.NET MAUI Media Picker — Gotchas & Best Practices

Common Mistakes

1. Forgetting to check for cancellation

Single-select returns null, multi-select returns an empty list. Not checking causes NullReferenceException.

// ❌ Crashes when user cancels
var photo = await MediaPicker.Default.PickPhotoAsync();
using var stream = await photo.OpenReadAsync();

// ✅ Always check for null / empty
var photo = await MediaPicker.Default.PickPhotoAsync();
if (photo is null) return;
using var stream = await photo.OpenReadAsync();