Hello, brand new user here(UK). Happy with the phone (its been 4 hours) and installing stuff from my old android. But what a shame no File Manager or Gallery. One of my aims is to get away from Google. Just because its an Android system does not mean we have to use Google for everything. So having to use Google Drive to see documents, files etc not really what I want. Previously I had a Samsung with its own file management (downloads especially re tickets and all that) system. Unless I am being dim and there is a way to save documents on the phone rather then Drive?
Just download one? I use the Fossify Apps
thanks, I’m a IT basic user, any recommendations gratefully received. I didn’t know such an app existed.
The best: https://cxfileexplorer.com/
Fossify Apps was already a recommendation 
Just search for Fossify in the App store
+1 for Fossify. File manager and gallery both work well as alternatives for me. Fits in the Fairphone green colourscheme too.
If you want to get away from Google then don’t download apps from the play store. Use https://f-droid.org/en/ and download open source apka. I replaced phone, SMS, contacts, file manager, offline music player with the Fossify apks.
Perhaps due to my age: I still love the Total Commander. I use it on my laptop and on my phone.
Sorry, I know this is not what you asked about, but /e/OS has Files and Gallery. You can also plug the phone to your computer with a USB cable, expose the file system and then just copy-paste files in and out of the phone. Pretty cool… At least on my FP4…
perhaps it is off topic, are those alternative apps for phone and sms realy working without google apps or are they just a visual other look and feel?
why should they rely on Google? those are FOSS Apps and they def do not rely on Google. I advice to do some reading about the Apps.
I recommend Fossify apps too. They are stable and secure (no network permission). Once installed, you can disable Google apps. But if you replace Photos, I think you might loose cloud sync.
First of all, great that you made the switch to fairphone!
I can also recommend all the Fossify Apps as replacements for the Google apps. If you replace the google contact app you should also replace the phone app because the contact tab in the google phone app does not work with the fossify contact app (or at least that was the case for me).
Since there is (as far as I know) no free fossify document reader/editor app, I use MuPdf for PDFs and OpenDocument Reader for word, excel, … You can actually replace most of the google apps, e.g. use Organic Maps (or any other OpenStreetMap based Navigation app) as replacement for Google Maps.
If you want to completely de-google your phone, you can try /e/os!
And keep asking questions, it’s totally ok not know much, especially if there is a lot to know 
They recently published it in the Play Store, F-Droid will follow
I use it too. ( Total Commander - Android )
It is very powerful but may be difficult to use for non “tech savvy” people.
Still, it is one of the best file manager I guess.
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Gallery app from Fossify here also, all from F-droid store.
If I must download from google store I use Aurora store (I.e. for Firefox, as Mozilla only release the full FOSS version of Firefox on F-droid, a.k.a. “Fennec”, which I downloaded also).
For PDF I use Firefox for simple documents or librera reader from F-droid for heaviest.
For weather I use breezy weather.
For PDF there is also PDF viewer by GrapheneOS (zero permission app).