G+_Philotech Mueller Posted May 7, 2015 Share Posted May 7, 2015 (Non-) Usage of SD Card for Storage I have the Lollipop 5.1 TrekStor 7" tablet with just 8 GB of internal memory, and I'm running out of memory without even any media stored on it. It's completely inexplicable to my why app developers don't use the SD card storage for app data through APIs provided and available since Kitkat / Android 4.4. I do know Kitkat imposed severe restrictions on the use of SD cards which were usually referred to as disabling write access to SD cards. That was never correct because Kitkat did always permit apps to write data to their own folder. Of course, any apps relying on shared data (photos, music, media of any kind) and apps engaging in file management could no longer made work in Kitkat. In Lollipop, this is no longer true, so any app can obtain write permission for all of the SD card. However, almost none of the apps I have installed even use their own SD card folder. This is totally annoying because many apps (such as MS Word, Excel, Powerpoint) create and use some 200 MB of app data each after first run, and that is not the actual documents. That data will never be seen or used by anyone except the Word (or whatever...) app itself. So the device's SD card folder would be the ideal storage location. However, this isn't being done by any app. Then there are the true media apps including the stock Google Photos app and camera app, plus music, video and everything. They really should store the media in shared SD card folders, but again, none does. WHY on earth doesn't anybody support SD card storage? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Karl Gaudian Posted May 7, 2015 Share Posted May 7, 2015 I think thats the wrong way to look at the argument, Instead of blaming the app developers who have to spend alot of time creating this stuff blame the manufacturer for only giving you 8GB! IMO 8GB is a discussing amount of internal memory, at a minimum should be 16GB! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Philotech Mueller Posted May 7, 2015 Author Share Posted May 7, 2015 Karlos Theodore Jackal Sure. Or blame Google for restricting access to SD cards. But both are a given in this world unfortunately, so it's only the developers who can solve the issue. And it shouldn't be that difficult (but I'm no programmer). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Karl Gaudian Posted May 7, 2015 Share Posted May 7, 2015 Philotech Müller I think Google had to restrict memory card usage (due to the security issues surrounding them) to be able to get Android into the enterprise. Google does help make it easier with the API's but it's by no means a walk in the park & takes a lot of time & testing to ensure it works correctly. Personally I would rather the Dev of my apps spend time fixing bugs adding new features rather then surport SD Cards & then people put pressure on manufacturers to sell larger compacity devices. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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