CODEWITHSUNDEEP
androidxamarinpermissionsfile-access
Christian Findlay
Christian Findlay

Reputation: 7682

Where To Store App Files in Android So That Other Apps Can Access Them (Xamarin)

There are a tonne of questions about where to store data on Android and I don't want to duplicate any of those. This article gives some starting points to answer this question:

https://developer.android.com/guide/topics/data/data-storage.html

Most other articles are telling me to put files here: System.Environment.SpecialFolder.Personal

But, I need other apps to be able to access the file. Which folder should I choose so that I can navigate to the folder from a file explorer on Android, or be able to copy the file to my Windows machine via USB.

I tried the folder System.Environment.SpecialFolder.CommonApplicationData at random, but the app errored and I wasn't able to write the file.

Essentially, all I am asking is: which folder can I write to in an Android app that I can easily get to from outside the application? I'm happy to add permissions. This is mainly for debugging purposes right now.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 974

Answers (1)

matthewrdev
matthewrdev

Reputation: 12170

Store your files in External Storage by getting the external storage path with Environment.ExternalStorageDirectory.AbsolutePath.

Example:

public class FileStorage
{
    public string MyExternalFolder
    {
        get
        {
            return Path.Combine(Android.OS.Environment.ExternalStorageDirectory.AbsolutePath, "MyAppFolder");
        }
    }

    public void SaveToExternalStorage(string fileName, string content)
    {
        var filePath = Path.Combine(MyExternalFolder, fileName);

        File.WriteAllText(filePath, content);
    }
}

Upvotes: 2

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