It's finished! On a tablet, namely on Asus MeMO Pad 7, which I replaced my honest hard worker, has received an update to Android 5.0.1. Now I have a device with Lollipop, or, as they say on the Internet, with Lollipop.

The update arrived somewhat unexpectedly. To be honest, I waited in April new firmware to the phone (Asus ZenFone 5) - her, by at least, promised. No one said anything about the tablet, and here it’s up to you, get it and sign for it.

This, in fact, discouraged me (in a good way, of course), also because I purchased the tablet in December, and it had version 4.3. That is, this is the second significant update operating system(in fact, there were more updates, but the Android version number did not change). The previous manufacturer of my devices - Samsung - could not boast of such a rate of fire, although they also updated the operating system twice: from Android 3.2 to Android 4.1.2 (via 4.0.1). But we had to wait much longer for these new versions.

Well, long live surprises! Receiving notice of exit new version firmware, I immediately downloaded it, which is more than 700 meters, and launched the update. Since I didn’t download through home network, and through a mobile phone, it took a little more time to do everything: from the start of the download to the completion of the update, about an hour passed. The update itself lasted about twenty minutes, but potentially could take longer - because after installing the operating system, the process of updating the installed programs follows. My counter counted up to 205. But now, the process is over and it’s time to see what has changed.

The first thing that caught my eye was the more sophisticated graphics when unlocking the device. The second is the hand in the notification area. I endured it for a couple of days, hoping that by chance I would see something related to it somewhere. I didn't see it. Then I began to search purposefully and found an explanation for it on 4pda. It turns out that notifications are divided into important and not so important, and it is possible to specify which notifications you want to receive. If you set the option Always notify , then the hand disappears if the option Only important alerts , then the hand appears. To be honest, I removed my hand several times, but for some reason it always comes back. Why? I don't know yet.

Here, in fact, is the procedure for “removing” this hand:

The method given above is not complicated at all. But you can achieve the result even faster and easier: press one of the two volume control buttons - a window will appear on the screen that allows you to change the volume levels for various system components, and also, attention, control Alert modes . True, for some reason, these same Alert Modes are not always displayed in such a fast manner. I haven’t found a pattern yet, but, to be honest, I didn’t really look for it.

A few words about installed programs. Although before starting the update process I received a warning that some programs would be deleted because they were not included in the new firmware, nevertheless, most of the programs remained.

The only thing I'm a little sorry for is the program with the atypical name "Two Applications". Although, I must admit, I didn’t even immediately understand what it was about: I thought which two applications would be deleted, was it really impossible to indicate the names.

Yes, the program that appeared in version 4.4.2 and made it possible to share the screen between two simultaneously running applications has sunk into oblivion. In truth, its functionality was rather weak, since it was possible to run quite a few limited circle applications. If memory serves, I only used it once or twice, just to see what it was like. Maybe someone will miss the opportunities provided by this program, but somehow I wasn’t particularly upset. Although, of course, I don’t really like it when they take away from me what they previously gave me.

A couple more comments about the programs. After I moved to a new tablet, I spent some time installing on it the programs that I used on my previous device. Some of them happened, but we are not talking about them now. We are talking about those programs whose behavior has changed something. Of course, I haven’t tried everything yet, but here’s what I’ve discovered so far.

TuniIn Radio Pro, which I bought, by the way, absolutely did not work on KitKat. Everything went smoothly - until the turn came directly to listening to a radio station. That is, the program was launched, I selected a group of radio stations, for example, Local Radio Stations, selected a specific station (for example, RockFM, Radio Jazz, or any station in general), after which the program crashed with an error. Sometimes there was even sound, but the program still crashed. Time passed, TuneIn Radio updates were released, but nothing changed. However, after updating to A, the problems magically disappeared, and now everything works without the slightest complaints.

Another positive change - office suite SoftMaker Office HD, also honestly purchased. The programs included in it worked normally on the Samsung tablet. When I installed these programs on a new tablet, they did not start at all. After some time, an update for this office was released and the situation improved somewhat: programs began to launch, although during operation, in the menu area (top line program window), some strange graphic artifacts accumulated. When switching to the desktop (or another application) and back, the artifacts disappeared, but not for long. After Android updates All programs included in the package work like clockwork.

