Cannot Find Video Folder (Android)

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icarri718
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Cannot Find Video Folder (Android)

Post by icarri718 »

Hi all,

Phone Specs: Samsung S20 running Android 11. Harry's GP 24.0.4. Have an external SD card with plenty of room.
Camera: GoPro Hero4 BE

This is my first time using Harry's to try and overlay data. I am able to see the videos I have on my GoPro through the Harry's app, and my original plan was to import it that way. But since each of my session files is at least 3 GB (20 minute sessions in 4k), my next idea was to edit the clips on my computer, then move them into the Harry's folder so I can pick them and sync the overlays to the laps I want. I noticed I could not find the folder looking on either my phone or my computer, so I imported a smaller video file (>1GB) to the app to see if it would appear on my SD card. As you can see in the below screenshots, I'm still not having any luck. I also tried searching for the file name and the supposed folder name on my internal storage, and have checked multiple folders, and still can't find anything. Any thoughts on what I could be missing here?

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Harry
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Re: Cannot Find Video Folder (Android)

Post by Harry »

Hallo,

I need to start with that while I can confirm issues with Android 11 file access, my Android 11 test device has an emulated SD card only, not a physical one that can be removed.

Google has crippled storage access - and SD cards in particular - in Android 11 even further. Besides restricting access, there are known bugs in addition. From what I read on the forums, file access to app specific folders (like .../Android/data/com.harrys.laptimer) and access using a USB connection is not possible currently. Google has changed restrictions for almost all recent updates. It got more restrictive all the time. More over, it is completely inconsistent across versions and extremely hard to handle both for users and developers. My impression is they never created a sound privacy concept but add one tweak after the other. Pain in the ass.

What should be possible however, is unplugging your SD card and plug it into a card reader on your PC. Have you tested this or have you used USB smartphone mounting?

- Harry
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icarri718
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Re: Cannot Find Video Folder (Android)

Post by icarri718 »

Thanks for the insight Harry. That is pretty disappointing that Google is restricting that access, but your work around was successful! Just removing your SD card from your phone and plugging it into the computer directly allows you to see the app folders that are previously hidden. Somewhat annoying, but better than waiting over an hour for a 20 minute 4k video to transfer via WiFi. Thanks for your help! Trying this wouldn't have occurred to me.
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Re: Cannot Find Video Folder (Android)

Post by icarri718 »

Harry,

It seems like Android 11 is having an issue exporting directly to another platform, such as YouTube. I'm going to use the same workaround of plugging the SD card into my computer, but just wanted to make sure there wasn't an easier way available right now.
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Re: Cannot Find Video Folder (Android)

Post by Harry »

This should have been fixed for 24.0.4 - at least for YouTube.
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Re: Cannot Find Video Folder (Android)

Post by icarri718 »

You're right, its working now. I swear I tried multiple times yesterday and it didn't. Not sure what happened. I do wish DropBox and Google Drive would work, but it thinks the file isn't where it is, I assume because of Android's restrictions.
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Re: Cannot Find Video Folder (Android)

Post by Harry »

Well, LapTimer v24.0.4 fully conforms to so called "content providing" of files in its local sandbox. This means when touching the distribute button, LapTimer grants access to files like videos and data exports to other apps on a temporary basis. It is up to the receiving app to access it accordingly. What I want to say is that distribution is not restricted to YouTube.

The only thing is that my personal testing is focussed on YouTube and Gmail - can't try everything. ;-)

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Re: Cannot Find Video Folder (Android)

Post by jp.fox »

Hi Harry,

I was out on track for the first time this year yesterday (UK Restrictions) and I'm having the same issue using v24.0.4. I can't view the folder in file explorer which I'd used previously but when I try to export the 224mb to the Youtube app, it goes through the upload in less than a second and goes straight to processing but the percentage processed doesn't move before failing. When I try attaching to Gmail, it says it 'can't attach empty file'... Any suggestions for something else I can try?

Thanks,
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Re: Cannot Find Video Folder (Android)

Post by Harry »

For late Android versions, invisibility in file explorer is expected. App private data. youtube should actually work. I received another report there are problems in case the video is on an external SD card. Does this apply for your situation?

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Re: Cannot Find Video Folder (Android)

Post by jp.fox »

Thanks Harry, yes I'm using an external SD card. Is there a way to save recorded videos to the SD card for space purposes but then export/overlay the video onto the phone memory to be able to share it?
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