topic Re: Some apps unable to properly access SD card after update in XZ Series

Some apps unable to properly access SD card after update

Ozach19 — Fri, 05 May 2017 04:24:58 GMT

Since last system update, some apps (audioteka.cz; mapy.cz) have problem accessing the SD card, reporting the storage failure. I can however access the card through file manager normally. Any advice?

Re: SD card acces XZ

Jonas — Fri, 05 May 2017 06:26:54 GMT

Hi @Ozach19, welcome to our community!

I'm sorry to hear about this.

You mentioned that you can access the SD card using a file manager, can you try and take a few photos and/or record a video to your SD card and see how that works out?

If the data storage setting the Camera application is set to save photos and videos to the internal storage you will need to change this first. To do so, open up the Camera application > tap the cogwheel in the bottom left corner > More > Data storage > SD card.

After you have changed this, take a few photos or record a video and see if you can store them on the SD card and access them using a file manager or from the Album application!

I would also recommend that you check so both these applications have permissions to access the storage in your phone, you can see this in Settings > Apps > name of the application(s) > Permissions, make sure that they are allowed to access Storage.

If there is no change, try reinstalling both of the applications and see if they are able to access your SD card.

Let me know how it goes!

Re: SD card acces XZ

ThomasBigot — Sat, 06 May 2017 16:58:13 GMT

Since last update (7.1.1) on my Xperia XZ, I have serious issues for apps to write data in their respective directory on SD Card (SDCARD/Android/Data/…). For instance, Spotify and BeyondPod cannot use SD card to write respectively music cache and podcast files. Spotify does not show the storage option anymore and BeyondPod says «unavailable storage or read-only» when trying to move data dir to SD card.

However, the directories on the sdcard exist: SDCARD/Android/Data/com.spotify.music and SDCARD/Android/Data/moby.beyondpod. I also can write by myself with file browsers (SolidExplorer for instance) on the SD card, even in the concerned dirs.

I’ve tried to format the SD card, activate or deactivate SD card crypting with no result.

I’ve done a factory reset and it worked for Spotify and BeyondPod. But after a while (some dozens of minutes, as I had done some basic updates and customizations), I got the same issues again: unable for apps to acces their own directory on SD cards.

Note this issue has been described on XDA forums https://forum.xda-developers.com/xperia-xz/how-to/xperia-xz-roll-android-7-0-nougat-39-2-t3510600/page46#post72158287.

Re: SD card acces XZ

ThomasBigot — Sat, 06 May 2017 18:34:54 GMT

It seems it’s caused by SD card encryption. The only solution I found: factory reset and do not try to encrypt sd card at all.

The brave ones who want to help: could you try to encrypt your SD card (security menu) and see if apps using sd card in native directories (without authorization needed, just writing to SDCARD/Android/Data/…) seem to keep working properly?

Re: SD card acces XZ

Jonas — Mon, 08 May 2017 14:19:57 GMT

Hi @ThomasBigot, thanks a lot for the great information on how you solved this and on the behaviour you experienced with your SD card and certain applications after updating to Android 7.1.1.

Are those two applications the only two that you have installed in your phone that are saving data to the SD card such as offline playlists, podcasts and so forth or do you have other applications for example, a navigation application that saves offline maps on your SD card? I just want to make sure that this is not caused by specific applications.

If you have another application that saves data on your SD card in a Android/Data, did you experience the same behaviour with that application prior to the factory reset and not encrypting the SD card?

Keep me posted!

Re: SD card acces XZ

ThomasBigot — Tue, 09 May 2017 12:46:49 GMT

I won’t be able to answer precisely since I’ve reset my phone without SD card encryption activated, set up all my apps, and I won’t have time to do it once more (it’s been my third factory reset since the update release).

In fact, I’ve immediately remarked this issue with Spotify, started investigations with it and I’ve noticed the issue was the same with BeyondPod. I don’t use SD card a lot expected for this kind of usage (podcast, music), so I did not have opportunity to remark other apps malfunctionning, sorry.

I’m surprised with the fact there is not so many complaints while it seems easily reproductible.

I hope it will be solved soon !

Thanks for your attention,
Thomas

Re: SD card acces XZ

Jonas — Fri, 12 May 2017 11:56:47 GMT

Thanks a lot for the great information and sorry for the late reply.

That is fully understandable, having to reset your phone is never fun since it takes a while to get everything back to how it was before performing the factory reset.

Let me know if you should experience this behaviour again and have a great weekend!

Re: SD card acces XZ

niederrheinr — Thu, 18 May 2017 05:50:47 GMT

Hi,

I can confirm this problem still exists and is really annoying.

Not only does ist appear with spotify, but also with other popular apps like

HERE We Go https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.here.app.maps&hl=de
MAPS.ME https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mapswithme.maps.pro&hl=de
Amazon Prime Video https://www.amazon.de/Amazon-com-Amazon-Prime-Video/dp/B00N28818A

It would be great to have a fix for the Xperia XZ soon since both using it without encryption or without these apps is not an option.

