yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Android Apps and Games] tliebeck:
Beta Release: FX 3.1.0.3:

Available in the beta channel on Google Play (may take a moment to become available, uploaded shortly before this post).

Direct download version: http://android.nextapp.com/fx/r3120/FX_r3120.apk

Performance improvements, notably in home screen pinch-zoom, and initial loads of images and video views.

General bugfixes and fixes to exceptions reported via Play Store crash bug submission.

Improved search performance (fixed performance issue where removing many files from a directory resulted in a slow search update later on.

Fixed issues with Samsung devices showing two SD cards if you're using SDFix for KitKat. Note: if you hid an SDCard, using "Customize Home", you may now need to unhide it.

Screenshots:

It looks the same as before, minus some bugs and lag. :D

Google Play Beta Testing information

You can sign up for beta testing using the Google Play Store's new app beta-testing feature.

If you'd like to beta test FX, you can do so by joining this Google+ community: https://plus.google.com/communities/101301040394875566704

Once you've joined, you can opt-in to use beta instead of released version here: https://play.google.com/apps/testing/nextapp.fx
[Android Apps and Games] henrik.dk:
as to the root rw toggle button in the new release seems that it is not consistent to

previous one
[Android Apps and Games] tliebeck:
Not sure what I'm looking for here...what's it doing incorrectly?
[Android Apps and Games] henrik.dk:
in previous version, the read only system will have a locked locker. press the locked lock will mount rw.

now we have locked locker to indicate it is read only and unlocked locker to

mount rw which actually shows up at toolbar and drop menu.
[Android Apps and Games] tliebeck:
Beta Release: FX 3.1.0.4:

Available in the beta channel on Google Play (may take a moment to become available, uploaded shortly before this post).

Direct download version: http://android.nextapp.com/fx/r3122/FX_r3122.apk

Added support for downloading and setting themes via "Add-Ons" activity.

Uploaded Faenza theme to Play Store for Google Play beta testers ( https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=nextapp.fx.contrib.theme.faenza )...should be available soon.

I'm actually not 100% certain how the Play Store works when you only have a beta APK available....e.g., if it will be shown to people in the beta testing group or if they'll manually have to opt-in.

Google Play Beta Testing information

You can sign up for beta testing using the Google Play Store's new app beta-testing feature.

If you'd like to beta test FX, you can do so by joining this Google+ community: https://plus.google.com/communities/101301040394875566704

Once you've joined, you can opt-in to use beta instead of released version here: https://play.google.com/apps/testing/nextapp.fx
[Android Apps and Games] mbc07:
[MENTION=2954544]tliebeck[/MENTION], only after going here I could download Faenza theme from Play Store, otherwise I got "Item not found"
[Android Apps and Games] k-four:
@tliebeck, please, add codepage support for ftp (win1251 especially) :)
[Android Apps and Games] Nucleotide:
Any chance of adding the ability to backup/restore FX settings? ;)
[Android Apps and Games] GermainZ:
What gradient/header? If I set the color manually, I get a perfect match:

This has some disadvantages though. For example, if I change the theme I'll need to set the colors again, and the contextual menu (for selection) won't change the color of the status bar.
[Android Apps and Games] tliebeck:
On my Note3, with the Verizon KitKat ("NC2") leaked build, I get a shadow at the top of the FX action bar (i.e., the system notification/status bar has a drop shadow hanging over the app).
[Android Apps and Games] tliebeck:
Should all be up now...I was hoping that having opted-in to the FX Play Store beta would make it work, but it turns out you have to opt-in to the beta theme. In any case the theme APK should now be found as it's been switched to "production" status.
[Android Apps and Games] tliebeck:
Stable Release: FX 3.1.0.4:

(Moved from Beta to Production)

Available now on Google Play. This is the same version as the last beta (if you're in the beta channel, you already have it).

Direct download version: http://android.nextapp.com/fx/r3122/FX_r3122.apk

Complete list of changes relative to FX 3.0.2.1:

Added support for icon themes (requires FX+), and a free Faenza icon theme.

Added capability to customize the "trim color" used for menus and widgets. Default trim color remains Holo blue.

