Note 3: KitKat update disabling use of external micro SD Card

[mavrrick]

The hell they will force the update on to me. It is my device and I paid for it in full. If I want full access to MY SD card that's MY business, Unless they are going to buy my devices for me they have no right to force anything on me. There is no way they can force all android users to upgrade to KitKat anyway because it isn't supported on all devices. If you guys want Google to 'protect' you that's your business. I am perfectly able to administer my own device. You can troll and tease and say that people who don't want to lose features on devices they paid for as claiming the 'sky is falling' but I have the right to refuse they direction they are going and I will do so.

You are completely right. If you want to run in a condition that is unsupported then root your phone and be done with the upgrade that is your choice.

There is no requirement to support the old os and problems that come with it once Samsung has provided the update.

You can keep it. Just be aware of what that means.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[jpr]

Hi,
The only way to write, delete, update, rename and copy external SD files is to use the built-in files manager "My Files".

This hasn't been true for months now. There are several file managers that can do this both with and without root. One example you can use without root is File Expert.

 

[FBA]

The hell they will force the update on to me. It is my device and I paid for it in full. If I want full access to MY SD card that's MY business, Unless they are going to buy my devices for me they have no right to force anything on me. There is no way they can force all android users to upgrade to KitKat anyway because it isn't supported on all devices. If you guys want Google to 'protect' you that's your business. I am perfectly able to administer my own device. You can troll and tease and say that people who don't want to lose features on devices they paid for as claiming the 'sky is falling' but I have the right to refuse they direction they are going and I will do so.

As I said, unless you root, you may wake well up one day with KitKat on the device. IT IS supported on the Note 3; all variants. It WILL BE FORCED on you unless you root. What are you gonna do, call SamDung and ask them not to force the update on you?

 

[anon8380037]

The hell they will force the update on to me. It is my device and I paid for it in full. If I want full access to MY SD card that's MY business, Unless they are going to buy my devices for me they have no right to force anything on me. There is no way they can force all android users to upgrade to KitKat anyway because it isn't supported on all devices. If you guys want Google to 'protect' you that's your business. I am perfectly able to administer my own device. You can troll and tease and say that people who don't want to lose features on devices they paid for as claiming the 'sky is falling' but I have the right to refuse they direction they are going and I will do so.

They are removing the phone we chose to buy originally. I haven't updated yet, but am very happy with 4.3. I have only just learned most of it.

What other item you decide to purchase can the manufacturer come to your home and change it completely with no redress?

Only reason I may update when it comes is it apparently cures the wifi issue.

via my Note 3 on AC's app

This was my own post #58 on 03/15/14. Seem familiar.
3 weeks later KitKat was fine for me. I went voluntarily to see if wifi improved (it did slightly).
No SD issues, though I don't create my own folders. I don't understand most of this thread!
What Mavrrick, FBA and others say makes sense now.

Take one deep breath, shut your eyes, relax your sphincter muscles as best you can, and it will work out fine.

 

[mavrrick]

My biggest issue with this discussion is how would the same folks complain if they found out tomorrow they lost all kinds of personal files and had there identity stolen from there phone. I would put money on a complete crap storm were blame is placed on Google or Samsung for letting it happen.

I can't tell you how many times I have read a crap article that points out the sd Card is a security hole.

We also have to accept the world doesn't revolve around us few AC readers. There is what maybe 1000 of us here. How many note 3's did they sell to users Less tech savvy then us.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[Alex Q]

Unusually bad decision from Google

 

[bclinger#IM]

I upgraded my Note 3 (mistake) and Note 10.1 (many love it, but frankly was not worth it. My Note 8 will not be upgraded. Really, Kitty Kat is not worth it.

Sent from my SM-P600 using Tapatalk

 

[ShaggyKids]

can't tell you how many times I have read a crap article that points out the sd Card is a security hole.

Posted via Android Central App

Are you saying it is more safe to save to the internal vs external card? If the hackers can get our external can they not get your internal cards?

What about those of us who like to save a lot of pictures to our external cards? I really don't want to fill up my internal card with things like photos.

Not sure if saving to Dropbox is also nixed?

Can this new security measure determine if a file a person wants to save to their external SD card contains sensitive information or not?

Deb from my Note 3

 

[mavrrick]

Are you saying it is more safe to save to the internal vs external card? If the hackers can get our external can they not get your internal cards?

What about those of us who like to save a lot of pictures to our external cards? I really don't want to fill up my internal card with things like photos.

Not sure if saving to Dropbox is also nixed?

Can this new security measure determine if a file a person wants to save to their external SD card contains sensitive information or not?

Deb,

What I was pointing out is there are allot of articles out there that point out how vulnerable data is on the SD CARD. It is true. Prior to 4.4 once a app requests access to your usb storage(the SD Card), it could access any file in any folder no matter what created it. That can by it's nature be a big security hole.

Internal storage is different because android can use a different file system and manage permissions more efficiently. Because the SD Card works with external system it is relegated to FAT,FAT32, or evFAT file systems. None of which android can manage security on. It is a all or nothing at the file system level. To adapt to that Android is managing it at the application level. Personally I would prefer they just format my card as a ext4 file system and use the internal security functionality.

