Support for older Android devices

[feutl]

Getting old Android tablets and use them as a photoframe with photocloud-frame is very easy, but those 20$ second hand tablets are using 4.x androids. In my case I have 2 tables with 4.1 and one with 4.4
Is there a way to get the latest version ported to 4.1 as well, or are there any technical reasons why 4.4 is the "oldest" supported version ?

Another option I could live with, is just downloading the apk and installing it manually, if this is technically not restricted by the app.

[mvysny]

Unfortunately that's because the android device fragmentation. The READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE https://developer.android.com/reference/android/Manifest.permission#READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE works properly starting from Android 19; on lower devices even though PhotoCloud declared a requirement for READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE there would still be devices that would crash that the READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE is missing :(

Since there are so few of those old devices according to Google Play and supporting them requires money that the app doesn't earn, I decided to go with the simplest solution of dropping support of devices below API 19 (4.4)

[feutl]

ok thanks, makes sense.

Would it be possible to install the latest APK and install it manually on the device?
I am not using "External Storage" or is every storage "external" if it is not the system itself?

thanks

[mvysny]

Unfortunately that depends on the particular device and its policies (including security policies). Some devices simply open SD-Card for all and close their root FS; SD-Card-less devices can publish a special folder with special rights and fake it as a SD-Card; it's really hard to tell. I've encountered a lot of scenarios and it's impossible to cater for all since there are 10000+ various Android devices.

Regarding the APK manual install - I think that the adb tool will complain, but I can test this in the Emulator.

[feutl]

no worries, I test that on my own, if it is not working I install the "old" version from the play store again and setup the nextcloud account. not that hard.
I give you feedback as soon as I had time to do this.

[mvysny]

I've added a link to the unofficial build to the FAQ / Supported Android Versions, please try it out 👍

[feutl]

I will do - over christmas :)
THANKS

[feutl]

forgot to report back, sorry, but works just fine :)

[mvysny]

Awesome, good to hear that 👍