App Selection
- By chrzjim
- Apps & Games
- 6 Replies
To be honest I don't know precisely where under the hood this is: I'd have to dig out one of my older (rooted) devices and poke around in /system and see whether I could spot anything. Knowing Android it will be in an sql database somewhere in there.
But I am quite sure that without rooting the phone you will not be able to see it. You'll need administrator access to do something like this.
What file explorer are you using? The one of mine that offers the standard system dialogue for apks is Solid Explorer, and I just checked by setting 'use always' for the system package installer and it has definitely remembered that, even after restarting the device. Now if it's using the system dialogue, rather than handling the intent itself, it shouldn't matter what app you use, but given that my other 2(*) file explorers handle apks differently maybe it is worth trying with a different one just to see.
(*) I also have Google's 'Files' app, which came with the phone, but this is such a mess that I don't count it as a file explorer. It's honestly like they want a file explorer that hides the filesystem from you! Maybe it makes sense to former iPhone users...
Thanks for your help and advice..