How to specify a specific location for db file where i can access instead of standard application /data/data/appid/database

Question

I need to create a sqlite db at a specific location in android where i can access it easily using a file explorer. I do not want the sqlite db created to be in the default /data

Answer 1

Solved. Using SushiHangover's method,there is an addition step that needs to be done so that the app can access the storage as below:

After deploying your app into android device:

Settings->[your App]

Answer 2

You could setup a copy function to copy/move your private/sandboxed SQLite file to a public directory of the device, something like:

public void CopyDBToSdCard(string dbName)
{     File.Copy(Path.Combine(System.Environment.GetFolderPath(System.Environment.SpecialFolder.Personal), dbName),
        Path.Combine(Android.OS.Environment.DirectoryDownloads, dbName));
}

Note: This is using native Android API to obtain the Downloads dir, so you could do this via a Forms dependency service.

Note: Your app would need external storage permissions (manifest and runtime-based)

You could just directly use a public storage area on the device, such as Downloads, Documents, etc. Your app would need manifest/runtime permission to access those locations.

var DBFile = Path.Combine(Android.OS.Environment.DirectoryDownloads,"Test.db");

You could just hard-code the public directory path for debugging (do not hardcode the path in a production app as different devices could have different paths, use the Android APIs to dynamically obtain the correct one for the device that it is running on).

• Use adb shell to obtain the correct path, ie:

  adb shell ls /sdcard

Example:

var DBFile = Path.Combine("/sdcard/Download","Test.db");

Note: Again your app needs manifest/runtime permissions for read/write access to these locations