Exception ‘open failed: EACCES (Permission denied)’ on Android

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I am getting

open failed: EACCES (Permission denied)

on the line OutputStream myOutput = new FileOutputStream(outFileName);

I checked the root, and I tried android.permission.WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE.

How can I fix this problem?

try {
    InputStream myInput;

    myInput = getAssets().open("XXX.db");

    // Path to the just created empty db
    String outFileName = "/data/data/XX/databases/"
            + "XXX.db";

    // Open the empty db as the output stream
    OutputStream myOutput = new FileOutputStream(outFileName);

    // Transfer bytes from the inputfile to the outputfile
    byte[] buffer = new byte[1024];
    int length;
    while ((length = myInput.read(buffer)) > 0) {
        myOutput.write(buffer, 0, length);
    }

    // Close the streams
    myOutput.flush();
    myOutput.close();
    myInput.close();
    buffer = null;
    outFileName = null;
}
catch (IOException e1) {
    // TODO Auto-generated catch block
    e1.printStackTrace();
}

33 Answers
33

Google has a new feature on Android Q: filtered view for external storage. A quick fix for that is to add this code in the AndroidManifest.xml file:

<manifest ... >
    <!-- This attribute is "false" by default on apps targeting Android Q. -->
    <application android:requestLegacyExternalStorage="true" ... >
     ...
    </application>
</manifest>

You can read more about it here: https://developer.android.com/training/data-storage/use-cases

Edit: I am starting to get downvotes because this answer is out of date for Android 11. So whoever sees this answer please go to the link above and read the instructions.

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