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Android Apps Can No Longer Use External SDCard?

persistentone

Well-Known Member
Sep 4, 2013
205
22
I have a large Android application running under 4.3 that stores a 600MB database on the flash memory of the phone. I asked the developer why they don't create an option to move the database to the external SDCARD. They are telling me that starting around Android 4.0 Google has removed the ability for applications to use the SDCARD.

Is this correct? Even if there were a reason to force the application binary to reside on and execute from the flash, what possible reasons would there be to prevent that application from storing its data files on the external SDCARD?
 
I have a large Android application running under 4.3 that stores a 600MB database on the flash memory of the phone. I asked the developer why they don't create an option to move the database to the external SDCARD. They are telling me that starting around Android 4.0 Google has removed the ability for applications to use the SDCARD.

Is this correct? Even if there were a reason to force the application binary to reside on and execute from the flash, what possible reasons would there be to prevent that application from storing its data files on the external SDCARD?

Use FolderMount from the Google Play Store to move all application data from internal SD Card phone memory to external SD Card. I have all maps data on external SD Card.

 
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I have a large Android application running under 4.3 that stores a 600MB database on the flash memory of the phone. I asked the developer why they don't create an option to move the database to the external SDCARD. They are telling me that starting around Android 4.0 Google has removed the ability for applications to use the SDCARD.

Is this correct? Even if there were a reason to force the application binary to reside on and execute from the flash, what possible reasons would there be to prevent that application from storing its data files on the external SDCARD?

Storage Options | Android Developers
 
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Use FolderMount from the Google Play Store to move all application data from internal SD Card phone memory to external SD Card. I have all maps data on external SD Card.


Don't those kinds of applications require you to root the phone?

If the phone was rooted I could just create my own symbolic links on the flash file system that mapped to the same named folder on the external SD Card, and it would be fixed transparently.
 
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