KitKat and the SD Card "thing"

eric0668

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I never knew til today when I had a hard time transferring some files (wallpapers) from Zedge to my own wallpaper file on the ext sd card that KitKat no longer allowed that.

No big deal. But I realized with the 32 gb, dropbox, and google play music not all on the device, I don't necessarily need the ext sd card

I know my files of DCIM, Wallpapers, etc can be cut and pasted to the device. But can the Android file be cut and pasted to the device. I see it has a lot of app info on it and I won't take this route if the apps are going to be messed up, or if I will have to reinstall them.

I read that really anything can be deleted from the sd card without harm (I experienced otherwise though :( when deleting a file) a lot of stuff wouldn't work. But I think the OS itself was fine, so I guess that's what they meant

(is there any way to have your Zoey videos stored in the camera or video folder in DCIM and not start a 100MEDIA. I'm a sucker for minimalism)

Thank You
 

Vsweety

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Afaik Google/Android has disabled the option to write to the external SD card in Kitkat. Under Kitkat external SD cards are read-only.
That is not acceptable to me. So I plan on shunning Kitkat.
 

dpham00

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Settings>applications>manage applications>market> clear data/cache and if available uninstall updates... if this doesnt work here is a couple quesitons

are you rooted?
Do you have root explorer?

EDIT:forget the rooted one,,,,stupid questions lol

OS itself would be fine. But some apps may have written data to the sd card. I wouldn't copy the Android folder over, just you media and other files.



dpham00, Android Central Moderator
Sent from my Verizon Samsung Galaxy Note 3 via Tapatalk Pro
 

JRDroid

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Afaik Google/Android has disabled the option to write to the external SD card in Kitkat. Under Kitkat external SD cards are read-only.
That is not acceptable to me. So I plan on shunning Kitkat.

Apps can write to a folder they create on the SD card, they just do not have universal read/write permission any more. Universal read/write permission was a huge security risk because it allowed any app to read and write to any other apps file on the SD card. This made data theft very easy. In KitKat, you do not have to worry about that, but it does render some apps less functional.
 

blackdogAC

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The whole thing of Great Googley fixing a huge security risk is absolute baloney.
They employ some of the most skilled coders on the planet and have billions of dollars of assets at their disposal. Do you honestly think that there was no other way for these highly-skilled professionals to remove that security risk other than disable access to the SD card? Google's strategy for years to eliminate SD cards from their own Nexus devices points to their intentions.

I'm just a dumb user but even I can envision a basic coding where if an application is about to read or write to a folder other than one it created itself, a pop-up appears that says "An application that you installed wants to gain access to [read] [write] a folder that it did not create. this may be a security risk. do you wish to allow it to proceed? [OK] [Cancel]

There's a not-so hidden agenda with Google. It is not a "free" ecosystem or platform. They want access to your data and they want it on the cloud. They are now reading all your G-mail "to assist in providing applicable advertising to you".(did you know that?) They do not want you sending stuff to, or using,your microSD card. Yes, you now have the inconvenience of moving/adding/deleting files on a mobile device by hooking up a cord to a PC. Lovely. In a year they will remove even that functionality. They are, in fact, no so dissimilar from Apple now. They decide what's good for you- not you. Eventually, most users will give up and say "oh what the heck- seems like the industry is moving away from external sd cards- oh well. Guess I'll just pay another $160 for the 64gB model instead of $14 for a 32gB card. I didn't really need to move files around anyway. Apple doesn't let users do that so I guess we'll be better off"
 

JRDroid

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The whole thing of Great Googley fixing a huge security risk is absolute baloney.
They employ some of the most skilled coders on the planet and have billions of dollars of assets at their disposal. Do you honestly think that there was no other way for these highly-skilled professionals to remove that security risk other than disable access to the SD card? Google's strategy for years to eliminate SD cards from their own Nexus devices points to their intentions.

I'm just a dumb user but even I can envision a basic coding where if an application is about to read or write to a folder other than one it created itself, a pop-up appears that says "An application that you installed wants to gain access to [read] [write] a folder that it did not create. this may be a security risk. do you wish to allow it to proceed? [OK] [Cancel]

There's a not-so hidden agenda with Google. It is not a "free" ecosystem or platform. They want access to your data and they want it on the cloud. They are now reading all your G-mail "to assist in providing applicable advertising to you".(did you know that?) They do not want you sending stuff to, or using,your microSD card. Yes, you now have the inconvenience of moving/adding/deleting files on a mobile device by hooking up a cord to a PC. Lovely. In a year they will remove even that functionality. They are, in fact, no so dissimilar from Apple now. They decide what's good for you- not you. Eventually, most users will give up and say "oh what the heck- seems like the industry is moving away from external sd cards- oh well. Guess I'll just pay another $160 for the 64gB model instead of $14 for a 32gB card. I didn't really need to move files around anyway. Apple doesn't let users do that so I guess we'll be better off"

The fact that they just enabled SD car usage in Play Music kinda goes against this.

