Develop Bugs

[Q] Why I think the GN doesn't have an SDcard?

As I've posted a few times in this forum I think Google excluded the SDcard on purpose due to issues with the use of an SDcard with Android 3.0 and higher. I've seen this first hand with my Xoom tablet.
Here is a recent post by a developer on the Motorola Xoom forum on the details.
https://supportforums.motorola.com/message/493078#493078
Android is a really wierd beast. As much of the functionality in Android OS really isn't Anrdoid functionality but is functionality provided by the linux kernel and services underneath. Below might be a little over some folks head, but kind of sumarizes everything I currently know of the "external storage" issue with 3.2 and ICS going forward
Right now as it stands in Honeycomb 3.2.2:
SDCard
Tablet recognizes external SD Card and mounts it for R/W (/mnt/external1)
Special new android permission required to write to sdcard
Permission exists but is only to a few specific services in Honeycomb
Permission can not be requested by installed applications so they can't directly write to external SDCard via Java file IO commands. (apps can request permission for internal SDcard /mnt/sdcard but not external)
This means no write access using traditional Java.File IO methods you have to access files through the MediaStore provider API's as it can access the files for you. (Am working a utility app for this)
USB Storage
Linux Kernel in Android recognizes USB volumes when plugged into Xoom (but doesn't mount them)
Vold Daemon (http://vold.sourceforge.net/) is not configured (on GED device) to mount USB volumes when connected to device
MediaScanner/MediaStore service in android appears to scan all mounted volumes, but has issues with volume removal and doesn't store volume name with file information (covered in depth in other threads)
NO USB Storage mouting/read/write as configuration of Android default config doesn't have it setup
ICS - What I know so far:
External SD Card Storage
Issue of External SDCard access could be solved at either Kernel Level (just fix permissions on mount point) or Android Level (make android API for file access easier to use)
Don't see any evidence that anything has changed at the exposed API level. BUT the API's might be doing stuff differently on the back end that makes things work
The undocumented permission for accessing the external storage that you can't request for an application in 3.2 doesn't seem to be documented in 4.0. (Still don't know if an app can request it though)
Don't know if additional applications are given the "special" permission by default in ICS. In 3.2 things like Camera App, MediaPlayer, Email, etc don't have "special" permssion to write to external SDCard.
Don't know if they are changing the mount point locations in ICS, which could also change how its accessed. (permissions, priviledges etc)
USB Storage
No new documentation or changes (in SDK doc's at least) on MediaStore or other API's that traditionally deal with media storage.
Since most of the things keeping us from using removable storage are "behind the scenes" stuff there is no way to know if this will work or not untill Google tells us, or we have ICS and can test it.
MediaStore API "technically" has correct fields in current API's to allow it to support multiple removable storage devices, but with out more documentation, source code, or binary code there is no way to know if back end was updated to support it. Content would still need to be mounted by Vold first though.
Important to note that Google coould have implemented removable USB storage support just with modifications to Vold config without making changes to Android API's. And it would have some functionality (as it does on Custom Made Xoom 3.X roms) and it wouldn't show up as a change in the SDK docs.
Google made a big deal about how they were looking at new ways of handling external/removable storage in a way that made a file's location irrelevent/transparent for the user. Based on those comments earlier in the year I personally expected to see many more modifications to storage and file handling API's. All throughout the Android documentation they mention this is how the API's access the "primary" storage, but they don't get into details on how to access "secondary" storage, but they do hint that it exists.
The API's in theory could have been extended without changing their call arguments (just add new options to existing function arguments). But if that has occured, then its not in the current documentation. Incomplete documentation of the SDK is fairly common though on major revision releases from google, as their developers aren't exactly the best documentation writters.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

They didn't have SDcard expansion on the Nexus S either....

The Nexus S also didn't have an SD card slot. Would that be the same reasoning behind that?

_illmatic_ said:
The Nexus S also didn't have an SD card slot. Would that be the same reasoning behind that?
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Click to collapse
That could've just been a way to show off the new support for devices without sdcards that was a new feature in Gingerbread though.

