things in one of the preexisting userspace folders. Or it could bury the file it just created in /Android/data/com.appname.fd6bca3/files/0/dl/, and it sure as shit won't tell you nor give you the option to put it anywhere else.

25
sopuli.xyz

Get a file explorer. Mine has a "recent" tab where all the new stuff is. I can also move or copy files easily. Vanilla explorer is not very good but it does have the basics covered. It is annoying not to have a system-wide download dialog though.

I suspect part of why google's app is subpar is to promote their cloud storage.

4

I use Root Explorer.

A shocking number of Android devices ship without a file browser installed from the vendor at all. If you want one you have to install it yourself. This is baffling to me.

10

That's fucked, the more android progresses the less usable it becomes it seems. Even budget 2.3 phones had it built-in afaik

2
sh.itjust.works

It's built on a , by now very modified and incompatible, Linux kernel. But not a GNU userland at all.

15

It’s built on a , by now very modified and incompatible, Linux kernel.

Which is also forked again by various phone manufacturers that make their own modifications on top of it.

1
nul9o9reply
lemmy.dbzer0.com

Don't know what this meme is about.

Everything I download is in my downloads folder. Good luck finding the downloads folder path in IOS.

11

That was a problem for years. Apple didn’t make the Files app to navigate the filesystem until 2017. It’s fine now, but it was absurd for sure.

9

It doesn’t use the same path /home/username/Downloads?

Same as what? That isn't a default path for anything in Linux either. It's a convention that browser follows though, on Windows and Mac too.

2
Owl
mander.xyz

Android is pretty bad in many regards

But it has the best, most human-friendly user interface ever. Especially on tablets

And I’m ready to die on that hill xD

6
lemmy.ml

I will only grant that, assuming we are only looking at current popular smartphone OS's ... and you turn off gestures

4
Soggyreply
lemmy.world

Man I hate gestures. I'd happily use a phone twice as thick if it meant a real keyboard with real function buttons. (I have large hands and blunt fingers, little touchpad keyboard is a nightmare and there's no easy way to attach a stylus of comfortable size)

2

If anyone can find me a proper physical keyboard on a smart phone, I would happily get it, I hate virtual keyboards, my typos go up from my already nearly unacceptable rate.

1
Owlreply
mander.xyz

and you turn off gestures

Yeah, gestures are horrible

assuming we are only looking at current popular smartphone OS's

I was speaking of every interface to navigate a computer for general use. What would you consider to be the best in that regard ?

1

For me its probably KDE, its not my favorate but its what I recommend for people to use. That being said I grew up with desktop computers, but both Android and IOS I complain that it does not work how I think it would be most usable for me

3

Mes fichiers » fichiers récent

For any francos looking for this application.

2

literally I've had files that file manager cannot see or interact with at all. I think they always came from termux, which is what I used to unzip zip files. Definitely in the right directory but just plain invisible to file manager and other apps.

2
lemmy.world

Seriously, this thread has me very confused about how a social media platform seemingly inundated with nerds can't open a file manager (which often comes pre-installed) to find a downloads folder.

-1

It was a bigger problem when they first instituted private app storage and limited apps access to other apps data.

Eg. My dashcam app had an export button. The files went into that apps private storage which was unavailable to non-root file explorers even with permissions. The app had to change significantly.

Everything's more or less playing well together now but people still have PTSD.

1

That's an interesting point about OneDrive automatically backing up folders. It reminds me of the time I was messing around with a weird game concept, something like a chicken jockey clicker, and I accidentally saved all the game files to a cloud folder without realizing it. Took forever to sort out the mess.

4
lemmy.world

I use a little app called X-plore. Gives me treed lists of folder contents and allows moving, copying, and deleting stuff.

2

Total Commander with LAN, FTP and WebDAV Plugin enabled is really useful (if you're using Android)

1
lemmy.world

For me Files shows recent files right on top as the first thing you see when you open the app. X-Plore has a Recent Files section too. Moreover most apps that save something usually show a toast with the file/folder path when done. I don't know what you're talking about.

2

Beeing able to access the file doest mean you know where it is. What happens if that file isnt recent any more? Android hides the file system from the user. "Recent files" is a prime example of that.

8
  • the upload widget when trying to find that PDF you just saved
4
lemmy.world

I'm pretty sure this is google chrome issue. When I use Samsung Internet, I can choose the download location

-1
grrgylereply
slrpnk.net

Not a fan of google products, but I can't fathom using the phone's stock browser. Is it … good?

2

It's good, I mainly use Samsung browser, although use google search widget will default to use chrome, so basically I use both

2
lemmy.world

How is you not even aware of what a file system is LMAO 🤣

I swear to God, how is it possible that people who can access the fediverse have such trouble finding a download folder.

It's like their brains fold instantly at the thought of searching through it.

"Hurr durr, where file"

In the downloads folder

My brother in Christ, please open the fucking file explorer

This is you, it's how you look like:

-18
leminal.space

That's the entire point of the post, my guy. Some apps use the Downloads folder. Some use their own. Some use a folder you set a year ago when you first got the app but don't remember anymore.

The interface abstracts away from the actual file system so finding a file becomes guesswork. Doubly so if you then want to use the downloaded file in a different app that also doesn't give access to the file system.

22