# Permission References

Suppose you spent a whole Sunday setting wanted permissions on 200+ installed apps. And:

- The next month you upgraded your device, or installed a new ROM.
- Or you uninstalled and reinstalled a few of the apps for some reason.
- Or you granted a few permissions, as requested by the apps.

Will you go through the whole hassle once again?

No you don't need to. You can make PMX remember your desired permission states. Set a permission, make it GREEN, and done. It will take only a few moments to look at all installed packages and figure out which permissions aren't correctly set e.g. by making a quick search: `:RED|:ORANGE` or `!:GREEN`. See Search for more details.

Three reference states are:

- ORANGE state indicates that no reference value is set.
- GREEN indicates that reference value matches currently set value.
- RED indicates that reference value and set value differ.

Reference states can be backed up and restored conveniently. After a restore, there's a convenient way to set all permissions according to restored references. See Batch Operations.

There are multiple ways you can set a reference:

- Long press a permission and tap the "Set Reference " / "Clear Reference" button.
- There's a top menu option on every app's permission list screen to set or clear all references.
- Set references in bulk with Batch Operations.
- Enable the "Auto-set reference" preference under Settings → General settings. So whenever you change a permission state, it's also set as a reference.