The restricted writing access is the fault of Android 5. Security reasons . However, some apps can ask for writing access to the sd card, like Open Camera and the file managers Amaze and ES File Explorer. So you could change the default apps or copy/move your files with a file manager. For general writing access, you’ll need to root your phone.
A much easier alternative is using a different camera app. Did you find this thread when checking whether your question was already asnwered?:
Basically, a lot of apps haven’t been adapted to the new Android security model. Using apps that correctly request SD-card access works around the problem in the meantime.
Nothing is stopping you from copying music onto the SD card when it is connected to a computer. Most apps will be able to read these files from the SD card - it’s writing that’s the problem.
As for storing apps themselves; there’s no way to set the default install location to the SD card. Some apps can be moved there, but I would not recommend it, as there are plenty of complaints about ‘disappearing apps’ - which happens to apps on the SD card for instance when the SD card is accessed from a computer.
Yes, I found that thread.
However, I was looking for a way to make the default apps on my phone work with my SD card. It seems crazy to me to make a phone that cannot use the SD card. Crazy crazy! I mean - if apps can use the SD card in spite of the new Android security models, why on earth didn’t the Fairphone people make the camera (and the other apps) do that? I thought it was supposed to be an ‘open’ phone…
Fairphone aims to be as open as possible in what they are doing (but there are some limitations). Being open does entail breaking the security model of an operating system, or providing all the features that every user may want. For the OS they provide, they make as much of the source code as possible available so that you could in theory make changes. They also facilitate as much as possible the option of installing other operating systems. It’s early days, so the latter will take a while to work. Meanwhile discussion about the source code for Fairphone OS, and how to compile it are here:
They just don’t deliver the phone with too many preinstalled apps, so everbody can install his/her favourite apps and doesn’t need to uninstall unwanted stuff. I use Open Camera and Camera ZOOM Fx (paid version) for example
Well, they took a decision to deliver the FP2 with preinstalled Google apps. I’m not happy about it, but there are solutions… And why should they developp an own Camera app, if the play stores are full of good different ones that meet the different needs of different users?
Yeah, I see your point. It’s just as much a Google/Android problem as it is a FP2 problem. I guess I just expected the Fairphone people to create open features instead of relying on Google policies…
There will be an “official” Google free open source version of the OS, but we don’t know when. Some users already have build their own. So they really try to meet all needs.
Fairphone is a small company and has not the resources to create replacement apps with (more or less) special features for a small (maybe niche) amount of users and for all apps you could think of. There’d be not that much benefit (in particular compared to the effort needed) of that either, because there are already plenty of apps out there fulfilling most of the needs, as @Irina_Spitznagel has already mentioned. I’d see no reason in repeating this work which has already been done.
Well, whether to include Google Apps or not is a huge question and lead to equally huge discussions in the past. Please refer to the following topics for these discussions:
@Irina_Spitznagel already mentioned the open source version of the OS. You can wait for it to be published by the Fairphone team (only info is 1st quarter of 2016) or you can compile it yourself, if you like: