I was excited that Android 6.0 fixed the In Call User Interface issues I had in every CyanogenMod version used after ICS - KitKat, etc. Unfortunately I had no idea what kind of mess Android versions after KitKat have become with regard to the SD card until I tried using my apps after the update this week. I contacted someone at WiFiDroid for example and asked if it was possible they'd be able to make it so we could once again upload & download to any folder on the SD Card via Browsers as I'd been enjoying doing for a very long time. Here is the reply I was given:
"Hi ____
Google has restricted third party apps from writing to any external storage devices (4.4 upwards). This means that you can't upload, rename, move or delete files on your external storage device. There's no standard way to do this at the moment programatically. Let's hope Google decide to change their policy in the near future."
This decision by Google basically just made impossible 90% of my typical SD card operations in one easy step. (Over the past few years, I've adopted the method on multiple OS's to always set things up to store my Documents, onto a separate Drive or partition so I can always reset or reinstall the OS & never have to transfer anything or download from a cloud, etc.) None of my primarily third party apps can do what I want anymore - save files to the folders where I want them kept long term - safe from OS replacement or repairs or more neatly organized & accessible. How ridiculous to have to save docs to locations you don't want them to be in the first place just to be able to get them into a device. Then you have to move them to the location you actually want them. Or you possibly must remove them to the external SD so they don't fill up your last 1 GB of internal storage that you now must leave empty to allow you the option to get files to the device on the next go around without doing a panic shuffle of data - which you know is going to rear its ugly head at an inconvenient moment at some point.
I can no longer download equipment Manuals, User Guides, Specification sheets, etc. & save them immediately & directly to a Manuals & Specifications folder on the SD Card. I can't transfer groups of folders, of documents to & from the SD card without physically connecting it to another device like a PC via a USB cable. I can't tell apps to save all my backups to the SD Card. I can't save APK backups to the SD card so I can install my apps from there and not have to spend hours re-downloading & installing the same applications after I make changes. I've only found one app thus far that lets me save my auto backups to the external SD "Super Backup Pro", but it now won't let me save to any folder of my choosing. I'm forced to save to a one single specified folder that is buried approx. 8 layer down. (Good luck remembering how to navigate to it later on the spur of the moment. I often prefer to install the APK's via a file manager than navigate via the Super Backup Pro itself.)
Google apps that I've looked at for documents don't let you save to the SD Cards even if you choose a "Save As" option. Typically "Save As" means you get to tell it where to save the file. Google seems like it is stuck on the cloud method. It might work for many folks, but I don't want to rely on Internet access or the presence of a USB cable to get to my documents back & forth. When I'm working out in the sticks I want to be able to access & transfer information etc. between devices without pulling SD cards or using a USB cable. Currently I can't keep the phone on my person while it works on my desired tasks. I' don't have a single device other than my phone that will even accept the micro SD Card to read it or connect to it.
Third Party Apps were amazingly productive. Google just threw them under the bus. Now transferring documents requires multiple steps wirelessly without being tied to the presence of a cloud: 1.) transfer file to internal storage - assuming there is room large enough for the documents, folders, data, etc. 2.) use a Google only app to transfer the files from the Internal Storage to the SD Card folder where I want them. If there is not enough space to complete your transfer to the internal storage of the device in one transfer, you have to break up your transfer into smaller ones and keep shuffling the files a few at a time to keep making room for the next group of files.
I really liked using ES File Manager. When I attempted to format my SD Card as internal Storage, The SD Card was not even shown so you never knew how much information was on it. I also kept reading that you could save stuff to the formatted as Internal Storage SD cards but couldn't ever make it work. Likely that was partly because I was trying that storage option before finding out Google had placed the block on third party apps & likely wasted hours & hours of time simply because Google decided to block the use of half the tools in our toolbox - many we paid for.
Also, what is up with naming the SD Card as a "223E-1D12" folder & not letting us rename it to something we can remember or recognize?
("Hey honey, where did we leave our son '223E-1D12'" "Was "'223E-1D12' the older of the younger one?" "I don't remember, the one with the red hair.") What a joke! Oh, by the way, when it is reformatted the name changes to "138F-3B33" (this number was made up since I never actually wrote down the original name it was shown under. Never the less it's just as stupid & hard to remember as the other one.was.) Did we also tell you the internal storage SD Card has a just as long and ridiculous name, also a combination of letters & numbers as the external SD Card. Try keeping those straight. (Fortunately for me the external drive has always been assigned starting with a number, while the internal has always been a letter. Currently this is the only way I remember which is which. I just remember I want to select the one with the number first.)
Google, please reverse this decision or actually make apps that do what every other third party app has been doing for us for years to make life so much more convenient. I just spent like 36 hours this week focused solely on trying to figure out how they expect us to get things done without doing tons more work to do the same tasks. Only to find out. They've disabled nearly every work around by killing the Third Party App's permissions in the OS.
Oh wait, there is a work around: (Safestrap a KitKat OS to another Rom-Slot so you can reboot into it to transfer files with WiFiDroid or other third party app, then reboot back into 6.0 on the other Rom-Slot - Can you see how old that gets, or would get to be.)
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