---
title: "contentsAtPath:searchingInAssetPackWithIdentifier:options:error:"
framework: backgroundassets
role: symbol
role_heading: Instance Method
path: "backgroundassets/baassetpackmanager/contentsatpath:searchinginassetpackwithidentifier:options:error:"
---

# contentsAtPath:searchingInAssetPackWithIdentifier:options:error:

Returns the contents of an asset file at the specified relative path.

## Declaration

```occ
- (NSData *) contentsAtPath:(NSString *) path searchingInAssetPackWithIdentifier:(NSString *) assetPackIdentifier options:(NSDataReadingOptions) options error:(NSError **) error;
```

## Parameters

- `path`: The relative file path.
- `assetPackIdentifier`: The identifier of the asset pack in which you want to search for the file or nil if you want to search in all asset packs.
- `options`: Options for how to read the file’s contents into a data object.
- `error`: A pointer to an error that will be set if an error occurs. If no file is found at path, then error will point to an NSError object with doc://com.apple.backgroundassets/documentation/BackgroundAssets/BAManagedErrorCode/BAManagedErrorCodeFileNotFound as its code.

## Return Value

Return Value The file’s contents or nil if an error occurred.

## Discussion

Discussion All asset packs share the same namespace, so you can treat the overall collection of downloaded asset packs as if it were a single root directory that contains all of your subdirectories and asset files, regardless of the specific asset pack in which any particular file resides. If there’s a file-path collision across multiple asset packs, then it’s undefined from which asset pack the file will be read unless you explicitly limit the search to a particular asset pack by passing a non-nil identifier to the assetPackIdentifier parameter.

## See Also

### Accessing asset contents

- [contentsAtPath:asLocalizedForLanguage:options:error:](backgroundassets/baassetpackmanager/contentsatpath:aslocalizedforlanguage:options:error:.md)
- [fileDescriptorForPath:searchingInAssetPackWithIdentifier:error:](backgroundassets/baassetpackmanager/filedescriptorforpath:searchinginassetpackwithidentifier:error:.md)
- [fileDescriptorForPath:asLocalizedForLanguage:error:](backgroundassets/baassetpackmanager/filedescriptorforpath:aslocalizedforlanguage:error:.md)
- [URLForPath:error:](backgroundassets/baassetpackmanager/urlforpath:error:.md)
- [URLForPath:asLocalizedForLanguage:error:](backgroundassets/baassetpackmanager/urlforpath:aslocalizedforlanguage:error:.md)