Latest Update to ES File Explorer Android App Brings Adware To Your Lockscreen (xda-developers.com)

An anonymous reader writes: ES File Explorer (Google Play link) is one of the handiest file manager apps in the post-Android Gingerbread era, and it continues to ride up on its popularity (Editor's note: Google Play listing suggests the app has been downloaded between 100,000,000 and 500,000,000 times) and functionality. Recent changes to ES File Explorer, however, are signalling its decline. The newest update might just be the last straw that breaks the camels back, as ES File Explorer now bundles in adware. This adware comes in the form of DU Battery Booster, which adds in a lockscreen on your phone and brings ads directly to your lockscreen, irrespective of your choice. There was no intimation, no choice, no changelog to mention the same; all features which are characteristic of such deceptive "Booster" apps.Plenty of users have taken it to the Google Play listing of the aforementioned app to express their grievances. "This software is getting some major bloat with a lot of features that has very little to do with file browsing in general, so going to look elsewhere for a simple file explorer without all the 'extras'," a user wrote.

Comments

Not Surprising

[jesseck]

I used to use this, because it was the best out there... but these days, and with all the pointless (to me) updates, I am close to removing it.

Re:Not Surprising

[MightyMartian]

Their promotion of other products means it's a lot bigger pain in the ass to use. Frankly, I think Google should just do the right thing and put a proper file browser in Android. But if it's going to start throwing ads on my lockscreen, then whatever utility the app may have, it's going to be deleted. There's a level of assholeishness that I just won't tolerate.

Re:Not Surprising

[war4peace]

I stopped it from auto-updating using the link below:
http://fieldguide.gizmodo.com/...

I'll stick with the version I have until Kingdom's Come - or until a better app comes along.

Re:Not Surprising

[Anonymous Coward]

"Documents" works just fine on nexus 6

Re:Not Surprising

[farble1670]

I used to use this, because it was the best out there... but these days, and with all the pointless (to me) updates, I am close to removing it.

I'm sure the devs are going to be all broke up that you stopped using their free app. What a loss.

I have an idea. Don't like the ads? Buy the pro version. Don't be a cheap ass.

Re: Not Surprising

[Redbehrend]

This sucks though they do have a paid version that works great with no ads.

Re:Not Surprising

[theshowmecanuck]

They could port Apple's File Finder to Android. It's awesome with an uppercase, no, lowercase 'a'.

Re:Not Surprising

[mlts]

A few weeks, I installed it to find and move an OS image. It didn't look like the traditional file manager... and instead of the regular Android filesystem, it only supported bouncing between user directories.

If this program is spewing ads, that is even worse, because in the past, I used to trust it with root. I guess I'll use the ancient Root File Explorer utility from now on.

Re:Not Surprising

[Andy Dodd]

I already hit that threshold 3-4 months ago. It was giving me some popup about some sort of "optimization" routine, which had the options of "OK" or "Hide" - Hide did NOT stop it from running in the background.

Re:Not Surprising

[Andy Dodd]

At least in my case, the reason I used ES for a LONG time wasn't due to lack of other file browsers - ES had REALLY good built-in LAN support (such as a fully userspace SMB client that did not require the kernel SMB client support to be enabled/existent).

Re:Not Surprising

[Andy Dodd]

There's no way in hell I'm paying for this crap.

The Pro version contains the same crap that caused me to uninstall the free version, such as some snake-oil "Performance Optimizer" tool that you can't disable.

Re:Not Surprising

[Anonymous Coward]

Fuck off you trite little cunt.

Re:Not Surprising

[Cramer]

BULL. SHIT.

Ads within the app, WHILE I'M USING IT, are one thing. Going for the lame money grab of spamming my lockscreen with worthless, bandwidth robbing shit. Well, they can rot in the hottest, smelliest part of hell.

Re:Not Surprising

[Anonymous Coward]

I uninstalled it months ago after discovering a directory called "Baidu" on my phone. After some googling I found out it was created by ES. Worse yet, ES pings a server somewhere in China regularly. Thanks but no thanks, I really don't want chinese spyware on my phone.

Re:Not Surprising

[jesseck]

That's what I needed when I first installed it, and though I haven't used it in months, I keep it because it is useful.

Re:Not Surprising

[Anonymous Coward]

Just stick with the old version and don't update it

Re:Not Surprising

[Anonymous Coward]

ES is complete garbage compared to X-plore, which is the Android file manager I have been using for years.

Re: Not Surprising

[Anonymous Coward]

I did, a few months ago, because of the creeping bloat, and now I use Fx browser.

Re:Not Surprising

[xeoron]

What is frustrating is the article makes no mention of whether it is for both versions (free or pro) or just the free version. The Pro version is very cheap and worth the cost, so hopefully, the Pro version is not affected by this.

Re:Not Surprising

[farble1670]

The Pro version contains the same crap that caused me to uninstall the free version, such as some snake-oil "Performance Optimizer" tool that you can't disable.

No it doesn't. I'm looking at right now on my phone and there's no such tool / add on. There's no ES service running after I close the app.

Ah reality, it really gets in the way of your excuses for being cheap doesn't it?

Re:Not Surprising

[Anonymous Coward]

There are reviews showing up from people who say they have the pro version and are still getting the ads

Re: Not Surprising

[Anonymous Coward]

You fucks bitch about us being entitled but what makes you think you're entitled to be paid? For something free? Something you voluntarily selected the app to be, mind you. But we're the assholes? Goddammit! Go die in a fire.

Re:Not Surprising

[Albert Schueller]

This is a wonderful app. I push files around my home network using the ssh integration etc. Your comment motivated me to "go pro". I've been using the app for years and it never even occurred to me to buy it. For 2.99USD, it's really a pittance and the developers deserve a little compensation for a job well done. Thanks for motivating me.

Re:Not Surprising

[macs4all]

BULL. SHIT.

Ads within the app, WHILE I'M USING IT, are one thing. Going for the lame money grab of spamming my lockscreen with worthless, bandwidth robbing shit. Well, they can rot in the hottest, smelliest part of hell.

What is being missed here, and is of FAR MORE CONSEQUENCE, is that Android allows the SILENT REPLACEMENT OF THE LOCKSCREEN.

It's hard to imagine a more "one stop" way to direct someone into a "fake OS" that lures the user seamlessly from the FAKE Lockscreen right into a FAKE Password Screen, and then???

I can't even begin to fathom the security implications of being able to simply REPLACE A LOCKSCREEN with NO USER INTERVENTION!!!

Re:Not Surprising

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm sure the devs are going to be all broke up that you stopped using their free app. What a loss.

You are implying that the devs lost nothing from OP's actions. The existence of ads in the app prior to this bullshitery proves otherwise.

Re:Not Surprising

[Anonymous Coward]

I reverted to an earlier verison 3.14 (saved earlier with ES File Explorer's App Backup) which doesn't have all this crap.

Re:Not Surprising

[Anonymous Coward]

are you stupid ? it bundles ads even with the pro version.

Re: Not Surprising

[farble1670]

When you grow up and get a job some day, I wonder if you'll work for free?

When someone releases an app with ads, it's not free. It's ad-supported. That's how the devs get paid. Seriously, what kind of a reality distortion field do you live in where you think that software developers spend thousands of hours developing apps for free? Just to make you happy? Yeah, I said thousands of hours. This app is at least one dev's full time job. Have you ever spent thousands of hours on anything at this point in your life?

You've grown up in a world where you download pirated music and movies and get your software keys from hacker forums. When you get older and perhaps want things like a car or a wife or a kid or a house you'll have a better understanding of what's going on here.

Until then, stay out of things you can't comprehend.

Re: Not Surprising

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey everyone, this one asshole on /. says it's OK, so the rest of you lot must be liars...

Do us all a favor, go take a long walk off a short pier.

Re: Not Surprising

[Anonymous Coward]

Well have no fear, they added adds to the paid version too.

Enjoy!

Re:Not Surprising

[AmiMoJo]

They have hit the same problem that many, many apps have. The basic concept, a file manager, is actually fairly trivial and has been duplicated hundreds of times. Often it's a practice first app that new developers crank out and throw in the app store for free.

These guys got in early and made a name for themselves, but that's all they've got. A generic product that was feature complete years ago.

Other examples of this are any number of office suites, and my personal worst Nero Burning ROM.

Re: Not Surprising

[Bing Tsher E]

I have the paid version and ironically I just installed Malwarebytes to scan and try to root out whatever has been doing this. I also have Rhythm Software's file manager which I consider superior. It's time to toss this thing out of flash now that I know it's the culprit.

Re: Not Surprising

[StayFrosty]

Ads in the app are one thing. Nobody is complaining about that. Taking over the lock screen and advertising to you when the app isn't open is something totally different. It's no better than the mid-2000s trend of including spyware, browser toolbars, etc... with shareware apps--scummy as hell.

FWIW, I CAN'T STAND in-app advertising at all and spend the couple of bucks on the pro version whenever one is available. Apps that don't have a pro version and insist on in-app advertising get uninstalled unless there isn't a better alternative (WIFI Analyzer, I'm looking at you!).

Re: Not Surprising

[farble1670]

Did you read the OP?

You fucks bitch about us being entitled but what makes you think you're entitled to be paid? For something free? Something you voluntarily selected the app to be, mind you. But we're the assholes? Goddammit! Go die in a fire.

So yeah, he says how dare someone expect to be paid for a "free" app. That shows a profound misunderstanding of the world IMHO.

Re:Not Surprising

[LordSkippy]

I uninstalled ES last week, and it had nothing to do with ads. It was blocking another app, a dlna client, from being able to select a video player other than ES's built in player. ES File Explorer has morphed into very a invasive app that just happens to have a file manager in it. It's now border line malware.

Re:Not Surprising

[nadaou]

Yeah, ditch it. Or roll back to the last version before the original author sold it to the wolves, you can find it on ApkMirror. Look for version 4.0.2.3. You'll have to double check with another root file manager if that version is already sending back logs to China or not, ES hides the log file. You can unpack and repack the .apk installer to either change the name or resign the package, either one will stop the update manager from trying to install the new ruined version. You don't get SMB security patches that way though.

Amaze is Open Source and in the Play Store,
http://alternativeto.net/softw...

For that matter, to hell with this shareware crap, get as much as you can from FOSS apps cross-listed on F-Droid. http://f-droid.org/

Re:Not Surprising

[JoeMerchant]

I passed the "close to removing it" point a few months ago when it was pushing mysterious notification to my screen - that's not what I expect out of a file explorer application.

Solid Explorer seems to do what I need without the un-necessary intrusions.

Re:Not Surprising

[JoeMerchant]

I totally kicked ES File Explorer off of all my android systems quite some time ago because of these pop-ups.

However, from the developer's perspective, I wasn't giving them any money, nor likely to in the future, so... I guess they don't really care that I don't use their app anymore.

Too bad that it's difficult to choose what level of software update you want to use - their older program was the best I'd used.

Re:Not Surprising

[farble1670]

I uninstalled ES last week, and it had nothing to do with ads. It was blocking another app, a dlna client, from being able to select a video player other than ES's built in player.

Yeah, it can't do that. No app can do that. The only way it could do that is if you selected "always open using this app" previously. If you did, you can clear that up by going to that app in settings and choosing "clear defaults".

Re:Not Surprising

[GuB-42]

I don't think it is ES fault, at least not entirely. Newer versions of Android seem to have changed the way default apps work and don't let you choose by default anymore.
To fix this, go to the the offending app properties (ES in this case), go to "open by default", and set "supported links" to "always ask" or "don't open". You can also clear the default from here.

Re: Not Surprising

[Anonymous Coward]

Well have no fear, they added adds to the paid version too.

Where? I couldn't find them, and I have no adblocker.

Re:Not Surprising

[byornski]

I can get behind your argument but that they subtly added a new lock screen without asking is a new level of dickery. Imagine if GIMP decideded to fuck with your login background to get you to pay money.

Re:Not Surprising

[farble1670]

I can get behind your argument but that they subtly added a new lock screen without asking is a new level of dickery. Imagine if GIMP decideded to fuck with your login background to get you to pay money.

I agree, but I don't begrudge their right to try and monetize their app. Nor do I begrudge a user's right to stop using the app. What bothers me is the majority of people here claiming outrage. Nothing is free. When you use a free of payment product, expect to be monetized in other ways. In other, probably annoying ways. Deal with it. Expect it. It's the same reason I can't stand the "With Google YOU are the product!" people. No shit really? Gee, I thought Google spent billions of dollars on data centers and engineers because they are nice guys?

If I had to guess the way the people that made ES are looking at this is: who fucking cares? A bunch of people that aren't paying for our app aren't going to use it anymore. We can either monetize this app by doing terrible shit like showing apps* over the lock screen, or we can go home. If we can't monetize it we're better off losing all of our users and not developing it anymore.

* That's what this is. It's not replacing the lock screen. You can't do that. What you can do is if you have an insecure (swipe only e.g.) "key guard", an app (with permission that you granted when you installed it) can show itself over top of the key guard.

Re:Not Surprising

[TsuruchiBrian]

When I realized my neighborhood mechanic was sprinkling nails in the street to make money on tire repairs, it made me realize how important it is to support small local businesses. /s

Maybe it would be better to be motivated to support all the developers, who don't do stuff like this.

Re:Not Surprising

[TsuruchiBrian]

I have a better idea. Leaving a 1 star review.

Re:Not Surprising

[TsuruchiBrian]

Why are you bothered at other people's outrage? You should expect it. This is a free society. Deal with it.

Re:Not Surprising

[piojo]

For 2.99USD, it's really a pittance and the developers deserve a little compensation for a job well done. Thanks for motivating me.

I hope you're being sarcastic. A "donate" button would be a motivation to compensate them. Bundling malware should be motivation to install an alternative, or even write a competing app, if you're an Android developer.

Re:Not Surprising

[Anonymous Coward]

Amaze is Open Source and in the Play Store

Holy fuck that thing is hideous. It doesn't look like it even has basic features like webDAV, FTP/SFTP/SSH, DLNA/UPnP, disk map, RAR, 7-Zip or thumbnail support. It also looks to be Indian-made, which is a huge red flag.

Re:Not Surprising

[Anonymous Coward]

I have the pro version. I have yet to see an ad.

Re:Not Surprising

[LordSkippy]

I cleared default apps, and it brought up a list of video players to choose from when selecting a video to play from other apps. Despite MX player and VLC both being installed, it only showed ES's player. Until I uninstalled ES File Explorer. And guess what? The other players magically showed up.

Re:Not Surprising

[LordSkippy]

It wasn't that. There was no default video player set, and it was bringing up a list of video players to choose from, with the just once/always option. The issue was that despite other players being installed, only ES's player was shown in the list.

After uninstalling ES, the list returned to the full list of players.

That tells me that ES was the culprit.

Re: Not Surprising

[MrNiceguy_KS]

I did, a few months ago, because of the creeping bloat, and now I use Fx browser.

Just checked out Fx. Apparently they're running $1 off their paid version, and they specifically mention a popular competitor that's started running ads on the lockscreen. (I've used ES file explorer for awhile, came to this thread because I knew /.ers would be discussing alternatives).

Re:Not Surprising

[drinkypoo]

Maybe it would be better to be motivated to support all the developers, who don't do stuff like this.

No doubt it would, but here's the rub: I want ES File Explorer to exist more than I want it to not advertise to people who aren't willing to pay for it. I've used at least a dozen different Android file managers and ES File Explorer is the only one that isn't a festering piece of shit. Even if your kernel has working CIFS support (most don't, even most custom kernels don't!) none of the file explorers support mounting those filesystems for you, so you still need an external utility.

I used my Google Rewards survey credits to pay for ES File Explorer Pro, so it cost me nothing except a few minutes of time answering astoundingly stupid questions. It's still the best file manager. I bought in when they changed the start screen of their app to advertising. I figured I used it more than any other app I hadn't paid for, so I should pay. I did. Now I'm not having a problem.

If anyone else knows of a browser that does all the useful stuff that ES file explorer does, then I'm interested to hear about it, even though I don't need it. But let's face it, that's a very tall order. It's not even a very big download and it does stuff like stream files to apps which don't even support streaming files.

Re:Not Surprising

[drinkypoo]

The Pro version contains the same crap that caused me to uninstall the free version, such as some snake-oil "Performance Optimizer" tool that you can't disable.

What? It has a cleanup tool that you don't have to use, but it doesn't have any optimization steps that fire automatically.

Re:Not Surprising

[drinkypoo]

They have hit the same problem that many, many apps have.

Which problem?

The basic concept, a file manager, is actually fairly trivial and has been duplicated hundreds of times.

Yes, very poorly.

Often it's a practice first app that new developers crank out and throw in the app store for free.

And it looks it.

These guys got in early and made a name for themselves, but that's all they've got. A generic product that was feature complete years ago.

Which is far superior to all of the competition, and which has features that none of the competition has, like working SMB support or file streaming support.

Other examples of this are any number of office suites,

Most of which are shit, just like Android file managers

and my personal worst Nero Burning ROM.

Wrong again. Nero had options other programs didn't even have, and would successfully burn where other programs shit themselves.

Re:Not Surprising

[AmiMoJo]

Which problem?

The one stated in the very next sentence. *facepalm*

Which is far superior to all of the competition, and which has features that none of the competition has, like working SMB support or file streaming support.

Solid has good SMB support that I use regularly. Maybe there are other features you need. Amaze is very good too, no SMB but it has all the other good stuff like tabs and is open source.

Nero had options other programs didn't even have, and would successfully burn where other programs shit themselves.

I've not had any issues with other apps on many machines with many drives. It's also undeniable that Nero came with a tonne of shovelware. The last time I looked, which was admittedly a decade or more ago, it was a half gig download and installed all sorts of video mastering, audio mastering, label printing, library managing rubbish. I think since then it has been made available stand-alone, but people used to release pirate "lite" versions it was so bad.

Anyway, I'm more interesting in why you are being so hostile towards me lately. Did I do something to annoy you? It's got to the point where you won't even read the next sentence before starting to argue.

Re: Not Surprising

[Anonymous Coward]

Even the pro version sends data constantly to Baidu and there IS NO OPT OUT. ES is full of shit. Watch your connections and see for yourself.

If you insist keeping it, don't give it root! Ever! I denied it network/internet permissions via Xprivacy and blocked network access via a firewall... still sent analytics to Baidu! I then denied it root... same thing! Turns out it installs it's own service to always give it access even if you revoke root. Guess you could filter the service or whatever, but at that point the shit is practically malware...

I logged it from the phone, from my gateway and from my internal router. See for yourself. While you're there, check out all the other bullshit connections other apps are making on from your phone.

Re: Not Surprising

[Anonymous Coward]

Monitor your packets. The Pro version sends data to Baidu. It also installs its own system level service to be sneaky. This is easy to test.

Install, but don't give it root. Try to write to a system directory. No go. Give it root, test. NOW, revoke root from your SU app, test again, and surprise! ES don't give a shit! Fuck yo couch!

And it don't give a shit if you block net access on main app. Although from a functionality perspective you will get no access, those packets to Baidu will continue to flow!

If anybody doubts this, do a packet capture, export, and load into Wireshark. There are also many network connections apps that will verify, but they need to support monitoring system level. I thought I stopped ES shenanigans with an android firewall app until I started seeing Baidu trash at my gateway. Enabled system monitoring and sure enough.

Re: Not Surprising

[Anonymous Coward]

If you give it root it will install its own service as a SYSTEM service. At that point, even if you revoke root... it don't matter.

By the way, it sends packets to Baidu constantly. Do they disclose this? Do they provide an opt out? NO.

This is in the free and Pro versions. There is no way to use this app as a root level file manager without leaking packets to Baidu short of excessively modifying it.

If you think this is as shady as I do, investigate, document, and inform. They need to feel the heat for their greed.

Re:Not Surprising

[Imazalil]

Give Solid Explorer a try.

Re:Not Surprising

[Anonymous Coward]

Even if they don't do it on the Pro version*, fuck 'em, this is shitty behaviour and makes them untrustworthy, I had considered buying the Pro version and likely would have, but now I can't trust them and will uninstall instead.

Re:Not Surprising

[klossner]

Thanks loads for the tip! I now have "ES File Explorer Classic" on my tablet.

Re:Not Surprising

[TsuruchiBrian]

Makes sense to me. I just don't think I could trust a company that does this sort of thing. If they are willing to use deceptive practices on users of the free version, then maybe they will be willing to deceive the users of the paid version. They stand to suffer some lost sales profit, but all it takes is for the variables to line up to make it more profitable to deceive their paying users than not, and they will probably do it. We already know they aren't restricted by an ethical obligation to be honest, nor do they have a reputation for honesty to lose.

Re:Not Surprising

[xenobyte]

I used to use this, because it was the best out there... but these days, and with all the pointless (to me) updates, I am close to removing it.

I have removed it. I use Solid Explorer now and it's better in just about every way.

Re:Not Surprising

[Anonymous Coward]

Marshmallow has a built-in file explorer, but it's not intuitive to get there and it's pretty rudimentary once you're in it. A move in the right direction, though.

Settings | Storage | Explore

Re:Not Surprising

[Anonymous Coward]

I've found Solid Explorer to be a pretty great replacement. I originally moved off ES File Explorer because of its slow FTP file transfers (which Solid handle much faster) and haven't looked back since.

dammit, filesystem, you had one job

[Pseudonymous Powers]

ES File Explorer is one of the handiest file manager apps in the post-Android Gingerbread era, and it continues to ride up on its popularity

ES File Explorer's slogan should be "Because for some reason Google has some sort of policy against including a decent file manager with Android by default".

That decision has always made perfect sense to me. Just because you're writing an operating system, that's no real reason to get bogged down messing around with "files" and "directories" and stuff. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go write some audio-processing software for my printer.

Re:dammit, filesystem, you had one job

[fluffernutter]

The reason I use Android versus iOS is because I want to mess around with files and directories. One use case, I don't trust the phone's magic to gather all the images from the camera for me, so much easier and straight forward to just select and move the image files to my network storage. I also use ES Explorer to do this... which will definitely not be staying if I have to look at adware. Seems to be a pretty big price to pay for a file manager.

Re:dammit, filesystem, you had one job

[phorm]

Google doesn't just release an "Operating System". Android is a platform/ecosystem which includes Play and a certain number of default configuration options and applications (browser, mail client, etc etc). Otherwise, you'd have to install all that stuff yourself

(now granted, I'd be willing to do so if it wasn't too difficult and let me avoid the manufacturer bloatware, but that's wouldn't like work for most users).

Re:dammit, filesystem, you had one job

[fahrbot-bot]

I'm going to go write some audio-processing software for my printer.

Are you *still* working on Pulse Audio Lennart?

Re:dammit, filesystem, you had one job

[Anonymous Coward]

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go write some audio-processing software for my printer.

If you have a 3D printer, someone has already done that

Re:dammit, filesystem, you had one job

[iampiti]

Well, it's pretty obvious that Google doesn't want a file manager in Android because it doesn't fit their goals. They want you to store everything on the cloud so they can datamine the hell out of it
I hate that mobile OSs give the user so little control over their own devices, they should be like a PC only smaller. And, no, that doesn't mean they should be hard to use for regular users just that they shouldn't prevent power users to use their devices as they see fit

Re:dammit, filesystem, you had one job

[thegarbz]

ES File Explorer's slogan should be "Because for some reason Google has some sort of policy against including a decent file manager with Android by default".

The policy is simple. Android by design was not supposed to care about exact files. Everything was media scanning and OS level control of where things were being saved. And quite frankly as a user myself I should not ever have to browse through a filesystem on a damn phone or tablet, save for maybe a downloads folder ... which Android provides a default store and app to access. Want to take something specific and do something with it? There's usually an app that interacts with that file format be it the PDF reader, image gallery, video player, etc, and a common method of interacting between apps was the "Share" button.

The folder structure made a lot of sense when moving my office to that new fangled thing called a PC in the 90s. It was a convenient way to conceptualise the storage of lots of files, and folders, much like the files and folders I had in my desk. Even the desktop itself is a play on that. The same level of sheer complexity does not apply to the phone, and I should not ever have to traverse a file system in that context.

Ironically enough I was a big user of ES File Explorer, but only to browse SMB shares.

Re:dammit, filesystem, you had one job

[Threni]

i want to download stuff on my phone (4g is faster than my broadband) then copy it onto my pc when i'm home. i want to copy video off my network onto my tablet. i want to copy music off my network onto my phone (but only into folders which my mp3 player is monitoring, so it's all in one place). i want to copy android roms onto my sd card from the net/my network. i want to copy files (notifications/ringtones/app config files) between my devices and my cloud account.

I cannot do any of this without a file explorer. I don't want to abstract it away and have no control over where stuff goes; i want it to go exactly where i want it.

Re: dammit, filesystem, you had one job

[Anonymous Coward]

Difference without distinction or however that saying goes. Pull your zipper up. Your nerd is hanging out.

Re:dammit, filesystem, you had one job

[KGIII]

Up above people are saying it's $2.99 and that the paid version has no ads. Well, one AC says it has ads and then calls people names but registered users are asserting it has no ads.

Err... I... I umm... I use Windows Phone so I don't actually know if there *is* a File Manager app in the store? (It comes with a functional file manager.) There probably is but I can't help with that either. No, no I'm not that helpful. I'm not even sure why I'm in the thread. Morbid curiosity, I suppose. But, it's dirt cheap if you want to have no ads. Why Android doesn't have a decent file manager built in is something more that I do not know.

Re:dammit, filesystem, you had one job

[Anonymous Coward]

Consider switching to Total Commander.

Re:dammit, filesystem, you had one job

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry dude, but as soon as you have some devices with separate memory cards and some without, your beautiful world comes crashing down.

Re:dammit, filesystem, you had one job

[drinkypoo]

The policy is simple. Android by design was not supposed to care about exact files.

The policy is shit. As long as they are using a traditional hierarchical filesystem beneath it, it is complete arrogant ivory tower bullshit.

If they would have done something daring and moved to a completely new filesystem, perhaps there would have been some sense to what you say. As it is, they failed utterly, totally, and completely to make file locations irrelevant. Notably, they have completely punted on network filesystem access, which is more than a little pathetic. It is, in fact, one of the primary reasons why people need ES File Explorer!

Re:dammit, filesystem, you had one job

[Stormalong]

Marshmallow has a file explorer built in. But its not an app so most people don't know its there.

Go to Settings -> Storage & USB, scroll to the bottom and tap "Explore". Its not exactly feature rich, but for basic browsing, copying and deleting it works well enough.

