Where Are Files Saved In Phonegap App Stored On Android?

I am using PhoneGap with File plugin. I am able to read & write files to file system and those are persisted correctly. But when I try to locate those files from native file ex

Solution 1:

After carefully studying Android documentation about storage options I spotted that this is the intended behavior of internal storage which is used for applications private data that shouldn't be possible to read by other applications accessing the file system.

I have all the time thought that the external referred to SD cards but instead the external storage is described like this

Every Android-compatible device supports a shared "external storage" that you can use to save files. This can be a removable storage media (such as an SD card) or an internal (non-removable) storage. Files saved to the external storage are world-readable and can be modified by the user when they enable USB mass storage to transfer files on a computer.

which seems to be the exact behavior I was looking for. By using the cordova.file.externalDataDirectory, I was able to store the files on internal file system (not to SD card) and see them in the file explorer.

I think that the assumption of external storage referring to SD card only isn't totally unreasonable since the File plugin has / as a directory for cordova.file.externalRootDirectory in file system layout for Android. This must have been the thing that made me think that way.