Point Calibre Companion to external sd card

[NetAmigo]

I have set CC to my external sd card in past with no problems. Now, I can no longer do so. I am wondering if CC has been upgraded and that functionality has been removed. At any rate, atjnjk writes in an old post (2012) to press on "Manual Path". Where is "Manual Path"? I don't see it anywhere. Thanks.

[Dhevi]

Are you using an android device with KitKat 4.4? If so, it is not so much an update or upgrade of Calibre Companion, so much as a change in the external SD card permissions allowed by Android KitKat.

For further reading you'll want to check out this sticky:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=235710.

The workaround for using Calibre Companion and KitKat is located here: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...4&postcount=21.

And to specifically answer your question about where to locate manual path see: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...9&postcount=20

[NetAmigo]

Thanks for into Dhevi. Yes my new tablet unfortunately has 4.4.2 and I read the limitations on SD access. By the way, your last link on manual path fails. I would like to see that link if you can post it again working. Thanks.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by NetAmigo

Thanks for into Dhevi. Yes my new tablet unfortunately has 4.4.2 and I read the limitations on SD access. By the way, your last link on manual path fails. I would like to see that link if you can post it again working. Thanks.

Dhevi's second link, the one to our FAQ, is our answer. There is no "manual path" option when running Android 4.4. Use the SD card button. It is possible to navigate from there, but doing so will work only if you have rooted your phone and disabled the SD card security check.

[NetAmigo]

Originally Posted by chaley

Dhevi's second link, the one to our FAQ, is our answer. There is no "manual path" option when running Android 4.4. Use the SD card button. It is possible to navigate from there, but doing so will work only if you have rooted your phone and disabled the SD card security check.

Thanks for reply. Here's what baffles me. My new phablet (phone + tablet) has GPS built in. I download Mapfactor: GPS Navigator from Google Play to work with it. I choose to download US maps, about 1.6 GB data. Immediately pops up two item menu showing the path and size for the internal SD card and my external SD card. It instructs me to choose which one the maps should be saved to. I click on my external SD card. The program takes off saving the maps there. When finished, I check my external SD card and it has about 2 GB less space free. My question is why can this program deal with the external SD card no problem but Calibre Companion cannot?

[chaley]

Originally Posted by NetAmigo

Thanks for reply. Here's what baffles me. My new phablet (phone + tablet) has GPS built in. I download Mapfactor: GPS Navigator from Google Play to work with it. I choose to download US maps, about 1.6 GB data. Immediately pops up two item menu showing the path and size for the internal SD card and my external SD card. It instructs me to choose which one the maps should be saved to. I click on my external SD card. The program takes off saving the maps there. When finished, I check my external SD card and it has about 2 GB less space free. My question is why can this program deal with the external SD card no problem but Calibre Companion cannot?

CC does support SD cards on kitkat. It does so without problem as long as you follow Kitkat's rules.

To be honest, I don't understand what problem you are having. When you tap on CC's Formats and Folders setting you will see a dialog showing you the default folder and the list of selected extensions. If you tap on the default folder then you will see the following dialog:

If you tap on the button pointed at by the red arrow you will see the following dialog:

If you tap on Use SD card then CC will choose the kitkat-permitted directory on the SD card.

Have you done this?

[NetAmigo]

Originally Posted by chaley

CC does support SD cards on kitkat. It does so without problem as long as you follow Kitkat's rules.

To be honest, I don't understand what problem you are having. When you tap on CC's Formats and Folders setting you will see a dialog showing you the default folder and the list of selected extensions. If you tap on the default folder then you will see the following dialog:
Attachment 129384
If you tap on the button pointed at by the red arrow you will see the following dialog:
Attachment 129385
If you tap on Use SD card then CC will choose the kitkat-permitted directory on the SD card.

Have you done this?

The problem for me occurs in your 2nd picture. I don't have the middle choice - Use SD card. I only have the two outside choices. I can't type the path in as it makes what I type a subfolder on the internal card. I tried to root the unit earlier using Root Genius but it failed. Thanks for the help.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by NetAmigo

The problem for me occurs in your 2nd picture. I don't have the middle choice - Use SD card. I only have the two outside choices. I can't type the path in as it makes what I type a subfolder on the internal card. I tried to root the unit earlier using Root Genius but it failed. Thanks for the help.

Then something is broken with your device or your version of android, or you are suffering from something similar to what kaufman described in this post. To be precise, android is telling CC that there is no writable special CC folder on the SD card, so CC does not show that button.

I suggest you try the following:

1. If you have nothing on the SD card, reformat it and go to step 3.
2. If you have things on the SD card you don't want to lose, ensure that there is no folder /Android/data/com.multipie.calibreandroid on it. If there is such a folder, delete it.
3. With the SD card in the device, uninstall and reinstall CC.

I have no idea whether the failed root attempt is causing troubles.

I do know that hundreds of CC users are using SD cards with kitkat, which implies that it works. Of course that doesn't help you, where it doesn't work.

[NetAmigo]

Originally Posted by chaley

Then something is broken with your device or your version of android, or you are suffering from something similar to what kaufman described in this post. To be precise, android is telling CC that there is no writable special CC folder on the SD card, so CC does not show that button.

I suggest you try the following:

1. If you have nothing on the SD card, reformat it and go to step 3.
2. If you have things on the SD card you don't want to lose, ensure that there is no folder /Android/data/com.multipie.calibreandroid on it. If there is such a folder, delete it.
3. With the SD card in the device, uninstall and reinstall CC.

