Develop Reference

Retaining Activity state [duplicate]

I've been working on the Android SDK platform, and it is a little unclear how to save an application's state. So given this minor re-tooling of the 'Hello, Android' example:
package com.android.hello;
import android.app.Activity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.widget.TextView;
public class HelloAndroid extends Activity {
private TextView mTextView = null;
/** Called when the activity is first created. */
#Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
mTextView = new TextView(this);
if (savedInstanceState == null) {
mTextView.setText("Welcome to HelloAndroid!");
} else {
mTextView.setText("Welcome back.");
}
setContentView(mTextView);
}
}
I thought it would be enough for the simplest case, but it always responds with the first message, no matter how I navigate away from the app.
I'm sure the solution is as simple as overriding onPause or something like that, but I've been poking away in the documentation for 30 minutes or so and haven't found anything obvious.

You need to override onSaveInstanceState(Bundle savedInstanceState) and write the application state values you want to change to the Bundle parameter like this:
#Override
public void onSaveInstanceState(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onSaveInstanceState(savedInstanceState);
// Save UI state changes to the savedInstanceState.
// This bundle will be passed to onCreate if the process is
// killed and restarted.
savedInstanceState.putBoolean("MyBoolean", true);
savedInstanceState.putDouble("myDouble", 1.9);
savedInstanceState.putInt("MyInt", 1);
savedInstanceState.putString("MyString", "Welcome back to Android");
// etc.
}
The Bundle is essentially a way of storing a NVP ("Name-Value Pair") map, and it will get passed in to onCreate() and also onRestoreInstanceState() where you would then extract the values from activity like this:
#Override
public void onRestoreInstanceState(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onRestoreInstanceState(savedInstanceState);
// Restore UI state from the savedInstanceState.
// This bundle has also been passed to onCreate.
boolean myBoolean = savedInstanceState.getBoolean("MyBoolean");
double myDouble = savedInstanceState.getDouble("myDouble");
int myInt = savedInstanceState.getInt("MyInt");
String myString = savedInstanceState.getString("MyString");
}
Or from a fragment.
#Override
public void onViewStateRestored(#Nullable Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onViewStateRestored(savedInstanceState);
// Restore UI state from the savedInstanceState.
// This bundle has also been passed to onCreate.
boolean myBoolean = savedInstanceState.getBoolean("MyBoolean");
double myDouble = savedInstanceState.getDouble("myDouble");
int myInt = savedInstanceState.getInt("MyInt");
String myString = savedInstanceState.getString("MyString");
}
You would usually use this technique to store instance values for your application (selections, unsaved text, etc.).

The savedInstanceState is only for saving state associated with a current instance of an Activity, for example current navigation or selection info, so that if Android destroys and recreates an Activity, it can come back as it was before. See the documentation for onCreate and onSaveInstanceState
For more long lived state, consider using a SQLite database, a file, or preferences. See Saving Persistent State.

Note that it is not safe to use onSaveInstanceState and onRestoreInstanceState for persistent data, according to the documentation on Activity.
The document states (in the 'Activity Lifecycle' section):
Note that it is important to save
persistent data in onPause() instead
of onSaveInstanceState(Bundle)
because the later is not part of the
lifecycle callbacks, so will not be
called in every situation as described
in its documentation.
In other words, put your save/restore code for persistent data in onPause() and onResume()!
For further clarification, here's the onSaveInstanceState() documentation:
This method is called before an activity may be killed so that when it
comes back some time in the future it can restore its state. For
example, if activity B is launched in front of activity A, and at some
point activity A is killed to reclaim resources, activity A will have
a chance to save the current state of its user interface via this
method so that when the user returns to activity A, the state of the
user interface can be restored via onCreate(Bundle) or
onRestoreInstanceState(Bundle).

My colleague wrote an article explaining application state on Android devices, including explanations on activity lifecycle and state information, how to store state information, and saving to state Bundle and SharedPreferences. Take a look at it here.
The article covers three approaches:
Store local variable/UI control data for application lifetime (i.e. temporarily) using an instance state bundle
[Code sample – Store state in state bundle]
#Override
public void onSaveInstanceState(Bundle savedInstanceState)
{
// Store UI state to the savedInstanceState.
// This bundle will be passed to onCreate on next call. EditText txtName = (EditText)findViewById(R.id.txtName);
String strName = txtName.getText().toString();
EditText txtEmail = (EditText)findViewById(R.id.txtEmail);
String strEmail = txtEmail.getText().toString();
CheckBox chkTandC = (CheckBox)findViewById(R.id.chkTandC);
boolean blnTandC = chkTandC.isChecked();
savedInstanceState.putString(“Name”, strName);
savedInstanceState.putString(“Email”, strEmail);
savedInstanceState.putBoolean(“TandC”, blnTandC);
super.onSaveInstanceState(savedInstanceState);
}
Store local variable/UI control data between application instances (i.e. permanently) using shared preferences
[Code sample – store state in SharedPreferences]
#Override
protected void onPause()
{
super.onPause();
// Store values between instances here
SharedPreferences preferences = getPreferences(MODE_PRIVATE);
SharedPreferences.Editor editor = preferences.edit(); // Put the values from the UI
EditText txtName = (EditText)findViewById(R.id.txtName);
String strName = txtName.getText().toString();
EditText txtEmail = (EditText)findViewById(R.id.txtEmail);
String strEmail = txtEmail.getText().toString();
CheckBox chkTandC = (CheckBox)findViewById(R.id.chkTandC);
boolean blnTandC = chkTandC.isChecked();
editor.putString(“Name”, strName); // value to store
editor.putString(“Email”, strEmail); // value to store
editor.putBoolean(“TandC”, blnTandC); // value to store
// Commit to storage
editor.commit();
}
Keeping object instances alive in memory between activities within application lifetime using a retained non-configuration instance
[Code sample – store object instance]
private cMyClassType moInstanceOfAClass; // Store the instance of an object
#Override
public Object onRetainNonConfigurationInstance()
{
if (moInstanceOfAClass != null) // Check that the object exists
return(moInstanceOfAClass);
return super.onRetainNonConfigurationInstance();
}

This is a classic 'gotcha' of Android development. There are two issues here:
There is a subtle Android Framework bug which greatly complicates application stack management during development, at least on legacy versions (not entirely sure if/when/how it was fixed). I'll discuss this bug below.
The 'normal' or intended way to manage this issue is, itself, rather complicated with the duality of onPause/onResume and onSaveInstanceState/onRestoreInstanceState
Browsing across all these threads, I suspect that much of the time developers are talking about these two different issues simultaneously ... hence all the confusion and reports of "this doesn't work for me".
First, to clarify the 'intended' behavior: onSaveInstance and onRestoreInstance are fragile and only for transient state. The intended usage (as far as I can tell) is to handle Activity recreation when the phone is rotated (orientation change). In other words, the intended usage is when your Activity is still logically 'on top', but still must be reinstantiated by the system. The saved Bundle is not persisted outside of the process/memory/GC, so you cannot really rely on this if your activity goes to the background. Yes, perhaps your Activity's memory will survive its trip to the background and escape GC, but this is not reliable (nor is it predictable).
So if you have a scenario where there is meaningful 'user progress' or state that should be persisted between 'launches' of your application, the guidance is to use onPause and onResume. You must choose and prepare a persistent store yourself.
But - there is a very confusing bug which complicates all of this. Details are here:
Activity stack behaves incorrectly during the first run of an app when started from Eclipse (#36907463)
Marketplace / browser app installer allows second instance off app (#36911210)
Basically, if your application is launched with the SingleTask flag, and then later on you launch it from the home screen or launcher menu, then that subsequent invocation will create a NEW task ... you'll effectively have two different instances of your app inhabiting the same stack ... which gets very strange very fast. This seems to happen when you launch your app during development (i.e. from Eclipse or IntelliJ), so developers run into this a lot. But also through some of the app store update mechanisms (so it impacts your users as well).
I battled through these threads for hours before I realized that my main issue was this bug, not the intended framework behavior. A great write-up and workaround (UPDATE: see below) seems to be from user #kaciula in this answer:
Home key press behaviour
UPDATE June 2013: Months later, I have finally found the 'correct' solution. You don't need to manage any stateful startedApp flags yourself. You can detect this from the framework and bail appropriately. I use this near the beginning of my LauncherActivity.onCreate:
if (!isTaskRoot()) {
Intent intent = getIntent();
String action = intent.getAction();
if (intent.hasCategory(Intent.CATEGORY_LAUNCHER) && action != null && action.equals(Intent.ACTION_MAIN)) {
finish();
return;
}
}

onSaveInstanceState is called when the system needs memory and kills an application. It is not called when the user just closes the application. So I think application state should also be saved in onPause.
It should be saved to some persistent storage like Preferences or SQLite.

Both methods are useful and valid and both are best suited for different scenarios:
The user terminates the application and re-opens it at a later date, but the application needs to reload data from the last session – this requires a persistent storage approach such as using SQLite.
The user switches application and then comes back to the original and wants to pick up where they left off - save and restore bundle data (such as application state data) in onSaveInstanceState() and onRestoreInstanceState() is usually adequate.
If you save the state data in a persistent manner, it can be reloaded in an onResume() or onCreate() (or actually on any lifecycle call). This may or may not be desired behaviour. If you store it in a bundle in an InstanceState, then it is transient and is only suitable for storing data for use in the same user ‘session’ (I use the term session loosely) but not between ‘sessions’.
It is not that one approach is better than the other, like everything, it is just important to understand what behaviour you require and to select the most appropriate approach.

Saving state is a kludge at best as far as I'm concerned. If you need to save persistent data, just use an SQLite database. Android makes it SOOO easy.
Something like this:
import java.util.Date;
import android.content.Context;
import android.database.Cursor;
import android.database.sqlite.SQLiteDatabase;
import android.database.sqlite.SQLiteOpenHelper;
public class dataHelper {
private static final String DATABASE_NAME = "autoMate.db";
private static final int DATABASE_VERSION = 1;
private Context context;
private SQLiteDatabase db;
private OpenHelper oh ;
public dataHelper(Context context) {
this.context = context;
this.oh = new OpenHelper(this.context);
this.db = oh.getWritableDatabase();
}
public void close() {
db.close();
oh.close();
db = null;
oh = null;
SQLiteDatabase.releaseMemory();
}
public void setCode(String codeName, Object codeValue, String codeDataType) {
Cursor codeRow = db.rawQuery("SELECT * FROM code WHERE codeName = '"+ codeName + "'", null);
String cv = "" ;
if (codeDataType.toLowerCase().trim().equals("long") == true){
cv = String.valueOf(codeValue);
}
else if (codeDataType.toLowerCase().trim().equals("int") == true)
{
cv = String.valueOf(codeValue);
}
else if (codeDataType.toLowerCase().trim().equals("date") == true)
{
cv = String.valueOf(((Date)codeValue).getTime());
}
else if (codeDataType.toLowerCase().trim().equals("boolean") == true)
{
String.valueOf(codeValue);
}
else
{
cv = String.valueOf(codeValue);
}
if(codeRow.getCount() > 0) //exists-- update
{
db.execSQL("update code set codeValue = '" + cv +
"' where codeName = '" + codeName + "'");
}
else // does not exist, insert
{
db.execSQL("INSERT INTO code (codeName, codeValue, codeDataType) VALUES(" +
"'" + codeName + "'," +
"'" + cv + "'," +
"'" + codeDataType + "')" );
}
}
public Object getCode(String codeName, Object defaultValue){
//Check to see if it already exists
String codeValue = "";
String codeDataType = "";
boolean found = false;
Cursor codeRow = db.rawQuery("SELECT * FROM code WHERE codeName = '"+ codeName + "'", null);
if (codeRow.moveToFirst())
{
codeValue = codeRow.getString(codeRow.getColumnIndex("codeValue"));
codeDataType = codeRow.getString(codeRow.getColumnIndex("codeDataType"));
found = true;
}
if (found == false)
{
return defaultValue;
}
else if (codeDataType.toLowerCase().trim().equals("long") == true)
{
if (codeValue.equals("") == true)
{
return (long)0;
}
return Long.parseLong(codeValue);
}
else if (codeDataType.toLowerCase().trim().equals("int") == true)
{
if (codeValue.equals("") == true)
{
return (int)0;
}
return Integer.parseInt(codeValue);
}
else if (codeDataType.toLowerCase().trim().equals("date") == true)
{
if (codeValue.equals("") == true)
{
return null;
}
return new Date(Long.parseLong(codeValue));
}
else if (codeDataType.toLowerCase().trim().equals("boolean") == true)
{
if (codeValue.equals("") == true)
{
return false;
}
return Boolean.parseBoolean(codeValue);
}
else
{
return (String)codeValue;
}
}
private static class OpenHelper extends SQLiteOpenHelper {
OpenHelper(Context context) {
super(context, DATABASE_NAME, null, DATABASE_VERSION);
}
#Override
public void onCreate(SQLiteDatabase db) {
db.execSQL("CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS code" +
"(id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY, codeName TEXT, codeValue TEXT, codeDataType TEXT)");
}
#Override
public void onUpgrade(SQLiteDatabase db, int oldVersion, int newVersion) {
}
}
}
A simple call after that
dataHelper dh = new dataHelper(getBaseContext());
String status = (String) dh.getCode("appState", "safetyDisabled");
Date serviceStart = (Date) dh.getCode("serviceStartTime", null);
dh.close();
dh = null;