Re:dammit, filesystem, you had one job

[thegarbz]

i want to download stuff on my phone (4g is faster than my broadband) then copy it onto my pc when i'm home. i want to copy video off my network onto my tablet. i want to copy music off my network onto my phone (but only into folders which my mp3 player is monitoring, so it's all in one place). i want to copy android roms onto my sd card from the net/my network. i want to copy files (notifications/ringtones/app config files) between my devices and my cloud account.

Funny I do all of those things without exception and without a file explorer on the phone. Interestingly the whole point of abstracting it is that you don't need to care where you want it, as long as it's on your phone and accessible. There really is no reason your phone needs to follow a file/folder structure at all.

Ok there's one exception. When loading a ROM onto the phone you can't abstract it away because during installation the interface is basic that it doesn't simply search your device for ZIP files, you need to manually do that part, but then I consider the file explorer in the bootloader little more than a file > open command.

Re:dammit, filesystem, you had one job

[thegarbz]

I agree with most of that except for the word "people". People don't need ES File Explorer. Nerds with a hardon for a carefully structured system and network do, as I said I use it myself for that and only that reason.

However "people"? I know many people, they download, they transfer things to and from their PC, they play music and video from network source, and not a single one of them use a file explorer.

Everything these days is abstracted, and maybe it's my inner nerd that likes the 100% reliability and certainty of a Samba share that makes me keep ES file explorer, but my Linux server also runs a UPnP server... because my girlfriend found traversing the file system too complicated and just wanted to open the music app and see all the music from every device in the house.

Everything is completely abstract if you set it up that way. The only reason you need a file system at all on your phone is if you only "half" set things up, and we're getting there with more and more fully abstract defaults (i.e. buy a WD My Cloud HDD now and UPnP is on by default and your TV will likely see it before you even figure out how to mount the samba share).

Re:dammit, filesystem, you had one job

[Threni]

The phone has a file structure because it's linux, and linux has a file structure. Android could, if it chose, hide that, but it doesn't, so I don't want to pretend it's hidden. It's great that a lot of users can get by without having to know it's there, but I can't imagine not using a proper file explorer.

Re:dammit, filesystem, you had one job

[thegarbz]

Android could, if it chose, hide that, but it doesn't, so I don't want to pretend it's hidden.

How could you make that case given that Android on most devices ships without a file explorer, mounts as a media device when attached to a computer, and needs to install special purpose 3rd party apps to even have access to the file structure. For all intents and purposes they indeed tried to hide it as much as they could.

but I can't imagine not using a proper file explorer.

Actually I'm a bit with you on that. But less with you every day. File exploring (not just on a phone) has long been my default. I shunned all attempts to connect devices that weren't smb://user:password@host/ mainly because it was just so much more reliable. But as time is moving on I find more and more things just work out of the box without knowing or caring where on your file system the files are. Much like Windows abstracts collections of files in Pictures, Documents, Downloads, etc, shares happen through home-groups, media is shared via UPnP, Picassa image viewer just pulls every image from my drive and displays them by date rather than folder structure, I find myself using files (across all devices) less and less.

The phone is further ahead than the PC, but still second to something like a TV of media centre which search for UPnP shares, but the phone is also more reliable than the latter.

Babysteps.

Re:Only APPS can app apps!

[Anonymous Coward]

God you're so boring.

Total Commander

[Anonymous Coward]

No ads.

Re: Total Commander

[Anonymous Coward]

+1 also not built by China

Re:Total Commander

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, but a PITA for non techies.

Re: Total Commander

[Anonymous Coward]

Hope you posted that from an American designed, manufactured, and assembled PC then....

Re:Only APPS can app apps!

[Anonymous Coward]

App you, motherapper!

I've never used ES

[jenningsthecat]

fx File Explorer has always been great for me. I use the free version - no ads. There is also a paid version with additional features. Easy, intuitive, works well as either user or root.

Oh shit - I think I just wrote a Slashvertisement ...

Re:I've never used ES

[serviscope_minor]

I use the one from cyanogenmod. Works great, no ads obviously.

Re:I've never used ES

[dinfinity]

Total Commander.
https://play.google.com/store/...

It is awesome on Windows and it is equally awesome on Android.

Re:I've never used ES

[safetyinnumbers]

I switched to fx about a year ago after some reading about suspicious behavior in ES. At the time, it was just surreptitiously reporting usage or some other analytics to servers, but it was enough to make me wary.

God alternative to ES?

[jakob]

Used to be the best, but I stopped using it because of all the ads and bloats....

Not to happy with my current filemanager, anyone who has any recomendations for alternatives?

Re:God alternative to ES?

[Golthur]

I use Amaze file manager, and have no complaints.

It's open source, GitHub is here: https://github.com/arpitkh96/AmazeFileManager.

Re:God alternative to ES?

[phorm]

If you want something fairly simple, "Root explorer" seems to do the job. Astro is also not bad but has additional bells and whistles.

Re:God alternative to ES?

[Trunklebob]

I've been using Root Explorer for 3 years, and I have no complaints. I believe it works on non-rooted phones (sans the root-only functions), but if not the same developer has just plain Explorer which appears to be the same w/o the root tools.

Root Explorer: https://play.google.com/store/...
Explorer: https://play.google.com/store/...

Note: Most of my apps are the paid version so there may be ads if you go the free route.

Re: God alternative to ES?

[Anonymous Coward]

Try Mixplorer, look for it on XDA.

Re:God alternative to ES?

[farble1670]

Not to happy with my current filemanager, anyone who has any recomendations for alternatives?

ES File Explorer Pro
https://play.google.com/store/...

Re:God alternative to ES?

[Anonymous Coward]

I use Solid Explorer and it does its job very well. It's not free, mind you, but worth the 99 cents or however much I paid for it.

Re:God alternative to ES?

[Gort65]

On Android, I use Ghost Commander. It's quite like one of my favourites when running Linux: Midnight Commander. It's open source and free, too.

Re:God alternative to ES?

[Anonymous Coward]

I am also using the paid-for version of Root Explorer, which is great, although their effort to go with Material Design is more than fugly in my mind...
I got used to the old version and they should have left it there...

Re:God alternative to ES?

[Jason Levine]

I just uninstalled ES File Manager - a shame because I loved that app. (Now, the "battery booster" popup on my son's tablet makes sense.)

I installed Amaze File Manager. It's free and open source. So far, it's very quick and seems full featured (at least for the uses I need it for).

Re:God alternative to ES?

[bhcompy]

So the shit referenced here doesn't apply to the paid version? Just want to make sure before I pay. I don't mind supporting useful software if they're not going to bludgeon me to death with ads.

Re:God alternative to ES?

[farble1670]

I have the paid version and I've never seen an ad let alone on my lock screen. It is still bundled with a bunch of tools no one wants like "SD card analyst" and "Music player" which I don't appreciate.

Re:God alternative to ES?

[GuB-42]

I have the pro version, no ads. Make sure you uninstall the free version after you get the paid one.
Don't be afraid to try it out. Like with all play store apps, you get your money back if you uninstall it within a certain delay.

Re: God alternative to ES?

[Anonymous Coward]

Keep shilling your bloated product, dude. We're on to you.

Re:God alternative to ES?

[JackSpratts]

yep. mixplorer, but you'll have to side load it.

Re: God alternative to ES?

[farble1670]

Keep mooching and expecting your shit for free you spoiled millennial brathole. Reality is just around the corner.

Re:God alternative to ES?

[drinkypoo]

I'm trying it out now and it seems good. I prefer OSS when possible, so even though I've paid for ES pro it's worth a look. So far it is very fast, as advertised. Pressing the plus icon to create a SMB connection is a bit weird but whatever

AirDroid

[ThatsNotPudding]

It can be used as a file manager, but I installed it to upload / download files to a PC via your account's web page.

No problem on iOS

[U2xhc2hkb3QgU3Vja3M]

There's no silly "file explorer" problem on iOS, because we can't access files! /joke

Re: No problem on iOS

[Anonymous Coward]

Isn't that what Google Drive is for? Only nerds care about what the OS is doing, so that excludes everyone here.

With that user base they will be raking it in

[Anonymous Coward]

even if they lose 90% of their users.

Re:With that user base they will be raking it in

[Anonymous Coward]

Assuming that remaining 10% is too lazy to find a way to block the ads.

Alternatives?

[pr0t0]

This /. story prompted me to search for alternatives, and found this which seems relevant.
http://www.guidingtech.com/536...

I've installed Solid to see how that looks. A decent ad-free file explorer is worth a couple of bucks to me.

Re:Alternatives?

[farble1670]

I've installed Solid to see how that looks. A decent ad-free file explorer is worth a couple of bucks to me.

Maybe you should have tried the ad-free version of ES File Explorer?
https://play.google.com/store/...

4.8 stars. They are doing something right.

Re:Alternatives?

[decipher_saint]

They manufactured a problem and now sell a solution, classy.

Or

I just switch to some other file manager. Done

Re:Alternatives?

[Anonymous Coward]

€2.99? No thank you. Solid Explorer cost me €0.99 and is much better, not to mention it doesn't look like it was designed by a team of legally blind monkeys high on PCP. And, best of all, it doesn't continually phone home to a server somewhere in China, like ES does.

