Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory() deprecation alternatives

Question

In SDK 29 (Aka Android_Q), The access to external storage using the method Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory() is deprecated and no longer returns an accessib

Answer 1

In SDK 29, I can no longer follow such a method.

Use ACTION_OPEN_DOCUMENT_TREE to allow the user to pick a document tree, which could be a filesystem directory or something else. Then, use DocumentFile.fromTreeUri() to create a DocumentFile for that tree and use that to be able to write to documents to be stored inside of that tree.

How will such apps migrate?

ACTION_OPEN_DOCUMENT and ACTION_OPEN_DOCUMENT_TREE will be the two most likely on-device options. In the case of WhatsApp and Facebook, they might just elect to store the backups on their servers.