Why have certain apps lost the ability to write to the SD card?

[Android Central Question]

I have two apps that previously worked stop writing to my (mostly-empty) SD card. For reference, they are Pocket Casts and DoubleTwist (sync feature). They were fine for a while, and then they simultaneously both stopped working, while all other SD card features appear fine. Both apps offer the SD card as a storage option, and see the correct size, free space, etc.

In Pocket Casts, attempts to download silently fail, as do retries. If I download them to internal memory and then have the app move them (which it does when you change storage locations), they just disappear.

Double-twist: similarly, the sync just attempts to write each file, fails silently, and at the end of the process lists an error for each file.

Files (their file manager app) has no problems reading or writing to the card--it acts perfectly normal. Similarly, the photos app has no problem writing new photos/videos to the card or playing them back.

Interestingly, one app had Storage permissions off, and the other one did not have Storage. I tried turning Storage permissions on for the one app, rebooted for good measure, and it had no discernible effect. (I turned it back off.)

I've deleted those folders, formatted the SD card (including uninstalling both apps first and reinstalling clean), removed those folders, and recreated them--all to no effect.

I have not done a full Android wipe (hoping not to, but can). This is a Blackberry Key2 running Android 8.1, up-to-date. Definitely appreciate any help!

 

[Rukbat]

Some apps are written for earlier versions of Android, and can't write to the SD card now. Make sure you've updated to the latest versions of the apps. If they still can't, email the developers.

 

[jef pearlman]

Some apps are written for earlier versions of Android, and can't write to the SD card now. Make sure you've updated to the latest versions of the apps. If they still can't, email the developers.

Thanks. Unfortunately, I don't think it's the app version. My apps are all up to date, and both are pretty actively maintained: one was last updated in May (before I had the device) and one less than a week ago. And, probably more critically, I believe both were working on the SD card and then stopped (with no known software or hardware change), which makes me think it's not the apps themselves.

Best,
Jef