The problem is your average user only sees glowing reviews of ES File Explorer on the Play Store. They do not care to search for information about the data egress to Chinese servers, and are lulled into a false sense of security by the Play Store itself, which claims to 'verify' all apps on it.

> nobody cares

Are you saying everyone is aware about those things?

I for one never use a Chinese app or an app that was bought by a Chinese company ever again (sorry, Opera). But I doubt 99% of the users even realize who owns these apps.

Yuck. I installed that a while back to ease dealing with some local files on the phone for some testing, and it's been sitting on there for a while. Uninstalled, since regardless of whether it's true now, it could be true in the future, and an app not used is both an app not needed and a security hole waiting to happen at this point.

What alternative is there for something like an Android TV set top box (I'm using to mount USB drives)?

I still can't believe android doesn't have a native file explorer. The fact that you need to install a 3rd party addon for such an essential feature boggles me. I can't read a PDF without a file explorer.

I currently use Solid Explorer due to ES File Explorer's shadiness

I cant remember why I uninstalled, but the UI changed and I couldnt do something I used to be able to.

I think it was navigating videos and being able to hit 'Next' in-video.

Whatever the case it broke and I found a new file explorer.

Wow, I did not know that. Thanks for the heads up. I even keep up with security stuff. I don't ES File Explorer any more because I don't really do specific file management on my phone. That's disturbing.

Do you have more information on this?