How to hide folders created in Document Directory in ios?

Question

I have created some PDF files programatically, which i am storing into the devices memory using the following code >>>>

    NSString *fileName = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"SampleTextFile.pdf",strFinalString];

    NSArray *path = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES);
    NSString *saveDirectory = [path objectAtIndex:0];
    NSString *saveFileName = fileName;
    NSString *documentPath = [saveDirectory stringByAppendingPathComponent:saveFileName];

I can see the file in the Devices Document folder.

I want to hide these files so that the user can not see or delete it.

Can anyone help me out to do this.

Answer 1

A good place to store private data is in ~/Library/Application Support/, which is the folder used on the Mac for this purpose.

You can generate a path to this folder using:

NSString *appSupportDir = [NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSApplicationSupportDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES) firstObject];

You'll have to create the folder yourself the first time you use it, which you can do with:

if (![[NSFileManager defaultManager] fileExistsAtPath:appSupportDir])
{
    [[NSFileManager defaultManager] createDirectoryAtPath:appSupportDir withIntermediateDirectories:YES attributes:nil error:NULL];
}

I wrote a simple library that makes this and all other useful iOS folders available as methods on NSFileManager: https://github.com/nicklockwood/StandardPaths

Answer 2

Just prefix the filename with a dot, as in .SampleTextFile.pdf.

But the real solution is to not store the document in the NSDocumentDirectory in the first place. You should create subdirectory in the NSLibraryDirectory and store this stuff there. It also gets backed up and will not get purged like Caches and tmp, but the user cannot access it with iTunes.