diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/jivesoftware/smack/DefaultRosterStore.java b/core/src/main/java/org/jivesoftware/smack/DefaultRosterStore.java
index 95955f6a7..bfc12d3ca 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/jivesoftware/smack/DefaultRosterStore.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/jivesoftware/smack/DefaultRosterStore.java
@@ -18,11 +18,7 @@ package org.jivesoftware.smack;
 
 import java.io.File;
 import java.io.FileFilter;
-import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
-import java.io.FileReader;
-import java.io.FileWriter;
 import java.io.IOException;
-import java.io.Reader;
 import java.io.StringReader;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.Collection;
@@ -31,6 +27,7 @@ import java.util.List;
 import org.jivesoftware.smack.packet.RosterPacket;
 import org.jivesoftware.smack.packet.RosterPacket.Item;
 import org.jivesoftware.smack.util.Base32Encoder;
+import org.jivesoftware.smack.util.FileUtils;
 import org.jivesoftware.smack.util.StringUtils;
 import org.xmlpull.v1.XmlPullParserFactory;
 import org.xmlpull.v1.XmlPullParser;
@@ -100,7 +97,7 @@ public class DefaultRosterStore implements RosterStore {
      */
     public static DefaultRosterStore open(final File baseDir) {
         DefaultRosterStore store = new DefaultRosterStore(baseDir);
-        String s = store.readFile(store.getVersionFile());
+        String s = FileUtils.readFile(store.getVersionFile());
         if (s != null && s.startsWith(STORE_ID + "\n")) {
             return store;
         }
@@ -137,7 +134,7 @@ public class DefaultRosterStore implements RosterStore {
 
     @Override
     public String getRosterVersion() {
-        String s = readFile(getVersionFile());
+        String s = FileUtils.readFile(getVersionFile());
         if (s == null) {
             return null;
         }
@@ -149,7 +146,7 @@ public class DefaultRosterStore implements RosterStore {
     }
 
     private boolean setRosterVersion(String version) {
-        return writeFile(getVersionFile(), STORE_ID + "\n" + version);
+        return FileUtils.writeFile(getVersionFile(), STORE_ID + "\n" + version);
     }
 
     @Override
@@ -187,7 +184,7 @@ public class DefaultRosterStore implements RosterStore {
     }
 
     private Item readEntry(File file) {
-        String s = readFile(file);
+        String s = FileUtils.readFile(file);
         if (s == null) {
             return null;
         }
@@ -297,7 +294,7 @@ public class DefaultRosterStore implements RosterStore {
             s.append(" />");
         }
         s.append("</item>");
-        return writeFile(getBareJidFile(item.getUser()), s.toString());
+        return FileUtils.writeFile(getBareJidFile(item.getUser()), s.toString());
     }
 
 
@@ -306,47 +303,6 @@ public class DefaultRosterStore implements RosterStore {
         return new File(fileDir, ENTRY_PREFIX + encodedJid);
     }
 
-    private String readFile(File file) {
-        try {
-            Reader reader = null;
-            try {
-                char buf[] = new char[8192];
-                int len;
-                StringBuilder s = new StringBuilder();
-                reader = new FileReader(file);
-                while ((len = reader.read(buf)) >= 0) {
-                    s.append(buf, 0, len);
-                }
-                return s.toString();
-            }
-            finally {
-                if (reader != null) {
-                    reader.close();
-                }
-            }
-        }
-        catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
-            return null;
-        }
-        catch (IOException e) {
-            e.printStackTrace();
-        }
-        return null;
-    }
-
-    private boolean writeFile(File file, String content) {
-        try {
-            FileWriter writer = new FileWriter(file, false);
-            writer.write(content);
-            writer.close();
-            return true;
-        }
-        catch (IOException e) {
-            e.printStackTrace();
-            return false;
-        }
-    }
-
     private void log(String error) {
         System.err.println(error);
     }
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/jivesoftware/smack/util/FileUtils.java b/core/src/main/java/org/jivesoftware/smack/util/FileUtils.java
index 59dfb214d..dd93398c2 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/jivesoftware/smack/util/FileUtils.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/jivesoftware/smack/util/FileUtils.java
@@ -17,17 +17,26 @@
 package org.jivesoftware.smack.util;
 
 import java.io.BufferedReader;
+import java.io.File;
+import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
+import java.io.FileReader;
+import java.io.FileWriter;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.InputStream;
 import java.io.InputStreamReader;
+import java.io.Reader;
 import java.net.MalformedURLException;
 import java.net.URI;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
 import java.util.List;
 import java.util.Set;
+import java.util.logging.Level;
+import java.util.logging.Logger;
 
 public final class FileUtils {
 
+    private static final Logger LOGGER = Logger.getLogger(FileUtils.class.getName());
+
     public static InputStream getStreamForUrl(String url, ClassLoader loader) throws MalformedURLException, IOException {
         URI fileUri = URI.create(url);
 
@@ -82,4 +91,56 @@ public final class FileUtils {
         }
         return true;
     }
+
+    /**
+     * Reads the contents of a File
+     *
+     * @param file
+     * @return the content of file or null in case of an error
+     * @throws IOException 
+     */
+    public static String readFileOrThrow(File file) throws FileNotFoundException, IOException {
+        Reader reader = null;
+        try {
+            reader = new FileReader(file);
+            char buf[] = new char[8192];
+            int len;
+            StringBuilder s = new StringBuilder();
+            while ((len = reader.read(buf)) >= 0) {
+                s.append(buf, 0, len);
+            }
+            return s.toString();
+        }
+        finally {
+            if (reader != null) {
+                reader.close();
+            }
+        }
+    }
+
+    public static String readFile(File file) {
+        try {
+            return readFileOrThrow(file);
+        } catch (Exception e) {
+            LOGGER.log(Level.WARNING, "readFile", e);
+        }
+        return null;
+    }
+
+    public static void writeFileOrThrow(File file, String content) throws IOException {
+        FileWriter writer = new FileWriter(file, false);
+        writer.write(content);
+        writer.close();
+    }
+
+    public static boolean writeFile(File file, String content) {
+        try {
+            writeFileOrThrow(file, content);
+            return true;
+        }
+        catch (IOException e) {
+            LOGGER.log(Level.WARNING, "writeFile", e);
+            return false;
+        }
+    }
 }