[Feature Request] Search External Storage using SAF

[russianbot91]

Thank you for creating this, it's the best launcher I've tried. :)

Can you add the ability to search files accessible through the storage access framework so just about any cloud service, profile, or app can be used?

On my phone I have pCloud, Proton Drive, Shelter (Work Profile), and Termux.

[MM2-0]

That would be ideal but is that possible? I thought only privileged apps had direct access to the underlying DocumentsProvider and could call its search method.

[russianbot91]

That would be ideal but is that possible? I thought only privileged apps had direct access to the underlying DocumentsProvider and could call its search method.

It is, but I don't know exactly how (I'm not a programmer). There's an app in the Google Play Store called FV File Explorer (Closed Source) that does it this way and you can access Android/data, cloud storage, and even your Work Profile Internal Storage on non-rooted phones.

[russianbot91]

That would be ideal but is that possible? I thought only privileged apps had direct access to the underlying DocumentsProvider and could call its search method.

It is, but I don't know exactly how (I'm not a programmer). There's an app in the Google Play Store called FV File Explorer (Closed Source) that does it this way and you can access Android/data, cloud storage, and even your Work Profile Internal Storage on non-rooted phones.

[exstntlmsnthrp]

I would also add that another app from the play store called Files, can also access privileged files in Android folder even without a rooted phone. I don't know if it's open source or not. The dev has other open source apps, but doesn't say anything about this one. I've used it on both stock Android and on LineageOS.

I can upload pics if needed.

[MM2-0]

You can readfiles, no problem, and even list directory content, but can you search them? Because otherwise you'd need to crawl and index all the files yourself and create your own search index which could be rather impractical, depending on the number of files.

[russianbot91]

You can readfiles, no problem, and even list directory content, but can you search them? Because otherwise you'd need to crawl and index all the files yourself and create your own search index which could be rather impractical, depending on the number of files.

pCloud and Termux yes, but not for Shelter (probably because of Work Profile restrictions).

I forgot to mention that Material Files does this as well and it's available on F-Droid.

[MM2-0]

I forgot to mention that Material Files does this as well and it's available on F-Droid.

Material Files appears to walk the file tree recursively when you start a search. Which works, but it is kinda slow, especially when your files are stored on a remote server and you need to send a HTTP request for each subdirectory you search.