Anyone know why Android locked SD card from apps in first place?

[musiclover7]

I'm trying to figure out why Google would opt to lock down the SD card, such that apps can no longer write to it. What's up with this decision? What is the purpose? Security obviously, but what bits get stored on the SD card that are so critical to the health and wellness of the OS? Call me curious...

 

[dontpanicbobby]

Jerry Hilderbrand over at Android Central made this point which is as far as I can tell the main reason for the change;
"...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. That includes files that could be read when another app starts up and affect the settings or way that app works. It was a complete and total security nightmare, and why a lot of people — including yours truly — did not want phones with SD cards."
You can read the whole article at this link.

 

[musiclover7]

Seems like they could have come up with a much smarter method of controlling security rather than just shutting down read/write to the entire SD card.

 

[WAWood8]

Actually, they didn't sit down writing to the entire card. The apps can still write to the card; they just have to do more to make that happen. So basically, blame lazy developers if your app no longer writes to the card!

 

[AZgl1500]

Any app can create its' own folder on the SD card. Once that is done, then that app can move files, copy paste files TO THAT FOLDER. That app is locked out of all other folders.
Once you understand that part of it, it's really not all that bad.

ie, I have my camera configured to save all pictures to the SD card and it does quite nicely. This keeps my phone's internal memory open for app data and it has about 5 gB available for apps to use. not likely that will ever be a problem.

So, keeping all multi-media, photos, videos, etc. on the SD card leaves the phone's internal memory open most of the time.

 

[ecellis]

It sucks though when you are trying to use a file explorer to copy files from the download folder into a folder on your SD card. Don't want to go plug into a computer. I'm rarely at one.

 

[bIOforger]

Some developers/apps canNOT write to the SD card at all. I have quite a few apps with the issue, where they specifically say its not possible under Kitkat. Not that they are lazy and can't be bothered

This is something to do with the apps which need access to the file system structure, like file explorer managers and picture/gallery managers like Quickpic, so its not applicable to all apps.

The reason why the camera and my files manager can write to the SD card is because they are Samsung applications.

 

[bIOforger]

It sucks though when you are trying to use a file explorer to copy files from the download folder into a folder on your SD card. Don't want to go plug into a computer. I'm rarely at one.

Just use the Samsung My files Manager

 

[musiclover7]

I am also finding that some apps which have the ability to edit mp3 tags, are unable to do so for files on sd card. Also can't pull data over to sd card via wireless without the ability. Pretty frustrating. They should have given the end user the ability to create directories designated as read/write on the card.