I am letting a user chose a folder on the device through topLevel.StorageProvider.OpenFolderPickerAsync. When the folder gets returned succesfully, i use the following code to try to read all subfolders in that directory.
The first time i call loadFilesRecursively and GetItemsAsync, it gives the correct list of folders, but when i call loadFilesRecursively on a subfolder, GetItemsAsync returns the previous result, so it keeps looping on the first folder it finds. (I have read permissions for external storage)

private async void loadFilesRecursively(string parentDirectory)
{

    Debug.WriteLine("Loading path: " + parentDirectory);
    // Get all directories in current dir

    // Start async operation to open the dialog.
    // Get top level from the current control. Alternatively, you can use Window reference instead.
    TopLevel topLevel = TopLevel.GetTopLevel(this);
    IStorageFolder iFolder = await topLevel.StorageProvider.TryGetFolderFromPathAsync(new Uri(parentDirectory));

    List<IStorageItem> filesAndFolders = iFolder.GetItemsAsync().ToBlockingEnumerable().ToList();

    foreach (IStorageItem file in filesAndFolders)
    {
        if (file.Path.ToString() == parentDirectory)
        {
            Debug.WriteLine("Read sub folder is same as parent...skipping");
            continue;
        }
        Debug.WriteLine("Read sub folder " + file.Name);
        loadFilesRecursively(file.Path.ToString());
    }
}

Edit: even just manually trying to add a second part to get second level folders with a second “GetItemsAsync”, it just doesnt work:

private async void loadFilesRecursively(string parentDirectory)
{

    Debug.WriteLine("Loading path: " + parentDirectory);
    // Get all directories in current dir

    // Start async operation to open the dialog.
    // Get top level from the current control. Alternatively, you can use Window reference instead.
    TopLevel topLevel = TopLevel.GetTopLevel(this);
    IStorageFolder iFolder = await topLevel.StorageProvider.TryGetFolderFromPathAsync(new Uri(parentDirectory));

    List<IStorageItem> filesAndFolders = iFolder.GetItemsAsync().ToBlockingEnumerable().ToList();

    foreach (IStorageItem file in filesAndFolders)
    {
        if (file.Path.ToString() == parentDirectory)
        {
            Debug.WriteLine("Read sub folder is same as parent...skipping");
            continue;
        }
        Debug.WriteLine("Read sub folder " + file.Name);
        // loadFilesRecursively(file.Path.ToString());

        TopLevel topLevel2 = TopLevel.GetTopLevel(this);
        string parentDirectory2 = file.Path.ToString(); 
        IStorageFolder iFolder2 = await topLevel2.StorageProvider.TryGetFolderFromPathAsync(new Uri(parentDirectory2));

        List<IStorageItem> filesAndFolders2 = iFolder2.GetItemsAsync().ToBlockingEnumerable().ToList();

        foreach (IStorageItem file2 in filesAndFolders2)
        {
            if (file2.Path.ToString() == parentDirectory2)
            {
                Debug.WriteLine("Read sub folder is same as parent...skipping");
                continue;
            }
            Debug.WriteLine("Read sub folder " + file2.Name);
            // loadFilesRecursively(file.Path.ToString());
        }
    }    
}

EDIT 2: It only happens on android, on Desktop it works fine