How to Use Cx File Explorer: Settings, How-Tos, & Functions

Now that you’ve downloaded and installed Cx File Explorer on Android, Meta Quest, PC, or wherever you need it, it’s time to get started with learning how to use the app. Though the app’s interface is clean and straightforward, I’d love to explain everything about Cx File Explorer APK on my website so anyone can use it seamlessly. Let’s do a deep dive!

Using Cx File Explorer

First, we’ll learn things that appear right after opening the app, then we’ll move to its settings. If you’re using an old version, the settings might differ, but just a bit.

First Impressions

At first sight, you’ll see a turquoise screen with a circular storage indicator showing your device’s used and free storage. In the screenshot below, we can see 66% of storage is occupied (42 GB out of 64 GB total).

Storage indicator on the home screen of Cx File Explorer APK

To the right of the storage indicator, you have a breakdown of your storage by the main file types: Images, Audios, and Videos. You also see a prominent “CLEAN” button beneath the breakdown, which, upon hitting, lets you empty your recycle bin, clear cached files, and remove junk.

options after clicking the clean button in cx file explorer

If you often forget where you left off, Cx File Explorer has got you covered with its history feature. By swiping right on the turquoise screen, you can see the four folders you visited last.

Navigation Options

At the screen’s lower area, you have 3 main navigation tabs: Local, Library, and Network.

3 navigation tabs in Cx File Explorer apk

Here’s what they have to offer:

Local: With the Local tab, accessing Main storage, Downloads, Apps, and Recycle Bin is just one click away.

Main storage, downloads, apps, and recylce bin icons under Local tab

Library: Heading to Library lets you directly access Pictures, Videos, Sound files, and text files. There you also have a New files icon, which I’ll explain below what it’s for.

Network: The Network tab has two tabs, one Access from network and the second New location.

Access from network and new location icons under the Network tab

Below, I explain the functionality of all these icons on each tab. So, keep reading…

Local

The first icon under the Local tab is of Main Storage, where all of your phone’s data is laid. As you enter, you see 3 horizontal lines in the top right. This icon has options that let you see your files the way you want—you can change view, sort files by name, size, date, or type, and show hidden files.

3 horizontal lines in the top right corner and its features

Next, you see 3 dots again in the top right corner, which you can use to create new files or folders, search your files, and refresh.

Create new files and folder, search files, and refresh option appeared by clicking on 3 dots in cx file explorer

Right beneath these options, you’ll see a small circular storage usage indicator. It has two tabs—Analyze and Clean. In the Analyze tab, you can analyze your main storage, see how much space apps use, and see what large files take up most of your device’s space.

Analyzing main storage in cx file explorer

The Clean tab is the same I already talked about above, it’s here again. It lets you empty your recycle bin, clear cached files, and see how much space apps are taking up. For that, you first must give apps usage access to Cx File Explorer from your device’s settings.

Next, we move to the Downloads icon. Here are all the files you downloaded from anywhere. When you step into it, you have those 3 horizontal lines and 3 dots again in the top right, they work the same way as I explained earlier.

Now is the turn of the Apps icon, where you’ll see two tabs: Downloaded and All. While the Downloaded tab shows the apps you’ve installed on your device, the All tab, as the name says, lists every app—system, and downloaded.

You’ll see three options at the top right under the Apps icon, but the middle one might be new to you. This option is to allow app usage access, so you can see how much space and which apps are eating up. Tap on it, hit OK on the pop-up, and it’ll take you to the settings to give usage access.

permit app usage access pop up in cx file explorer

Recycle Bin is the last icon under the Local tab. It simply stores the files you delete, which you can restore or permanently delete later on.

Library

The Library tab has 5 icons—Images, Audio, Videos, Documents, and New files. The first four are pretty straightforward: Images holds all your pictures, Videos holds all your videos, and the same goes for all. The New Files icon keeps all the files that have recently landed on your device.

You’ll also notice a little Clear button right under the 3 dots at the top right when you’re in the New Files icon. This button’s job is to remove all the files from this folder—it doesn’t delete them, just removes them from the New Files folder.

