I want to download a file in React Native and save it in a Directory selected by the User (e.g. Downloads).

Right now I'm using https://www.npmjs.com/package/react-native-document-picker to let the user pick a directory and https://www.npmjs.com/package/react-native-fs/v/1.2.0 to download the file.

Unfortunately, react-native-document-picker only gives me a dynamic URI to the directory, which does not exist when react-native-fs tries to access it. I think it's hidden behind something like a File-Provider.

I searched a lot but found no solution on how to get the real static path to a directory. Might be that I am missing something obvious, but I can not figure it out right now.

the code (simplified)

DocumentPicker.pickDirectory().then(pick => {

  // this looks something like:
  // file:///private/var/mobile/Containers/Shared/AppGroup/8443...EC/File%20Provider%20Storage/Downloads/
  const pickedDirectory = pick.uri;

  // resolves to false:
  RNFS.exists(pickedDirectory)

  // does not work
  RNFS.downloadFile({
    fromUrl: downloadUrl,
    toFile: pickedDirectory + filename,
  }).promise.then(r => { console.log(r)
});