What's the best way to find the user's Documents directory on an iPhone?

Question

I'm reading Erica Sadun's iPhone Developer's Cookbook, and ran into a question.

She says in the book that the way to find the user's Documents directory is with the code:

[NSHomeDirectory() stringByAppendingPathComponent:@"Documents"];

but that seems slightly brittle, and dissimiliar to the normal Mac way of doing it, which would be:

NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentsDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES);

Are there any particular reasons to use one over the other?

typo: NSDocumentsDirectory ==> NSDocumentDirectory – geowar Apr 01 '14 at 16:11 — geowar, Apr 01 '14 at 16:11

score 97 · Accepted Answer · edited Nov 02 '14 at 12:01

97

Objc:

NSArray *paths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES)

Swift:

var paths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSSearchPathDirectory.DocumentDirectory, NSSearchPathDomainMask.UserDomainMask, true)

You'll want the first element of the returned array.

edited Nov 02 '14 at 12:01

Matej

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answered Nov 07 '08 at 16:48

Ben Gottlieb

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Cool, that's what I'll use, but why it and not the other way? – bwinton Nov 07 '08 at 17:42
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You can use the other way, but if an upgrade to the OS changes the default structure, this answer is guaranteed to still work with the new layout while the first way will either fail or start re-creating legacy directories. – Jason Coco Nov 07 '08 at 18:12

score 50 · Answer 2 · edited Nov 13 '13 at 02:55

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Here is the code that I use in my framework.

NSArray *paths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES);
NSString *documentsDirectory = [paths objectAtIndex:0];

edited Nov 13 '13 at 02:55

Sam Spencer

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answered Dec 06 '08 at 23:37

Lee

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Since Xcode 5, you should use `[paths firstObject]` instead of `[paths objectAtIndex:0]`. – Cœur Feb 19 '14 at 13:06
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Or "NSString *documentsDirectory = paths[0];" – geowar Apr 01 '14 at 16:12
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Or `paths.firstObject` since it's a `property`. – Iulian Onofrei Dec 15 '15 at 12:54

Zelko · Answer 3 · 2021-10-21T00:51:33.887

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You should consider using the FileManager methods which return URLs, which are the preferred format.

let documentsURL = FileManager.default.urls(for: .documentDirectory, in: .userDomainMask).first

This method is intended to locate known and common directories in the system.

An array of URL objects identifying the requested directories. The directories are ordered according to the order of the domain mask constants, with items in the user domain first and items in the system domain last.

edited Oct 21 '21 at 00:51

answered Oct 11 '12 at 23:34

Zelko

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That is right. Our knowledge should be upgraded that in iOS we should use NSURL, rather than NSString (for path) to represent local file. – Juguang May 07 '13 at 09:39

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 17 '15 at 03:25

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I use this

NSString *documentPath = [NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES) lastObject];
NSString *zipLocalPath = [documentPath stringByAppendingString:fileName];

answered Jan 17 '15 at 03:25

Nguyễn Văn Chung

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score -1 · Answer 5 · answered Sep 09 '17 at 11:52

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In swift v3, I used the following snippet

var paths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(FileManager.SearchPathDirectory.documentDirectory, FileManager.SearchPathDomainMask.userDomainMask, true)

answered Sep 09 '17 at 11:52

Suresh Velusamy

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What's the best way to find the user's Documents directory on an iPhone?

5 Answers5

You should consider using the FileManager methods which return URLs, which are the preferred format.

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