Re: Some apps unable to properly access SD card after update

xevox — Thu, 18 May 2017 07:03:42 GMT

Such a joke that this is an issue. can't even save music onto my flagship phone... Google Play Music crashes as soon as I tap on external storage. Camera is still able to record directly to SD card. I'm on the generic Australian firmware with the May Security updates.

Really hope this get fixed soon, is a dealbreaker for me.

Re: Some apps unable to properly access SD card after update

ThomasBigot — Fri, 19 May 2017 06:18:07 GMT

Do someone know if 41.2.A.2.223 solves this issue, by chance?

Re: Some apps unable to properly access SD card after update

xevox — Sat, 20 May 2017 07:31:38 GMT

@ThomasBigot wrote:
Do someone know if 41.2.A.2.223 solves this issue, by chance?

It doesn't. that's the firmware i'm on.

Re: Some apps unable to properly access SD card after update

@5931181100023519 — Mon, 22 May 2017 08:50:14 GMT

That is the firmware I am on too(41.2.A.2.223 for the avoidance of doubt). This was not a problem on the previous firmware (I'm not sure which one it was but it was Android 7.0.0 and the March security Update if that helps). System software (camera, data transfer tool etc.) seem totally able to access the SD card and save data to it. X-plore file manager can be used to move files around as needed, however, Beyondpod cannot (acts as though it can delete but doesn't, also cannot download podcasts) also Google music crashes when the SD card is chosen as the storage space.

Is there a fix in the works?

Re: Some apps unable to properly access SD card after update

Jonas — Mon, 22 May 2017 12:51:29 GMT

Hello everyone!

I apologize for the late reply.

I would like to have a closer look at this and would appreciate if @MarcusSan and/or @xevox could get back to me with a bug report of the behaviour where the Google Play Music application crashes when accessing your SD card after updating your Xperia XZ devices.

To do this, follow the instructions below.

1. Go to Settings > About phone > Build number, tap 7 times on the build number.
2. Go back and select Developer options then turn on "USB debugging".
3. Select Logger buffer size and change it to "4 M".
4. Restart your phone, then replicate the behaviour.
5. Go back to Settings > Developer options, select "Take bug report" followed "Interactive bug report".

When the report is ready you will receive a notification. Tap the notification to share it. I suggest you upload it to Google Drive and then choose to share a public link to the upload and include the link in a PM to me!

Thanks in advance and I'm sorry for any inconveniences this may cause for all of you.

Edit: All of your are of course welcome to get back to me with bug reports!

Re: Some apps unable to properly access SD card after update

@5931181100023519 — Mon, 22 May 2017 13:14:18 GMT

Sent, check your inbox

Re: Some apps unable to properly access SD card after update

xevox — Mon, 22 May 2017 13:24:58 GMT

PM'd you my logs also.

Re: Some apps unable to properly access SD card after update

Jonas — Mon, 22 May 2017 15:16:41 GMT

@MarcusSan and @xevox, Thanks a lot for providing me with these bug reports and I will get back to all of you in this thread when I have received more information regarding this.

Re: Some apps unable to properly access SD card after update

niederrheinr — Thu, 25 May 2017 15:29:40 GMT

For me, Play Music does not crash. It reports that there is not enough space left, which is wrong.

I now tried to disable encyryption and formatted the sd card. However, that did not help. So I will have to hard reset, what a fun ... 😕

Another info: other apps that access the sd card directly outside /ANDROID still work finde. It is just those apps that try to access their dedicated directories in /ANDROID that have a problem.

Re: Some apps unable to properly access SD card after update

xevox — Fri, 26 May 2017 00:10:09 GMT

I now tried to disable encyryption and formatted the sd card. However, that did not help. So I will have to hard reset, what a fun ... 😕

Hang in there I reckon mate. Hopefully Sony are on top of this and have it fixed for the June security update. Which is likely to be the second week of June.

I'll do my hard reset when it gets fixed. Not worth spending the time on a broken build.

Re: Some apps unable to properly access SD card after update

Jonas — Mon, 29 May 2017 12:01:29 GMT

Hi @niederrheinr, sorry to hear that you are experiencing a similar behaviour as the other users in this thread.

I have forwarded bug reports from 2 users internally and I'm currently waiting for more information.

I understand that having to reset your phone is never fun and I'm sorry for the inconvenience and as @xevox wrote you can also wait until I get more information regarding this behaviour.

Re: Some apps unable to properly access SD card after update

niederrheinr — Mon, 29 May 2017 12:37:52 GMT

Hi @Jonas,

thanks for the reply. I already did the hard reset as I really want to use spotify and Here WeGo, but did not have enough memory available internally.

More piece of information from what I experienced:
- it did not help to only only cancel sd card encryption and reformat

- after reformatting, Play Music also crashed on my phone, as others reported - before, it only showed the error "not enough space"

Good luck, you're generally doing a great job with firmware updates!