Develop Bugs

[Q] Can't copy files to system dir using file managers

I am at a loss. I have found a thousand people on the interwebs that seem to have this problem but I have been unable to find a single solution.
I have searched these forums and every other android forum I can find. Hopefully I'm not posting this in the completely wrong forum but at this point I'm so fed up I'm seeing spots.
I want to use File Expert. I like it, it's pretty, it SEEMS like it might be useful to a person who wants to copy/move files.
But, it just says "operation failed" when I try and copy files into a system directory. (I have some ringtones, alarms, etc that I want to be available even if I'm in usb storage mode so I like to move them into the system directory).
I can move the files from a terminal emulator (pain in the you know) but Root Explorer (ugly) is the only file manager I can find that actually works to move them.
Am I stuck with Root Explorer or is there something I can do to get other file managers to actually work?
Yes I have enabled the root exploring function in File Expert and every option that i believe is applicable. I also like Anttek (quite visually appealing to me) but it doesn't work either.

Try es file explorer you have to have root permissions to move system dir apps and so forth in the settings of es file go down and check root explorer and mount the system as writeable and all your issues will be solved
Sent from my SPH-D700 using xda premium

Thanks for the quick reply and I will be happy to try ES File Explorer, but why would that work if File Expert (which also claims to be able to mount r/w) doesn't?
Is there really only just ES and Root Explorer that properly get root privileges?

Not sure? I guess so :/
Sent from my SPH-D700 using xda premium

Oh well ES works and it looks pretty good so i suppose I'll use that. Thanks.

Maybe the other file managers did not obtain superuser permission properly, or don't like the new version of busybox, or just don't like Epics...but Biggie steered you the right way.

^^^^^^^^^ edit: you beat me^^^^^^^^
I know in es file explorer you have to go into the apps settings to give the app root permissions so it can get to /system and all that jazz. Maybe file expert has the same deal in the apps settings.

file explorer capabilities renounced. renamed to root browser.

I am wondering if anyone else has noticed what I have come across. I use esf file explorer. In the past with custom ROMs you could easily direct into system/apps and delete or add which app you choose. But now it does not seem possible. You try to delete and at first it will confirm but the app will remain. On second attempt you will be prompt that this command has failed. Installing a new system app after giving permissions will give the same result.
I'm wondering if the developers have add some security so to stop us users altering there ROMs to suite yourself.
To me this is not open source any more and being given root access will need renamed to root browser. This isn't cool and is an obvious step in the direction of closed source.
I am currently trying renovate final 1.1. And Cyanogenmod on my nexus 7. Hopefully its jusr esf file explorers capabilities have renounced. But i suspect not. Are others having the same problem with custom ROMs.

Did you enable root acces in the settings of es file Explorer and also enabled the system partition as read and write ?

Mr Hofs said:
Did you enable root acces in the settings of es file Explorer and also enabled the system partition as read and write ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
To gain access to system/apps you must enable root. Not sure what you mean by sytem partition as read and write. If its mount file system as read and write. Yes.

When you open es file Explorer and go to settings you enabled the root acces feature. But you you also need to enable the system partition to read and write
The picture is in Dutch .....But you need to enable the top 3 functions

Mr Hofs said:
When you open es file Explorer and go to settings you enabled the root acces feature. But you you also need to enable the system partition to read and write
The picture is in Dutch .....But you need to enable the top 3 functions
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Like this...

Yep, and I never had any issues with placing and replacing apps and files .....

Mr Hofs said:
Yep, and I never had any issues with placing and replacing apps and files .....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you a moderator. I am not surprised you are not having any troubles. But I did put the question out there to those that might.

sorry for trying to help.....

I'm using es file explorer with viperx ROM and I have no problems uninstalling or installing system apps. Have you tried uninstalling es file explorer and then reinstalling it or at least clearing its cache?
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

bogfather said:
I'm using es file explorer with viperx ROM and I have no problems uninstalling or installing system apps. Have you tried uninstalling es file explorer and then reinstalling it or at least clearing its cache?
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thx I'll try viperx. See if that's still open. I can tell you CyanogenMod and Renovate are not. At least not on my devices.

[Q] Help with root problems...