Yes, you could make a notification that pops up any time an app is about to read/write to a folder it did not create. However, that would be a terrible user experience. There would be so many pop ups all the time. The route they took is the best route to ensure security and a good user experience. As someone who actually can write code (though I would not call myself a programmer), the code needed to do this would be far from basic. It would be incredibly intrusive into the user experience.

Gmail has always scanned your email to provide relevant ads. That is how they were able to provide so much more storage than anyone else when it launched for free. And here is a shocker for you, any email provider that is filtering spam for you is also scanning the content of your email. If they are already scanning the content of your email to filter out spam and they are already serving you ads to pay for the free email service, what is the huge problem with the ads being targeted?
 

Vsweety

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Apps can write to a folder they create on the SD card, they just do not have universal read/write permission any more.

Exactly.
It's like that club that you always hung out at now suddenly demands you adhere to their dresscode or else you don't get in anymore.
 

JRDroid

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Exactly.
It's like that club that you always hung out at now suddenly demands you adhere to their dresscode or else you don't get in anymore.

No, its more like the club you always hung out at realized leaving the back door unlocked left them vulnerable to being robbed so they make you use the front door now.
 

Vsweety

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Re: KitKat and the SD Card "thing"

There's a not-so hidden agenda with Google. It is not a "free" ecosystem or platform. They want access to your data and they want it on the cloud. They are now reading all your G-mail "to assist in providing applicable advertising to you".(did you know that?) They do not want you sending stuff to, or using,your microSD card. Yes, you now have the inconvenience of moving/adding/deleting files on a mobile device by hooking up a cord to a PC. Lovely. In a year they will remove even that functionality. They are, in fact, no so dissimilar from Apple now. They decide what's good for you- not you. Eventually, most users will give up and say "oh what the heck- seems like the industry is moving away from external sd cards- oh well. Guess I'll just pay another $160 for the 64gB model instead of $14 for a 32gB card. I didn't really need to move files around anyway. Apple doesn't let users do that so I guess we'll be better off"

Couldn't have said it any better.
Google learned from Apple learned from Microsoft learned from IBM.
Nothing's changed in 50 years.
It's only gotten progressively worse and much more sneaky.
Squared since the NSA/DHS forced its way into that equation.
 
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ratpakk2

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Re: KitKat and the SD Card "thing"

I agree 100%. To make matters worse they sell GPE devices in the play store with SD cards and then don't update their own apps to make use of the sd card. I have a GPE G pad and the camera can't access the sd card and play music can't pin to the SD card. They shouldn't sell devices that have SD cards if they will not support them.
 

Tom Westrick

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Re: KitKat and the SD Card "thing"

I have my music pinned to the SD card on my G Pad and it works just fine

- - - Updated - - -

I have my music pinned to the SD card on my G Pad and it works just fine
 

ratpakk2

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Re: KitKat and the SD Card "thing"

I just checked and you are correct. Do you know of any way to get the camera and gallery apps to use the sd card?
 

eric0668

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Re: KitKat and the SD Card "thing"

Well, theres a few answers for me LOL Thank You. I found it on the internet shortly after posting.

1. So provided I am not going over my 32GB storage (That is the size of the T-Mobile One M8 correct? - whatever space they use (?)) I can use the phone for everything.
I believe I started to but believed I might mess something up so I didn't.

With some apps on the sd card and some on the phone (and it doesn't give you a choice to switch on a lot of apps) what is the easiest way to get everything NOT just to the phone, but to the phone and have all the apps and the OS work as it is now?

(If I may hijack my own thread, not really because it does have to do with files. I am having a difficult time with the gallery. I have been using Quikpic due to its fix date function and the ability to do what Google does not always do consistently, list pics, wallpapers in the order they were taken) It was fine with my Note 3 and Nexus 5. I had always deleted the 100Media file not knowing what it was for. I am told by the support at Quikpic that it is created by HTC. Correct? Didn't make sense because I Had seen it other places. Maybe she meant to say that HTC is the one who uses it for pics. I took all of my pics from "camera" and moved to that folder. All is fine I see 100Media.

1. I do not see Zoe's though. Is this because similar to phones that cant view them, the same is true for apps that don't have that capability?
2. If it is true that HTC is the one that uses 100Media (and not let me use the 'camera' folder) then why in all the choices of folders to display, 100Media isn't one?
3. There is a folder for "all images" but that displays all camera pics, wallpapers, and videos. There is a folder for "videos" But is there one, or can one be made for just camera pics? I suppose that is related to question 2 and getting those images to display. I wouldn't care what the folder was called
4. I have so many files on my sd card and in quikpic I delete them over and over, restart the phone and they keep coming back. Any ideas on that one


Thanks for any help on the original post and any help you have to offer here
 

robbski300

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Re: KitKat and the SD Card "thing"

Well, theres a few answers for me LOL Thank You. I found it on the internet shortly after posting.

