The Play Store's great scoped storage purge inches closer, putting file managers at risk Google drastically reduced which directories apps can access on your phone on Android 11 as part of its new Scoped Storage, which is a change for the better regarding privacy. However, the new system is problematic for some advanced applications like file managers. When they target the latest version of Android, they can't access all of your phone's internal storage, making them useless for the purpose they were built for. To prevent tons of broken apps, Google has begun emailing developers with apps that require access to device storage, telling them that they'll soon be able to request access to all files via a new permission.