vzontini said:
Permission can not be requested by installed applications so they can't directly write to external SDCard via Java file IO commands. (apps can request permission for internal SDcard /mnt/sdcard but not external)
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Click to collapse
Wait, what? The Motorola Xoom shouldn't have an internal SD Card. With Honeycomb, the internal storage of a device is only partitioned into boot, recovery, system, data, and cache. There is no FAT-formatted partition on the internal storage that is mounted as a fake "SD Card" partition, because starting with Honeycomb when a device is connected to a computer file transfer is accomplished using MTP with the help of a FUSE daemon. So since there is nothing mounted at /mnt/sdcard if all you have is internal storage, then if you plug in a real SD card it should just mount at /mnt/sdcard and apps should be able to access it just fine using the old API and permissions used to access SD cards that have been in Android for generations.
Basically the problem he described boils down to Android's inability to deal with apps reading and writing to multiple external partitions. The API only deals with one external storage partition (http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/data/data-storage.html#filesExternal) so if you have a device with the internal storage partitioned like, for example, the Nexus S, where a large chunk of the internal storage is in a FAT-formatted partition mounted as if it were an SD card, and if this device also has a slot for a real SD card, then apps can't request permissions to read and write to the real SD card because the API only lets you deal with the fake internal SD card.
But this shouldn't have anything to do with devices like the Xoom and Galaxy Nexus, where there's only one internal storage device and on that device there is no FAT partition mounted like a virtual SD card, so any real SD cards you plug into the device should just mount as regular old SD cards that Android has always worked with.
EDIT: It just occurred to me that on devices like the Xoom and Galaxy Nexus, probably a directory on the /data partition is mounted at /mnt/sdcard so that poorly programmed apps that hardcode that directory to use for external storage will still work. Unfortunately this means that the API for accessing external storage will only be able to return file objects pointing to this portion of the internal storage and won't be able to make use of a real SD card. Until the Android API is enhanced to let apps read and write to multiple "external" storage partitions, this is indeed an issue.

I believe ICS will have full support for sd card slot.
Why?
There are lots of devices that can be upgraded to ICS, and it has sd card slot.
Otherwise, people will be mad if they upgraded to ICS, then the sd card slot becomes read only :-*
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

gogol said:
I believe ICS will have full support for sd card slot.
Why?
There are lots of devices that can be upgraded to ICS, and it has sd card slot.
Otherwise, people will be mad if they upgraded to ICS, then the sd card slot becomes read only :-*
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It won't be read-only. They fixed that in Honeycomb already. However, apps still won't be able to read and write to it using normal file IO operations. They'll have to use the MediaStore APIs. Assuming nothing has changed from how it works in Honeycomb right now.

Personally I think we are giving Google/Samsung too much benefit of the doubt here. They are not putting in an SD card slot for the same simple reason that Apple doesn't have expandable memory on their devices; so that they can charge us more for higher capacity models. If they actually had a good reason for it then they would have explained it officially a long time ago.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

Chrono_Tata said:
Personally I think we are giving Google/Samsung too much benefit of the doubt here. They are not putting in an SD card slot for the same simple reason that Apple doesn't have expandable memory on their devices; so that they can charge us more for higher capacity models. If they actually had a good reason for it then they would have explained it officially a long time ago.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The other reason is that they can control the speed of the storage. How many class 2 sd card disasters are out there where the person didn't know it was a slow card and wouldn't work with video recording, or even slow the experience down?

vzontini said:
As I've posted a few times in this forum I think Google excluded the SDcard on purpose due to issues with the use of an SDcard with Android 3.0 and higher. I've seen this first hand with my Xoom tablet.
Here is a recent post by a developer on the Motorola Xoom forum on the details.
https://supportforums.motorola.com/message/493078#493078
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have an asus eee pad transformer and it has had full sdcard support (read and write access for all apps I installed) since its release with honeycomb 3.0 and it still has now on hc 3.2. Xoom was just crappy in this case. So this cannot be the reason for no sdcard on GN. But as some said before, the Nexus S also didn't have a sdcard.
Sent from my X10i using XDA App

qwer23 said:
I have an asus eee pad transformer and it has had full sdcard support (read and write access for all apps I installed) since its release with honeycomb 3.0 and it still has now on hc 3.2. Xoom was just crappy in this case. So this cannot be the reason for no sdcard on GN. But as some said before, the Nexus S also didn't have a sdcard.
Sent from my X10i using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Docked the transformer actually handles 2 SD cards and can also handle additional USB drives just fine. They get mounted to /removable/MicroSD and /removable/SD.

