iPhone -> Galaxy s5 problems (+Kitkat SD card fun!) Is Rooting the solution??

[CKR83]

I've been using an iPhone for years. Basically because the thing just worked. A few weeks ago, when faced with the iPhone6 upgrade, I decided to jump to a Galaxy S5. This might have been a mistake.

I've been using a Galaxy Note 8 tablet with an older version of android (AT&T refuses to update it, which now turns out to be a good thing), and I really love it. Far more than I loved my iPad. Using ESfile explorer, I could get to everything on the tablet, and connect to any PC in my house and move files to the device and, more importantly, to the SD Card.

I'd heard about the issues with KitKat, but misunderstood, thinking that it meant you couldn't run aps from the SD card, not that NONE OF YOUR APPS COULD MODIFY THE DATA. My bad -- should have done more research, which meant I probably would have stayed with a crippled device I'm familiar with -- meaning an iPhone.

I won't rehash the old arguments about why google made such a brilliant/idiotic move. Instead (if you've read this far) I have a couple of questions.

The stock file program will write and modify data on the SD card, which is of nominal use, since I can't use it to connect to my network. ES File Explorer won't though (even though it says it will), and I wonder if it's because I installed it on the phone instead of the SD card. I might try and move it and see what happens.

My main questions are as follows:
On my tablet, I have DoubleTwist installed on the tablet, and it reads the songs off the SD card just fine. Any one know if that'll work on the S5? I ask because I plan to use the iTunes xfer for my play lists on the phone, but if DoubleTwist doesn't work, then I won't bother.

Rooting:
I read some articles on rooting -- specifically using towelroot I have an AT&T Galaxy S5, an I think the app has been updated to work with that. But I've never bothered to root a phone before and I'm wondering if anyone has any words of wisdom about dealing with a rooted phone.

I really wanted to like my android phone, but between the overheating issues (which I *think* I've solved), the low battery life and now this SD card issue, this might be my last droid phone. Which would be annoying, since I love the android tablets.

Thanks.

 

[SpookDroid]

I don't think it's fair to compare this 'issue' with an iPhone because, well, the iPhone really doesn't support SD Cards (or most types of media sharing outside iTunes or e-mails and a handful of apps now in iOS8). But that little thing aside, yes, KitKat SD restrictions are tougher, but no, they're not crippling, they just do things differently.

DoubleTwist WILL work just as it works on your tablet and will be able to copy your music over from iTunes and read any local files you might have stored. What it can't do is modify or copy contents from another folder the app didn't create. When the app makes the iTunes sync, it will copy the songs over to a folder itself created, thus being more than capable of handling things in the SD card. Should you choose to move those files to another location, then you're forced to do so with the stock File Manager (although some non-rooted patches for some apps have circumvented some of the KitKat restrictions and allow you to do a few more things).

Rooting is basically jailbreaking your phone (too keep you familiar with the iLingo). If you do this and install the right 'patch', then SD Card functionality is back to the way it was before: Full access for any app.

As for the battery life, well, again, you're coming from iPhone...come on. Plus, I've used an S5 HEAVILY (to test drive, I still kept my trusty Note 3 because of the larger screen and stylus) and it is far from bad battery life. But then again, not all users are the same and not all phones are perfect; your mileage may vary depending on your use or you might just have a bad unit (yup, those happen in iWorld too, as my third-iPhone-5S-from-work-because-they-keep-failing will attest).

In the end it comes to taste and how you get used to the system. iPhone works, and it works very well. But it doesn't pose the freedom of Android, and therein lies the problem with the latter: too many options and too many ways to break things. Should I have started with an iPhone instead of an Android when I switched from BlackBerry, I would probably still be an iUser. But now that I've become accustomed to Android, I keep trying to smash my work phone to a wall every time I try to use it.

 

[CKR83]

There are always problems when switching to a new platform, but I thought that using the tablet for almost a year would have exposed me to the pitfalls. I didn't count on google intentionally crippling the device -- as I wrote, if I wanted that, I could have stuck with the iPhone.

It's not just the file manager that doesn't work, it's other programs that are important because they provide encryption and security. But if they can't write to the SD card, and there's too much data to fit on the phone, then the phone because no better than an iPhone.

ES File Explorer doesn't work. Dropbox doesn't work. QuickPic doesn't work -- it can only read, not write, and therefor I cannot password or encrypt pictures. I'm assuming that the office programs won't work, because they won't be able to write to the SD card. It looks like my only recourse is to root the thing, but because it's a Samsung on AT&T even THAT poses new problems.

This is a pretty big disappointment. and completely unnecessary.

 

[SpookDroid]

Now that's weird. I have KitKat and Dropbox works fine. ES File Explorer can read files just fine. For heavier 'moves' I use either the stock explorer or a PC. As far as encryption goes, then yes, I wouldn't be able to chime in as I don't use that on my cards. Never used QuickPic so I couldn't tell. But I can certainly read and write from apps to the SD card without issues as long as they don't try to write over other folders.

 

[CKR83]

Not even google docs will write to the card on my machine.

I wonder if it's because I didn't format this card on this machine and start fresh? Or do you have ES File Explorer ON your SD card? My encryption app says right on it that google killed them with kitkat. The only way to make it work is to root it.

 

[SpookDroid]

Well, yeah, if you want to encrypt your card using a 3rd party app I understand why it says KitKat 'killed it', unless you use it to encrypt only the folder created by the app, which is not the point.

I don't have any apps installed on the SD Card, I just use it for media consumption and some apps like Spotify store external download there (like offline songs or stream temp files). I have no issues writing to the SD card from any app that supports SD Cards (not all of them do).

As for the format, you shouldn't have to format it in the phone, but it usually helps. But basically as long as the card is formatted using FAT32 or ExFAT (the latter is recommended since it allows for bigger file sizes) it should read it. Cards formatted with NTFS, however, cannot be read because this is a file system on which Microsfot holds the patent.