diff --git a/app/src/main/java/gallery/memories/MainActivity.kt b/app/src/main/java/gallery/memories/MainActivity.kt
index cf6ecbf0..d78a5401 100644
--- a/app/src/main/java/gallery/memories/MainActivity.kt
+++ b/app/src/main/java/gallery/memories/MainActivity.kt
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ import android.view.KeyEvent
 import android.view.View
 import android.view.WindowInsetsController
 import android.webkit.*
+import androidx.activity.result.contract.ActivityResultContracts
 import androidx.appcompat.app.AppCompatActivity
 import androidx.media3.common.MediaItem
 import androidx.media3.common.util.UnstableApi
@@ -46,6 +47,9 @@ import gallery.memories.databinding.ActivityMainBinding
         // Initialize services
         mNativeX = NativeX(this)
 
+        // Ensure storage permissions
+        ensureStoragePermissions()
+
         // Load JavaScript
         initializeWebView()
 
@@ -160,15 +164,31 @@ import gallery.memories.databinding.ActivityMainBinding
         // Load accounts
         val authHeader = mNativeX.mAccountService.authHeader
         val memoriesUrl = mNativeX.mAccountService.memoriesUrl
+
+        // Load app interface if authenticated
         if (authHeader != null && memoriesUrl != null) {
             binding.webview.loadUrl(memoriesUrl, mapOf(
                 "Authorization" to authHeader
             ))
             return true
-        } else {
-            binding.webview.loadUrl("file:///android_asset/welcome.html");
-            return false
         }
+
+        // Load welcome page
+        binding.webview.loadUrl("file:///android_asset/welcome.html");
+        return false
+    }
+
+    fun ensureStoragePermissions() {
+        val requestPermissionLauncher =
+            registerForActivityResult(
+                ActivityResultContracts.RequestPermission()
+            ) { isGranted: Boolean ->
+                if (isGranted && !hasMediaPermission()) {
+                    mNativeX.mQuery.syncFullDb()
+                }
+                setHasMediaPermission(isGranted)
+            }
+        requestPermissionLauncher.launch(android.Manifest.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE)
     }
 
     fun initializePlayer(uri: Uri, uid: String) {
@@ -268,4 +288,15 @@ import gallery.memories.databinding.ActivityMainBinding
             window.decorView.systemUiVisibility = if (isDark) 0 else View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LIGHT_STATUS_BAR or View.SYSTEM_UI_FLAG_LIGHT_NAVIGATION_BAR
         }
     }
+
+    fun hasMediaPermission(): Boolean {
+        return getSharedPreferences(getString(R.string.preferences_key), 0)
+            .getBoolean(getString(R.string.preferences_has_media_permission), false)
+    }
+
+    private fun setHasMediaPermission(v: Boolean) {
+        getSharedPreferences(getString(R.string.preferences_key), 0).edit()
+            .putBoolean(getString(R.string.preferences_has_media_permission), v)
+            .apply()
+    }
 }
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/app/src/main/java/gallery/memories/NativeX.kt b/app/src/main/java/gallery/memories/NativeX.kt
index e64e76cc..13102cbf 100644
--- a/app/src/main/java/gallery/memories/NativeX.kt
+++ b/app/src/main/java/gallery/memories/NativeX.kt
@@ -20,8 +20,8 @@ import java.net.URLDecoder
     val TAG = "NativeX"
 
     private var themeStored = false
-    private val mImageService = ImageService(mActivity)
-    private val mQuery = TimelineQuery(mActivity)
+    val mImageService = ImageService(mActivity)
+    val mQuery = TimelineQuery(mActivity)
     val mAccountService = AccountService(mActivity)
 
     object API {
@@ -41,8 +41,10 @@ import java.net.URLDecoder
     init {
         mDlService = DownloadService(mActivity)
 
-        // Synchronize the database
-        mQuery.syncDeltaDb()
+        // Synchronize the database if possible
+        if (mActivity.hasMediaPermission()) {
+            mQuery.syncDeltaDb()
+        }
     }
 
     companion object {
diff --git a/app/src/main/res/values/strings.xml b/app/src/main/res/values/strings.xml
index 0b7f0897..eab26231 100644
--- a/app/src/main/res/values/strings.xml
+++ b/app/src/main/res/values/strings.xml
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@
     <string name="preferences_theme_color">themeColor</string>
     <string name="preferences_theme_dark">themeDark</string>
     <string name="preferences_last_sync_time">lastDbSyncTime</string>
+    <string name="preferences_has_media_permission">hasMediaPermission</string>
 
     <!-- https://www.whatismybrowser.com/guides/the-latest-user-agent/chrome -->
     <string name="ua_chrome">"Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 10) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/113.0.5672.76 Mobile Safari/537.36"</string>