I think I found the answer. Let me tell what I have done in simple words:
Suppose I have two activities, activity1 and activity2 and I am navigating from activity1 to activity2 (I have done some works in activity2) and again back to activity 1 by clicking on a button in activity1. Now at this stage I wanted to go back to activity2 and I want to see my activity2 in the same condition when I last left activity2.
For the above scenario what I have done is that in the manifest I made some changes like this:
<activity android:name=".activity2"
android:alwaysRetainTaskState="true"
android:launchMode="singleInstance">
</activity>
And in the activity1 on the button click event I have done like this:
Intent intent = new Intent();
intent.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_REORDER_TO_FRONT);
intent.setClassName(this,"com.mainscreen.activity2");
startActivity(intent);
And in activity2 on button click event I have done like this:
Intent intent=new Intent();
intent.setClassName(this,"com.mainscreen.activity1");
startActivity(intent);
Now what will happen is that whatever the changes we have made in the activity2 will not be lost, and we can view activity2 in the same state as we left previously.
I believe this is the answer and this works fine for me. Correct me if I am wrong.

onSaveInstanceState() for transient data (restored in onCreate()/onRestoreInstanceState()), onPause() for persistent data (restored in onResume()).
From Android technical resources:
onSaveInstanceState() is called by Android if the Activity is being stopped and may be killed before it is resumed! This means it should store any state necessary to re-initialize to the same condition when the Activity is restarted. It is the counterpart to the onCreate() method, and in fact the savedInstanceState Bundle passed in to onCreate() is the same Bundle that you construct as outState in the onSaveInstanceState() method.
onPause() and onResume() are also complimentary methods. onPause() is always called when the Activity ends, even if we instigated that (with a finish() call for example). We will use this to save the current note back to the database. Good practice is to release any resources that can be released during an onPause() as well, to take up less resources when in the passive state.

Really onSaveInstanceState() is called when the Activity goes to background.
Quote from the docs:
"This method is called before an activity may be killed so that when it comes back sometime in the future it can restore its state."
Source

To help reduce boilerplate I use the following interface and class to read/write to a Bundle for saving instance state.
First, create an interface that will be used to annotate your instance variables:
import java.lang.annotation.Documented;
import java.lang.annotation.ElementType;
import java.lang.annotation.Retention;
import java.lang.annotation.RetentionPolicy;
import java.lang.annotation.Target;
#Documented
#Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
#Target({
ElementType.FIELD
})
public #interface SaveInstance {
}
Then, create a class where reflection will be used to save values to the bundle:
import android.app.Activity;
import android.app.Fragment;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.os.Parcelable;
import android.util.Log;
import java.io.Serializable;
import java.lang.reflect.Field;
/**
* Save and load fields to/from a {#link Bundle}. All fields should be annotated with {#link
* SaveInstance}.</p>
*/
public class Icicle {
private static final String TAG = "Icicle";
/**
* Find all fields with the {#link SaveInstance} annotation and add them to the {#link Bundle}.
*
* #param outState
* The bundle from {#link Activity#onSaveInstanceState(Bundle)} or {#link
* Fragment#onSaveInstanceState(Bundle)}
* #param classInstance
* The object to access the fields which have the {#link SaveInstance} annotation.
* #see #load(Bundle, Object)
*/
public static void save(Bundle outState, Object classInstance) {
save(outState, classInstance, classInstance.getClass());
}
/**
* Find all fields with the {#link SaveInstance} annotation and add them to the {#link Bundle}.
*
* #param outState
* The bundle from {#link Activity#onSaveInstanceState(Bundle)} or {#link
* Fragment#onSaveInstanceState(Bundle)}
* #param classInstance
* The object to access the fields which have the {#link SaveInstance} annotation.
* #param baseClass
* Base class, used to get all superclasses of the instance.
* #see #load(Bundle, Object, Class)
*/
public static void save(Bundle outState, Object classInstance, Class<?> baseClass) {
if (outState == null) {
return;
}
Class<?> clazz = classInstance.getClass();
while (baseClass.isAssignableFrom(clazz)) {
String className = clazz.getName();
for (Field field : clazz.getDeclaredFields()) {
if (field.isAnnotationPresent(SaveInstance.class)) {
field.setAccessible(true);
String key = className + "#" + field.getName();
try {
Object value = field.get(classInstance);
if (value instanceof Parcelable) {
outState.putParcelable(key, (Parcelable) value);
} else if (value instanceof Serializable) {
outState.putSerializable(key, (Serializable) value);
}
} catch (Throwable t) {
Log.d(TAG, "The field '" + key + "' was not added to the bundle");
}
}
}
clazz = clazz.getSuperclass();
}
}
/**
* Load all saved fields that have the {#link SaveInstance} annotation.
*
* #param savedInstanceState
* The saved-instance {#link Bundle} from an {#link Activity} or {#link Fragment}.
* #param classInstance
* The object to access the fields which have the {#link SaveInstance} annotation.
* #see #save(Bundle, Object)
*/
public static void load(Bundle savedInstanceState, Object classInstance) {
load(savedInstanceState, classInstance, classInstance.getClass());
}
/**
* Load all saved fields that have the {#link SaveInstance} annotation.
*
* #param savedInstanceState
* The saved-instance {#link Bundle} from an {#link Activity} or {#link Fragment}.
* #param classInstance
* The object to access the fields which have the {#link SaveInstance} annotation.
* #param baseClass
* Base class, used to get all superclasses of the instance.
* #see #save(Bundle, Object, Class)
*/
public static void load(Bundle savedInstanceState, Object classInstance, Class<?> baseClass) {
if (savedInstanceState == null) {
return;
}
Class<?> clazz = classInstance.getClass();
while (baseClass.isAssignableFrom(clazz)) {
String className = clazz.getName();
for (Field field : clazz.getDeclaredFields()) {
if (field.isAnnotationPresent(SaveInstance.class)) {
String key = className + "#" + field.getName();
field.setAccessible(true);
try {
Object fieldVal = savedInstanceState.get(key);
if (fieldVal != null) {
field.set(classInstance, fieldVal);
}
} catch (Throwable t) {
Log.d(TAG, "The field '" + key + "' was not retrieved from the bundle");
}
}
}
clazz = clazz.getSuperclass();
}
}
}
Example usage:
public class MainActivity extends Activity {
#SaveInstance
private String foo;
#SaveInstance
private int bar;
#SaveInstance
private Intent baz;
#SaveInstance
private boolean qux;
#Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
Icicle.load(savedInstanceState, this);
}
#Override
public void onSaveInstanceState(Bundle outState) {
super.onSaveInstanceState(outState);
Icicle.save(outState, this);
}
}
Note: This code was adapted from a library project named AndroidAutowire which is licensed under the MIT license.

Meanwhile I do in general no more use
Bundle savedInstanceState & Co
The life cycle is for most activities too complicated and not necessary.
And Google states itself, it is NOT even reliable.
My way is to save any changes immediately in the preferences:
SharedPreferences p;
p.edit().put(..).commit()
In some way SharedPreferences work similar like Bundles.
And naturally and at first such values have to be read from preferences.
In the case of complex data you may use SQLite instead of using preferences.
When applying this concept, the activity just continues to use the last saved state, regardless of whether it was an initial open with reboots in between or a reopen due to the back stack.

To answer the original question directly. savedInstancestate is null because your Activity is never being re-created.
Your Activity will only be re-created with a state bundle when:
Configuration changes such as changing the orientation or phone language which may requires a new activity instance to be created.
You return to the app from the background after the OS has destroyed the activity.
Android will destroy background activities when under memory pressure or after they've been in the background for an extended period of time.
When testing your hello world example there are a few ways to leave and return to the Activity.
When you press the back button the Activity is finished. Re-launching the app is a brand new instance. You aren't resuming from the background at all.
When you press the home button or use the task switcher the Activity will go into the background. When navigating back to the application onCreate will only be called if the Activity had to be destroyed.
In most cases if you're just pressing home and then launching the app again the activity won't need to be re-created. It already exists in memory so onCreate() won't be called.
There is an option under Settings -> Developer Options called "Don't keep activities". When it's enabled Android will always destroy activities and recreate them when they're backgrounded. This is a great option to leave enabled when developing because it simulates the worst case scenario. ( A low memory device recycling your activities all the time ).
The other answers are valuable in that they teach you the correct ways to store state but I didn't feel they really answered WHY your code wasn't working in the way you expected.

The onSaveInstanceState(bundle) and onRestoreInstanceState(bundle) methods are useful for data persistence merely while rotating the screen (orientation change).
They are not even good while switching between applications (since the onSaveInstanceState() method is called but onCreate(bundle) and onRestoreInstanceState(bundle) is not invoked again.
For more persistence use shared preferences. read this article

My problem was that I needed persistence only during the application lifetime (i.e. a single execution including starting other sub-activities within the same app and rotating the device etc). I tried various combinations of the above answers but did not get what I wanted in all situations. In the end what worked for me was to obtain a reference to the savedInstanceState during onCreate:
mySavedInstanceState=savedInstanceState;
and use that to obtain the contents of my variable when I needed it, along the lines of:
if (mySavedInstanceState !=null) {
boolean myVariable = mySavedInstanceState.getBoolean("MyVariable");
}
I use onSaveInstanceStateand onRestoreInstanceState as suggested above but I guess i could also or alternatively use my method to save the variable when it changes (e.g. using putBoolean)

Although the accepted answer is correct, there is a faster and easier method to save the Activity state on Android using a library called Icepick. Icepick is an annotation processor that takes care of all the boilerplate code used in saving and restoring state for you.
Doing something like this with Icepick:
class MainActivity extends Activity {
#State String username; // These will be automatically saved and restored
#State String password;
#State int age;
#Override public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
Icepick.restoreInstanceState(this, savedInstanceState);
}
#Override public void onSaveInstanceState(Bundle outState) {
super.onSaveInstanceState(outState);
Icepick.saveInstanceState(this, outState);
}
}
Is the same as doing this:
class MainActivity extends Activity {
String username;
String password;
int age;
#Override
public void onSaveInstanceState(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onSaveInstanceState(savedInstanceState);
savedInstanceState.putString("MyString", username);
savedInstanceState.putString("MyPassword", password);
savedInstanceState.putInt("MyAge", age);
/* remember you would need to actually initialize these variables before putting it in the
Bundle */
}
#Override
public void onRestoreInstanceState(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onRestoreInstanceState(savedInstanceState);
username = savedInstanceState.getString("MyString");
password = savedInstanceState.getString("MyPassword");
age = savedInstanceState.getInt("MyAge");
}
}
Icepick will work with any object that saves its state with a Bundle.