Videos home screen has been redone, resembles the Images home screen added in 3.0.

Videos now show thumbnails in file listings.

Media player now displays an "Open With"-style dialog when it can't play a video.

Added option to use system busybox (in /system/bin or /system/xbin) rather than the busybox provided by FX. May be necessary in Android 4.5/5.0.

Added option to clear thumbnails (option to store thumbnails in private /data directory is still on the to-do list).
[Android Apps and Games] tliebeck:
I wanted to get some opinions on this...perhaps I'm overreacting. I normally have a reasonably thick skin for crazy support emails but this one has managed to really hit a home run. These are from the same person, a minute or two apart. I've removed the name/location.

Email 1:

Email 2:

I'm not upset at him for pirating the software, though I'd appreciate it if he didn't present it directly in the support request. I don't mind the name-change request, and I certainly don't mind the new-user question about how to switch view modes.

What drives me straight up the wall are the testing of my "response time" alongside the threat of the negative review. I tend to think I do a decent (but far from perfect) job of responding to support requests, and I'm happy to do so, regardless of whether people have any interest in buying anything. Support requests like this play a big part in helping to improve the design of the app, as they tell you what people are finding to be non-obvious.

So is it reasonable to "test support response time" on a $3 app, and make a threat at the same time? I'm tempted to send the guy a Google Play gift card if he promises to use it to purchase any file manager on the market except for mine.

Appreciate any opinions, even if they're the opposite of my own.
[Android Apps and Games] Ultramanoid:
"The requested URL /fx/3122/FX_r3122.apk was not found on this server."

:silly:
[Android Apps and Games] tliebeck:
Thanks, fixed. Forgot an "r".
[Android Apps and Games] jaydee 77:
Link not working. I think you lost a "r". :)

http://android.nextapp.com/fx/r3122/FX_r3122.apk

[edit]

I am lame, too slow for this world. Need some coffee...?
[Android Apps and Games] Ultramanoid:
You must really have a thick skin. I would not take it kindly, too many boxes checked. If I was a better person, I'd tentatively reply explaining my opinion, to the best of my ability, see how they react, although the mails are not exactly a sample of decent thinking, and take it from there...
[Android Apps and Games] jaydee 77:
Ignore that guy. There are "stpd" people living in a different universe. Sadly these people have great motivation in trolling around. Many many other use your software satisfied and happy but don't spread the word leaving a positive review or give 5 stars. I think on 1 "stpd" there are 10 silent satisfied. This is frustrating but keep on going.
[Android Apps and Games] thedicemaster:
i'd just answer his question and be done with it.

the different name seems pointless to me.

microsoft calls their file manager "explorer" too, and wouldn't FX have to be changed to FM if you'd change explorer to manager?

and his filesize "problem" has the same solution as in windows, change to a list or grid view.

the way he brings his questions is a bit rude, but that's just "the internet".
[Android Apps and Games] paul c:
Crazy guy, best to avoid dealing with him - I love the idea of his going and buying some other substandard file explorer/manager! And dragging down its rating...

When trying to analyse user feedback (apps, hotels, restaurants) I assume there will be some crazy guy who will never be satsified and will drop a low rating on the product or service. Doesn't help much with the calculated average though - that said, most leading apps have the rating that FX has (approx 4.5) and lone outliers don't move the needle that much.
[Android Apps and Games] freelsd:
Stable Release FX 3.1.0.4

[MENTION=2954544]tliebeck[/MENTION]

The number of User-Installed Apps untrue.

In addition, the explore Zip archives feature (when uncheck) do not work with third party applications. (Ex. ZArchiver). But it works with image and audio.
[Android Apps and Games] Ultramanoid:
Haha, that is one funny bug. :o
[Android Apps and Games] mbc07:
[MENTION=2954544]tliebeck[/MENTION], in Text Viewer/Editor we can scroll only up and down and long lines are always broken so it can fit in the screen. Would be possible to add an option to not automatically break long lines, allowing is to scroll left/right too?
[Android Apps and Games] Szczepanik:
[MENTION=2954544]tliebeck[/MENTION] you are doing a good job.

