I’m working on a Flutter application where I need to capture a widget and save it as an image file to /storage/emulated/0/Pictures/MyApp. The method _captureAndSaveImage below successfully captures the image, saves it to the desired directory, and can also create the folder if it does not already exist.

Here are my doubts:

Permission Handling: Do I need to handle any specific permissions to save images to this directory? If so, how can these permissions be implemented effectively?

Folder Creation: Is it necessary to request special permissions to create folders in this directory? How should permissions for folder creation be handled?

Folder Access: If I need to access the saved images later, say through a method like _openMyAppImages, what permissions or scenarios should I consider to ensure proper access to the folder?

I also found out that if I try to use a directory name other than Pictures, it throws an error: Error: PathAccessException: Creation failed, path = '/storage/emulated/0/Test' (OS Error: Permission denied, errno = 13).

Is it true that creating folders or saving files in predefined directories like Pictures does not require special permissions due to Android’s Scoped Storage restrictions?

Any help or guidance is appreciated.

Here is the code I’m using to capture and save the image:

Method _captureAndSaveImage:

Future<void> _captureAndSaveImage() async {
  try {
    // Capture the image from the widget
    RenderRepaintBoundary boundary = _globalKey.currentContext!
        .findRenderObject() as RenderRepaintBoundary;
    ui.Image image = await boundary.toImage(pixelRatio: 3.0);
    ByteData? byteData =
        await image.toByteData(format: ui.ImageByteFormat.png);
    Uint8List capturedImage = byteData!.buffer.asUint8List();

    // Get the Pictures/MyApp directory
    final Directory picturesDir =
        Directory('/storage/emulated/0/Pictures/MyApp');

    // Create the Pictures/MyApp folder if it doesn't exist
    if (!await picturesDir.exists()) {
      await picturesDir.create(recursive: true);
    }

    // Save the image to the specified folder in Pictures/MyApp
    final filePath = '${picturesDir.path}/Image.png';
    final file = File(filePath);
    await file.writeAsBytes(capturedImage);

    // Notify the user that the image was saved
    _showSnackBar('Image saved to: $filePath');
  } catch (e) {
    _showSnackBar('Error: $e');
  }
}

Complete Code (Updated):

import 'dart:io';
import 'dart:typed_data';
import 'dart:ui' as ui;
import 'package:flutter/material.dart';
import 'package:flutter/rendering.dart';

void main() {
  runApp(const MyApp());
}

class MyApp extends StatelessWidget {
  const MyApp({super.key});

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return const MaterialApp(
      home: HomeScreen(),
    );
  }
}

class HomeScreen extends StatefulWidget {
  const HomeScreen({super.key});

  @override
  HomeScreenState createState() => HomeScreenState();
}

class HomeScreenState extends State<HomeScreen> {
  final GlobalKey _globalKey = GlobalKey();

  Future<void> _captureAndSaveImage() async {
    try {
      // Capture the image from the widget
      RenderRepaintBoundary boundary = _globalKey.currentContext!
          .findRenderObject() as RenderRepaintBoundary;
      ui.Image image = await boundary.toImage(pixelRatio: 3.0);
      ByteData? byteData =
          await image.toByteData(format: ui.ImageByteFormat.png);
      Uint8List capturedImage = byteData!.buffer.asUint8List();

      // Get the Pictures/MyApp directory
      final Directory picturesDir =
          Directory('/storage/emulated/0/Pictures/MyApp');

      // Create the Pictures/MyApp folder if it doesn't exist
      if (!await picturesDir.exists()) {
        await picturesDir.create(recursive: true);
      }

      // Save the image to the specified folder in Pictures/MyApp
      final filePath =
          '${picturesDir.path}/Image_${DateTime.now().millisecondsSinceEpoch}.png';
      final file = File(filePath);
      await file.writeAsBytes(capturedImage);

      // Notify the user that the image was saved
      _showSnackBar('Image saved to: $filePath');
    } catch (e) {
      _showSnackBar('Error: $e');
    }
  }

  void _showSnackBar(String message) {
    ScaffoldMessenger.of(context).showSnackBar(
      SnackBar(content: Text(message)),
    );
  }

  void _openMyAppImages() {
    _showSnackBar('Feature not implemented yet!');
  }

  @override
  Widget build(BuildContext context) {
    return Scaffold(
      appBar: AppBar(
        title: const Text('Capture & Save Image Demo'),
      ),
      body: Center(
        child: RepaintBoundary(
          key: _globalKey,
          child: Container(
            width: 300,
            height: 300,
            color: Colors.blue,
            child: const Center(
              child: Text(
                'Capture This Widget',
                style: TextStyle(fontSize: 24, color: Colors.white),
                textAlign: TextAlign.center,
              ),
            ),
          ),
        ),
      ),
      floatingActionButton: Column(
        mainAxisAlignment: MainAxisAlignment.end,
        children: [
          FloatingActionButton(
            onPressed: _captureAndSaveImage,
            heroTag: null,
            child: const Icon(Icons.camera_alt),
          ),
          const SizedBox(height: 16),
          FloatingActionButton(
            onPressed: _openMyAppImages,
            heroTag: null,
            child: const Icon(Icons.image),
          ),
        ],
      ),
    );
  }
}