Question: I am keeping some application meta data in `SharedPreferences`. Whenever I uninstall the application and reinstall it, the `SharedPreferences` are deleted.

Is there any way to get that to remain, so that if the user does an uninstall and reinstall, they can recover their old data?

Answer: 
This is actually built-in, you just need to implement a couple of classes to enable it. Data will be backed up and linked to the user's Google account, so it will be automatically restored if they install the app on a new device, re-install, etc. 

<http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/data/backup.html>
At the age of 2020, it seems to me that `Shared Storage` is the way to go.

Android data and file Storage overview 

<https://developer.android.com/training/data-storage>

Shared storage of documents and files

<https://developer.android.com/training/data-storage/shared/documents-files>