When an activity is created it's onCreate() method is called.
#Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
}
savedInstanceState is an object of Bundle class which is null for the first time, but it contains values when it is recreated. To save Activity's state you have to override onSaveInstanceState().
#Override
protected void onSaveInstanceState(Bundle outState) {
outState.putString("key","Welcome Back")
super.onSaveInstanceState(outState); //save state
}
put your values in "outState" Bundle object like outState.putString("key","Welcome Back") and save by calling super.
When activity will be destroyed it's state get saved in Bundle object and can be restored after recreation in onCreate() or onRestoreInstanceState(). Bundle received in onCreate() and onRestoreInstanceState() are same.
#Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
//restore activity's state
if(savedInstanceState!=null){
String reStoredString=savedInstanceState.getString("key");
}
}
or
//restores activity's saved state
#Override
protected void onRestoreInstanceState(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
String restoredMessage=savedInstanceState.getString("key");
}

There are basically two ways to implement this change.
using onSaveInstanceState() and onRestoreInstanceState().
In manifest android:configChanges="orientation|screenSize".
I really do not recommend to use second method. Since in one of my experience it was causing half of the device screen black while rotating from portrait to landscape and vice versa.
Using first method mentioned above , we can persist data when orientation is changed or any config change happens.
I know a way in which you can store any type of data inside savedInstance state object.
Example: Consider a case if you want to persist Json object.
create a model class with getters and setters .
class MyModel extends Serializable{
JSONObject obj;
setJsonObject(JsonObject obj)
{
this.obj=obj;
}
JSONObject getJsonObject()
return this.obj;
}
}
Now in your activity in onCreate and onSaveInstanceState method do the following. It will look something like this:
#override
onCreate(Bundle savedInstaceState){
MyModel data= (MyModel)savedInstaceState.getSerializable("yourkey")
JSONObject obj=data.getJsonObject();
//Here you have retained JSONObject and can use.
}
#Override
protected void onSaveInstanceState(Bundle outState) {
super.onSaveInstanceState(outState);
//Obj is some json object
MyModel dataToSave= new MyModel();
dataToSave.setJsonObject(obj);
oustate.putSerializable("yourkey",dataToSave);
}

Here is a comment from Steve Moseley's answer (by ToolmakerSteve) that puts things into perspective (in the whole onSaveInstanceState vs onPause, east cost vs west cost saga)
#VVK - I partially disagree. Some ways of exiting an app don't trigger
onSaveInstanceState (oSIS). This limits the usefulness of oSIS. Its
worth supporting, for minimal OS resources, but if an app wants to
return the user to the state they were in, no matter how the app was
exited, it is necessary to use a persistent storage approach instead.
I use onCreate to check for bundle, and if it is missing, then check
persistent storage. This centralizes the decision making. I can
recover from a crash, or back button exit or custom menu item Exit, or
get back to screen user was on many days later. – ToolmakerSteve Sep
19 '15 at 10:38

Kotlin code:
save:
override fun onSaveInstanceState(outState: Bundle) {
super.onSaveInstanceState(outState.apply {
putInt("intKey", 1)
putString("stringKey", "String Value")
putParcelable("parcelableKey", parcelableObject)
})
}
and then in onCreate() or onRestoreInstanceState()
val restoredInt = savedInstanceState?.getInt("intKey") ?: 1 //default int
val restoredString = savedInstanceState?.getString("stringKey") ?: "default string"
val restoredParcelable = savedInstanceState?.getParcelable<ParcelableClass>("parcelableKey") ?: ParcelableClass() //default parcelable
Add default values if you don't want to have Optionals

To get activity state data stored in onCreate(), first you have to save data in savedInstanceState by overriding SaveInstanceState(Bundle savedInstanceState) method.
When activity destroy SaveInstanceState(Bundle savedInstanceState) method gets called and there you save data you want to save. And you get same in onCreate() when activity restart.(savedInstanceState wont be null since you have saved some data in it before activity get destroyed)

Kotlin
You must override onSaveInstanceState and onRestoreInstanceState to store and retrieve your variables you want to be persistent
Life cycle graph
Store variables
public override fun onSaveInstanceState(savedInstanceState: Bundle) {
super.onSaveInstanceState(savedInstanceState)
// prepare variables here
savedInstanceState.putInt("kInt", 10)
savedInstanceState.putBoolean("kBool", true)
savedInstanceState.putDouble("kDouble", 4.5)
savedInstanceState.putString("kString", "Hello Kotlin")
}
Retrieve variables
public override fun onRestoreInstanceState(savedInstanceState: Bundle) {
super.onRestoreInstanceState(savedInstanceState)
val myInt = savedInstanceState.getInt("kInt")
val myBoolean = savedInstanceState.getBoolean("kBool")
val myDouble = savedInstanceState.getDouble("kDouble")
val myString = savedInstanceState.getString("kString")
// use variables here
}

Not sure if my solution is frowned upon or not, but I use a bound service to persist ViewModel state. Whether you store it in memory in the service or persist and retrieve it from a SQLite database depends on your requirements. This is what services of any flavor do, they provide services such as maintaining application state and abstract common business logic.
Because of memory and processing constraints inherent on mobile devices, I treat Android views in a similar way to a web page. The page does not maintain state, it is purely a presentation layer component whose only purpose is to present application state and accept user input. Recent trends in web app architecture employ the use of the age-old Model, View, Controller (MVC) pattern, where the page is the View, domain data is the model, and the controller sits behind a web service. The same pattern can be employed in Android with the View being, well ... the View, the model is your domain data, and the Controller is implemented as an Android bound service. Whenever you want a view to interact with the controller, bind to it on start/resume and unbind on stop/pause.
This approach gives you the added bonus of enforcing the Separation of Concern design principle in that all of you application business logic can be moved into your service which reduces duplicated logic across multiple views and allows the view to enforce another important design principle, Single Responsibility.

Simple quick to solve this problem is using IcePick
First, setup the library in app/build.gradle
repositories {
maven {url "https://clojars.org/repo/"}
}
dependencies {
compile 'frankiesardo:icepick:3.2.0'
provided 'frankiesardo:icepick-processor:3.2.0'
}
Now, let's check this example below how to save state in Activity
public class ExampleActivity extends Activity {
#State String username; // This will be automatically saved and restored
#Override public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
Icepick.restoreInstanceState(this, savedInstanceState);
}
#Override public void onSaveInstanceState(Bundle outState) {
super.onSaveInstanceState(outState);
Icepick.saveInstanceState(this, outState);
}
}
It works for Activities, Fragments or any object that needs to serialize its state on a Bundle (e.g. mortar's ViewPresenters)
Icepick can also generate the instance state code for custom Views:
class CustomView extends View {
#State int selectedPosition; // This will be automatically saved and restored
#Override public Parcelable onSaveInstanceState() {
return Icepick.saveInstanceState(this, super.onSaveInstanceState());
}
#Override public void onRestoreInstanceState(Parcelable state) {
super.onRestoreInstanceState(Icepick.restoreInstanceState(this, state));
}
// You can put the calls to Icepick into a BaseCustomView and inherit from it
// All Views extending this CustomView automatically have state saved/restored
}

Now Android provides ViewModels for saving state, you should try to use that instead of saveInstanceState.

There is a way to make Android save the states without implementing any method. Just add this line to your Manifest in Activity declaration:
android:configChanges="orientation|screenSize"
It should look like this:
<activity
android:name=".activities.MyActivity"
android:configChanges="orientation|screenSize">
</activity>
Here you can find more information about this property.
It's recommended to let Android handle this for you than the manually handling.

Kotlin Solution:
For custom class save in onSaveInstanceState you can be converted your class to JSON string and restore it with Gson convertion and for single String, Double, Int, Long value save and restore as following. The following example is for Fragment and Activity:
For Activity:
For put data in saveInstanceState:
override fun onSaveInstanceState(outState: Bundle) {
super.onSaveInstanceState(outState)
//for custom class-----
val gson = Gson()
val json = gson.toJson(your_custom_class)
outState.putString("CUSTOM_CLASS", json)
//for single value------
outState.putString("MyString", stringValue)
outState.putBoolean("MyBoolean", true)
outState.putDouble("myDouble", doubleValue)
outState.putInt("MyInt", intValue)
}
Restore data:
override fun onRestoreInstanceState(savedInstanceState: Bundle) {
super.onRestoreInstanceState(savedInstanceState)
//for custom class restore
val json = savedInstanceState?.getString("CUSTOM_CLASS")
if (!json!!.isEmpty()) {
val gson = Gson()
testBundle = gson.fromJson(json, Session::class.java)
}
//for single value restore
val myBoolean: Boolean = savedInstanceState?.getBoolean("MyBoolean")
val myDouble: Double = savedInstanceState?.getDouble("myDouble")
val myInt: Int = savedInstanceState?.getInt("MyInt")
val myString: String = savedInstanceState?.getString("MyString")
}
You can restore it on Activity onCreate also.
For fragment:
For put class in saveInstanceState:
override fun onSaveInstanceState(outState: Bundle) {
super.onSaveInstanceState(outState)
val gson = Gson()
val json = gson.toJson(customClass)
outState.putString("CUSTOM_CLASS", json)
}
Restore data:
override fun onActivityCreated(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
super.onActivityCreated(savedInstanceState)
//for custom class restore
if (savedInstanceState != null) {
val json = savedInstanceState.getString("CUSTOM_CLASS")
if (!json!!.isEmpty()) {
val gson = Gson()
val customClass: CustomClass = gson.fromJson(json, CustomClass::class.java)
}
}
// for single value restore
val myBoolean: Boolean = savedInstanceState.getBoolean("MyBoolean")
val myDouble: Double = savedInstanceState.getDouble("myDouble")
val myInt: Int = savedInstanceState.getInt("MyInt")
val myString: String = savedInstanceState.getString("MyString")
}

using Android ViewModel & SavedStateHandle to persist the serializable data
public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {
#Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
ActivityMainBinding binding = ActivityMainBinding.inflate(getLayoutInflater());
binding.setViewModel(new ViewModelProvider(this).get(ViewModel.class));
binding.setLifecycleOwner(this);
setContentView(binding.getRoot());
}
public static class ViewModel extends AndroidViewModel {
//This field SURVIVE the background process reclaim/killing & the configuration change
public final SavedStateHandle savedStateHandle;
//This field NOT SURVIVE the background process reclaim/killing but SURVIVE the configuration change
public final MutableLiveData<String> inputText2 = new MutableLiveData<>();
public ViewModel(#NonNull Application application, SavedStateHandle savedStateHandle) {
super(application);
this.savedStateHandle = savedStateHandle;
}
}
}
in layout file
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<layout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<data>
<variable
name="viewModel"
type="com.xxx.viewmodelsavedstatetest.MainActivity.ViewModel" />
</data>
<LinearLayout xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:orientation="vertical"
tools:context=".MainActivity">
<EditText
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:autofillHints=""
android:hint="This field SURVIVE the background process reclaim/killing & the configuration change"
android:text='#={(String)viewModel.savedStateHandle.getLiveData("activity_main/inputText", "")}' />
<SeekBar
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:max="100"
android:progress='#={(Integer)viewModel.savedStateHandle.getLiveData("activity_main/progress", 50)}' />
<EditText
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:hint="This field SURVIVE the background process reclaim/killing & the configuration change"
android:text='#={(String)viewModel.savedStateHandle.getLiveData("activity_main/inputText", "")}' />
<SeekBar
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:max="100"
android:progress='#={(Integer)viewModel.savedStateHandle.getLiveData("activity_main/progress", 50)}' />
<EditText
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:hint="This field NOT SURVIVE the background process reclaim/killing but SURVIVE the configuration change"
android:text='#={viewModel.inputText2}' />
</LinearLayout>
</layout>
Test:
1. start the test activity
2. press home key to go home
3. adb shell kill <the test activity process>
4. open recent app list and restart the test activity

What to save and what not to?
Ever wondered why the text in the EditText gets saved automatically while an orientation change? Well, this answer is for you.
When an instance of an Activity gets destroyed and the System recreates a new instance (for example, configuration change). It tries to recreate it using a set of saved data of old Activity State (instance state).
Instance state is a collection of key-value pairs stored in a Bundle object.
By default System saves the View objects in the Bundle for example.
Text in EditText
Scroll position in a ListView, etc.
If you need another variable to be saved as a part of instance state you should OVERRIDE onSavedInstanceState(Bundle savedinstaneState) method.
For example, int currentScore in a GameActivity
More detail about the onSavedInstanceState(Bundle savedinstaneState) while saving data
#Override
public void onSaveInstanceState(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
// Save the user's current game state
savedInstanceState.putInt(STATE_SCORE, mCurrentScore);
// Always call the superclass so it can save the view hierarchy state
super.onSaveInstanceState(savedInstanceState);
}
So by mistake if you forget to call
super.onSaveInstanceState(savedInstanceState);the default behavior
will not work ie Text in EditText will not save.
Which to choose for restoring Activity state?
onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState)
OR
onRestoreInstanceState(Bundle savedInstanceState)
Both methods get the same Bundle object, so it does not really matter where you write your restoring logic. The only difference is that in onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) method you will have to give a null check while it is not needed in the latter case. Other answers have already code snippets. You can refer them.
More detail about the onRestoreInstanceState(Bundle savedinstaneState)
#Override
public void onRestoreInstanceState(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
// Always call the superclass so it can restore the view hierarchy
super.onRestoreInstanceState(savedInstanceState);
// Restore state members from the saved instance
mCurrentScore = savedInstanceState.getInt(STATE_SCORE);
}
Always call super.onRestoreInstanceState(savedInstanceState); so that System restore the View hierarchy by default
Bonus
The onSaveInstanceState(Bundle savedInstanceState) is invoked by the system only when the user intends to come back to the Activity. For example, you are using App X and suddenly you get a call. You move to the caller app and come back to the app X. In this case the onSaveInstanceState(Bundle savedInstanceState) method will be invoked.
But consider this if a user presses the back button. It is assumed that the user does not intend to come back to the Activity, hence in this case onSaveInstanceState(Bundle savedInstanceState) will not be invoked by the system.
Point being you should consider all the scenarios while saving data.
Relevant links:
Demo on default behavior
Android Official Documentation.

