Last updated: August 23, 2026
Applies to: Ai File Manager version 2 (app version 1.2) and later
Developer: Muhammad Ishfaq
Contact: ishfaqcompk6@gmail.com
This Privacy Policy explains what Ai File Manager ("the App", "we", "us") does with information when you use it. Version 2 is a much larger app than version 1 — it adds PDF, image, video and audio tools, a storage cleaner, a hidden vault, offline device-to-device transfer, network (NAS) browsing, media players and an expanded search — so this policy has been rewritten to describe all of it.
Your files stay on your device. We have no server, no account system, and no way to see your files, file names, folders or searches.
The App is free and shows ads (Google AdMob). A one-time "Lifetime" purchase removes all ads and unlocks the two premium features.
We collect anonymous usage statistics and crash reports through Google Firebase. These describe how features are used — never what your files are called or contain.
Optional AI search, offline file transfer, network servers and the vault are all off until you choose to use them.
All of the following happen locally, with no upload and no server-side processing:
Browsing, categorizing, sorting, searching by name, and managing files (open, share, rename, copy, move, delete, favorite).
The storage analyzer and cleanup suggestions (junk, duplicates, APKs, empty folders, large files, old downloads and screenshots).
All PDF tools: viewing, annotating, editing the text inside a PDF, split, merge, compress, protect with a password, unlock, PDF-to-images, images-to-PDF, and scan-to-PDF.
All image tools: compress, resize, convert, and text extraction (OCR). The OCR model is built into the App — it works with no internet and no Google Play Services, and the recognized text is never transmitted or logged.
All video and audio tools: trim, compress, extract audio, plus the in-app video player and the background audio player.
Archive browsing, extraction and creation (zip, 7z, tar, gz, bz2, xz; RAR is read-only).
The hidden vault, favorites, and saved playback positions.
Optional on-device AI (semantic) search, described in section 3.
We do not upload, transmit, mirror or back up your file contents, file names or folder structure to any server of ours. There is no cloud storage and no account in this App.
The App requests broad storage access ("All files access" / MANAGE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE on Android 11+) so it can:
Scan your device storage to list, categorize and display your files and folders.
Read a file so you can preview, open, play, share, rename, move, copy or delete it.
Write the results of the tools above (an exported PDF, a compressed video, extracted archive contents) into normal folders on your device.
Read file content locally to build the optional on-device AI search index (section 3).
Hand a tapped .apk file to the system installer so you can install it.
None of this leaves your device.
AI search is opt-in. It stays off until you enable it, either from Settings or from the one-time setup prompt shown at startup.
When you enable it:
The App downloads roughly 193 MB of AI model files from Google Play (an on-demand Play Asset Delivery pack). Google delivers files; no content of yours is sent to obtain them.
A background indexing process — shown as a progress notification so it keeps running if you leave the App — reads your documents, downloads and photos and converts them into "embeddings": numeric vectors used only for on-device ranking. Documents and downloads use a text model; photos use an image model.
Those embeddings, and the file paths they belong to, are stored in a local database on your device.
When you search, your query is turned into a vector on your device and compared against that local index on your device.
Your files, their contents, your embeddings and your search queries are never uploaded — not to us, not to Google.
You can switch AI search off at any time in Settings, which stops indexing and stops the App re-enabling it. The indexing categories (documents / downloads / photos) can each be turned on and off individually. The local index is removed when you clear the App storage or uninstall the App.
Files you have moved into the vault, and files on network servers, are deliberately excluded from indexing.
The vault moves selected photos and videos out of shared storage into the App private storage, so they no longer appear in your gallery, in other apps, or anywhere else in this App. Access is protected by your device biometric, with a PIN you set as the always-available fallback.
What you should know:
Vault files never leave your device and are never uploaded.
Your PIN is not stored. Only a salted PBKDF2 hash of it is kept, so the PIN itself cannot be read back.
Vault files, the PIN verifier and the App database are explicitly excluded from Android cloud backup and from device-to-device transfer, so hidden media is not copied to your Google account or onto a new phone.
