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I'm having a really hard time getting new app updates on Google Play:

Before that, I successfully uploaded my app first version (1.0.0) and got approved (April 16, 2021), then I got user feedback regarding Android 11 because it was not possible. read some files, after a while of researching I added the MANAGEMENT_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission to AndroidManifest.xml and uploaded the updated version 1.0.1 but was rejected because Google does not allow the use of the above permission & asked to remove it. waive this right.

Issue: Access to device storage not required The feature you identified does not require unrestricted access to device storage. There are other privacy friendly options for accessing files in shared storage, such as using the system file picker, or, on the use case, you can follow the recommendations for receiving data from other apps listed here. Please update your app so that the feature uses a privacy friendly alternative and remove All Files Access (MANAGE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE) permission.

I continued to do more research and found it was directed as "Change Target SDK 30 -> 29 and Remove MANAGEMENT_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission from AndroidManifest.xml", I followed and re-uploaded again but still denied, to now the number of times i have tried up to 14 times (tried always build .aab & .apk) but nothing changed...

I don't know if there is a better solution so hopefully someone can help me and most importantly why did I remove the permission but Google still reported the reason as above? Thanks everyone.

GD VanLoi
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    You proably need to rewrite the code where you needed MANAGEMENT_EXTERNAL_STORAGE to solve so you dont crash, plus targetSdk must be 30 or higher – Marcos Vasconcelos Aug 04 '21 at 03:58
  • If I set target 30, then android 11 will get file reading error, because my Application needs to read some special files like (KML, SHP, DXF, DGN,...), the application is written from Ionic + Vue, the solution of changing Target 30->29 really doesn't work? – GD VanLoi Aug 04 '21 at 05:18
  • No, target 30 is a requirement for app uploads since half this year, the new target is especifically to increase security by removing those dangerous permissions, you will need to find another solution, I dont see why you need external_storage for the files you mentioned – Marcos Vasconcelos Aug 04 '21 at 12:47
  • Well, users they want to read files (KML, SHP, DXF, DGN,..etc) directly from their device, for `Android 10` or below it's no problem, but for `Android 11` it can't be read because the path doesn't exist error. After a while, I discovered that only having access to the entire file, everything works normally like on `android 10`. – GD VanLoi Aug 05 '21 at 10:35
  • According to Google, the August version only applies **new Apps** (required SDK target is 30), but my version is Updated Apps: https://developer.android.com/distribute/best-practices/develop/target-sdk – GD VanLoi Aug 06 '21 at 01:58

1 Answers1

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Steps to follow:

1.Remove MANAGE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE

2.change version code and version name

3 change api level and build level to 30

4.clean build

  1. Genreate signed Apk

It should work now

Saurabh Dhage
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  • I changed the version code (from 1 to 14), keep version name (1.0.1) and also pressed the **Re-build button** on android studio, maybe I will try **Clean build** as you said – GD VanLoi Aug 04 '21 at 05:21