how to get the external sd card path on android.

GetExternalSdCardPath.java

public static String getExternalSdCardPath() {
        String path = null;
        
        File sdCardFile = null;
        List<String> sdCardPossiblePath = Arrays.asList("external_sd", "ext_sd", "external", "extSdCard");
        
        for (String sdPath : sdCardPossiblePath) {
                File file = new File("/mnt/", sdPath);
                
                if (file.isDirectory() && file.canWrite()) {
                        path = file.getAbsolutePath();
                        
                        String timeStamp = new SimpleDateFormat("ddMMyyyy_HHmmss").format(new Date());
                        File testWritable = new File(path, "test_" + timeStamp);
                        
                        if (testWritable.mkdirs()) {
                                testWritable.delete();
                        }
                        else {
                                path = null;
                        }
                }
        }
        
        if (path != null) {
                sdCardFile = new File(path);
        }
        else {
                sdCardFile = new File(Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory().getAbsolutePath());
        }
        
        return sdCardFile.getAbsolutePath();
}

Kotlin version:

private fun getExternalCardDirectory(): File? {
        val storageManager = getSystemService(Context.STORAGE_SERVICE)
        try {
            val storageVolumeClazz = Class.forName("android.os.storage.StorageVolume")
            val getVolumeList = storageManager.javaClass.getMethod("getVolumeList")
            val getPath = storageVolumeClazz.getMethod("getPath")
            val isRemovable = storageVolumeClazz.getMethod("isRemovable")
            val result = getVolumeList.invoke(storageManager) as Array<StorageVolume>
            result.forEach {
                if (isRemovable.invoke(it) as Boolean) {
                    return File(getPath.invoke(it) as String)
                }
            }
        } catch (e: Throwable) {
            e.printStackTrace()
        }
        return null
    }

lovelyelfpop's version works great, thank you!

@lovelyelfpop Great, it works

@lovelyelfpop God bless you, seems this is the only working solution on internet currently. Thanks a bunch!!

In Samsung external card location has changed as:
/storage/0000-0000/

Thanks, @lovelyelfpop this worked on my Samsung SM-T320 running Android version 4.4.2.

1. I followed get Context in non-Activity class [duplicate] to get the context into my Util class from the MainActivity.
2. Here's some things I imported. there might have been a couple more.

import android.os.storage.StorageManager;
import java.lang.reflect.Array;
import java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException;
import java.lang.reflect.Method;

Thanks again. This worked like a champ

@lovelyelfpop Thank you, very much

Hi,

After Android Q, the method getPath cannot be called through reflection.

For me, the following code works. Tested on around 6-7 devices, ranging from Android 4.3 up to Android 12.

private fun getExternalCardDirectory(): String {
        val storageManager = context.getSystemService(Context.STORAGE_SERVICE)
        try {
            val storageVolumeClassReflection = Class.forName("android.os.storage.StorageVolume")
            val getVolumeList = storageManager.javaClass.getMethod("getVolumeList")
            val getPath = if(Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.Q) {
                storageVolumeClassReflection.getMethod("getDirectory")
            } else {
                storageVolumeClassReflection.getMethod("getPath")
            }
            val isRemovable = storageVolumeClassReflection.getMethod("isRemovable")
            val result = getVolumeList.invoke(storageManager) as Array<StorageVolume>
            result.forEach {
                if (isRemovable.invoke(it) as Boolean) {
                    return when(val invokeResult = getPath.invoke(it)) {
                        is File -> invokeResult.absolutePath

                        is String -> invokeResult

                        else -> DEFAULT_VALUE.also {
                            log.debug { "Reflection unsupported type; Invoke result: $invokeResult" }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        } catch (e: Throwable) {
            log.debug { "Could not get SD card path; Exception: $e" }
        }
        return DEFAULT_VALUE
    }

With DEFAULT_VALUE = "N/A"
Credit @lovelyelfpop