Chrono_Tata said:
Personally I think we are giving Google/Samsung too much benefit of the doubt here. They are not putting in an SD card slot for the same simple reason that Apple doesn't have expandable memory on their devices; so that they can charge us more for higher capacity models. If they actually had a good reason for it then they would have explained it officially a long time ago.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Then why did Samsung put an SDcard slot in the SGSII models? And they're surely going to sell millions more SGSII's than Galaxy Nexus'. If they wanted to make money they should've taken SDcard slots out of the SGSII.
I think they did internal storage only on purpose, but not to make money... my guess is its for speed and chassis space reasons.

gbroon said:
Docked the transformer actually handles 2 SD cards and can also handle additional USB drives just fine. They get mounted to /removable/MicroSD and /removable/SD.
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Click to collapse
That's right, I own the dock also. But even without the dock, SD card worked perfectly from day one. Additionally I think that ASUS offer the freakin' best support in terms of fast Android&firmware updates and (useful) pre-installed apps (like Polaris Office, Supernote, Splashtop Remote, MyLibrary, a nice File Manager, ...) of any manufacturer I know. But that's off-topic now

Chrono_Tata said:
Personally I think we are giving Google/Samsung too much benefit of the doubt here. They are not putting in an SD card slot for the same simple reason that Apple doesn't have expandable memory on their devices; so that they can charge us more for higher capacity models. If they actually had a good reason for it then they would have explained it officially a long time ago.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Bingo. This to me sums it all up.

True, iPhone 16gb - $199, 32gb - $299. Not bad, 16gb extra for $100. I'm not sure it will work the same way with a Google phone. It's the exclusivity, you want an iOS device then you'll have to buy Apple's, with Google you have many other options and manufacturers.
Sent from my MB860 using Tapatalk

slimslim said:
True, iPhone 16gb - $199, 32gb - $299. Not bad, 16gb extra for $100. I'm not sure it will work the same way with a Google phone.
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Click to collapse
Well, Samsung did it with the Galaxy Tab 10.1, it has no SD slot and on introduction the 32gb version was $100 extra.
Which is rather rich considering that a high quality 16gb microSD card can be had for $25. As an extra insult the internal memory in todays devices is almost always eMMC, which is more or less an SD card made to be soldered down, it has no better performance or features than a normal SD card. So it's a $75 markup straight into the manufacturers pocket.

Chrono_Tata said:
Personally I think we are giving Google/Samsung too much benefit of the doubt here. They are not putting in an SD card slot for the same simple reason that Apple doesn't have expandable memory on their devices; so that they can charge us more for higher capacity models. If they actually had a good reason for it then they would have explained it officially a long time ago.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If this was the case... Where the hell are all the 32g nexus s devices at???
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

i'll probably wait for the 64GB version before i get my hands on one

No SDcard support and a max internal storage of 16GB is a great way to get people to use Google Music...

Browse file system on PC

Is there any program I can install on Windows so I can browse file system?
Something like this http://www.google.com/imgres?um=1&h...6&tbnw=150&start=0&ndsp=29&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0 for iphone.

Samsung makes software like that called Kies. It works on the sgs2...
Sent from my SGH-T989 using XDA App

jordanishere said:
Samsung makes software like that called Kies. It works on the sgs2...
Sent from my SGH-T989 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
does it work with Nexus?

smashcz said:
Is there any program I can install on Windows so I can browse file system?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use this and my desktop browser:
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.dooblou.WiFiFileExplorerPRO&feature=search_result

This is no longer possible on ICS. I think Google made a BIG MISTAKE in ditching USB Mass Storage mode for the dumbed down modes we're forced to use.

Neo3D said:
This is no longer possible on ICS. I think Google made a BIG MISTAKE in ditching USB Mass Storage mode for the dumbed down modes we're forced to use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
so there's no way to see system files on windows ?

okay, first off, do you mean the file system like the SD card where you put your data and where things are downloaded?
or do you mean the actual system folder with the Android OS and downloaded apps, because there is NO way to view that how your asking from a PC.
if you mean the SD card, you can view that just fine. plug the phone into your PC and it'll show up as Galaxy Nexus Internal Storage. the storage you see is equilivant to the SD card on older phones.
it uses MTP however instead of USB mass storage. there is a lot of stupid misconception about this.
MTP allows you to have your entire partition for whatever you want. you can have 16/32GB of apps, or 16/32Gb or your storage. Unlike previous android devices with had to have a set partition for apps and then another one for storage, which meant you could easily run out of space for apps. Like on my Nexus One which only had 198MB of space for apps. MTP also allows your phone to access all of the data while you have the phone connected to the PC.
The disadvantage to MTP is that it CAN be a little slower transferring, and some people have issues with it.
but all and all 90% of the *****ing about MTP is just that, *****ing. I've had no real issues at all with mine and i've transfered everything from music, to pictures to video.
only issues i've had is no thumbnails loading for anything in windows, and crashing when trying to transfer MKVs (which was fixed by erasing divx)

neok44 said:
or do you mean the actual system folder with the Android OS and downloaded apps, because there is NO way to view that how your asking from a PC.
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Click to collapse
yes that's what i meant. I'm surprised there is no program like iphone has http://www.google.com/imgres?um=1&h...6&tbnw=150&start=0&ndsp=29&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0

You dont need a silly program to view your iPhone files...just go into folder settings and allow hidden folders to be viewed. Everything will pop right up.
Could the same be done with the Nexus?

as far as i know, there is no way to access anything other than the /sdcard folder.
if you want access to the system files then you need to buy a root explorer/browser from the market and do everything no your phone.

