Miui 8.5.2 Blocks Access To Internal Storage?

[ZEisen]

Hi,

Started using a new Redmi Note 4 MTK (nikel) device this week and all of a sudden I have lost the ability to write files to the internal storage. (It reminds me of the read-only problem from 4.4.2 KitKat, but those solutions don't work). I did install TWRP and SuperSU, if that makes a difference.

Does anyone else experience this? What causes it and how to fix it? Or should I just wipe it and install Epic instead?

 

[CosmicDan]

Are you actually using Xiaomi.eu ROM? It has the storage media fix already. Official MIUI does not. But later Android versions won't allow raw access to storage without root (the app itself needing root, I mean), the app needs to support a newer API like DocumentsProvider (where you need to manually grant access to the storage via a file-browser like GUI).

Sounds like you're using an app that's incompatible with Android 6.

But if you've reinstalled ROM and restored a backup of an app, the app might remember you've already granted access but the ROM has not since it's been reset. FX Explorer is a good example if this. In that case though you can manually revoke storage access, allowing you to permit it again (through the DocumentsProvider thing).

Sent from my Redmi Note 4 using Tapatalk

 

[ZEisen]

I think I wasn't clear enough. It was original official MIUI 8.2.1.0 (which then upgraded itself to 8.5.2.0) that was installed when I took it out of the box. I'm not talking about raw access to all storage starting at root, I'm talking about the directory/partition called 'internal storage' or /sdcard - the section you see when you plug the phone into your computer. After I unlocked the bootloader, installed TWRP, and rooted it (SuperSU), soon after I could no longer write to the phone's internal storage (/sdcard) from Windows. It became a read-only partition that I couldn't even see all the directories in it. No apps involved. Apps on the phone see the whole contents of /sdcard. Windows Explorer trying to browse through the phone storage is what is failing.

I fastboot flashed the userdata partition (from the stock ROM image) and that gave back full access to /sdcard for a few minutes - and then it went back to read-only to some of the directories.

What is the 'storage media fix' you're talking about? I did a bit more reading and I see Google has something called SafetyNet that is new with Marshmallow. Is this behavior related to that?

If Xiaomi.eu ROMs are better behaved, then I may download and flash one of those (Epic seems to get good press). But I would still like to understand what is happening here.

 

[ZEisen]

Does anyone have any input?

 

[MeiGuddet]

I don't really know, but maybe he is talking about the Documents app. This one sometimes is getting inactive. Go to settigs > all apps > all and there scroll down to the bottom. Activate the Documents app. Maybe this is what you mean.

 

[ZEisen]

I don't really know, but maybe he is talking about the Documents app. This one sometimes is getting inactive. Go to settigs > all apps > all and there scroll down to the bottom. Activate the Documents app. Maybe this is what you mean.

As I said before, this is not about phone apps, this is about r/w access from a PC to the phone's storage.

 

[CosmicDan]

This forum is about xiaomi.eu ROM's, not official.

If you only have read-only access to storage, this is likely because errors were encountered on the storage and Android remounted it as read-only.

Format the storage or run fsck manually.

Sent from my Redmi Note 4 using Tapatalk

 

[ZEisen]

This forum is about xiaomi.eu ROM's, not official.

If you only have read-only access to storage, this is likely because errors were encountered on the storage and Android remounted it as read-only.

Format the storage or run fsck manually.

Sent from my Redmi Note 4 using Tapatalk

I thought so too, but after I reformatted it and restored the default /data partition, the problem re-occurred after a few hours. I don't think it is physical, I think it is something programmatic. The responses here are pretty slow (even on XDA), so I just replaced the official ROM with Epic, and the problem stopped occurring (which reinforces my theory that it is not physical). Maybe it has something to do with rooting the phone the 'old-fashioned' way (installing SuperSU zip via TWRP), instead of the newer system-less/Magisk way? Since there is so little movement on this board, I didn't have time to wait forever for responses so I did an end-run instead of finding the root cause (no pun intended).

 

[CosmicDan]

Weird. Well I haven't used official in ages, and Epic is almost certainly just a rip-off of xiaomi.eu ROM (but bloated with useless tweaks) and I also use MagiskSU so yeah, dunno. But good to hear.

Sent from my Redmi Note 4 using Tapatalk

 

[ZEisen]

Weird. Well I haven't used official in ages, and Epic is almost certainly just a rip-off of xiaomi.eu ROM (but bloated with useless tweaks) and I also use MagiskSU so yeah, dunno. But good to hear.

Sent from my Redmi Note 4 using Tapatalk

I thought this was just an official European version of the Chinese Xiaomi board. What's the difference between what you get from the xiaomi.com site and the xiaomi.eu ROM?

 

[CosmicDan]

I thought this was just an official European version of the Chinese Xiaomi board. What's the difference between what you get from the xiaomi.com site and the xiaomi.eu ROM?

No, this is a European 3rd-party reseller (originally it was miuiandroid.com and was just a custom MIUI ROM).

I really wish these guys would make it clear that it's unofficial, because a LOT of people come here asking support, thinking it's official....

To answer your question: https://xiaomi.eu/community/threads/how-is-this-different-than-miui-com.18629/