bug: READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE Deprecated: File Access Fails on Android 13+ in Capacitor Ionic App

[tarektaamali]

Plugin(s)

• Android Foreground Service
• Android Battery Optimization
• App Review
• App Update
• Background Task
• Badge
• Bluetooth Low Energy
• Cloudinary
• Datetime Picker
• File Compressor
• File Opener
• File Picker
• Live Update
• Managed Configurations
• NFC
• Photo Editor
• Printer
• Screen Orientation
• Speech Recognition
• Speech Synthesis
• Torch
• Zip

Version

6.0.1

Platform(s)

• Android
• iOS
• Web

Current behavior

As stated in the plugin documentation, to pick a file from external storage, the following permission is required:

<!-- Needed if you want to read files from external storage -->
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE"/>

However, READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE is deprecated and not granted when targeting Android 13+. If you need to query or interact with MediaStore or media files on shared storage, you should use one or more of the new storage permissions instead:

android.permission.READ_MEDIA_IMAGES
android.permission.READ_MEDIA_VIDEO
android.permission.READ_MEDIA_AUDIO

Scoped storage is enforced on Android 10+ (or Android 11+ if requestLegacyExternalStorage is used). Specifically, WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE no longer provides write access to all files but instead provides functionality equivalent to READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE.

Expected behavior

Apps are restricted to accessing only the media files (e.g., images, videos, or audio) that the user explicitly allows through the newly introduced permissions:

READ_MEDIA_IMAGES: Grants read access only to image files in the shared storage.
READ_MEDIA_VIDEO: Grants read access only to video files in the shared storage.
READ_MEDIA_AUDIO: Grants read access only to audio files in the shared storage.

Reproduction

https://capawesome.io/plugins/file-picker/

Steps to reproduce

ionic start exampleApp blank --type=angular
cd exampleApp
npm install @capacitor/core @capacitor/cli
npm install
npx cap add android

Other information

No response

Capacitor doctor

[warn] The bundledWebRuntime configuration option has been deprecated. Can be safely deleted.
Capacitor Doctor

Latest Dependencies:

@capacitor/cli: 6.1.2
@capacitor/core: 6.1.2
@capacitor/android: 6.1.2
@capacitor/ios: 6.1.2

[success] Android looking great! 👌

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