Send data from activity to fragment in Android

I have two classes. First is activity, second is a fragment where I have some EditText. In activity I have a subclass with async-task and in method doInBackground I get some result, which I save to variable. How can I send this variable from subclass "my activity" to this fragment?

From Activity you send data with intent as:
Bundle bundle = new Bundle();
bundle.putString("edttext", "From Activity");
// set Fragmentclass Arguments
Fragmentclass fragobj = new Fragmentclass();
fragobj.setArguments(bundle);
and in Fragment onCreateView method:
#Override
public View onCreateView(LayoutInflater inflater, ViewGroup container,
Bundle savedInstanceState) {
String strtext = getArguments().getString("edttext");
return inflater.inflate(R.layout.fragment, container, false);
}

Also You can access activity data from fragment:
Activity:
public class MyActivity extends Activity {
private String myString = "hello";
#Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.activity_my);
...
}
public String getMyData() {
return myString;
}
}
Fragment:
public class MyFragment extends Fragment {
#Override
public View onCreateView(LayoutInflater inflater, ViewGroup container, Bundle savedInstanceState) {
MyActivity activity = (MyActivity) getActivity();
String myDataFromActivity = activity.getMyData();
return view;
}
}

I´ve found a lot of answers here # stackoverflow.com but definitely this is the correct answer of:
"Sending data from activity to fragment in android".
Activity:
Bundle bundle = new Bundle();
String myMessage = "Stackoverflow is cool!";
bundle.putString("message", myMessage );
FragmentClass fragInfo = new FragmentClass();
fragInfo.setArguments(bundle);
transaction.replace(R.id.fragment_single, fragInfo);
transaction.commit();
Fragment:
Reading the value in the fragment
#Override
public View onCreateView(LayoutInflater inflater, ViewGroup container, Bundle savedInstanceState) {
Bundle bundle = this.getArguments();
String myValue = bundle.getString("message");
...
...
...
}
or just
#Override
public View onCreateView(LayoutInflater inflater, ViewGroup container, Bundle savedInstanceState) {
String myValue = this.getArguments().getString("message");
...
...
...
}

This answer may be too late. but it will be useful for future readers.
I have some criteria. I have coded for pick the file from intent. and selected file to be passed to particular fragment for further process. i have many fragments having the functionality of File picking. at the time , every time checking the condition and get the fragment and pass the value is quite disgusting. so , i have decided to pass the value using interface.
Step 1: Create the interface on Main Activity.
public interface SelectedBundle {
void onBundleSelect(Bundle bundle);
}
Step 2: Create the SelectedBundle reference on the Same Activity
SelectedBundle selectedBundle;
Step 3: create the Method in the Same Activity
public void setOnBundleSelected(SelectedBundle selectedBundle) {
this.selectedBundle = selectedBundle;
}
Step 4: Need to initialise the SelectedBundle reference which are all fragment need filepicker functionality.You place this code on your fragment onCreateView(..) method
((MainActivity)getActivity()).setOnBundleSelected(new MainActivity.SelectedBundle() {
#Override
public void onBundleSelect(Bundle bundle) {
updateList(bundle);
}
});
Step 5: My case, i need to pass the image Uri from HomeActivity to fragment. So, i used this functionality on onActivityResult method.
onActivityResult from the MainActivity, pass the values to the fragments using interface.
Note: Your case may be different. you can call it from any where from your HomeActivity.
#Override
protected void onActivityResult(int requestCode, int resultCode, Intent data) {
selectedBundle.onBundleSelect(bundle);
}
Thats all. Implement every fragment you needed on the FragmentClass. You are great. you have done. WOW...

The best and convenient approach is calling fragment instance and send data at that time.
every fragment by default have instance method
For example :
if your fragment name is MyFragment
so you will call your fragment from activity like this :
getSupportFragmentManager().beginTransaction().add(R.id.container, MyFragment.newInstance("data1","data2"),"MyFragment").commit();
*R.id.container is a id of my FrameLayout
so in MyFragment.newInstance("data1","data2") you can send data to fragment and in your fragment you get this data in MyFragment newInstance(String param1, String param2)
public static MyFragment newInstance(String param1, String param2) {
MyFragment fragment = new MyFragment();
Bundle args = new Bundle();
args.putString(ARG_PARAM1, param1);
args.putString(ARG_PARAM2, param2);
fragment.setArguments(args);
return fragment;
}
and then in onCreate method of fragment you'll get the data:
#Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
if (getArguments() != null) {
mParam1 = getArguments().getString(ARG_PARAM1);
mParam2 = getArguments().getString(ARG_PARAM2);
}
}
so now mParam1 have data1 and mParam2 have data2
now you can use this mParam1 and mParam2 in your fragment.

Basic Idea of using Fragments (F) is to create reusable self sustaining UI components in android applications. These Fragments are contained in activities and there are common(best) way of creating communication path ways from A -> F and F-A, It is a must to Communicate between F-F through a Activity because then only the Fragments become decoupled and self sustaining.
So passing data from A -> F is going to be the same as explained by ρяσѕρєя K. In addition to that answer, After creation of the Fragments inside an Activity, we can also pass data to the fragments calling methods in Fragments.
For example:
ArticleFragment articleFrag = (ArticleFragment)
getSupportFragmentManager().findFragmentById(R.id.article_fragment);
articleFrag.updateArticleView(position);

I would like to add for the beginners that the difference between the 2 most upvoted answers here is given by the different use of a fragment.
If you use the fragment within the java class where you have the data you want to pass, you can apply the first answer to pass data:
Bundle bundle = new Bundle();
bundle.putString("edttext", "From Activity");
Fragmentclass fragobj = new Fragmentclass();
fragobj.setArguments(bundle);
If however you use for example the default code given by Android Studio for tabbed fragments, this code will not work.
It will not work even if you replace the default PlaceholderFragment with your FragmentClasses, and even if you correct the FragmentPagerAdapter to the new situation adding a switch for getItem() and another switch for getPageTitle() (as shown here)
Warning: the clip mentioned above has code errors, which I explain later here, but is useful to see how you go from default code to editable code for tabbed fragments)! The rest of my answer makes much more sense if you consider the java classes and xml files from that clip (representative for a first use of tabbed fragments by a beginner scenario).
The main reason the most upvoted answer from this page will not work is that in that default code for tabbed fragments, the fragments are used in another java class: FragmentPagerAdapter!
So, in order to send the data, you are tempted to create a bundle in the MotherActivity and pass it in the FragmentPagerAdapter, using answer no.2.
Only that is wrong again. (Probably you could do it like that, but it is just a complication which is not really needed).
The correct/easier way to do it, I think, is to pass the data directly to the fragment in question, using answer no.2.
Yes, there will be tight coupling between the Activity and the Fragment, BUT, for tabbed fragments, that is kind of expected. I would even advice you to create the tabbed fragments inside the MotherActivity java class (as subclasses, as they will never be used outside the MotherActivity) - it is easy, just add inside the MotherActivity java class as many Fragments as you need like this:
public static class Tab1 extends Fragment {
public Tab1() {
}
#Override
public View onCreateView(LayoutInflater inflater, ViewGroup container,
Bundle savedInstanceState) {
View rootView = inflater.inflate(R.layout.your_layout_name_for_fragment_1, container, false);
return rootView;
}
}.
So, to pass data from the MotherActivity to such a Fragment you will need to create private Strings/Bundles above the onCreate of your Mother activity - which you can fill with the data you want to pass to the fragments, and pass them on via a method created after the onCreate (here called getMyData()).
public class MotherActivity extends Activity {
private String out;
private Bundle results;
#Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.activity_mother_activity);
// for example get a value from the previous activity
Intent intent = getIntent();
out = intent.getExtras().getString("Key");
}
public Bundle getMyData() {
Bundle hm = new Bundle();
hm.putString("val1",out);
return hm;
}
}
And then in the fragment class, you use getMyData:
public static class Tab1 extends Fragment {
/**
* The fragment argument representing the section number for this
* fragment.
*/
public Tab1() {
}
#Override
public View onCreateView(LayoutInflater inflater, ViewGroup container,
Bundle savedInstanceState) {
View rootView = inflater.inflate(R.layout.your_layout_name_for_fragment_1, container, false);
TextView output = (TextView)rootView.findViewById(R.id.your_id_for_a_text_view_within_the_layout);
MotherActivity activity = (MotherActivity)getActivity();
Bundle results = activity.getMyData();
String value1 = results.getString("val1");
output.setText(value1);
return rootView;
}
}
If you have database queries I advice you to do them in the MotherActivity (and pass their results as Strings/Integers attached to keys inside a bundle as shown above), as inside the tabbed fragments, your syntax will become more complex (this becomes getActivity() for example, and getIntent becomes getActivity().getIntent), but you have also the option to do as you wish.
My advice for beginners is to focus on small steps. First, get your intent to open a very simple tabbed activity, without passing ANY data. Does it work? Does it open the tabs you expect? If not, why?
Start from that, and by applying solutions such as those presented in this clip, see what is missing. For that particular clip, the mainactivity.xml is never shown. That will surely confuse you. But if you pay attention, you will see that for example the context (tools:context) is wrong in the xml fragment files. Each fragment XML needs to point to the correct fragment class (or subclass using the separator $).
You will also see that in the main activity java class you need to add tabLayout.setupWithViewPager(mViewPager) - right after the line TabLayout tabLayout = (TabLayout) findViewById(R.id.tabs); without this line, your view is actually not linked to the XML files of the fragments, but it shows ONLY the xml file of the main activity.
In addition to the line in the main activity java class, in the main activity XML file you need to change the tabs to fit your situation (e.g. add or remove TabItems). If you do not have tabs in the main activity XML, then possibly you did not choose the correct activity type when you created it in the first place (new activity - tabbed activity).
Please note that in the last 3 paragraphs I talk about the video! So when I say main activity XML, it is the main activity XML in the video, which in your situation is the MotherActivity XML file.

If you pass a reference to the (concrete subclass of) fragment into the async task, you can then access the fragment directly.
Some ways of passing the fragment reference into the async task:
If your async task is a fully fledged class (class FooTask extends AsyncTask), then pass your fragment into the constructor.
If your async task is an inner class, just declare a final Fragment variable in the scope the async task is defined, or as a field of the outer class. You'll be able to access that from the inner class.

From Activity you send data with Bundle as:
Bundle bundle = new Bundle();
bundle.putString("data", "Data you want to send");
// Your fragment
MyFragment obj = new MyFragment();
obj.setArguments(bundle);
And in Fragment onCreateView method get the data:
#Override
public View onCreateView(LayoutInflater inflater, ViewGroup container, Bundle savedInstanceState)
{
String data = getArguments().getString("data");// data which sent from activity
return inflater.inflate(R.layout.myfragment, container, false);
}

Sometimes you can receive Intent in your activity and you need to pass the info to your working fragment.
Given answers are OK if you need to start the fragment but if it's still working, setArguments() is not very useful.
Another problem occurs if the passed information will cause to interact with your UI. In that case you cannot call something like myfragment.passData() because android will quickly tells that only the thread which created the view can interact with.
So my proposal is to use a receiver. That way, you can send data from anywhere, including the activity, but the job will be done within the fragment's context.
In you fragment's onCreate():
protected DataReceiver dataReceiver;
public static final String REC_DATA = "REC_DATA";
#Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
data Receiver = new DataReceiver();
intentFilter = new IntentFilter(REC_DATA);
getActivity().registerReceiver(dataReceiver, intentFilter);
}
private class DataReceiver extends BroadcastReceiver {
#Override
public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
int data= intent.getIntExtra("data", -1);
// Do anything including interact with your UI
}
}
In you activity:
// somewhere
Intent retIntent = new Intent(RE_DATA);
retIntent.putExtra("data", myData);
sendBroadcast(retIntent);

Very old post, still I dare to add a little explanation that would had been helpful for me.
Technically you can directly set members of any type in a fragment from activity.
So why Bundle?
The reason is very simple - Bundle provides uniform way to handle:-- creating/opening fragment
-- reconfiguration (screen rotation) - just add initial/updated bundle to outState in onSaveInstanceState()
-- app restoration after being garbage collected in background (as with reconfiguration).
You can (if you like experiments) create a workaround in simple situations but Bundle-approach just doesn't see difference between one fragment and one thousand on a backstack - it stays simple and straightforward. That's why the answer by #Elenasys is the most elegant and universal solution. And that's why the answer given by #Martin has pitfalls

If an activity needs to make a fragment perform an action after initialization, the easiest way is by having the activity invoke a method on the fragment instance. In the fragment, add a method:
public class DemoFragment extends Fragment {
public void doSomething(String param) {
// do something in fragment
}
}
and then in the activity, get access to the fragment using the fragment manager and call the method:
public class MainActivity extends FragmentActivity {
#Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
DemoFragment fragmentDemo = (DemoFragment)
getSupportFragmentManager().findFragmentById(R.id.fragmentDemo);
fragmentDemo.doSomething("some param");
}
}
and then the activity can communicate directly with the fragment by invoking this method.

the better approach for sending data from activity class to fragment is passing via setter methods. Like
FragmentClass fragmentClass = new FragmentClass();
fragmentClass.setMyList(mylist);
fragmentClass.setMyString(myString);
fragmentClass.setMyMap(myMap);
and get these data from the class easily.

