Root Need Help!!

[Jack Mickey]

SDFix says no action required.
Root explorer and Es still wont let me do anything to my ext. SD. I try to select external sd, and i cant navigate to the correct folder. Unless im doing something wrong.

 

[Jack Mickey]

The sd card in my leon is from my f60. Would formatting it on my leon, uninstalling sd fix, then reinstalling it help?

 

[cmason37]

SDFix says no action required.
Root explorer and Es still wont let me do anything to my ext. SD.

That app is made for KitKat, Lollipop has SD Access built in, but the app has to enable it. ES should work fine.

I cant backup to internal because the file size is +4gb

This is because SD Cards in Android use the old FAT 32 file system, which does not support files over 4 GB. Unfortunately, there's nothing u can do but some stuff so backup will be smaller.

Only reason im going to cm is to be able to write(delete move copy) to my external sd.

CM won't fix it, because SD Card access in lollipop isn't broken. Again, it's up to the app. But u should still try CM though. U won't be able to go back.

 

[MikeHoncho]

@Jack Mickey you could do as I do and only backup system and boot.img

That right there should save you from a brick, only down-side is that you will have to manually enter all the info you did when you first bought the device (email, apps, accounts etc.)

 

[Bichofelix]

SDFix says no action required.
Root explorer and Es still wont let me do anything to my ext. SD. I try to select external sd, and i cant navigate to the correct folder. Unless im doing something wrong.

Follow the prompts, man. It's telling you exactly what to do. It'll bring up the documents viewer, you select show sd card, then hit select.... thats it..

 

[Jack Mickey]

Ok. Heres whats happening. I cannot delete copy to from or move files on my 32gb sd card. My camera will not save pictures to it.
I did as Bichofelix said exactly, and it Again told me i did not select external sd. When in documents viewer i can click internal or external. The pic shows the root of my sd card. When i hit select sd card i am told i did not.

 

[Jack Mickey]

I select show sd card, tap on Sd card, and select sd card. Nothing.

 

[Jack Mickey]

That app is made for KitKat, Lollipop has SD Access built in, but the app has to enable it. ES should work fine.

This is because SD Cards in Android use the old FAT 32 file system, which does not support files over 4 GB. Unfortunately, there's nothing u can do but some stuff so backup will be smaller.

CM won't fix it, because SD Card access in lollipop isn't broken. Again, it's up to the app. But u should still try CM though. U won't be able to go back.

Es file explorer, root explorer, B1, 7zipper 2.0, and stock file manager all do not work. Even when granted root access

 

[dragonhart6505]

Es file explorer, root explorer, B1, 7zipper 2.0, and stock file manager all do not work. Even when granted root access

What exactly are you trying to achieve on stock here? Are you having problems creating a backup in twrp? Because...you shouldn't as long as your using the twrp posted on the CM12.1 thread

 

[dragonhart6505]

That app is made for KitKat, Lollipop has SD Access built in, but the app has to enable it. ES should work fine.

This is because SD Cards in Android use the old FAT 32 file system, which does not support files over 4 GB. Unfortunately, there's nothing u can do but some stuff so backup will be smaller.

CM won't fix it, because SD Card access in lollipop isn't broken. Again, it's up to the app. But u should still try CM though. U won't be able to go back.

Firstly, I used Root Explorer from the Play Store on stock and it works perfectly with the lollipop SD card access after asking you to select it before it can read/write...ES is garbage, ugly and buggy.
Second, format SD card to exfat for better performance and the 4gb limit lifted. Why you'd have even a single file over 4gb for a backup is beyond me as not even the system image isnt over 2.5. The different partitions are split between. Boot, data, system, cache, efs, recovery and system image (whatever that is).
Last SD access IS broken on most devices with external storage since KitKat and will remain so in all later versions until Google fixes it, which isnt likely any time soon as more devices jump on the fixed internal storage bandwagon. Its up to the manufacturer of the device to add SD access to the phones kernel to allow proper read/write access to external storage. We had the same problem on the HTC Desire 510 until a modded kernel was developed to fix this.
CM at least allows us to finally use apps like Foldermount and Link2sd to put app data (obb/downloaded data) on the external storage. They will not default to external storage, it has to be manually moved by these apps or the user and linked appropriately. Our factory romdoes not allow this and (again) would require someone to develop a kernel to fix this problem. I've been trying to get hold of my team leader who fixed this on the Desire 510 but hes MIA. Ive got another source who may help out, but no guarentees.

Hope that clears some of that up.

