Objective C - writeToFile successful but removeFil

Question

I am saving photos a user takes with UIImagePickerController to the user's documents directory. When the app successfully uploads the image to the server, I would like to delete the locally saved image.

I save the image to documents directory like this:

/*Save image to documents directory, as opposed to core data for better memory management*/
        NSString *myUniqueName = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"%lu.png", (unsigned long)([[NSDate date] timeIntervalSince1970]*10.0)];
        NSArray *paths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES);
        NSString *documentsPath = [paths objectAtIndex:0]; //Get the docs directory
        NSString *filePath = [documentsPath stringByAppendingPathComponent:myUniqueName]; //Add the file name

       BOOL successWriteLocalImage = [imageToUpload writeToFile:filePath options:NSDataWritingAtomic error:&error];

            if(successWriteLocalImage){
                //NSLog(@"no error success writing to file");
                NSLog(@"successfully write to file path %@", filePath);

            }else{
                NSLog(@"Unresolved error writing to file %@, %@", [error localizedDescription], [error userInfo]);
            }
        /*Save file path of leaf image to core data here*/
        collectedLeaf.localImageFilePath = filePath;

        [context save:&error];

I delete the same file like so:

/*delete image stored in documents directory from collecting w/o internet connection*/
NSFileManager *fileManager = [NSFileManager defaultManager];

NSArray *paths = NSSearchPathForDirectoriesInDomains(NSDocumentDirectory, NSUserDomainMask, YES);
NSString *documentsPath = [paths objectAtIndex:0]; //Get the docs directory
NSString *filePath = [documentsPath stringByAppendingPathComponent:collectedLeaf.localImageFilePath];
NSError *error;
BOOL successDeleteLocalImage = [fileManager removeItemAtPath:filePath error:&error];
if(successDeleteLocalImage){
    NSLog(@"SUCCESS DELETE IMAGE NO ERROR");
    collectedLeaf.localImageFilePath = nil;
}else{
    NSLog(@"Unresolved error %@, %@", error, [error userInfo]);
}

The successful write/save to documents directory prints, successfully write to file path /var/mobile/Containers/Data/Application/EA08B79A-7484-4568-82CE-079B4055CDA7/Documents/15130563374.png.

The error in removing the file logs

Unresolved error Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=4 "“15130563374.png” couldn’t be removed." UserInfo={NSFilePath=/var/mobile/Containers/Data/Application/EA08B79A-7484-4568-82CE-079B4055CDA7/Documents/var/mobile/Containers/Data/Application/EA08B79A-7484-4568-82CE-079B4055CDA7/Documents/15130563374.png, NSUserStringVariant=(
), NSUnderlyingError=0x1c4a4b4c0 {Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=2 "No such file or directory"}}, {
    NSUnderlyingError = "Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=2 \"No such file or directory\"";

I'm not sure why the file can't be removed - or that it returns not found - when its the same exact file path as the one I write to.

Answer 1

Issue is pretty clear. The file where you saved the file is

/var/mobile/Containers/Data/Application/EA08B79A-7484-4568-82CE-079B4055CDA7/Documents/15130563374.png

And the location where you are trying to delete is

/var/mobile/Containers/Data/Application/EA08B79A-7484-4568-82CE-079B4055CDA7/Documents/var/mobile/Containers/Data/Application/EA08B79A-7484-4568-82CE-079B4055CDA7/Documents/15130563374.png

So clearly you are trying to delete image at wrong path.

Issue:

 collectedLeaf.localImageFilePath = filePath;

Saves the images absolute path and not the relative path. So

NSString *filePath = [documentsPath stringByAppendingPathComponent:collectedLeaf.localImageFilePath];

will append the absolute path of the image to document directory path hence results in issue

Solution:

Save just the unique name of file in core data

collectedLeaf.localImageFilePath = myUniqueName;

That should solve your issue

Additional Piece of Information:

Never ever save the absolute path of file in core data. Location of the document directory will change between app quit and launch. So saving absolute file path is not a option. Save file name and reconstruct URL from file name

Answer 2

Let take a look at the error file path

NSFilePath=/var/mobile/Containers/Data/Application/EA08B79A-7484-4568-82CE-079B4055CDA7/Documents/var/mobile/Containers/Data/Application/EA08B79A-7484-4568-82CE-079B4055CDA7/Documents/15130563374.png

It has 2 documentsPath in this url. When you get the file path from Core Data to remove, you don't need to append documentsPath again. Try to replace the removing code with the code below

NSError *error;
BOOL successDeleteLocalImage = [fileManager removeItemAtPath:collectedLeaf.localImageFilePath error:&error];
if(successDeleteLocalImage){
  NSLog(@"SUCCESS DELETE IMAGE NO ERROR");
  collectedLeaf.localImageFilePath = nil;
}else{
  NSLog(@"Unresolved error %@, %@", error, [error userInfo]);
}

Answer 3

First you sholud check for file whether it exists or not at path you giving with this code,

down vote

I think you should check first whether file exist at path or not with following code,

if ([[NSFileManager defaultManager] fileExistsAtPath:<you file path>])
{
    // then you can delete your file
}
else
{
   NSLog(@"Unresolved error %@, %@", error, [error localizedDescription])

}

if file does not exist at your given path the you will need check for that file manually and then you will be able to find the problem