[ghmerrill]

With Android 11 or higher, applications are not allowed to have access to the directories used by other applications. So that means a file browser will not be able to see into /storage/emulated/0/Android/data/com.zubersoft.mobilesheetspro/files on higher Android versions. However, with most Android devices, if you connect a USB cable, the Windows device can access that directory through File Explorer.

Thanks -- though one of the reasons I've got a Chromebook is to get away from "the Windows device".    And I really have been enjoying that SO much.  So ... just to be clear ... what you're saying is that I can't access one of my own files on my own device with a "foreign" application on the same system, but if I plug a foreign (and adversarial) Windows system to it, then I can see those files.  That's making my head hurt, but I don't doubt it. You can't make this stuff up. 

You said you can't change the folder when selecting "Set the MobileSheets Storage Location". I'm a little confused by that. There should be two icons - an SD card icon and a folder icon. If you tap the folder icon, it should let you pick a different folder on your device (so long as you have granted the "All files access" permission).

That could be a new folder under /storage/emulated/0, and then an external file browser would have access to that location. Can you verify that you have granted the all files access permission for MobileSheets? This is normally under the main tablet settings->Apps, tap the three dots at the top right, "Special Access" and then "All files access". That's at least where it is on Samsung devices - I don't have a Chromebook device handy at the moment to check to see if it's the same on ChromeOS

Yeah, there's something funky here.  I thought I did this, and "Let MobileSheets Manage My files " is showing as checked.

And so pursuant to that ...

Looking under my apps permissions on the Chromebook, I see that permissions listed are "Camera" and "Storage".  Camera is "Allowed - While in use" and Storage is "denied".
If I go to "Manage App Permissions" I get a dialog that says "Camera" and "Nearby devices" are Allowed and that under "Not allowed" it says "No permissions denied." I don't see anywhere that Storage permissions are mentioned.

I just made a couple of circles around managing permissions on the Chromebook and on/via Google Play Store, and can't see anything else to do.  So I went back to MobileSheets and tried again ...

This time, when I try "Set the MobileSheets Storage Location" I get the same display, but when I select the file folder icon I see a bright orange icon resembling an SD card appear (a bit of cognitive dissonance there since I don't have an SD card plugged in at the moment). I click it and am rewarded by a little menu giving me three choices:  Device, App, and My files. Not deterred by mystery and ignorance, I click on Device and get a list of what looks like folders on a phone.  Okay, how about "App Data Directory"?  Well that's where the stuff already is, I guess.  Finally, "My files." Aha! a "Grant Storage Access" dialog appears.  Looks like progress.

Alas, its instruction is "Please select the root directory of the removable storage to grant access to MobileSheets." (Removable storage?  I don't have any removable storage accessible at the moment.) The choices presented are mysterious (and the font is vanishingly small -- even on my 27" monitor).  These choices are labeled as "Steps", but I don't know what that means.  And nothing on the diagram is clickable anyway.  Feeling a bit like Alice in Wonderland, I see the "Cancel  OK" choices and click "OK".  Down the rabbit hole we go with Alice ...

Miraculously a new page titled "My flles" appears -- but with the severe warning "Can't use this folder" (What folder?  Never mind) and a choice of "Create new folder".  Below this are three other buttons/selections of .Trash, Camera, Downloads, and Mydocuments.  Faced with what appear to be five choices, I go for CREATE NEW FOLDER.

It wants a "Folder name".  A "name"?  Or a path?  I don't know.  I decide to just throw it a name, and pitch it "MobileSheetsStorage", and click OK.  I'm rewarded with a page that, without explanation, displays "My files > MobileSheetsStorage" and "Files in MobileSheetsStorage" and then "No items".  Kind of makes sense, but where has it actually put this folder?

It turns out that this folder is really in my local "My files" folder.  SUCCESS!!!!  I think.

On a side note, if you tap Import->Local File, then tap the SD card icon at the top, then select "App data directory", that will take you to /storage/emulated/0/Android/data/com.zubersoft.mobilesheetspro/files, and then you should be able to see all your files.

Mike

Yes, that does work -- or rather, it's sufficient just to do the Import->Local File taps and I get a display of all my files on a page with what appears to be an oddly stylized representation of the full path to the folder they're in. Clicking the SD card at that point results in the same display.

So ... at this point this has all worked, EXCEPT there's nothing in that new MobileSheetsStorage directory I created.  So what do I do now in order to "move" my files into it?  Can I just do a file copy of some sort?  Or should I perform some sort of export/import action?

And (1) Will doing that have any effect on how the UI views what's in my collection? and (2) Will metadata I've added to the collection for each of the members remain?

Thanks.