Long story short, I'm still a quite newbie to modern smart phones. Had a Samsung Galaxy S3 for 3 years, my first "true" touch-screen toy and Android device ever, but its battery, USB port and screen all started to fail in numerous ways, so it was time to update. Got the Xcover 4 for muh rugged design + physical buttons, and I do love it. Feels great NOT having to recharge the thing every single day too.
But now I've come face to face with some pretty shocking revelations, that probably are totally old news for most cellphone geeks: the SD card no longer is directly "supported" by new Android builds, as in only factory installed apps can directly use it as their storage media. Apparently, in order to remedy this issue, you either need to let the system "adapt" the entire card (format, encrypt, make it useless in other devices...), or root the whole phone, install fishy hacks (or brand new OS), and hope that the few sensitive daily apps I might actually need (ie. bank and credit programs) don't shit the bed afterwards.
...And this has apparently been going on for a few years now? CyanogenMod, the only mega-hyped savior of Android freedoms I knew, was also killed just recently?
Are there ANY smart alternatives for this bullshit this day and age? I now really want to get off Google's ride, ASAP.
LineageOS is the continuation of the CyanogenMod project, worked on by the same developers (citation needed). Aside from that there are other Android ROMs.
Yes, get off Google's dick ASAP.
Chase Watson
yeah, already managed to spot the Lineage with my furious Googling for solutions to this bullshit.
Anyone got any first-hand experiences on their builds? I'm not seeing Xcover 4 on their supported lists just yet, but it is kinda new model still (and apparently somewhat Europoor only thing??).
Sebastian Sanchez
New Samsung phones still use the old model for SD cards.
Google hate SD cards in general because it is a barrier to them tracking everything possible about you.
Brandon Martinez
I know that. Slapped my old phone's 16GB micro-SD into the new phone as the very first thing, and was glad I didn't have to format it and destroy my countless folders and files.
But now my web browsers etc cannot access the damn card at all. And according some sources, it's like that "by design", in order to "protect us form malware" and shit. Already tested the non-root options available within the system's settings, but nothing helped.
Isaiah Garcia
>my furious Googling for solutions to this bullshit. >Googling
Noah Williams
HOLD THE FUCK UP
Matthew Rodriguez
you sound like an ancient fuck
Jace Robinson
Buy developer/hobbyist oriented devices and unlock the bootloader. I have a Nexus 5 that runs Lineage OS, which is a continuation of CyanogenMod. It doesn't include and Google malware either. Personally 16GB is more than enough storage for me, so I'm not concerned with SD cards. I'm only using 5GB right now with some music, a few apps, and some pictures.
This website is 18+
Jayden Richardson
If I format the sd as internal with encription and whatever android does to it, am I sinking more into the botnet or its actually safer? Dumb question I have since marshmallow came out
Josiah Torres
It is much more safer user. If your phone is stolen, your sdcard is as safe as your lock screen protection.
Henry Foster
fag
Matthew Myers
I'm using Lineage OS without Gapps for about 1 month now and it is great. It was a hard at first but now I'm getting used to it. I don't miss much. I miss the official YouTube app but I have NewTube and SkyTube.
The S3 was my first smartphone too. I felt really chic with the top of the line phone back then. Then I dropped it and cracked the screen. And burned out the battery so it couldn't even hold a 5min charge(but can be replaced). I've been using shitty phones since then. I'm about to buy some mid range phones though which while not top of the line are still at least 2-3x stronger than my original S3.
Levi Richardson
>makes assertions he cannot verify as true
Jason Lee
Your SD card becomes Google's bitch, and cannot be used anywhere else without formatting
Pretty much the same. I've never paid over 250€ for a phone, and I'm not planning to. It's getting crazy when a new telephone can to cost more than my car.
Tyler Howard
>Had a Samsung Galaxy S3 for 3 years, my first "true" touch-screen toy and Android device ever Underage b&
Logan Allen
>Underage b& Is this what Gen-Z kids actually believe? If anything, I'm overage fart. My previous phones were all Nokias, last one was the N95, and it served me well. It actually still works, as I had to use it for a couple months not too long ago as a backup phone.
I just never considered the modern all-glass, no buttons toys to be practical or reliable enough to justify the jump. They definitely are not fit for one-handed use.
Gavin Edwards
>$70 >enough for shitposting
Ian Cooper
Lineage actually any good at this point? Didn't pay much attention to the whole phone OS biz after CM died.
Joseph Hernandez
just buy a used or refurmished s3 or s4 then
Mason Ross
>just buy used and outdated tech to not deal with shitty business practices that can be avoided simply by re-configuring your software Brilliant logic
Lincoln Rogers
get with the times grandpa, i'm not sure what your complaint even is, something about an SD card?
Samuel Wood
I use NewPipe (alternative YouTube client), a home server, and Startpage and Startmail, and Firefox.
Nice assumptions, retard.
Nolan Gutierrez
>I don't understand basic tech of modern times, so there's no problem! kys kid pls.
Jayden Davis
hundreds of millions of android users get by just fine without your contrived issue which i'm not even sure is a real issue because i can't be bothered to read the OP
Aiden Rogers
>because i can't be bothered to read the OP yes, you are indeed a fine sample of the modern cancer generation that's practically letting Google to become the Skynet.
Joseph Jones
most phones have like 64+ GB storage
the fuck you need an SD card for apps for
Ayden Lewis
>most phones have like 64+ GB storage wrong >the fuck you need an SD card for apps for I WANT to be able to save stuff on my SD card, no matter what app I use.
For example, I'm an active Sup Forums poster. I save and upload tons images all the time. Yet on my new phone, I am unable to access my SD card, which holds several gigabytes worth of my personal data in neat, orderly fashion, because of Google's new policies.
The only way to use an SD card would be "Adapting" it as part of the internal memory, which formats and encrypts the whole card, making it unusable anywhere else, thus destroying the point of transferable media.
But you'd know this if you'd just read the OP post and would finally take the Google's dick out of your arse.
Jaxson Howard
$150 xiaomi phones come with 64GB of storage, you have no excuse
Aaron Cooper
>the SD card no longer is directly "supported" by new Android builds, as in only factory installed apps can directly use it as their storage media. that is completely false. most android devs just aren't keeping up on security changes with every new iteration of android. you have to prompt the user to select the storage location with the built in file browser to grant permissions.
also, xiaomi has excellent android ROM support, the google apps are optional
Carter Cruz
What's up with this Android ROM support? Does it mean it doesn't come with a default Android? Or that it has good support for custom ROMs like Lineage?
Brody Hughes
most phones don't come with plain AOSP, they come with a customized version like with touchwiz for samsung for example. xiaomi phones come with MIUI and you can flash different ROMs like lineage
Carson Bell
So by good support you mean the xiaomi version of android is quite good and doesn't come with gapps? I couldn't find a redmi 4 in the supported devices list on the lineage website though
