Xbox One CopyAsync failing in Retail Mode only

Question

Basically the following code copies an entire folder from the app installation into the LocalCacheFolder so they can be manipulated/updated. In this case the contents of the folder called 'Data'

This code works fine on mobile, desktop and on Xbox in Dev Mode, but this line fails on Xbox in Retail Mode:

await file.CopyAsync(destinationFolder, file.Name, NameCollisionOption.FailIfExists);

This is also on a fresh install so I know the file(s) don't already exist.

Is there a different way to achieve this in Retail Mode, although in theory all UWP code should work across devices.

private async Task setupdatabase()
{
    StorageFolder destinationContainer = Windows.Storage.ApplicationData.Current.LocalCacheFolder;
    string root = Windows.ApplicationModel.Package.Current.InstalledLocation.Path;
    string path = root + @"\Data";

    StorageFolder sfolder = await StorageFolder.GetFolderFromPathAsync(path);

    await CopyFolderAsync(sfolder, destinationContainer);
}

public static async Task CopyFolderAsync(StorageFolder source, StorageFolder destinationContainer, string desiredName = null)
{
    StorageFolder destinationFolder = null;
    destinationFolder = await destinationContainer.CreateFolderAsync(desiredName ?? source.Name, CreationCollisionOption.OpenIfExists);

    foreach (var file in await source.GetFilesAsync())
    {
         await file.CopyAsync(destinationFolder, file.Name, NameCollisionOption.FailIfExists);
    }

    foreach (var folder in await source.GetFoldersAsync())
    {
         await CopyFolderAsync(folder, destinationFolder);
    }
}

Answer 1

Seems like a bug with CopyAsync on the Xbox in Retail Mode

Replacing:

await file.CopyAsync(destinationFolder, file.Name, NameCollisionOption.FailIfExists);

with:

StorageFile sourcefile = null;
string sourcefiletext = null;
            try
            {
                sourcefile = await source.GetFileAsync(file.Name);
                sourcefiletext = await FileIO.ReadTextAsync(sourcefile);
            }
            catch (Exception e)
            {
                Debug.WriteLine "Read source error:" + e.ToString();
            }

            try
            {

                StorageFile destfile = await destinationFolder.CreateFileAsync(file.Name, CreationCollisionOption.FailIfExists);
                await Windows.Storage.FileIO.WriteTextAsync(destfile, sourcefiletext);
            }
            catch (Exception e)
            {
                Debug.WriteLine "Write dest error:" + e.ToString();
            }

Basically breaking it into 2 separate operations fixed the problem and my app now runs normally. This is now being submitted as a bug report

Update: not quite a bug, but a feature, from Microsoft:

The issue here is that the package install folder is encrypted on Xbox retail mode.  A package has permission to read it's own files which is why the ReadTextAsync+WriteTextAsync works. CopyAsync on the other hand attempts to copy the file with all attributes associated with the file (including encryption).

Answer 2

I'm not sure if that will be the case, as you code looks ok, but once I've stepped in a situation when running the app locally granted it some privileges. Maybe in this case also there are different privileges (for device/retail?) - thus, can you try to access the folder not via its path but directly with StorageFolder? Like this:

private async Task setupdatabase()
{
    StorageFolder sfolder = await Windows.ApplicationModel.Package.Current.InstalledLocation.GetFolderAsync("Data");
    await CopyFolderAsync(sfolder, ApplicationData.Current.LocalCacheFolder);
}

public static async Task CopyFolderAsync(StorageFolder source, StorageFolder destinationContainer, string desiredName = null)
{
    StorageFolder destinationFolder = await destinationContainer.CreateFolderAsync(desiredName ?? source.Name, CreationCollisionOption.OpenIfExists);

    var existingItems = await destinationFolder.GetFilesAsync(); // to check if files are already there
    foreach (var file in (await source.GetFilesAsync()).Where(x => !existingItems.Any(y => y.Name == x.Name)))
    {
        await file.CopyAsync(destinationFolder, file.Name);
    }

    foreach (var folder in await source.GetFoldersAsync())
    {
        await CopyFolderAsync(folder, destinationFolder);
    }
}

In second method I've changed FailIfExists attribute for a check-up of existing items - in case a problem is there.