Android 4.4.whatever .. the pain in the @$$ ....

[arthurking83]

Confession:

I'm a confirmed Android devotee and convert and worshipper.
(well, maybe not worshipper, but something less extreme but to a similar effect)

if you have the option to update to Android KitKat .. DON'T!!!!

That means version 4.4.something(like .2) .. which I have just done, without reading the fine print.

Forget this statement tho, if you don't care for or use an external media in your device tho.

The warning to not update is based around the point that with this update, the manufacturers of devices have all pressured Google to introduce a new security measure to not allow writing access to the external media device(usually a microSD card.

99% of my reasoning for liking Android was because of the ability to use external media as easily as you do on your PC.
The update to KitKat stops this.

You can still read the media card, but you can't write to it from the device.
What's even more annoying is that (at least in some instances) you can write to the external media card with the device connected to a PC, via the PC.
So I can find any files on the device(in my case phone) via the PC, and send them to the ext SD device .. but I can't do the same via the phone!!

First thing I thought after discovering this the other day was, what brainless dipsh ... t! thought of this idea.
of course the reasons are plain and simple. . the manufacturers want you to buy the device with the highest storage capacity, and this is the only way they can achieve this end!

Reason I hate this idea(which in reality isn't that much of a problem) is that I have my sync setup where I sync certain files from my Dropbox and or Onedrive to files on my ext SD card.
Which of course now can't be done. I have to set the sync files up on the phone's internal memory(which has heaps!) .. and i can manually transfer them to the ext SD card via the PC.

But that's a pain, and I have to remember to do the transfer too(which I'm almost certainly not going too remember).

IDIOTS!!

I think back to what John Laws used to say, "when you're onto a good thing .. stuff it up like a bunch of morons would!"
(well it went something like that .. maybe not his exact words, but close enough to it to describe Google, Sony, Samsung, HTC, and all other Android dependent manufacturers)




ps. Most updates are fairly new-ish I guess and soon enough a rooted ROM will probably be available for your device.
The problem is fixable if you can get root access to the device .. just waiting for one for mine now.

did I say .. IDIOTS! .... ?
(Oh! I did, but it's worth repeating again)

[ricktas]

something I did not know. Though the KitKat release for my phone is still a couple of months away. Something else that Apple does get right, release an update and everyone gets it at once. Android's staggered releases via manufacturers and then phone service providers mean some wait 12 months from the update release by Google, till their phone make/model update release comes out.

[ricktas]

Just had a read up about the why, and found this: http://www.androidcentral.com/kitkat-sdcard-changes

This means that Jerry’s Awesome Photo Viewer app can still scan your entire system for images, build a thumbnail database of them all and save it to a folder on the SD card. But it can’t move or save the pictures themselves to folders — including the Pictures folder — on the SD card because it does not “own” those folders. If programmed right, it could save copies of the pictures to Jerry’s Awesome Photo Viewer’s own folders on the SD card. The folder is part of the app, and if you uninstall it, the folder goes, too. The old method of putting anything anywhere you want is gone, forever.

The other side of the coin is that Jerry’s Not Awesome App that steals your data no longer has write access to every file and folder on the SD card. Yes, previously any application that declared permission to read and write to the SD card was allowed to write files to any folder — including your system folders, and any folder something like a banking app might have made. Any type of file, too.

So it seems like the change is about stopping rogue apps etc and stopping your phone having stuff saved absolutely anywhere, and ensuring Apps only get access to what they need to.

But I agree AK, having access to the SD card, or at least giving us some public folders on the SD card so we can save stuff we want to, as we want to, would help.

[ameerat42]

What ever way you look at things like this, the more and more resemble rods for your own back. (sort of thing).

[PhotoPaul]

Surely custom ROMs can get around this sort of thing?

I am completely inexperienced with custom ROMs and their abilities, so excuse me if that question is ridiculous to anyone with experience.

[arthurking83]

Surely custom ROMs can get around this sort of thing?

.......

Sure can.