Unlike Windows, the stock Android system doesn’t come with a built-in file management system. However, Most users don’t even need the file management system on Android anyway. Everything is managed for them and they can easily access apps in the app drawer and the media in the phone gallery.
On a daily basis, file manager might not be required, but there are times when you need to use a file manager or may like to tap into your phone’s system. Although, some manufacturers do add a file manager in their phones, but they are not as robust as third-party file managers and lack many features.
Even if you do have a built-in file manager, we will still recommend opting for a third-party manager to get the most juice out of your Android device. For this purpose, our recommendation will be ES File Explorer. It is one of the best you can find in the market and will let you completely tap into your Android phone’s system.
Types of Folder You May Find
If you haven’t already downloaded a file manager yet, then please download one and continue. The features are almost same for all good file manager, but we have found the ES File Explorer to be better than others.
Once downloaded and launched, you will be able to see all the folders available on your Android phone. However, the names might not be familiar to you, making it difficult to interact with the data.
Below are the Folders that will contain your required data:
Download: This folder contains all the files that you have downloaded from the internet. It will not include the apps that you downloaded from the market, but all other audio/video data will be here.
DCIM: For accessing your camera images, you might jump straight to “Pictures” folder, but you will be disappointed there. All your images taken with your phone camera will be inside “DCIM” (Digital Camera Images) folder.
All other files will be under a proper name. For example, data such as, Music, Movies, Videos or Ringtones will be located in the respective folders.
Hide Your Data
Using the file manager, you can hide a specific folder from the Android’s system and it will be unable to read the folder or the data inside it. For this purpose, you will have to add a “.” at the start of the folder and it will be hidden. If you need full instructions on the process, you can read our Hide Android Photos guide.
There is also a way to hide media content of an existing folder, you can just create a “.nomedia” file inside that folder and all media will be hidden in that folder. You can refer to the guide above for proper instructions.
Manage and Exchange Data between Devices over Wi-Fi
This feature might not be one of the most common features of Android file managers, but ES File Explorer definitely offers it. You can use ES File Explorer’s “Remote Manager” to access your phone’s file system using another device on the same network.
All you need to do is opens the main menu and from there, scroll down and tap on “Remote Manager”. In Remote Manager, tap on Turn on and you will see an address in the middle.
Enter this address in the browser of the other device and you will see the whole system as a web page. However, you can only copy data from the android phone using this method.
If you want to properly exchange data, you will have to use an FTP client and paste this Android address there and then connect. For this purpose, FileZilla is a reliable FTP client.
Conclusion
The features above, and associated instructions are just to help you understand what file managers are and what power they hold. However, a file explorer app is not only limited to this, you can do tons of other things that you can’t even think of right now. You can browse around, but beware that you have the power to delete files if you want to.
If you have any questions or would like to share a file manager feature that you use frequently, let us know in the comments.
Filed in . Read more about Android and Productivity.