What is the documents directory NSDocumentDirectory

Question

Can someone explain to me what the documents directory is on an iOS app and when to use it   Here is what I believe at present   To me  it seems to be a central folder where the user can store any files needed for the app   This would be a different location than where Core Data stores its data   It seems like each app gets its own documents directory     I am free to create a subdirectory of the documents directory  like documents directory images  or documents directory videos

User · Answer

I couldn t find the code in the doc suggested by the accepted answer but I found the updated equivalent here   File System Programming Guide    Accessing Files and Directories     -  NSURL  applicationDataDirectory       NSFileManager  sharedFM    NSFileManager defaultManager       NSArray  possibleURLs    sharedFM URLsForDirectory NSApplicationSupportDirectory                                  inDomains NSUserDomainMask       NSURL  appSupportDir   nil      NSURL  appDirectory   nil       if   possibleURLs count   gt   1               Use the first directory  if multiple are returned          appSupportDir    possibleURLs objectAtIndex 0                 If a valid app support directory exists  add the        app s bundle ID to it to specify the final directory      if  appSupportDir            NSString  appBundleID     NSBundle mainBundle  bundleIdentifier           appDirectory    appSupportDir URLByAppendingPathComponent appBundleID              return appDirectory      It discourages use of NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomain      The NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains function behaves like the   URLsForDirectory inDomains  method but returns the directory   s   location as a string-based path  You should use the   URLsForDirectory inDomains  method instead    Here are some other useful directory constants to play with  No doubt not all of these are supported in iOS  Also you can use the NSHomeDirectory   function which       In iOS  the home directory is the application   s sandbox directory  In OS X  it is the application   s sandbox directory or the current user   s home directory  if the application is not in a sandbox    From NSPathUtilities h  NSApplicationDirectory   1                 supported applications  Applications      NSDemoApplicationDirectory                 unsupported applications  demonstration versions  Demos      NSDeveloperApplicationDirectory            developer applications  Developer Applications   DEPRECATED - there is no one single Developer directory      NSAdminApplicationDirectory                system and network administration applications  Administration      NSLibraryDirectory                         various documentation  support  and configuration files  resources  Library      NSDeveloperDirectory                       developer resources  Developer  DEPRECATED - there is no one single Developer directory      NSUserDirectory                            user home directories  Users      NSDocumentationDirectory                   documentation  Documentation      NSDocumentDirectory                        documents  Documents      NSCoreServiceDirectory                     location of CoreServices directory  System Library CoreServices      NSAutosavedInformationDirectory NS ENUM AVAILABLE 10 6  4 0    11       location of autosaved documents  Documents Autosaved      NSDesktopDirectory   12                    location of user s desktop     NSCachesDirectory   13                     location of discardable cache files  Library Caches      NSApplicationSupportDirectory   14         location of application support files  plug-ins  etc   Library Application Support      NSDownloadsDirectory NS ENUM AVAILABLE 10 5  2 0    15                  location of the user s  Downloads  directory     NSInputMethodsDirectory NS ENUM AVAILABLE 10 6  4 0    16               input methods  Library Input Methods      NSMoviesDirectory NS ENUM AVAILABLE 10 6  4 0    17                     location of user s Movies directory    Movies      NSMusicDirectory NS ENUM AVAILABLE 10 6  4 0    18                      location of user s Music directory    Music      NSPicturesDirectory NS ENUM AVAILABLE 10 6  4 0    19                   location of user s Pictures directory    Pictures      NSPrinterDescriptionDirectory NS ENUM AVAILABLE 10 6  4 0    20         location of system s PPDs directory  Library Printers PPDs      NSSharedPublicDirectory NS ENUM AVAILABLE 10 6  4 0    21               location of user s Public sharing directory    Public      NSPreferencePanesDirectory NS ENUM AVAILABLE 10 6  4 0    22            location of the PreferencePanes directory for use with System Preferences  Library PreferencePanes      NSApplicationScriptsDirectory NS ENUM AVAILABLE 10 8  NA    23          location of the user scripts folder for the calling application    Library Application Scripts code-signing-id      NSItemReplacementDirectory NS ENUM AVAILABLE 10 6  4 0    99           For use with NSFileManager s URLForDirectory inDomain appropriateForURL create error      NSAllApplicationsDirectory   100           all directories where applications can occur     NSAllLibrariesDirectory   101              all directories where resources can occur     NSTrashDirectory NS ENUM AVAILABLE 10 8  NA    102                      location of Trash directory   And finally  some convenience methods in an NSURL category http   club15cc com code ios easy-ios-file-directory-paths-with-this-handy-nsurl-category

User · Answer

Swift 3 and 4 as global var   var documentsDirectory  URL       return FileManager default urls for   documentDirectory  in   userDomainMask  last      As FileManager extension   extension FileManager       static var documentsDirectory  URL           return  default  urls for   documentDirectory  in   userDomainMask  last             var documentsDirectory  URL           return urls for   documentDirectory  in   userDomainMask  last

