Storage access issues for ROMs on Google TV Streamer

[Dan Calvert]

Hi folks,

Maybe there is an obvious answer that I have missed to this somewhere, or I'm holding it wrong, but I bought the Colem app, have a few coleco ROMs I owned as a kid, but pr I can't copy them to the folder the app seems to be looking do, nor change it to a location it can access.  I have developer settings enabled, have tried to give the app the permission to access files, but still it seems the specific subdirector tree is off limits or something.  Has anyone found a good solution?  The most promising thing I saw so far was some and jack that might allow pushing data across but it feels like there must be a more straightforward way to get the emulator to readfeom at least some folder... Any help would be appreciated.  I don't know how specific this is to the Google TV Streamer device but that is what I am using. 

Cheers

Dan

[fms]

On Friday, May 16, 2025 at 9:17:45 PM UTC-4 danca...@gmail.com wrote:

Maybe there is an obvious answer that I have missed to this somewhere, or I'm holding it wrong, but I bought the Colem app, have a few coleco ROMs I owned as a kid, but pr I can't copy them to the folder the app seems to be looking do, nor change it to a location it can access.  I have developer settings enabled, have tried to give the app the permission to access files, but still it seems the specific subdirector tree is off limits or something.  Has anyone found a good solution?  The most promising thing I saw so far was some and jack that might allow pushing data across but it feels like there must be a more straightforward way to get the emulator to readfeom at least some folder... Any help would be appreciated.  I don't know how specific this is to the Google TV Streamer device but that is what I am using. 

You are supposed to click on the "Internal Storage" button in the ColEm UI, select a folder, and grant ColEm access to it. This is how Google requires 99% of the apps to behave nowadays. If your device has no internal storage, you may want to try plugging a USB flash drive into it. I have not tested this though.

[Dan Calvert]

So the device has some internal storage, and I've tried a USB key... The instructions make perfect sense but when I click Internal storage, for example, an error pops up saying "you don't have an app that can do this" (see pic).  So maybe something on the Google TV Streamer is locked down differently.

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[fms]

On Sunday, May 18, 2025 at 11:03:45 PM UTC-4 danca...@gmail.com wrote:

So the device has some internal storage, and I've tried a USB key... The instructions make perfect sense but when I click Internal storage, for example, an error pops up saying "you don't have an app that can do this" (see pic).  So maybe something on the Google TV Streamer is locked down differently.

Hmm... This would indicate that Google has "forgotten" to include their own system app that lets you choose a folder and grant access. They clearly  do not want anyone else to use the storage on this device.

[Dan Calvert]

Doing a bit of digging, it appears that the device emulates an SD card at the directory /storage/emulated/0, which appears writable.  The Colem app has the "Files" permission according to Android. 

Is there a way for me to manually specify a read directory (other than the current one restricted to storage data)?  If so I could mess around a bit and see if I can make something work for these devices.

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[fms]

If it had real access to that folder, the app would show it as an extra tile at the screen.

[Dan Calvert]

Hmm ok, sorry I haven't had a chance to play with it on other devices or see the source to know how it works.  There are some apps on the device that seem to have "special" permissions, mostly file managers.  I'm not quite sure how something gets that status though.  

Your code isn't open source, right? I do think this is probably a fairly fundamental issue with the Google TV Streamer device, not suggesting it is your big... But this device is now their flagship to replace the Chromecast and compete with AppleTV, so I'm guessing you will start seeing more similar reports.  To be honest, I have an Nvidia shield collecting dust so I can probably just pull that out and make this work for myself.  But I'm also happy to try to help troubleshoot a bit to see if we can make it work for the Google TV Streamer too.  Up to you, I am a software engineer but now rusty after years in management.  Ironically, I have worked at Google for the past 13 years but not on anything connected to this platform, so I won't pretend to have any influence there either.  Anyway happy to try to help if I can, or I can just try my shield.  

Take care.

Dan 

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