How to Manage Folders and Files in Android Phone?

There was a time when only computers were used for storing and managing files of a different sort. The reason was evident because only computers had the processing power and memory to manage office and other jobs. Hence, most of the software were available only for computers. That is why earlier Android phones didn’t have a proper file manager except for a simple manager for photos. However, things have changed in the last few years and managing folders and files in Android smartphones are easier than never.

Managing Files and Folders in Android

With the popularity of the high processing power and memory of the smart Android phones, you can do any task on your Android phone similar to computer. Here are some of the useful things you can do by managing your files effectively within the phone.

• Download any files from websites or emails and store them in organized folders.
• Quickly find files to share in social sharing platforms or attach them in your emails.
• Organize and manage photos to find them when needed.
• Send and receive files to your computer and sync the files across all your devices.

The latest Android version offer efficient file managers to deal with different file extensions without any additional apps. However, you can also get plenty of high-quality third-party file managers for specific purposes.

1. Using Default Android File Managers

Android 12 provides two types of file managers. The first one is solely for photos and videos. The other one is for all file types, including photos and videos.

1.1 Default Android File Manager for Photos and Videos

Google Photos is the default file manager of Android for picture and video files. It has many advanced management and search features for photos and videos on your Android phone.

• Swipe up on an empty screen area to open the detailed list of the apps on your phone. Now either find the “Photos” app or search it by typing its name in the search box.
• Once you open the Google Photos, it will display the list of all the photos and videos stored on your Android phone. At the top of the screen, Google Photos show your old pictures (if available) from the recent dates as memories. All the photos and videos are tagged with dates so that you can easily find them.
• You can swipe up and down to explore the files. When you move the screen, an up and down arrow will appear on the right side of the screen. You can press it and drag it up or down to quickly scroll through the files.
• Google Photos also provides excellent search capabilities. You can search files based for people, places, and many other categories like screenshots, videos, etc.
• You can create a shared album, travel album, event album, or family album in Google Photos to group the photos together. It is possible to choose some or all of your photos and share them if needed.
• “Library” is the place in Google Photos to see all your well-organized photos and videos. Each type of picture or video is placed in its relevant folder. There are helpful buttons at the top named “Utilities,” “Favorites,” “Archive,” “Trash,” etc. You can use the favorite option to keep frequently needed pictures and find them under “Favorites” folder.
• “Utilities” give the ability to create a new animation, collage, or a movie. You can also move photos to the locked folder for protecting them from unauthorized use. If you are interested in finding the “Locked folder,” see our article on how to password protect files and folders in Android.

Google Photos has adopted the Windows-based deletion system. When you delete a picture or video in Google Photos, it goes to the “Trash” folder and remains there for at least 30 days. You can restore it if you want within the specified period. The picture or videos will be deleted from the trash permanently after the specified time.

1.2  Default Android File Manager for All Files

Android 12 has a genuinely nice file manager for managing files other than photos and videos. First search and open the “Files” app in your phone, this is similar to “Files” app in iPhone. This app will display all the files under various categories available as internal and other storage.

• “Files” app categorizes the files into broad classes like “Documents & other,” “Videos,” “Images,” etc. Once you press any of those categories, it will open the list of all the relevant files available on your phone. You can still move between “All” or other folders from the list in the opened files.
• Long press any file in the “Files” to select the file. Once single file is selected, you can also tap on other files to select them. Now press the three dots icon showing in the upper right corner. It will show a list of operations you can do like “Move to,” “Copy to,” “Rename,” “Add to Favorites,” etc.
• You can also search for the specific files by typing the full or part of the file name. Advanced search features like “Large files” and “This Week” are also available.
• The ” Clean ” button is at the bottom of the “Files” main screen. As suggested in the app, you can use it to clean your storage by deleting junk files, large files, and others.
• You can access the settings of the “Files” app by pressing the three horizontal lines in the upper left corner of the screen.

2. Third-Party File Managers for Android

There are plenty of high-quality third-party apps available for file management in Android. These apps make managing files and media on your Android phone as easy as on a computer. You can get extended set of functionalities in one place, like moving files between your phone and computer, zipping or unzipping files, editing, encrypting, etc. Here are some of the popular file manager apps available in Google Play store.

• FX File Explorer
• Amaze File Manager
• Cx File Explorer
• Cover art
• MiXplorer Silver File Manager
• Cover art
• File Manager

Wrapping Up

Whenever you want to share a file or send an attachment in email, Android 12 provides an easy way to browse through files with “Files” app. Similarly, you can also choose folders to store your download files and keep them in an organized manner. Google Photos is more than sufficient to manage all your media files in a single place.