I do that already since I no longer have a dedicated computer and only use my Toshiba thrive. Thanks for that. Ill test the hidden folder thing on Wednesday when I get my GNex

If you want to modify files on your gn over wifi check out airdroid. Its awsome.
Sent from my GT-P7510 using Tapatalk

Hi, you can use DroidExplorer.

AndroidCommander is your friend

yzzor said:
Hi, you can use DroidExplorer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you so much. Exactly what I was looking for.

d-iivil said:
AndroidCommander is your friend
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is even better, thanks

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Final Beta and GN's MTP

I hate hate hate this MTP crap. Why do we need it? I know I read the same BS Google and samsung fed us but I want my mass storage support back. Give me the choice please and let me decide.
Anyways, I'm here to report that we finally have Ubuntu support. Ridiculous that a Linux based OS did not work with most popular distro. Now it does. It does not show the whole 32 GB and it's slow as molasses but we have MTP support right out of the box. Just male sure once installed, you update with the update manager.

I totally agree with you. However, mass storage mode is coming soon to CM9

Pat123 said:
I totally agree with you. However, mass storage mode is coming soon to CM9
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
is that real? I love mass storage mod much more than MTP!!!

Pat123 said:
I totally agree with you. However, mass storage mode is coming soon to CM9
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is this confirmed? I'm running CM9 nighlty with no sign of it.

will it works on ubuntu 11 or only 12 ?

loveubuntu said:
I hate hate hate this MTP crap. Why do we need it? I know I read the same BS Google and samsung fed us but I want my mass storage support back. Give me the choice please and let me decide.
Anyways, I'm here to report that we finally have Ubuntu support. Ridiculous that a Linux based OS did not work with most popular distro. Now it does. It does not show the whole 32 GB and it's slow as molasses but we have MTP support right out of the box. Just male sure once installed, you update with the update manager.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, it works fine with Linux. Us devs use it with Linux all the time and primarily.
Blame GNU/Linux for being slow to support MTP. This isn't the only device that uses it, you know.

Pat123 said:
I totally agree with you. However, mass storage mode is coming soon to CM9
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't get your hopes up. It's merged yes, but it doesn't change the fact that your primary volume doesn't support UMS and this change is only for devices that do. As far as I know there is still no way around the issue that we can't simply unmount /sdcard on our phones with /sdcard fused to /data/media. I guess we wont see this feature.

mtp is the only thing i would change my gnex (only for sgs2/3 of course!)

I used to be a huge MTP hater, but I think support for it will keep improving.

Pat123 said:
I totally agree with you. However, mass storage mode is coming soon to CM9
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Would you not have to make a new partition on a GN to get it to work???

loveubuntu said:
I hate hate hate this MTP crap. Why do we need it? I know I read the same BS Google and samsung fed us but I want my mass storage support back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Because partitions suck.

adrynalyne said:
Actually, it works fine with Linux. Us devs use it with Linux all the time and primarily.
Blame GNU/Linux for being slow to support MTP. This isn't the only device that uses it, you know.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ya but it's slooooooow. I use it two but as much as I hate I'd boot to xp and use it for large files or use wifi explorer.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

Bad implementations of MTP are slow... Windows XP work like magic, fast and reliable...
And really, I miss mass storage device capabilities, for sure, but, I really love having all my device internal memory available to do whatever I want, no need to care if that piece of software goes to sd, internal memory, if my internal memory is low and I still have 256TB in my "sd" partition, or, I have 1GB free in my "internal memory" and my "sd" partition is full and I would love to put some more MP3s...
My personal take on this, please complain to get better MTP support, not to have all headaches associated with partitions back... I would rather transfer files a lot slower through WiFi than having to deal with those memory management issues again.

loveubuntu said:
Ya but it's slooooooow. I use it two but as much as I hate I'd boot to xp and use it for large files or use wifi explorer.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, blame whoever for the lack of good MTP support. It is not Android's fault

