System Settings

Some permissions are controlled through the system settings dialogs and cannot be requested through the normal permission request process.

Write Settings

The permission to read and write to the system settings (android.permission.WRITE_SETTINGS) from Android API 23 now requires a user to explicitly grant this permission to an application through a permission management screen.

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_SETTINGS" />

You cannot request this permission but you can check the current state and show the screen for the user to change the setting.

info

This permission is required for when you need to change system settings, such as the screen brightness as performed in the Application extension.

To check the state of the permission use the canWrite property on the settings:

if (Permissions.instance.settings.canWrite)
{
    // App can write to system settings
}

To display the permission management screen for the user to change this state, call the showManageSettingsScreen() method:

Permissions.instance.settings.showManageSettingsScreen();

There is also an event dispatched (SettingsEvent.MANAGE_SETTINGS_CLOSED) when this screen is closed:

Permissions.instance.settings.addEventListener( 
    SettingsEvent.MANAGE_SETTINGS_CLOSED, 
    manageSettingsClosedHandler
);

Permissions.instance.settings.showManageSettingsScreen();

function manageSettingsClosedHandler( event:SettingsEvent ):void 
{
    // screen closed
}

All Files Permission

The majority of apps that require shared storage access can follow the best practices for sharing media files and sharing non-media files. However, some apps have a core use case that requires broad access of files on a device, but cannot do so efficiently using the privacy-friendly storage best practices. Android provides a special app access called All files access for these situations.

For more information on this permission see the Android documentation section on managing all files.

note

For API versions < 30 don't require this additional permission and the following will always fail and isExternalStorageManager() will always return true indicating the application already has access.

Request All files access

An app can request All files access from the user by doing the following:

• Declare the android.permission.MANAGE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission in the manifest.

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.MANAGE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" />

• Use the ACTION_MANAGE_ALL_FILES_ACCESS_PERMISSION intent action to direct users to a system settings page where they can enable the following option for your app: Allow access to manage all files.

With this extension you can trigger the ACTION_MANAGE_ALL_FILES_ACCESS_PERMISSION by calling:

Permissions.instance.settings
    .showManageAllFileAccessPermission();

This will return true if the intent was found and launched.

Additionally you can listen for the SettingsEvent.MANAGE_ALL_FILES_ACCESS_PERMISSION_CLOSED event to be notified of when the dialog is closed and focus returned to your application.

Permissions.instance.settings.addEventListener( 
    SettingsEvent.MANAGE_ALL_FILES_ACCESS_PERMISSION_CLOSED, 
    closedHandler 
);

function closedHandler( event:SettingsEvent ):void
{
    trace( "closed" );
}

Request App All files access

You can also trigger the ACTION_MANAGE_APP_ALL_FILES_ACCESS_PERMISSION intent which will direct the user straight to your application setting if available.

Permissions.instance.settings
    .showManageAppAllFileAccessPermission();

This will return true if the intent was found and launched.

Additionally you can listen for the SettingsEvent.MANAGE_APP_ALL_FILES_ACCESS_PERMISSION_CLOSED event to be notified of when the dialog is closed and focus returned to your application.

Permissions.instance.settings.addEventListener( 
    SettingsEvent.MANAGE_APP_ALL_FILES_ACCESS_PERMISSION_CLOSED, 
    closedHandler 
);

function closedHandler( event:SettingsEvent ):void
{
    trace( "closed" );
}

Check Granted

To determine whether your app has been granted the MANAGE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission, call Environment.isExternalStorageManager().

var granted:Boolean = 
    Permissions.instance.environment.isExternalStorageManager();