Android DownloadManager Progress

Question

i'm developing an app where users are able to download different content packages. For the download process i am using the DownloadManager class. Thats working fine so far.

My Question is how can i get the current progress of a running Download which was started with the DownloadManager. I know that there is the buildin Download Notification and so on. But for me it is necessary that i get the progress of the running download so i can use it to show the progress in a custom progressbar in my app. So far i was not able to retrieve the progress.

Is it even possible or am i just blind and can't find the solution.

Hopefully someone can help me...

Answer 1

I am looking for a better way of doing this also, but so far I am planning to just poll for progress every 1sec or so.

DownloadManager mgr = (DownloadManager) context.getSystemService(Context.DOWNLOAD_SERVICE);
long id = mgr.enqueue(request);

DownloadManager.Query q = new DownloadManager.Query();
q.setFilterById(id);
Cursor cursor = mgr.query(q);
cursor.moveToFirst();
int bytes_downloaded = cursor.getInt(cursor.getColumnIndex(DownloadManager.COLUMN_BYTES_DOWNLOADED_SO_FAR));
cursor.close();

Edit:

A FileObserver can help with this. This is the skeleton of one I have put together to help keep track of which files our app has downloaded. Start it in an activity or service's onStart and stop it in onStop. Combined with a manual synchronization of the state of things during onStart, this can give you a pretty complete picture of what's going on.

For progress in particular, watching for the OPEN/CLOSE_WRITE events can help you decide when to start/stop polling the DownloadManager for updates.

public class DownloadsObserver extends FileObserver {

    public static final String LOG_TAG = DownloadsObserver.class.getSimpleName();

    private static final int flags =
            FileObserver.CLOSE_WRITE
            | FileObserver.OPEN
            | FileObserver.MODIFY
            | FileObserver.DELETE
            | FileObserver.MOVED_FROM;
    // Received three of these after the delete event while deleting a video through a separate file manager app:
    // 01-16 15:52:27.627: D/APP(4316): DownloadsObserver: onEvent(1073741856, null)

    public DownloadsObserver(String path) {
        super(path, flags);
    }

    @Override
    public void onEvent(int event, String path) {
        Log.d(LOG_TAG, "onEvent(" + event + ", " + path + ")");

        if (path == null) {
            return;
        }

        switch (event) {
        case FileObserver.CLOSE_WRITE:
            // Download complete, or paused when wifi is disconnected. Possibly reported more than once in a row.
            // Useful for noticing when a download has been paused. For completions, register a receiver for 
            // DownloadManager.ACTION_DOWNLOAD_COMPLETE.
            break;
        case FileObserver.OPEN:
            // Called for both read and write modes.
            // Useful for noticing a download has been started or resumed.
            break;
        case FileObserver.DELETE:
        case FileObserver.MOVED_FROM:
            // These might come in handy for obvious reasons.
            break;
        case FileObserver.MODIFY:
            // Called very frequently while a download is ongoing (~1 per ms).
            // This could be used to trigger a progress update, but that should probably be done less often than this.
            break;
        }
    }
}

Usage would be something like this:

public class MyActivity extends Activity {

    private FileObserver fileObserver = new DownloadsObserver(
            getExternalFilesDir(Environment.DIRECTORY_DOWNLOADS).getAbsolutePath());

    @Override
    protected void onStart() {
        super.onStart();
        fileObserver.startWatching();
        syncUpDatabaseWithFileSystem();
    }

    @Override
    protected void onStop() {
        fileObserver.stopWatching();
        super.onStop();
    }
}

Answer 2

It turns out that the FileObserver implementation on Marshmallow has a bug. As a result, FileObserver will not report any modifications of a file downloaded by the download manager. (Older Android versions do not have this issue – it works fine on KitKat.) Source

For me, the following code (based on this answer) works well. I poll every second – I've tried halving that interval, but without any visible effect.

private static final int PROGRESS_DELAY = 1000;
Handler handler = new Handler();
private boolean isProgressCheckerRunning = false;

// when the first download starts
startProgressChecker();

// when the last download finishes or the Activity is destroyed
stopProgressChecker();

/**
 * Checks download progress.
 */
private void checkProgress() {
    DownloadManager.Query query = new DownloadManager.Query();
    query.setFilterByStatus(~(DownloadManager.STATUS_FAILED | DownloadManager.STATUS_SUCCESSFUL));
    Cursor cursor = downloadManager.query(query);
    if (!cursor.moveToFirst()) {
        cursor.close();
        return;
    }
    do {
        long reference = cursor.getLong(cursor.getColumnIndex(DownloadManager.COLUMN_ID));
        long progress = cursor.getLong(cursor.getColumnIndex(DownloadManager.COLUMN_BYTES_DOWNLOADED_SO_FAR));
        // do whatever you need with the progress
    } while (cursor.moveToNext());
    cursor.close();
}

/**
 * Starts watching download progress.
 * 
 * This method is safe to call multiple times. Starting an already running progress checker is a no-op.
 */
private void startProgressChecker() {
    if (!isProgressCheckerRunning) {
        progressChecker.run();
    isProgressCheckerRunning = true;
    }
}

/**
 * Stops watching download progress.
 */
private void stopProgressChecker() {
    handler.removeCallbacks(progressChecker);
    isProgressCheckerRunning = false;
}

/**
 * Checks download progress and updates status, then re-schedules itself.
 */
private Runnable progressChecker = new Runnable() {
    @Override
    public void run() {
        try {
            checkProgress();
            // manager reference not found. Commenting the code for compilation
            //manager.refresh();
        } finally {
            handler.postDelayed(progressChecker, PROGRESS_DELAY);
        }
    }
};