HinotoriBR said:
Bad implementations of MTP are slow... Windows XP work like magic, fast and reliable...
And really, I miss mass storage device capabilities, for sure, but, I really love having all my device internal memory available to do whatever I want, no need to care if that piece of software goes to sd, internal memory, if my internal memory is low and I still have 256TB in my "sd" partition, or, I have 1GB free in my "internal memory" and my "sd" partition is full and I would love to put some more MP3s...
My personal take on this, please complain to get better MTP support, not to have all headaches associated with partitions back... I would rather transfer files a lot slower through WiFi than having to deal with those memory management issues again.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
agreed agreed agreed. I guess MTP isn't as much as a problem as support for it in Linux. I'm sure the community will come up with something better soon. It really is a shame that I have to boot into my "lil" XP partition to move files when my powerful Linux can't do it.

loveubuntu said:
agreed agreed agreed. I guess MTP isn't as much as a problem as support for it in Linux. I'm sure the community will come up with something better soon. It really is a shame that I have to boot into my "lil" XP partition to move files when my powerful Linux can't do it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try ptp instead.

I usually just use.
Code:
adb pull <remote> <local>
adb push <local> <remote>
MTP also works fine on Arch Linux.
I missed mass storage mode at first too, but for my day to day use it hasn't really been a problem.
I hope you are able to find a solution that works for you. Good luck.

adrynalyne said:
Try ptp instead.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ptp shows part of the storage. I really don't have a big problem. Just that I'd like to have mass storage choice.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

I ended up using QtADB

adrynalyne said:
Well, blame whoever for the lack of good MTP support. It is not Android's fault
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
it kinda is. Google shouldn't have used a microsoft protocol. For us mac/linux users, it could (and did ) only lead to trouble. If there was no other protocol in place, they could have written their own and published drivers/... that work reliabely on all platforms, not just windows.
---------- Post added at 11:56 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:54 AM ----------
BTW, have you guys tried mtpfs? (http://www.adebenham.com/mtpfs/)
It's a fuse mtp filesystem based on libmtp. I coulnd't get it work reliably on mac but apparently it works fine on linux.

[AOKP][POLL] Should we keep USB Mass Storage ?

NOTE: The final decision rests with KXP team. This poll is not the deciding factor.
AOKP Jellybean on all Xperia phones, in it's latest release has USB Mass Storage disabled.
This has been in following with FXP's CyanogenMod project, and in fact it was my commit itself
http://review.cyanogenmod.org/#/c/26914/
As I have discussed with FXP(jerpelea) and Kali-, and as has been numerous times discussed on various places over the internet, Android has since ICS 4.0, started phasing out USB Mass Storage in favour of MTP (media transfer protocol)
let me give a quick rundownUSB Mass Storage
Storage is to be unmounted from phone to see from PC
Is easily available on Windows/Linux/Mac/<yourfavouriteOS>
Possibly faster transfer speeds
Can cause SDcard(or internal emmc card) faults and corruption and bad blocks
MTP mode
Storage is accessible from phone as well as PC together (play songs on phone even when connected to PC)
Easy on Windows/Mac. Linux users might have difficulty connecting as Linux has not native MTP support.
Possible slightly slow transfer speed
Almost no chance of SD faults or corruption even if abruptly connection is ended.
Basically UMS is like connecting your phone like a USB Flash Drive.
MTP is like connecting your phone like a portable MP3 player or Camera.
Both protocols give read/write access
So I need a vote on the issue. Should KangXperiaProject ROMs have Mass Storage Option in the device ??
Also let me mention, Mass storage option does not mean MTP is disabled. MTP mode will always be available. UMS is an additional option.
working on it ^^

Well,I prefer to use MTP mode myself!
Sent from my MT11i using Tapatalk 2

Ghostfreak NB said:
Well,I prefer to use MTP mode myself!
Sent from my MT11i using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
there is a poll on the top of the page
USE THAT !!
forum posts are there to discuss the 'how, what and why' of your decision.
if you want to reason out your choice or have queries, post it. if just yes or no, then just press the voting button

championswimmer said:
there is a poll on the top of the page
USE THAT !!
forum posts are there to discuss the 'how, what and why' of your decision.
if you want to reason out your choice or have queries, post it. if just yes or no, then just press the voting button
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You did a really good job setting up the poll so that it would give an unbiased result, but I think that it is only fair to let us know how difficult it is going to be to keep supporting USB Mass Storage....I worry that its not 100% straightforward because if it were super easy, would you need a poll?...and maybe there are other features that would be more important "time wasters".

