How to determine MIME type of file in android?

Question

First and foremost, you should consider calling MimeTypeMap#getMimeTypeFromExtension(), like this:

// url = file path or whatever suitable URL you want.
public static String getMimeType(String url) {
    String type = null;
    String extension = MimeTypeMap.getFileExtensionFromUrl(url);
    if (extension != null) {
        type = MimeTypeMap.getSingleton().getMimeTypeFromExtension(extension);
    }
    return type;
}

Detect mime type of any file

public String getMimeType(Uri uri) {           
    String mimeType = null;
    if (ContentResolver.SCHEME_CONTENT.equals(uri.getScheme())) {
        ContentResolver cr = getAppContext().getContentResolver();
        mimeType = cr.getType(uri);
    } else {
        String fileExtension = MimeTypeMap.getFileExtensionFromUrl(uri
                .toString());
        mimeType = MimeTypeMap.getSingleton().getMimeTypeFromExtension(
                fileExtension.toLowerCase());
    }
    return mimeType;
}

The MimeTypeMap solution above returned null in my usage. This works, and is easier:

Uri uri = Uri.fromFile(file);
ContentResolver cR = context.getContentResolver();
String mime = cR.getType(uri);

Optimized version of Jens' answere with null-safety and fallback-type.

@NonNull
static String getMimeType(@NonNull File file) {
    String type = null;
    final String url = file.toString();
    final String extension = MimeTypeMap.getFileExtensionFromUrl(url);
    if (extension != null) {
        type = MimeTypeMap.getSingleton().getMimeTypeFromExtension(extension.toLowerCase());
    }
    if (type == null) {
        type = "image/*"; // fallback type. You might set it to */*
    }
    return type;
}

Important: getFileExtensionFromUrl() only works with lowercase!

---

Update (19.03.2018)

Bonus: Above methods as a less verbose Kotlin extension function:

fun File.getMimeType(fallback: String = "image/*"): String {
    return MimeTypeMap.getFileExtensionFromUrl(toString())
            ?.run { MimeTypeMap.getSingleton().getMimeTypeFromExtension(toLowerCase()) }
            ?: fallback // You might set it to */*
}

File file = new File(path, name);

    MimeTypeMap mime = MimeTypeMap.getSingleton();
    int index = file.getName().lastIndexOf('.')+1;
    String ext = file.getName().substring(index).toLowerCase();
    String type = mime.getMimeTypeFromExtension(ext);

    intent.setDataAndType(Uri.fromFile(file), type);
    try
    {
      context.startActivity(intent);
    }
    catch(ActivityNotFoundException ex)
    {
        ex.printStackTrace();

    }

Pay super close attention to umerk44's solution above. getMimeTypeFromExtension invokes guessMimeTypeTypeFromExtension and is CASE SENSITIVE. I spent an afternoon on this then took a closer look - getMimeTypeFromExtension will return NULL if you pass it "JPG" whereas it will return "image/jpeg" if you pass it "jpg".