How to get back write access to SD-Card on Android 4.4

[petermad]

2ghisler(Author)


HOORAY - that did it! Thank you very much.

Does this only apply to HTC devices, I wonder?

[ghisler(Author)]

Great to hear that! So far I have only seen your report and the one on XDA, and both are for HTC only.

Btw, what happens in TC when you get this crash? Does TC hang until you click on the "Abort" button? Or does it show some kind of error message immediately? I would like to inform the user about the Android bug, but I need a way to detect that the app crashed, and the user didn't click "Back" himself...

[petermad]

when I returned to TC from the crashed Android dialog, there was a TC error message telling me that the desired action (for example Delete) couldn't be performed. I had to manually return to TC, but TC wasn't hanging.

[HaPe]

Just want to say: Thank you!

Access to the external SD works great on Sony Xperia Z3 with Lollipop.
The dialog to choose the root of external SD worked as expected.
(BTW: same for QuickPic)

So happy that I am not forced to use this grumpy bundled File cOmmander from Sony any more.

[dejanr]

Yesterday I got a new HTC ONE M9+. Inserted a 64 GB SD card, formatted it, etc. However, I cannot make Total Commander write to that card.

1. I formatted the card in my phone
2. I put it in my PC card reader, checked, it is FAT32 file system, even labeled it (name HTC)
3. Put the card back in the phone, mounted it, opened Total Commander, opened root folder of the SD card and tried to create a folder.
4. Total Commander displayed a "On Android 5.0 the external card is... etc., etc.).
5. Tapped on Ok. The windows opened and there is no SD card in the list, only Internal Storage.
6. Tried Hide SD card / Show SD card, no change

Any ideas what to do next?

Sincerely, Dejan

[ghisler(Author)]

The Android dialog to choose the card is unfortunately very confusing: You first need to open a menu where you need to allow the SD-card to be shown, and then you can choose it. Please try again and look abit around in that dialog. It seems that Google did this on purpose to make writing to the card as hard as possible, to promote their cloud service...

[homedimon]

Yesterday I got a new HTC ONE M9+. Inserted a 64 GB SD card, formatted it, etc. However, I cannot make Total Commander write to that card.

1. I formatted the card in my phone
2. I put it in my PC card reader, checked, it is FAT32 file system, even labeled it (name HTC)
3. Put the card back in the phone, mounted it, opened Total Commander, opened root folder of the SD card and tried to create a folder.
4. Total Commander displayed a "On Android 5.0 the external card is... etc., etc.).
5. Tapped on Ok. The windows opened and there is no SD card in the list, only Internal Storage.
6. Tried Hide SD card / Show SD card, no change

Same phone, the same Card, the same problem...

It is necessary to format the card in the FAT32 (Windows and android default formating in the exFAT)

I first did all the instructions from the Internet, but when nothing came of it made its own way.

• 1 format the card on computer using SDFormatter v4 in exFAT
• 2 format the card on computer using GUIFormat (32k block) in FAT32
• 3 does not work
• 4 formatted on the device (default in exFAT)
• 5 does not work
• 6 formatted on a computer using Active @ Partition managery in FAT32
• 7 happened

I think you can try immediately to step 6.
Sorry for my english.

[peteburns]

It is NOT about memory card format, it is all about permissions in these stupid systems...I needed to do it again, but this time it took me so much time, that I decided to register here and write it down for everyone for the future - it is as simple as this:

SETTINGS > APPS > ALL APPS > DOCUMENTS > ENABLE

This enables the stupid Android dialog box, which is mentioned by everyone on the web, but nobody mentioned how to enable it or how to get access to it...

Then while trying to copy/move in Total commander that dialog box appears, there the memory card needs to be chosen and that's it, it finally works

[libb]

Hm. I'm on latest Samsung S7 Android 7 beta and the dialog doesn't display at all. I have set the permission for storage mot I cannot delete/write on external SD card and no dialog displays. Uninstall and reinstall TC didn't help.

[ghisler(Author)]

Sorry, no idea. Works fine with Galaxy S5, but I don't currently have any device with Android 7.

[Zygus]

I thought that this thread is related to Android 4.4.
The SDFix method or changing permission in /etc won't solve all cases. There are devices on 4.4 where SD card is mounted always as read only. SDFix method won't work on this case.

[blazerman]

Can't we access SDCard on android v4.4 and above
without root

Other Apps like Xplore can do easily..

Awaiting inputs

[ghisler(Author)]

Can't we access SDCard on android v4.4 and above
without root

You can on Android up to 4.3 AND on Android 5 and newer - just not on Android 4.4.

[Zygus]

Can't we access SDCard on android v4.4 and above
without root

You can on Android up to 4.3 AND on Android 5 and newer - just not on Android 4.4.

Yes, Google used it's mind and saw how dull was this SD access solution in 4.4. They have changed it at least in 5, but they didn't give any good fix for 4.4.