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Help Android KitKat external storage

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gospete

Lurker
Hi, I realise that the subject of KitKat SD card access is well documented.
However I'm not sure if my particular issue is related to this in any way.

Firstly I'll point out that the device I have is a 'generic' Android KitKat tablet.
(I've tried two with the same results).

Basically, the device will not write to an sd card (or usb stick) formatted as Fat 32 or NTFS. I mean even attempting to copy and paste a simple text document. Sometimes the storage is not even detected by the tablet, or displays an error.
However, with ExFat the storage works ok, and I've been using it like this for about a year (I only use the Sd for storing files such as PDF's etc).
So is the fact that I haven't seen this ExFat 'solution' documented anywhere, just down to it being a cheap generic tablet that probably is 'non standard' or not fully equipped to handle KitKat?

This reason I'm asking the question now is because I installed an MP3 app yesterday, the key purpose of which was to move Amazon MP3's to my SD card. But in my case, the SD card is not recognised by the App. So I guess that there is still some underlying issue. Hence my confusion.

Any pointers, greatly appreciated!
 
Actually it sounds fine, not because of cheap or anything.

Standard Android has never included NTFS recognition.

Android is going to mount the sd card using the Linux vFAT - whether the card needs FAT32 or exFAT is strictly up to how closely the device followed the sd card standard.

And many Androids don't always.

SDHC cards, max size 32 GB, ought to be formatted FAT32.

SDXC cards, size beginning at 32 GB, ought to be formatted exFAT.

That's the spec.

So I usually advise just formatting on the phone itself, it will tend to (but not always) format the card the way that it can handle it.

So tell me if my guess is right - you have an SDXC card.

That would leave the remaining problem specific to that app.
 
Thanks for your reply.

The card I am using is a 32G SDHC class 10 (I've tried others).

Just to confirm, I can't get any card or USB stick to work with the tablet unless it is ExFat.
Fat32 just doesn't work. Actually I believe that when I tried Fat32 it came up with a 'Write Permissions' notification, but I'll check this again.
Is this in anyway related to the way KitKat is supposed to handle Sd cards?
 
gospete said:
Thanks for your reply.

The card I am using is a 32G SDHC class 10 (I've tried others).

Just to confirm, I can't get any card or USB stick to work with the tablet unless it is ExFat.
Fat32 just doesn't work. Actually I believe that when I tried Fat32 it came up with a 'Write Permissions' notification, but I'll check this again.
Is this in anyway related to the way KitKat is supposed to handle Sd cards?
Click to expand...
No, it's just part of some nonstandardization in your device.

I've seen it often, going in both directions.

FAT is licensed by Microsoft. It's popular. It's an antique. But it's popular.

For years, Windows didn't actually format sd cards correctly.

That's why we have -

https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_4/

KitKat isn't the issue - KitKat is its own set of separate problems.
 
Ok. I have just again tried to paste a doc file onto a newly formatted Fat32 SDHC card.
Yet again, I get the Android message 'Copy Pasted Failed'.
(From what you say, this is not a KitKat issue - the file should paste ok).

The same card formatted as ExFat works ok.

So does this confirm that my cheap KitKat tablet is indeed non standard in some way? Bearing in mind the only SD file system it plays ball with is ExFat.
 
It confirms that your cheap tablet is as non standard as my top of the line HTC.

Go with what works, it's not wrong, just part of the standards confusion between a Linux provider and Windows.

Happens every day.

Android = compact, real-time Linux

And I've seen this nonsense with cameras too.

ExFAT is ok, it's also from Microsoft, it's no big deal.
 
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