Vault files are stored as ordinary (unencrypted) bytes inside app-private storage. This protects them from other apps and from someone picking up your unlocked phone; it does not protect them against a rooted device or a forensic physical extraction of the phone.
Nearby transfer sends files directly between devices over your local Wi-Fi network, or over a temporary local-only hotspot the sending device creates when there is no shared network. Nothing passes through our servers, and no account or internet connection is required.
How it works, and what that means for you:
While you are sending, the App runs a small temporary web server on your device and advertises the session on the local network (this includes your device name, so the other device can show what it found). It also displays a QR code and a URL, so any device — an iPhone, a laptop, another Android — can download the offered files in a browser with nothing installed.
Only the files you selected are offered, and only for that session. The session address contains a random token, and a request without that token is refused. The server stops when you leave the transfer screen.
The transfer runs over plain local-network connections, so it is as private as the network you are on. Use it on networks you trust, or use the hotspot mode, which creates a password-protected link between just the two devices.
Received files are saved into Download/Received.
Scanning a QR code uses your camera. Frames are decoded on your device in real time; no image from the scanner is stored or transmitted.
You can optionally save a NAS or Windows share and browse it inside the App.
The server address, username and password you enter are stored only on your device, encrypted with AES-256-GCM using a key held in the Android Keystore.
Those credentials are sent only to the server you entered them for, and never to us or to any third party.
Saved network paths use an internal identifier, so your username and host name are not written into favorites, logs or crash reports.
Cloud providers (Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive) are not supported — this is local-network only.
The camera is used in exactly two places, and only when you open them:
Scan to PDF — you photograph pages and they become a PDF you save. The captures stay inside the App until you save the document; they are not added to your camera roll and are not uploaded.
QR scanner (receiving a nearby transfer) — frames are decoded on-device and discarded.
The App never uses the camera in the background, and camera hardware is declared optional, so the App still installs and works on a device without one.
We use Google Firebase for three things. All of it describes how the App is used — never what your files are.
The App records a fixed set of about 34 anonymous events, such as: which screens you open, how the ad-consent prompt was answered, whether permissions were granted, which menu entry points you use, whether AI search was enabled and whether the model download and first indexing pass succeeded (including roughly how many files were indexed, as a rounded band), that a search was performed and in which mode, how many results it returned and how long the query text was, which tool you opened and whether the run succeeded, failed or was cancelled and how long it took, which file operation you performed and on how many items, how much space a cleanup freed, that a vault action or a transfer happened and with how many files, which protocol a network connection test used, which settings you toggled, and the purchase funnel (paywall shown, checkout started, purchase completed or failed).
The App is built so that file names, folder paths, search query text, extracted or OCR text and error messages can never be sent. That rule is enforced at runtime, not merely by convention: any value that looks like a path or a file name is rejected before it reaches Google. For searches, only the length of the query is recorded, never the query itself.
Six anonymous "user properties" are also set, all as coarse bands: build type, whether you are a premium user, how many free AI searches have been used, roughly how many files are indexed, whether AI search is on, and whether storage access was granted.
If the App crashes, an automatic crash report — stack trace, device model, OS version, app version and similar technical state — is sent so the bug can be fixed. We attach no user identifier, no custom data and no file information. Crash reporting is active in the released app only.
Lets us adjust configuration — ad frequency and placement, the premium limits, AI setup behaviour — without shipping a new app version. It carries feature-flag values only, and no personal data.
Firebase also generates an installation identifier for the App on your device, which Google uses to keep these statistics consistent.
Our Google Analytics property is linked to Google Play, Google Ads, Google AdMob and BigQuery. This means the anonymous usage, ad and purchase data described here is shared with those Google products, so that we can see install and revenue reports and can measure and optimize our advertising campaigns. The purchase event we send carries the price and currency of the purchase; it carries no payment information and no personal details.
Ai File Manager is free and shows ads to free users through Google AdMob (the Google Mobile Ads SDK). Version 2 shows more ad formats than version 1 did:
A full-screen (interstitial) ad at startup, before the main screen.
