Problem moving files to external card

[Miguel]

Hi,
After the last update something went wrong and I had to reinstall. I have tried to move the files to the externad sd card through the custom location to /storage/extSdCard/Pleco. Moved the two folders in com.pleco.chinesesystem (cache and files) and rebooted but it doesn't get the files from the folder and downloads again the app.
What am I doing wrong?
Thanks

 

[mikelove]

Hmm, that one's news to us - so you've configured the startup location to custom and set the custom path to /storage/extSdCard/Pleco? Are you sure the capitalization matches? What model of device + version of Android are you using? It's possible it might be a newish version that doesn't let apps access arbitrary locations on SD cards, in which case try moving the Pleco folder inside of /Documents and updating the path to that - does that work any better?

 

[Miguel]

Ok, finally I found the problem (which was kind of silly), since I was moving the folder "files" from the original location, I had to add the whole path to the new custom location: /storage/extSdCard/Pleco/files. Or you can move the three folders inside in "files" (modules, bmodules and database) directly into the "Pleco" folder. I guess I had it configured right before this last update but maybe I just forgot this detail. But after last update something happened with this feature and I got an error message (you can see it attached).
It is weird because before everything was working fine and had all my files in my external SD Card and I could always update without problems. My Android is a Samsung GT-S7898 with Android 4.1.2
Anyways is working now, just lost a few sessions of flashcards which is not so bad.
One last thing, the Screen Reader is simply awesome, but I can't make it work with Anki (that I use to practice long sentences). Do you think in the future it will work also with this app?

 

[Miguel]

Hi again. It's happened again. I get the same message that I sent the screenshot. It has been working fine for one day. I just rebooted the phone and now Pleco can't find my files in the external sdcard.
Then it begins unpacking again the app and starts again with the basic version, no addons, dictionaries... The settings are still the same but if I rename the folder com.pleco.chinesesystem and reboot, the app doesn't find my files in the external card. Seems like it got corrupted somehow.
Anything I can do? Maybe try to go back to the previous version?

 

[mikelove]

We didn't change anything about how external files work in this version - you could certainly revert to the old one if you like but to be honest it's unlikely to make a difference. If you want to download it anyway it's at http://cdn.pleco.com/androidapps/plecodroid-150402p.apk

As far as why the card is disappearing, it may simply be that it's not getting remounted correctly when you reboot - were the Screen Reader or Screen OCR or Clipboard Monitor features enabled when you rebooted? If so, try turning them off and reboot again - does that help matters?

Regarding Anki, that requires a newer version of Android to fix - Android 4.1 didn't support accessibility in embedded web views like those that Anki uses. If you upgrade to 4.4 or later it should work correctly.

 

[Miguel]

Both features were not enabled. So maybe it's a problem of the sdcard? I can access all the information and other apps installed there. Other weird things is that when pleco reinstalls the package I don't have the cc-dict.
What would you recommend me too try in order to solve this and be able to move pleco to my external sd card?

 

[mikelove]

Hmm... are Pleco's files still on the card? If they've been deleted or corrupted then that would explain the problem nicely - it's possible there might be some overactive system cleanup utility that's deleting them since they're not in the data file folder that Android is officially managing for Pleco.

 

[Miguel]

They're still there. Don't have any app doing that. I'm traveling right now. Tomorrow I will try a complete fresh install and configure it to load the files in the external sdcard. Too bad I don't what's wrong since this is maybe the most important app in my cellphone.
Maybe I can try the previous version or to restore the cellphone to factory settings

 

[mikelove]

Did you have it installed on your external SD card before this update?

 

[Miguel]

Yes. It was always there

 

[mikelove]

Well then please try the old version and let me know if it improves matters - if so then it probably is a bug (though a rather baffling one since we really didn't change any of the code).

 

[Miguel]

Ok. I got somewhere. After several tests reviewing what happened these days I think I know what makes this message show. If I leave the service "Pleco Screen Reader" On (in Settings -- Accessibility), then I reboot and open Pleco I get that message and Pleco won't start. But all I have to do to make it work again is going to Settings-- Applications Manager and stop Pleco from there and everything starts working again (that usually turns the service off).
I've done a couple of fresh installs of the new version to check it. And the files in the external SD are working fine every time. So I guess I can go back to the previous version or use this one remembering to turn off the service every time I use it (because it is a very cool feature).

 

[mikelove]

Thanks - we've now found an explanation and it should be fixed in our next update. (basically, a bit of code hiding in the Screen Reader initial setup was causing Pleco to do its startup file search as soon as Screen Reader reactivated on a system restart, and since Android launches startup apps before it mounts external SD cards, Pleco cheerfully did a file search, didn't find an SD card and assumed you had removed it)

In the meantime, killing the Pleco background service in Settings / Apps after a restart should cause it to do a new file search when you reopen it, so you can use that trick if you accidentally reboot your phone with Screen Reader running. Also, see Settings / External Access for an option to create a shortcut icon to efficiently activate / deactivate Screen Reader.

 

[Miguel]

I've been using that shortcut but, at least in my device, it does not deactivates the service. I have to go Settings -- Accessibility to do so.
Any idea about when the next update will be ready? just to keep an eye on it and update it.
Thanks, Mike!

 

[mikelove]

Early next week, hopefully - we have to get Android 3.2.x to a relatively stable / bug-free point quickly so we can concentrate on our updates for iOS 9 (before turning right around and doing more Android updating for the final release of Android M).

 

[Miguel]

Great! Love the new features!!!