Re:Alternatives?

[QuietLagoon]

...Maybe you should have tried the ad-free version of ES File Explorer?...

Sorry, I don't support jerks, no matter how good the product is.

.
And ES Global has just leaped to the top of my "jerks" scale with this latest antic of theirs.

Re:Alternatives?

[Grishnakh]

Shill detected. Why would anyone want to pay for a program that phones home to China?

Re:Alternatives?

[TheGratefulNet]

same here; deinstalled this ES junk and found another. for now, at least.

phones - whack-a-mole - what do they both have in common?

(sigh)

I hate phones. I really do.

Re:Alternatives?

[farble1670]

They manufactured a problem and now sell a solution, classy.

Translation: I'm cheap, and I don't want to support the developer by looking at ads OR by paying for the app. I'm going to go find some other developer to mooch from.

Re:Alternatives?

[farble1670]

Were you paying for it prior to this "jerk" move? No? Oh I get it. This your latest excuse to not compensate the software developers that produce the tools you use. I understand now, thanks.

Re:Alternatives?

[farble1670]

How many apps do you use that don't phone home? Oh, you don't know. In fact, you don't even know this one you just happen to have read another post that made that claim.

Yes, you're right I'm highly paid by the ES Explorer team to push their software on Slashdot. It's not a great job but man it's bought this yacht and home in Malibu so I can't complain too much.

Re: Alternatives?

[Bing Tsher E]

I've now deleted the paid version. I wish there was an enforcablecrefund policy, but it wasn't that expensive.

Re: Alternatives?

[Bing Tsher E]

So you are the dude who owes me the refund.

Really? You were just trolling and have no personal stakes beyond trolling us? How nice.

Re:Alternatives?

[solidraven]

Believe it or not, some of us hate malware infecting phones that are used as communication devices and login authentication tools. So by all intense and purposes the developers became inconsiderate douchebags. In app adverts sure, but outside influences: NO!

Re:Alternatives?

[farble1670]

I just switch to some other file manager. Done

I guess you liked it enough and used it for free for at least some amount of time then? I doubt the devs are broken up that they'll continue to receive no compensation from you for using their app. What a loss.

Re:Alternatives?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why do you get so butthurt and defensive with when anyone criticizes the developers of the software?

Re:Alternatives?

[Desler]

And yet strangely, you seem really broken up over it. So much so that you get really really upset over it.

Re:Alternatives?

[Desler]

So you act as their butthurt defense squad and yet don't even get paid for it? That's even more pathetic.

Re:Alternatives?

[KGIII]

> So by all intense and purposes ...

Really? Really? C'mon now.

It's porpoises, obviously.

Intense?

I should know better than to go into phone threads. ;-)

Re:Alternatives?

[KGIII]

No, he told you that that's how he bought his home in Malibu and his yacht. Can't you read? Sheesh!

Don't mind me - I got an email informing me of my 10 year Slashdot anniversary (now if only I still new my first account) so I'm gonna burn another fatty and make bad jokes for the rest of the night.

Re:Alternatives?

[farble1670]

Why do you go apeshit when a developer tries to monetize their work? God forbid. Do you get compensated for your work? Or do you work for free and live out of a good size cardboard box?

Re:Alternatives?

[farble1670]

I'm not one of the devs. I'm broken up that people (including you?) go apeshit when someone tries to monetize their work. When your mom finally kicks you out of her basement you'll understand.

Re:Alternatives?

[Cley Faye]

Oh yes, they *did* something right: their app, right before all these "free updates to boost your system plz gib gib". You're telling "4.8 stars", I tell you "4.8 stars based on their previous versions".

I would not have cared if they decided to make it a paid app; I have a handful of these when they feel polished enough. I even paid for a basic SMS app that was just a "downgrade" for the recent stuff google pulled on that.

But the thing here is that they are shoddy. Consumers trust is hard to gain, and when you lose it, it's done. When you have arguably one of the best app on the market that does a lot of things well, there's one thing you don't do: start behaving like it's a chinese ripoff that exist only as an ad channel. On the point of ES File Explorer: one day, out of the blue, my phone had a notification about "removing trash to boost the performances", or something along the line. It sort of looked like a classic spam message, with no indication that this was from an app. And if dismissed, it comes back quickly. That was ES; and there was no option to disable it. Then, this "extremely useful feature" became the default screen when you open the app, prominently taking a third of the screen to encourage you to use what have all the warnings you're looking for when you look at a scam.

And now, the very same team decided to force-feed you a new lockscreen, with implications that goes well beyond the "showing ad" issue. Android might not be the most secure thing on earth, but I have slightly more trust in the stock lockscreen than in the one provided by some definitely shoddy business.

Seriously, now I've removed all of their apps, found very good replacements that don't do anything funky, even paid for one, and all is well. But I can't understand how you can think "hey, let's force spam and bloatware down people's phones, THEN make a paid version without that" when you could have just done it harmlessly.
They could make the best app ever now, I'm never trusting them again with anything.

Re:Alternatives?

[Cley Faye]

Other translation: I'm more than willing to pay for an app that I use regularly and is produced by people that have a fair amount of trust, and strangely enough force-feeding my phone with bloatware, adware and replacing basic functionalities with junk got them out of this fairly exclusive group.

Re:Alternatives?

[solidraven]

Nah you're related to them. Or you're a butt hurt app developer, either works. You fail to grasp the difference between scooping up a dog's "business" and asking if you can throw it in the trash can or doing the same and then burying the trash can with a dump truck of shit. ES File Explorer isn't so great that it gets the right to be so abusive to their users WITHOUT WARNING. Especially the latter is completely unacceptable.

Re:Alternatives?

[drinkypoo]

I've installed Solid to see how that looks. A decent ad-free file explorer is worth a couple of bucks to me.

Bullshit. Otherwise you would have paid for ES File Explorer Pro already. Solid is trialware, and doesn't even offer a free product. You have to pay just as much for fx as for ES, if you want network functionality. It looks work trying Amaze, though. Looks like you chose wrong again.

Re:Alternatives?

[thegarbz]

You're telling "4.8 stars", I tell you "4.8 stars based on their previous versions".

Actually they are down to 4.5 now which is an effort given the 1.7million 5 star reviews.
The ultimate rating of an App was never a sign of it's current quality. It was always worth looking in the recent reviews and take note if for some reason the most recent page wasn't somehow representative of their average rating.

Based on their recent reviews they are going for 1 star.

Thanks!

[ArhcAngel]

I got up this morning and looked at my phone and saw the ad screen and was WTF!? because I had no idea what was generating it. I was late so I didn't have time to investigate further. Now I know what it was.

X-plore

[DiSKiLLeR]

I don't get it. What's wrong with X-plore? It's the midnight commander or norton commander style file manager for android and I've been using for some 5 years. It's amazing.

No bloat or other shit.

Never even heard of ES File Explorer before, and I guess I haven't been missing anything...

Re:X-plore

[farble1670]

Maybe it's that X-Plore's UI is a hot mess?

Re:X-plore

[fluffernutter]

When I was looking for a file manager, either those ones weren't there yet or the glowing reviews of ES prevented me from finding the other ones. I'll be looking for them now.

Re:X-plore

[fluffernutter]

How free is it?

Re:X-plore

[Anonymous Coward]

I really like X-plore mainly due to it's cloud storage integration, but it's basically broken now under Lollipop for SD cards. Google has really made a fucking mess out of external storage and permissions. In order to get permission to write to the SD card, you need to manually select it, but it doesn't show up in the browser to select.

Re:X-plore

[thegarbz]

You may want to consider to what app you're likening X-Plore to.

My first reaction when you mentioned MC was "wtf why would someone write a keyboard interaction app on the phone", not "that awesome CLI file exploring utility in Linux".

Re:X-plore

[Black LED]

Maybe it's that X-Plore's UI is a hot mess?

Explain how. It's a standard dual pane file manager layout and pretty much everything can be customised.

How many camels?

[Anonymous Coward]

Editors, you had one job...

Scanning apps to make sure they're safe

[cdrudge]

It's annoyed me for a while now that it likes to scan every app I download to make sure it's "safe". I wonder if I hadn't uninstalled it just now if it would scan itself and prevent it from being installed?

Re:Scanning apps to make sure they're safe

[omnichad]

I wonder how they were doing that.

Re:Scanning apps to make sure they're safe

[cdrudge]

Perhaps that was what they were doing. My money was on they were tracking what everyone was installing for analytic purpose to sell to whoever would pay for the data. That's an easier conclusion to jump to now that they're bundling adware with it then it is to think that they are are "security researcher" actually trying to protect my device.

The "post-Android Gingerbread era" ...

[NarcolepticPenguin]

... will be an interesting era in which to find oneself. That's kind of a shame about the app. I have used ES file explorer since ... whenever I got my Motorola Droid. Ah well.

Never heard of it

[Anonymous Coward]

Android user for over 6 years. Never heard of this nor see why I would ever need it.

