Can't find folder or file created with Android App with windows file exlorer

Question

I'm creating a directory and a text file on the sdcard in one of my apps because I want to be able to move it to my computer for analysis. But I can't find the folder or the file I'm creating on my sdcard using the file browser on my computer. I CAN find and read the file using my phones file manager but not using the file browser in windows. So the file and folder are succesfully created and I can write to the file, I can also find and read the file using the file manager on my phone but I can't find either directory or file using my computer.

I have a uses permission for the application to allow it to write to external storage.

This is the code I use to create the file and directory.

String fileName = "testFil.txt";
String path = Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory().getAbsolutePath()+"/PulsApp";

File appDirectory = new File(path);
appDirectory.mkdirs();
File file = new File(path, fileName);

try {
    file.createNewFile();
} catch (IOException e) {
}

Does anyone know what the problem is and how to fix it? I really need to be able to write files to my sdcard so I can transfer them to my computer.

I am completely baffled by this problem since all the research I've done point to that everyone else is doing the same thing.

Answer 1

If your device is running Android 3.0 or higher, you also need to use MediaScannerConnection to index your newly-created file before it will show up on a development PC's file explorer.

More accurately, the newly-created file needs to be indexed by the MediaStore . That will eventually happen for other reasons (eg, device reboot). However, you are better served using scanFile() on MediaScannerConnection to get it to happen more quickly.

I blogged about this last summer .

Answer 2

Sometimes that the MediaScannerConnection will recognize the folder as a unknown type file, so try to create another folder inside the original one can avoid this problem. I have met the same problem, and I use the method in the comment

And it works for me.