Well, a small negative point. I use, very actively, a program called DVR. I also paid money for it too. The program worked fine on the new tablet, no complaints, plus, functions that were not available on the previous tablet worked, for example, video stabilization. After updating the OS, the program began to crash steadily when starting recording. At first, I thought that there were some problems with recording to the memory card - I was configured to write to the program directory on an external MicroSD card. But, after I was able to create a subdirectory in the recording directory in the program itself, it became clear that using an external card had nothing to do with it. Then I decided to disable one program function at a time, and the first thing my finger touched was the checkbox with the stabilization checkbox. After turning off the option, the program began to record video, but its quality dropped. No, the resolution and flow rate - everything remained the same, but the picture on the recording floated in waves. There is a setting in the program that tries to smooth out this effect, and, in principle, turning it on helps somewhat, but for some reason, when you re-enter the program, the mark that the option is enabled remains, but the picture floats, as if the option is disabled . If you click on an already enabled option, everything will immediately return to normal. Most likely, this is a bug in the program, I'm going to report it to the developer and, perhaps, the author will fix this glitch. But the fact that video stabilization does not work is a little annoying. First of all, because the standard camera program has a stabilization option in the settings and, when it is turned on, recording is carried out without errors.

From special cases related to programs, I will move on to more general properties of the system. Well, firstly, the amount of free memory has increased. As I already wrote, all my software remained in place. At the same time, I must say that I strain the tablet quite a lot. Not in terms of the fact that I constantly play games, but in terms of the fact that I have a lot of services hanging on, some of which I may not use, but I keep just in case. We are talking, first of all, about all kinds of mailers - Outlook, Yandex Mail, GMail, more precisely, now Inbox. Next, various cloud storage- Yandex Disk, OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, Asus WebStorage. Couple social networks- Odnoklassniki and Google+. All sorts of other messengers - Viber, ICQ, Skype, Hangouts. All these programs, one way or another, eat up the device’s memory, even when you don’t use them. But, in principle, I understand what I’m getting into.

Users of Asus devices know that there is an application in the Android curtain that allows you to clear memory, at least temporarily. In the top five it is called Cleaning, but in KitKat it was called more fancifully - Strengthening. When you open the curtain, the icon of this application shows the amount of free space. this moment memory. So, when Android version 4.4.2 was installed on the tablet, this figure fluctuated in the range of 200-300 MB and the icon, most often, was yellow. Now the amount of free memory varies from 400 to 600 MB and the icon is green almost all the time. This change is probably due to the change virtual machine, used in Lollipop, but perhaps something has changed in the firmware itself, for example, Asus has removed something. In general, we need to figure it out.

Changing the virtual machine should have affected two more parameters - performance and power consumption. What can I say about performance? Nothing, probably. I don’t play with toys, I don’t really like competing with parrots (Antutu, etc.). The tablet itself is quite powerful, so I didn’t notice any slowdowns either on KitKat or now in Lollipop. Everything is smooth and without complaints. When I'm driving, the DVR, Strelka, Maps (either Yandex or Google) work, I also listen to music using Kodi, and, after all this, it still responds to switching to the desktop, launching some other programs, in general, are a beast.

And about energy consumption... Basically, the latest update on KitKat deprived me of the opportunity to complain about the inefficiency of the device. If after the initial installation of KitKat the tablet lost 20-30 percent of its energy reserves per night, then after updating to the 31st firmware version, the losses became quite acceptable - from two to five percent per night. Updating to Lollipop did not worsen anything in this sense, and thank you very much for that. As for consumption under load, here again I can cite operating experience in a car: all the same initial ones - DVR, Strelka, Yandex Navigator, Kodi, screen brightness is about 75-80 percent - a bright, sunny day, plus all wireless interfaces are turned on , so, during the trip - about two hours - the battery was discharged to 57 percent. In my opinion, quite worthy. By the way, under KitKat it was about the same.

Well, the last thing - listed in order, but not in order of importance - is what I would like to note. We will talk about working with external card memory. I, as I was getting out of the situation caused by KitKat's restrictions on recording to an external memory card. Apparently, the wave of negativity was so strong that Google had to listen and change something. Or maybe they just changed something without listening to anyone. But let’s leave this important question aside (did we listen/didn’t listen), and let’s move on to the changes themselves.

Google allowed third party programs write to the memory card. In principle, it didn’t prohibit it before, it’s just that the permissions were set in such a way that, under normal conditions, only the native file manager had access to write to the entire external card. Well, maybe some manufacturers allowed access to their other programs, but I only encountered file manager. Now any program can write, but for this several conditions must be met.

First, the program must use the new features of the Storage Access Framework, namely, use the OPEN_DOCUMENT_TREE intent and several new or updated SDK functions.

Secondly, the user must decide for himself which branch (or branches) of the file system he will give access to this or that application. That is, you can give access to the entire card if, in response to a request for access, you specify its root, or you can give access only to a specific folder and its child elements. In general, you will have to take responsibility on yourself, and, if something happens, you will also only have yourself to blame.

