java.io.ioexception: open failed: einval (Invalid argument) when saving a image to external storage

Question

This is my code:

private boolean writeToSD(Bitmap bm, String url) {
    if (canIWriteOnSD()) {
        File sd = Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory();
        File dest = new File(sd, "MoveInBlue/");
        try {
            url = urlCleaner(url);
            if (!dest.exists()) {
                dest.mkdir();
            }
            File file = new File(dest, url + ".png");
            if (!file.exists()) {
                file.createNewFile();
            }
            FileOutputStream out = new FileOutputStream(file);
            bm.compress(Bitmap.CompressFormat.PNG, 90, out);
            out.flush();
            out.close();
            return true;
        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
            // Do nothing
        }
    }
    return false;
}

PROBLEM SOLVED:

urlCleaner now returns url.substring(url.lastIndexOf('?')+1), and everything works as intended.

The exception is actually thrown at file.createNewFile(); and I don't really know why.

Thank you very much.

(urlCleaner just removes the http://... from the url and leaves the php tags)

Here's the LogCat:

07-09 13:57:13.479: W/System.err(5715): java.io.IOException: open failed: EINVAL (Invalid argument)
07-09 13:57:13.479: W/System.err(5715):     at java.io.File.createNewFile(File.java:940)
07-09 13:57:13.479: W/System.err(5715):     at com.moveinblue.planner.asynctask.ImageDownloader.writeToSD(ImageDownloader.java:459)
07-09 13:57:13.479: W/System.err(5715):     at com.moveinblue.planner.asynctask.ImageDownloader.access$2(ImageDownloader.java:448)
07-09 13:57:13.479: W/System.err(5715):     at com.moveinblue.planner.asynctask.ImageDownloader$BitmapDownloaderTask.onPostExecute(ImageDownloader.java:270)
07-09 13:57:13.479: W/System.err(5715):     at com.moveinblue.planner.asynctask.ImageDownloader$BitmapDownloaderTask.onPostExecute(ImageDownloader.java:1)
07-09 13:57:13.479: W/System.err(5715):     at android.os.AsyncTask.finish(AsyncTask.java:602)
07-09 13:57:13.479: W/System.err(5715):     at android.os.AsyncTask.access$600(AsyncTask.java:156)
07-09 13:57:13.479: W/System.err(5715):     at android.os.AsyncTask$InternalHandler.handleMessage(AsyncTask.java:615)
07-09 13:57:13.479: W/System.err(5715):     at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:99)
07-09 13:57:13.479: W/System.err(5715):     at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:137)
07-09 13:57:13.479: W/System.err(5715):     at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:4575)
07-09 13:57:13.489: W/System.err(5715):     at java.lang.reflect.Method.invokeNative(Native Method)
07-09 13:57:13.489: W/System.err(5715):     at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:511)
07-09 13:57:13.489: W/System.err(5715):     at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:789)
07-09 13:57:13.489: W/System.err(5715):     at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:556)
07-09 13:57:13.489: W/System.err(5715):     at dalvik.system.NativeStart.main(Native Method)
07-09 13:57:13.489: W/System.err(5715): Caused by: libcore.io.ErrnoException: open failed: EINVAL (Invalid argument)
07-09 13:57:13.489: W/System.err(5715):     at libcore.io.Posix.open(Native Method)
07-09 13:57:13.489: W/System.err(5715):     at libcore.io.BlockGuardOs.open(BlockGuardOs.java:110)
07-09 13:57:13.489: W/System.err(5715):     at java.io.File.createNewFile(File.java:933)
07-09 13:57:13.489: W/System.err(5715):     ... 15 more

Answer 1

The string url contains illegal characters for a filename. You'll need to cleanup the filename by removing the illegal characters.

Answer 2

Really tricky error since Android 28 works just fine when trying to write a filename with ? or : in the name, but Android 22 for instance would blow up. Just run a couple of replacements in the filename like:

File(filename.replace(":", "").replace("?", "") [...])

and then you're good to run

file.createNewFile()