justmpm said:
You did a really good job setting up the poll so that it would give an unbiased result, but I think that it is only fair to let us know how difficult it is going to be to keep supporting USB Mass Storage....I worry that its not 100% straightforward because if it were super easy, would you need a poll?...and maybe there are other features that would be more important "time wasters".
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
basically the thing is Google doesn't like UMS, as a result CM and Sony too follow suit. But there is something we must look at. On 2011 devices the sdcard is not internal and some people might really want UMS
but then again UMS causes Sdcard faults, and you have to unmount card. Aaaaand i am lookin for a way to keep both options that the user is given choice from when connecting the phone. and i have not been able to succesfully reproduce that yet. if that works out, it'll be the best for us and the users
Yes there are others factors taking up my time, including my exams that are going to end day after tomorrow and also a 4.2 bringup is on the cards, but not before releasing a couple of more AOKP M1- Rx builds.
4.1 is far from complete as you all know.
Also happy to tell you that Sony likes my work on AOKP and to help me further, helped me with a shiny new Xperia V, but of course that doesn't solve the problem of not having a 2011 Xperia for now.
This vote is an indicator of general public opinion. It is not the final deciding factor though. For 2012 models, which have internal sdcard, it is almost certain that there would only be MTP

At work I can only use UMS because I'm not an admin and I can't install phone drivers to access MTP mode, so please keep UMS...

Congratulations!!!!!!
Sent from my MT11i using Tapatalk 2

I voted UMS if you can keep both and let the user decide which is best for him.
On top of what you said, UMS is good for few other things:
- MTP can be very buggy, phone side or pc side.
- I saw MTP hiding files, especially if you play with adb to put file on storage.
- If you can export full disk and not only internal storage partition, you can repartition from PC
- Regular PC disk tools compatibility, like disk usage, ... Not so many like mtp.
And few pro also regarding MTP only:
- You can use ext4 to get rid of file size limit and still be able to read files from windows.
- You can use a shared partition for data/storage.

Please keep both.
Anything that says "will be difficult for Linux" doesn't sound like a good option to me...
The little droid shouldn't forget its roots.

letama said:
I voted UMS if you can keep both and let the user decide which is best for him.
On top of what you said, UMS is good for few other things:
- MTP can be very buggy, phone side or pc side.
- I saw MTP hiding files, especially if you play with adb to put file on storage.
- If you can export full disk and not only internal storage partition, you can repartition from PC
- Regular PC disk tools compatibility, like disk usage, ... Not so many like mtp.
And few pro also regarding MTP only:
- You can use ext4 to get rid of file size limit and still be able to read files from windows.
- You can use a shared partition for data/storage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
If we can have UMS as an option like the app SD mounter then it will be a great add on for us. Even though MTP is slow but it is reliable but sometimes when we need some fast data transfer then the UMS comes into play.
So I think we should have both the options.

ap030993 said:
+1
If we can have UMS as an option like the app SD mounter then it will be a great add on for us. Even though MTP is slow but it is reliable but sometimes when we need some fast data transfer then the UMS comes into play.
So I think we should have both the options.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok i think i have found a method
MTP shall be default, but I shall write a "KXP app" or something like that which can enable UMS.
you CANNOT have UMS and MTP on the same boot. you'll have to reboot in between to change in between the modes. but anyways I don't think anyone really needs UMS and MTP simultaneously
basically even right now anyone can try this
if you are on latest AOKP, UMS is disabled and MTP is used
just go to android terminal and type the following code
Code:
su
setprop persist.sys.usb.config=mass_storage
reboot
reboot and connect to PC
was already working on a "KXP app" to hande OTA and changelogs

c1ph4 said:
Please keep both.
Anything that says "will be difficult for Linux" doesn't sound like a good option to me...
The little droid shouldn't forget its roots.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not so bad. You just have to do some configurations to your GNU/Linux box. This is a good guide:
Connect your Android Ice Cream Sandwich Phone to Ubuntu for File Access
If you don't use Ubuntu there should be other distro guides, just look at your distro's wiki/manual. There's also scripts and other applications that's aid you, like KDE's MTP KIO slave for KDE applications to read/write to MTP devices. I'm sure there's something for GNOME's Nautilus also.

That app posted here on the 2012 Xperia Devices, SD Card Mounter or something along that mounts the device in mass storage, but, I have no idea how, I can still acess my files from my phone with it. I'm not sure what happens there ,but...

Yes
And why would UMS be removed?Let it be native as possible
Sent from my LT28h using xda premium

MTP is good. But till the time Linux starts supporting MTP, we should continue with UMS.