Network

Now let’s come to the most useful and my favorite tab—Network. It has two icons, Access from network and New Location. The “Access from network” helps wirelessly transfer data from your phone to a computer over a local Wi-Fi network—say goodbye to cables!

The New location icon enables you to store and access your data on cloud apps like Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, and Box. Once you tap this icon, you’ll see the list of these cloud storage apps. Tap your desired cloud storage app, and you’ll need to enter your account details to verify. For Google Drive, you only need to select your desired Gmail from the pop-up, and you’re good to go.

List of cloud storage apps in cx file explorer

And the Remote tab on the right? It lets you connect to external storage options such as Local Network, SMB, FTP, SFTP, and WebDAV.

Cx File Explorer Settings

You can navigate to settings by tapping the 3 dots in the top right when you are on the home screen of the app.

Default apps

Once in, the first option you’ll see is Default apps. It lets you choose which app should open specific types of files by default, e.g., if you open a PDF or image, it will use the app you selected under “Default apps” without asking you each time.

Built-in apps

The next turn is of Built-in apps. Cx File Explorer has a built-in image viewer, video player, audio player, and text editor. By default, all these boxes will be checked, so the app will use its built-in file viewer when you open files. Should you prefer a different file opener, simply unmark the blue checkbox to opt out.

Now, for example, if you’ve unchecked the image viewer, whenever you open an image using Cx File Explorer, it’ll ask you to choose the app to view the image in a pop-up.

Notification Settings

This setting has only one option: Storage is full. When enabled, it notifies you when the storage usage goes over your set percentage. By default, it alerts at 98% full, but you can adjsut it from 85% to 99%. Turning this feature off is also an option.

Recycle Bin Settings

You have two checkboxes under Recycle Bin Settings. When you check the Use Recycle bin by default, any file you delete in the app will automatically land in the Recycle Bin.

The next is Show recycle confirmation. Once enabled, it’ll ask you whenever you delete a file whether to permanently delete it or give it a Recycle bin visit first.

Advanced Settings

The Advanced settings has 3 options. The first is the Detect USB connection, which is bound to recognize the USB storage device like a flash drive or an external hard drive when you plug it in using OTG or a cable. If it’s turned off, you’d likely have to find and mount the USB device manually.

Then, you have Show System Storage. Upon checking the box, you’ll see a new icon under the Local navigation option labelled System.

Using this icon is a way to get access to all the system files that you don’t have elsewhere.

The last option under Advanced settings is File Size Unit. It is simply used to choose how file sizes are shown in the app. You can pick either GB or GiB.

Show advanced menus

The Show Advanced Menus has 3 options, where the first one is Add to Home screen. Once enabled, you’ll be able to make shortcuts for files directly on your main screen. To do so, tap and hold the file, then click More at the bottom right, then select Add to Home screen.

Next, you have Hide/Unhide. Tick the checkbox and you get the power to hide your desired files. Do the same as you did to add files’ shortcut to the home screen, tap and hold the file you want to hide, click More at the bottom right, then select Hide. To unhide, see this guide.

Then you have the Open as option. It allows you to choose how or with which app a particular file should be opened. After you turn it on, do the same thing you did with the other options: tap and hold the file, click More at the bottom right, then select Open as.

A pop-up will appear with 5 file types; choose the type you want to open the selected file with. This comes in handy for files that the default apps can’t identify or mislabel.

Open as file feature in cx file explorer

About

Last but not least, the About section. It, on top, tells the current version of the app. Next, you have two options: Privacy Policy (do read if you want) and Open source licenses.

Then you’ll see a Usage & diagnostics option. It helps you monitor and manage your device’s storage and performance, kind of like a built-in ‘health check’ for your storage. The last option is Debug mode.

It’s mainly meant for developers or advanced users to collect logs and troubleshoot issues. Most users won’t need it unless something is wrong, so it’s best not to use it unless necessary. It can make the app run a bit slower since it’s busy recording logs.