Third is luck. On my tablet everything worked as it should, on my friend’s HTC One M8 - did not work, although online is there a video, how everything works great on this smartphone model. There is an assumption, however, that it didn’t work because the card in his phone was formatted somehow wrong, maybe without indicating the volume name, or maybe in the wrong file system.

In fact, this is both joyful and sad news at the same time. Joyful - because now you don’t have to receive root access to the device and you can not be limited only to the application directory. Sad - because until the developers deign to use the new API and release new versions of their programs, nothing will work. From my experience: the ES Explorer file manager has already acquired support for the new API, and I was able to give it write rights to the entire external SD card, but the Total Commander file manager did not and still cannot write to a MicroSD card - anywhere except your own directory. Like this.

In fact, there are quite a lot of nuances in this whole story with recording to an external memory card. For example, you gave some programs access, but forgot others. Where to look? As I understand it, currently - nowhere. That is, in principle, you can watch it, but not on the tablet itself, but on the computer, if you connect the tablet to it and use adb program. Here's the command you need:

Adb shell dumpsys activity providers

But I haven’t found how to get the same thing on a tablet.

Next question. You gave some application access to write to some folder, and then you changed your mind and want to take it away. Is there such a possibility? Fortunately yes. But with losses. The first, very radical way is to remove the program and reinstall it. The second method is not so radical, but also not ideal - you need to clear application data in the device Settings. Naturally, along with access rights, other program data will be deleted, so a logical question arises about practical applicability this method. It was not possible to discover other methods, perhaps yet. You can use both methods if you first back up the program data, and after putting one of the methods into effect, restore it. But here the question arises about the capabilities of backups - will only data be backed up, or data along with permissions? If with permissions, then after recovery, well, you understand... All this greatly depends on the specific applications used, so you should be very careful. And this is another good reason to think before you see ancient Moscow, without the sanction of the relevant authorities, grant rights to any application to access the file system of an external card.

Further more. What happens if you change the card inserted into the slot of your tablet? The answer is that you will have to separately grant access to each card you insert into the device. In principle, this is probably logical. That is, you gave the file manager access to the root of the card, then took it out and inserted another one. The file manager will not write to the new card; you will have to give access again. But when you return the first card to the tablet, the file manager will write to it without problems.

One more question. So you gave the application access to some folder, not the root one. Time passed and you needed to allow write access to the same program in another folder on the same card. Can this be done? In principle, this is a consequence of the previous case, so the answer is: yes, it is possible. That is, the system for each application will remember the list of directories to which you have given write access.

Now there is a nuance associated with the applications installed on the tablet for each user whose profile was created on the device. Here, too, everything is logical - for each user of the device, their own access rights for applications are stored, that is, everyone is the architect of their own happiness, or, if you like, their own evil Pinocchio.

And of course, a lot depends on the qualifications of the developers. It may happen that you give rights to some program to access the external card for writing, and after rebooting the tablet you find that there is no access. In such a situation, only the program developer is to blame - he did not take care to maintain the permission received. Perhaps you should think about it and look for an alternative to this program, because you never know what such a programmer did not provide for.

Oh yes, this is what the process of issuing recording rights to microSD card for ES Wiring:

We need an external card

Let's try to create something right at the root of the map

We need to display the SD card

Here it is, our external memory card

Well, that's it for now.

P.S. It so happened that quite a lot of time has passed since I wrote this material. I could have published it many times already, but I kept putting it off, and it’s unclear why. More precisely, I know why - I was still deciding how best to present a series of screenshots describing a particular process: as just a sequence of inserted images, or as a slide show. Ultimately, the decision was made to use (at least for now) a sequence of images. How all this happened is a topic for a separate post. For now, everything remains as it is, the only pity is that a lot of time was wasted. The only consolation is that it was not in vain. In addition, a pleasant event occurred. I wrote in this post that access to an external memory card will only be available when program authors start using the new API. As an example of a program in which the new API is not used, I gave Total Commander. So, while I was procrastinating on publishing, Total Commander was updated, and now it can also work with an external memory card in the style Android Lollipop. Below I provide a series of screenshots describing the process of creating a new directory in the root of an external memory card using Total Commander:

Selecting an external memory card

and select the desired item from the menu

That's probably all for now.

Let's talk about how to remove write protection from an SD memory card on Android. Many people face this problem when they try to copy or move files to an SD card. In this article you will find several ways to remove protection. Android entries.

How to remove write protection from Android SD card

If you get an error like the image above when you try to copy files or format your SD card, then know that this is not your problem. Moreover, the memory card is not damaged or infected with a virus, it is simply write-protected. Without further ado, we will look at several methods on how to remove Android write protection.

How to remove Android write protection from SD card using Regedit

Most problems and errors can be easily resolved using the registry. We can also use it to remove Android write protection.