User · Answer

This has changed in iOS 8  See the following tech note  https   developer apple com library ios technotes tn2406  index html  The Apple sanctioned way  from the link above  is as follows      Returns the URL to the application s Documents directory  -  NSURL   applicationDocumentsDirectory       return    NSFileManager defaultManager  URLsForDirectory NSDocumentDirectory inDomains NSUserDomainMask  lastObject

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Your app only  on a non-jailbroken device  runs in a  sandboxed  environment  This means that it can only access files and directories within its own contents  For example Documents and Library   See the iOS Application Programming Guide   To access the Documents directory of your applications sandbox  you can use the following   iOS 8 and newer  this is the recommended method     NSURL   applicationDocumentsDirectory        return    NSFileManager defaultManager  URLsForDirectory NSDocumentDirectory inDomains NSUserDomainMask  lastObject       if you need to support iOS 7 or earlier     NSString    applicationDocumentsDirectory            NSArray  paths   NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains NSDocumentDirectory  NSUserDomainMask  YES       NSString  basePath   paths firstObject      return basePath      This Documents directory allows you to store files and subdirectories your app creates or may need   To access files in the Library directory of your apps sandbox use  in place of paths above     NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains NSLibraryDirectory  NSUserDomainMask  YES  objectAtIndex 0

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Here s a useful little function  which makes using creating iOS folders a little easier   You pass it the name of a subfolder  it ll return the full path back to you  and make sure the directory exists    Personally  I stick this static function in my AppDelete class  but perhaps this isn t the smartest place to put it    Here s how you would call it  to get the  full path  of a MySavedImages subdirectory   NSString  fullPath    AppDelegate getFullPath   MySavedImages      And here s the full function     NSString  getFullPath  NSString  folderName           Check whether a subdirectory exists in our sandboxed Documents directory          Returns the full path of the directory             NSArray  paths   NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains NSDocumentDirectory  NSUserDomainMask  YES       if  paths count  lt  1          return nil       NSString  rootFolder    paths firstObject       NSString  fullFolderPath    rootFolder stringByAppendingPathComponent folderName        BOOL isDirectory      NSFileManager  manager    NSFileManager defaultManager        if    manager fileExistsAtPath fullFolderPath isDirectory  amp isDirectory      isDirectory            NSError  error   nil          NSDictionary  attr    NSDictionary dictionaryWithObject NSFileProtectionComplete                                                          forKey NSFileProtectionKey            manager createDirectoryAtPath fullFolderPath            withIntermediateDirectories YES                             attributes attr                                  error  amp error           if  error                NSLog   Error creating directory path        error localizedDescription                return nil                      return fullFolderPath      Using this little function  it s easy to create a directory in your app s Documents directory  if it doesn t already exist   and to write a file into it     Here s how I would create the directory  and write the contents of one of my image files into it        Let s create a  MySavedImages  subdirectory  if it doesn t already exist  NSString  fullPath    AppDelegate getFullPath   MySavedImages         As an example  let s load the data in one of my images files NSString  imageFilename     icnCross png    UIImage  image    UIImage imageNamed imageFilename   NSData  imageData   UIImagePNGRepresentation image        Obtain the full path filename where we can write this  png to  in our new MySavedImages directory NSString  imageFilePathname    fullPath stringByAppendingPathComponent imageFilename        Write the data  imageData writeToFile imageFilePathname atomically YES     Hope this helps

User · Answer

It can be cleaner to add an extension to FileManager for this kind of awkward call  for tidiness if nothing else   Something like   extension FileManager       static var documentDir   URL           return FileManager default urls for   documentDirectory  in   userDomainMask  first

User · Answer

Aside from the Documents folder  iOS also lets you save files to the temp and Library folders    For more information on which one to use  see this link from the documentation       Where You Should Put Your App   s Files

User · Answer

You can access documents directory using this code it is basically used for storing file in plist format   NSArray  paths   NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains NSDocumentDirectory  NSUserDomainMask  YES   NSString  documentsDirectory    paths firstObject   return documentsDirectory

User · Answer

Like others mentioned  your app runs in a sandboxed environment and you can use the documents directory to store images or other assets your app may use  eg  downloading offline-d files as user prefers - File System Basics - Apple Documentation - Which directory to use  for storing application specific files  Updated to swift 5  you can use one of these functions  as per requirement -   func getDocumentsDirectory   - gt  URL       let paths   FileManager default urls for   documentDirectory  in   userDomainMask      return paths 0     func getCacheDirectory   - gt  URL           let paths   FileManager default urls for   cachesDirectory  in   userDomainMask          return paths 0         func getApplicationSupportDirectory   - gt  URL           let paths   FileManager default urls for   applicationSupportDirectory  in   userDomainMask          return paths 0          Usage   let urlPath    https   jumpcloud com wp-content uploads 2017 06 SSH-Keys png    Or string path to some URL of valid image  for eg   if let url   URL string  urlPath       let destination   getDocumentsDirectory   appendingPathComponent url lastPathComponent      do           let data   try Data contentsOf  url    Synchronous call  just as an example         try data write to  destination        catch               Do something to handle the error

[ios] What is the documents directory (NSDocumentDirectory)?

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