Android: Viewing SharedPreferences file?

Question

For debugging purposes I need to access the shared preferences file of my application. As far as I know I should find this file in /data/... but I can't access the /data folder through to missing permissions. Is this normal? Any way to still access the file? (except maybe raeding it from inside the application?) The phone is not rooted and I also don't want to root it. Thanks for any hint!

Answer 1

I have ran into this issue in the past (not having root permission on the file system but needing access to the applications data folder). If you don't have a rooted device or a developer device such as the ADP1 then you can try running your application on the emulator and then accessing the files from the "File Explorer" in eclipse or DDMS.

EDIT #1: Try using the getAll function of sharedPreferences and saving that to a file, I will see if I can throw together a sample.

EDIT #2: Example Code, created from random samples around the net, probably not the best way to do it, but I tested it and it does work. It writes a file to the root of your sdcard. Make sure you have

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

set in your manifest

private void saveSharedPreferences()
{
    // create some junk data to populate the shared preferences
    SharedPreferences prefs = getSharedPreferences("MyPrefs", MODE_PRIVATE);
    SharedPreferences.Editor prefEdit = prefs.edit();
    prefEdit.putBoolean("SomeBooleanValue_True", true);
    prefEdit.putInt("SomeIntValue_100", 100);
    prefEdit.putFloat("SomeFloatValue_1.11", 1.11f);
    prefEdit.putString("SomeStringValue_Unicorns", "Unicorns");
    prefEdit.commit();

    // BEGIN EXAMPLE
    File myPath = new File(Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory().toString());
    File myFile = new File(myPath, "MySharedPreferences");

    try
    {
        FileWriter fw = new FileWriter(myFile);
        PrintWriter pw = new PrintWriter(fw);

        Map<String,?> prefsMap = prefs.getAll();

        for(Map.Entry<String,?> entry : prefsMap.entrySet())
        {
            pw.println(entry.getKey() + ": " + entry.getValue().toString());            
        }

        pw.close();
        fw.close();
    }
    catch (Exception e)
    {
        // what a terrible failure...
        Log.wtf(getClass().getName(), e.toString());
    }
}

Sources One Two Three

Answer 2

On an unrooted phone there is unfortunately no good way to access the /data folder. You might try creating the files with MODE_WORLD_READABLE like so:

SharedPreferences myPrefs = this.getSharedPreferences("prefs", MODE_WORLD_READABLE);

and then try using adb pull to fetch the file to the desktop.

adb pull /data/data/<packagename>/shared_prefs/prefs.xml

but your mileage may vary.