I have no idea whether the failed root attempt is causing troubles.

I do know that hundreds of CC users are using SD cards with kitkat, which implies that it works. Of course that doesn't help you, where it doesn't work.

I tried reinstalling CC but it did no good. When you get the middle choice "use SD card", you have not done so with Android 4.4 have you? I assume that you use a prior version.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by NetAmigo

I tried reinstalling CC but it did no good. When you get the middle choice "use SD card", you have not done so with Android 4.4 have you? I assume that you use a prior version.

No. The "use SD card" option appears only if 1) the device is running Android 4.4 or later, and 2) Android reports that an external SD card is available and writable. For Android 4.3 and earlier a different button appears.

There is one possibility that occurred to me while I was looking at the code. Can you put more than one external SD card into your device? If so then CC might be looking at the one that is not installed.

EDIT: before you reinstalled, did you check the SD card for the directory /Android/data/com.multipie.calibreandroid and delete it if it is there? I ask because KitKat enforces user-specific permissions on SD card folders. If the folder was created by a different user, or if the folder was created before a device was reset to factory defaults (which creates a new user), then an app like CC will not be able to write its own folder. This is what kaufman described in his post that I referred to earlier.

[kaufman]

NetAmigo: What is the path to your external SD card?

Chaley: Is it possible that his external SD card is at some odd address that you are not checking? I have two android devices, and the SD cards are at completely different locations. Do you find the SD card via a system call, or do you walk the tree somehow?

[chaley]

Originally Posted by kaufman

Chaley: Is it possible that his external SD card is at some odd address that you are not checking? I have two android devices, and the SD cards are at completely different locations. Do you find the SD card via a system call, or do you walk the tree somehow?

I use a system call to get the paths to the app-private directories. It returns a list of all such directories available. However, it will not return an app-private directory that has the "wrong" permissions, which is I think what happened to you.

My guess is that the /Android/data folder on NetAmigo's SD card was created by a different device or before a system reset. Kitkat tries very hard to apply the same kinds of permissions to the SD card directories that it applies to the main memory directories. In theory, different users could have different SD card app-private directories, which appears to be a Google goal. I don't know how far down that path they got with KitKat, but I read that Android L (Lollipop? Lemon meringue pie?) will go even further, complicating our life even more.

You might have noticed that I released a V3.4.4l beta. This beta has an "advanced option" that when set causes CC to show a general navigation dialog for Android 4.4+ devices. The idea was that if someone has rooted their device then they can navigate wherever they want. Someone like NetAmigo where the device is acting strangely could also use it. Could you take a look and verify that folder navigation works as before with the option not set? You should see the SD card option you saw before, and tapping it should take you to the right place. I am not asking you to test setting the option unless you want to.

[kaufman]

Originally Posted by chaley

I use a system call to get the paths to the app-private directories. It returns a list of all such directories available. However, it will not return an app-private directory that has the "wrong" permissions, which is I think what happened to you.

I'm not sure, but I am almost positive that what happened was that it failed to write to the folder. I could be wrong, but I think I got the error during the book copy phase, not the directory setup phase.

Originally Posted by chaley

Could you take a look and verify that folder navigation works as before with the option not set? You should see the SD card option you saw before, and tapping it should take you to the right place. I am not asking you to test setting the option unless you want to.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...71&postcount=9

Originally Posted by kaufman

I downloaded the new version and turned on the new option. Please note my phone is not rooted.

I navigated to the SD card at storage/extSdCard and it doesn't show any directories there.

What is interesting, is that if I turn the option off, and so to the SD card folder, it will let me navigate up to the root folder. At that point, it does show me the folders.

[NetAmigo]

Originally Posted by kaufman

NetAmigo: What is the path to your external SD card?

Chaley: Is it possible that his external SD card is at some odd address that you are not checking? I have two android devices, and the SD cards are at completely different locations. Do you find the SD card via a system call, or do you walk the tree somehow?

I usually just go to /mnt. Then navigate down. Mnt opens up to both the internal card and the external card.

[NetAmigo]

Originally Posted by chaley

I use a system call to get the paths to the app-private directories. It returns a list of all such directories available. However, it will not return an app-private directory that has the "wrong" permissions, which is I think what happened to you.

My guess is that the /Android/data folder on NetAmigo's SD card was created by a different device or before a system reset. Kitkat tries very hard to apply the same kinds of permissions to the SD card directories that it applies to the main memory directories. In theory, different users could have different SD card app-private directories, which appears to be a Google goal. I don't know how far down that path they got with KitKat, but I read that Android L (Lollipop? Lemon meringue pie?) will go even further, complicating our life even more.

You might have noticed that I released a V3.4.4l beta. This beta has an "advanced option" that when set causes CC to show a general navigation dialog for Android 4.4+ devices. The idea was that if someone has rooted their device then they can navigate wherever they want. Someone like NetAmigo where the device is acting strangely could also use it. Could you take a look and verify that folder navigation works as before with the option not set? You should see the SD card option you saw before, and tapping it should take you to the right place. I am not asking you to test setting the option unless you want to.

I'd be happy to try the 3.4.4l beta version. I am running version 3.4.4. Where do I go to find and download the beta version? Basically, I have no way to get out of the internal card folder now. If I could just get one step up to mnt, I could navigate over to the external card folder. I, also, have the ability to install a SIM card to operate as a phone. That is empty now. Maybe that throws off CC.