Your comments about saving pictures is irrelevant and false. There is nothing preventing you from storing pics on your SD CARD. Dropbox is a completely different thing and is again irrelevant to the discussion. It is external to the system.

No phone can now what is sensitive data or not. All it can do is provide security around the storage of the device. What is sensitive to you may not be sensitive to others. It provides security by protecting the storage device as a whole.

 

[ShaggyKids]

Thanks for answering my questions

Deb from my Note 3

 

[mavrrick]

Thanks for answering my questions

Deb from my Note 3

No prob.

I will point this out though. After responding to your post I thought about checking my extra camera app. I have CameraZoom FX, and use it on occasion. When I tried it out I did experience problems writing to the SD Card. The default camera app from Samsung works fine though. So in some cases if the app hasn't been updated it may still have problems writing to the SD Card. So keep that in mind to. It shouldn't be a problem if the app is updated to properly work with Kit Katt.

 

[krelvinaz]

Posted after the fact...

If you have root, there it's a simple fix that you can flash our just change the config file directly, and it is no big deal.

 

[FBA]

No prob.

I will point this out though. After responding to your post I thought about checking my extra camera app. I have CameraZoom FX, and use it on occasion. When I tried it out I did experience problems writing to the SD Card. The default camera app from Samsung works fine though. So in some cases if the app hasn't been updated it may still have problems writing to the SD Card. So keep that in mind to. It shouldn't be a problem if the app is updated to properly work with Kit Katt.

All of the launchers I used (Nova, Solo, Go) have an issue writing to the SD card. They all say "backed up successfully" on a backup, but the files end up in the emulated storage area (0) in internal memory. Android really sucks for this, because you can't simply specify where on the card you want things written, in most apps. I never understood why they just don't use a computer approach, where the user specifies the exact path/ folder etc...

I have been relegated to using Google Drive with an autosync app that syncs my internal memory with Google drive. Fortunately, I use maybe 2-3 GB's of storage in total, so I'm not paying for additional space in the cloud, and if I had to, I could always use Dropbox with the free 50GB allocation for Samsung users...

It's actually a better solution for me than SD...because it's always there and I don't need to use the SD card, which is slower anyway, and with Google Drive, all of my files are available to me on my PC's / Macbooks, etc...

 

[ShaggyKids]

What backup app are you using that allows backing up to Dropbox?

Deb from my Note 3

 

[FBA]

It's not a "backup app" as per se, it's a backup solution for certain types of files if you want to back them to to Dropbox. It's called "Dropsync" and it's here:

https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...etails?id=com.ttxapps.dropsync&token=VgkkBXcO

There's also a setting on the phone that allows backup to Dropbox as well, albeit it I've never used it.

 

[anon8380037]

I mentioned the 50gb free Dropbox with my phone on an old thread (as stated on Amazon UK and I think all Samsung sales lit).
Someone (female) asked how to get it, and a few chipped in that it was only either with non carrier phones or international phones, so we left it at that.
Interesting that it was included then.
(very irritating that it was only 'free' if I nominated a friend to try Dropbox, and they sent constant emails to them)

Sent from my N9005 using Tapatalk Pro

 

[ShaggyKids]

It's not a "backup app" as per se, it's a backup solution for certain types of files if you want to back them to to Dropbox. It's called "Dropsync" and it's here:

https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...etails?id=com.ttxapps.dropsync&token=AYxAaCTN

There's also a setting on the phone that allows backup to Dropbox as well, albeit it I've never used it.

WOW, $6 for the pro version of Dropsync.

I'll look for the phone setting, thanks!

Deb from my Note 3

 

[lterry913]

Well, damn! All day I've been scratching my head trying to figure out WTH I can't add any new tunes to my SD card. My original S4 (before a tiny, tiny little crack took out the display) was running 4.3. My $175 "exact" replacement has 4.4.2. All I have to say is pretty much the same thing I said when Jerry Jones decided he knows what's best for the Bills: ?!@#$#%&**%$%*@!$? #@$!%!

!

Now to find a fix......

I moved my music to external sd via es fileexplorer and installed power amp music player as suggested by one of the moderators here. It found all my music when stick music player and mixzing wouldn't

 

[FBA]

WOW, $6 for the pro version of Dropsync.

I'll look for the phone setting, thanks!

Deb from my Note 3

I don't think that you will have the same capability with that setting - it's under "accounts"

 

[TenshiNo]

WOW, $6 for the pro version of Dropsync.

I'll look for the phone setting, thanks!

Deb from my Note 3

The built-in "backup" only saves stuff like WiFi configs and some internal Android settings. Hopefully, eventually, it will be able to save data from all your apps too, but that day is not yet here.

The DropBox app itself will auto-backup photos and videos, but backing up all data on the device is going to require a 3rd party app like DropSync. A one-time purchase of $6 isn't all that bad. That's less than a dinner out for one person.