Hi everyone! I’m sharing this to help those who might encounter the same issue. While I can’t guarantee this will work for everyone, I hope it helps. Many people, including myself, have faced a problem where saving doesn’t work after packaging a project for Android.
This issue arises because Google has changed its security system. If the app is installed from a source other than Google Play, Android automatically denies permission to write to local storage.
However, you can try enabling the “Use ExternalFilesDir for UnrealGame files?” option in the project settings. But even this doesn’t always solve the problem, especially when using Android SDK 32. I haven’t fully understood why, but this setting often fails.
I used Unreal Engine 5.4.4 from source code, so I can’t say for sure if this will work with the binary engine version. Below are the steps I followed to resolve the issue:
Steps to Fix the Issue:
Enable “Use ExternalFilesDir for UnrealGame files?” in the project settings.
In the Android tab under the Store section, set the value to 5 (range: 1–2147483647).
Set Target SDK Version to 31.
Set Minimum SDK Version to 26.
Next, I packaged the project for Android, which generated the AndroidManifest.xml file. You can find this file at:
C:.…\ProjectName\Intermediate\Android\arm64
Modifying the AndroidManifest.xml:
Inside the AndroidManifest.xml, I added the following permissions:
xml
Then, I saved the file. While we technically shouldn’t modify the manifest manually, I recommend doing it as a precaution.
Finally, I repackaged the project and tested it