CODEWITHSUNDEEP
swiftuiimagensuserdefaultsnsdatansdocumentdirectory
David Chopin
David Chopin

Reputation: 3064

Why is saving UIImage data to UserDefaults ill advised?

I am wondering why storing user profile images as Data to user defaults is ill advised. The reason being: I have already created an app that has some people using it. The app requires that users create a profile, on which they can upload up to 6 profile pictures. The images get pushed to my back end and also are stored as Data to the app's user defaults.

I've read that it is better to save these images to the document directory and save the file path as a string to user defaults. Why is this exactly? Is it such a big deal that I should take the time to write code that will convert images saved as Data to user defaults on already existing devices to images saved to the document directory?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 43

Answers (1)

matt
matt

Reputation: 535325

The "why" is easy. The UserDefaults is not a database. It's just a plist file. Either the whole thing is loaded into memory at once or it isn't. If it is, there are all your UIImage data objects sitting in memory. Memory is limited and images are big. Plus you waste time during loading and saving.

The "is it such a big deal" part is a matter of opinion. In my own opinion, yes, it is. That's because I've gone through this process, and I was glad I did. Yes, it's a pain writing migration code, but once you've done it you just leave it in place and your app is now handling data saving correctly forever after.

Upvotes: 1

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