Failed to write to sdcard1 after ota kitkat

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thesavo

Senior Member
May 24, 2011
115
8
Has any one else lost the ability to write to their socketed sdcard since the 4.4.2?
 

iBolski

Senior Member

It's a security issue. Before KK, the SD card was wide open to any other process to be able to request read/write to any directory and file, regardless of whether or not they created that file or directory.

Now, under KK, a program can create a file or folder in a "protected" area and only that program has the ability to modify the contents in that folder. It cannot modify other folders or files that it didn't create.
 
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thesavo

Senior Member
May 24, 2011
115
8
Time to move the podcasts. So my older shows that I worked hard to keep to keep the ext sdcard1 as a target, will have to be copied to sdcard0.too bad.thanks @iBolski

No wonder BeyondPod kept 'accidently' putting shows on SDcard0 for the last year. Even though I "pinned" it to SDcard1 in the advanced settings.
 
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iBolski

Senior Member
Even with the application that patches the /etc/permissions/platform.xml, I have found certain apps still do not work correctly. Dolphin Browser, for example, cannot switch to /storage/sdcard1. It keeps saying it can't find it and I need to ensure I don't have "USB Mode" enabled, which I don't even have as an option when connected to a PC.

I also have init.d installed on my machine and I had startup scripts that mounted various directories from my external to the internal SD card to "fool" the device so that apps that wouldn't save to the external but the internal would save across a mount. Well, that no longer works. For example, Amazon MP3 will not save downloaded music anywhere except to the internal sd card. I had my startup scripts mount an amazonmp3 directory on my external SD card to the internal amazonmp3 directory on the internal memory card. When I proceeded to download music, it didn't show up in the external directory. However, I noticed that the internal sd card's memory did decrease. I then unmounted the directory and saw that the Amazon MP3 app was ignoring the mount under KitKat and directory saved the files into the /storage/sdcard0/amazonmp3 directory, even though it was mounted to the directory on the external SD card. It did work under JB and ICS, but apparently, with KitKat, some apps will still write directly to the native directory on the internal SD card, ignoring the fact that I've mounted a different directory to it.

The stock Moto camera will write to the external SD card if you go and change the setting for it. However, the Google Camera does not give you any option to store your pictures anywhere except on the internal SD card memory. :crying:

Remember, apps can write to the external card, if you don't apply the "patch", but only to what is considered a protected are (the /storage/sdcard1/Android directory structure) and then, they can only write to a directory that the app created. They can read other directories, but they cannot modify them.
 
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Zeljko1234

Senior Member
May 7, 2010
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2,766
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It's a security issue. Before KK, the SD card was wide open to any other process to be able to request read/write to any directory and file, regardless of whether or not they created that file or directory.

Now, under KK, a program can create a file or folder in a "protected" area and only that program has the ability to modify the contents in that folder. It cannot modify other folders or files that it didn't create.

That's official explanation (bull****) as you described above with non stock camera. Basically KK made external storage almost useless. I found this nice description quite long time ago.

https://plus.google.com/+TodLiebeck/posts/gjnmuaDM8sn
 
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iBolski

Senior Member
That's official explanation (bull****) as you described above with non stock camera. Basically KK made external storage almost useless. I found this nice description quite long time ago.

https://plus.google.com/+TodLiebeck/posts/gjnmuaDM8sn

I know at this point, Root Explorer still works with it, after setting the correct permissions into the /etc/permissions/platform.xml file. That works for a lot of apps. The only one that I know that is currently broken is Dolphin browser. I cannot navigate to the /storage/sdcard1/ area anymore. It keeps telling me it can't find the file or directrory and that I should make sure the SD card is ready and USB Mass Storage (haven't seen this option since my Droid X2) is not on.

So definitely, Dolphin Browser is doing something differently that even the patch isn't working for it.
 

Zeljko1234

Senior Member
May 7, 2010
5,898
2,766
Stockholm
Problem is that without root user cannot edit platform.xml and even after that some applications refuse to write to sd card. Another example is OfficeSuite 7 Pro which I bought and now cannot edit file if it's needed. Workaround is to save to internal then overwrite to sd card.
Basically stock Android becoming more and more limited, harder and harder to get root... That's so bad that I wouldn't update to official kk in the case that my phone has locked bootloader.

Read this article http://www.xda-developers.com/andro...use-even-more-issues-for-root-app-developers/
 
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    Has any one else lost the ability to write to their socketed sdcard since the 4.4.2?

    Thats a "feature" of kitkat. Can't be changed unless you have root.
    1

    It's a security issue. Before KK, the SD card was wide open to any other process to be able to request read/write to any directory and file, regardless of whether or not they created that file or directory.

    Now, under KK, a program can create a file or folder in a "protected" area and only that program has the ability to modify the contents in that folder. It cannot modify other folders or files that it didn't create.