MaterialFiles
Material Design file manager for Android
An open-source Android file manager with Material Design styling that handles network storage (FTP, SFTP, SMB, WebDAV), root access, archives, and Linux filesystem details that most Android file managers get wrong.
Material Files is an open-source file manager for Android, available on Google Play, F-Droid, and as a direct APK download from GitHub. It targets Android 5.0 and above. The project was built because the author wanted a file manager that followed Material Design closely, came with full source code available for inspection, and used sound technical foundations rather than shortcuts.
The app covers the basics you expect from a file manager: navigating folders with breadcrumb trails, viewing and moving files, and handling common archive formats (view, extract, and create compressed files). It also reaches further than many alternatives: it can connect to FTP, SFTP, SMB, and WebDAV servers to browse network-attached storage, and it supports root access for users whose Android devices have been rooted. The UI supports color customization and a night mode with an optional true-black option for OLED screens.
On the technical side, the app communicates with the filesystem through Linux system calls directly rather than parsing the output of the ls command, which is a common shortcut that causes problems with unusual filenames and newer Android versions. It also understands Linux concepts like symbolic links, file permissions, and SELinux context, similar to how file managers on Linux desktops work. File names with malformed encoding are handled correctly, which many other Android file managers fail to do.
The project is written in Kotlin and licensed under the GNU General Public License version 3. Source code is on GitHub and translations are coordinated through Transifex.
If you include Material Files in a custom Android ROM, the author asks that you not replace the system DocumentsUI app with it (they are different things), that you allow users to uninstall it, and that you be careful with APK signing to avoid blocking users from receiving updates through app stores.
Where it fits
- Browse and manage files on Android with a Material Design interface that supports dark mode and an OLED true-black option.
- Connect to a home NAS or server over SFTP or SMB from your Android phone to access and transfer files.
- Extract or create compressed archives directly on Android without a separate app.
- Access the full Android filesystem on a rooted device, including system files with correct permission and SELinux context display.