Develop Reference

Android Oreo JobIntentService Keep running in background for Android 7 &below and crashing often in Android 8 & above

I have recently replaced all my service to foreground services and JobIntentService since there are some background execution limits (https://developer.android.com/about/versions/oreo/background) in oreo and above. As per documentation, JobIntentService acts like Intent Service for Android 7 & below and acts like JobScheduler for Android 8 & above. I have noticed there is an issue in new JobIntentService provided by Google.
Android 8 & above:
There is a crash happening continuously in android 8 and above. There was a ticket raised here mentioning about the same issue https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/63622293 and I have added a temp fix suggested by few geeks.
Android 7 & below:
JobIntentService which acts like Intent Service is not getting stopped once the work is done.
I have implemented JobIntentService within a service which triggers whenever some action is performed by a user.
Code
public class SampleJobIntentService extends FixedJobIntentService {
public static void postData(Context context, String data) {
Intent intent = new Intent(context, SampleJobIntentService.class);
intent.setAction(INITIAL_ACTION);
intent.putExtra(SAMPLE_ID, data);
SampleJobIntentService.enqueueWork(context,intent);
}
public static void enqueueWork(Context context, Intent work) {
SampleJobIntentService.enqueueWork(context, SampleJobIntentService.class, JOB_ID, work);
#Override
protected void onHandleWork(#NonNull Intent intent) {
if (intent != null) {
SampleRequest sampleRequest = requests.get(intent.getAction());
if (sampleRequest != null) {
try {
// perform some networking operations
} catch (Exception ex) {
Log.d("Error for intent ");
}
Log.i("send action ");
} else
Log.e("action not found for ");
}
}
}
To avoid the crash with JobIntentService, I took few references from https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/63622293
public abstract class FixedJobIntentService extends JobIntentService {
#Override
GenericWorkItem dequeueWork() {
try {
return new FixedGenericWorkItem(super.dequeueWork());
} catch (SecurityException ignored) {
doStopCurrentWork();
}
return null;
}
private class FixedGenericWorkItem implements GenericWorkItem {
final GenericWorkItem mGenericWorkItem;
FixedGenericWorkItem(GenericWorkItem genericWorkItem) {
mGenericWorkItem = genericWorkItem;
}
#Override
public Intent getIntent() {
if (mGenericWorkItem != null) {
return mGenericWorkItem.getIntent();
}
return null;
}
#Override
public void complete() {
try {
if (mGenericWorkItem != null) {
mGenericWorkItem.complete();
}
} catch (IllegalArgumentException ignored) {
doStopCurrentWork();
}
}
}
}

Well..., Its a lot big theory...!! It would not be able to put it all here. I will try my best which will make some your concepts clear.
I have already lost my 2 complete years in reading google documentations... Which are use-less... With no proper documentation and with no proper sample codes for its developers..!! So i mention this in every of my posts on stack-overflow, As it will help to save time of others..!!
It looks you are a good programmer; just need some hints to your posted question :
Hint-1 :
YOU :- I have recently replaced all my service to foreground services and
JobIntentService
foreground service :
If you need ALL THE TIME RUNNING PROCESS; WHICH WILL NEVER END... ONCE IT IS STARTED it is used in service which returns START_STICKY from its OnStartCommand. Which is again not advised to use as if you want to implement it at any cost ... then you will have to use a notification with setOngoing(true) Which end user would not be able to swipe away your notification, it will remain there forever....
Use of the foreground service :
There has been restrictions on receivers too; above Oreo onwards and you can not use all the receivers and intent actions by declaring it in manifest and by just making a receiver... I advice to just use BootComplete permission and use a single receiver which receives the boot_completed intent and calls a service if below O and calls a foreground service above O. Now from that foreground service you implement the runtime receivers for all and unregister it in Ondestroy methods. I have never found an official sample code for implementing runtime receiver and finally i have implemented it successfully by many months hard-work... Yes it was not a smart work due to google
When to use foreground service :
Only if you want to implement broadcast receivers.... If you do not want to implement any broadcast receivers; STAY AWAY.......
Hint-2 :
YOU :- I have recently replaced all my service to foreground services and
JobIntentService
** service has its quality of :**
Just doing a very tiny work... and just exit... it has to be exited by StopSelf()... Again, Services can cause data-loss if called multiple times... As same service thread can be run more than once... Again if you want a service to do a lot of work... Use START_STICKY... But again it is not recommended and i have suggested already, when to use it in Hint 1.
** Intentservice has its quality of :**
Doing a relatively long running tasks and it has property of execution serially only If you again and again calls the same intentService, then all calls will be kept in a queue and will be executed one by one after finishing one by one. Which is not the case in service as depicted above. It ends on its own... no need to end it by a developer..!!
** Unique Quality of all :**
Once they are crashed android can stop them calling in future without notifying you as it crashes the app. Need to be handled them with try-catch-exception to avoid crash. Again... If you are implementing threads within services then try-catch-exception will not save your application from being crashing...
** THEN WHAT THE HELL & HOW TO IMPLEMENT IT THEN :**
Use FireBaseJobScedular :-
Easy to use
Uses simple JobService
Can run longer or smaller time tasks... EVEN ALL THE TIME RUNNING TASK
EVEN SUPPORTED BY NON STANDARD COMPANIES like vivo, mi, oppo, one+3, ... which takes stock-android makes changes to it and gives names like FunTouchOs, ColorOs, OxygenOs
Just need to Do change battery settings to "Do not optimise this app"
Yes google supports it officially and recommends to use it
It Creates the instance of GooglePlyService and runs within it, And obviously non-standards companies too would not restrict google apps from being doing its tasks.
Works on Oreo .., Even i have tested it on Android P and works below Android version 5.0 as AlarmManager tasks.
Still i recommends to use minsdk above 16, target sdk 26 as if in case you wants to upload your app to google play it is compulsory now and that news would have been heard you. and compile sdk 26.
Just Bind Your JobService in manifest and use a single line permission of receive_boot_complete
Just schedule it ... And it will be started on every device in market from every manufacturer... even on cold boot and hot boot
It minimises a lot, lot and lot of code and you can focus on actual tasks.
Once task is finished you can return false to indicate task has been finished and it will end the JobService.
Why i am suggesting because i am CTO of a well-UNKNOwn company and has been experienced the problems caused by foreground service across the many types of android phone manufacturers... It is not the Apple and ios so we had to experienced it. Remain developer since past 18 years and i mostly codes today too... in all of the development projects and its development strategies are thought by me only.
Correct me ... too... As you have not mentioned what your tasks and
project is related to... and what you exactly wants to be done in a
foreground service and intent-service... Let me know..., It would be my pleasure to help you. It is a general theoretical answer rather than what you wants.... But for giving you actual answer i will need exact your project scope..

