ES File Explorer is a file manager/explorer designed by ES Global, a subsidiary of DO Global, for Android devices. It includes features like

cloud storage Cloud storage is a model of computer data storage in which data, said to be on "the cloud", is stored remotely in logical pools and is accessible to users over a network, typically the Internet. The physical storage spans multiple servers (so ...

integration, file transfer from Android to Windows via FTP or LAN, and a

root In vascular plants, the roots are the plant organ, organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They are most often bel ...

browser. It was removed from the

Google Play Store Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store, Play Store, or sometimes the Android Store (and was formerly Android Market), is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certifie ...

for committing

click fraud Click fraud is a type of ad fraud that occurs on the Internet in pay per click (PPC) online advertising. In this type of advertising, the owners of websites that post the ads are paid based on how many site visitors click on the ads. Fraud occurs ...

History

Popularization and functionality

In the early 2010s, ES File Explorer was equipped with then extraordinary features well beyond that of vendors' pre-installed file managers, which popularized the application before it developed into

adware Adware, often called advertising-supported software by its developers, is software that generates revenue by automatically displaying Online advertising, online advertisements in the user interface or on a screen presented during the installatio ...

. The functionality included range selection,

tabbed browsing In interface design, a tab is a graphical user interface object that allows multiple documents or Panel (computer software), panels to be contained within a single window (computing), window, using tabs as a navigational widget for switching be ...

, bookmarking directories, ability to create home screen shortcuts to items (files and folders), ability to create new blank files, three viewing modes for items (grid, basic list, and detailed list), where detailed list previews modification dates, file sizes, and listed folders' file counts; three on-display size levels for items; file transfers in background, FTP server hosting,

network protocol A communication protocol is a system of rules that allows two or more entities of a communications system to transmit information via any variation of a physical quantity. The protocol defines the rules, syntax, semantics, and synchronization of ...

client (ability to connect to other

FTP The File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a standard communication protocol used for the transfer of computer files from a server to a client on a computer network. FTP is built on a client–server model architecture using separate control and dat ...

WebDav WebDAV (Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning) is a set of extensions to the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), which allows user agents to collaboratively author contents ''directly'' in an HTTP web server by providing facilities for conc ...

and SMB servers),

Bluetooth Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is li ...

file sharing File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digital media, such as computer programs, multimedia (audio, images and video), documents or electronic books. Common methods of storage, transmission and dispersion include ...

, ability to manually select an application to open a file with, ability to automatically rename files during transfer in case of a file name conflict and merge directories, detailed statistics during file transfer, a built-in

text editor A text editor is a type of computer program that edits plain text. An example of such program is "notepad" software (e.g. Windows Notepad). Text editors are provided with operating systems and software development packages, and can be used to c ...

with

UTF-8 UTF-8 is a character encoding standard used for electronic communication. Defined by the Unicode Standard, the name is derived from ''Unicode Transformation Format 8-bit''. Almost every webpage is transmitted as UTF-8. UTF-8 supports all 1,112,0 ...

support,

media player Media player may refer to: *Digital media player, home appliances that play digital media *Media player software, software that plays digital media *Portable media player, portable hardware that plays digital media *Windows Media Player Windo ...

interface ( video player and music player with playback controls and

playlist A playlist is a list of video or audio files that can be played back on a media player, either sequentially or in a shuffled order. In its most general form, an audio playlist is simply a list of songs that can be played once or in a loop. ...

ing),

image viewer An image viewer or image browser is a computer program that can display stored graphical images; it can often handle various graphics file formats. Such software usually renders the image according to properties of the display such as color depth ...

and gallery browser,

download manager A download manager is a type of software that manages the downloading of files from the Internet, which may be built into a web browser, or as a standalone program. Functions A download manager manages files being downloaded from the internet. ...

drag and drop In computer graphical user interfaces, drag and drop is a pointing device gesture in which the user (computing), user selects a virtual object by "grabbing" it and dragging it to a different location or onto another virtual object. In general, i ...

support, bulk file renaming (adding

prefix A prefix is an affix which is placed before the stem of a word. Particularly in the study of languages, a prefix is also called a preformative, because it alters the form of the word to which it is affixed. Prefixes, like other affixes, can b ...

, changing extension and

numbering There are many different numbering schemes for assigning nominal numbers to entities. These generally require an agreed set of rules, or a central coordinator. The schemes can be considered to be examples of a primary key In the relational model ...

), disk usage analysis, ZIP

archive file In computing, an archive file stores the content of one or more files, possibly compressed, with associated metadata such as file name, directory structure, error detection and correction information, commentary, compressed data archives, sto ...

creation and browsing, recycle bin (like Microsoft

Windows Explorer File Explorer, previously known as Windows Explorer, is a file manager application and default desktop environment that is included with releases of the Microsoft Windows operating system from Windows 95 onwards. It provides a graphical user i ...

