All about post!

Hide your files and folders from untrained eyes
Transfer files over WiFi in a snap
Turn your apps into APKs
Save Or Backup Apps For Offline Install

You’ll never run out of file managers on Android, especially since the platform does not completely hide the filesystem from users, unlike that other mobile OS. The benefits and drawbacks of such freedom is still open to debate, but until that changes, file managers will be a fact of life on Android. It’s sometimes hard to paint an app as the cream of the crop, but ES File Explorer comes pretty darn close. It’s not going to win any awards for prettiness and new or casual users will probably be a bit confused. But for those who want to squeeze out some every bit of functionality from their device, ES File Explorer aims to please. Here are four “power user” features that you might find useful someday or today.
Download Es file explorer app

Hide your files and folders from untrained eyes

Android is based on Linux, and that fact shows itself in how it handles files and folders. To keep it short, Linux, and therefore Android, hides any file that starts with a dot (‘.’), which has become a common convention to hide certain things that users wouldn’t normally need to care about, like app settings. You can use this fact to create your own personal hidden stash, for whatever reason you may have. The first and most important step is to set ES File Explorer to show Hidden files, otherwise you might find yourself surprised that the file you just created suddenly disappeared. Next, navigate to where you want to create the hidden file or folder and create such a new item. Name it anything you want but be sure to put a dot at the beginning, like “.HideMe”, but without the quotes. Once that’s done, the file will appear but will be partly transparent. If you disable showing Hidden files again, which, by the way, is the default, they will disappear from view.

Not all file managers, especially stock ones, allow users to view hidden files, so this an effective way to hide them from those that don’t know about it. Of course, anyone who knows about it will also know ways around it, but they’d have to know the exact path to your stash

Transfer files over WiFi in a snap

If you see yourself constantly moving files between devices or computers, then ES File Explorer’s Remote Manager might make your life just easier. Instead of struggling with cables, or setting up complicated home networks, or even the going the roundabout route of uploading files to the cloud first, Remote Manager sets up an ad hoc FTP connection, the very same protocol used for downloading files from the Internet, from your Android device to any other device that has a browser or a file manager. All that is required is that the devices sit on the same network, which is usually the case when you’re at home or using a mobile hotspot.

The setup on the Android side is dead simple. Simply go to Remote Manager and tap “Turn on”. However, you might first want to set a username and password to keep anyone else in the same network from connecting. Remote Manager will then give you an IP address that you can enter into any browser, which will then display your device’s filesystem as a webpage full of links to files and folders. This, however, is a one way trip. You can only copy files from the Android device where Remote Manager is running. If you want a two-way connection that allows you to copy to the device or even delete files on the device, you’ll need something more than a browser. You will need an FTP client (FileZilla being a favorite of mine) or a file manager that allows FTP connections. Nothing has to change on ES File Explorer’s end. More advanced users will probably also setup a static IP and a hostname for their device to make things even easier.

Wrap-Up

We’ve definitely just touched the tip of the iceberg when it comes to ES File Explorer’s power features. This file manager even lets you access cloud services as if they were just local files, making it easy to move files in bulk. Admittedly, not all of them get used every day, but it’s nice to know that the feature is there when you need it. Some even become habit forming.

Do you use ES File Explorer, too? If so, what are your favorite features? If you have some other favorite file manager, what features do you think put it above the rest of the crowd? Hit the comments below and share your thoughts and ideas. Maybe you can help others find out a feature they never knew existed or even discover a new favorite app.

Turn your apps into APKs

ES File Explorer also offers a set of convenience features that go a bit beyond your normal definition of a file manager (though still in line with the Linux mantra of “everything is a file”). On the sidebar menu, you will see a few Manager options that help you manage not just files but your whole system. One such manager is the App Manager, which, as you might have guessed, lets you manage your apps. One particular interesting functionality of the App Manager is that it lets you backup apps. This practically puts a copy of the app’s APK inside the /sdcard/backups/ folder, which you can then copy for safe keeping or for other devices. Of course, ES File Explorer also lets you uninstall apps from the App Manager or even directly Share an app, which sends the APK to the chosen target. We leave it up to the reader to think of the ways this feature can be utilized.

Users should note, however, that just because a backup APK exists, it doesn’t mean they will immediately work on any other device you copy it to. Even if you manage to get it installed on another, dissimilar Android device, it may not still work because of missing prerequisites or missing hardware features. In particular, this method is useful for copying apps from a smartphone to the Samsung Galaxy Gear, but due to the smartwatch’s limitations, not all apps will run as is.

Save Or Backup Apps For Offline Install

We know that only a few of you were able to follow along last week with our Google OnbHub Android customization project. For those that did, we hope your guests are now enjoying your network attached resources without compromising your security. This week, let’s look at a tool from a specific app to help with offline usage.

There is more than one way to partake in today’s project, we’ll use ES File Explorer Pro (not the free version) to save an app that can then be installed offline at a future date.

Please note, this project should only be used for free apps, it is still illegal to share paid apps.

Before we begin

ES File Explorer Pro - Google Play StoreTo follow along today, you’ll need a fairly modern Android device and a copy of ES File Explorer Pro. We admit that ES File Explorer free will work, but we just have a hard time recommending the now bloated free version. ES File Explorer Pro is $2.99 in the Google Play Store.

Here is the idea today folks, it’s summer time, you’re headed out on a long road trip and you have a few offline games that you would like to play while you travel. However, you do not want to install these offline games right now, you’d rather do it later.

Sadly, we will not be able to tackle this project without first installing the app, but you can use this trick to then uninstall and save the APK for later.

Business Insider

From the top down, there are many tools out there, mostly file explorer apps, that can save or backup your apps. These tools generally are only able to backup apps that are free, preventing illegal distribution of paid apps.

With an app installed, you can backup the apk, otherwise known as the install file for an app. With apk in hand, you can save it, even off device, and return later to install it, even if your device is offline.

Please note that you should pay attention when the app installs the first time, if it requires an authentication step, or to download additional content from the web, any mandatory connection to the internet to activate, this is not the tool for you.

Let’s see how this is done.

With your app of choice installed, open ES File Explorer Pro.

Tap the menu icon or swipe in from the left side to access the main menu.

Expand the Library section and select APP.

Long press on your app to start the highlighting mode, you can choose multiple apps at one time.

Hit the Backup button.
That’s all there is to backing up the app. You can now go ahead and uninstall the app from your device. I know this sounds unintuitive, but I assure you, if you are one that is in need of this feature, you’ll get what’s happening here.

The process to install apps offline is simple, that APK file we backed up is the install file, it is a matter of simply running the app to install.

Using any file explorer, head into your files and navigate to the folder backups/apps. This is a folder that is automatically created when you performed the backup above.

Inside your backups/apps folder will be all of the APK files for the apps you chose to save for later.

Tap on the app you would like to install, then follow the installation process that pops up.

It is really that easy.
What’s next?

As you may have guessed, these APK files are not tied to your specific device, as these are free apps that you can download from the Google Play Store, or other reputable app store, anyway, ES File Explorer does not restrict you from sharing the files with your other devices. Remember that paid apps are not legal to share with others, even if your tool of choice lets you back them up.

In addition to using this method for delaying your full time install of a new app, do keep in mind that you can use it as a way to backup the APK along with the data for a well used app that you’d like to put to the side for a while. We discussed Helium Backup a while ago, which can be used to save app data, it can also save your apps, but this ES File Explorer Pro trick is how I do things. Just an old habit, I guess.