file-manager/docs/PERMISSION_VIDEO.md

The permission-use video

The Permissions Declaration Form asks for a link to a short video that shows MANAGE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE being used — 30 seconds or fewer, with a voice-over or captions where the UI does not make the use obvious. This file is the record of the video that answers it, and the instructions for making another.

The file

file	length	what it is
store-assets/video/permission-use.mp4	19.7 s	The submission copy: 1080×2400, H.264, no audio, English captions burned in. The home-screen segment is deliberately cut (below)
store-assets/video/permission-use-uncaptioned.mp4	19.7 s	The same cut without captions, for a voice-over instead
store-assets/video/permission-use.srt	—	The caption text and timings, for a re-upload or translation

The file is not a link. Play asks for a URL, so upload the MP4 — YouTube Unlisted, or Google Drive shared with "anyone with the link" — and paste that URL into the form. A private video or a sign-in-gated Drive link cannot be reviewed. Unlisted is enough; the video does not need to be public or searchable.

What it shows

time	on screen	what it proves
0:00	The app's Choose a folder prompt, with Grant full access	The app asks for the permission rather than assuming it
0:01–0:08	Android's All files access screen; the toggle is off, then on	The user grants it through Android's own UI, not an in-app shortcut
0:08–0:12	(after a deliberate cut) Internal storage, then the AADemo folder	The permission is what makes a whole-volume listing possible
0:12–0:14	Documents: budget.csv, itinerary.md, offsite-notes.txt, quarterly-report.pdf, service-agreement.docx	The use is not media: these are files MediaStore does not manage
0:14–0:15	New folder dialog	A write is about to be attempted
0:15–0:19	New folder appears with the change dot; snackbar Folder created	The same permission is used to write, not only to read

The cut at 0:08 is a privacy redaction, not an edit to the evidence. The raw take returns to the app's home screen between the grant and the folder listing, and that screen shows the phone's own library counts — 6 238 images and 20 248 documents. STORE_LISTING forbids publishing those counts, because they describe the owner's device rather than the app. The published video removes the home-screen segment and resumes on the internal-storage listing, which is the first frame that proves the grant took effect. The uncaptioned file is cut at the same two points, so both copies tell the same story.

The captions, in order:

1. Plain Files needs All files access
2. Android asks to allow all-file management
3. Switching on All files access
4. Granted: browsing internal storage
5. Documents: CSV, MD, TXT, PDF, DOCX
6. Writable too: a new folder is created

Why the system UI is German

The test phone (Xiaomi M2101K7AG) runs MIUI in German; the app itself is English. Changing the phone's language to flatter a recording would not change what the permission does, and the two system strings that matter are translated by the captions: Zugriff auf alle Dateien ("All files access") and Zugriff zum Verwalten aller Dateien zulassen ("Allow access to manage all files"). The reviewer sees the toggle move and the app change state, which is the evidence; the language is incidental.

Privacy: what is not in the video

• The library is generated by tools/make-demo-library.py, not taken from the phone. It was copied to /sdcard/AADemo so it sorts first and the recording never has to open Download, whose listing on this device holds the owner's real PDFs.
• Every filename on screen — budget.csv, itinerary.md, quarterly-report.pdf, AADemo — is synthetic. The published cut removes the home screen entirely, because its library counts (6 238 images, 20 248 documents) are the owner's real totals; the uncaptioned file is cut at the same points. What remains shows synthetic names and Android's own screens.
• Frames were inspected with a contact sheet before and after the cut, and the status bar holds nothing but the clock, signal, battery and the screen-record indicator.

Re-shooting it

The take was made on the release build, because that is the artefact the declaration is about:

./gradlew :app:assembleRelease
adb install -r app/build/outputs/apk/release/app-release.apk
adb shell cp -r /sdcard/Download/PlainFiles-Demo /sdcard/AADemo   # only if absent
adb shell appops set --uid de.softwareapp_hb.filemanager MANAGE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE deny
adb shell am force-stop de.softwareapp_hb.filemanager
adb shell am start -n de.softwareapp_hb.filemanager/.MainActivity

⚠️ The --uid is the whole trap. After Android's Settings screen grants the permission, a package-level appops set de.softwareapp_hb.filemanager MANAGE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE deny leaves the UID mode at allow, the app keeps isExternalStorageManager() == true, and no prompt appears. The revoke only works with --uid, and appops get shows both lines so the state can be checked before recording.

Then, with the prompt verified on screen, record and drive it:

adb shell rm -f /sdcard/permission-use.mp4
adb shell screenrecord --size 1080x2400 --bit-rate 8000000 --time-limit 30 /sdcard/permission-use.mp4 &
sleep 1
adb shell input tap 540 1358     # Grant full access
sleep 2.5
# If the runtime storage dialog appears, tap ERLAUBEN at (540,1321). It does not when
# READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE is already granted, which is the normal case on this phone.
sleep 2.5
adb shell input tap 931 526      # All files access toggle
sleep 2
adb shell input keyevent KEYCODE_BACK
sleep 2
adb shell input tap 540 1600     # Internal storage
sleep 2
adb shell input tap 540 644      # AADemo
sleep 2
adb shell input tap 540 644      # Documents
sleep 2
adb shell input tap 959 2146     # New folder (FAB)
sleep 1.5
adb shell input tap 824 1368     # Create; the name is prefilled, so no keyboard appears
sleep 4
adb shell pkill -INT screenrecord
adb pull /sdcard/permission-use.mp4

Then cut out the home screen. In this take the last Settings frame is at 8.25 s and the first internal-storage frame is at 10.5 s; re-check those two frames before reusing the numbers, because the exact times depend on how fast the taps landed:

ffmpeg -y -i permission-use.mp4 -filter_complex \
  "[0:v]trim=0:8.25,setpts=PTS-STARTPTS[a];[0:v]trim=10.5,setpts=PTS-STARTPTS[b];[a][b]concat=n=2:v=1[v]" \
  -map "[v]" -c:v libx264 -crf 20 -pix_fmt yuv420p -an permission-use-cut.mp4

Do not try to record this on the AVD. Under software emulation screenrecord captured one frame in three seconds — a three-second test produced a 1-frame, duration-less file — so the clean emulator cannot produce video. The phone records properly; the emulator is only useful for checking the demo library and the permission screens.

Two details are deliberate:

• Never tap the name field. On this MIUI build it raises the keyboard, the dialog shifts up, and the next tap lands on the keyboard instead of Create — the first attempt created the folder but ended on an empty screen. The prefilled New folder is enough to show a write.
• The coordinates assume 1080×2400 at 440 dpi (the Xiaomi phone). On another device, map each screen with adb shell uiautomator dump and use the bounds rather than scaling these.

The captions were burned in from six transparent PNG overlays with ffmpeg overlay (Pillow, DejaVu Sans Bold 40 px, black 80 % box, bottom-centred above the snackbar). The text and timings are in store-assets/video/permission-use.srt, so a re-upload can carry the same captions without burning them in.