Re:Never heard of it

[KGIII]

I see you too are in the thread for much the same reason as I. Come, let's make pointless comments and share mindless drivel together fine Anon! Let us make merriment and proclaim our lack of interest - or even insight. Let us not say one thing of merit but disrupt the conversation flow for our own amusement.

Solid Explorer is a good file manager

[JoeyRox]

Supports optional root exploration as well.

https://play.google.com/store/...

The extras are excuses for more permissions

[Anonymous Coward]

As a rule, pointless extras are added in order to justify the extra permissions the App requests. But they are only excuses, this is one of the steps in the "monetize it well" guide, ethics be damned... the permissions are actually needed by the adware embedded in the app, and used to spy on the user for "marketing purposes".

Which would be the reason why I never pay for any app that uses a "key" scheme to unlock features: I pay to get rid of the adware, and that's not going to happen if the adware libraries are still present in the (paid-for) app because the payment was not for a whole new binary/download, but rather for a key (or in-app purchase).

Re:Only APPS can app apps!

[Anonymous Coward]

I know, he didn't even mention LUDDITE software this time :-(

I haven't seen any ads yet.

[mmell]

The instant I do, I'm just going to live without a file manager on my phone and tablet. I'll just plug 'em into a USB port and use the file manager on a host computer to do file management (because while my T-Mobile branded Samsung devices had always included a file manager, my unbranded Google Nexus 5 did not).

An annoyance - but I seldom encounter a file management issue so urgent on my Android devices that I can't wait until I have a host computer to work with. I can't handle being subject to a developer's whim regarding features and advertising on such a truly critical and fundamental application. Games? Sure. Email and calendar clients? Less so, but okay. My file manager, SSH client, word processor/spreadsheet applications? NO.

At least Linux and MS-Windows systems don't seem too interested in monetizing file managers.

So, pay Three Bucks and get the ad-free version

[Anonymous Coward]

ES Explorer Pro...

Re:So, pay Three Bucks and get the ad-free version

[mmell]

So that the authors can follow in the footsteps of File Manager HD and put ads in the paid version anyway? Just to say - I paid $1.99 for File Manager HD only to have them start ads about a year later. Turns out, they went from "Free with ads/Paid without" to "Free with ads/Needs to pay more to stay without".

Last time I'm paying for something that ought to be free to begin with. At most, such apps should only advertise for the developers' other applications - in this instance, they could put ads for "ES Application Manager" et. al. in the file manager. I haven't been spambarded like other victims here (but then again, I don't use the app scanner and I don't even waste my time on their new "Power Booster").

Does the phrase "jumped the shark" ring any bells for you?

Re:So, pay Three Bucks and get the ad-free version

[omnichad]

Wouldn't trust them once they cross into adware territory. And the "Pro" version appears to be even more bloated.

Re:So, pay Three Bucks and get the ad-free version

[Anonymous Coward]

If a File Manager without ads should be free, why not also a house, or a car? After all, you're expecting someone to give you the fruits of their labor with nothing in return for their effort. If you're saying that's the way it ought to be, then why should we even have money? Everything should be free, right Bernie?

wow, dodged that bullet

[dejitaru]

I used to use ES File explorer, but after so many times loading it up and seeing all these new "features" they added like file cleaner or whatever (don't remember off the top of my head). I got sick of it and wanted just a simple file manager. Switched out about a month ago, now glad I did... It's a shame seeing awesome apps get filled with bloat.

I see the DU booster lockscreen but no ads.

[CronoCloud]

I use ES File Explorer on my phone (Jellybean), while I get the DU Boost Lockscreen, I only get that when it's plugged in. And there are no ads.

I also have ES File Explorer on my tablet (Lollipop), the lockscreen is unchanged.

Re:I see the DU booster lockscreen but no ads.

[Anonymous Coward]

I just plugged back up and the DU Booster screen has an Uber ad asking me if I want to check whether or not my car qualifies.

Re:I see the DU booster lockscreen but no ads.

[CronoCloud]

Ah, I see why I wasn't seeing ads, Wifi was off. (I don't have a data plan on the phone).

Other Apps too!

[tom17]

So I have had a replaced lockscreen on my HTC One (M7) for a few months now. It's really annoyed me but I was too lazy to find out what was doing it. I had assumed it was HTC or my phone provider and was just 'happy' being annoyed about it.

Then when I saw this article, I thought it may have been the problem but, alas, I had already removed ES File explorer previously.

It got me to looking and I found out that it was in fact the TouchPal keyboard app doing it on my phone. - http://forums.androidcentral.c...

While I was searching for the above, I found some other apps that had apparently done the same. Dirty dirty dirty :(

Re:Other Apps too!

[Obfuscant]

So I have had a replaced lockscreen on my HTC One (M7) for a few months now.

HTC's lockscreen is bad enough as it is. It has an ugly clock that you cannot configure, move, or remove. And it is telling me that "weather unavailable", which means that it would normally try to reach across the net to find the local weather, were the location services not turned off. You can't configure or remove the weather, either.

Further, it has four apps at the bottom that, if you miss the small center bit while "swiping up", become active should you enter the unlock code. You can't change those apps or get rid of them without changing or removing them from the bottom task bar altogether.

And the kicker is that if you "swipe up" to get to the unlock code entry, you can then "swipe down" to pull down the notification area menus -- which allows you to turn all kinds of things on and off (like the hotspot) without unlocking the phone.

Maybe I should update my ES so I get a better lockscreen?

plenty of options out there

[oddware]

I personally use Ghost commander. I beleive it is free in googles playstore. Don't have playstore? You can get it from the fdroid web page https://f-droid.org/repository... Also install the samba plugin (free)

It became shit a long time ago

[Artem S. Tashkinov]

when they introduced a mandatory home page peddling their additional software. Too bad this app is still the most useful file manager in Android but luckily you can replace it with something less intrusive by giving up on certain non-essential features.

Also if you still cannot live without it, uninstall it and manually install one of its old shit-free versions from here. Make sure you've disabled automatic updates in the Google Play (Store) app.

Re:It became shit a long time ago

[Fnord666]

Also if you still cannot live without it, uninstall it and manually install one of its old shit-free versions from here. Make sure you've disabled automatic updates in the Google Play (Store) app.

How far back do you have to go?

Re:It became shit a long time ago

[KGIII]

Someone above mentioned 4.0.0.2. Don't ask why I remember. I don't even have an Android phone and I'm just in the thread being an ass to celebrate. (I'm just a helpful ass.)

Re:It became shit a long time ago

[Anonymous Coward]

3.2.0 works fine. Lower version might not honor a rooted device.

notifications?

[Anonymous Coward]

I disabled notifications a while ago, since they were spawning shady notifications (pretending to be alerts of something else).
I wonder if that will prevent me from seeing ads on the lock screen?

Couldn't figure out why everyone was complaining

[Anonymous Coward]

Then I figured it out...I'm used the paid-for version.

EStrongs Sold Out

[nevermore94]

EStrongs *USED TO* make great software, but they sold out several years ago to a Hong Kong based company that just keeps stuffing more and more bloat and ads into what was once some of the best Android software.

I personally use Root Explorer now which works great, even on non-rooted devices.

Re:EStrongs Sold Out

[Anonymous Coward]

Hong Kong might be an SAO, but it's still China and we all know how honest and honourable they are. No malware, spyware or hacking has EVER come out of China and in the whole country they don't have a single hacker.

Re:EStrongs Sold Out

[Anonymous Coward]

Part of an alarming trend. Android apps and Chrome extensions are increasingly being bought out by third (fourth?) party and adware is added thereafter.

Re:EStrongs Sold Out

[Anonymous Coward]

Part of an alarming trend. Android apps and Chrome extensions/apps are increasingly being bought and adware is embedded thereafter.

ASUS File Manager

[Anonymous Coward]

The ASUS file manager is actively developed, free, and requires only sane permissions.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.asus.filemanager

Added bonus is that it can access Windows shares, possibly other NFS's as well.

FX File Explorer

[Anonymous Coward]

FTW!

never trusted them

[L053R]

I never could figure out how they made money. The seemed to offer great software for nothing until recently. If you can't figure out what the product is... it is you. That is why I paid $2 for FX File Explorer.

Alternative recomendation

[robmv]

Cabinet open source, only a file manager, actively developed.

Re:Alternative recomendation

[Anonymous Coward]

"Sorry! This content is not available in your country yet."

oh look another entity that doesnt understand the WORLD WIDE WEB

Re:Alternative recomendation

[Anonymous Coward]

The Google Play store is not the WWW.

Other apps that do the same

[campuscodi]

The issue is quite old actually. Here's just "one" of the topics on the matter, listing other apps that do the same: https://www.reddit.com/r/andro...

Cabinet ES Adware Explorer

[t4eXanadu]

I recommend Cabinet. Looks way better than ES, has many of the same features (lacks network browsing, iirc). I can't find the Play Store link anymore, though :-(

Use Amaze instead

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm not affiliated in anyway, it just works really well

Re:Cabinet ES Adware Explorer

[t4eXanadu]

Well, I didn't know you can't put special chars in the post subject. That's supposed to read "Cabinet > ES Adware Explorer"

Total Commander

[CptLoRes]

Total Commander (used to be Windows Commander until M$ started complaining) runs on Android. Anyone having used Norton Commander or any similar OFM (Orthodox File Manager) will feel right at home.

solution

[Anonymous Coward]

1) root phone
2) install f-droid
3) install ad-away (uses root)
4) install gemini app manager (free, uses root)
5) using gemini app manager *revoke* the autorun features from ES file explorer.

