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quadrox writes:
"It used to be possible for Android apps to access any kind of storage on an android device through the WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission. Writing to the SD card is useful for many different kinds of apps, e.g. file managers or cloud storage synchronization. However, the latest version of Android will no longer allow apps to write anywhere on external storage media, instead apps will only be allowed to access app-specific folders on SD cards. Android Police has an excellent writeup of the changes and the implications for users."
[ED Note: This is bound to irritate power users that rely on their SD cards for additional device storage.]
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Android 4.4 Disables SD Card Access for Apps
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I'm not a robot like you. I don't like having disks crammed into me... unless they're Oreos, and then only in the mouth.
-- Fry
(Score: 3, Insightful) by MrGuy on Wednesday February 19 2014, @08:38AM
I don't get this criticism.
This is like complaining that an app can only access a certain subregion of the devices' RAM, rather than the entire contents of the device's RAM. Which, by the way, has pretty much always been the case (and Android devs work hard to close any workarounds on this).
An app that's restricted to its own sandbox of memory and storage is self-contained. Which makes it safe. I don't have to worry that Candy Crush is secretly looking up what other games I own and sending that information on to the developers. Because it can't do that.
You can still create an app that can store stuff on the SD card. You can still create an app that read from the SD card. You just can't write an app that can read what OTHER apps have written to the SD card, or write stuff to the SD card that LOOKS like some other app wrote them.
Where's the use case for apps that can read other apps data?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by mrbluze on Wednesday February 19 2014, @08:45AM
Android 4.3 allows you to have apps on your SD card. It doesn't mean the apps can read each other's data, so why restrict it, other than as a kind of DRM perhaps?
Do it yourself, 'cause no one else will do it yourself.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by mindriot on Wednesday February 19 2014, @08:55AM
How about PDFs I store on my external SD card, synchronize with my work laptop, and occasionally annotate in Acrobat while on the go on my phone? What if I switch PDF readers because some other one offers better annotation capabilities? What about my timesheet app which can export to various spreadsheet and text formats, to be edited by me before e-mailed off?
I'm all for sandboxing apps' internal data, but if I store stuff on my external SD card, then I want to at least have the option of having a neutral common file area. Which just stores files, instead of locking them into a particular app. Let it be my business if I want to work on files using different apps.
soylent_uid=$(echo $slash_uid|cut -c1,3,5)
(Score: 2, Insightful) by dilbert on Wednesday February 19 2014, @09:00AM
I know the average user has the IQ of a ground squirrel, so google tries to protect them from themselves, but those of us who know how to actually use a 'pocket computer that also makes calls' shouldn't be limited by sandboxing all of an apps data.
Perhaps they could make it an option in the settings, like how they (currently) allow apps to be side loaded by changing one setting.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by zocalo on Wednesday February 19 2014, @09:07AM
This either needs to be optional, or (perhaps a better option) there needs to be a public directory on the SD which is a free for all storage area for general data alongside the app specific stuff. App specific stuff can still be locked away where it can't be tampered with by $rogue_app, but leave the storage of my documents and data up to me please, Google.
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 1) by mmcmonster on Wednesday February 19 2014, @10:17AM
Hopefully a neutral folder on the SD card will develop as the application writers find they don't live on a desert island.
Maybe a Documents Folder with standard set of subfolders for Photos, Documents (yes, yes, a Documents folder in a Documents folder -- Any better ideas?), eBooks, Music, Videos, etc.
(Score: 2, Funny) by stigmata on Wednesday February 19 2014, @11:46AM
Where do MY documents go? I don't want just any "Documents" I want "My Documents". And "My Music", "My Pictures", and "My Videos".
(Score: 1) by cykros on Thursday February 20 2014, @01:04AM
Better ideas? Yes. Call the parent Document directory "Home". Oh wait, that's what *nix has been doing since the 70s.
(Score: 4, Informative) by threedigits on Wednesday February 19 2014, @12:20PM
Apparently only write permission is being restricted, thus applications can still read the whole SD card, but only write/delete in very specific places.
This has two beneffits, namely: (1) applications will not left cruft behind when removed, and (2) they will not be able to erase or modify each other files.
Sounds almost like a good idea...
(Score: 2, Interesting) by mindriot on Wednesday February 19 2014, @03:29PM
soylent_uid=$(echo $slash_uid|cut -c1,3,5)
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 19 2014, @09:07AM
You mean "where is the use case for allowing the photo editing app to read the files stored by the camera app"?
Or "where is the use case for allowing the photo viewing app access to the porn downloaded by the browser app"?
Or even "where is the use case for allowing the email app to attach the files created in any non-email app"?
(Score: 2, Interesting) by maxwell demon on Wednesday February 19 2014, @06:03PM
But if you don't store the photos from your photo app in the cloud in order to reload it from there into your photo editing app, then how can Google learn about your photos? And how is your carrier supposed to earn on your data if you don't transfer it to the cloud and back?
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by joshuajon on Wednesday February 19 2014, @02:44PM
From my perspective it's because the main issue is there's no granularity to the control. There are apps that NEED to have full access to the SD card (ahem, file manager?) in order to function. This will make them effectively useless.
Yes, file permissions are good, no - this is not the right way to achieve them.
(Score: 1) by cykros on Thursday February 20 2014, @12:57AM
The use case that can read other apps' data? If that includes save content, I can see a very large number of use cases. Any time you're editing a file in one app and viewing/listening to the content in another, you need that ability.