Saving files in Android 11 to external storage(SDK 30)

Question

I am writing a new Application on Android 11 (SDK Version 30) and I simply cannot find an example on how to save a file to the external storage.

I read their documentation and now know that they basicly ignore Manifest Permissions (READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE and WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE). They also ignore the android:requestLegacyExternalStorage="true" in the manifest.xml application tag.

In their documentation https://developer.android.com/about/versions/11/privacy/storage they write you need to enable the DEFAULT_SCOPED_STORAGE and FORCE_ENABLE_SCOPED_STORAGE flags to enable scoped storage in your app.

Where do I have to enable those? And when I've done that how and when do I get the actual permission to write to the external storage? Can someone provide working code?
I want to save .gif, .png and .mp3 files. So I don't want to write to the gallery.

Thanks in advance.

Read this: https://stackoverflow.com/a/66366102/9917404 – Thoriya Prahalad Feb 25 '21 at 09:52 — Thoriya Prahalad, Feb 25 '21 at 09:52

Noor Hossain · Answer 1 · 2021-12-10T16:11:20.573

21

Corresponding To All Api, included Api 30, Android 11 :

public static File commonDocumentDirPath(String FolderName)
{
    File dir = null;
    if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.R)
    {
        dir = new File(Environment.getExternalStoragePublicDirectory(Environment.DIRECTORY_DOCUMENTS) + "/" + FolderName);
    }
    else
    {
        dir = new File(Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory() + "/" + FolderName);
    }

    // Make sure the path directory exists.
    if (!dir.exists())
    {
        // Make it, if it doesn't exit
        boolean success = dir.mkdirs();
        if (!success)
        {
            dir = null;
        }
    }
    return dir;
}

Now, use this commonDocumentDirPath for saving file.

A side note from comments, getExternalStoragePublicDirectory with certain scopes are now working with Api 30, Android 11. Cheers! Thanks to CommonsWare hints.

edited Dec 10 '21 at 16:11

answered Feb 22 '21 at 14:10

Noor Hossain

1,248
1
14
21

`dir.mkdirs();` mkdirs() does not throw exceptions but returns true or false. If it returns false you should let your commonDocumentDirPath function return a null. And the caller should check for null. – blackapps Feb 22 '21 at 15:43
??? You removed the whole mkdirs() call. Please add it again. You cannot do without. – blackapps Feb 22 '21 at 15:55
while saving file with getParentDirs I have saved it. – Noor Hossain Feb 22 '21 at 16:00
11

getExternalStoragePublicDirectory & getExternalStorageDirectory both are deprecated... – Bhavesh Moradiya Apr 05 '21 at 11:23
2

@BhaveshMoradiya, yes, But now in Android 11 for the above approaches works well for all versions correspondingly. Thanks commonsware hints. – Noor Hossain Apr 17 '21 at 16:00
@NoorHossain can you share the full code snippet about the camera image store? I want to capture a profile picture and store it. I tried other methods available (using manage storage permission) but while uploading on playstore it blocked my app. Can you please help me – mr.volatile Jun 14 '21 at 10:16
@VaibhavA, sorry brother I don't know about blocked. But you can test the above code for image folder or picture folder. And with runtime permission. I do not know if this solved your problem. You can ask your question in stack overflow with your codes. – Noor Hossain Jun 15 '21 at 16:57
@NoorHossain I've asked a question here, please answer if you know.. https://stackoverflow.com/q/67984238/7850506 – mr.volatile Jun 16 '21 at 05:58
It's working fine, Can you suggest to read status as well from Whatsapp? I am trying to read status from this location "Android/media/com.whatsapp/WhatsApp/Media/.Statuses" but not able to get it. – Md Mohsin Aug 06 '21 at 11:22
getExternalStoragePublicDirectory is deprecated now.. – Aditya Patil Sep 14 '21 at 09:28
@AdityaPatil, You do not know, getExternalStoragePublicDirectory came again! – Noor Hossain Feb 14 '22 at 23:04

score 7 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 09 '21 at 08:05

7

You can save files to the public directories on external storage.

Like Documents, Download, DCIM, Pictures and so on.

In the usual way like before version 10.

answered Jan 09 '21 at 08:05

blackapps

6,227
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4

But, app doesn't recognize those files after uninstall and reinstall app. – Noor Hossain Apr 10 '21 at 22:48
Yes we know but that was not asked for. And.. using saf the app can. – blackapps Apr 11 '21 at 06:58
1

what is saf ? and how can the app recognizes the old file that it was created before uninstall, after reinstall ? – Noor Hossain Apr 13 '21 at 18:27
The question is about Android 11 – still_dreaming_1 Sep 25 '21 at 00:06
As I understand, you actually can use at least 4 directories: DCIM, Download, Movies, and Pictures. Each of them described as "top-level public directory" here: https://developer.android.google.cn/reference/android/os/Environment#DIRECTORY_DCIM – antaki93 Feb 02 '22 at 18:27
On Android 12, it's actually only "Download" and "Documents" you can write to. – bk138 May 16 '22 at 07:56
No. To all public directories like i told in my post. But not all types of files go everywhere. – blackapps May 18 '22 at 04:56

