📄 expo/versions/latest/sdk/document-picker

File: document-picker.md | Updated: 11/15/2025

Source: https://docs.expo.dev/versions/latest/sdk/document-picker

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Expo DocumentPicker

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A library that provides access to the system's UI for selecting documents from the available providers on the user's device.

GitHub Changelog npm

Ask AI

Android

iOS

Web

Bundled version:

~14.0.7

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expo-document-picker provides access to the system's UI for selecting documents from the available providers on the user's device.

Installation

Terminal

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- npx expo install expo-document-picker

If you are installing this in an existing React Native app , make sure to install expo in your project.

Configuration in app config

You can configure expo-document-picker using its built-in config plugin if you use config plugins in your project (Continuous Native Generation (CNG) ). The plugin allows you to configure various properties that cannot be set at runtime and require building a new app binary to take effect. If your app does not use CNG, then you'll need to manually configure the library.

Example app.json with config plugin

If you want to enable iCloud storage features , set the expo.ios.usesIcloudStorage key to true in the app config file as specified configuration properties .

Running EAS Build locally will use iOS capabilities signing to enable the required capabilities before building.

app.json

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{ "expo": { "plugins": [ [ "expo-document-picker", { "iCloudContainerEnvironment": "Production" } ] ] } }

Configurable properties

| Name | Default | Description | | --- | --- | --- | | iCloudContainerEnvironment | undefined | Only for: iOS Sets the iOS com.apple.developer.icloud-container-environment entitlement used for AdHoc iOS builds. Possible values: Development, Production. Learn more . | | kvStoreIdentifier | undefined | Only for: iOS Overrides the default iOS com.apple.developer.ubiquity-kvstore-identifier entitlement, which uses your Apple Team ID and bundle identifier. This may be needed if your app was transferred to another Apple Team after enabling iCloud storage. |

Are you using this library in an existing React Native app?

Apps that don't use EAS Build and want iCloud storage features must manually configure the iCloud service with CloudKit support for their bundle identifier.

If you enable the iCloud capability through the Apple Developer Console , then be sure to add the following entitlements in your ios/[app]/[app].entitlements file (where dev.expo.my-app if your bundle identifier):

<key>com.apple.developer.icloud-container-identifiers</key> <array> <string>iCloud.dev.expo.my-app</string> </array> <key>com.apple.developer.icloud-services</key> <array> <string>CloudDocuments</string> </array> <key>com.apple.developer.ubiquity-container-identifiers</key> <array> <string>iCloud.dev.expo.my-app</string> </array> <key>com.apple.developer.ubiquity-kvstore-identifier</key> <string>$(TeamIdentifierPrefix)dev.expo.my-app</string>

Apple Developer Console also requires an iCloud Container to be created. When registering the new container, you are asked to provide a description and identifier for the container. You may enter any name under the description. Under the identifier, add iCloud.<your_bundle_identifier> (same value used for com.apple.developer.icloud-container-identifiers and com.apple.developer.ubiquity-container-identifiers entitlements).

Using with expo-file-system

When using expo-document-picker with expo-file-system , it's not always possible for the file system to read the file immediately after the expo-document-picker picks it.

To allow the expo-file-system to read the file immediately after it is picked, you'll need to ensure that the copyToCacheDirectory option is set to true.

API

import * as DocumentPicker from 'expo-document-picker';

Component

`getDocumentAsync`

Android

iOS

Web

Type: React.[Element](https://www.typescriptlang.org/docs/handbook/jsx.html#function-component) <[DocumentPickerOptions](https://docs.expo.dev/versions/latest/sdk/document-picker#documentpickeroptions) >

Display the system UI for choosing a document. By default, the chosen file is copied to the app's internal cache directory .

Notes for Web: The system UI can only be shown after user activation (e.g. a Button press). Therefore, calling getDocumentAsync in componentDidMount, for example, will not work as intended. The cancel event will not be returned in the browser due to platform restrictions and inconsistencies across browsers.

Types

`DocumentPickerAsset`

Android

iOS

Web

| Property | Type | Description | | --- | --- | --- | | base64(optional) | string | Only for: Web Base64 string of the file. | | file(optional) | [File](https://docs.expo.dev/versions/latest/sdk/document-picker#file) | Only for: Web File object for the parity with web File API. | | lastModified | number | Timestamp of last document modification. Web API specs The lastModified provides the last modified date of the file as the number of milliseconds since the Unix epoch (January 1, 1970 at midnight). Files without a known last modified date return the current date. | | mimeType(optional) | string | Document MIME type. | | name | string | Document original name. | | size(optional) | number | Document size in bytes. | | uri | string | An URI to the local document file. |

`DocumentPickerCanceledResult`

Android

iOS

Web

Type representing canceled pick result.

| Property | Type | Description | | --- | --- | --- | | assets | null | Always null when the request was canceled. | | canceled | true | Always true when the request was canceled. | | output(optional) | null | Only for: Web Always null when the request was canceled. |

`DocumentPickerOptions`

Android

iOS

Web

| Property | Type | Description | | --- | --- | --- | | base64(optional) | boolean | Only for: Web If true, asset url is base64 from the file If false, asset url is the file url parameter Default:true | | copyToCacheDirectory(optional) | boolean | Only for: Android iOS If true, the picked file is copied to FileSystem.CacheDirectory , which allows other Expo APIs to read the file immediately. This may impact performance for large files, so you should consider setting this to false if you expect users to pick particularly large files and your app does not need immediate read access. Default:true | | multiple(optional) | boolean | Allows multiple files to be selected from the system UI. Default:false | | type(optional) | string \| string[] | The MIME type(s) of the documents that are available to be picked. It also supports wildcards like 'image/*' to choose any image. To allow any type of document you can use '*/*'. Default:'*/*' |

`DocumentPickerResult`

Android

iOS

Web

Literal Type: union

Type representing successful and canceled document pick result.

Acceptable values are: [DocumentPickerSuccessResult](https://docs.expo.dev/versions/latest/sdk/document-picker#documentpickersuccessresult) | [DocumentPickerCanceledResult](https://docs.expo.dev/versions/latest/sdk/document-picker#documentpickercanceledresult)

`DocumentPickerSuccessResult`

Android

iOS

Web

Type representing successful pick result.

| Property | Type | Description | | --- | --- | --- | | assets | [DocumentPickerAsset[]](https://docs.expo.dev/versions/latest/sdk/document-picker#documentpickerasset) | An array of picked assets. | | canceled | false | If asset data have been returned this should always be false. | | output(optional) | [FileList](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/FileList) | Only for: Web FileList object for the parity with web File API. |