Android EACCES (Permission denied) only on certain devices

Question

I need to create a folder and unzip a document in the external storage. On certain devices, like an Honor 10, Samsung J7 and Xiaomi Mi A2 it works flawlessly, but on other devices, like Huawei Mate 20 and Samsung S8 neither the creation of the folder nor the unzipping work.

These are the requested permissions in the AndroidManifest.xml

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE"/>
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE"/>

They are outside the <application> tag

In the MainActivity I request the permissions

private boolean checkPermissions() {
        if (ActivityCompat.checkSelfPermission(ActivityCompat.checkSelfPermission(this,
            Manifest.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE) == PackageManager.PERMISSION_GRANTED
            && ActivityCompat.checkSelfPermission(this, Manifest.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE) == 
            PackageManager.PERMISSION_GRANTED) {
            return true;
        }
        requestPermissions();
        return false;
}

private void requestPermissions() {
        ActivityCompat.requestPermissions(
                this,
                new String[]{Manifest.permission.READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE, 
                             Manifest.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE},
                             PERMISSION_ID
        );
}

@Override
    public void onRequestPermissionsResult(int requestCode, String[] permissions, int[] grantResults) {
        super.onRequestPermissionsResult(requestCode, permissions, grantResults);
        if (requestCode == LOCATION_PERMISSION_ID) {
            if (grantResults.length > 0 && grantResults[0] == PackageManager.PERMISSION_GRANTED) {
                setFiles();
            }
        }
    }

After Permission has been granted I execute setFiles(); which creates the folder, a .nomedia file and unzips videos.zip into the created folder

public void setFiles(){
        createFolder();
        unzip();
    }

    private void createFolder() {
        //Create Folder
        File folder = new File(Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory().toString()+"/.videoFiles");
        folder.mkdirs();

        //Save the path as a string value
        extStorageDirectory = folder.toString();

        createNomedia();
    }

    private void createNomedia() {
        String filepath = extStorageDirectory;

        File file = new File(filepath+ "/.nomedia");
        try {
            file.createNewFile();
        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }

    private boolean unzip() {
        String zipFile = Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory().toString() + "/videos.zip";
        try{
            FileUnzipper.unzip(zipFile, extStorageDirectory);
            unzipComplete = true;
        } catch (IOException ex){
            Log.e("unzipping", "unzip Exception" + ex);
            unzipComplete = false;

        }
    }

This is the FileUnzipper class:

import android.util.Log;

import java.io.BufferedInputStream;
import java.io.BufferedOutputStream;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.FileInputStream;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.zip.ZipEntry;
import java.util.zip.ZipInputStream;

import static android.content.ContentValues.TAG;

public class FileUnzipper{

    final static int BUFFER_SIZE = 2048;

    public static void unzip(String zipFile, String location) throws IOException {
        int size;
        byte[] buffer = new byte[BUFFER_SIZE];

        try {
            if ( !location.endsWith(File.separator) ) {
                location += File.separator;
            }
            File f = new File(location);
            if(!f.isDirectory()) {
                f.mkdirs();
            }
            ZipInputStream zin = new ZipInputStream(new BufferedInputStream(new FileInputStream(zipFile), BUFFER_SIZE));
            try {
                ZipEntry ze = null;
                while ((ze = zin.getNextEntry()) != null) {
                    String path = location + ze.getName();
                    File unzipFile = new File(path);

                    if (ze.isDirectory()) {
                        if(!unzipFile.isDirectory()) {
                            unzipFile.mkdirs();
                        }
                    } else {
                        // check for and create parent directories if they don't exist
                        File parentDir = unzipFile.getParentFile();
                        if ( null != parentDir ) {
                            if ( !parentDir.isDirectory() ) {
                                parentDir.mkdirs();
                            }
                        }

                        // unzip the file
                        FileOutputStream out = new FileOutputStream(unzipFile, false);
                        BufferedOutputStream fout = new BufferedOutputStream(out, BUFFER_SIZE);
                        try {
                            while ( (size = zin.read(buffer, 0, BUFFER_SIZE)) != -1 ) {
                                fout.write(buffer, 0, size);
                            }

                            zin.closeEntry();
                        }
                        finally {
                            fout.flush();
                            fout.close();
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
            finally {
                zin.close();
            }
        }
        catch (Exception e) {
            Log.e(TAG, "Unzip exception", e);
        }
    }
}

Now on some devices this all works, the folder and the .nomedia File are created and videos.zip is unzipped, on other devices I get this:

E/ContentValues: Unzip exception
      java.io.FileNotFoundException: /storage/emulated/0/videos.zip: open failed: EACCESS (Permission denied)
           at libcore.io.IOBridge.open(IoBridge.java:496)
           at java.io.FileInputStream.<init>(FileInputStream.java:159)
           at java.io.FileInputStream.<init>(FileInputStream.java:115)
           at com.example.test.FileUnzipper.unzip(FileUnzipper.java:32)

FileUnzipper.java:32 is ZipInputStream zin = new ZipInputStream(new BufferedInputStream(new FileInputStream(zipFile), BUFFER_SIZE));

I can't work out why it doesn't work on some devices and I don't know how to fix it...

any solution? it seems to happen to me as well, only on huawei phones :S — Gregor Srdic, Jan 28 '22 at 09:42

Martin Zeitler · Answer 1 · 2020-04-22T10:07:26.037

2

Try to opt-out of scoped storage with requestLegacyExternalStorage:

<manifest ... >
  <application android:requestLegacyExternalStorage="true" ... >
    ...
  </application>
</manifest>

And see data and file storage overview.

edited Apr 22 '20 at 10:07

answered Apr 22 '20 at 09:10

Martin Zeitler

1
19
155
216

It's not android 10 on any of the devices – alvwin167 Apr 22 '20 at 09:56
`Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory()` might be the problem. – Martin Zeitler Apr 22 '20 at 10:06
Is there anything else i can use instead of it? – alvwin167 Apr 22 '20 at 10:07
I use request runtime permissions and android:requestLegacyExternalStorage="true" but still get the same exception on android 11 (Pixel 4 xl) when handle opening file with custom extension. How to solve this? – brucemax Dec 07 '20 at 20:45

easy_breezy · Answer 2 · 2020-04-22T10:09:34.343

0

Try to add this strings to your Application.onCreate() method or if you don't have it put it to your first activiy's onCreate() method:

StrictMode.VmPolicy.Builder builder = new StrictMode.VmPolicy.Builder();
StrictMode.setVmPolicy(builder.build());

edited Apr 22 '20 at 10:09

answered Apr 22 '20 at 09:40

easy_breezy

1,073
7
18

Android EACCES (Permission denied) only on certain devices

2 Answers2