Use following interface to communicate between activity and fragment
public interface BundleListener {
void update(Bundle bundle);
Bundle getBundle();
}
Or use following this generic listener for two way communication using interface
/**
* Created by Qamar4P on 10/11/2017.
*/
public interface GenericConnector<T,E> {
T getData();
void updateData(E data);
void connect(GenericConnector<T,E> connector);
}
fragment show method
public static void show(AppCompatActivity activity) {
CustomValueDialogFragment dialog = new CustomValueDialogFragment();
dialog.connector = (GenericConnector) activity;
dialog.show(activity.getSupportFragmentManager(),"CustomValueDialogFragment");
}
you can cast your context to GenericConnector in onAttach(Context) too
in your activity
CustomValueDialogFragment.show(this);
in your fragment
...
#Override
public void onCreate(#Nullable Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
connector.connect(new GenericConnector() {
#Override
public Object getData() {
return null;
}
#Override
public void updateData(Object data) {
}
#Override
public void connect(GenericConnector connector) {
}
});
}
...
public static void show(AppCompatActivity activity, GenericConnector connector) {
CustomValueDialogFragment dialog = new CustomValueDialogFragment();
dialog.connector = connector;
dialog.show(activity.getSupportFragmentManager(),"CustomValueDialogFragment");
}
Note: Never use it like "".toString().toString().toString(); way.

just stumbled across this question, while most of the methods above will work.
I just want to add that you can use the Event Bus Library, especially in scenarios where the component (Activity or Fragment) has not been created, its good for all sizes of android projects and many use cases. I have personally used it in several projects i have on playstore.

You can create public static method in fragment where you will get static reference of that fragment and then pass data to that function and set that data to argument in same method and get data via getArgument on oncreate method of fragment, and set that data to local variables.

I ran into a similar issue while using the latest Navigation architecture component. Tried out all the above-mentioned code with passing a bundle from my calling activity to Fragment.
The best solution, following the latest development trends in Android, is by using View Model (part of Android Jetpack).
Create and Initialize a ViewModel class in the parent Activity, Please note that this ViewModel has to be shared between the activity and fragment.
Now, Inside the onViewCreated() of the fragment, Initialize the Same ViewModel and setup Observers to listen to the ViewModel fields.
Here is a helpful, in-depth tutorial if you need.
https://medium.com/mindorks/how-to-communicate-between-fragments-and-activity-using-viewmodel-ca733233a51c

Kotlin version:
In Activity:
val bundle = Bundle()
bundle.putBoolean("YourKey1", true)
bundle.putString("YourKey2", "YourString")
val fragment = YourFragment()
fragment.arguments = bundle
val fragmentTransaction = parentFragmentManager.beginTransaction()
fragmentTransaction.replace(R.id.your_container, fragment, fragment.toString())
fragmentTransaction.commit()
In the Fragment onCreate():
var value1 = arguments?.getBoolean("YourKey1", default true/false)
var value2 = arguments?.getString("YourKey2", "Default String")

Smartest tried and tested way of passing data between fragments and activity is to create a variables,example:
class StorageUtil {
public static ArrayList<Employee> employees;
}
Then to pass data from fragment to activity, we do so in the onActivityCreated method:
//a field created in the sending fragment
ArrayList<Employee> employees;
#Override
public void onActivityCreated(#Nullable Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onActivityCreated(savedInstanceState);
employees=new ArrayList();
//java 7 and above syntax for arraylist else use employees=new ArrayList<Employee>() for java 6 and below
//Adding first employee
Employee employee=new Employee("1","Andrew","Sam","1984-04-10","Male","Ghanaian");
employees.add(employee);
//Adding second employee
Employee employee=new Employee("1","Akuah","Morrison","1984-02-04","Female","Ghanaian");
employees.add(employee);
StorageUtil.employees=employees;
}
Now you can get the value of StorageUtil.employees from everywhere.
Goodluck!

My solution is to write a static method inside the fragment:
public TheFragment setData(TheData data) {
TheFragment tf = new TheFragment();
tf.data = data;
return tf;
}
This way I am sure that all the data I need is inside the Fragment before any other possible operation which could need to work with it.
Also it looks cleaner in my opinion.

You can make a setter method in the fragment. Then in the Activity, when you reference to the fragment, you call the setter method and pass it the data from you Activity

In your activity declare static variable
public static HashMap<String,ContactsModal> contactItems=new HashMap<String, ContactsModal>();
Then in your fragment do like follow
ActivityName.contactItems.put(Number,contactsModal);

Simple persisting doesn't work

private static final String KEY = "qaz";
private String aString;
#Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
textView = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.txt);
final String saved;
if (savedInstanceState != null) {
saved = savedInstanceState.getString(KEY);
report("[" + saved + "]");
} else {
saved = null;
report("[NULL]");
}
if (aString==null && saved!=null) {
aString = saved;
report("A");
}
}
#Override
public void onSaveInstanceState(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
report("s");
savedInstanceState.putString(KEY, aString);
super.onSaveInstanceState(savedInstanceState);
}
#Override
protected void onPause() {
report("p");
super.onPause();
}
#Override
public void onBackPressed() {
report("b");
super.onBackPressed();
}
#Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.activity_main, menu);
return true;
}
private void report(String s) {
aString += " " + s;
Log.v("report", aString);
textView.setText(aString);
}

onSaveInstance is intended to persist a value from one instance of your activity to the next, for example when the activity is destroyed and recreated on an orientation change. Just remember that when your activity is recreated, it is an entirely new instance of the class you've defined to extend the Activity class and therefore, all local fields (variables) will be re-initialised.
As you've already discovered, SharedPreferences are a good way to persist a value beyond the Activity lifecycle and of course, there are others. The values saved in onSaveInstance and retrieved in onCreate are intended for you to be able to initialise a new instance of your activity to the same state it was before it was destroyed.
Imagine for example that you have a messaging application and your user has already entered several lines of text. They then accidentally flip the orientation (we've all done that right?) then flip it back. How frustrated would they be to see that their text had disappeared?! So a good developer would save the current content of the TextView in onSaveInstance and retrieve it in onCreate. If any value is retrieved, it is passed to the setText() method so that the user can continue from where they were.
Take a look here. Learning the Activity life cycle, how to control it and how to pass values between Activities (either 2 different Activities or 2 instances of the same Activity) is one of the keys to unlocking the Android kingdom.
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/Activity.html#ActivityLifecycle
The key point is to understand when each callback is called and, even more importantly, what may or may not be called by Android. For example, when your app is in the background,there are NO guarantees that your activity will be called again if Android decides to kill your app.
Good luck.

Android - TabScreen orientation causes all my screens to be reset? [duplicate]

I've been working on the Android SDK platform, and it is a little unclear how to save an application's state. So given this minor re-tooling of the 'Hello, Android' example:
package com.android.hello;
import android.app.Activity;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.widget.TextView;
public class HelloAndroid extends Activity {
private TextView mTextView = null;
/** Called when the activity is first created. */
#Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
mTextView = new TextView(this);
if (savedInstanceState == null) {
mTextView.setText("Welcome to HelloAndroid!");
} else {
mTextView.setText("Welcome back.");
}
setContentView(mTextView);
}
}
I thought it would be enough for the simplest case, but it always responds with the first message, no matter how I navigate away from the app.
I'm sure the solution is as simple as overriding onPause or something like that, but I've been poking away in the documentation for 30 minutes or so and haven't found anything obvious.

You need to override onSaveInstanceState(Bundle savedInstanceState) and write the application state values you want to change to the Bundle parameter like this:
#Override
public void onSaveInstanceState(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onSaveInstanceState(savedInstanceState);
// Save UI state changes to the savedInstanceState.
// This bundle will be passed to onCreate if the process is
// killed and restarted.
savedInstanceState.putBoolean("MyBoolean", true);
savedInstanceState.putDouble("myDouble", 1.9);
savedInstanceState.putInt("MyInt", 1);
savedInstanceState.putString("MyString", "Welcome back to Android");
// etc.
}
The Bundle is essentially a way of storing a NVP ("Name-Value Pair") map, and it will get passed in to onCreate() and also onRestoreInstanceState() where you would then extract the values from activity like this:
#Override
public void onRestoreInstanceState(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onRestoreInstanceState(savedInstanceState);
// Restore UI state from the savedInstanceState.
// This bundle has also been passed to onCreate.
boolean myBoolean = savedInstanceState.getBoolean("MyBoolean");
double myDouble = savedInstanceState.getDouble("myDouble");
int myInt = savedInstanceState.getInt("MyInt");
String myString = savedInstanceState.getString("MyString");
}
Or from a fragment.
#Override
public void onViewStateRestored(#Nullable Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onViewStateRestored(savedInstanceState);
// Restore UI state from the savedInstanceState.
// This bundle has also been passed to onCreate.
boolean myBoolean = savedInstanceState.getBoolean("MyBoolean");
double myDouble = savedInstanceState.getDouble("myDouble");
int myInt = savedInstanceState.getInt("MyInt");
String myString = savedInstanceState.getString("MyString");
}
You would usually use this technique to store instance values for your application (selections, unsaved text, etc.).

The savedInstanceState is only for saving state associated with a current instance of an Activity, for example current navigation or selection info, so that if Android destroys and recreates an Activity, it can come back as it was before. See the documentation for onCreate and onSaveInstanceState
For more long lived state, consider using a SQLite database, a file, or preferences. See Saving Persistent State.

Note that it is not safe to use onSaveInstanceState and onRestoreInstanceState for persistent data, according to the documentation on Activity.
The document states (in the 'Activity Lifecycle' section):
Note that it is important to save
persistent data in onPause() instead
of onSaveInstanceState(Bundle)
because the later is not part of the
lifecycle callbacks, so will not be
called in every situation as described
in its documentation.
In other words, put your save/restore code for persistent data in onPause() and onResume()!
For further clarification, here's the onSaveInstanceState() documentation:
This method is called before an activity may be killed so that when it
comes back some time in the future it can restore its state. For
example, if activity B is launched in front of activity A, and at some
point activity A is killed to reclaim resources, activity A will have
a chance to save the current state of its user interface via this
method so that when the user returns to activity A, the state of the
user interface can be restored via onCreate(Bundle) or
onRestoreInstanceState(Bundle).

My colleague wrote an article explaining application state on Android devices, including explanations on activity lifecycle and state information, how to store state information, and saving to state Bundle and SharedPreferences. Take a look at it here.
The article covers three approaches:
Store local variable/UI control data for application lifetime (i.e. temporarily) using an instance state bundle
[Code sample – Store state in state bundle]
#Override
public void onSaveInstanceState(Bundle savedInstanceState)
{
// Store UI state to the savedInstanceState.
// This bundle will be passed to onCreate on next call. EditText txtName = (EditText)findViewById(R.id.txtName);
String strName = txtName.getText().toString();
EditText txtEmail = (EditText)findViewById(R.id.txtEmail);
String strEmail = txtEmail.getText().toString();
CheckBox chkTandC = (CheckBox)findViewById(R.id.chkTandC);
boolean blnTandC = chkTandC.isChecked();
savedInstanceState.putString(“Name”, strName);
savedInstanceState.putString(“Email”, strEmail);
savedInstanceState.putBoolean(“TandC”, blnTandC);
super.onSaveInstanceState(savedInstanceState);
}
Store local variable/UI control data between application instances (i.e. permanently) using shared preferences
[Code sample – store state in SharedPreferences]
#Override
protected void onPause()
{
super.onPause();
// Store values between instances here
SharedPreferences preferences = getPreferences(MODE_PRIVATE);
SharedPreferences.Editor editor = preferences.edit(); // Put the values from the UI
EditText txtName = (EditText)findViewById(R.id.txtName);
String strName = txtName.getText().toString();
EditText txtEmail = (EditText)findViewById(R.id.txtEmail);
String strEmail = txtEmail.getText().toString();
CheckBox chkTandC = (CheckBox)findViewById(R.id.chkTandC);
boolean blnTandC = chkTandC.isChecked();
editor.putString(“Name”, strName); // value to store
editor.putString(“Email”, strEmail); // value to store
editor.putBoolean(“TandC”, blnTandC); // value to store
// Commit to storage
editor.commit();
}
Keeping object instances alive in memory between activities within application lifetime using a retained non-configuration instance
[Code sample – store object instance]
private cMyClassType moInstanceOfAClass; // Store the instance of an object
#Override
public Object onRetainNonConfigurationInstance()
{
if (moInstanceOfAClass != null) // Check that the object exists
return(moInstanceOfAClass);
return super.onRetainNonConfigurationInstance();
}