Ok, back again.
So, my situation is now this: The root worked, by appearance but somehow, it only seems to be a "partial root", for lack of a better description.
I have SU and Rootcheck Basic installed and it says that I have root, but I can't get the play store to work no matter what, and can't change permissions on the /system/apps folder or write to there when trying to copy the Google Play apk there (attempting to see if I can run or install it there).
And, IDK if this is relevant, KFFirstAide doesn't seem to be able to "find" certain folders and keeps showing errors such as: "The system cannot find the path specified. mkdir failed for /data/local/tmp, File exists" and "The system cannot find the path specified. rm failed for /data/local.prop, No such file or directory" for many operations during it's process, but overall, the operations don't fail.
For instance, the OTA updates seem to have been blocked, the ad services have been blocked and I was able to install Gmail.
Ultimately, any way to get the Google Play store installed?

Ok, I solved my own problem but for anyone that might have a similar problem, it was definitely the fact that the /system and /system/app folder for some reason, wasn't mounted as r/w after the root.
Solution: I downloaded the apk, https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.beansoft.mount_system&hl=en , which is a "mount system as rw" app (lol - go figure!), and voila!! SUCCESS!
I was then able to install the Google Play Store! So, as I suspected the fact that it was r/o, even after using KFFirstAide to root was what was preventing me from installing the Play Store.
And here's another site that really helps, if you can't download any apks or are trying to sideload something using an alternate method using your PC: http://apps.evozi.com/apk-downloader/
tags: locked system folder, /system/apps, locked, read only after root, rw/ro, mount system, half root, incomplete root

louvega said:
Ok, I solved my own problem but for anyone that might have a similar problem, it was definitely the fact that the /system and /system/app folder for some reason, wasn't mounted as r/w after the root.
Solution: I downloaded the apk, https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.beansoft.mount_system&hl=en , which is a "mount system as rw" app (lol - go figure!), and voila!! SUCCESS!
I was then able to install the Google Play Store! So, as I suspected the fact that it was r/o, even after using KFFirstAide to root was what was preventing me from installing the Play Store.
And here's another site that really helps, if you can't download any apks or are trying to sideload something using an alternate method using your PC: http://apps.evozi.com/apk-downloader/
tags: locked system folder, /system/apps, locked, read only after root, rw/ro, mount system, half root, incomplete root
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Neither user or system is r/w after root. You can do this in about five seconds with ES File Explorer. Just to save you some headache next time.
Sent from my Nexus 7 Flo running Paranoid Android 4.4.4 using XDA premium 4 mobile app

LinearEquation said:
Neither user or system is r/w after root. You can do this in about five seconds with ES File Explorer. Just to save you some headache next time.
Sent from my Nexus 7 Flo running Paranoid Android 4.4.4 using XDA premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, thanks but... sorry to contradict you - didn't work for me. Had ES File Explorer installed and tried multiple times to reset it the system folder using the permissions (rwx, etc.) I'm convinced there's something new with the update but whatever.

louvega said:
Yeah, thanks but... sorry to contradict you - didn't work for me. Had ES File Explorer installed and tried multiple times to reset it the system folder using the permissions (rwx, etc.) I'm convinced there's something new with the update but whatever.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just user error if it didn't work for you. Next time click on the words "Root Explorer" and select "Mount R/W and then select path, system or both.
Sent from my Nexus 7 Flo running Paranoid Android 4.4.4 using XDA premium 4 mobile app

LinearEquation said:
Just user error if it didn't work for you. Next time click on the words "Root Explorer" and select "Mount R/W and then select path, system or both.
Sent from my Nexus 7 Flo running Paranoid Android 4.4.4 using XDA premium 4 mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I might have missed it so, I take it back. Thanks!

Can't move some files, can't create some folders

I don't know how else to describe this issue I'm having:
Essentially sometimes I cannot create new folders, either in an explorer app (ES File Manager, Explorer (free, not Root Explorer), or other file manager) or when connected to my computers via USB. Sometimes I can do both. Similarly, sometimes I cannot move files from one directory to another, both using file manager or when connected to computer over USB. It seems random, I think?
An example of this is I downloaded a PDF file from SharePoint using Chrome. The file is downloaded to the /Downloads directory by default. I wanted to move this to a different directory (/Documents), but the cut+paste operation failed. ES File Manager says the operation can't be completed, Explorer just sits there and doesn't say anything. When trying to do the same thing over USB connection, Windows just sits there saying the device is busy, and it'll sit there indefinitely. But an OGG file I downloaded from Dropbox was free to be moved to and from several directories when I was testing file operations.
Basically it's like my device doesn't want to play nice with files and folders. I tried doing a factory reset, but that didn't seem to help. Do you think completely reformatting the phone (as in fastboot format userdata, and a fresh ROM + kernel install) would help? It seems drastic, but at the same time being unable to move files and folders is very strange and likely hard to pinpoint the culprit.
I'm rooted (using traditional SuperSU root) running Pure Nexus 12/01/2015 ROM and ElementalX 0.07 kernel (Enforcing disabled). I doubt any of those 3 factors are the cause of it, but every detail might help, right?
Update: It looks like a permissions issue. Please see post below.