score 5 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 29 '21 at 03:13

Simplest Answer and Tested ( Java )

private void createFile(String title) {
        Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_CREATE_DOCUMENT);
        intent.addCategory(Intent.CATEGORY_OPENABLE);
        intent.setType("text/html");
        intent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_TITLE, title);

    if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.O) {
        intent.putExtra(DocumentsContract.EXTRA_INITIAL_URI, Uri.parse("/Documents"));
    }
    createInvoiceActivityResultLauncher.launch(intent);
}

private void createInvoice(Uri uri) {
    try {
        ParcelFileDescriptor pfd = getContentResolver().
                openFileDescriptor(uri, "w");
        if (pfd != null) {
            FileOutputStream fileOutputStream = new FileOutputStream(pfd.getFileDescriptor());
            fileOutputStream.write(invoice_html.getBytes());
            fileOutputStream.close();
            pfd.close();
        }
    } catch (IOException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
}

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// You can do the assignment inside onAttach or onCreate, i.e, before the activity is displayed


    String invoice_html;
    ActivityResultLauncher<Intent> createInvoiceActivityResultLauncher;

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {

       invoice_html = "<h1>Just for testing received...</h1>";
       createInvoiceActivityResultLauncher = registerForActivityResult(
                new ActivityResultContracts.StartActivityForResult(),
                result -> {
                    if (result.getResultCode() == Activity.RESULT_OK) {
                        // There are no request codes
                        Uri uri = null;
                        if (result.getData() != null) {
                            uri = result.getData().getData();
                            createInvoice(uri);
                            // Perform operations on the document using its URI.
                        }
                    }
                });

After a whole day, this was the solution for my PDF saving. Thank you very much! — Sava Dimitrijević, Dec 03 '21 at 13:14

score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 03 '21 at 12:28

I'm using this method and it really worked for me I hope I can help you. Feel free to ask me if something is not clear to you

   Bitmap imageBitmap;

   OutputStream outputStream ;
    
            if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.Q)
            {
                ContentResolver resolver = context.getContentResolver();
                ContentValues contentValues = new ContentValues();
                contentValues.put(MediaStore.MediaColumns.DISPLAY_NAME,"Image_"+".jpg");
                contentValues.put(MediaStore.MediaColumns.MIME_TYPE,"image/jpeg");
                contentValues.put(MediaStore.MediaColumns.RELATIVE_PATH,Environment.DIRECTORY_PICTURES + File.separator+"TestFolder");
                Uri imageUri = resolver.insert(MediaStore.Images.Media.EXTERNAL_CONTENT_URI,contentValues);
                try {
                    outputStream =  resolver.openOutputStream(Objects.requireNonNull(imageUri) );
                    imageBitmap.compress(Bitmap.CompressFormat.JPEG,100,outputStream);
                    Objects.requireNonNull(outputStream);
                    Toast.makeText(context, "Image Saved", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
                    
                } catch (Exception e) {
                    Toast.makeText(context, "Image Not Not  Saved: \n "+e, Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
    
                    e.printStackTrace();
                }
    
            }

manifest file (Add Permission)

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_MEDIA_LOCATION" />

Hi @Mark Nashat how to do for android version less than Q. By this I mean how to handle both situation? — Kundan Jha, Oct 24 '21 at 11:36
by this the code File filePath = Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory(); File dir = new File(filePath.getAbsolutePath() + "/" + context.getString(R.string.app_name) + "/"); dir.mkdir(); File file1 = new File(dir, System.currentTimeMillis() + ".jpg"); — Mark Nashat, Oct 25 '21 at 02:01
try { outputStream = new FileOutputStream(file1); bitmap.compress(Bitmap.CompressFormat.JPEG, 100, outputStream); Toast.makeText(context, "Image Saved", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show(); } catch (FileNotFoundException e) { Toast.makeText(context, "Image Not Saved: \n " + e, Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show(); e.printStackTrace(); } try { outputStream.flush(); outputStream.close(); } catch (IOException e) { e.printStackTrace() } } — Mark Nashat, Oct 25 '21 at 02:04
Thank you so much @Mark Nashat. Also, one last thing is how to know if a file exists in external storage in android 10+. Actually, I want to create the file if it does not exist else overwrite it. (Like you suggested answer above) — Kundan Jha, Oct 25 '21 at 16:29

Saving files in Android 11 to external storage(SDK 30)

4 Answers4

Simplest Answer and Tested ( Java )

Linked

Saving files in Android 11 to external storage(SDK 30)

4 Answers4

**Simplest Answer and Tested ( Java ) **

Linked

Simplest Answer and Tested ( Java )