Reboot to view files on Android external storage

Question

I have created a simple application to take some user data and write it to a text file which gets saved on the external storage of my device. However, I am unable to access those files using my computer until after I have rebooted my device. Can anyone tell me why this is and if there is something I can do to fix it?

Here is the code I use to write data.

private void commitToFile(String worldOrApp, String xPos, String yPos, String orient) {
    Intent intent = getIntent();
    String filename = intent.getStringExtra(MainActivity.FILENAME) + ".txt";
    final String position = worldOrApp + " - x: " + xPos + "; y: " + yPos + "; alpha: " + orient + "\r\n";
    File myPath = Environment.getExternalStoragePublicDirectory(Environment.DIRECTORY_DOWNLOADS);
    File myFolder = new File(myPath.getAbsolutePath()+"/test_folder");
    if (!myFolder.exists()) {
        myFolder.mkdirs();
    }
    File myFile = new File(myFolder, filename);
    try {
    FileOutputStream fileOutputStream = new FileOutputStream(myFile, true);
    OutputStreamWriter outputStreamWriter = new OutputStreamWriter(fileOutputStream);
        outputStreamWriter.write(position);
        outputStreamWriter.flush();
        outputStreamWriter.close();
    } catch (Exception e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
}

After you wrote the data to the file, did you close the file programmatically? — yardie, Jun 10 '16 at 13:26
Every time I use the OutputStreamWriter, I do .write(stuff) then .flush() then .close(), so I think that is what you mean. — rstemme, Jun 10 '16 at 13:30
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/32789157/how-to-write-files-to-external-public-storage-in-android-so-that-they-are-visibl — CommonsWare, Jun 10 '16 at 13:53

score 0 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 11:44

Thanks to @CommonsWare for the direction. I found the following code at Android saving file to external storage

// Tell the media scanner about the new file so that it is
// immediately available to the user.
MediaScannerConnection.scanFile(this, new String[] { file.toString() }, null,
        new MediaScannerConnection.OnScanCompletedListener() {
            public void onScanCompleted(String path, Uri uri) {
            }
        });

which I placed directly underneath the exception catch in my code, and updated file to myFile, which is the relevant File for my commitToFile method.

Reboot to view files on Android external storage

1 Answers1