Access photos from external storage in Android Q

Question

I recently upgraded the app's target version to API 29. Due to the scoped storage in Android 10, i used MediaStore API to store and retrieve images from app external storage. Earlier, i used getExternalStoragePublicDirectory to store images taken through camera, now i use MediaStore.Images.Media.EXTERNAL_CONTENT_URI to write file to an external storage location.

Issue i am facing now is, When i open my app and take pictures, it stores under a folder name that i gave 'myapp' and i can retrieve my images through Mediastore cursor and show them in a custom gallery. And when i uninstall my app 'myapp' folder still exists. And when i install my app again and try to read the images from the gallery, cursor is not returning any image. But if i take picture again, then i could load them to my custom gallery. Custom gallery view is just a row of images at the bottom of the screen, so that user doesn't have to browse through the photos folder to load the image to the app.

This is how i store my images in the MediaStore

Content values:

String RELATIVE_PATH = Environment.DIRECTORY_PICTURES + File.separator + "myApp";
final ContentValues contentValues = new ContentValues();
contentValues.put(MediaStore.MediaColumns.DISPLAY_NAME, generateImageName(new Date()));
contentValues.put(MediaStore.MediaColumns.MIME_TYPE, "image/jpg");
contentValues.put(MediaStore.MediaColumns.RELATIVE_PATH, RELATIVE_PATH);

Generate Name method:

int sameSecondCount;
protected String generateName(Date now)
    {
        String result = formatter.format(now);

        long nowMillis = now.getTime();
        if (nowMillis / 1000 == lastMillis / 1000)
        {
            sameSecondCount++;
            result += "_" + sameSecondCount;
        }
        else
            sameSecondCount = 0;

        lastMillis = nowMillis;

        return result + PICTURE_EXTENSION_JPG;
    }

@WorkerThread
    private Uri writePictureToFile(ContentValues contentValues, byte[] bitmapBytes) throws IOException
    {
        final ContentResolver resolver = getApplication().getContentResolver();

        Uri uri = null;
        final Uri contentUri = MediaStore.Images.Media.EXTERNAL_CONTENT_URI;

        try
        {
            uri = resolver.insert(contentUri, contentValues);

            if (uri == null)
                throw new IOException("Failed to create new MediaStore record.");

            OutputStream stream = resolver.openOutputStream(uri);

            if (stream == null)
            {
                throw new IOException("Failed to get output stream.");
            }

            stream.write(bitmapBytes);
        }
        catch (IOException e)
        {
            // Delete the content from the media store
            if (uri != null)
                resolver.delete(uri, null, null);
            throw e;
        }
        return uri;
    } 

Reading images

{
                String selectionMimeType = MediaStore.Files.FileColumns.MIME_TYPE + " in (?,?,?)";
                String[] args = new String[]{
                    MimeTypeMap.getSingleton().getMimeTypeFromExtension("jpg"),
                    MimeTypeMap.getSingleton().getMimeTypeFromExtension("png")};

                Cursor cursor = context.getContentResolver()
                    .query(MediaStore.Images.Media.EXTERNAL_CONTENT_URI, columns, selectionMimeType, selectionArgs,
                        orderBy + " DESC");
                if (cursor != null)
                {
                    int idColumnIndex = imageCursor.getColumnIndex(MediaStore.Images.Media._ID);
                    imageCursor.moveToFirst();
                    int imageCount = imageCursor.getCount();
                    for (int i = 0; i < imageCount && i < totalCount; i++)
                    {
                        final long imageId = imageCursor.getLong(idColumnIndex);
                        Uri uriImage = Uri.withAppendedPath(uriExternal, "" + imageId);
                        GalleryData galleryImageData = new GalleryImageData(imageId, uriImage); // Custom class with id and Uri
                        galleryViewModelList.add(galleryImageData);
                        imageCursor.moveToNext();
                    }
                    imageCursor.close();
                }

Why the images that i stored in the folder in Mediastore is not being returned by the above code when i reinstall my App. Is it by design or am i missing something?

These are the columns i am retrieving,

final String[] columns = { MediaStore.Images.Media.DATA, MediaStore.Images.Media._ID, MediaStore.Images.Media.MIME_TYPE };
final String orderBy = MediaStore.Images.Media.DATE_TAKEN; ```

Answer 1

For unclear reasons, Android 10 considers two app installations separated by time to be separate apps, no different than if those were two completely different apps.

As a result, once your app is uninstalled, it loses access to all files that it created... even if the same app is later reinstalled.

So, you need to treat files from a previous installation of your app the same way as you would treat files from completely unrelated apps: request READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE to be able to query for them and read their contents. The "read their contents" part requires android:requestLegacyExternalStorage="true" on the <application> in the manifest.