1. So provided I am not going over my 32GB storage (That is the size of the T-Mobile One M8 correct? - whatever space they use (?)) I can use the phone for everything.
I believe I started to but believed I might mess something up so I didn't.

With some apps on the sd card and some on the phone (and it doesn't give you a choice to switch on a lot of apps) what is the easiest way to get everything NOT just to the phone, but to the phone and have all the apps and the OS work as it is now?

(If I may hijack my own thread, not really because it does have to do with files. I am having a difficult time with the gallery. I have been using Quikpic due to its fix date function and the ability to do what Google does not always do consistently, list pics, wallpapers in the order they were taken) It was fine with my Note 3 and Nexus 5. I had always deleted the 100Media file not knowing what it was for. I am told by the support at Quikpic that it is created by HTC. Correct? Didn't make sense because I Had seen it other places. Maybe she meant to say that HTC is the one who uses it for pics. I took all of my pics from "camera" and moved to that folder. All is fine I see 100Media.

1. I do not see Zoe's though. Is this because similar to phones that cant view them, the same is true for apps that don't have that capability?
2. If it is true that HTC is the one that uses 100Media (and not let me use the 'camera' folder) then why in all the choices of folders to display, 100Media isn't one?
3. There is a folder for "all images" but that displays all camera pics, wallpapers, and videos. There is a folder for "videos" But is there one, or can one be made for just camera pics? I suppose that is related to question 2 and getting those images to display. I wouldn't care what the folder was called
4. I have so many files on my sd card and in quikpic I delete them over and over, restart the phone and they keep coming back. Any ideas on that one


Thanks for any help on the original post and any help you have to offer here

Hey Eric. I feel your pain, man. I like to consider myself way above average when it comes to Android, computers, and the latest technologies in general. After having the M8 for almost 2 weeks, I finally got some real time to sit down with it and figure out (TRY to) what's going on inside of this beast of a phone. That's a compliment. This phone is freaking awesome. Not quite as awesome as I thought though. I now have the skinny on Kit Kat, and how it's ticking a lotta people off. Like you, I'm a huge fan of QuickPic. Absolutely loved it compared to any stock gallery or other photo app. The whole HTC Sync Manager is an absolute JOKE to me! I'm slowing figuring it out, but what a pain! I couldn't for the life of me figure out why I was deleting photos out of QuickPic, yet they still existed on the stock gallery. After doing more research, I've decided to unload QuickPic and just use the stock HTC gallery for now. QuickPic is WAY better, though. Lastly, I just wanted to mention that I feel like I totally wasted $50 on a 64GB microSD card, now. It's not worth the hassle trying to get data onto it. I've got new photos that I take going to it, but I'm not about to take 64 gig worth of pictures anytime soon. Ok, I'm rambling, now. Please let me know if you come up with anything better than the situation we're currently in, thanks to Kit Kat (and my lack of knowledge about it before getting this phone and a 64GB card). Thanks! :)
 

eric0668

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Re: KitKat and the SD Card "thing"

Not rambling at all.

I basically figured it out with the Quilpic creator

1. HTC is basically the only one who uses 100Media. All other phones can use the camera folder

2. Quikpic can't show Zoe's

3. You can't delete or move anything from the ext sdcard. Only read

4. You can move everything from ext sdcard just leave the data file.

5. That's why pics kept reappearing because we thought we were deleting them, at least I did.

I don't use HTC sync at all. Just a Google Account user for my calendar, contacts etc. And copy paste for my pics videos etc
 

Larzukzek

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Re: KitKat and the SD Card "thing"

I understand the changes KK made to SD cards, But I'm somewhat confused on the limitations or changes I might expect with certain Apps.

Can someone please answer me this 1.

I am a borderline audiophile and HUGE on music. I have an extremely large library on my phone and I use POWERAMP as my player. As I buy songs and albums online I hook up my phone via my computer and simply transfer the new files into my MUSIC folder on the SD card. Many times while still connected to my PC as I'm transferring over new music, I might delete a song or move it into another Album or Artist file, etc.

Will I notice ANY difference, change or restriction what so ever in the described process above I use with my music and POWERAMP?

I would very much so appreciate clarification from anyone on this one, Please.

Thank you.
 

Musket

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Re: KitKat and the SD Card "thing"

On my Galaxy S5 running KitKat 4.4.2 this is not a problem, I've put music on my SD card and Poweramp can play it.
 

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