MuntashirAkon/AppManager · error · IOException

relativeDir not set.

Error message

relativeDir not set.

What it means

Backup.getItem() must locate the directory (relative to the backup root) where a backup's files live. From backup format version 5 onwards, relativeDir is a mandatory field on the Backup entity — the code can no longer infer it as it did for v4 backups (getV4RelativeDir). If relativeDir is empty/null and version >= 5, the backup record is malformed, so it throws IOException instead of guessing a wrong path.

Source

Thrown at app/src/main/java/io/github/muntashirakon/AppManager/db/entity/Backup.java:92

    @ColumnInfo(name = "installer_app")
    @Nullable
    public String installer;

    @ColumnInfo(name = "info_hash")
    public String relativeDir;

    public BackupFlags getFlags() {
        return new BackupFlags(flags);
    }

    @NonNull
    public BackupItems.BackupItem getItem() throws IOException {
        String relativeDir;
        if (TextUtils.isEmpty(this.relativeDir)) {
            if (version >= 5) {
                // In backup v5 onwards, relativeDir must be set
                throw new IOException("relativeDir not set.");
            }
            // Relative directory needs to be inferred.
            relativeDir = BackupUtils.getV4RelativeDir(userId, backupName, packageName);
        } else relativeDir = this.relativeDir;
        return BackupItems.findBackupItem(relativeDir);
    }

    @Override
    public boolean equals(Object o) {
        if (this == o) return true;
        if (!(o instanceof Backup)) return false;
        Backup backup = (Backup) o;
        return packageName.equals(backup.packageName)
                && userId == backup.userId
                && backupName.equals(backup.backupName);
    }

    @Override

View on GitHub (pinned to 0152f468fc)

Solutions

1. Recreate the backup so the v5+ metadata is written with relativeDir populated
2. Manually set relativeDir on the Backup entity (e.g. from the backup's actual folder name) before calling getItem()
3. If the record actually came from v4, correct the version field to 4 so the v4 inference path (BackupUtils.getV4RelativeDir) is used
4. Inspect the backup metadata JSON on disk and add the missing relativeDir value

Example fix

// before
backup.setItemRetrieval(); // getItem() throws: relativeDir empty, version=5
// after
if (TextUtils.isEmpty(backup.relativeDir) && backup.version >= 5) {
    backup.relativeDir = findActualBackupDir(backup.backupName); // e.g. "app/org.example/app-0"
}
backup.getItem();

if (backup == null || backup.version < 0) throw new IllegalArgumentException("Bad backup record");
if (backup.version >= 5 && TextUtils.isEmpty(backup.relativeDir)) {
    // infer, repair, or refuse before calling getItem()
    backup.relativeDir = BackupUtils.getV4RelativeDir(backup.userId, backup.backupName, backup.packageName);
}

boolean hasRelativeDir(Backup b) { return b != null && !TextUtils.isEmpty(b.relativeDir); }

try {
    BackupItems.BackupItem item = backup.getItem();
} catch (IOException e) {
    Log.e(TAG, "Backup metadata missing relativeDir (v5+)", e);
    promptBackupRepairOrDelete();
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling getItem() (directly or via restore, deleteBackup, isDataDirectoryChanged) on a Backup entity whose relativeDir field is empty or null while version >= 5 — e.g. a v5+ backup created by a buggy/incomplete save path, a hand-edited backup metadata file, or a record deserialized from older JSON missing the new field.

Common situations: Restoring or deleting a backup created by a newer App Manager version but imported into metadata that lost the field; custom scripts regenerating backup JSON without relativeDir; schema migration between backup format versions.

Understand the failure class

Background: "is required", "must be set", "missing required field": configuration validation errors across open-source libraries — this error's family across 36 libraries.

Related errors

• Destination doesn't contain any backup.
• Couldn't delete old file <inputFile>
• Could not delete <mBackupPath>
• Could not move <mTempBackupPath> to <mBackupPath>
• Android System (android) cannot be backed up.

AI-assisted analysis of MuntashirAkon/AppManager@0152f468fc (2026-09-12). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d0d2d67f7adcf768. Report an issue: GitHub.