Android KitKat totally crippled my S5's SD Card

Hans2004

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I used to be a great fan of Android, and I have been using it since the first phones came out with it.
I used to love the extra freedom it used to give me, compared to iPhone.

My newest phone is a Samsung Galaxy S5 (bought today). And I just found out that the recent versions of Android have totally crippled the access to the SD card. I cannot even backup my phone pictures that are stored the SD card!!! I am fuming with anger about this. It is not a security feature as Google would like us to believe because the Internal Phone Memory is still accessible by all apps.

So, from now on very useful apps like btsync and dscloud have become just as useless as they are on the apple products.

Could anyone convince me why I should not stop using the, what has become now a choking experience, crippled android and switch to iPhone?
 

ab304945

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What carrier are you on. I'm on sprint. I have no problems with SD card, I can save pics to it. Transfer apps to it.

Funny you say you will go to iPhone. IPhone don't have a SD card , so in a way you will have the same prob

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Dizfunctions

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Go back to iPhone. If going into the settings to make sure that things are saved to the SD when possible is too hard for you even with the countless links you could find on this doing a simple Google search, then Apple is the right ecosystem for you.
 

sweetypie31

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When i switched to the s5 i had no issues getting my pics or ringtones saved to my sd card. Everything has been working fine. I don't really know much about the app saving because i don't do that , but my sd card has in no way been crippled.* shrugs*
 

dkjames71

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The only problem I have is when downloading pics, movies you can't save them to SD card. Unless you root I understand.

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jharo

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The only problem I have is when downloading pics, movies you can't save them to SD card. Unless you root I understand.

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You might be saying that pics and movies download to the Download folder on the phone memory by default but, you can still move them wherever you want using a file manager.
 

dkjames71

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This is what happens when I try to move a wallpaper image from device to SD card.

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RogaDanar

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Could this be because the image is currently being used as the wallpaper? Have you tried making a different image the wallpaper and then transfer the former wallpaper pic to the SD card? Just a guess, I don't have my SD card yet so I can't try it myself.
 

Hans2004

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Ok, to be more clear about my extreme annoyance with KitKat: Yes, I can save pictures to the SD card. Yes, I can save pdf's to the SD card. But the ONLY apps that can access them are the programs that created them!

If I want to backup a folder with pictures to a NAS for example, I would have to copy all the pictures to the folder of the backup app before making the backup. Every time again: When I take a new picture, I have to manually copy it to the backup app folder before it can be synced to the, or any other remote location. When I annotate a pdf, again copy it to the folder of the backup app. This is because every KitKat App, except for one or two file managers, can only access their own folder on the SD card. This is the same restrictive behavior as the evil Apple has been implementing on their iPhone/iPad, and this has always been the exact reason I wanted nothing to do with them.
 

AZgl1500

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I used to be a great fan of Android, and I have been using it since the first phones came out with it.
I used to love the extra freedom it used to give me, compared to iPhone.

My newest phone is a Samsung Galaxy S5 (bought today). And I just found out that the recent versions of Android have totally crippled the access to the SD card. I cannot even backup my phone pictures that are stored the SD card!!! I am fuming with anger about this. It is not a security feature as Google would like us to believe because the Internal Phone Memory is still accessible by all apps.

So, from now on very useful apps like btsync and dscloud have become just as useless as they are on the apple products.


whoa cowboy.

You don't know what is going on.

The game changed, but the SD card is still working just fine.

The app developers need to rewrite their apps to incorporate the new security features.

Also, the SD card must be the Group 10 class to work correctly. The older cards sometimes just aren't accessible or work properly.
 

sweetypie31

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This is what happens when I try to move a wallpaper image from device to SD card.

Posted via Android Central App

If that is es file explorer I was having the same issue. Es worked perfectly on my s3 but not my s5. I just went back to the my files that is already on the phone. It works fine.

