I want to store some files when I develop an android app. There are two ways to store the files: use internal directory or use external directory.
As far as I am concerned, if the developers don’t want their users or other apps can get access to the files, the file should be stored in internal directories. And if the developers do want the files can be accessed by users or other apps, the file would be stored in external directory.
And here is my question:
when choosing to store files in external directories, should I classify the types of files and store them in different directories like ‘Download’, ‘Movies’, ‘Picture’ … or make a single directory for my app and store all my files in that directory.
As an android phone user, I don’t like the second solution. So I am wondering why so many apps (such as Evernote) choose to create a directory in my external directory, ‘/sdcard’.
I would say if the files are of interest for the user or other applications store it in a type specific directory.
The second approach, one directory per app, can be used for files that are kind of private to the application. Many devices have more space available in external storage than in internal storage. An application may therefore choose to put its files there even if they are internal in nature.