There was a request a while ago to make a cloned camera app save photos to a separate folder (not the main DCIM…

There was a request a while ago to make a cloned camera app save photos to a separate folder (not the main DCIM folder). The ‘Sandbox external storage option’ no longer works on Android 7.0 (and will be retired), so here’s the next best thing…

Unlike the old sandbox option, the new ‘Redirect external storage’ option won’t work with apps that use hard-coded /sdcard/ paths (however, Google strongly discourages this anyway and most modern apps shouldn’t do this) but it will also redirect the standard folders, DCIM, Documents, Download and so on, something the sandbox option didn’t do. And you can specify your own folder name.

I’ve tested this with the Google Camera app, OpenCamera and with Chrome for redirecting the Download folder. The option won’t be available for WhatsApp because the underlying implementation is already used to redirect to WhatsAppClone001, etc.

If you’re the OP of the request and you read this, let me know which camera app you are using, so I can give it a test.

PS: The Google Camera app didn’t clone before. It showed an error message saying that the app references a system app and that it can’t be cloned. I removed the check and it still works fine, at least on a Samsung phone where the Google Camera app is not pre-installed. I still need to check how it behaves on a Nexus device. There was probably a good reason for the check.

All this in 1.4.7 Beta 2, soon.