"External Storage" option no longer available in Android. Is this a bug?

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"External Storage" option no longer available in Android. Is this a bug?

2017-05-10 04:27:33

In the latest version of foobar2000 on Android (1.0.67 lite), the "Music on External Storage" option under the "Browse" menu has disappeared. This means I am no longer able to directly browse through files stored on my SD card.

The workaround is to go to Tools -> Media Library, click the "+" button next to "Music folders," and select the appropriate folder on my SD card. Upon doing so, that folder is added to the "Browse" menu as an option, and I can navigate through my files. However, upon selecting that option, there is a delay of several seconds before the list of files loads, and each time I select a subfolder, there is another delay of several seconds each time.

Reviews on the Google Play Store app suggest that I'm not the only one affected: user "JW Lee" notes the inability to browse external storage and the lagginess. Users "Matthew T," "Sharif Sircar," and "A Google user" note the same.

Is this a bug, or was this an intentional design choice?

Re: "External Storage" option no longer available in Android. Is this a bug?

Reply #1 – 2017-05-10 04:52:25

This is the home of the desktop version.
Mobile support forum

Re: "External Storage" option no longer available in Android. Is this a bug?

Reply #2 – 2017-05-10 06:47:05

Until the latest version, we used plain POSIX interface to walk folders.
We switched to Android DocumentFile API as required by Lollipop and up for read/write access. Unfortunately - as you've found out - it is ridiculously slow. We already employ a bypass (fallback to POSIX indexing if possible) to index your music - or else finding all your music would take very very long.
Anyway, problem noted, I did not realize so many people browsed music by folders. The next update will address this one way or another.

Re: "External Storage" option no longer available in Android. Is this a bug?

Reply #3 – 2017-05-12 12:32:55

New bugfix update on Google Play, please get it and report if it's better or worse for you.

Re: "External Storage" option no longer available in Android. Is this a bug?

Reply #4 – 2017-05-13 07:06:55

Just downloaded the update. On my phone, I'm not seeing any improvement: using the previously described workaround, I can still navigate through my folders as before. But it's still quite slow.

Even worse, I can't get into one of my main subfolders. When I attempt to open it, none of the files or subfolders are shown. Instead, there's an error:

"Attempt to invoke virtual method 'boolean java.lang.String.startsWith(java.lang.String)' on a null object reference."

What was this new build supposed to do differently?

Probably unrelated, but I did notice one more issue since the previous update. One of my songs stopped playing partway through, showing this Android popup error message:

"Playback error: Generic I/O error (EIO) On: "[android] 3764-3533:Music/Other music/Fleetwood Mac - Never Going Back Again.mp3""

I haven't researched this one closely; maybe it's an existing known unrelated issue, or maybe I should make a separate thread for it. Still, figured I'd mention it.

Follow-ups
- "External Storage" option not available in Android.

Re: "External Storage" option no longer available in Android. Is this a bug?

Reply #5 – 2017-05-13 10:14:17

Thanks for reporting.
The new version has a workaround for these issues - effectively bringing back the old file system behaviors.
Go to advanced settings, enable "use old folder picker". Then remove your library folders and add them back. You should not see any of those bugs again, though you will not be able to write to external storage this way.

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