"Android 4.4 sd-card-restrictions" - how to remedy this

If you get the message "Android 4.4 sd-card-restrictions" on your cell phone with Android 4.4 as operating system the message "Android 4.4 sd-card-restrictions", this is due to missing write permissions. Why the error occurs in connection with some apps and what options there are to fix it, we explain in this article.

This is why the "Android 4.4 sd-card-restrictions" error occurs

If you are still using an older smartphone with Android 4.4, you may experience problems when using an SD card in the device. This is because many apps under Android KitKat do not have access to the inserted micro SD card. If you still try to write data to the SD card with these apps, for example a file manager, you will get the error message "Android 4.4 sd-card restrictions". The error message is caused by the fact that some apps are only in the sdcard_rw permission group, but would have to be in the media_rw group for write access.

"Android 4.4 sd-card-restrictions": How to fix the error

There is no simple solution to fix the occurrence of the "Android 4.4 sd-card-restrictions" error message. In order to still grant the corresponding apps write access to the SD card, it is necessary to root your smartphone. If you have root access to your smartphone, you can easily edit the platform.xml file yourself.

1. Navigate to the directory "/system/etc/permissions" with the file manager and open the file "platform.xml".
2. Search for the entry "<permission name = "android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" >" and add the entry "<group gid="sdcard_rw" />" under "<group gid="media_rw" />".
3. If not already present, then also enter the string <group gid="media_rw" /> before you save the modified file and restart your smartphone.