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sniffs

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Ok, to be more clear about my extreme annoyance with KitKat: Yes, I can save pictures to the SD card. Yes, I can save pdf's to the SD card. But the ONLY apps that can access them are the programs that created them!

If I want to backup a folder with pictures to a NAS for example, I would have to copy all the pictures to the folder of the backup app before making the backup. Every time again: When I take a new picture, I have to manually copy it to the backup app folder before it can be synced to the, or any other remote location. When I annotate a pdf, again copy it to the folder of the backup app. This is because every KitKat App, except for one or two file managers, can only access their own folder on the SD card. This is the same restrictive behavior as the evil Apple has been implementing on their iPhone/iPad, and this has always been the exact reason I wanted nothing to do with them.

This is a security risk plain and simple. Apps should not have the willy nilly freedom to read or write to every single image/video/file within every subfolder on the SD card unless the app itself CREATES the folder, or you tell other apps to allow other apps to view the contents. As an example, Podcasts I download in PocketCasts are only viewable by PocketCasts unless I tell it to make them viewable by other apps.

If you're worried about backing up your images, there are a TON of apps that will auto backup images moments after you snap them. Amazon Cloud, Dropbox, Google+, Facebook, Photoshop, Photobucket, etc.. all safe and secure on the cloud and most have apps that install to your PC that sync a local copy of your contents to your PC.

Or, you can plug your phone in to your PC, navigate to the SD card, browse the DCIM folder and drag them from there to your PC.

If you're doing anything other than either of those 2 methods, you're doing something wrong.
 

jpr

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This is what happens when I try to move a wallpaper image from device to SD card.

Posted via Android Central App

That's because of the file manager you are using. Use the built-in file manager and you will not have a problem.
 

stanlm2

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This makes my power file/folder management routines a pain like the OP described. Let me know when the rest of you guys need a feature you rely on defended.
Compromise... a setting that says 'I don't need to be protected from the apps I chose to install'? It can even be disabled by default.. like the 'I can't handle external APKs' checkbox.
 

Hans2004

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This is a security risk plain and simple. Apps should not have the willy nilly freedom to read or write to every single image/video/file within every subfolder on the SD card unless the app itself CREATES the folder, or you tell other apps to allow other apps to view the contents. As an example, Podcasts I download in PocketCasts are only viewable by PocketCasts unless I tell it to make them viewable by other apps.

If you're worried about backing up your images, there are a TON of apps that will auto backup images moments after you snap them. Amazon Cloud, Dropbox, Google+, Facebook, Photoshop, Photobucket, etc.. all safe and secure on the cloud and most have apps that install to your PC that sync a local copy of your contents to your PC.

Or, you can plug your phone in to your PC, navigate to the SD card, browse the DCIM folder and drag them from there to your PC.

If you're doing anything other than either of those 2 methods, you're doing something wrong.

If this is a security issue, why are apps still able to read/write to folders that are on the actual phone? It is just the behavior on the SD card that has changed.
I have no wish to back up to the cloud or any membership service I have to pay for when I run out of space. I want things to be nicely synced locally in my own cloud, and possibly remote on a NAS that I own. I could do all this seamlessly from previous Android versions, but I have as of yet found no app that can do this for me from Android 4.4.
 

Hans2004

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I have been using Android since the HTC dream, and always loved it. Kitkat took all the fun out of it. It now feels as if some kind of evil S.Jobs clone sticks his arms out of the screen to choke me every time I turn on the device. I could understand if Android restricts this behavior on the internal phone memory. But the SD card access should be all mine and not forcing me to use a google affiliate cloud service.

The time has come for me to find an alternative to Android. Perhaps Tizen will give me back my freedom?
 

BBSeattle

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Whoa Cowboy.....priceless. :D

whoa cowboy.

You don't know what is going on.

The game changed, but the SD card is still working just fine.

The app developers need to rewrite their apps to incorporate the new security features.

Also, the SD card must be the Group 10 class to work correctly. The older cards sometimes just aren't accessible or work properly.