I have put some cache cleaning code in onDestroy of my activity but most of the time the code is not executed unless I explicitly finish the activity via finish().
Edit: Just read onDestroy is called only with finish() or if the system is low on resources. So where do I need to put my cache cleaning code? If I put it in onPause() and the user goes back to the app, the cache is cleared. I am actually storing important temporary files in the cache that should not be deleted in onPause.
From Android developer documentation:
protected void onDestroy ()
Added in API level 1 Perform any final cleanup before an activity is
destroyed. This can happen either because the activity is finishing
(someone called finish() on it, or because the system is temporarily
destroying this instance of the activity to save space. You can
distinguish between these two scenarios with the isFinishing() method.
Note: do not count on this method being called as a place for saving
data! For example, if an activity is editing data in a content
provider, those edits should be committed in either onPause() or
onSaveInstanceState(Bundle), not here. This method is usually
implemented to free resources like threads that are associated with an
activity, so that a destroyed activity does not leave such things
around while the rest of its application is still running. There are
situations where the system will simply kill the activity's hosting
process without calling this method (or any others) in it, so it
should not be used to do things that are intended to remain around
after the process goes away.
You can move your code to onPause() or onStop()
try to use onstop
like this
#Override
protected void onStop() {
super.onStop();
//write your code here
}
ondestroy is mostly called when the system completely removes the activity from memory, or when a user kills the activity, you want to save your data in on pause, as that will always be called before the destroy.
Related
I have implemented ActivityLifecycleCallbacks in a private class inside my Application class.
If Home button or Back button is used, lifecycle's onStop() and onPause() methods are getting called. If I kill the activity by swiping out from background, onDestroy() method is not getting called. It gets called when I start my activity next time. I am using moveTaskToBack(true) in case of Back press.
What must be the issue and which lifecycle method should get called when we swipe out from background?
From the documentation of onDestroy():
Note: do not count on this method being called as a place for saving
data! For example, if an activity is editing data in a content
provider, those edits should be committed in either onPause() or
onSaveInstanceState(Bundle), not here. This method is usually
implemented to free resources like threads that are associated with an
activity, so that a destroyed activity does not leave such things
around while the rest of its application is still running. There are
situations where the system will simply kill the activity's hosting
process without calling this method (or any others) in it, so it
should not be used to do things that are intended to remain around
after the process goes away.
Such a situation is swiping the app out of the recent tasks list.
Check out this answer on how to get notified when the app is getting swiped out of Recents.
I remember reading a similar question on StackOverflow. Here was the top answer:
Handle exit application from Task Manager
Handle exit application from Task Manager
Unfortunately there isn't a good answer for handling this situation. If the app is force-killed, onDestroy method isn't necessarily called. According to the documentation.
Note: do not count on this method being called as a place for saving data! For example, if an activity is editing data in a content provider, those edits should be committed in either onPause() or onSaveInstanceState(Bundle), not here.
If you can, clean up in the onPause() method. In order for the user to get to that screen to kill the app, it has to have been backgrounded and thus onPause() would be called. (see documentation)
swiping app from back ground i.e. clearing from recents causes the whole process and task to be killed and that time onDestroy() may not be called , when user presses back from an activity then only that activity is killed not the process.
I want to use Application.ActivityLifecycleCallbacks to monitor how many activities are there in the back-stack. Can I increment/decrement counter in onCreate/onDestroy to handle this?
onDestroy is NOT guaranteed to be called every time an activity is destroyed.
If the user clicks back to destroy it, onDestroy will be called.
If the user swipes the application from the recent app menu, onDestroy will NOT be called.
If the application crashes, it's undetermined if it'll be called (from my experience, it isn't called).
Is onDestroy always called when android destroys activity to save memory?
Yes
Documentation:
The final call you receive before your activity is destroyed. This can happen either because the activity is finishing (someone called finish() on it, or because the system is temporarily destroying this instance of the activity to save space. You can distinguish between these two scenarios with the isFinishing() method.
I want to use Application.ActivityLifecycleCallbacks to monitor how
many activities are there in the back-stack. Can I increment/decrement
counter in onCreate/onDestroy to handle this?
