How to encrypt file from SD card using AES in Android?

If you take user input for the password make sure to read this answer.

You should take a look at:
CipherInputStream and CipherOutputStream. They are used to encrypt and decrypt byte streams.

I have a file named cleartext. The file contains:

Hi, I'm a clear text.
How are you?
That's awesome!

Now, you have an encrypt() function:

static void encrypt() throws IOException, NoSuchAlgorithmException, NoSuchPaddingException, InvalidKeyException {
    // Here you read the cleartext.
    FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream("data/cleartext");
    // This stream write the encrypted text. This stream will be wrapped by another stream.
    FileOutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream("data/encrypted");

    // Length is 16 byte
    // Careful when taking user input!!! https://stackoverflow.com/a/3452620/1188357
    SecretKeySpec sks = new SecretKeySpec("MyDifficultPassw".getBytes(), "AES");
    // Create cipher
    Cipher cipher = Cipher.getInstance("AES");
    cipher.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, sks);
    // Wrap the output stream
    CipherOutputStream cos = new CipherOutputStream(fos, cipher);
    // Write bytes
    int b;
    byte[] d = new byte[8];
    while((b = fis.read(d)) != -1) {
        cos.write(d, 0, b);
    }
    // Flush and close streams.
    cos.flush();
    cos.close();
    fis.close();
}

After you execute this function, there should be a file names encrypted. The file contains the encrypted characters.

For decryption you have the decrypt function:

static void decrypt() throws IOException, NoSuchAlgorithmException, NoSuchPaddingException, InvalidKeyException {
    FileInputStream fis = new FileInputStream("data/encrypted");

    FileOutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream("data/decrypted");
    SecretKeySpec sks = new SecretKeySpec("MyDifficultPassw".getBytes(), "AES");
    Cipher cipher = Cipher.getInstance("AES");
    cipher.init(Cipher.DECRYPT_MODE, sks);
    CipherInputStream cis = new CipherInputStream(fis, cipher);
    int b;
    byte[] d = new byte[8];
    while((b = cis.read(d)) != -1) {
        fos.write(d, 0, b);
    }
    fos.flush();
    fos.close();
    cis.close();
}

After the execution of decrypt, there should be a file named decrypted. This file contains the free text.

You write you’re a “noob” but depending on the use-case of encryption you could do a lot of harm if you’re not doing it the right way. Know your tools!

Usage of CipherOutputStream Oracle documentation:

SecretKeySpec skeySpec = new SecretKeySpec(y.getBytes(), "AES");

FileInputStream fis;
FileOutputStream fos;
CipherOutputStream cos;
// File you are reading from
fis = new FileInputStream("/tmp/a.txt");
// File output
fos = new FileOutputStream("/tmp/b.txt");

// Here the file is encrypted. The cipher1 has to be created.
// Key Length should be 128, 192 or 256 bit => i.e. 16 byte
SecretKeySpec skeySpec = new SecretKeySpec("MyDifficultPassw".getBytes(), "AES"); 
Cipher cipher1 = Cipher.getInstance("AES");  
cipher1.init(Cipher.ENCRYPT_MODE, skeySpec);
cos = new CipherOutputStream(fos, cipher1);
// Here you read from the file in fis and write to cos.
byte[] b = new byte[8];
int i = fis.read(b);
while (i != -1) {
    cos.write(b, 0, i);
    i = fis.read(b);
}
cos.flush();

Thus, the encryption should work. When you reverse the process, you should be able to read the decrypted bytes.