Nextcloud cries foul over Google Play Store app rejection

Exclusive European cloud vendor Nextcloud has accused Google of deliberately crippling its Android Files application, which it says has more than 800,000 users.

The problem lies with the "All files access" permission, where broad access to files on a device is required. While most applications can make do with Google's more privacy-friendly storage access tools, such as Storage Access Framework (SAF) or the MediaStore API, others require more permissions - hence the "All files access" privilege.

Nextcloud's Android Files app is a file synchronization tool that, according to the company, has long had permission to read and write all file types. "Nextcloud has had this feature since its inception in 2016," it said, "and we never heard about any security concerns from Google about it."

That changed in 2024, when someone or something at Google's Play Store decided to revoke the permission, effectively crippling the application. Nextcloud was instructed to use "a more privacy-aware replacement."

According to Nextcloud, "SAF cannot be used, as it is for sharing/exposing our files to other apps ... MediaStore API cannot be used as it does not allow access to other files, but only media files."

Attempts to raise the issue with Google resulted in little more than copy-and-pasted sections of the developer guide. "Despite multiple appeals from our side and sharing additional background, Google is not considering reinstating upload for all files," Nextcloud said.

The issue seems to stem from the Play Store. While a fully functional version is available on F-Droid, the Play Store edition is subject to Google's imposed limitations. Regarding the All files access permission, Google's developer documentation states: "If you target Android 11 and declare All files access, it can affect your ability to publish and update your app on Google Play."

Nextcloud is clearly aggrieved by the change, as are its users.

"This might look like a small technical detail but it is clearly part of a pattern of actions to fight the competition," it said. "What we are experiencing is a piece of the script from the big tech playbook."

Nextcloud cites examples, such as allegations leveled at Microsoft over the once-popular WordPerfect word processor, which were eventually snuffed out in 2014, or the antics of Apple and Meta that have attracted scrutiny from regulators.

In 2021, Nextcloud and other companies filed a complaint in the EU regarding alleged anti-competitive behavior from Microsoft. "We are now four years in, and nothing has happened," the company said. "What do you think happens to a company that releases no updates to their app in four years?"

Are there nefarious actors at play here, an automated process that auto-rejects apps with elevated access requirements, or is it just simple incompetence? "Either way," Nextcloud said, "it results in companies like ours just giving up, reducing functionality just to avoid getting kicked out of their app store."

"The issue is that small companies - like ours - have pretty much no recourse," it added. Nextcloud went on to criticize oversight processes as slow-moving, with fines that sound hefty but amount to little more than a slap on the wrist.

"Big Tech is scared that small players like Nextcloud will disrupt them, like they once disrupted other companies. So they try to shut the door."

Nextcloud told us the app's installed audience is 824,000 on Android - customers that used the app in the last 30 days.

The Register repeatedly asked Google to comment, but it failed to respond. ®