Ums because it is faster, anyway who would like to play music from phone when it is connected to pc and u can play songs from the phone on your pc speakers? My friend has a samsung galaxy s II and hes having big problems with mtp, he can see files but he cant copy any to his phone...
Sent from my U20i using xda app-developers app

olokos said:
Ums because it is faster, anyway who would like to play music from phone when it is connected to pc and u can play songs from the phone on your pc speakers? My friend has a samsung galaxy s II and hes having big problems with mtp, he can see files but he cant copy any to his phone...
Sent from my U20i using xda app-developers app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I like to listen to music from my phone, because: A) Acid mod rules, B) My PC speakers are too bad to be classified as "crap". They are worse than that, C) Privacy: My headphones don't connect to the speakers properly.
Sent from my LT26i using Tapatalk

bad blocks and corruption is due to the flash memorys volatility. it could die even without ums, and ums only causes coruption and the like when peple yank out usb cords like monkeys. even then modern OSs compensate

ok then this is how it will go
MTP shall be default enabled. If you want you can go into a "KXP app" and there will be a option to enable UMS, and then you reboot your device, and then enjoy UMS forever (even after subsequent reboots it wont be back to MTP).
Will start work on APP tomorrow. Might take a "slight" bit of time as I am learning java these days and I cannot churn out java code at Chuck Norris speed

Android IS Linux. Dropping USB, when you're using a linux based PC will be tying a truck and a trailer with a thread.
Sent from my Xperia Ray using xda premium

Add Moto X's storage with Meenov MicroSD Reader

Tiny reader to add android phone's storage
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19736_7-57607574-251/meenova-adds-a-microsd-reader-to-android-devices/

Have you purchased one of these?
jeffpan said:
Tiny reader to add android phone's storage
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This looks like a great idea, but I'm wondering how they hold up. (I always worry about losing the caps to my keychain thumbdrives. :silly:

It Works, But
I got one. A nice little piece of kit. But so far it isn't a seemless experience.
The default Apps don't seem to recognize it. Neither Gallery nor QuickPic will find any of the photos on it until I navigate to it using ES File Explorer. Gallery will only show the photo I open from File Explorer. QuickPic will allow me to browse the directory of a photo I select, but not move up the directory tree.
As for music files, Play Music will do so for the file selected from ES File, but won't allow me to search the memory card.

CedarSprings said:
I got one. A nice little piece of kit. But so far it isn't a seemless experience.
The default Apps don't seem to recognize it. Neither Gallery nor QuickPic will find any of the photos on it until I navigate to it using ES File Explorer. Gallery will only show the photo I open from File Explorer. QuickPic will allow me to browse the directory of a photo I select, but not move up the directory tree.
As for music files, Play Music will do so for the file selected from ES File, but won't allow me to search the memory card.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cedarsprings thanks for letting us know.. Kinda interested now!
Do u have root on ur Moto X? If so, can you pls give chainfire's stickmount from the play store a shot?
I think it may solve your problem by auto mounting the OTG device on boot.
If it works, I'm definitely getting one for my X too!
Sent from my XT1058

dr3wster said:
Cedarsprings thanks for letting us know.. Kinda interested now!
Do u have root on ur Moto X? If so, can you pls give chainfire's stickmount from the play store a shot?
I think it may solve your problem by auto mounting the OTG device on boot.
If it works, I'm definitely getting one for my X too!
Sent from my XT1058
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice! As soon as I read Cedarsprings review I was kinda bummed cause I just ordered one of these today. But if stickmount works, this little drive will be my new favorite toy

When I had my nexus 7 and used some random OTG, it worked like a charm on it .. So here's hoping! The meenova looks so much more schmick than the clunky OTG I used to have!!
Sent from my XT1058

Not Rooted Yet
While I got the Developer Edition, I haven't rooted it yet as I'm still deciding whether or not to put either my company e-mail (with their MaaS360 Mobile Device Management) or my client's e-mail (and its Citrix Recevier security - speaking of, what poor reviews!). Either Maas360 will detect Root, or it is just company "policy" to not allow rooted devices, and I'm still trying to find out which is is before I move on things.
I'd thought changing the USB Computer Connection setting in teh Storage settings from Media Device (MTP) to Camera (PTP) might help, but no joy. In fact, I was a bit surprised that there wasn't anything about the attached device there.
And while I'd also like to get Titanium Backup in place, there aren't any ROMs with real appealing capabilities that are pushing me to unlock and root. Now, when there's a Menu patch like Jason Robitaille's Advanced Launcer Options in WebOS, I'll be rooted & ROMing in a heartbeat.
/
CedarSprings
dr3wster said:
Cedarsprings thanks for letting us know.. Kinda interested now!
Do u have root on ur Moto X? If so, can you pls give chainfire's stickmount from the play store a shot?
I think it may solve your problem by auto mounting the OTG device on boot.
If it works, I'm definitely getting one for my X too!
Sent from my XT1058
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