) and the ability to define touch pattern shortcuts (''gestures''), ability to filter searches by date, size range, category (photo, audio, video, APK, and documents), and file type, ability to select multiple files from search results, ability to navigate to files' parent directory from search results, generation of

MD5 The MD5 message-digest algorithm is a widely used hash function producing a 128-bit hash value. MD5 was designed by Ronald Rivest in 1991 to replace an earlier hash function MD4, and was specified in 1992 as Request for Comments, RFC 1321. MD5 ...

and

SHA-1 In cryptography, SHA-1 (Secure Hash Algorithm 1) is a hash function which takes an input and produces a 160-bit (20-byte) hash value known as a message digest – typically rendered as 40 hexadecimal digits. It was designed by the United States ...

hash sum A hash function is any function that can be used to map data of arbitrary size to fixed-size values, though there are some hash functions that support variable-length output. The values returned by a hash function are called ''hash values'', ...

s from files, ability to copy the full path of a selected file or folder into the

clipboard A clipboard is a thin, rigid writing board with a clip at the top for holding paper in place. A clipboard is typically used to support paper with one hand while writing on it with the other, especially when other writing surfaces are not avail ...

, quick navigation history (list of recently opened files and directories), ability to install custom themes, ability to redirect shareable content into a file, and the ability list installed apps and to back them up Android application package (APK) files. A detail window which shows the total separate count of files and folders within a directory and their total size as both human-readable value and byte count to allow for an exact size verification after copying files. Since a 2015 version, files can be encrypted in a

proprietary format A proprietary file format is a file format of a company, organization, or individual that contains data that is ordered and stored according to a particular encoding-scheme, such that the decoding and interpretation of this stored data is easily ac ...

named ''ES lock''.

Range selection

Another early feature to allow the selection of many files and folders without the need to tap on each file individually was range selection, where only two items need to be highlighted to select all listed items inbetween. It resembles the

shift key The Shift key is a modifier key on a alphanumeric keyboard, keyboard, used to type majuscule, capital letters and other alternate "upper" characters. There are typically two Shift keys, on the left and right sides of the row below the home row. T ...

selection of multiple items from desktop file managers such as

and the Nemo file manager.

Lock screen hijacking

Around May 2016, ES File Explorer began incorporating DU Charge Booster into the app, hijacking the user's lockscreen. Several news and blog websites such as AndroidPIT, which had once recommended the app, encouraged users to uninstall it. It was removed later after much criticism and many bad reviews.

Fire TV App Store removal

ES File Explorer was accidentally removed from the

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...

Fire TV App Store in August 2016.

Conversion into shareware

Though ES File Explorer had originally been a

freeware Freeware is software, often proprietary, that is distributed at no monetary cost to the end user. There is no agreed-upon set of rights, license, or EULA that defines ''freeware'' unambiguously; every publisher defines its own rules for the free ...

program, the app later converted into

shareware Shareware is a type of proprietary software that is initially shared by the owner for trial use at little or no cost. Often the software has limited functionality or incomplete documentation until the user sends payment to the software developer. ...

. It began charging a monthly $9.99 fee in order to use its more advanced features, towards the end of 2019.

Controversy and removal from Play Store

ES File Explorer was removed from the

in April 2019, along with several other apps created by DO Global (formerly DU Group). It was reported by

BuzzFeed News ''BuzzFeed News'' was an American news website published by BuzzFeed beginning in 2011. It ceased posting new hard news content in May 2023. It published a number of high-profile scoops, including the Steele dossier, for which it was strong ...

. It was claimed the company who owns ES File Explorer, DO Global, was committing 'click fraud' by clicking ads in users' apps in the background without permission. DO Global responded to these claims with the following: “In the past week, we have noticed a series of reports about our apps by the media. We fully understand the seriousness of the allegations. As such, we immediately conducted an internal investigation on this matter. We regret to find irregularities in some of our products’ use of

AdMob AdMob is a mobile advertising subsidiary of Google, originally founded by the Syrian entrepreneur Omar Hamoui. The name AdMob is a portmanteau for "advertising on mobile". It was incorporated on April 10, 2006 while Hamoui was in business scho ...

advertisements. Given this, we fully understand and accept Google’s decision. Moreover, we have actively cooperated with them by doing a thorough examination of every app involved. We would like to thank the media, our partners, and the public for their support. Moving forward, we will strictly follow relevant regulations and continue conducting a comprehensive review of our products. Lastly, during this process, we have caused misunderstandings and great concern due to our being unable to communicate in a timely manner and provide complete information. We offer our sincere apologies.” It is unclear if or when ES File Explorer will return to the Google Play Store.

Ban in India

In June 2020, the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...

banned ES File Explorer along with 58 other Chinese origin apps citing data and privacy issues.

Notes

References

{{Reflist File managers Android (operating system) software Delisted applications