According to the latest stats from the Google Developer portal Android 4.4 KitKatcurrently occupies 13.6% share in the overall distribution of different versions of the operating system. It’s really unsatisfactory given the fact that it’s has been almost seven months since KitKat was first released. While KitKat is known for better and faster performance that the older Jelly Bean, the former is also known for taking away some good features that we used to enjoy on the latter.
With the KitKat update, Google brought a not-so-pleasant thing by revoking the write capability to external SD card by app on an Android device. You must have seen theMove to SD card option under individual app settings on Jelly Bean. It simply means that KitKat does not allow apps to write/move data on the micro SD cards on devices that support expandable storage. If you install too many apps, your phone’s internal storage might fall short as all app data will be stored to it.
Actually, Google removed the write access to the external SD card by apps deliberately for security reasons. Google made this move to stops apps from dumping files everywhere on the card. On Kitkat, all 3rd-party apps can only write to files and folders that they have created or have taken ownership of.
As you know, Android is a world of possibilities. If you have have obtained root access on your device, you might obtain a solution for almost all such issues. The Play Store already has a couple of good apps for fixing write access to extSD card by 3rd-party apps.
SDFix: KitKat Writable MicroSD
SD KitKat Fixer
While these apps work great on certain devices, the have proven to be ineffective on others. If you have root access on your phone or tablet and having this issue, you can easily fix write capability to external SD card on KitKat manually.
Fix Write Capability to External SD Card Manually
- Download Root Explorer or Root Browser or any other root file manager from the Play Store:
- Also install BusyBox on your device, then open the app and install BusyBox script:
- Open the root file manager app. Grant it root access if it prompts you to do so.
- Now navigate to /system/etc/permissions/platform.xml
- Tap and hold the platform.xml file and select Edit option.
- Now look for this entry:
name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE"
- Now add the following string of code just after <group gid=”sdcard_rw”/>.
<group gid="media_rw"/>
- To get a clearer idea, take a look at the screenshot below:
- Having editing the file, save your changes and exit the root file manager app.
- Finally, reboot your phone or tablet.
When your device boots up the write access on external SD card by third-party apps should be enabled. Enjoy!