Nil illegitimi carborundum.

Cheers

Tom

My Note 2 to you
[Android Apps and Games] iXNyNe:
Some quick searching shows that 500 of the 2300 posts in this thread are yours. This means over 20% or for those who can't do math 1 in every 5 messages in this thread came from you. That's two posts per page for those of us using the default view of 10 posts shown per page.

My point is that's pretty supportive.

I've voiced my support and praise multiple times in the past and for good reason. You have made a very high quality app and you support it very well.

I've recently become a user of you keyboard and damn I'm glad you made it. I'll gladly fork over whatever couple of bucks you decide as the price.

Too many users feel entitled over a measly couple dollars. Trying to hold devs hostage with threats is petty.

Remember when people used to pay for WinZip? It was like $25-$50 bucks if I remember. A mIRC license still costs $20. You're asking $4 right?

Invite the user to join the forum and participate in the thread. If he refuses it's his loss.
[Android Apps and Games] anirdy:
Very good file manager, thanks.
[Android Apps and Games] GermainZ:
The option already exists in the editor. Check the menus. :)
[Android Apps and Games] dex4ever:
Nice job !

now this my default explorer :laugh::good:
[Android Apps and Games] :
Very minor issue, more a personal gripe really:

I noticed the Root add-on still uses the old icon, to keep consistency it would be nice to see it updated with the icon it use's from the Play Store :fingers-crossed:
[Android Apps and Games] mbc07:
I have it in Text Editor, but not in Text Viewer. It would be nice having it in Text Viewer too...
[Android Apps and Games] tliebeck:
Thanks everyone for the responses regarding the user, very nice to hear all that! I did send him back a basic/polite response answering his questions.

And for the record, most user e-mails are pretty reasonable...the annoying ones typically are of the "app broken, please fix" variety (that's the entire message...and it's not as though I have only one app :D).

Oh, and if you're ever writing a public-facing app, never-ever-never-ever-never put an automated "e-mail the developer" feature in your app. I get dozens of random emails a day as a result from WebSharing (which used to have this feature), even though it was removed a year ago from abuse. Just random garbage text, like their cat got a hold of their phone.
[Android Apps and Games] tliebeck:
The text viewer does need this, but it'll take building a fairly custom component to do it. I'm using an Android ListView for the text viewer, and I'd need to add horizontal scrolling capability to it, shouldn't be that difficult but it's one of those seemingly easy things that might actually wind up taking a couple of days to implement.

The editor component extends a standard Android EditText widget, but that limits the size of the document and uses a ton of memory by comparison.

The idea with the text viewer is that it will be able to view near-unlimited-size files, though this ability hasn't been added as of the current release (though it really needs to be, and soon).
[Android Apps and Games] tliebeck:
Thanks, really nice to hear that!

I think I'll never understand the decision making process that some people use when buying apps. I can only imagine that a significant number of people don't believe that writing mobile apps is a full-time job, and that they don't understand that most of the people who write good ones do it for a living. As though the fact that it runs on a 5" screen means it's somehow less difficult to write. Or perhaps they've seen too many stories on local TV news about some kid spending a week writing an amazingly useful little simple app...yeah, it happens...but it's not normal.

Thankfully most people don't act that way, but when you run into ones that do, it sure is an odd experience. :)
[Android Apps and Games] tliebeck:
Thanks for reporting...what happens when you open those items? Do you see all the user installed apps in the User-only and All apps categories? I've not seen this one before.

Those numbers have always added up for me on every device...even on my Note3 with 9,000,000 disabled apps. (My next carrier will accommodate GPE devices and unlocked bootloaders :))
[Android Apps and Games] thedicemaster:
mails sent from the play store mail button should include the app name in the subject, it's automatically filled in.

although it would be nice if people bothered to include what part is broken.
[Android Apps and Games] tliebeck:
They either delete it or are directly emailing android@nextapp.com (various help/aboiut dialogs have a link to that). When I reply to such emails asking for context it's almost always two-word answers followed by anger when I again ask for more.
[Android Apps and Games] Con12:
How do I enable hidden files?