OK an update to this, I discovered that some folders that I thought I had deleted using ES File Manager are still showing up in USB storage when I'm hooked up to a computer. That is to say that what I see using a file manager versus what I see while connected to a computer are different.
Further to this, I am now getting "Permission denied" by the file managers when I try to copy and paste anything from anywhere to any other place. I have booted into TWRP to run Fix Permissions already. It looks like everything now has rwxrwx---, which means to me 770? It should be 775, no?
Any ideas what might be causing this permissions issue?

daver68 said:
OK an update to this, I discovered that some folders that I thought I had deleted using ES File Manager are still showing up in USB storage when I'm hooked up to a computer. That is to say that what I see using a file manager versus what I see while connected to a computer are different.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For this, I read somewhere that the latest ES File app has a recycling bin for when you delete apps. So, that needs to be emptied too.
Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk

SlimSnoopOS said:
For this, I read somewhere that the latest ES File app has a recycling bin for when you delete apps. So, that needs to be emptied too.
Sent from my Nexus 5X using Tapatalk
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Click to collapse
I did indeed clean out the Recycle Bin (and subsequently disabled it), but the problem persists. But thanks for pointing that out!

OK, an interesting discovery:
If I am on my device and using ES File Explorer and if I am in the path /storage/emulated/0/* then I am unable to copy/move files and directories, as I've described above.
If I am on my device and using ES File Explorer and if I am in the path /sdcard/* then I am unable to copy/move files and directories, as I've described above.
If I am on my device and using ES File Explorer and if I am in the path /data/media/0/* then I am able to do anything I damn well please.
Now this makes a bit of sense to me, given the permissions for each directory. For example, when viewing the permissions of a file or folder when in /sdcard or /storage/emulated/0, I can only see the permissions as "Readable: Yes, Writeable: Yes", but I cannot change said permissions. However, when I view the permissions for something when under /data/media/0 then not only can I see the explicit permissions "rw-rw-r--" I can also change it if I wanted to.
I suspect this might be more than just the ROM. Perhaps I did not flash the system.img correctly when I first went through the process? Is this possible?

Es file explorer issue ,

On my op3 , I get an error when I try to use it for root explorer
Any help will be appreciated.
Thanks .
I tried reinstall the app as well as super su.
No luck

is your phone rooted?

Same here. Use an older version of ES File Explorer. It works

Did the spyware scandal not put you off using es ?

What scandal?
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA-Developers mobile app

Es products where sending info to a server in China, TBH the addition of crap I didn't want had put me off before then.
https://forums.oneplus.net/threads/security-es-file-explorer-privacy-concerns.305336/

ghostofcain: Thanks for the link! Which file explorer would you recommend then? I've used ES for years and just came back to Android and read this.

PhoenixAG said:
ghostofcain: Thanks for the link! Which file explorer would you recommend then? I've used ES for years and just came back to Android and read this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm currently using Fx Explorer

Cool thanks! I just remembered, I used to use Total Commander as well. Giving that and Fx Explorer a try!

just like ghostofcain, I use fx (with plus package). Perfect for me (even if there could be more clouds available tho).

Solid Explorer is awesome, too!
Sent from my LG-D855 using XDA-Developers mobile app

the same exact issue i encounter with my nexus 6.. not allowing me to select the root option.. workaround is to use solid explorer

Here u go this works, u may have to re flash su if it does not work after reboot
Download terminal and then enter the following
Attention!!!!! May break Android pay
su
mount -o remount,rw /system
touch /sbin/su
touch /system/bin/su
touch /system/xbin/su
mount -o remount,ro /system
exit
reboot

Doesn't work on my device.
The rw remount command is accepted without error message; but when I input "touch /sbin/su", an error comes up which says that the file system is read-only.

hasenbein1966 said:
Doesn't work on my device.
The rw remount command is accepted without error message; but when I input "touch /sbin/su", an error comes up which says that the file system is read-only.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
same to me

Simply use another root explorer app for access to system files.