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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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);

}

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.

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 & .docx
                        "application/vnd.ms-powerpoint", "application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.presentation", // .ppt & .pptx
                        "application/vnd.ms-excel", "application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet", // .xls & .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);
    }