I can't seem to find that option anywhere.
[Android Apps and Games] thedicemaster:
tap on a storage location(sdcard/internal storage)

tap the "image" icon(looks like a Polaroid photo of mountains)

tap "show hidden"
[Android Apps and Games] Con12:
Ahh I see. Didn't think of that. Thought it was something else. Thanks.
[Android Apps and Games] tliebeck:
I've just posted a write-up on everything that's wrong (from my perspective) with Google's development/stewardship of Android right now:

`It's Friday the 13th, and I'm terrified of something that's hiding just around the corner: "Android 5".'

https://plus.google.com/+TodLiebeck/posts/7cqDua1SoRB (also posted to r/android)

While somewhat OT for this thread, it does very much affect the future of FX and many other activities that XDA members find enjoyable (e.g., heaven forbid my worst-case example came true).
[Android Apps and Games] Ultramanoid:
Reasonable and well written, yet the Reddit thread is somewhat painful to read at times. ( "You are wrong because SQUACK, BANANAS, STRÜDEL, HUH !" )

File management is one of the main attractions and advantages of Android as an OS, and something that ( like SD cards ) is or has been a thorn in Google's side for long. The discussion is very relevant for this thread, I'd say.

And by the way, thank you for two things.

1. No ads in your applications.

Ads are an insult in software. Not to mention that they waste CPU, bandwith, data, and spoil an interface. Provide a better or more functional version of the software for a price, provide a time limited trial, but please don't insult me.

2. No "you need X from Google for my software to work..." messages.

Android should not be equal to Google. I use and hack Android myself and stay away from Google as much as I can. And I don't have to put myself as an example, there are millions of people using Android but not Google, think China, for instance.

Google will not let go of Android easily and every iteration of the OS lately points to a tightening grip.

I used map applications that worked perfectly but now require Google Services installed and active or else won't even launch. Google made network location a part of Services, so if developers want to use that, but not Services, now they need to implement it themselves. Or just use Services, eh ? But what if the end user was happy with your product and not so happy installing Services ? Yes, I can understand how a developer might want to rely on Google to save time, money, and provide functionality. But how about all the web browsers and applications needing a browser component that Google killed when KitKat brought the utterly broken Chrome WebView ? Just use Chrome, right ? Turns out having Firefox, or Opera, or OpenStreetMap, and not just open source, but also good independent commercial software as well, is not just a nice perk of Android, it becomes a necessity.

And now a new Android release becomes a fear, a question of "what are they going to take away next ?"

Sorry for the long rambling.
[Android Apps and Games] anonymous-bot:
Just a small feature request: when sharing a file the resultant dialog box does not seem to be the stock dialog box. Because of that, I don't have quick access to Complete Action Plus to be able to customize the apps listed.
[Android Apps and Games] thedicemaster:
the kitkat sdcard workaround doesn't seem to work at all on the galaxy k zoom.

I can create folders, but any file operation just fails.
[Android Apps and Games] tliebeck:
Thank you, and you're very welcome. I do hope Android-next is nothing but good, but think that nothing will really change until we have a public beta program...just like every other piece of software in the world, open or closed source.

Couldn't believe some of the responses, the "fanboy" types simply took it as an attack on the platform. They completely fail to realize that the criticism is being made as an attempt to make the platform better. And then there were the ones who were adamant that we shouldn't have a beta program because it would somehow be bad, and that software beta programs somehow can't influence the design of software.
[Android Apps and Games] tliebeck:
Sounds like the same behavior as on the Galaxy S5. They fixed the issue. The workaround will be less and less possible as devices are upgraded and new devices come out.

I have very mixed emotions about the workaround in general. I'm happy it can help users who have been screwed by this behavior of KitKat, but at the same time it severely damped the media's response to the issue, with many/most thinking that Google had just changed an API and application developers were at fault for not updating their products.

I would not have put the workaround in at all if it weren't for the media misreporting the problem... and then users suggesting that because competing products could do it, FX must be broken. Implementing the workaround and spreading the word about what it really is seemed like the least-worst solution.
[Android Apps and Games] tliebeck:
I'm not sure how readily I can fix this, the custom FX application choosers were written for largely the same reason as Complete Action Plus.