Done.

Here You Go...

[macs4all]

This is the hands-down Best File Manager/Viewer/Player for mobile devices.

Oh wait... You said "Android", right?

So sorry!

Re:Here You Go...

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh Macfriend, you're so silly and witty!

Re:Here You Go...

[macs4all]

Oh Macfriend, you're so silly and witty!

But it IS a spectacular (albeit non-free) File Reader/Player/Manager. FAR better than anything on Android.

Jus' sayin'...

Re:Here You Go...

[Anonymous Coward]

But it IS a spectacular (albeit non-free) File Reader/Player/Manager. FAR better than anything on Android.

... for some fairly restrictive definitions of "file", "manager", "reader" and "player." Reminds me of a joke about hammers and nails ...

Jus' sayin', too ;-)

Re:Here You Go...

[macs4all]

But it IS a spectacular (albeit non-free) File Reader/Player/Manager. FAR better than anything on Android.

... for some fairly restrictive definitions of "file", "manager", "reader" and "player." Reminds me of a joke about hammers and nails ...

Jus' sayin', too ;-)

Not nearly as restrictive as you think. You pretty much can get/put any file you wish. Now, whether you have an App than can DO anything with that file is entirely a different matter, and not related to GoodReader's capabilities. But, having said that, I have been pretty surprised at how many different filetypes it can actually open natively, and of course, for the rest, there's the "Open In..." option.

Re:Here You Go...

[KGIII]

I somehow doubt that you've tried them or that you're able to be objective. Who'd you think you're fooling?

I don't have an Android either. WTF are either of us doing in this thread besides shitting it up?

Re:Here You Go...

[macs4all]

I somehow doubt that you've tried them or that you're able to be objective. Who'd you think you're fooling?

I don't have an Android either. WTF are either of us doing in this thread besides shitting it up?

Hey, I wondered what happened to you!!! How're ya doin' buddy?!?

All kidding aside, I have tried a number of similar Apps to GoodReader, and it really IS wonderful. But it is iOS-only.

What am I doing in this thread, besides baiting the Karma-Eater? Turnabout is fair play, man! The FOSSies won't stay out of the Apple threads; and in fact, they are generally chock-full of AC Apple-Haters, adding absolutely NOTHING to ANYTHING but bile and hyperbolic vitriol.

In fact, I have scratched and clawed my Excellent Karma back from a punish-modding storm down to POOR (in ONE thread-space!!) not once, not twice, but THREE separate times!!!

So yeah, it's a little bit "personal"...

And, like you, I like to see myself type... ;-)

Re:Here You Go...

[KGIII]

I understand.

*pets his Windows Phone lovingly while thinking about gay sex*

What? I'm trying to fit in. Hmm... Your UID is similar to mine. I got my 10 year retard-chip today. 10 years I've been putting up with your ass. ;-)

Re:Here You Go...

[macs4all]

I understand.

*pets his Windows Phone lovingly while thinking about gay sex*

What? I'm trying to fit in. Hmm... Your UID is similar to mine. I got my 10 year retard-chip today. 10 years I've been putting up with your ass. ;-)

Wow, I never noticed that about our UIDs. Cool!

Re:Here You Go...

[KGIII]

LOL Yup. Though, unlike you, I've had great Karma from the start, pretty much. I had an older account but it was tied to the email of the company I used to own and I don't know the username. I drank a lot back then. I thought it was Incognito but that isn't my account. I want to say that my first account was in 2002-2003 range. It was 7x,xxx or so I recollect. No biggie, I'm reasonably sure I said stupid shit.

On the other hand, I've been mod bombed to hell and it's never actually impacted my karma's rating. I've been "excellent" since just about day one. I have no idea why. It's not like I hold my tongue or am the least bit bashful about saying things that might irk someone - so long as they're factual. I hold some rather odd views, very different from most, and I voice them. Even concerning politics.

So yeah, I've been mod bombed to hell but never had an issue. I've opened the message notifications and seen the scroll bar be very, very tiny. (I want to say that my record is about 80 mod points - good and bad and in total) being spent in one day by angry people. At one point, someone was running around and moderating anything I said down.

I have no idea how the karma system really works, I guess. I thought I did but no... I must have near infinite points. LOL

Anyhow, no... I'd not moderate you down. I'd not moderate anyone down. I don't even moderate anyone up. I don't moderate. If you stop spending all of your points then the system seems to forget about you. My scores are better than ever and I still don't get mod points any more. I used to but not any more. I stopped spending them years and years ago. Who am I to judge?

Hasn't replaced my lockscreen

[Rob Y.]

Am I missing something? I'm on the latest version 4.05, and my lockscreen doesn't seem any different. I agree that the app has become bloated, and it annoyingly won't let you configure it to start out looking at the filesystem instead of their homepage, which has ads and nothing much of use. But it still works, and hasn't messed with my lockscreen in any way I can detect.

That said, I'm on Cyanogenmod 13, which installed its own File Manager that doesn't look half bad for basic functionality...

Re:Hasn't replaced my lockscreen

[macs4all]

Am I missing something? I'm on the latest version 4.05, and my lockscreen doesn't seem any different. I agree that the app has become bloated, and it annoyingly won't let you configure it to start out looking at the filesystem instead of their homepage, which has ads and nothing much of use. But it still works, and hasn't messed with my lockscreen in any way I can detect.

That said, I'm on Cyanogenmod 13, which installed its own File Manager that doesn't look half bad for basic functionality...

Honestly, IDK. I use iOS.

My comment came from reading TFS, which stated:

" ES File Explorer now bundles in adware. This adware comes in the form of DU Battery Booster, which adds in a lockscreen on your phone and brings ads directly to your lockscreen, irrespective of your choice. There was no intimation, no choice, no changelog to mention the same; all features which are characteristic of such deceptive "Booster" apps."

Re:Hasn't replaced my lockscreen

[Rob Y.]

Oh. So what it really means is that ES presents ads on its homescreen for another app that will replace your lockscreen if you go to Google Play and actually install it. Nice headline, Slashdot.

Re:Hasn't replaced my lockscreen

[bdenton42]

No it actually comes baked into ES. If you accidentally tap the prominent "Charging Boost ... ENABLE" box which takes up the lower third of the ES screen it gets enabled without going to Google Play at all. And then there is no way to disable it from ES or manage application... you have to put the phone on a charger and trigger the app, then choose the gear icon in the upper right to change the app setting to off.

Re:Hasn't replaced my lockscreen

[byornski]

I noticed this had come up a few weeks ago for me. My lock screen -- the one when the phone is actually locked showed some large battery image and an ad. Only app updated that night was ES. Googled it and people seemed to agree that it was ES. Removed it and problem went away. I think that they cant override the actual lock screen but an app if given root can replace the screen shown when your phone is locked.

Re:Hasn't replaced my lockscreen

[byornski]

Tho i guess with root you can do anything....

Re:Hasn't replaced my lockscreen

[Anonymous Coward]

Mod parent troll, their username is macs4all, they often troll as pro-Apple, etc. I mean... just look at this account.

Re:Hasn't replaced my lockscreen

[macs4all]

Mod parent troll, their username is macs4all, they often troll as pro-Apple, etc. I mean... just look at this account.

So how about we look at YOUR account?

Oh, wait...

FOAD, ANONYMOUS COWARD!

Or why don'tcha LOGIN and put your Karma where your MOUTH is, LIKE I DO, EVERY SINGLE DAY.

Re:Hasn't replaced my lockscreen

[Anonymous Coward]

You're a monomaniac and that makes you *boring*. We don't give a shit about your Karma that you 'put on the line' (how very, very brave you are!). You bring Apple into everything in a annoyingly smug way that adds nothing to the discussion. "Well, *I* don't get that problem because *I* use [Appleproduct]". Well woo hoo and bully for you. And FOAD to you too.

Re:Hasn't replaced my lockscreen

[robinsc]

there is a setting to disable charging boost right at the bottom where the toggles are . this will disable the lockscreen settings

Re: Hasn't replaced my lockscreen

[Anonymous Coward]

You can turn it off, press the hamburger button and the switch to enable/disable is at the bottom of the list.

Re: Hasn't replaced my lockscreen

[Anonymous Coward]

Mine isn't rooted but it (es file locker I think, since I have the pro version of the explorer... regretting it now) still installed this interstitial lock screen. The fake lock screen is even added to the change log! Is es file explorer definitely made by DU apps?

Probably most useful thing I have seen today !

[MarkH]

Assumed it was some crappy Samsung update. Uninstalled es file explorer and lock screen back to normal.

Thanks slashdot

Re:Probably most useful thing I have seen today !

[Anonymous Coward]

You're welcome.

