[Android] Add more filesystem access rights to the app

[andre-dierker]

This is a copy of pixelfed/pixelfed#5366 as it affects the app too.
I am only able to upload pictures from the dcim folder. This means if I develop a picture with lightroom or any other photos editor I can't upload them because the pictures are saved outside the dcim folder.

Pixelfed is currently useless for me.

Pixelfed from Play store
Android 15
Google Pixel 7 pro

[Kwasow]

Could you send a screenshot of the issue (feel free to blur or draw over your personal photos in it)? I just tested it on my phone (Android 14) and after selecting the "picture" icon in Pixelfed a system photo picker appears with two tabs: "Photos" and "Albums". I can pick a photo from any folder in the "Albums" tab.

It is unlikely to be an issue with the app, since Android only has one kind of media permission and photos can only be accessed with the system photo picker dialog, but I'll look into it after your answer.

[andre-dierker]

It's definitely a Android 15 permission thing, I think this happened after a update from Android 14 to 15. Can the Pixelfed app request more permissions like a gallery app?

"Diese App kann nur auf die Fotos zugreifen, die du auswählst" means something like "This app can only access the photos you select" in english.

Btw. this happens in the pwa and browsers too.

The third view is after tap the three dots menu.

[Kwasow]

Thank you for reporting back, I'll look into the issue and keep you updated

[Kwasow]

Hi, I've looked into the issue. Let me break it down for you.

1. The photo picker you are seeing is something that Google introduced with Android 14. It should show all folders containing photos from your device. If you don't see all of them, we can't do anything about it, and you should raise your issue with Google.
2. When I launch the photo selection process from Firefox, the picker shows an option "Browse" instead of "Cloud media app" in the three dot menu. I can't find how they do that and what option to use, but even if it is possible in general, the framework we use (expo) doesn't expose such a feature.

Unfortunately, we're unable to fix this issue on our end.