How to determine MIME type of file in android?

Question

Suppose I have a full path of file like:(/sdcard/tlogo.png). I want to know its mime type.

I created a function for it

public static String getMimeType(File file, Context context)    
{
    Uri uri = Uri.fromFile(file);
    ContentResolver cR = context.getContentResolver();
    MimeTypeMap mime = MimeTypeMap.getSingleton();
    String type = mime.getExtensionFromMimeType(cR.getType(uri));
    return type;
}

but when i call it, it returns null.

File file = new File(filePath);
String fileType=CommonFunctions.getMimeType(file, context);

Answer 1

// new processing the mime type out of Uri which may return null in some cases
String mimeType = getContentResolver().getType(uri);
// old processing the mime type out of path using the extension part if new way returned null
if (mimeType == null){mimeType URLConnection.guessContentTypeFromName(path);}

Answer 2

Optimized version of Jens' answere with null-safety and fallback-type.

@NonNull
static String getMimeType(@NonNull File file) {
    String type = null;
    final String url = file.toString();
    final String extension = MimeTypeMap.getFileExtensionFromUrl(url);
    if (extension != null) {
        type = MimeTypeMap.getSingleton().getMimeTypeFromExtension(extension.toLowerCase());
    }
    if (type == null) {
        type = "image/*"; // fallback type. You might set it to */*
    }
    return type;
}

Important: getFileExtensionFromUrl() only works with lowercase!

---

Update (19.03.2018)

Bonus: Above methods as a less verbose Kotlin extension function:

fun File.getMimeType(fallback: String = "image/*"): String {
    return MimeTypeMap.getFileExtensionFromUrl(toString())
            ?.apply { MimeTypeMap.getSingleton().getMimeTypeFromExtension(toLowerCase()) }
            ?: fallback // You might set it to */*
}

Answer 3

Sometimes Jeb's and Jens's answers don't work and return null. In this case I use follow solution. Head of file usually contains type signature. I read it and compare with known in list of signatures.

/**
 *
 * @param is InputStream on start of file. Otherwise signature can not be defined.
 * @return int id of signature or -1, if unknown signature was found. See SIGNATURE_ID_(type) constants to
 *      identify signature by its id.
 * @throws IOException in cases of read errors.
 */
public static int getSignatureIdFromHeader(InputStream is) throws IOException {
    // read signature from head of source and compare with known signatures
    int signatureId = -1;
    int sigCount = SIGNATURES.length;
    int[] byteArray = new int[MAX_SIGNATURE_LENGTH];
    StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
    for (int i = 0; i < MAX_SIGNATURE_LENGTH; i++) {
        byteArray[i] = is.read();
        builder.append(Integer.toHexString(byteArray[i]));
    }
    if (DEBUG) {
        Log.d(TAG, "head bytes=" + builder.toString());
    }
    for (int i = 0; i < MAX_SIGNATURE_LENGTH; i++) {

        // check each bytes with known signatures
        int bytes = byteArray[i];
        int lastSigId = -1;
        int coincidences = 0;

        for (int j = 0; j < sigCount; j++) {
            int[] sig = SIGNATURES[j];

            if (DEBUG) {
                Log.d(TAG, "compare" + i + ": " + Integer.toHexString(bytes) + " with " + sig[i]);
            }
            if (bytes == sig[i]) {
                lastSigId = j;
                coincidences++;
            }
        }

        // signature is unknown
        if (coincidences == 0) {
            break;
        }
        // if first bytes of signature is known we check signature for full coincidence
        if (coincidences == 1) {
            int[] sig = SIGNATURES[lastSigId];
            int sigLength = sig.length;
            boolean isSigKnown = true;
            for (; i < MAX_SIGNATURE_LENGTH && i < sigLength; i++) {
                bytes = byteArray[i];
                if (bytes != sig[i]) {
                    isSigKnown = false;
                    break;
                }
            }
            if (isSigKnown) {
                signatureId = lastSigId;
            }
            break;
        }
    }
    return signatureId;
}

signatureId is an index of signature in array of signatures. For example,

private static final int[] SIGNATURE_PNG = hexStringToIntArray("89504E470D0A1A0A");
private static final int[] SIGNATURE_JPEG = hexStringToIntArray("FFD8FF");
private static final int[] SIGNATURE_GIF = hexStringToIntArray("474946");

public static final int SIGNATURE_ID_JPEG = 0;
public static final int SIGNATURE_ID_PNG = 1;
public static final int SIGNATURE_ID_GIF = 2;
private static final int[][] SIGNATURES = new int[3][];

static {
    SIGNATURES[SIGNATURE_ID_JPEG] = SIGNATURE_JPEG;
    SIGNATURES[SIGNATURE_ID_PNG] = SIGNATURE_PNG;
    SIGNATURES[SIGNATURE_ID_GIF] = SIGNATURE_GIF;
}

Now I have file type even if URI of file haven't. Next I get mime type by file type. If you don't know which mime type to get, you can find proper in this table.

It works for a lot of file types. But for video it doesn't work, because you need to known video codec to get a mime type. To get video's mime type I use MediaMetadataRetriever.

Answer 4

public static String getFileType(Uri file)
{
    try
    {
        if (file.getScheme().equals(ContentResolver.SCHEME_CONTENT))
            return subStringFromLastMark(SystemMaster.getContentResolver().getType(file), "/");
        else
            return MimeTypeMap.getFileExtensionFromUrl(file.toString()).toLowerCase();
    }
    catch(Exception e)
    {
        return null;
    }
}

public static String getMimeType(Uri file)
{
    try
    {
        return MimeTypeMap.getSingleton().getMimeTypeFromExtension(getFileType(file));
    }
    catch(Exception e)
    {
        return null;
    }
}

public static String subStringFromLastMark(String str,String mark)
{
    int l = str.lastIndexOf(mark);
    int end = str.length();
    if(l == -1)
        return str;

    return str.substring(l + 1, end);
}

Answer 5

The above solution returned null in case of .rar file, using URLConnection.guessContentTypeFromName(url) worked in this case.

Answer 6

Has also return null value in my case path was

/storage/emulated/0/Music/01 - Ghost on the Dance Floor.mp3

as work around use

val url = inUrl.replace(" ","")

so method looks like

@JvmStatic
    fun getMimeType(inUrl: String?): String {
        if (inUrl == null) return ""

        val url = inUrl.replace(" ","")
        var type: String? = null

        val extension = MimeTypeMap.getFileExtensionFromUrl(url)
        if (extension != null) {
            type = MimeTypeMap.getSingleton().getMimeTypeFromExtension(extension.toLowerCase())
        }

        if(type ==null){
            val cR = WifiTalkie.getApplicationContext().contentResolver
            type = cR.getType(Uri.parse(url))
        }

        if (type == null) {
            type = "*/*" // fallback method_type. You might set it to */*
        }
        return type
    }

as result it return success result:

audio/mpeg

Hope it helps anybody