Better to counter in the onStart() and onStop() methods, onCreate() doesn't guarantee visibility. For example if somehow something stopped onStart() from happening.
onDestroy() is the final method that is called on an Activity instance before it’s destroyed and completely removed from memory. In extreme situations Android may kill the application process that is hosting the Activity, which will result in OnDestroy not being invoked. Apparently most of the Activities will not implement this method because most clean up and shut down has been done in the OnPause and OnStop methods.
For more details please visit Android Developers Portal.
(https://developer.android.com/reference/android/app/Activity.html "Android Developers")
I have an Android existential question:
Does an App's onDestroy() get called when I kill it by swiping it out of the task manager?
If not... how can I detect a "killing" swiping event on the app, and do some final stuff beore it dies?
onDestroy()
Perform any final cleanup before an activity is destroyed. This can
happen either because the activity is finishing (someone called
finish() on it, or because the system is temporarily destroying this
instance of the activity to save space.
Note: do not count on this method being called as a place for saving data!
There are situations where the system will simply kill the activity's
hosting process without calling this method (or any others) in it, so
it should not be used to do things that are intended to remain around
after the process goes away.
Instead, rely on onPause() and onStop() to do any final work before your app goes out of view.
Is your main concern the "swiping" event or just saving data? :)
I was reading this tutorial http://developer.android.com/training/basics/activity-lifecycle/stopping.html about stopping and restarting an activity and I ran into a doubt, the text says:
When your activity is stopped, the Activity object is kept resident in memory and is recalled when the activity resumes. You don’t need to re-initialize components that were created during any of the callback methods leading up to the Resumed state.
and after:
It's uncommon that an app needs to use onRestart() to restore the activity's state, so there aren't any guidelines for this method that apply to the general population of apps. However, because your onStop() method should essentially clean up all your activity's resources, you'll need to re-instantiate them when the activity restarts. Yet, you also need to instantiate them when your activity is created for the first time (when there's no existing instance of the activity). For this reason, you should usually use the onStart() callback method as the counterpart to the onStop() method, because the system calls onStart() both when it creates your activity and when it restarts the activity from the stopped state.
Following what it is said in the first paragraph if I make an instance of something in onCreate() and onStart() methods I don't need to re-initialize them and ok, here it is clear, but if I make a transition from Stopped state to Resumed state then I have to come across the onStart() method, but if I made here an instane of something then it is re-made again! then what should I do?
Since you don't want the instance to be re-initialized during onStart(), just initialize during onCreate() and use this if you want to save state simply from resuming again. However, to save more persistent data you must use something like SharedPreferences, a SQLite Database, or a file.
I would like to call onDestroy() at the end of my Activity.
Here is what i put :
#Override
protected void onDestroy()
{
unbindDrawables(findViewById(R.id.rootView));
super.onDestroy();
System.gc();
}
But, it is never called. Indeed, when I use auto completion, onDestroy never appear...
but onPause, onCreate, onStop .... yes
So do I miss something here ? I might be so stupid after all...
You should call finish().
onDestroy is called automatically, althought you should not rely on being called.
onDestroy():
The final call you receive before your activity is destroyed. This can happen either because the activity is finishing (someone called finish() on it, or because the system is temporarily destroying this instance of the activity to save space. You can distinguish between these two scenarios with the isFinishing() method.
onDestroy may be not called
Note: do not count on this method being called as a place for saving
data! For example, if an activity is editing data in a content
provider, those edits should be committed in either onPause() or
onSaveInstanceState(Bundle), not here. This method is usually
implemented to free resources like threads that are associated with an
activity, so that a destroyed activity does not leave such things
around while the rest of its application is still running. There are
situations where the system will simply kill the activity's hosting
process without calling this method (or any others) in it, so it
should not be used to do things that are intended to remain around
after the process goes away.
Derived classes must call through to the super class's implementation
of this method. If they do not, an exception will be thrown.
Thanks everybody for your help.
I have now understand that onDestroy may not be called.
I don't know why, but now Eclipse prompt me the onDestroy method.
So it is called but not where i want to.