Automagic Forum

Hi Martin, i have a flow that backup some files compacting then to SDCARD. Since i upgraded to lollipop those flows won't work giving me: ACCESS DENIED error.

Any tips ? Thanks in advance.

Hi,

Android imposes a new permission to write to the SD card (respectively the secondary external storage) since KitKat so Automagic is limited to write to the primary external storage on KitKat+Lollipop (usually on /storage/emulated/0/).
There are apps like SDFix to change the permissions and allow apps to get proper write access to the SD card again (requires root).

Out of curiosity, did you directly update from Android <=4.3 to Lollipop?

Regards,
Martin

No, i was on 4.4 and then updated to lollipop 5.0 > 5.1

Hey martin you can update automagic to ask for sdCard access permission on lollipop. Once granted it will keep working. Other apps like esFile explorer are following the way. I am providing you a link for furthur details. This may help you.

https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&sourc ... n2KlUckq6A

Please do this. This is very much required.

Thanks in advance.

Unfortunately it's not as simple as that, Google requires to use their own API to write files on the secondary external storage through their new storage access framework.
It's on my todo-list to add support for this but it has not a high priority at the moment.

If you're rooted, you can grant any app permissions to write to external sd card. Not for the faint-hearted, though!
E.g. instructions from this thread apply (see `Tip 2: Enable "Save to SD" feature`).

If you're rooted and use the XPosed Framework, you can use the "Marshmallow SD Fix" module which, according to my tests, does the same thing, but with a GUI.

Actually there's a feature in Automagic that allows the user to grant SD card access. It is experimental, but works great to me. You can enable it through the preferences.

If I understand correctly, this works through Android's Storage Access Framework, which is slower and has other problems (which may or may not be relevant to your use cases). For people who are not rooted or don't want to bother with extra setup, sure they should go ahead and use the built-in option.

But if using a rooted (or rooted+XPosed) phone, why not use packages.xml manual editing method, or Marshmallow SD Fix?
E.g. if you want Titanium Backup to store backups on the external SD card, you can use SAF (called DocumentsProvider in TB's settings) - it asks to grant permissions with the same UI as Automagic, or you can use Marshmallow SD Fix Xposed module and TB will access the files directly (Filesystem in TB's settings). The latter choice requires root and XPosed, but performs significantly better. P.S. For some reason, just editing packages.xml (without using Marshmallow SD Fix) worked for several apps I've did it, but not for TB.