While it is annoying to people like you and me, this is a good thing for the average user. Your average downloads folder probably contains sensitive information that shouldn't be visible to apps. Same with Android/data. Locking it down is annoying for sure, but it's admittedly a good privacy&security measure.
Even if it's blocked for the average user, it'd still be awesome if we could circumvent it with adb. I've used KDE Connect to access my phone remotely for a long time, and now that feature is useless.
I have often found malware apps with all sorts of permission on my relatives phones which suddenly started to lag alot. These folders can be easily exploited by malware apps, so its kinda good.
I THINK THIS HAS TO DO WITH APP PERMISSIONS. IF YOUR APP NEEDS A PLACE TO READ/WRITE FILES, IT MAKES SENSE TO KEEP IT OUT OF YOUR DOWNLOADS FOLDER THAT COULD CONTAIN SENSITIVE INFORMATION LIKE BANK STATEMENTS OR OTHER THINGS. YOU DON'T WANT SOME RANDOM APP LOOKING AT EVERYTHING THAT ENDS UP IN YOUR DOWNLOADS FOLDER!!!
GET RILED ABOUT GIVING THESE GREEDY DATA SNOOPING APPS THE LEAST PERMISSION POSSIBLE!!
I understand the security implications, but I think I should at least have a say about what happens on my own phone
The app in question is popular and open source. My SD card's downloads folder is also unused and empty, as you can see. There is absolutely zero risk here
This is so every app can only read it's own subfolder. Unless you think it's better that advertisers and app developers can have access to 100% of your personal files
You joke but those and helmet laws all should be repealed. We need to stop protecting people from Darwin. When the stupid assholes can't cull themselves naturally it drives the average intelligence downward.
We see the results of this in modern society with the number of iPhone owners. No one should want an iPhone but marketing is all it takes for the stupid to be convinced.
…until you're personally involved in a fatal accident—even if by no fault of your own—where the other party would have survived. Post traumatic stress is no joke. I don't think we should aspire to have a society with more suffering.
How is downloads folder not important? For most people this is literally the biggest folder of files containing everything they ever downloaded, and it may also include downloads from messengers, e.g. Whatsapp and Telegram.