Deleting file from app's private storage

Question

I have a problem, when i try to delete a file from /data/data/com.mycompany.appname/files/mydir/.

I have the following code:

class MyClass extends android.content.ContextWrapper;
//...
private void delete() {
    String file = getFilesDir() + "/" + (getString(R.string.directory_logs) + "/" + selectedLogFile).substring(1);
    file = file.replaceAll("/", File.separator);
    //here the value of file is:"/data/data/com.mycompany.appname/files/mydir/my_file.log"
    if (FileOperation.delete(file)) {
        //Do something if deleting was successfull
    }
}

The FileOperation.delete() method is:

public static boolean delete(String fileOrDirectory) {
    return delete(new File(fileOrDirectory));
}

public static boolean delete(File fileOrDirectory) {
    if (fileOrDirectory.isDirectory()) {
        for (File child : fileOrDirectory.listFiles()) {
            delete(child);
        }
    }
    return fileOrDirectory.delete();
}

The answer of FileOperation.delete() will always be false.

I tried to call ContextWrapper.deleteFile(file) instead of my delete method, but it throws IllegalArgumentException with the message:

File /data/data/com.mycompany.appname/files/mydir/my_file.log contains a path separator

Could you help me how to delete a file in a directory?

Answer 1

It's strange error, but

• only root has permissions for delete this file
• when you reinstall app with changes, this file will be deleted or recreated

And if you have rooted phone, not all users have too.

Answer 2

You can try something like:

File x = new File(path_to_file);
if ( x.delete() ) ...

Also you do not need to replace "/" with file separator. It is ok to let it like "/"