[SteveB]

Hi, I just recently purchased MobileSheets Pro and I'm trying to setup cloud syncing and backups.

I have questions about the security of MSP cloud access.

I notice that MSP access to DropBox includes complete access to every folder and file on my DropBox account.  I'm not comfortable with that.  Other apps that I have connected to my DropBox account only have access to a single folder which I specify.  

When I try to Sync/Backup to Google Drive MSP asks for permission to access all of my contacts.  Why do you need to access all my contacts ?

I would prefer to use DropBox.  Can you change MSP so that it only has access to a single folder (and any subfolders) ?

Thank you,

-Steve

[Zubersoft]

Hello Steve,

With Dropbox, I need to request "Full Dropbox" access (https://developers.dropbox.com/oauth-guide) in order to access existing folders on a user's Dropbox account. In order to rename or delete files/folders, I have to request write permissions for file content. This results in Dropbox prompting you for complete access to every folder and file. The only way to limit things to a single folder through their API that I can see is if you use the option to limit access only to files/folders created by your own application (it essentially sandboxes the application). This means MobileSheetsPro would not have access to existing files/folders on Dropbox, which kind of eliminates the whole point for most users, as they want to be able to import their existing files. I don't see anywhere in Dropbox's documentation where an application can still see all of the existing files/folders, but only has access to a single folder that the user designates. I also can't programmatically limit the type of access I have based on a user selection, because the access stuff has to be set up beforehand through Dropbox's website. If I eliminated the ability to rename or delete files/folders, then I could limit it to read-only access, but I still need to be able to read all files/folders in order to import them. 

As far as Google Drive, I'm using Google's own library for Drive access. Google, for some odd reason, decided that the ability to access existing accounts on the device requires the contacts permission. If you use Import->Google Drive, you will see that it just asks you to pick from existing email addresses that have been set up on the device. The ability to query for those accounts requires the contacts permission. It's horribly named and confusing to users, but that's just how Google set it up, so there is nothing I can do about it. I am NOT requiring access to your phone contacts or any other contact information. If you actually look at the breakdown of what permissions MobileSheetsPro is requesting, it's literally just permission to access accounts, which does not provide access to other contact information. 

Mike

[SteveB]

Mike,

Thanks for the prompt reply.

I was wrong about DropBox, the other apps I have granted access to have created their own folder, not a folder I created.

For my use of MSP I only want a place to backup (or sync) my files so that if my Chromebook dies I can restore my data.  Therefore I don't care who creates the folder on DropBox.  Ideally, I would like an automatic sync between my Chromebook and DropBox.

That leads me to another related question.

I installed the DropBox app on my Chromebook and then created a folder to store the MSP data.  I set the "Make Available Offline" option for that folder in DropBox.  My experience with a folder set up like that is that any changes on DropBox or the Chromebook are automatically synchronized.  Next I tried to manually set the Storage Location option of MSP to the DropBox folder I created.

For some reason the folder picker in MSP doesn't show the Dropbox folders anywhere that I can find.  I can clearly see my DropBox folders in the Chromebook file explorer, but not in the MSP file explorer.  Do you have any thoughts on that ?

Finally, I understand your explanation of the Google Drive contacts permissions, thank you for giving me the details.

Best,

-Steve

[Zubersoft]

Steve,

ChromeOS has some interesting stuff going on with the file management, especially when dealing with the "My Files" segment of the storage. This part of the storage is separated from the rest and shows up as a separate volume. If you tap the SD card icon in the top of the file browser, you will see a list of storage locations pop up. On a Chromebook, you will see "My Files". Tap that and see if your Dropbox folder shows up in there. If it does, that is a problem, because Android applications are not given write permissions for the "My Files" part of the storage. So you can't specify that as the storage location for MobileSheetsPro. However, if you can specify a folder in the standard internal storage as the folder to use for Dropbox, then that should show up in MobileSheetsPro just fine (meaning something like /storage/emulated/0/Dropbox, for example). If you want to manage your own files/folders, then you can go to Settings->Storage, uncheck "Let MobileSheets Manage my Files", and then you can just import your files from any location you want, including "My Files". MobileSheetsPro will just use the files from the original location. Just make sure you always import files locally, because if you import from the cloud, the files will still be copied to the storage location so that they are available for offline use. 

Mike