Editing Data lock-in

'''Data lock-in''' prevents device owners from accessing data stored on the device they own. For example, some mobile applications store user data in a way they can only be viewed from inside the app, with no possibility of creating backups or moving them to external data storage to make space free.

== Incidents ==
=== Saved pages in Samsung Internet ===
The mobile web browser by Samsung stores saved pages in the <code>/data</code> directory. This is a locked-in directory where apps store data only accessible to themselves.

Users have requested Samsung developers to change its browser to store saved pages in a non-locked-in place that makes them accessible from other applications and makes it possible to create backups, or to let users export copies of saved pages, but Samsung refused to implement this change. Some users have stored thousands of web pages this way before realizing they are unable to create backups or move them to external storage.<ref>[https://archive.today/2024.10.12-140435/https://forum.developer.samsung.com/t/regarding-saved-webpages/5304/1 Regarding saved webpages - Samsung Internet - Samsung Developer Forums]</ref>

Rooting a device would make the <code>/data</code> folder accessible, but this requires an unlocked bootloader. The process of unlocking the bootloader involves a factory reset, which deletes all user-generated files from internal storage.

In comparison, Google Chrome on mobile stores web pages as MHTML files in the download folder where they are not locked in, and Firefox on mobile completely lacks a feature to save pages.

=== Android data folder ===
Since Android 11, apps can no longer browse the <code>Android/data</code> folder in the shared user storage (not to be confused with <code>/data</code>, which was locked in since the beginning).<ref>[https://developer.android.com/about/versions/11/privacy/storage Storage updates in Android 11  &#x7C;  Android Developers]: If your app targets Android 11, it cannot access the files in any other app's data directory, even if the other app targets Android 8.1 (API level 27) or lower and has made the files in its data directory world-readable.</ref>

=== Videos downloaded inside the YouTube app ===
YouTube provides no official way for people to create permanent local copies of videos. This includes Creative Commons media.<ref>[https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/L1S0SiBuJN8 Google is Locking Down Android - Mental Outlaw], 07:20</ref> The only exception is YouTube Studio allowing channel owners to download their own videos in up to 720p.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6UHS1-vDMM Changes to Unlisted Videos Uploaded Before 2017], 4:30</ref>

While the YouTube app graciously lets paying subscribers of "YouTube Premium" download videos for offline viewing, the videos are only accessible through the YouTube app, encoded in a proprietary format, and forcibly deleted after 29 days.<ref>[https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/L1S0SiBuJN8 Google is Locking Down Android - Mental Outlaw], 06:41</ref><ref>[https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/7381437 YouTube videos offline FAQs - YouTube Help]</ref><ref>[https://www.virtualcuriosities.com/articles/3383/warning-youtube-premium-downloads-arent-mp4-files Warning: Youtube Premium "Downloads" aren't MP4 Files - Virtual Curiosities]</ref><ref>[https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/whats-wrong-with-youtube.html What's Wrong with YouTube - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation]</ref>

Permanent local copies are necessary to preserve Internet history when YouTube ceases to operate:
<blockquote>
Whenever I tell people that we need to plan for the day when YouTube goes offline, I mostly receive weird reactions. It seems to be the case that people can't think of YouTube being gone. Unfortunately, I'm convinced that most people will face the day when we lose this enormous library of videos.
</blockquote>
<ref>[https://karl-voit.at/cloud-dependencies/ My Dependencies on the Cloud] - Karl Voit</ref>

== References ==
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