Pick any kind of file via an Intent in Android

Question

I would like to start an intentchooser for apps which can return any kind of file  Currently I use  which I copied from the Android email source code for file attachment   Intent intent   new Intent Intent ACTION GET CONTENT   intent addCategory Intent CATEGORY OPENABLE   intent setType         Intent i   Intent createChooser intent   File    startActivityForResult i  CHOOSE FILE REQUESTCODE     But it only shows  Gallery  and  Music player  on my Galaxy S2  There is a file explorer on this device and I would like it to appear in the list  I would also like the camera app to show in the list  so that the user can shoot a picture and send it through my app  If I install Astro file manager it will respond to that intent  too  My customers are Galaxy SII owners only and I don t want to force them to install Astro file manager given that they already have a basic but sufficient file manager   Any idea of how I could achieve this   I am pretty sure that I already saw the default file manager appear in such a menu to pick a file  but I can t remember in which app

User · Accepted Answer

Not for camera but for other files    In my device I have ES File Explorer installed and This simply thing works in my case    Intent intent   new Intent Intent ACTION GET CONTENT   intent setType  file      startActivityForResult intent  PICKFILE REQUEST CODE

User · Answer

this work for me on galaxy note its show contacts  file managers installed on device  gallery  music player  private void openFile Int  CODE        Intent i   new Intent Intent ACTION GET CONTENT       i setType             startActivityForResult intent  CODE       here get path in onActivityResult of activity   protected void onActivityResult int requestCode  int resultCode  Intent data         String Fpath   data getDataString           do somthing        super onActivityResult requestCode  resultCode  data

User · Answer

Samsung file explorer needs not only custom action  com sec android app myfiles PICK DATA   but also category part  Intent CATEGORY DEFAULT  and mime-type should be passed as extra   Intent intent   new Intent  com sec android app myfiles PICK DATA    intent putExtra  CONTENT TYPE           intent addCategory Intent CATEGORY DEFAULT     You can also use this action for opening multiple files  com sec android app myfiles PICK DATA MULTIPLE Anyway here is my solution which works on Samsung and other devices   public void openFile String mimeType             Intent intent   new Intent Intent ACTION GET CONTENT           intent setType mimeType           intent addCategory Intent CATEGORY OPENABLE               special intent for Samsung file manager         Intent sIntent   new Intent  com sec android app myfiles PICK DATA                if you want any file type  you can skip next line          sIntent putExtra  CONTENT TYPE   mimeType            sIntent addCategory Intent CATEGORY DEFAULT            Intent chooserIntent          if  getPackageManager   resolveActivity sIntent  0     null                  it is device with Samsung file manager             chooserIntent   Intent createChooser sIntent   Open file                chooserIntent putExtra Intent EXTRA INITIAL INTENTS  new Intent     intent              else               chooserIntent   Intent createChooser intent   Open file                       try               startActivityForResult chooserIntent  CHOOSE FILE REQUESTCODE             catch  android content ActivityNotFoundException ex                Toast makeText getApplicationContext     No suitable File Manager was found    Toast LENGTH SHORT  show                      This solution works well for me  and maybe will be useful for someone else

User · Answer

This gives me the best result        Intent intent      if  android os Build MANUFACTURER equalsIgnoreCase  samsung              intent   new Intent  com sec android app myfiles PICK DATA            intent putExtra  CONTENT TYPE                   intent addCategory Intent CATEGORY DEFAULT         else            String   mimeTypes                     application msword    application vnd openxmlformats-officedocument wordprocessingml document       doc  amp   docx                          application vnd ms-powerpoint    application vnd openxmlformats-officedocument presentationml presentation       ppt  amp   pptx                          application vnd ms-excel    application vnd openxmlformats-officedocument spreadsheetml sheet       xls  amp   xlsx                          text plain                            application pdf                            application zip    application vnd android package-archive             intent   new Intent Intent ACTION GET CONTENT      or ACTION OPEN DOCUMENT         intent setType                 intent putExtra Intent EXTRA MIME TYPES  mimeTypes           intent addCategory Intent CATEGORY OPENABLE           intent putExtra Intent EXTRA LOCAL ONLY  true

User · Answer

Turns out the Samsung file explorer uses a custom action  This is why I could see the Samsung file explorer when looking for a file from the samsung apps  but not from mine   The action is  com sec android app myfiles PICK DATA   I created a custom Activity Picker which displays activities filtering both intents

User · Answer

The other answers are not incorrect  However  now there are more options for opening files  For example  if you want the app to have long term  permanent acess to a file  you can use ACTION OPEN DOCUMENT instead  Refer to the official documentation  Open files using storage access framework  Also refer to this answer

User · Answer

If you want to know this  it exists an open source library called aFileDialog that it is an small and easy to use which provides a file picker   The difference with another file chooser s libraries for Android is that aFileDialog gives you the option to open the file chooser as a Dialog and as an Activity   It also lets you to select folders  create files  filter files using regular expressions and show confirmation dialogs

[android] Pick any kind of file via an Intent in Android

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