Permit Whatsapp to access all files (not only media)

[Swamp Thing]

When I look at the permissions settings for Whatsapp on my Android phone, I see these options:

* Allow access to media only
* Deny

Now, I want to allow access to all files, not just media, because without that WhatsApp is not able to create local backup files. I do see that some apps like Adobe Acrobat have the following permission options:

* Allow management of all files
* Deny.

How can I allow WhatsApp to do "management of all files"?

 

[Wrichik Basu]

In the Manifest.xml file, developers are able to list the permissions their apps require. Some permissions are automatically granted by the system and it's not visible to you, like permission to vibrate the phone and permission to use the network. Sensitive permissions are required to be requested at runtime.

WhatsApp developers have not listed the permission to access full storage. This is done keeping in mind the current best practices, which advises not to use the READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission unless necessary, but to use the granular media permissions instead. You cannot change this, unless you reverse engineer the app.

But WhatsApp can backup to local storage properly even without the full access permission. I can see on my device that the local backup is saved properly. Is WhatsApp on your device throwing a SecurityException when trying to backup to local storage?

 

[Swamp Thing]

It doesn't show any error, but silently fails to create any backup file. A google search turned up some suggestions that this could be due to permission issues.

I could finally do the backup/restore via Google Drive, so I'm good now. (I wanted to have a local backup just in case drive didn't work... that's just how I am )

 

[Wrichik Basu]

A google search turned up some suggestions that this could be due to permission issues.

If you have already allowed all the granular file and media permissions, then that issue is not related to permissions. If WhatsApp can download and upload any files from your device, the app already has the permission to read/write files. Not being able to create a local backup is definitely a different issue. You cannot give a permission to an app which it hasn't asked for.