How To Move Files to the Android System Folders and Change File Permissions

This is an easy to follow blog post that tells you how to move files to the android system folders on an android phone and also how to change file permissions.

Warning: You make any changes to your android system folders and files at your own risk. I’m not recommending any software mentioned! I’m just blogging about a task that I recently did.

Please note: You already need to have rooted your android phone before you perform the tasks mentioned below. This blog post doesn’t tell you how to root a phone. I carried out the instructions below using LineageOS 16 on a Samsung Galaxy S5 G900T. It’s likely at some stage this blog post will become outdated. This isn’t a sponsored blog post.

2nd warning: Think twice before making changes to a system folder and question whether you really need to modify a system folder. Make sure you’ve performed a backup before proceeding.

The software I used for both instructions is Solid Explorer File Manager.

How to move files to the Android system folder

1. Open the Solid Explorer application.
2. Cut or copy the file you wish to move to a system folder.
3. Turn the phone so it is in landscape mode.
4. Select the three horizontal icon next to ‘My Files’.
5. Then from the options on the left, choose ‘Root’.
6. Now locate the system folder you wish to transfer the file to.
7. Press the ‘+’ icon to transfer the file.

How to change a system file permission

1. Open Solid Explorer, select the three horizontal lines next to ‘My Files’.
2. Select ‘Root’ and browse to the folder that contains the file.
3. Press the file under it’s highlighted in blue.
4. At the bottom select the three dots icon.
5. From the bottom, select ‘properties’.
6. From the top options you can select ‘attributes’.
7. Now choose your permissions and when ready select ‘Apply’.

Conclusion
I hope you found this blog post helpful and it’s likely a blog post I will refer to myself in the future. Having the ability to move files to the system folder isn’t something that is usually required and it might be that for any changes to take affect, you will need to reboot your phone.