This method works in most cases, but if for some reason you are unable to use it, then try the following methods.

How to remove Android write protection from SD card using Diskpart

1. Insert the SD memory card into your computer and launch Command Prompt. You can do this by pressing the WIN+R key and typing “CMD,” or simply typing “Command Prompt” into the Start menu.
2. In the window command line you must enter the following commands in order.

• diskpart
• list disk
• select disk x (where X is your SD card number)
• attributes disk clear readonly
• clean
• create partition primary
• format fs=fat32

If this method did not help to remove Android write protection, do not despair, we have a couple more solutions to this problem.

Change resolution

1. Insert the SD memory card into the computer. Right-click on the memory card and select Properties. Then in the Security tab you will find your account name.
2. Change the SD card resolution to Read/Write, Read/Execute, or Full Control.

This method will remove Android write protection.

Alternatively, you can look closely at your SD card to find the lock button. If it is, just switch it. The lock button is used to protect data from being deleted or completely formatted on the memory card.

We hope you were able to remove Android write protection. If you have any questions, please write in the comments below.

There is a rather unpleasant surprise in the Android 4.4 KitKat operating system, it is that third party applications cannot access writing and reading on the memory card.

Google has made a very unpleasant feature/bug/surprise - absolutely all devices with Android 4.4 in which you can install a memory card cannot fully work with a memory card, the only exception to the rule is Nexus devices since they do not have a slot for an SD CARD. What does this mean for the average user? For example, the file manager will not be able to create/open a folder or file.

In order to fix reading and writing on a memory card in KitKat, you will need Root rights

Method 1 (simple option)

After your Android smartphone e or tablet will be installed Root, go to the store Google applications Play and download SDFix: KitKat Writable MicroSD(free). After installation, go to the SDFix application and click the “Continue” button

Then wait a couple of seconds until the error is corrected. Close SDFix and restart Android for the changes to take effect! All!

Method 2 (simple, option for those who want to know more)

The method described just above is automated, but you can fix it manually, especially since it’s not difficult at all! To do this, you will need to install a file manager application, for example ES Explorer, after giving it root access to the system partition.

Go to the system partition with the file manager:

/system/etc/permissions And find the file called: platform.xml

Then open it with built-in text editor ES conductor

Find the line:

Add another parameter just below

Reboot your Android smartphone or tablet for the changes to take effect! The problem with accessing the memory card is solved!

With the update to, users received a number of restrictions on the use of SD cards. Until recently, this problem could be solved using custom firmware or rolling back to an earlier version of the OS. Now the former opportunities can be returned to Android 4.4 KitKat. Read on to find out how to do this.

First of all, you will need to root your Android devices. The second important condition is the application SDFix. Download the application at Android for free you can directly from . To do this, use the link below.

Having installed SDFix on your own Android, you will restore your former capabilities in a few taps. The principle of operation of the application is that SDFix adds the Android UNIX group "media_rw" to WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE thus used in Android 4.4 KitKat XML the file changes to platform.xml. This creates backup copy initial setup platform.xml.original-pre-sdfix, which can be used to restore restrictions. To return the system to stock, you need to use an explorer that supports root access and replace platform.xml with platform.xml.original-pre-sdfix.

Separately, it should be noted that applications that use SD will receive a lower level of security. Also important is the fact that SDFix results in permanent changes, which means that once the old permissions are restored, the application can be deleted.

It's no secret that the operating system Android widespread in the mobile world.

Such widespread use of the brainchild of Google also provokes an increase in the number of hacker attacks on this platform. In order to combat this unpleasant situation, the IT giant is trying to introduce new functions aimed at increased safety owners of devices with the Android system, but some of these functions may cause additional inconvenience. How to eliminate one of these inconveniences will be discussed below.

Restricting access to the memory card

On topic Memory on Android. All memory sections of Android devices We have already touched on the issue of mobile operating system memory. Many users of smartphones based on Android versions 4.4 and older are faced with a situation where programs from third-party developers do not have access to the root of the memory card. Moreover, it arises this problem and for those who purchased a new device already with Android KitKat and higher on board, and for those who upgraded to new system after the purchase.

Why can't Android programs access the root of the SD card?
The fact is that open access to the root of the drive is a big security hole in the entire operating system. In an attempt to protect users from intruders, Google has taken such a step as limiting access to the memory card.

In simple terms, in many firmwares on Android based 4.4 and higher, third-party programs can no longer write data to the root of the memory card. The ability to write to directories located on a flash card is preserved. The situation is aggravated by the fact that this limitation affected all applications without exception, including file managers.

This state of affairs does not suit everyone, so below we will look at a way to return access to the root of the memory card to third-party programs.