This is a classic 'gotcha' of Android development. There are two issues here:
There is a subtle Android Framework bug which greatly complicates application stack management during development, at least on legacy versions (not entirely sure if/when/how it was fixed). I'll discuss this bug below.
The 'normal' or intended way to manage this issue is, itself, rather complicated with the duality of onPause/onResume and onSaveInstanceState/onRestoreInstanceState
Browsing across all these threads, I suspect that much of the time developers are talking about these two different issues simultaneously ... hence all the confusion and reports of "this doesn't work for me".
First, to clarify the 'intended' behavior: onSaveInstance and onRestoreInstance are fragile and only for transient state. The intended usage (as far as I can tell) is to handle Activity recreation when the phone is rotated (orientation change). In other words, the intended usage is when your Activity is still logically 'on top', but still must be reinstantiated by the system. The saved Bundle is not persisted outside of the process/memory/GC, so you cannot really rely on this if your activity goes to the background. Yes, perhaps your Activity's memory will survive its trip to the background and escape GC, but this is not reliable (nor is it predictable).
So if you have a scenario where there is meaningful 'user progress' or state that should be persisted between 'launches' of your application, the guidance is to use onPause and onResume. You must choose and prepare a persistent store yourself.
But - there is a very confusing bug which complicates all of this. Details are here:
Activity stack behaves incorrectly during the first run of an app when started from Eclipse (#36907463)
Marketplace / browser app installer allows second instance off app (#36911210)
Basically, if your application is launched with the SingleTask flag, and then later on you launch it from the home screen or launcher menu, then that subsequent invocation will create a NEW task ... you'll effectively have two different instances of your app inhabiting the same stack ... which gets very strange very fast. This seems to happen when you launch your app during development (i.e. from Eclipse or IntelliJ), so developers run into this a lot. But also through some of the app store update mechanisms (so it impacts your users as well).
I battled through these threads for hours before I realized that my main issue was this bug, not the intended framework behavior. A great write-up and workaround (UPDATE: see below) seems to be from user #kaciula in this answer:
Home key press behaviour
UPDATE June 2013: Months later, I have finally found the 'correct' solution. You don't need to manage any stateful startedApp flags yourself. You can detect this from the framework and bail appropriately. I use this near the beginning of my LauncherActivity.onCreate:
if (!isTaskRoot()) {
Intent intent = getIntent();
String action = intent.getAction();
if (intent.hasCategory(Intent.CATEGORY_LAUNCHER) && action != null && action.equals(Intent.ACTION_MAIN)) {
finish();
return;
}
}

onSaveInstanceState is called when the system needs memory and kills an application. It is not called when the user just closes the application. So I think application state should also be saved in onPause.
It should be saved to some persistent storage like Preferences or SQLite.

Both methods are useful and valid and both are best suited for different scenarios:
The user terminates the application and re-opens it at a later date, but the application needs to reload data from the last session – this requires a persistent storage approach such as using SQLite.
The user switches application and then comes back to the original and wants to pick up where they left off - save and restore bundle data (such as application state data) in onSaveInstanceState() and onRestoreInstanceState() is usually adequate.
If you save the state data in a persistent manner, it can be reloaded in an onResume() or onCreate() (or actually on any lifecycle call). This may or may not be desired behaviour. If you store it in a bundle in an InstanceState, then it is transient and is only suitable for storing data for use in the same user ‘session’ (I use the term session loosely) but not between ‘sessions’.
It is not that one approach is better than the other, like everything, it is just important to understand what behaviour you require and to select the most appropriate approach.

Saving state is a kludge at best as far as I'm concerned. If you need to save persistent data, just use an SQLite database. Android makes it SOOO easy.
Something like this:
import java.util.Date;
import android.content.Context;
import android.database.Cursor;
import android.database.sqlite.SQLiteDatabase;
import android.database.sqlite.SQLiteOpenHelper;
public class dataHelper {
private static final String DATABASE_NAME = "autoMate.db";
private static final int DATABASE_VERSION = 1;
private Context context;
private SQLiteDatabase db;
private OpenHelper oh ;
public dataHelper(Context context) {
this.context = context;
this.oh = new OpenHelper(this.context);
this.db = oh.getWritableDatabase();
}
public void close() {
db.close();
oh.close();
db = null;
oh = null;
SQLiteDatabase.releaseMemory();
}
public void setCode(String codeName, Object codeValue, String codeDataType) {
Cursor codeRow = db.rawQuery("SELECT * FROM code WHERE codeName = '"+ codeName + "'", null);
String cv = "" ;
if (codeDataType.toLowerCase().trim().equals("long") == true){
cv = String.valueOf(codeValue);
}
else if (codeDataType.toLowerCase().trim().equals("int") == true)
{
cv = String.valueOf(codeValue);
}
else if (codeDataType.toLowerCase().trim().equals("date") == true)
{
cv = String.valueOf(((Date)codeValue).getTime());
}
else if (codeDataType.toLowerCase().trim().equals("boolean") == true)
{
String.valueOf(codeValue);
}
else
{
cv = String.valueOf(codeValue);
}
if(codeRow.getCount() > 0) //exists-- update
{
db.execSQL("update code set codeValue = '" + cv +
"' where codeName = '" + codeName + "'");
}
else // does not exist, insert
{
db.execSQL("INSERT INTO code (codeName, codeValue, codeDataType) VALUES(" +
"'" + codeName + "'," +
"'" + cv + "'," +
"'" + codeDataType + "')" );
}
}
public Object getCode(String codeName, Object defaultValue){
//Check to see if it already exists
String codeValue = "";
String codeDataType = "";
boolean found = false;
Cursor codeRow = db.rawQuery("SELECT * FROM code WHERE codeName = '"+ codeName + "'", null);
if (codeRow.moveToFirst())
{
codeValue = codeRow.getString(codeRow.getColumnIndex("codeValue"));
codeDataType = codeRow.getString(codeRow.getColumnIndex("codeDataType"));
found = true;
}
if (found == false)
{
return defaultValue;
}
else if (codeDataType.toLowerCase().trim().equals("long") == true)
{
if (codeValue.equals("") == true)
{
return (long)0;
}
return Long.parseLong(codeValue);
}
else if (codeDataType.toLowerCase().trim().equals("int") == true)
{
if (codeValue.equals("") == true)
{
return (int)0;
}
return Integer.parseInt(codeValue);
}
else if (codeDataType.toLowerCase().trim().equals("date") == true)
{
if (codeValue.equals("") == true)
{
return null;
}
return new Date(Long.parseLong(codeValue));
}
else if (codeDataType.toLowerCase().trim().equals("boolean") == true)
{
if (codeValue.equals("") == true)
{
return false;
}
return Boolean.parseBoolean(codeValue);
}
else
{
return (String)codeValue;
}
}
private static class OpenHelper extends SQLiteOpenHelper {
OpenHelper(Context context) {
super(context, DATABASE_NAME, null, DATABASE_VERSION);
}
#Override
public void onCreate(SQLiteDatabase db) {
db.execSQL("CREATE TABLE IF NOT EXISTS code" +
"(id INTEGER PRIMARY KEY, codeName TEXT, codeValue TEXT, codeDataType TEXT)");
}
#Override
public void onUpgrade(SQLiteDatabase db, int oldVersion, int newVersion) {
}
}
}
A simple call after that
dataHelper dh = new dataHelper(getBaseContext());
String status = (String) dh.getCode("appState", "safetyDisabled");
Date serviceStart = (Date) dh.getCode("serviceStartTime", null);
dh.close();
dh = null;

I think I found the answer. Let me tell what I have done in simple words:
Suppose I have two activities, activity1 and activity2 and I am navigating from activity1 to activity2 (I have done some works in activity2) and again back to activity 1 by clicking on a button in activity1. Now at this stage I wanted to go back to activity2 and I want to see my activity2 in the same condition when I last left activity2.
For the above scenario what I have done is that in the manifest I made some changes like this:
<activity android:name=".activity2"
android:alwaysRetainTaskState="true"
android:launchMode="singleInstance">
</activity>
And in the activity1 on the button click event I have done like this:
Intent intent = new Intent();
intent.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_REORDER_TO_FRONT);
intent.setClassName(this,"com.mainscreen.activity2");
startActivity(intent);
And in activity2 on button click event I have done like this:
Intent intent=new Intent();
intent.setClassName(this,"com.mainscreen.activity1");
startActivity(intent);
Now what will happen is that whatever the changes we have made in the activity2 will not be lost, and we can view activity2 in the same state as we left previously.
I believe this is the answer and this works fine for me. Correct me if I am wrong.

onSaveInstanceState() for transient data (restored in onCreate()/onRestoreInstanceState()), onPause() for persistent data (restored in onResume()).
From Android technical resources:
onSaveInstanceState() is called by Android if the Activity is being stopped and may be killed before it is resumed! This means it should store any state necessary to re-initialize to the same condition when the Activity is restarted. It is the counterpart to the onCreate() method, and in fact the savedInstanceState Bundle passed in to onCreate() is the same Bundle that you construct as outState in the onSaveInstanceState() method.
onPause() and onResume() are also complimentary methods. onPause() is always called when the Activity ends, even if we instigated that (with a finish() call for example). We will use this to save the current note back to the database. Good practice is to release any resources that can be released during an onPause() as well, to take up less resources when in the passive state.

Really onSaveInstanceState() is called when the Activity goes to background.
Quote from the docs:
"This method is called before an activity may be killed so that when it comes back sometime in the future it can restore its state."
Source

To help reduce boilerplate I use the following interface and class to read/write to a Bundle for saving instance state.
First, create an interface that will be used to annotate your instance variables:
import java.lang.annotation.Documented;
import java.lang.annotation.ElementType;
import java.lang.annotation.Retention;
import java.lang.annotation.RetentionPolicy;
import java.lang.annotation.Target;
#Documented
#Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
#Target({
ElementType.FIELD
})
public #interface SaveInstance {
}
Then, create a class where reflection will be used to save values to the bundle:
import android.app.Activity;
import android.app.Fragment;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.os.Parcelable;
import android.util.Log;
import java.io.Serializable;
import java.lang.reflect.Field;
/**
* Save and load fields to/from a {#link Bundle}. All fields should be annotated with {#link
* SaveInstance}.</p>
*/
public class Icicle {
private static final String TAG = "Icicle";
/**
* Find all fields with the {#link SaveInstance} annotation and add them to the {#link Bundle}.
*
* #param outState
* The bundle from {#link Activity#onSaveInstanceState(Bundle)} or {#link
* Fragment#onSaveInstanceState(Bundle)}
* #param classInstance
* The object to access the fields which have the {#link SaveInstance} annotation.
* #see #load(Bundle, Object)
*/
public static void save(Bundle outState, Object classInstance) {
save(outState, classInstance, classInstance.getClass());
}
/**
* Find all fields with the {#link SaveInstance} annotation and add them to the {#link Bundle}.
*
* #param outState
* The bundle from {#link Activity#onSaveInstanceState(Bundle)} or {#link
* Fragment#onSaveInstanceState(Bundle)}
* #param classInstance
* The object to access the fields which have the {#link SaveInstance} annotation.
* #param baseClass
* Base class, used to get all superclasses of the instance.
* #see #load(Bundle, Object, Class)
*/
public static void save(Bundle outState, Object classInstance, Class<?> baseClass) {
if (outState == null) {
return;
}
Class<?> clazz = classInstance.getClass();
while (baseClass.isAssignableFrom(clazz)) {
String className = clazz.getName();
for (Field field : clazz.getDeclaredFields()) {
if (field.isAnnotationPresent(SaveInstance.class)) {
field.setAccessible(true);
String key = className + "#" + field.getName();
try {
Object value = field.get(classInstance);
if (value instanceof Parcelable) {
outState.putParcelable(key, (Parcelable) value);
} else if (value instanceof Serializable) {
outState.putSerializable(key, (Serializable) value);
}
} catch (Throwable t) {
Log.d(TAG, "The field '" + key + "' was not added to the bundle");
}
}
}
clazz = clazz.getSuperclass();
}
}
/**
* Load all saved fields that have the {#link SaveInstance} annotation.
*
* #param savedInstanceState
* The saved-instance {#link Bundle} from an {#link Activity} or {#link Fragment}.
* #param classInstance
* The object to access the fields which have the {#link SaveInstance} annotation.
* #see #save(Bundle, Object)
*/
public static void load(Bundle savedInstanceState, Object classInstance) {
load(savedInstanceState, classInstance, classInstance.getClass());
}
/**
* Load all saved fields that have the {#link SaveInstance} annotation.
*
* #param savedInstanceState
* The saved-instance {#link Bundle} from an {#link Activity} or {#link Fragment}.
* #param classInstance
* The object to access the fields which have the {#link SaveInstance} annotation.
* #param baseClass
* Base class, used to get all superclasses of the instance.
* #see #save(Bundle, Object, Class)
*/
public static void load(Bundle savedInstanceState, Object classInstance, Class<?> baseClass) {
if (savedInstanceState == null) {
return;
}
Class<?> clazz = classInstance.getClass();
while (baseClass.isAssignableFrom(clazz)) {
String className = clazz.getName();
for (Field field : clazz.getDeclaredFields()) {
if (field.isAnnotationPresent(SaveInstance.class)) {
String key = className + "#" + field.getName();
field.setAccessible(true);
try {
Object fieldVal = savedInstanceState.get(key);
if (fieldVal != null) {
field.set(classInstance, fieldVal);
}
} catch (Throwable t) {
Log.d(TAG, "The field '" + key + "' was not retrieved from the bundle");
}
}
}
clazz = clazz.getSuperclass();
}
}
}
Example usage:
public class MainActivity extends Activity {
#SaveInstance
private String foo;
#SaveInstance
private int bar;
#SaveInstance
private Intent baz;
#SaveInstance
private boolean qux;
#Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
Icicle.load(savedInstanceState, this);
}
#Override
public void onSaveInstanceState(Bundle outState) {
super.onSaveInstanceState(outState);
Icicle.save(outState, this);
}
}
Note: This code was adapted from a library project named AndroidAutowire which is licensed under the MIT license.

