How may I check if my app has access to phone gallery

Question

I have an app in which I take a picture with the camera and store that image into the native gallery. But if the app doesn't have permission for that, I want the user to know that. So how do I check it?

By the way: I store the image into the gallery with:

UIImageWriteToSavedPhotosAlbum(image, nil, nil, nil);

can we change the answer to the correct one, or put version info into the question? — benc, Nov 06 '18 at 06:16

nsgulliver · Accepted Answer · 2014-03-13T13:09:28.903

30

You need to check the status of ALAssetLibrary make sure you have AssetsLibrary/AssetsLibrary.h included in your file

  ALAuthorizationStatus status = [ALAssetsLibrary authorizationStatus];

// check the status for ALAuthorizationStatusAuthorized or ALAuthorizationStatusDenied e.g

    if (status != ALAuthorizationStatusAuthorized) {
        //show alert for asking the user to give permission

    }

edited Mar 13 '14 at 13:09

answered Feb 21 '13 at 14:05

nsgulliver

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it should work on ios5+ , if you see ALAssetLibrary then you would notice that it has support for ios5+ – nsgulliver Feb 21 '13 at 14:13
for further reference you could use [ALAssetLibrary Docs](http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/#documentation/AssetsLibrary/Reference/ALAssetsLibrary_Class/Reference/Reference.html) – nsgulliver Feb 21 '13 at 14:16
well i added AssetsLibrarz.framework but when i do import "ALAssetLibrary.h" i get error that it can not be found – gabrjan Feb 21 '13 at 14:18
3

Include it like #import – msk Feb 21 '13 at 14:19

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 03 '17 at 01:22

Swift 3

import photos

PHPhotoLibrary.requestAuthorization { status in
     switch status {
     case .authorized:
          self.processSnapShotPhotos()
     case .restricted:
          print("handle restricted")
     case .denied:
          print("handle denied")     
     default:
       // place for .notDetermined - in this callback status is already determined so should never get here
            break
     }
}

score 4 · Answer 3 · answered Nov 12 '15 at 06:47

If you are using photos framework since ALAsset libraries are deprecated from ios 9 you can use PHAuthorizationStatus to check gallery access. You need to import photos framework as well.

  #import <Photos/Photos.h>

- (BOOL)hasGalleryPermission
{
    BOOL hasGalleryPermission = NO;
    PHAuthorizationStatus authorizationStatus = [PHPhotoLibrary authorizationStatus];

    if (authorizationStatus == PHAuthorizationStatusAuthorized) {
        hasGalleryPermission = YES;
    }
    return hasGalleryPermission;
}

score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 21 '13 at 14:04

3

Note: iOS 6 Only

Is this what you are looking for

[ALAssetsLibrary authorizationStatus] == ALAuthorizationStatusAuthorized;

Other values of authorizationStatus are

ALAuthorizationStatusRestricted,        // This application is not authorized to access photo data.
                                            // The user cannot change this application’s status, possibly due to active restrictions
                                            //  such as parental controls being in place.
    ALAuthorizationStatusDenied,            // User has explicitly denied this application access to photos data.
    ALAuthorizationStatusAuthorized         // User has authorized this application to access photos data.

answered Feb 21 '13 at 14:04

msk

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why is this iOS6 only? I need for all joss, but that's what i need – gabrjan Feb 21 '13 at 14:11
authorizationStatus method is available in iOS 6.0 and later. – msk Feb 21 '13 at 14:13
So what am i supposed to do with earlier versions? – gabrjan Feb 21 '13 at 14:15
Check error in the completion block. Though an OS alert will pop up as soon as you call UIImageWriteToSavedPhotosAlbum asking user to grant permission. – msk Feb 21 '13 at 14:19
Also on iOS 5 and lower you did not need permission to write to the phone gallery. – rckoenes Feb 21 '13 at 14:23
@gabrjan this does not answered your query or was not helpful ? – msk Feb 21 '13 at 14:40
well i tested storring and i got no error when i didn't have permission just nothing happend. – gabrjan Feb 21 '13 at 14:40

How may I check if my app has access to phone gallery

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