The current version of FX's share dialog isn't doing much differently than the stock Android dialog would, but I'd like add options in the future (e.g. when sharing over Bluetooth, offer to package APKs in uncompressed ZIP files to avoid silly restrictions).
[Android Apps and Games] thedicemaster:
i kinda got SDcard access working by jumping through hoops, but i did send a complaint to samsung about enforcing this pointless rule.

full SDcard read/write should just become a new permission, so sync and file managers can still get the access they require.

i use /mnt/extsdcard/android/data/nextapp.fx/sdfiles as if it's my microSD root so i can have worry-free file management.

if i need files writable by other apps i use "my files"(FX clone made by samsung) which does have full access.

for sync i use dropsync's data folder.

i did notice something very bad with the current restrictions:

apps can still create folders, they just can't alter or delete them.

so an app could potentially flood your sdcard with unremovable folders.
[Android Apps and Games] anonymous-bot:
So is there a way to customize what apps FX shows in the share dialog?

---------- Post added at 07:50 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:43 AM ----------

Have you tried the SD workaround in the latest FX? Alternatively you can try the SDFix app made by ours truly or the KitKat SD Card Full Access module for Xposed.
[Android Apps and Games] thedicemaster:
none of those will work.

the Samsung galaxy K Zoom is a very new device, the workaround is blocked as well as all current root methods.
[Android Apps and Games] tliebeck:
I've thought about writing an app that does something similar. It would use a content provider to enable any app to read/write to its own Android/data folder and also participate in the Storage Access Framework to let other apps generally access it.

Would be tempted to make this open source and keep it entirely clear of FX (though FX would support using it), and would even add an additional homescreen icon for it automatically if it were detected.

The downside to this (and your use of FX's android/data folder) is that everything there will get deleted (by design) if the host app is uninstalled. One good thing about the dedicated app scenario is that it would reduce the likelihood of accidentally doing that without realizing the consequences.

The app would have a very generic package name, e.g., "media.card" or something like that so it'd be easy to find in the /Android/data directory manually. The app would have little-to-no UI, though I'd probably want to do a launcher icon that maybe shows total usage and offered to open the file manager of your choice.

I would love it if Google would get off their behinds on the SD card problem, there are so many solutions to make things work in an acceptable fashion that would only require a trivial amount of work for them. We'll find out in 9 hours if they're listening (I/O keynote). At least I did hear some very good news that Android 5 *will* actually have a beta and not be released in final form at I/O.
[Android Apps and Games] digiowl:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TtVsy98ces is a video from a Google IO session where it is briefly mentioned that SAF will allow apps to rewuest whole directories in the next Android version. More details likely to be had when the preview hits servers.
[Android Apps and Games] tliebeck:
Could be good, provided it's reasonably persistent. Sounds like it's file-picker-based though, would much prefer the ability to request a specific directory with the option of a duration...e.g. "I'm a file manager, I'd like to ask for access to the whole of the SD card...forever."

Edit...and still worried they might apply this to the internal storage as well...we'll see in a few hours.
[Android Apps and Games] thedicemaster:
I don't know how this happened, but FX just lost access to its own folder.

I can no longer manage files in /mnt/extsdcard/android/data/nextapp.fx, it keeps saying "access denied"

edit: apparently android also differentiates between apps on sdcard and on the data partition.

apps on the sdcard have no access to the sdcard at all.

to make it work again I had to move FX back to internal storage, nd reboot my phone.

so if you ever make that file managing hub thingy, don't allow moving it to the sdcard.
[Android Apps and Games] tliebeck:
Thanks, that's definitely some great info!
[Android Apps and Games] tliebeck:
In other news, I have my API 21/Android L/Android 5/Lollipop/Licorice/Lutefisk emulator running and FX appears to work at creating files/folders on the internal storage. I realize a lot of people might think I was nuts, but I was very concerned that all storage access was going to be prohibited and that KitKat was a push to get people on to the Storage Access Framework and everything all file access was going to be sandboxed Apple-style.