Media Provider Manager

An Xposed module intended to prevent media storage abuse.

Screenshots

What is media store

Media store is an optimized index into media collections provided by the Android framework. When an application needs to access media files (e.g. an album application wants to display all the pictures in the device), it is more easier to interact with the media store than traversing all files in the external storage volume. In addition it reduces the number of files accessible to the app, which helps to protect user privacy.

How media store is abused

As with native storage, Android does not offer a fine-grained management scheme for media storage.

• Apps only need low-risk permissions to access all media files, and users cannot limit the scope of reading.
• No permission is required for applications to insert files through the media store. Writing files freewheelingly will clutter up the external storage and the media store, and it can also be used for cross-application tracking.

Features

• Media file manager built with only media store API.
• Filter data returned from the media store to protect your privacy.
• Prevent apps from freewheelingly writing files via the media store.
• Provide a usage record feature to help you be aware of how applications use the media store.
• Prevent 💩 ROM's download manager from creating non-standard files.
• Material 3.
• Open source.

Source code

https://github.com/Mzdyl/Media-Provider-Manager

Releases

Github Release

Compatibility

• Android 10 (API 29) is the minimum supported version; Android 10–16 is the primary compatibility range.
• A recent LSPosed version is recommended. Only enable the module for the suggested MediaProvider, DownloadProvider, and module-app scopes.
• MediaProvider is a private system component and vendor implementations vary. Unknown method signatures and internal API failures are handled fail-open, with the reason written to the Xposed log.

Build and verification

JDK 21 and Android SDK 36 are required:

./gradlew testDebugUnitTest lintDebug assembleDebug
./gradlew assembleRelease

CI runs unit tests, Android Lint, and the Debug APK build. Core rule matching, path boundaries, and database type conversions should be covered by unit tests before merging.

Data and privacy

Usage records are stored in MediaProvider's private database and are exposed only through a Binder interface protected by caller UID checks. The write queue is bounded, records older than 90 days are pruned automatically, and users can clear all records manually.

Rule files are written atomically. Corrupt or unsupported rules are disabled instead of preventing the system MediaProvider from starting.

License

Apache License 2.0