Occasional interstitial ads as you use the App — after certain actions such as opening a folder or a file, finishing a tool, completing a cleanup or a transfer. They are frequency-capped, and the counter resets every time the App restarts.
Small "native" ads embedded in the Home, Browse, search results, Cleanup and Settings screens.
An app-open ad when you return to the App.
Buying the one-time Lifetime upgrade removes all of them.
To serve and measure ads, the AdMob SDK may collect and process, on Google behalf:
Your device advertising ID (a resettable identifier — not your name, email or phone number) and general device information (device model, OS version, language, coarse location derived from your IP address).
Ad interaction data (impressions, clicks, whether an ad loaded, and the estimated value of an impression).
We do not receive or store this data ourselves. It is processed by Google under the Google Privacy Policy and How Google uses information from sites or apps that use our services.
Consent. In regions that require it (the EEA, the UK, Switzerland, and certain US states), the App shows a Google User Messaging Platform (UMP) consent form at first launch. Until you answer it, the App instructs Google to store nothing for analytics or advertising purposes — all four Consent Mode signals are set to denied by default and change only when you make a choice. You can reopen or withdraw that choice at any time from Settings → About → "Privacy options".
The App offers one optional, one-time "Lifetime" purchase. It removes all ads, gives unlimited AI searches (free users get 5 for the life of the install) and allows saving edits made with the PDF text editor. Everything else in the App is free, including filename search, the vault, nearby transfer, the media tools, the other PDF tools and PDF annotation.
The purchase is processed entirely by Google Play Billing. Your payment method, card details and billing address are collected and processed by Google, not by us — we never see or store them. We receive a purchase confirmation from Google Play, which the App stores locally to unlock the features on your device. Because Google Play remembers the entitlement, your purchase is restored automatically after a reinstall or on a new device, with no account needed from us.
The anonymous purchase event described in section 8 records only the price and currency, and Google Play own reporting shows us aggregate sales — neither identifies you.
If you email us for support or feedback (the "Send feedback" item in Settings opens your mail app), we receive whatever you put in that message, including your email address. If you use "Rate us", the App simply opens the Google Play listing; your rating is handled by Google Play.
The App keeps the following locally, and nowhere else:
Your settings, including theme, AI search and indexing preferences.
Favorites, video and audio playback positions, and recent search terms.
The AI search index: file paths plus numeric embeddings (only if you enabled AI search).
Vault entries and vault media (only if you use the vault), plus the PIN hash.
Saved network servers, with credentials encrypted as described in section 6.
Your premium entitlement flag and the free-AI-search counter.
Android Auto Backup may include ordinary app data (settings, favorites, playback positions, recent searches) in the backup of your device to your own Google account, if you have device backup switched on. The vault, the vault PIN verifier and the search index database are explicitly excluded from both cloud backup and device-to-device transfer.
Uninstalling the App, or clearing its storage from Android Settings, removes all of the above.
We do not require or support account creation, sign-in or login.
We do not collect your file names, file contents, folder paths, search queries, or any text recognized by OCR.
We do not collect your location. The App has no location feature. On Android 12L and older the system required the location permission as the gate for the Wi-Fi APIs used by nearby transfer, so it is declared for those versions only and capped there; on newer Android versions it is not requested at all, and the nearby-devices permission is declared with the "never used for location" flag.
We do not use any ad network other than Google AdMob, and Lifetime purchasers see no ads at all.
We do not sell your data, and we do not share it with data brokers.
We do not upload your files, photos or documents anywhere.
All files access (MANAGE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE) — to find, read, organize and manage your files locally, to write tool output, and to build the optional AI search index.
Camera (CAMERA) — Scan to PDF, and the QR scanner used to receive a nearby transfer. Requested only when you open one of those screens; declared optional.
Nearby Wi-Fi devices (NEARBY_WIFI_DEVICES) and Wi-Fi / local network state (ACCESS_WIFI_STATE, CHANGE_WIFI_STATE, ACCESS_LOCAL_NETWORK) — offline device-to-device transfer, including the local-only hotspot fallback. Declared as never used to derive location.
