Saving and sharing files

Saving and sharing files

There are many types of Android phones. If your Android phone is a different model to the one shown in this demonstration, the steps might be slightly different, but you can still follow along.

Saving and sharing files

You can use your phone to keep important documents and other files close to hand. For instance, if your travel agent emails you a travel itinerary, you can open the file on your phone using your email app. But it can be a hassle to have to search your inbox each time you need to find the file. So we'll look at how you can save it to your phone and access it later using the My Files app.

Saving and sharing files

My Files is the place on your Android phone where saved files are stored. You don't even have to be connected to the internet to access saved files. So if we save our travel itinerary to My Files, we'll be able to access it whenever we need it.

Saving and sharing files

We have received a travel itinerary in an email. Let's see how to save it to the My Files app. Begin by opening the email app to find the email with the itinerary attached. First, swipe up from the bottom of the Home screen to open the Apps screen. For this demonstration, we're using the Gmail app for our emails. We'll tap the Google folder to see all our Google apps and tap the Gmail app icon to open the app. The inbox view opens and shows a list of recent emails. Our travel agent has just sent us an itinerary for our trip, so it appears as a new email at the top.

Saving and sharing files

Tap on the email to open and read it. While it can be safe to open and read an email, never click on a link or open an attachment you're unsure about. A link or file inside an email may contain viruses or other unwanted software. Now the email is open, we can see the itinerary document attached to the body of the email. Instead of tapping on the attachment to open and read it, we're going to download it to save it to the phone. The download icon looks like a downwards-facing arrow with a line underneath. Tap it to save the travel itinerary to your phone.

Saving and sharing files

Now, let's look at the top left of the screen next to the time, to check if our document has been downloaded. Here, you'll see an icon that looks like a small tick with a line underneath. If you can see this icon, your download has been completed. Tap the Home button to go back to the Home screen.

Saving and sharing files

Now, let's find and read the itinerary using My Files. To find My Files, swipe up from the bottom of the Home screen to show the Apps screen. Look for the My Files icon. If you can't find it here, it might be inside a folder. In this demonstration, it's in a folder named Samsung. Tap on it to open it. When you've found My Files, tap on it to open the My Files app. This app has a lot of features to help you keep files on your phone organised. But for now, we're going to focus on opening the travel itinerary.

Saving and sharing files

Find Internal storage on this screen and tap it to continue. A list of all the folders on your phone will display. To see the files inside a folder, you just need to tap on it. Most files, including email attachments, are automatically saved into the Download folder in alphabetical order. Find Download in the list and tap it to see the files inside. From the list of files, look for the file that we downloaded from the email earlier. To open the itinerary, tap on it.

Saving and sharing files

It's a good idea to save important documents to the My Files app for when you might not have access to Wi-Fi or mobile data, like when travelling. Even when you don't have internet, you can still access your files.

Saving and sharing files

When you're finished, tap the Back arrow at the top left of the screen to close the itinerary and see the Download screen again. Once you have saved a file to your phone, you can easily share it with other people.

Saving and sharing files

In this demonstration, we're going to send the itinerary to a friend as an email attachment. First, we're going to tap and hold the itinerary. To do so, simply leave your finger on the screen for a moment longer than a normal tap until a blue tick appears next to the file and a row of icons appear at the bottom of the screen. Find the Share option, which looks like three small circles connected by two lines. Tap on it. The Share panel appears, showing all the different ways you can share files and other content from your phone. It's worth exploring the many options here, but for now, let's find the Gmail icon and tap on it.

Saving and sharing files

A new email screen appears with the itinerary already included as an email attachment. Tap the To box and the keyboard appears. Type in your friend's email address. Next, tap the Subject box and type in the subject of the email. You can tap Compose email to add a message, but we're not going to do so for this demonstration. When you're ready to send the email, look for the Send arrow in the top right of the screen, which looks like a paper plane, and tap it. Once the email is sent, you'll return to the list of files in the Download folder.

Saving and sharing files

To finish up, let's look at how to safely delete a file from your phone. Tap and hold the file you want to delete. A row of icons will appear at the bottom of the screen. The Delete option looks like a small bin. Before you tap it, make sure this is definitely the file that you want to delete. You should only delete files that you saved onto your phone.

Saving and sharing files

It's not recommended to delete any other files as it might cause your phone to stop working properly. Tap Delete. From the options that appear, tap Move to Recycle bin and the file will be removed from your phone. If you need to access the file again, you'll have to find it from its original source and save it to the My Files app once more. Now tap the Home button to return to the Home screen.

Congratulations!

You have now completed this course and should be able to save, open and read files on your Android phone using the My Files app. You should also be able to share and delete files.

Next up, we'll learn the Android phone: Listening to podcasts activity.