Android - not able to attach a file in email

android email attachment
pankaj picture pankaj · Nov 8, 2010 · Viewed 19.2k times · Source

By default, files saved to the internal storage are private to your application and other applications cannot access them (nor can the user).

I am able to see the file "/data/data/package_name/files/ in file explore in DDMS, but when i attached the above file URI using imageUri in email , then i saw that attached file is of 0kb. i have used the default email APIs of Android.

Can anyone suggest me ,how to attach a file in email that is private to the application?

although i am successful able to save the file in SD card and attaching the file from SD card , this is working fine.

But if SD card is not available and saving the file to the internal storage , then how can i attach them in email.

String FILENAME = "hello_file.txt";
String string = "hello world!";FileOutputStream fos = openFileOutput(FILENAME,     Context.MODE_PRIVATE);
fos.write(string.getBytes());
fos.close();

File imageFile = getFileStreamPath(FILENAME );
Uri imageUri = Uri.fromFile(imageFile);

final Intent emailIntent = new Intent(android.content.Intent.ACTION_SEND);
emailIntent.setType("*/*");
emailIntent.putExtra(android.content.Intent.EXTRA_STREAM,imageUri);

this.startActivityForResult(Intent.createChooser(emailIntent, "Send mail..."),SUB_ACTIVITY);

Answer

tom picture tom · Jan 13, 2011

When you try to attach file from internal storage, GMail writes an error to the log:

ERROR/Gmail(...): file:// attachment paths must point to file:///mnt/sdcard.

E-mail application would show you the attached file even if it didn't physically exist.

As for an external storage, documentation says that:

Every Android-compatible device supports a shared "external storage" that you can use to save files. This can be a removable storage media (such as an SD card) or an internal (non-removable) storage.

That means you don't have to worry about device not having an external storage at all. Still, external storage can be unavailable at times. Refer to http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/data/data-storage.html#filesExternal

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