Location (ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION) — Android 12L (API 32) and older only, where it was the system required gate for those same Wi-Fi APIs. Never requested on newer versions, and never used to determine where you are.
Internet (INTERNET, ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE) — ads, Firebase analytics/crash reporting/remote config, Google Play Billing, downloading the AI models, connecting to a network server you added, and opening this hosted privacy policy page. Never used to transmit your file contents.
Advertising ID (com.google.android.gms.permission.AD_ID) — added by the Google Mobile Ads SDK so AdMob can serve and measure ads. Unused once you buy Lifetime, because no ad is loaded.
Notifications (POST_NOTIFICATIONS) — progress notifications for AI indexing, file transfers and video/image exports, and the playback notification for the audio player.
Foreground services (FOREGROUND_SERVICE, FOREGROUND_SERVICE_DATA_SYNC, FOREGROUND_SERVICE_MEDIA_PLAYBACK, FOREGROUND_SERVICE_MEDIA_PROCESSING) — so indexing, transfers, media exports and background audio keep running reliably when you leave the App, each showing the notification above.
Install unknown apps (REQUEST_INSTALL_PACKAGES) — so tapping an .apk you already have can hand it to the system package installer.
Biometrics — unlocking the vault. Your biometric data is handled by Android and is never seen by the App.
The App deliberately does not request a battery-optimization (Doze) exemption.
Google AdMob and the Google Mobile Ads SDK, including the User Messaging Platform consent tool — policies.google.com/privacy and policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites
Firebase Analytics, Firebase Crashlytics and Firebase Remote Config (Google) — policies.google.com/privacy and firebase.google.com/support/privacy
Google Play Billing (Google) — play.google.com/intl/en-us/about/play-terms
Google Play Asset Delivery (Google) — used only to download the AI model files when you enable AI search; it delivers files, not analytics.
Google Analytics 4, Google Ads and BigQuery (Google) — destinations for the anonymous analytics described in section 8.
Data shared with these parties is limited to what this policy describes, and is processed by Google as our service provider under its own terms. A network server you add (section 6) is your own equipment or your organization equipment, and is not our service provider.
Your files stay where you put them. The App creates no hidden server-side copies.
On-device data (settings, index, vault, favorites, saved servers) stays on your device until you delete it, clear the App storage, or uninstall.
Firebase Analytics data is retained under Google standard Firebase retention (typically up to 14 months) and then deleted automatically. Data exported to BigQuery is retained under our project settings for as long as it is needed for product and advertising analysis.
Crashlytics reports are retained under the Google Crashlytics retention policy (typically around 90 days for an individual report).
Advertising ID and ad interaction data are retained and managed by Google under its AdMob policies; we do not separately store them.
Ai File Manager is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 16. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, contact us and we will delete it.
Ads and consent: buy the Lifetime upgrade to remove ads entirely. Where a consent form applies, change or withdraw your choice at any time from Settings → About → "Privacy options". You can also reset or delete your device advertising ID, or opt out of personalized ads, in your device Google/Ads settings.
AI search: switch it off in Settings at any time, or turn individual categories (documents, downloads, photos) off.
Permissions: revoke storage, camera, notification or nearby-devices permission at any time in your device Settings. The App will simply be unable to do the corresponding thing.
Analytics: you can limit collection at the operating-system level by turning off "Usage & diagnostics" sharing on your device, where supported.
Delete everything: uninstall the App, or clear its storage from device Settings, to remove all app-local data — including the AI index and the vault. Restore anything you want to keep out of the vault first.
If you are in the EEA, the UK or another region with comparable law, you may request access to, correction of, or deletion of personal data relating to you, and you may object to processing. Because we hold no account and no server-side copy of your data, in practice this concerns the anonymous Firebase and AdMob data tied to your device identifiers — email us and we will act on it with Google on your behalf.
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Changes are posted on this page with a revised "Last updated" date. Continued use of the App after a change means you accept the updated policy.
Muhammad Ishfaq
Email: ishfaqcompk6@gmail.com