I'm not sure what the issue with your code is, however first off, here's my method for getting the BufferedReader when I want to do this: And also, I find it easier to simply have the method throw any exceptions, and then when you're calling the method enclose it in a try/catch - it makes no difference, I just prefer how it looks.

That will work when running from within Greenfoot, but not on the gallery - as you've used FileInputStream. You should use the technique outlined by Builderboy2005 and Duta (above). If you did use that technique, it would work both on the gallery, and when running from within Greenfoot.