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Google is finally fixing those 'out of sync' prompts in Photos on Android 12
Scoped Storage gets some much needed fine-tuning
In the past, Google Photos felt like magic on Android. Your photos were kept in sync automatically without any manual interference. But that changed with Android 11 and the introduction of Scoped Storage, which aims to keep your files safer by siloing off what apps have access to and asking you to confirm when an app wants to make changes to certain files. The latter is a problem for apps like Photos, which now need to ask you for permission before just deleting or updating an image — hence, the introduction of the "Review out-of-sync changes" prompts. Google seems to recognize this problem and aims to fix it.
X-plore bypasses Scoped Storage's drastic limitations on Android 11
But Google isn't granting official exemptions just yet
Google introduced a controversial change in the name of security with Android 11 — Scoped Storage. The new API is supposed to hinder apps from reading each other's data, stopping bad actors from snooping through your phone. But that restriction also extends to file explorers, where it makes much less sense. Google promised it would work on exemptions for these apps, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the corresponding policy was postponed to 2021. While we're still waiting for Google to get started with the process, some apps circumvent the limitations by targeting an older version of Android. The latest in line to use this workaround is X-plore.