-Slashdot

It's not about the money

[Anonymous Coward]

For me at least, it's not about the sticking ads in there. They're developers and they have (until recently) made a great application that was my go-to file manager for years.
The problem is that they have, without any notification whatsoever, silently added a 3rd party app to theirs. Not only that, but the app they have bundled is totally crap. It "claims" that it will boost your phone's charging rate by 20%, which is just total and utter rubbish (in my, admittedly short test, it lengthened the charging time significantly, 2hrs 50m with app running, 1hr 39m without it)

Had they:
* Chosen something less dubious, less "malware" looking/behaving
* Made any kind of notice about it on the Google Play store, or when you ran the app, or when you upgraded.
* ASKED me if I wanted to silently change my phone's lock screen

Then I'd have at least had a choice about it. As it is, this piece of crap "charging booster" screams malware, that, plus their shady install tactics shatters the trust I genuinely felt for this app and the developers. Bear in mind that the file manager itself has access to all files and folders and if you have rooted your phone it will have root access as well, this is an unbelievably poor decision from the developer(s).

huh?

[Anonymous Coward]

I genuinely don't understand how people don't have a file browser - all my android devices have had one. I forget what my old HTC had but my Samsungs all have 'my files' and for specific things like ftp server available as tiny free apps. Do people really not get a file browser? Why?

Same here

[PatientZero]

I'm running a stock Galaxy S7 and opened my phone just now to remove the app, but my lockscreen looks the same.

"News for nerds. Stuff that's sometimes true."

Re:Same here

[niftydude]

You have to enable the "Charging Boost" application with ES file explorer for your lockscreen to be hijacked.

It's available when you run es file explorer, or sometimes the option to enable it will pop up when you use your phone while it is charging.

You likely haven't turned it on yet.

Paid version is add free and better

[Anonymous Coward]

The paid version is just a couple of dollars and doesn't do this stuff. I completely understand the developer wanting to get paid for their work so if the adds annoy you get the paid version.

Re:Paid version is add free and better

[Anonymous Coward]

Considering there are rumors even the paid version shows "adds", I'd rather subtract it from my phone and stick with Total Commander.

FFS

[Anonymous Coward]

Just port Linux sans systemd so it can run on Android compat phones the same way we had IBM clones and DOS and this pain goes away

Re: Only APPS can app apps!

[Anonymous Coward]

You gotta admit, the new APK is much more tolerable than the old APK. Boring is good in this case.

Titanium Backup to prevent update

[Anonymous Coward]

Titanium Backup has an option to detach an app from the play store. I'm guessing this will prevent ES from upgrading while allowing me to update the rest of my apps in bulk.

If not, at least I have a backup of a previous version to restore to.

Turn updates off and load an old version

[Anonymous Coward]

If you want all of the useful features of ES file explorer, without the bloat, search online for the version 3.2.5.5 APK, install it, and disable updates. The MD5 sum is: f1e080e72353826ffbad85d1644e855d

Re:Only APPS can app apps!

[KGIII]

I haven't seen him in a while so this is the best I can offer...

Apps are for cows. Only cows use apps. You app using cow. Mooo!!!

Here's to you, cow man!

Imma post this bitch logged in.

Re:Typical Chinese crap

[KGIII]

> It's from China. What do you expect?

Great integration, tight code, privacy, security, ideal function, efficiency, and good looks.

Why'd you ask?

ES File Explorer has been crap for years

[OpinOnion]

It may have had a good name back in the day, but somebody sold out somewhere and it's just more of the 90% of crap apps on the Play Store.

Old Versions

[wtfbill]

uptodown.com hosts old versions of several android apps including es file explorer. The page loads in Spanish first, but changing to another language is pretty easily done. Versions of ES back to 1.6.1.6. That old enough for ya? And it's always passed every malware scan I've run. Of course, YMMV, caveat emptor, and all that...

Support the developers

[Anonymous Coward]

Pay the few dollars for the pro version and you'll get rid of ads, you tight asses. Seriously, you can't blame the devs for wanting to make a bit of coin off their hard work.

pro tip for old and noobs

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't update shit any more unless you know beforehand you need or want some new feature.

Cunt culture is all over computing now. In many cases you want to use older versions. Browsers for instance were already cool. Now Firefox is adding fucking curb feelers and RSS feeds to gay pornos etc.

Firefox is still the best browser, if, you use an older version. You may even like to use an older version of the Tor Browser Bundle.

It's simple to choose what you want in Linux. With Windows you are already using Global Mother Fucking Spyware on behalf of "pretending you are hip" with games.

If you use fucked up ass Windows at all, as in, it came with your PC... it would behoove you to multi-boot Linux or use Linux in VM's at the very least. You are wise to use portable apps so they exist in folders and don't hose your precious "registry" and 1993 NTFS filesystem.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/portableapps/files/
Older versions are available and all you have to do is create a shortcut to the executable. If you want to associate them just do it manually with Windows handy gay association wizard. You may want to create a sendto context menu for things like Peazip or whatnot.

like this
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/customize-the-windows-vista-send-to-menu/?PageSpeed=noscript

Re:pro tip for old and noobs

[Opportunist]

You are aware that you're talking to a community burned by Win10 and backported spyware to Win7&8, and you tell us that updating might not always be a good idea?

Anyone who didn't get this by now probably won't listen.

Re:pro tip for old and noobs

[Anonymous Coward]

You are aware that you're talking to a community burned by Win10 and backported spyware to Win7&8, and you tell us that updating might not always be a good idea?

Anyone who didn't get this by now probably won't listen.

https://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=7988275&cid=50500123

Yeah, I'm aware of many things. Microsoft anything is a bad idea. If Windows comes on your pre-built retail PC and you don't throw it away, there you have it. My point is use older versions because it's not like the old days where computing was the realm of only the more intelligent. Choosing an eg. lesbian life can sometimes put a vulnerable minded decision maker in a position of making "corporate decisions". Then ads and spyware get sneaked in... I am only using lesbian logic as an example. The entirety of Windows 10 is spyware and they are even brazen enough to use "we are taking some of the spyware out" as a sell point now. Eg. sharing WiFi passwords via Outlook contacts is no longer being supported because you know.. not many people were using it and it saves money to take it out. blahblahblah GFY MS.

distrowatch.com has all the Linux links and BSD links. It is all much higher quality. If you can even use a Mac, Linux and BSD are easy... albeit Linux has more noob-friendly documentation than BSD. Avoid Ubuntu and Redhat/Fedora ... They think like Microsoft. Just advertise your shit a lot and money money money. In general I prefer BSD even over Linux. A FreeBSD install (even in a virtual machine) is good mental exercise. You will see exactly what sort of dickheads Microsoft are, when you install FreeBSD.

You obviously know this already but people in the bleachers can read this. Microsoft went to great dickhead lengths to block multi-booting Linux and other OS's. You still can easily, Google it. There is also Virtualbox. Virtualbox is another software where you may choose to use an older version. Everybody likes to help themselves to your shit and enable the RDP protocol for all those times you know.. you have somebody fix your computer remotely. Many of them are total dickheads. RTFM :)

As for Mac OS X. There is no such thing as a trustworthy homosexual.

Re:Typical Chinese crap

[Anonymous Coward]

Just what I expect from my Apple stuff (all made in China) and my american flag (also made in China).
Your point being?

Got the Pro version last month

[Rexdude]

I have always liked ES File Explorer and so given I've been using it for the last 4 years, I decided to get the Pro version. Funny that this move comes just now. I'm not really affected now, if they start showing ads in Pro that's another story.

never update

[jbmartin6]

This adds to my conclusion: never update apps, unless you have a specific bugfix. If everything is working fine, you have everything to lose by applying updates for no reason.

My recommendation

[idontgno]

Speed Software's Explorer (or, if you're sane and you bought a device you can root, Root Explorer). Every feature I've ever seen in ES File Explorer is also well supported in Explorer/Root Explorer. And no malware. I use another program by ES Global on my old phone (ES Task Manager), but I think I'm going to start looking for an alternative. Just because I only use my Droid 4 as a portable SSH terminal in the house doesn't mean I need to consent to when they inevitably adware-ize that application as well.

They started with hijacking the Download manager

[kriston]

They started with hijacking the Download manager last year. Then they added this pointless scanning tool to "optimize" your device. I don't care what is going on but I know it's bad. I removed it from all my devices last year.

Mystery Solved!

[Anonymous Coward]

And here I was prepared to blame the evil empire of Samsung. I was horrified by stupid ads and the associated data charges. And now it turns out that I had needlessly maligned Samsung management in my mind when it was the result of another company. I AM UNINSTALLING ES File Explorer and other ES apps NOW! Goodbye ES File Explorer and ES Task Manager.

Think of Leeloo in the 5th Element . . .

          "Never without my permission." as translated by the priest.

Re:They started with hijacking the Download manage

[kriston]

Before anyone starts arguing about this, I did have the paid version.

Actually, it IS free (sort of)

[mmell]

My Linux desktop offers several - none of which are encumbered with licensing or adware.

(A/C's. *sheesh*)