Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

Dev.SN ♥ developers

Android 4.4 Disables SD Card Access for Apps

posted by Dopefish on Wednesday February 19 2014, @08:00AM   Printer-friendly
from the my-way-or-the-highway dept.
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.]

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Android 4.4 Disables SD Card Access for Apps | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 1000 moderator points   | 88 comments | Search Discussion
Display Options Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

  • (Score: 2, Informative) by menkhaf on Wednesday February 19 2014, @11:30AM

    by menkhaf (1186) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @11:30AM (#2526)

    I've got a Nexus 4 so I feel your pain.

    Instead of MTP I've just been using adb to transfer files. It's fairly easy to set up and use.

    I'm running the CyanogenMod 11 snapshot 3 (just flashed it), and here /etc/hosts blocking works fine. I'm using AdAway from F-Droid.

    Overall I'm pretty happy with it, but I haven't been running stock Android for a long time, so take it with a grain of salt. The only things I'm really missing are the hardware keyboard (ex-N900 user here) and the inability to properly record phone calls. It's my phone, dammit, I want to be able to record my conversations!

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +1  
       Informative=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Informative' Modifier   0  
    Total Score:   2  

  • (Score: 1) by GeminiDomino on Wednesday February 19 2014, @12:33PM

    by GeminiDomino (661) on Wednesday February 19 2014, @12:33PM (#2575)

    I thought about switching to CM, but the truth is that my experience with it hasn't been all that positive on phones. On tablets (Asus Transformer, Nook Color), it's fantastic, but I've always had communications issues when I tried it on a phone. Admittedly, this was back when CM7 was current, so things might have improved since then. The truth is that I was just so disappointed I decided it was better to get my $350 back rather than keep jumping through hoops.

    And I really feel you about the call recording. You'd think that would be easy to do, but none of my phones have ever been able to. :P

    --
    "We've been attacked by the intelligent, educated segment of our culture"