getExternalStorageDirectory not working

Question

I am trying to save a file to my SDcard on my Samsung Galaxy Nexus running 4.2.2. From my app I am using

Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory()

But it returns

/storage/emulated/0/

Which is not where my SDcard information is located to. Is there any working method I can use to get the correct path to my SDcard?

Actually it might be. The os probably loads the sd card there, and creates a virtual representation as a drive in the root — Stas Jaro, Mar 19 '13 at 13:54
@Gabriele Mariotti And what is the solution. Do you have a reference? — powder366, Dec 22 '13 at 20:49
Here is full answer on your question: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/20734564/where-is-my-sdcard-location-on-4-4-2 — molokoka, Jul 09 '14 at 05:56
I am using Samsung tab 8 and i get the same issue. What i'm going to do is check if the path is valid and or replace /emulated/0 with emulated/legacy — blganesh101, Aug 12 '15 at 16:15

score 15 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 19 '13 at 13:53

15

Actually, that is the correct location.

From android 4,2 onwards, Google introduced multiple user accounts. Every user has his/her own external storage, which has the user ID in the path to maintain uniqueness.

The primary (default) user's ID is 0. So you get /storage/emulated/0/ as the path to the external storage.

answered Mar 19 '13 at 13:53

Raghav Sood

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theres only legacy in that folder, not a 0 folder. also there no problem with using this method on my other apps, just this one. – Luke Pring Mar 19 '13 at 18:11
@LukePring It's a symlink. It's not an actual folder. – Raghav Sood Mar 19 '13 at 18:16
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You mean there SHOULD be a symlink in there. /storage/emulated/0: No such file or directory – VMcPherron Apr 09 '14 at 15:59
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Android is using a fuse filesystem while running the app. The 0 directory does not exist on disk (via adb shell), but it does exist from within your app. – Harvey Mar 04 '15 at 15:38
there is a legacy folder which is that "0" – Amos Feb 23 '19 at 03:42

score 10 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 29 '13 at 18:20

10

I just learned this is the Jelly Bean's way of dealing with the lack of android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission. I haven't seen such a behavior with older versions of Android.

Just add this line to your AndroidManifest.xml:

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

answered Sep 29 '13 at 18:20

ohaleck

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This doesn't fix it per se. I have that set in my Manifest and it still comes back as **/storage/emulated/0**. When I use the shell for the device **/storage/emulated/0** doesn't exist. Instead of **0**, **legacy** is there. – Michael Nguyen Aug 14 '14 at 05:48
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@MichaelNguyen You can not see the **/storage/emulated/0** directory from adb shell (not even as root). It only exists in the processes launched by the user. You should see it from a terminal emulator on the device, and access it from any app. – ge0rg Mar 18 '15 at 17:06

score 5 · Answer 3 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:32

5

Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory() refers to whatever the device manufacturer considered to be "external storage". I can be something else than the SD-card.

You may get more informations here: Find an external SD card location

edited May 23 '17 at 12:32

Community

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answered Mar 19 '13 at 13:53

Alban Dericbourg

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score 1 · Answer 4 · edited Aug 10 '14 at 08:01

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I think its because of using genymotion emulator, the path is true and in Eclipse it locates at

File Explorer - > mnt - > shell - > emulated -> 0

hope it helps ;)

edited Aug 10 '14 at 08:01

David

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answered Aug 10 '14 at 07:40

farshad22

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score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Mar 19 '13 at 13:54

0

Sure? Where do you think your sdcard is mounted? Try doing ls -l on that directory – it's probably a symlink to /storage/emulated/0/.

answered Mar 19 '13 at 13:54

thejh

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I'm using ls -l at the moment for a different app, the symlink shows up to the app but not to my terminal which is the weirdest thing. – Luke Pring Jun 04 '13 at 11:02

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Sep 09 '14 at 23:46

I had somehow lost my symlink at /storage/emulated/0, causing a similar failure. What I did was use the camera app to take a picture. I observed that the pictures details said it was within /storage/emulated/0, though that directory did not exist from the file explorer. Then I rebooted the phone. After reboot the link existed.

score -1 · Answer 7 · answered Mar 19 '13 at 13:54

-1

Try to use getExternalFilesDir() or getExternalStoragePublicDirectory().

From Android 4.2 documentation

answered Mar 19 '13 at 13:54

Damien R.

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Environment.getExternalStoragePublicDirectory(Environment.DIRECTORY_PICTURES) returns a path of /storage/emulated/0/Pictures Which still is invalid on my N7 – VMcPherron Apr 09 '14 at 16:10
And I understand that it should be available for the application (not adb) during runtime, but cannot find any files in that directory when I clearly have multiple files. (ls /mnt/shell/emulated/0/Pictures/*jpg) – VMcPherron Apr 09 '14 at 16:22

getExternalStorageDirectory not working

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