Android 5.0 Makes SD Cards Great Again

An anonymous reader writes: Over the past couple of years, Google has implemented some changes to how Android handles SD cards that aren't very beneficial to users or developers. After listening to many rounds of complaints, this seems to have changed in Android 5.0 Lollipop. Google's Jeff Sharkey wrote, "[I]n Lollipop we added the new ACTION_OPEN_DOCUMENT_TREE intent. Apps can launch this intent to pick and return a directory from any supported DocumentProvider, including any of the shared storage supported by the device. Apps can then create, update, and delete files and directories anywhere under the picked tree without any additional user interaction. Just like the other document intents, apps can persist this access across reboots." Android Police adds, "All put together, this should be enough to alleviate most of the stress related to SD cards after the release of KitKat. Power users will no longer have to deal with crippled file managers, media apps will have convenient access to everything they should regardless of storage location, and developers won't have to rely on messy hacks to work around the restrictions."

Comments

Root should be a right, not a privilege

[Overzeetop]

That's why you should always root and use https://play.google.com/store/...

Re:Root should be a right, not a privilege

[afidel]

Doesn't work with 4.4.2 on my S5 or 4.4.4 on my Nexus 7.

CyanogenMod does this already

[jc79]

Much of what you describe is CyanogenMod's Privacy Guard feature.

Privacy Guard is enabled for all apps by default. The first time an app requests a permission, the user is asked to allow/disallow that permission, and can choose whether to have that choice remembered or be asked every time. Disallowed permissions simply present the app with false data. Apps work fine, they just think you have no friends/live in the middle of the Atlantic/never connect to WiFi etc etc.