CedarSprings said:
While I got the Developer Edition, I haven't rooted it yet as I'm still deciding whether or not to put either my company e-mail (with their MaaS360 Mobile Device Management) or my client's e-mail (and its Citrix Recevier security - speaking of, what poor reviews!). Either Maas360 will detect Root, or it is just company "policy" to not allow rooted devices, and I'm still trying to find out which is is before I move on things.
I'd thought changing the USB Computer Connection setting in teh Storage settings from Media Device (MTP) to Camera (PTP) might help, but no joy. In fact, I was a bit surprised that there wasn't anything about the attached device there.
And while I'd also like to get Titanium Backup in place, there aren't any ROMs with real appealing capabilities that are pushing me to unlock and root. Now, when there's a Menu patch like Jason Robitaille's Advanced Launcer Options in WebOS, I'll be rooted & ROMing in a heartbeat.
/
CedarSprings
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Totally understandable .. I think in theory it should work, but just wasn't sure about motox compatibility with the stickmount and otg setup... Apparently Motorola phones dont seem to work with Carbon/Helium backup so I was wondering if something in the system might interrupt the setup.
hells yeah... Another webOS fan!! So rare to find one these days.. I'm only on Android becuz things went south ... At least matias is design the UI for android now.. And with HP's alleged intention to sell webOS patents, we just might find that Android becomes more webOS-y in the future!
The patch system was awesome! I think Rod Whitby setup Nexus Internals a while back when HP started giving up on webOS... Not sure if they are working on any solutions similar to preware? Closed framework is very similar in concept tho... Have u installed it?
Sent from my XT1058
---------- Post added at 09:39 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:39 AM ----------
Whoops my bad.. Forgot xposed framework needs root lol.. Sorry about that!
Sent from my XT1058

Response from Meenov
I sent a note to the Meenov support site yesterday, giving them a heads-up about the Moto X issue and this thread, and got this quick response:
"Thanks for the feedback. Unfortunately that's because Moto X removed certain support for external USB storage, while Moto's other models (Droid series) have better support for external USB storage."
So hopefully the smarter among us will figure out what the problem is and it in a future ROM.
/
CedarSprings

Just got mine in, works with ES like a champ, which is all I care about. Great little accessory.

_MetalHead_ said:
Just got mine in, works with ES like a champ, which is all I care about. Great little accessory.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do you write file into SD card on your phone? Need rooted or not?

jeffpan said:
How do you write file into SD card on your phone? Need rooted or not?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No root needed. I just use es file explorer. It comes up as a folder in /storage.
Sent from my XT1058 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

Any news with Root Explorer working with the Meenov without any hassles?

lensgrabber said:
Any news with Root Explorer working with the Meenov without any hassles?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Works fine for me.
Sent from my XT1058 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app

_MetalHead_ said:
Works fine for me.
Sent from my XT1058 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Okay great. I just ordered one.

_MetalHead_ said:
No root needed. I just use es file explorer. It comes up as a folder in /storage.
Sent from my XT1058 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is it stock rom? what format of SD card do you use? FAT32, exFAT etc. And does it automatically mounted?

jeffpan said:
Is it stock rom? what format of SD card do you use? FAT32, exFAT etc. And does it automatically mounted?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Stock ROM, FAT32, and sort of. It doesn't need to mount like a typical SD card. Plug it in and it will automatically show up in /storage. Unplug it when done, no need or way to unmount.

_MetalHead_ said:
Stock ROM, FAT32, and sort of. It doesn't need to mount like a typical SD card. Plug it in and it will automatically show up in /storage. Unplug it when done, no need or way to unmount.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Really cool.:good:

Just ordered one. Should be here in a few days. Thx OP
Sent from my XT1056 using Tapatalk 2

Ok, so I've had mine for about a week now and it works great with my 32GB UHS-1 class card.
To get your media to read in other apps, such as music in Google Play Music, download the app by Chainfire called Stickmount. Mount the Meenov. Second, if you wanna go the free route, download the app called Rescan Media Root and run it. (obviously, you need to have root access) Give it about 10-20 seconds (your Meenov will start to blink) and your music should start appearing in Google Play Music. Just remember to Unmount when you want to remove the Meenov reader. And to remove all your music stored on the card that still appears in Google Play Music, run Rescan Media Root again.
Or, you can just drop $2.49 on the pro version of Stickmount and it will automatically trigger a rescan on mount and unmount.