Meanwhile I do in general no more use
Bundle savedInstanceState & Co
The life cycle is for most activities too complicated and not necessary.
And Google states itself, it is NOT even reliable.
My way is to save any changes immediately in the preferences:
SharedPreferences p;
p.edit().put(..).commit()
In some way SharedPreferences work similar like Bundles.
And naturally and at first such values have to be read from preferences.
In the case of complex data you may use SQLite instead of using preferences.
When applying this concept, the activity just continues to use the last saved state, regardless of whether it was an initial open with reboots in between or a reopen due to the back stack.

To answer the original question directly. savedInstancestate is null because your Activity is never being re-created.
Your Activity will only be re-created with a state bundle when:
Configuration changes such as changing the orientation or phone language which may requires a new activity instance to be created.
You return to the app from the background after the OS has destroyed the activity.
Android will destroy background activities when under memory pressure or after they've been in the background for an extended period of time.
When testing your hello world example there are a few ways to leave and return to the Activity.
When you press the back button the Activity is finished. Re-launching the app is a brand new instance. You aren't resuming from the background at all.
When you press the home button or use the task switcher the Activity will go into the background. When navigating back to the application onCreate will only be called if the Activity had to be destroyed.
In most cases if you're just pressing home and then launching the app again the activity won't need to be re-created. It already exists in memory so onCreate() won't be called.
There is an option under Settings -> Developer Options called "Don't keep activities". When it's enabled Android will always destroy activities and recreate them when they're backgrounded. This is a great option to leave enabled when developing because it simulates the worst case scenario. ( A low memory device recycling your activities all the time ).
The other answers are valuable in that they teach you the correct ways to store state but I didn't feel they really answered WHY your code wasn't working in the way you expected.

The onSaveInstanceState(bundle) and onRestoreInstanceState(bundle) methods are useful for data persistence merely while rotating the screen (orientation change).
They are not even good while switching between applications (since the onSaveInstanceState() method is called but onCreate(bundle) and onRestoreInstanceState(bundle) is not invoked again.
For more persistence use shared preferences. read this article

My problem was that I needed persistence only during the application lifetime (i.e. a single execution including starting other sub-activities within the same app and rotating the device etc). I tried various combinations of the above answers but did not get what I wanted in all situations. In the end what worked for me was to obtain a reference to the savedInstanceState during onCreate:
mySavedInstanceState=savedInstanceState;
and use that to obtain the contents of my variable when I needed it, along the lines of:
if (mySavedInstanceState !=null) {
boolean myVariable = mySavedInstanceState.getBoolean("MyVariable");
}
I use onSaveInstanceStateand onRestoreInstanceState as suggested above but I guess i could also or alternatively use my method to save the variable when it changes (e.g. using putBoolean)

Although the accepted answer is correct, there is a faster and easier method to save the Activity state on Android using a library called Icepick. Icepick is an annotation processor that takes care of all the boilerplate code used in saving and restoring state for you.
Doing something like this with Icepick:
class MainActivity extends Activity {
#State String username; // These will be automatically saved and restored
#State String password;
#State int age;
#Override public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
Icepick.restoreInstanceState(this, savedInstanceState);
}
#Override public void onSaveInstanceState(Bundle outState) {
super.onSaveInstanceState(outState);
Icepick.saveInstanceState(this, outState);
}
}
Is the same as doing this:
class MainActivity extends Activity {
String username;
String password;
int age;
#Override
public void onSaveInstanceState(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onSaveInstanceState(savedInstanceState);
savedInstanceState.putString("MyString", username);
savedInstanceState.putString("MyPassword", password);
savedInstanceState.putInt("MyAge", age);
/* remember you would need to actually initialize these variables before putting it in the
Bundle */
}
#Override
public void onRestoreInstanceState(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onRestoreInstanceState(savedInstanceState);
username = savedInstanceState.getString("MyString");
password = savedInstanceState.getString("MyPassword");
age = savedInstanceState.getInt("MyAge");
}
}
Icepick will work with any object that saves its state with a Bundle.

When an activity is created it's onCreate() method is called.
#Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
}
savedInstanceState is an object of Bundle class which is null for the first time, but it contains values when it is recreated. To save Activity's state you have to override onSaveInstanceState().
#Override
protected void onSaveInstanceState(Bundle outState) {
outState.putString("key","Welcome Back")
super.onSaveInstanceState(outState); //save state
}
put your values in "outState" Bundle object like outState.putString("key","Welcome Back") and save by calling super.
When activity will be destroyed it's state get saved in Bundle object and can be restored after recreation in onCreate() or onRestoreInstanceState(). Bundle received in onCreate() and onRestoreInstanceState() are same.
#Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
//restore activity's state
if(savedInstanceState!=null){
String reStoredString=savedInstanceState.getString("key");
}
}
or
//restores activity's saved state
#Override
protected void onRestoreInstanceState(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
String restoredMessage=savedInstanceState.getString("key");
}

There are basically two ways to implement this change.
using onSaveInstanceState() and onRestoreInstanceState().
In manifest android:configChanges="orientation|screenSize".
I really do not recommend to use second method. Since in one of my experience it was causing half of the device screen black while rotating from portrait to landscape and vice versa.
Using first method mentioned above , we can persist data when orientation is changed or any config change happens.
I know a way in which you can store any type of data inside savedInstance state object.
Example: Consider a case if you want to persist Json object.
create a model class with getters and setters .
class MyModel extends Serializable{
JSONObject obj;
setJsonObject(JsonObject obj)
{
this.obj=obj;
}
JSONObject getJsonObject()
return this.obj;
}
}
Now in your activity in onCreate and onSaveInstanceState method do the following. It will look something like this:
#override
onCreate(Bundle savedInstaceState){
MyModel data= (MyModel)savedInstaceState.getSerializable("yourkey")
JSONObject obj=data.getJsonObject();
//Here you have retained JSONObject and can use.
}
#Override
protected void onSaveInstanceState(Bundle outState) {
super.onSaveInstanceState(outState);
//Obj is some json object
MyModel dataToSave= new MyModel();
dataToSave.setJsonObject(obj);
oustate.putSerializable("yourkey",dataToSave);
}

Here is a comment from Steve Moseley's answer (by ToolmakerSteve) that puts things into perspective (in the whole onSaveInstanceState vs onPause, east cost vs west cost saga)
#VVK - I partially disagree. Some ways of exiting an app don't trigger
onSaveInstanceState (oSIS). This limits the usefulness of oSIS. Its
worth supporting, for minimal OS resources, but if an app wants to
return the user to the state they were in, no matter how the app was
exited, it is necessary to use a persistent storage approach instead.
I use onCreate to check for bundle, and if it is missing, then check
persistent storage. This centralizes the decision making. I can
recover from a crash, or back button exit or custom menu item Exit, or
get back to screen user was on many days later. – ToolmakerSteve Sep
19 '15 at 10:38

Kotlin code:
save:
override fun onSaveInstanceState(outState: Bundle) {
super.onSaveInstanceState(outState.apply {
putInt("intKey", 1)
putString("stringKey", "String Value")
putParcelable("parcelableKey", parcelableObject)
})
}
and then in onCreate() or onRestoreInstanceState()
val restoredInt = savedInstanceState?.getInt("intKey") ?: 1 //default int
val restoredString = savedInstanceState?.getString("stringKey") ?: "default string"
val restoredParcelable = savedInstanceState?.getParcelable<ParcelableClass>("parcelableKey") ?: ParcelableClass() //default parcelable
Add default values if you don't want to have Optionals

To get activity state data stored in onCreate(), first you have to save data in savedInstanceState by overriding SaveInstanceState(Bundle savedInstanceState) method.
When activity destroy SaveInstanceState(Bundle savedInstanceState) method gets called and there you save data you want to save. And you get same in onCreate() when activity restart.(savedInstanceState wont be null since you have saved some data in it before activity get destroyed)

Kotlin
You must override onSaveInstanceState and onRestoreInstanceState to store and retrieve your variables you want to be persistent
Life cycle graph
Store variables
public override fun onSaveInstanceState(savedInstanceState: Bundle) {
super.onSaveInstanceState(savedInstanceState)
// prepare variables here
savedInstanceState.putInt("kInt", 10)
savedInstanceState.putBoolean("kBool", true)
savedInstanceState.putDouble("kDouble", 4.5)
savedInstanceState.putString("kString", "Hello Kotlin")
}
Retrieve variables
public override fun onRestoreInstanceState(savedInstanceState: Bundle) {
super.onRestoreInstanceState(savedInstanceState)
val myInt = savedInstanceState.getInt("kInt")
val myBoolean = savedInstanceState.getBoolean("kBool")
val myDouble = savedInstanceState.getDouble("kDouble")
val myString = savedInstanceState.getString("kString")
// use variables here
}

Not sure if my solution is frowned upon or not, but I use a bound service to persist ViewModel state. Whether you store it in memory in the service or persist and retrieve it from a SQLite database depends on your requirements. This is what services of any flavor do, they provide services such as maintaining application state and abstract common business logic.
Because of memory and processing constraints inherent on mobile devices, I treat Android views in a similar way to a web page. The page does not maintain state, it is purely a presentation layer component whose only purpose is to present application state and accept user input. Recent trends in web app architecture employ the use of the age-old Model, View, Controller (MVC) pattern, where the page is the View, domain data is the model, and the controller sits behind a web service. The same pattern can be employed in Android with the View being, well ... the View, the model is your domain data, and the Controller is implemented as an Android bound service. Whenever you want a view to interact with the controller, bind to it on start/resume and unbind on stop/pause.
This approach gives you the added bonus of enforcing the Separation of Concern design principle in that all of you application business logic can be moved into your service which reduces duplicated logic across multiple views and allows the view to enforce another important design principle, Single Responsibility.

Simple quick to solve this problem is using IcePick
First, setup the library in app/build.gradle
repositories {
maven {url "https://clojars.org/repo/"}
}
dependencies {
compile 'frankiesardo:icepick:3.2.0'
provided 'frankiesardo:icepick-processor:3.2.0'
}
Now, let's check this example below how to save state in Activity
public class ExampleActivity extends Activity {
#State String username; // This will be automatically saved and restored
#Override public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
Icepick.restoreInstanceState(this, savedInstanceState);
}
#Override public void onSaveInstanceState(Bundle outState) {
super.onSaveInstanceState(outState);
Icepick.saveInstanceState(this, outState);
}
}
It works for Activities, Fragments or any object that needs to serialize its state on a Bundle (e.g. mortar's ViewPresenters)
Icepick can also generate the instance state code for custom Views:
class CustomView extends View {
#State int selectedPosition; // This will be automatically saved and restored
#Override public Parcelable onSaveInstanceState() {
return Icepick.saveInstanceState(this, super.onSaveInstanceState());
}
#Override public void onRestoreInstanceState(Parcelable state) {
super.onRestoreInstanceState(Icepick.restoreInstanceState(this, state));
}
// You can put the calls to Icepick into a BaseCustomView and inherit from it
// All Views extending this CustomView automatically have state saved/restored
}

Now Android provides ViewModels for saving state, you should try to use that instead of saveInstanceState.

