FX File Explorer: Plus License

Review by eFreeware

If you already use FX File Explorer and you regularly move files between a phone, a computer and a cloud account, this add-on is the piece that turns a local file manager into something closer to a small network toolkit. FX Plus is not a standalone app. It is a $2.99 license key that brings media, networking and cloud features into FX File Explorer, so it mainly suits people who already have FX and keep wishing they could reach another machine without a desktop.

Pay once, and the FX homescreen gains Internet, Network and Media sections. Everything you get lives inside FX rather than in a separate icon, which keeps the workflow in one place. With over 100,000 installs and a 4.1 average from 3,599 ratings, it has a long track record behind it, having first arrived in September 2012.

What I like about the structure is that it does not try to become a different app. It extends the file manager you already know with capabilities that usually require several separate tools: encrypted archives, network shares, cloud drives, Bluetooth transfers and a way to reach your phone's storage from a computer's browser. For someone who wants one place to handle all of that, that is an appealing arrangement.

Encrypted archives and media browsing

The feature the developer leads with is encrypted zip support. FX Plus handles zip archives with AES-128 and AES-256 encryption, so a folder of documents or photos can be locked with a password before you send or store it. The useful part is that you can browse the contents of those archives and view images and media inside them without decrypting the whole thing first. That saves the awkward step of unpacking an archive just to check what is in it.

The media side is broader than a simple folder view. The add-on lets you browse image and video collections, and it organizes audio by artist, album or playlist, with an option to view all tracks together. Playlists can be rearranged with drag and drop, and if you select several files at once you can move them as a group. Anyone who has tried to reorder a long playlist one track at a time will appreciate that.

There is also a section for browsing and managing installed applications, which fits the file-manager idea of giving you a view of everything on the device rather than just the storage card. None of this is flashy, but it is the kind of utility that saves a trip to a different app.

Reaching other machines and cloud accounts

The networking list is where FX Plus earns its keep. It supports Windows networking over SMB, FTP including secure FTP-S and FTP-ES, SSH FTP, and WebDAV. It can also browse the local network for Windows shares, and it finds FTP and SSH FTP shares using multicast DNS service discovery, the same family of technology behind Bonjour and Avahi. In practice that means less manual typing of addresses when you are trying to reach a server on the same network.

Cloud storage is covered through Google Drive, Dropbox, SugarSync, Box and SkyDrive. The developer notes that SkyDrive requires Android 2.2 or later, which tells you how far back this feature set reaches. Files from those services, and from SMB, FTP and SSH sources, can be streamed to media player applications rather than downloaded first, so a video stored on a home server or in the cloud can play without filling up local storage.

Two newer additions stand out. FX Connect sends files and media straight from one phone to another, linking them over NFC or Wi-Fi. FX Web Access lets you browse and manage files and media from your computer's web browser, which is a neat way to move things around without installing anything on the desktop. For anyone who shuffles documents between a phone and a laptop, those two features alone could justify the price.

There is also a conversion tool for Google Drive and Google Docs files, which can turn them into Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OpenDocument, PDF and other formats. That is a small feature, but it is the sort of thing that prevents a format mismatch from derailing your work.

Bluetooth transfers and pairing

Bluetooth support rounds out the package. FX Plus can send files over OBEX Push, a feature the developer says is also available on most devices in the free version, so the paid add-on is not the only route to that particular trick. It also includes a Bluetooth FTP client and lets you discover and pair devices from inside FX File Explorer rather than jumping to system settings.

For quick transfers between phones or to a head unit or speaker that supports the right profiles, that is convenient. It is not the headline feature, but it fits the overall theme of keeping file operations inside one app.

What it needs from you

One catch is easy to overlook: what you buy is a key, not a standalone app. FX File Explorer has to be on the device already, and the add-on has no launcher icon of its own. Everything happens within FX itself, through the extra homescreen sections. If you have not used FX before, the developer suggests installing it and trying it out before purchasing, which is sensible advice for any add-on.

The price is $2.99, paid once. There are no ads and no in-app purchases attached to this license. That is a clean arrangement, and it means the value calculation is straightforward: either the extra capabilities are worth three dollars to you or they are not.

The other thing to weigh is the age of the core app. FX Plus was released in September 2012, and the most recent update, in March 2023, was for support of the latest Android versions rather than a batch of new features. That pattern suggests maintenance rather than active expansion. For a utility that already does what you need, that is fine; if you are hoping for a stream of new capabilities, set your expectations accordingly.

If you run into trouble, the developer asks that you contact [email protected] rather than leaving a review as a support request. That is a standard request, but worth remembering if something does not work as expected.

Getting the most out of it

The encrypted zip feature is worth setting up before you need it. If you regularly send sensitive files, creating an AES-256 archive and being able to peek inside without decrypting is a workflow that pays off over time. The same goes for the encrypted keyring, which stores sensitive passwords so you are not typing them in public, while still limiting access if the device is stolen. For anyone who connects to work servers from a phone, that is a meaningful convenience.

For home use, the combination of SMB browsing and streaming is the most practical part. Point FX Plus at a shared folder on your network, browse it like any other directory, and play video or audio straight to a media player. If you also use a cloud service, adding it as a source means one interface for local and remote files, which reduces the number of apps you need to keep track of.

FX Connect and FX Web Access are the two features I would try first if you move files between your own devices. Direct phone-to-phone transfer over Wi-Fi avoids the round trip through a cloud service, and browser-based access means a borrowed computer can reach your files without any setup beyond a browser. Both are the kind of thing that sounds minor until you need it.

Finally, keep in mind that this is an add-on to an app you already have. The best way to judge it is to install FX File Explorer, use it for a while, and see which of these capabilities you actually miss. If the answer is networking, cloud access or encrypted archives, the license is an easy call.

A worthwhile add-on for existing FX users

FX Plus is a focused purchase. It does not try to be a new file manager; it adds a specific set of capabilities to one you already have. The networking and cloud support is the strongest argument for it, followed by encrypted archives and the media browsing tools. At $2.99 with no ads and no in-app purchases, the cost is low enough that one useful feature can justify it.

The people who will get the most from it are those who already use FX File Explorer and regularly work across devices: moving files between a phone and a computer, reaching a home server or work share, or keeping documents in a cloud account. If that describes your habits, this is a sensible addition. If your file management stays local to one phone, the free version of FX may already cover what you need.

What's new

Updates to support latest Android versions.