Android saving file to external storage without adding write permission?

Question

Can we write data to external storage without adding write permission in the manifest ? Does Storage access Framework or Download manager gives any support for this?

Answer 1

It depends where you want to write the files and what SDK(s) you are targeting. If you want to write the files in your app's external directories (getExternalFilesDir(String) and getExternalCacheDir()) and you are targeting SDK19+, then the permission is not required. If you want to write in other areas or targeting SDK<19, then you need the permission. HOWEVER, based on my experience, there is a bug in some Lollipop versions out there that is causing the permission to still be required. So I usually put <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE" android:maxSdkVersion="22"/> in my manifest.

Answer 2

Short answer: no. If there was an easy way to bypass required permissions they'd be pretty pointless. See the documentation below:

https://developer.android.com/training/basics/data-storage/files.html

To write to external storage, you need permission to write to external storage.

Why would you want to take an action you haven't received permission for anyway?

Answer 3

Maybe FileProvider is what you are looking for.

FileProvider is part of Support Library, available for all Android versions starting 2.3. The main goal of this API is to temporary open a private file to some targeted apps: you keep the file in your private folder, and let some other apps read or even write it via a secured ContentProvider. Permissions are revoked when your activity is destroyed.

More info