There is a way to make Android save the states without implementing any method. Just add this line to your Manifest in Activity declaration:
android:configChanges="orientation|screenSize"
It should look like this:
<activity
android:name=".activities.MyActivity"
android:configChanges="orientation|screenSize">
</activity>
Here you can find more information about this property.
It's recommended to let Android handle this for you than the manually handling.

Kotlin Solution:
For custom class save in onSaveInstanceState you can be converted your class to JSON string and restore it with Gson convertion and for single String, Double, Int, Long value save and restore as following. The following example is for Fragment and Activity:
For Activity:
For put data in saveInstanceState:
override fun onSaveInstanceState(outState: Bundle) {
super.onSaveInstanceState(outState)
//for custom class-----
val gson = Gson()
val json = gson.toJson(your_custom_class)
outState.putString("CUSTOM_CLASS", json)
//for single value------
outState.putString("MyString", stringValue)
outState.putBoolean("MyBoolean", true)
outState.putDouble("myDouble", doubleValue)
outState.putInt("MyInt", intValue)
}
Restore data:
override fun onRestoreInstanceState(savedInstanceState: Bundle) {
super.onRestoreInstanceState(savedInstanceState)
//for custom class restore
val json = savedInstanceState?.getString("CUSTOM_CLASS")
if (!json!!.isEmpty()) {
val gson = Gson()
testBundle = gson.fromJson(json, Session::class.java)
}
//for single value restore
val myBoolean: Boolean = savedInstanceState?.getBoolean("MyBoolean")
val myDouble: Double = savedInstanceState?.getDouble("myDouble")
val myInt: Int = savedInstanceState?.getInt("MyInt")
val myString: String = savedInstanceState?.getString("MyString")
}
You can restore it on Activity onCreate also.
For fragment:
For put class in saveInstanceState:
override fun onSaveInstanceState(outState: Bundle) {
super.onSaveInstanceState(outState)
val gson = Gson()
val json = gson.toJson(customClass)
outState.putString("CUSTOM_CLASS", json)
}
Restore data:
override fun onActivityCreated(savedInstanceState: Bundle?) {
super.onActivityCreated(savedInstanceState)
//for custom class restore
if (savedInstanceState != null) {
val json = savedInstanceState.getString("CUSTOM_CLASS")
if (!json!!.isEmpty()) {
val gson = Gson()
val customClass: CustomClass = gson.fromJson(json, CustomClass::class.java)
}
}
// for single value restore
val myBoolean: Boolean = savedInstanceState.getBoolean("MyBoolean")
val myDouble: Double = savedInstanceState.getDouble("myDouble")
val myInt: Int = savedInstanceState.getInt("MyInt")
val myString: String = savedInstanceState.getString("MyString")
}

using Android ViewModel & SavedStateHandle to persist the serializable data
public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {
#Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
ActivityMainBinding binding = ActivityMainBinding.inflate(getLayoutInflater());
binding.setViewModel(new ViewModelProvider(this).get(ViewModel.class));
binding.setLifecycleOwner(this);
setContentView(binding.getRoot());
}
public static class ViewModel extends AndroidViewModel {
//This field SURVIVE the background process reclaim/killing & the configuration change
public final SavedStateHandle savedStateHandle;
//This field NOT SURVIVE the background process reclaim/killing but SURVIVE the configuration change
public final MutableLiveData<String> inputText2 = new MutableLiveData<>();
public ViewModel(#NonNull Application application, SavedStateHandle savedStateHandle) {
super(application);
this.savedStateHandle = savedStateHandle;
}
}
}
in layout file
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<layout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<data>
<variable
name="viewModel"
type="com.xxx.viewmodelsavedstatetest.MainActivity.ViewModel" />
</data>
<LinearLayout xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:orientation="vertical"
tools:context=".MainActivity">
<EditText
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:autofillHints=""
android:hint="This field SURVIVE the background process reclaim/killing & the configuration change"
android:text='#={(String)viewModel.savedStateHandle.getLiveData("activity_main/inputText", "")}' />
<SeekBar
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:max="100"
android:progress='#={(Integer)viewModel.savedStateHandle.getLiveData("activity_main/progress", 50)}' />
<EditText
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:hint="This field SURVIVE the background process reclaim/killing & the configuration change"
android:text='#={(String)viewModel.savedStateHandle.getLiveData("activity_main/inputText", "")}' />
<SeekBar
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:max="100"
android:progress='#={(Integer)viewModel.savedStateHandle.getLiveData("activity_main/progress", 50)}' />
<EditText
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:hint="This field NOT SURVIVE the background process reclaim/killing but SURVIVE the configuration change"
android:text='#={viewModel.inputText2}' />
</LinearLayout>
</layout>
Test:
1. start the test activity
2. press home key to go home
3. adb shell kill <the test activity process>
4. open recent app list and restart the test activity

What to save and what not to?
Ever wondered why the text in the EditText gets saved automatically while an orientation change? Well, this answer is for you.
When an instance of an Activity gets destroyed and the System recreates a new instance (for example, configuration change). It tries to recreate it using a set of saved data of old Activity State (instance state).
Instance state is a collection of key-value pairs stored in a Bundle object.
By default System saves the View objects in the Bundle for example.
Text in EditText
Scroll position in a ListView, etc.
If you need another variable to be saved as a part of instance state you should OVERRIDE onSavedInstanceState(Bundle savedinstaneState) method.
For example, int currentScore in a GameActivity
More detail about the onSavedInstanceState(Bundle savedinstaneState) while saving data
#Override
public void onSaveInstanceState(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
// Save the user's current game state
savedInstanceState.putInt(STATE_SCORE, mCurrentScore);
// Always call the superclass so it can save the view hierarchy state
super.onSaveInstanceState(savedInstanceState);
}
So by mistake if you forget to call
super.onSaveInstanceState(savedInstanceState);the default behavior
will not work ie Text in EditText will not save.
Which to choose for restoring Activity state?
onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState)
OR
onRestoreInstanceState(Bundle savedInstanceState)
Both methods get the same Bundle object, so it does not really matter where you write your restoring logic. The only difference is that in onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) method you will have to give a null check while it is not needed in the latter case. Other answers have already code snippets. You can refer them.
More detail about the onRestoreInstanceState(Bundle savedinstaneState)
#Override
public void onRestoreInstanceState(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
// Always call the superclass so it can restore the view hierarchy
super.onRestoreInstanceState(savedInstanceState);
// Restore state members from the saved instance
mCurrentScore = savedInstanceState.getInt(STATE_SCORE);
}
Always call super.onRestoreInstanceState(savedInstanceState); so that System restore the View hierarchy by default
Bonus
The onSaveInstanceState(Bundle savedInstanceState) is invoked by the system only when the user intends to come back to the Activity. For example, you are using App X and suddenly you get a call. You move to the caller app and come back to the app X. In this case the onSaveInstanceState(Bundle savedInstanceState) method will be invoked.
But consider this if a user presses the back button. It is assumed that the user does not intend to come back to the Activity, hence in this case onSaveInstanceState(Bundle savedInstanceState) will not be invoked by the system.
Point being you should consider all the scenarios while saving data.
Relevant links:
Demo on default behavior
Android Official Documentation.

How to use onSavedInstanceState example please

I'm confused when it comes down to saving a state. So I know that onSaveInstanceState(Bundle) is called when the activity is about to be destroyed. But how do you store your information in it and bring it back to its original state in onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState)? I don't understand how this bundle will restore information. It would be helpful if someone can provide an example.
The Dev guide doesn't do a good job of explaining this.
public class Conversation extends Activity {
private ProgressDialog progDialog;
int typeBar;
TextView text1;
EditText edit;
Button respond;
private String name;
private String textAtView;
private String savedName;
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState){
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.dorothydialog);
text1 = (TextView)findViewById(R.id.dialog);
edit = (EditText)findViewById(R.id.repsond);
respond = (Button)findViewById(R.id.button01);
if(savedInstanceState != null){
savedInstanceState.get(savedName);
text1.setText(savedName);
}
else{
text1.setText("Hello! What is your name?");
respond.setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
#Override
public void onClick(View v) {
name = edit.getText().toString();
text1.setText("Nice to meet you "+ name);
}
});
}
}
#Override
public void onSaveInstanceState(Bundle outState){
super.onSaveInstanceState(outState);
outState.putString(savedName, name);
}
}

The Bundle is a container for all the information you want to save. You use the put* functions to insert data into it. Here's a short list (there are more) of put functions you can use to store data in the Bundle.
putString
putBoolean
putByte
putChar
putFloat
putLong
putShort
putParcelable (used for objects but they must implement Parcelable)
In your onCreate function, this Bundle is handed back to the program. The best way to check if the application is being reloaded, or started for the first time is:
if (savedInstanceState != null) {
// Then the application is being reloaded
}
To get the data back out, use the get* functions just like the put* functions. The data is stored as a name-value pair. This is like a hashmap. You provide a key and the value, then when you want the value back, you give the key and the function gets the value. Here's a short example.
#Override
public void onSaveInstanceState(Bundle outState) {
outState.putString("message", "This is my message to be reloaded");
super.onSaveInstanceState(outState);
}
#Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
if (savedInstanceState != null) {
String message = savedInstanceState.getString("message");
Toast.makeText(this, message, Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
}
}
Your saved message will be toasted to the screen.

One major note that all new Android developers should know is that any information in Widgets (TextView, Buttons, etc.) will be persisted automatically by Android as long as you assign an ID to them. So that means most of the UI state is taken care of without issue. Only when you need to store other data does this become an issue.
From Android Docs:
The only work required by you is to
provide a unique ID (with the
android:id attribute) for each widget
you want to save its state. If a
widget does not have an ID, then it
cannot save its state

A good information: you don't need to check whether the Bundle object is null into the onCreate() method. Use the onRestoreInstanceState() method, which the system calls after the onStart() method. The system calls onRestoreInstanceState() only if there is a saved state to restore, so you do not need to check whether the Bundle is null

Store information:
static final String PLAYER_SCORE = "playerScore";
static final String PLAYER_LEVEL = "playerLevel";
#Override
public void onSaveInstanceState(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
// Save the user's current game state
savedInstanceState.putInt(PLAYER_SCORE, mCurrentScore);
savedInstanceState.putInt(PLAYER_LEVEL, mCurrentLevel);
// Always call the superclass so it can save the view hierarchy state
super.onSaveInstanceState(savedInstanceState);
}
If you don't want to restore information in your onCreate-Method:
Here are the examples: Recreating an Activity
Instead of restoring the state during onCreate() you may choose to implement onRestoreInstanceState(), which the system calls after the onStart() method. The system calls onRestoreInstanceState() only if there is a saved state to restore, so you do not need to check whether the Bundle is null
public void onRestoreInstanceState(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
// Always call the superclass so it can restore the view hierarchy
super.onRestoreInstanceState(savedInstanceState);
// Restore state members from saved instance
mCurrentScore = savedInstanceState.getInt(PLAYER_SCORE);
mCurrentLevel = savedInstanceState.getInt(PLAYER_LEVEL);
}

Basically onSaveInstanceState(Bundle outBundle) will give you a bundle.
When you look at the Bundle class, you will see that you can put lots of different stuff inside it. At the next call of onCreate(), you just get that Bundle back as an argument.
Then you can read your values again and restore your activity.
Lets say you have an activity with an EditText. The user wrote some text inside it.
After that the system calls your onSaveInstanceState().
You read the text from the EditText and write it into the Bundle via Bundle.putString("edit_text_value", theValue).
Now onCreate is called. You check if the supplied bundle is not null. If thats the case,
you can restore your value via Bundle.getString("edit_text_value") and put it back into your EditText.

This is for extra information.
Imagine this scenario
ActivityA launch ActivityB.
ActivityB launch a new ActivityAPrime by
Intent intent = new Intent(getApplicationContext(), ActivityA.class);
startActivity(intent);
ActivityAPrime has no relationship with ActivityA.
In this case the Bundle in ActivityAPrime.onCreate() will be null.
If ActivityA and ActivityAPrime should be the same activity instead of different activities,
ActivityB should call finish() than using startActivity().

If Data Is not Loaded From savedInstanceState use following code.
The problem is url call is not to complete fully so, check if data is loaded then to show the instanceState value.
//suppose data is not Loaded to savedInstanceState at 1st swipe
if (savedInstanceState == null && !mAlreadyLoaded){
mAlreadyLoaded = true;
GetStoryData();//Url Call
} else {
if (listArray != null) { //Data Array From JsonArray(ListArray)
System.out.println("LocalData " + listArray);
view.findViewById(R.id.progressBar).setVisibility(View.GONE);
}else{
GetStoryData();//Url Call
}
}