Allow GIMP Flatpak Access to Removable Media

By default, Flatpak isolates applications from your host system's filesystem, preventing the GIMP Flatpak from reading or saving images directly on external USB drives, SD cards, and external hard drives. This guide demonstrates how to configure Flatpak permission overrides to grant GIMP direct access to your system's removable media directories using both the command-line interface and the Flatseal graphical utility.

Method 1: Using the Terminal (flatpak override)

The fastest way to grant GIMP access to external drives is through the flatpak override command. Most modern Linux distributions mount removable devices inside either /media or /run/media.

  1. Close GIMP if it is currently running.
  2. Open your terminal.
  3. Run the following command to grant GIMP read and write access to the common mount points:
flatpak override --user --filesystem=/media --filesystem=/run/media org.gimp.GIMP

Note: The --user flag applies this rule only to your current user account. If you want this permission to apply system-wide for all users, run the command with sudo and remove --user.

Verifying and Reverting Permissions

To verify that the override has been successfully applied, run:

flatpak override --user --show org.gimp.GIMP

If you ever wish to revoke these permissions and restore GIMP to its default sandboxed state, run:

flatpak override --user --reset org.gimp.GIMP

Method 2: Using the Flatseal Graphical Tool

If you prefer managing Flatpak permissions through a graphical user interface, you can use Flatseal.

  1. Install Flatseal from Flathub or your distribution's software center if it is not already installed.
  2. Open Flatseal and select GIMP from the list of applications on the left.
  3. Scroll down to the Filesystem section.
  4. Locate the Other files setting and click the + (add) button.
  5. Add the following paths one at a time:
    • /media
    • /run/media
  6. Close Flatseal.

Accessing the Media in GIMP

After applying the override using either method, launch GIMP. When using the Open Image or Export Image dialogs:

  1. Click on Other Locations or Computer in the file chooser sidebar.
  2. Navigate to either /media or /run/media/$USER/ to browse and interact directly with files stored on your connected storage devices.