Google Play All Files Access policy compliance issue

[uintdev]

This issue is to document the situation.

Version 2.3.2, build 42, was rejected. Twice. The cited reasoning for this was that it was deemed “access to device storage not required”. It was then advised to use MediaStore APIs instead, unless it can be proven that such access is required.

This is not that surprising, as Google does come across as fairly strict regarding this permission. Thing is, it passed review 3 times in the past.

I’ll give it a few more attempts some time next week and maybe the next few. If it keeps getting rejected despite the further revisions and attempts to have a reviewer who is willing to let it through, then I’ll have to take a look at the options (such as attempting to build or modify a flutter package that could be used to bring up the file picker in hopes it allows for direct access without such permission, or potentially leaving 2.3.1 [build 41] as the final release on the Play Store until it eventually gets booted off due to abandonment or not targeting a more recent Android API version).

Ideally, I’d like to avoid having to build or modify a file picker package. It would be far less painful if the app wasn’t built using Flutter, as then I wouldn’t have to deal with method channels and its own challenges.

A lot of users get the app from Google Play, so it would be good to be able to keep distributing the app and its updates that way.