 

[Jack Mickey]

What exactly are you trying to achieve on stock here? Are you having problems creating a backup in twrp? Because...you shouldn't as long as your using the twrp posted on the CM12.1 thread

Im trying to be able to copy files, move to, and delete from my external sd card. Im also trying to make a twrp backup on my external sd card. Im using the twrp in the cm12.1 thread. Everytime i try to do anything to my sd card, the issues shown in the screenshots above happen. Either it tells me i didnt select the sd card, or tells me its a sub directory. Thanks so much to everyone for being so patient and understanding with me and for everyones help. Never in my life have I known cooler or smarter people than you guys.

 

[dragonhart6505]

Im trying to be able to copy files, move to, and delete from my external sd card. Im also trying to make a twrp backup on my external sd card. Im using the twrp in the cm12.1 thread. Everytime i try to do anything to my sd card, the issues shown in the screenshots above happen. Either it tells me i didnt select the sd card, or tells me its a sub directory. Thanks so much to everyone for being so patient and understanding with me and for everyones help. Never in my life have I known cooler or smarter people than you guys.

Huh...that's not right at all. Do you have a second SD card you could test out? Just to even backup only the boot partition as a test...

 

[Jack Mickey]

Huh...that's not right at all. Do you have a second SD card you could test out? Just to even backup only the boot partition as a test...

I do actually when i get home, ill format it exfat n see if it works. Im wondering if because this sd card has files from my old phone, if that may have some thing to do with it. If nothing else works, im just gping to backup whats necessary to recover.

 

[Jack Mickey]

Can anyone post a screenshot of the exact folder im supposed to select when prompted to select external sd? The only 2 options it gives me is jnternal sd and Sd card. It wont let me navigate any higher in the root tree to /storage, which i feel might be the folder i need to select.

 

[EarlyMon]

Windows FAT filesystems are primitive and lack inherent ownership and access permissions found in the ext-type filesystem for the rest of your storage.

Unlike internal paths making a difference due to access controls, I've never seen that matter on any Android for the FAT-based sd card.

I'd be very surprised if an alternate path changed anything.

 

[dragonhart6505]

Can anyone post a screenshot of the exact folder im supposed to select when prompted to select external sd? The only 2 options it gives me is jnternal sd and Sd card. It wont let me navigate any higher in the root tree to /storage, which i feel might be the folder i need to select.

Not on stock anymore but you would need to hit the 3 dot menu button, select show advanced paths, tap external SD on the left and hit select at the bottom.
Doing this should have no effect on your twrp backups however. And to restore back to stock for any reason, you'd need at least the system and boot partitions backed up. I'm unsure about system-image, but I have it backed up anyway just in case

 

[cmason37]

I select show sd card, tap on Sd card, and select sd card. Nothing.

That's odd. Try Solid Explorer. That has been my main file explorer since it came out, and it worked for me on stock.

Last SD access IS broken on most devices with external storage since KitKat and will remain so in all later versions until Google fixes it. Its up to the manufacturer of the device to add SD access to the phones kernel to allow proper read/write access to external storage

Sorry, but I'm pretty sure this is wrong. SD Card access is fixed in Lollipop, but, again, it's up to the app developers to update their apps to the new API. Also, I'm pretty sure all phones have kernel R/W access to the SD Card, or at least FAT 32 & SD Card drivers.Even in KitKat, this was limited by an Android permission, not the kernel.

I'm unsure about system-image, but I have it backed up anyway just in case

System Image is a new feature in TWRP that makes a 1:1 fastboot backup of the system partition. It was made because Lollipop updates require the system filesystem to be exactly the same as when the phone was shipped. This feature was made for phones that use fastboot, and thus don't need to root before flashing TWRP. It's completely useless to us.

EDIT:Removed false info

 

[EarlyMon]

Just want to warn u about ExFAT. ExFAT support in Android & Linux is spotty, at best. Only a little bit of android phones support ExFAT, I'm not even sure if this one does. Even if stock happens to support ExFAT, CM definitely won't, and if u ever decide to move to another phone you'll have to format it.

I'm not sure where you got the impression that exFAT is spotty in Android and Linux.

For many phones, cards over 64 GB won't work unless they are formatted exFAT, and you *never* format a card that's 32 GB or smaller that way.

If you look at the mount spec for your SD card, you ought to find that Android is actually mounting it as vfat.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FAT_filesystem_and_Linux

It's usually best to just format the card on the phone and let it sort it out, especially for 64 GB and larger cards and definitely if running an old Windows.

 

[Jack Mickey]

Windows FAT filesystems are primitive and lack inherent ownership and access permissions found in the ext-type filesystem for the rest of your storage.

Unlike internal paths making a difference due to access controls, I've never seen that matter on any Android for the FAT-based sd card.

I'd be very surprised if an alternate path changed anything.

Thanks gor that info. I just went to a sprint store n showed a buddy of mine who works there. I tried deleting a pic from my sd c

That's odd. Try Solid Explorer. That has been my main file explorer since it came out, and it worked for me on stock.

