Just got Marshmallow. Writing to external SD card is such a pain!

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fuzzybabybunny

fuzzybabybunny

Moderator<br>Digital & Video Cameras
Moderator
Jan 2, 2006
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How do you do it? I just got Marshmallow on my S5. Before in Lollipop I could download files to wherever I wanted on the external SD card.

I have apps that are configured to download files to a Downloads folder on the external SD card. After upgrading to Marshmallow it seems that all this functionality is broken.

Opera can't download to my external card's Downloads folder even when configured in Opera's settings.

Chrome doesn't have an option to set the Downloads folder location. It automatically downloads everything to the internal SD cad.

My Amazon Music downloaded music from Lollipop stopped working. I had to delete all of it and re-download everything. Amazon manages to save files to the SD card, but then again I'm not allowed to choose the location.

This appears to be a serious problem - how am I not able to set everything to automatically save to a Downloads folder on the external SD card?
 
fuzzybabybunny

fuzzybabybunny

Moderator<br>Digital & Video Cameras
Moderator
Jan 2, 2006
10,455
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It appears that Marshmallow only allows a program to download files to its own specific folder?

For example, if I'm using the Opera browser I can only save files to:

/storage/3436-3466(SN of my SD card)/Android/data/com.opera.browser

Chrome is configured to only download files to:

/sdcard/Download
 
C

Crono

Lifer
Aug 8, 2001
23,720
1,502
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By default and as far as I know, yes.

With root you can change to any folder.
 
KeithP

KeithP

Diamond Member
Jun 15, 2000
5,664
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In MM, SD Cards can be treated in one of two ways, as an external storage like in previous versions of the OS, or as "adoptable" storage. Think of adoptable storage as something akin to Apple's Fusion drive. With adoptable storage your internal storage and SD card are treated as one large pool of storage.

When I was beta testing MM on a Moto G (2nd gen) and tried to use the adoptable storage feature, I found that some apps had to be completely removed, reinstalled and data reloaded for them to work right with adoptable storage.

You might check your storage settings and see how your SD card is being handled. Maybe in the upgrade process the S5 switched it to adoptable storage. If it isn't adoptable, you might want to try switching to it and see if that helps. FYI, once an SD card has been formatted as adoptable storage, it has to be reformatted to use in a another device.

-KeithP
 
J

JeffMD

Platinum Member
Feb 15, 2002
2,026
19
81
Update your program or get a new program. Marshmallow offers a new security system for external SD cards that allows for MORE flexibility, but it needs to be supported. I had an issue where I was using an version of android mame that was no longer being updated and it couldn't write to the sd card at all. Found another fork of mame (the one I originally wanted) that was up to date and it worked fine with my ROMlist being on the sd card.
 
S

stlc8tr

Golden Member
Jan 5, 2011
1,106
4
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fuzzybabybunny said:
It appears that Marshmallow only allows a program to download files to its own specific folder?
Click to expand...

That restriction was for older KitKat 4.4 and Lollipop devices. Which really sucked.

If you are using a Marshmallow aware app, it should request the storage permission and once granted, it will be able to write to the SD card except for the Android directory where other apps store their files. And there's even another API call that can explicitly request write permission to any location, including the Android directory.
 
N

npaladin-2000

Senior member
May 11, 2012
450
3
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KeithP said:
In MM, SD Cards can be treated in one of two ways, as an external storage like in previous versions of the OS, or as "adoptable" storage. Think of adoptable storage as something akin to Apple's Fusion drive. With adoptable storage your internal storage and SD card are treated as one large pool of storage.

When I was beta testing MM on a Moto G (2nd gen) and tried to use the adoptable storage feature, I found that some apps had to be completely removed, reinstalled and data reloaded for them to work right with adoptable storage.

You might check your storage settings and see how your SD card is being handled. Maybe in the upgrade process the S5 switched it to adoptable storage. If it isn't adoptable, you might want to try switching to it and see if that helps. FYI, once an SD card has been formatted as adoptable storage, it has to be reformatted to use in a another device.

-KeithP
Click to expand...

Samsung removed the Adoptable Storage functionality from their phones. In their infinite wisdom, they don't feel people need that sort of functionality when they can just pay Samsung for more internal storage instead. ;)
 
J

JeffMD

Platinum Member
Feb 15, 2002
2,026
19
81
Npala, Verizon did the same thing to their G4 devices, people were pissed. Verizon really knew how to make their G4 the worst one to get.
 
KeithP

KeithP

Diamond Member
Jun 15, 2000
5,664
201
106
npaladin-2000 said:
Samsung removed the Adoptable Storage functionality from their phones. In their infinite wisdom, they don't feel people need that sort of functionality when they can just pay Samsung for more internal storage instead. ;)
Click to expand...

LOL...really? Just another reason why the only Android phone people should consider is a Nexus.

-KeithP
 
KeithP

KeithP

Diamond Member
Jun 15, 2000
5,664
201
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blankslate

blankslate

Diamond Member
Jun 16, 2008
8,770
548
126
I guess the OP's only option is to manually copy the file over to the external mSDcard?

It's sort of a pita but that's what I usually do when saving media from various sites then transferring them to my phone.

Transfer to the internal memory then virus/malware scan then transfer to the external storage if I'm keeping it for any length of time.


________________
 
wilds

wilds

Platinum Member
Oct 26, 2012
2,059
674
136
I was able to get direct write to microSD working again on my S5. The directory is very different from before. Now it is in /storage/5170-3078. My numbers will probably be different, but it should appear in the /storage folder. Works just like it did in Lollipop; correctly.

Thanks for bringing this to attention, I would have never noticed all of my download paths got reset to local storage. But it is an easy fix to point each app toward the microSD path again.

I LOVE Marshmallow on the S5. Have over double the free RAM I used to. No more hang ups and laggy unlocks. I don't have to worry about running out of memory anymore.

edit: I don't use Chrome for downloads, ever. I use Firefox with addons. If it is a large file, I use ttorrent.
 
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Suspicious-Teach8788

Lifer
Feb 19, 2001
20,155
23
81
I've always said this but the external SD card is always a pain in the ass to handle. Android has been getting improved support here and there but until all apps can handle the SD card and allow you to choose to use the SD card, I prefer to just have a phone with massive storage.

I forked over money for a 128gb Nexus for this reason.
 
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