Move android saves folder back to /StardewValley

[OmriH]

Since version 1.5, the saves folder on the android version of the game has switched from the StardewValley folder on the root of your SD card, to the /android/data folder. unfortunately, since android 14, accessing that folder without something like adb or root, is impossible.
This means save files cannot be backed up or transferred to another device at all without tinkering.

In addition, apps such as Stardew Sync on the play store, which ask you to select the saves folder, no longer work because of this, as /android/data doesn't not show up at all in the android file picker.

My suggestion is for the saves folder to be moved back to /StardewValley, or at least an accessible directory when 1.6 comes out in November, or after that.

I don't think it's that difficult to implement and I really don't understand why this change was made in the first place.

 

[FilthyGorilla]

+1

absolutely, I'm not even someone who plays on android but the amount of people I have to help about an issue that could be so simply changed is frustrating, would love to see the change reverted

 

[DespairScent]

ironically, save files are currently more accessible on a "closed" OS like iOS than on an "open" Android

 

[bombyx]

I'm requesting a save file management system that connects to major cloud storage services such as OneDrive, Dropbox, pCloud, and Google Drive. Please.

 

[Nonak]

Yeah 100℅! I recently got a new phone and I can't transfer my old saves because of that. Also smapi folder is also inaccessible now which means no modding

 

[BeenASon]

I'm on a older version of android so I have the freedom of obb and data but yeah this is so frustrating for people. Losing saves is such a nightmare.

 

[BeenASon]

Yeah 100℅! I recently got a new phone and I can't transfer my old saves because of that. Also smapi folder is also inaccessible now which means no modding

Google is a real piece of work. Android is becoming IOS now.

 

[F-3000]

As an Android user, I agree that the current state of the accessibility of save files is lacking. Not the fault of the devs I'd guess, but they definitely should do something about it.

Since version 1.5, the saves folder on the android version of the game has switched from the StardewValley folder on the root of your SD card, to the /android/data folder. unfortunately, since android 14, accessing that folder without something like adb or root, is impossible.

If I'm not wrong, said folder is accessible with a mere USB-cable connection to a PC. No need for ADB or root. But just to have an access to a game's save files, even that's quite an overshoot. Not to mention that there's ever increasing amount of people who do have a phone but no computer.

Google is a real piece of work. Android is becoming IOS now.

Goes off-topic, I know, but you're saying that iOS has been safer than Android? I mean, a lot, if not all of the apps save their (non-user) data to the /android/data/, which means that previously all of it was accessible by any app you had installed. Malicious app could have easily transferred any of your apps data to someone else. Or worse, crack an app through a hole in its data handling by corrupting its saved data. With a banking app, this could be disastrous. Blocking the data folder was a necessary layer of security, even if a very ****ty move, but less surprisingly the Android devs hadn't thought out everything before creating it in the first place. It also could be a combination of that and app devs fault for misusing the data folder - misusing folders have been a serious problem since birth of OSes. As an example, using Windows XP without admin privileges broke a lot of programs and notably games, because they lost writing access to the folder they shouldn't have been saving data in the first place. Hilarious enough, this plagued even some Windows 7 era programs, showing us how some people don't learn.

 

[BeenASon]

As an Android user, I agree that the current state of the accessibility of save files is lacking. Not the fault of the devs I'd guess, but they definitely should do something about it.


If I'm not wrong, said folder is accessible with a mere USB-cable connection to a PC. No need for ADB or root. But just to have an access to a game's save files, even that's quite an overshoot. Not to mention that there's ever increasing amount of people who do have a phone but no computer.


Goes off-topic, I know, but you're saying that iOS has been safer than Android? I mean, a lot, if not all of the apps save their (non-user) data to the /android/data/, which means that previously all of it was accessible by any app you had installed. Malicious app could have easily transferred any of your apps data to someone else. Or worse, crack an app through a hole in its data handling by corrupting its saved data. With a banking app, this could be disastrous. Blocking the data folder was a necessary layer of security, even if a very ****ty move, but less surprisingly the Android devs hadn't thought out everything before creating it in the first place. It also could be a combination of that and app devs fault for misusing the data folder - misusing folders have been a serious problem since birth of OSes. As an example, using Windows XP without admin privileges broke a lot of programs and notably games, because they lost writing access to the folder they shouldn't have been saving data in the first place. Hilarious enough, this plagued even some Windows 7 era programs, showing us how some people don't learn.

I'm saying that IOS has always been much more closed off than Android. But your spot on that data folders are very sensitive and yeah a lot of malicious apps ask for storage access to retrieve data. Android is becoming more secure and it's a double edged sword.