Question: LG G Pad 8.3 GPE

[Cole Slaw]

Hey All;
I have a question I'm hoping someone can answer for me.
I just ordered a LG G Pad 8.3, Google Play Edition, along with a 64 GB Samsung micro-SD card.
I understand 4.4 KitKat took away the ability to write to the Sd card.
I do not want to use the card for apps, but I do want to use it for media (music, pictures, video).
How do I go about doing this if I can't write to the card?
Do I put the card in an adapter and slide it into my Mac Mini and make folders from there, then also put my media in the folders from there, or?
Can I plug the G Pad into the computer using usb and write to the card that way?
Or is there an app that will allow me to write to card?
Kind of confused how this would work; any help appreciated.

 

[Stooby Mcdoobie]

Hey All;
I have a question I'm hoping someone can answer for me.
I just ordered a LG G Pad 8.3, Google Play Edition, along with a 64 GB Samsung micro-SD card.
I understand 4.4 KitKat took away the ability to write to the Sd card.
I do not want to use the card for apps, but I do want to use it for media (music, pictures, video).
How do I go about doing this if I can't write to the card?
Do I put the card in an adapter and slide it into my Mac Mini and make folders from there, then also put my media in the folders from there, or?
Can I plug the G Pad into the computer using usb and write to the card that way?
Or is there an app that will allow me to write to card?
Kind of confused how this would work; any help appreciated.

Re your first question: either will work, but you need to use Android File Transfer, AirDroid, or something similar to do the second option.

I use an Xposed module called Music2SD, which caches music to the external card (Android uses internal by default) for playback. I don't download media directly from my tablet, so I haven't checked to see what other methods are available; but I'm sure there are some.

Keep in mind anything that allows you to write to the SD card will most likely require root.

 

[Cole Slaw]

Thanks for the reply ^^^
2 questions;
Can I root using a Mac, it seems methods I've seen use Windows.
Also, if I were to root, does that stop me from getting future updates from Google automatically?
Thanks.

 

[Stooby Mcdoobie]

Thanks for the reply ^^^
2 questions;
Can I root using a Mac, it seems methods I've seen use Windows.
Also, if I were to root, does that stop me from getting future updates from Google automatically?
Thanks.

You can root the device on your Mac by unlocking the bootloader via fastboot, flashing a custom recovery, then flashing the SuperSU zip. Follow this guide -- it was written for the Nexus 5 but will work the same on the GPE G Pad.

After you have root, you can use this app to fix the SD card write issue. I used it a couple days ago and have been able to write to my SD card with every app I've tried so far.

If you have a custom recovery (which is needed to obtain root), the OTA update will automatically fail. The OTA URLs are usually captured and posted on XDA within a few days of being rolled out, so flashing them via recovery may be the easiest way forward after rooting. I'm still on 4.4.2 on my G Pad as I didn't feel like going through the trouble to update and then re-root (would be a pain to have to set up Xposed and all my modules again).

 

[Cole Slaw]

You can root the device on your Mac by unlocking the bootloader via fastboot, flashing a custom recovery, then flashing the SuperSU zip. Follow this guide -- it was written for the Nexus 5 but will work the same on the GPE G Pad.

After you have root, you can use this app to fix the SD card write issue. I used it a couple days ago and have been able to write to my SD card with every app I've tried so far.

If you have a custom recovery (which is needed to obtain root), the OTA update will automatically fail. The OTA URLs are usually captured and posted on XDA within a few days of being rolled out, so flashing them via recovery may be the easiest way forward after rooting. I'm still on 4.4.2 on my G Pad as I didn't feel like going through the trouble to update and then re-root (would be a pain to have to set up Xposed and all my modules again).

Great, going to give that a go.
Thanks for the info, Stooby!

 

[kuroe]

For music, if you are willing to use Google Music, the app has an option in the settings where you can save music to your external SD card. This is only in kitkat (4.4), but of course, the Gpad is on 4.4.

 

[LSUtigers03]

I use an Xposed Module called HandleExternalStorage that fixes how Kit Kat handles sd cards.

http://www.xda-developers.com/android/fix-external-storage-handling-with-xposed-module/

 

[gotluck]

I use an Xposed Module called HandleExternalStorage that fixes how Kit Kat handles sd cards.

http://www.xda-developers.com/android/fix-external-storage-handling-with-xposed-module/

is there a benefit to this over just manually adding media_rw to WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE in platform.xml?

Haven't seen this before

 

[LSUtigers03]

is there a benefit to this over just manually adding media_rw to WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE in platform.xml?



Haven't seen this before

I'm not sure. I've only used the module to make changes to sd card access.

 

[gotluck]

I'm not sure. I've only used the module to make changes to sd card access.

fair enough

 

[Stooby Mcdoobie]

is there a benefit to this over just manually adding media_rw to WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE in platform.xml?

Haven't seen this before

If I read the description for that module correctly, it looks like it doesn't actually save the change to platform.xml. Instead, it probably modifies one of the temp files that is loaded into the runtime upon boot. I wouldn't imagine any difference in real world performance as it should kill the process as soon as the change is made.

 

[gotluck]

If I read the description for that module correctly, it looks like it doesn't actually save the change to platform.xml. Instead, it probably modifies one of the temp files that is loaded into the runtime upon boot. I wouldn't imagine any difference in real world performance as it should kill the process as soon as the change is made.

I thought similar, one of the comments mentioned that it was for those that didn't want to edit the platform.xml (which is all good and fine, similar to the app you suggested), I got the feeling that the creator was insinuating there was an advantage to this method, cheers