Question Android has suddenly started preventing me from opening files on my mobile device

[ojos]

I have had an Android mobile device for many years moving to new Android versions regularly. As is usual, I create and download files only my device regularly. Then I open a file I want to see using a file manager app. Until a couple of days ago I never experienced any problem doing this. Then suddenly when I wanted to open a file, I was confronted with the following message:

"The file was not found. Google recently started enforcing restrictions on file access to internal storage in Android 11 and later. This causes many of the old file URLs to fail. Try going back to the first screen on the app and using the open button to access the file through the Android file selection dialog."

What the heck does this mean and where do I find this "open button" they mention? Since I am now prevented from opening my files, the problem is rather urgent for me. Can anyone please help me solve this strange riddle?

 

[belodion]

Welcome.

What phone, file manager app and Android version?

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Are the files you're trying to open saved websites? Or are they actual files, like photos, music files, documents, etc.?

 

[ojos]

The files I am trying to open are just perfectly normal files that users can generate and save, such a txt. pdf, odt, docx etc etc. In all the many years I have used Android devices I have never ever failed to open such a file using a normal Android file manager app.
As regards my devices, I have a number of mobiles and tablets with Android 11+, makes: Samsung, OPPO Reno4 Pro 5G, TCL 20 5G. All of them working fine. I use numerous different file managers. In view of this very strange message I am being confronted with:
Try going back to the first screen on the app and using the open button to access the file through the Android file selection dialog.
can you suggest any particular file manager I should try and what particular section of that file manager I should go to for opening these files and precisely where I can find this alleged Android file selection dialog? Maybe show me a screenshot of the so-called Android file selection dialog?

 

[Laura Knotek]

What apps are you using to attempt to open these files? Do you have Microsoft Office, Google Docs,or something else installed? A file requires an app to open a particular file format.

 

[ojos]

The particular app that I'm using is called KeePassDroid which opens files of the form:
xxxx.kdbx

From what I can see it looks like all other file types are OK to be opened and it's just the xxxx.kdbx files that are causing my serious problem.

 

[Laura Knotek]

The particular app that I'm using is called KeePassDroid which opens files of the form:
xxxx.kdbx

From what I can see it looks like all other file types are OK to be opened and it's just the xxxx.kdbx files that are causing my serious problem.

That app hasn't been updated since October 2022. Hopefully, it's not abandonware. You could try contacting the developers here: https://github.com/bpellin/keepassdroid/issues