Storage path explained

📱 Desktop & mobile clients 🤖 Android
1

Can someone explain to me the different options and advantages/disadvantages between different storage path options:

  1. /storage/emulated/0/Android/media/com.nextcloud.client
  2. /storage/{SD CARD}/Android/media/com.nextcloud.client
  3. /data/user/0/com.nextcloud.client/files
  4. /storage/emulated/0/Android/data/com.nextcloud.client/files

Secondly, can the path be any shorter. I try to use it with Keepass but from time to time I have an odd error that it cannot open the file but after closing and re-opening the problem is gone.

Cheers :clinking_glasses:

1 Like
2

I would also like to see this documented, reading https://developer.android.com/training/data-storage I think that the following mapping applies, with consequences:

  1. media files - readable by other apps with the READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE permission
  2. media files on SD card - readable by other apps (ditto?)
  3. Documents and other files - readable by any other app through the system file picker
  4. App-specific files - only readable by Nextcloud

As said, just a guess, a confirmation would really be nice after all this time.

3

That’s exactly the information I’m searching for as well!
Following some Screenshots from my Pixel 5 with Android 11:

Screenshot_20210224-195941

Screenshot_20210224-200005

What I want:
Opening and editing files with other apps.
Auto-Upload of media and custom directories.

What I get now:
Auto-Upload of media works.
Opening with other apps doesn’t.

It’s just not clear to me which setting is the right one and since the official docu is for 1.0.0 that’s not helping either.

Maybe @Andy can give some insights?

Best
Daniel

4

I haven’t looked into storage paths for a while so I could only guess which one is readable for others but would guess it is the first one (*/media/*).

Also about custom directories (as in upload) that should be configurable via the auto upload to-right menu

5

Thanks a lot! Is there any chance such info could be verified, or maybe the documentation for the Android client could be updated? I know, volunteers welcomed… but it’s so out of date, I wouldn’t even know where to start.

6

A discussion to simply show easier to understand names has been started a while ago: Better naming for /storage/emulated/0 (first storage, e.g. internal storage or sdcard) · Issue #2416 · nextcloud/android · GitHub but went back to sleep so I guess it would be berst to revivie it and simply have understandable names (which is also what UX would prefer)

7

@dcbx This is the one you’d be looking for: "Storage path" setting is too technical · Issue #1088 · nextcloud/android · GitHub ff.