Sorry, but I'm pretty sure this is wrong. SD Card access is fixed in Lollipop, but, again, it's up to the app developers to update their apps to the new API. Also, I'm pretty sure all phones have kernel R/W access to the SD Card, or at least FAT 32 & SD Card drivers.Even in KitKat, this was limited by an Android permission, not the kernel.

Just want to warn u about ExFAT. ExFAT support in Android & Linux is spotty, at best. Only a little bit of android phones support ExFAT, I'm not even sure if this one does. Even if stock happens to support ExFAT, CM definitely won't, and if u ever decide to move to another phone you'll have to format it.

System Image is a new feature in TWRP that makes a 1:1 fastboot backup of the system partition. It was made because Lollipop updates require the system filesystem to be exactly the same as when the phone was shipped. This feature was made for phones that use fastboot, and thus don't need to root before flashing TWRP. It's completely useless to us.

So all i need to backup is boot and system?

 

[Jack Mickey]

Ok, so heres what ill try. When i get home, ill download solid explorer, format my sd card on my phone, and then try. I sincerely apologize to everyone, but ive gotten to the point where im utterly lost, basically grabbing at straws. Almost every method posted ive tried, to no avail. Im not the type to give up on something, so ill keep trying to find a fix. If anyone knows of a sure fire way to make my sd card work, let me know. I cant even save photos from the camera to external sd. Its a bummer. I gotta nice 32gb sd card in my phone that cant do anything but store whats already on it. Thanks again to everyone for your help, insight and advice. Each and everyone of you are awesome sauce!!

 

[EarlyMon]

Please don't apologize - if everyone wasn't intrigued by the problem and wanting you to not have it, no one would be tossing in advice.

My final two cents - sometimes, sd cards just get wobbly and regular formatting won't help. In those cases, this has been known to fix quite a few of them -

https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_4/

 

[Jack Mickey]

Not on stock anymore but you would need to hit the 3 dot menu button, select show advanced paths, tap external SD on the left and hit select at the bottom.
Doing this should have no effect on your twrp backups however. And to restore back to stock for any reason, you'd need at least the system and boot partitions backed up. I'm unsure about system-image, but I have it backed up anyway just in case

Everytime i do this it tells me sd card not selected. Also there is no option in the 3 dot menu to show advanced paths.

 

[dragonhart6505]

Sorry, but I'm pretty sure this is wrong. SD Card access is fixed in Lollipop, but, again, it's up to the app developers to update their apps to the new API. Also, I'm pretty sure all phones have kernel R/W access to the SD Card, or at least FAT 32 & SD Card drivers.Even in KitKat, this was limited by an Android permission, not the kernel.

Half right.
Yes the devs need to use the updated API to maintain compatibility with lollipop, but that still doesn't give them access to the sdcard. If they did, Google play would default installation of data and obbs to the external storage. Plus, apps that have clearly stated "Update for Lollipop support" (for instance, Modern Combat 4/5, Real Racing 3, Hearthstone, various other Gameloft games) would then be able to read and write to the SD card without the apps that allow us to (foldermount and link2sd).
Another example...stock on our phone doesn't let us use those apps at all. Not 5.0.1 or 5.1.1
Again I refer to the HTC Desire 510. On stock 4.4.2 KitKat, pattyboi and rbheromax created modified kernels that removed write protection and simultaneously allowed app data and obbs to be defaulted to the external storage upon installation

 

[cmason37]

So all i need to backup is boot and system?

Yes. If you want to backup data, I recommend trying Titanium Backup or Helium. Also hope formatting your sdcard fixes your problem!

Half right.
Yes the devs need to use the updated API to maintain compatibility with lollipop, but that still doesn't give them access to the sdcard. If they did, Google play would default installation of data and obbs to the external storage. Plus, apps that have clearly stated "Update for Lollipop support" (for instance, Modern Combat 4/5, Real Racing 3, Hearthstone, various other Gameloft games) would then be able to read and write to the SD card without the apps that allow us to.

You're half right. Apps having access to the SD Card & apps installing to the SD Card are 2 different things. Obbs & data are considered part of the app by Android, so they are controlled by Android. Apps can move them, but Android will still think they are in their default location. This is why we have to have apps like Foldermount & Link2SD (Which, BTW, was around since Gingerbread. Way before SD Card support was even broken). Google Play lets Android choose what location should be the default location. If our phone didn't have a messed up kernel this could be changed with pm set-install-location. Also, the "Update for Lollipop support" has nothing to do with SD Card, just means it runs on Lollipop.

 

[Jack Mickey]

Heres a screen recording of my issue:
https://drive.google.com/folder/d/0BxTtRZNKL0YYZ0tpVGYxM3RFMUE/edit