Geeksoft Claims Fix For Android KitKat SD Card Woes


When KitKat was released it felt like a fairly significant update. Not enough to deserve being called Android 5.0 but it brought not insignificant features nevertheless. Some of the most important features were security ones. Android’s openness had led it to become a security risk, a problem that was exasperated by the fact that the vast majority of mobile malware targets Android.

And so, Google did something that pissed quite a few people off, they restricted App’s access to SD cards. At first glance, this seemed like the perfect solution. Apps are allowed to read and write within their own folder, but they can’t write to any folders outside of their designated folder on the SD card.

The problem was that a lot of apps had already put files and folders all over users’ SD cards, and now couldn’t access the files that they in some cases needed to run. It also crippled certain apps that had a legitimate need for access. Apps like File Managers that were built for the sole purpose of exploring the phone’s internal and external storage, and third party cameras who don’t want to save photos and videos in their own folder (uninstalling would mean losing your media if they were).

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It certainly caused some problems for both developers and users, but Google felt that preventing a malicious app from say, installing malware into a folder used by your banking app, was worth the trade off.

Those who wanted to go back to the old way of things,  had only one solution, installing a custom ROM. It isn’t a hard thing to do, Cyanogen makes their installation painless for most devices, but it is still less than convenient, wipes all of the user’s data and some users may prefer the version of Android that came installed on their phone.

Now, Chinese developer Geeksoft, the creators of File Expert, claim to have a fix. They haven’t updated File Expert with the fix just yet, it is currently in beta, but they assure us that it does work. Better yet, they also have an easily applicable patch that will allow third party applications regain external SD card write access.

The big piece that makes this news? Geeksoft claims that their fix can be implemented without rooting, giving access of external SD cards back to the mainstream, Android loving public. Of course, giving too many third party apps access to all of your files may open up a security risk, but a careful Android user should be fine.

[Photo Credit: alefot]
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20 Comments

  1. Alex
    April 1, 2014

    Great news! =)

  2. Alex
    April 2, 2014

    Great news! =)

  3. bu99zy
    April 2, 2014
    • Art Carnage
      June 5, 2014

      As does a dozen other fixed that also require your phone to be rooted. That was the whole point of the article. This fix doesn’t require rooting.

  4. Guest
    April 2, 2014
    • Art Carnage
      June 5, 2014

      As does a dozen other fixed that also require your phone to be rooted. That was the whole point of the article. This fix doesn’t require rooting.

  5. April 3, 2014

    Cool!

  6. Multicorechina.com
    April 3, 2014

    Cool!

  7. DirtyDread
    August 19, 2014

    OK so why peeps don’t we just use the stock file manager. I bought the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5, added my 64GB micro sd card setup my torrent client to put files in my sd folder with no joy. (This now makes Android less flexable and more like the iPhone closed system). Quick fix is to always have space on your internal drive and copy files over to ext sd. Not ideal but workable.
    So long term, Google must understand that people want a choice, not a dictatorship. If they say that 3rd party mail ware is the reason for this change then design a program that tells users what programs are accessing their data. Then we, the user can decide if we want that app to have read write access. Simple.

    • criddybug
      February 23, 2015

      Thank you! You answer saved me, lol =0)

  8. DirtyDread
    August 19, 2014

    OK so why peeps don’t we just use the stock file manager. I bought the Samsung Galaxy Tab S 10.5, added my 64GB micro sd card setup my torrent client to put files in my sd folder with no joy. (This now makes Android less flexable and more like the iPhone closed system). Quick fix is to always have space on your internal drive and copy files over to ext sd. Not ideal but workable.
    So long term, Google must understand that people want a choice, not a dictatorship. If they say that 3rd party mail ware is the reason for this change then design a program that tells users what programs are accessing their data. Then we, the user can decide if we want that app to have read write access. Simple.

    • Guest
      February 23, 2015

      Thank you! You answer saved me, lol =0)

  9. chuckiemlsssss
    September 12, 2014

    any news?????????? I don’t want to root my m8 gpe.

  10. chuckiemlsssss
    September 12, 2014

    any news?????????? I don’t want to root my m8 gpe.

  11. tim
    November 13, 2014

    this article came out seven months ago.. it’s now November and i haven’t found their solution yet .. is it coming?

  12. Guest
    November 13, 2014

    this article came out seven months ago.. it’s now November and i haven’t found their solution yet .. is it coming?

  13. phm
    January 24, 2015

    This still never happened it is now January 2015

  14. phm
    January 25, 2015

    This still never happened it is now January 2015

  15. BryanX9X
    March 23, 2015

    In 9 days this article will be a year old, & there still has not been an update. How about doing a little update story on this. There doesn’t seem to be any mention of such an achievement on their site at all. So what’s the REAL story?

  16. Guest
    March 23, 2015

    In 9 days this article will be a year old, & there still has not been an update. How about doing a little update story on this. There doesn’t seem to be any mention of such an achievement on their site at all. So what’s the REAL story?