Question

Okay so I’ve noticed that even though I use the correct path for the cache folder Android doesn’t register the content in the folder so the user can’t delete the cache content by going into settings -> programs -> administrate -> select program -> clear cache. The folder is deleted properly on uninstal but not if the user actively try to clear the cache. This is not a major issue but its still a minor problem because the user don’t get a proper idea of how much space the application uses at the SD card.
Is there anything I as developer can do to update these values or am I doing something wrong somewhere else?

Answer 1

From the docs:

Saving cache files

If you’d like to cache some data, rather than store it persistently,
you should use getCacheDir() to open a File that represents the
internal directory where your application should save temporary cache
files.

When the device is low on internal storage space, Android may delete
these cache files to recover space. However, you should not rely on
the system to clean up these files for you. You should always maintain
the cache files yourself and stay within a reasonable limit of space
consumed, such as 1MB. When the user uninstalls your application,
these files are removed.

I guess you should handle the removal of yourself. If you want to remove the content if the user cleans the app data create a sharedPreference and clean the cache when the app starts and that preference is not defined.