JobIntentService which acts like Intent Service is not getting stopped once the work is done
The issue is in your extended class FixedJobIntentService dequeueWork method.
Try changing it to something like below
GenericWorkItem superValue = super.dequeueWork();
if (superValue != null) {
return new FixedGenericWorkItem(superValue);
}
return null;
Looking at the JobIntentSerivce code, Work Items processor logic is below, i.e until there are no work items left in the queue all items are processed (i.e onHandleWork is called for each item)
while ((work = dequeueWork()) != null) {
if (DEBUG) Log.d(TAG, "Processing next work: " + work);
onHandleWork(work.getIntent());
if (DEBUG) Log.d(TAG, "Completing work: " + work);
work.complete();
}
Issue in your implementation is after processing the first work item, the super.dequeueWork() returns null, which you are not taking care of and just sending a new FixedGenericWorkItem object passing null value. You might observe that a null value is passed to your onHandleWork in your subsequent calls.
Hope this helps resolve your issue.

I think you just need this much of a code. Create a new Class MyJobIntentService and write this much of a code and call postData() to start your service.
public class MyJobIntentService extends JobIntentService {
public static void postData(Context context, String data) {
final Intent intent = new Intent(context, MyJobIntentService.class);
intent.setAction(INITIAL_ACTION);
intent.putExtra(SAMPLE_ID, data);
enqueueWork(context, MyJobIntentService.class, 1000, intent);
}
#Override
public IBinder onBind(Intent intent) {
return null;
}
#Override
public void onDestroy() {
Ln.d("Cancelled service");
super.onDestroy();
}
#Override
protected void onHandleWork(#NonNull Intent intent) {
if (intent != null) {
final SampleRequest sampleRequest = requests.get(intent.getAction());
if (sampleRequest != null) {
try {
// perform some networking operations
} catch (Exception ex) {
Log.d("Error for intent ");
}
Log.i("send action ");
} else {
Log.e("action not found for ");
}
}
}
}
And make sure to add your service in manifest file
<service
android:name="service.MyJobIntentService"
android:exported="false"
android:permission="android.permission.BIND_JOB_SERVICE" />

Intent Service not working in doze mode

One of my peer developer has written an intent service that makes an API call and then sleeps for 2 mins. After waking up, it sends again.
Below is the code:
public class GpsTrackingService extends IntentService {
....
#Override
protected void onHandleIntent(Intent intent) {
do{
try{
//make API call here
//then go to sleep for 2 mins
TimeUnit.SECONDS.sleep(120);
} catch(InterruptedException ex){
ex.printStackTrace();
}
} while (preferences.shouldSendGps()); //till the user can send gps.
}
....
}
Manifest
<service android:name=".commons.GpsTrackingService" />
This is working fine when the phone is active. However, whenever the phone goes into doze mode it fails to wake.
Will using alarm manager with WAKE permission solve this?
I have just got the code base and need to fix this within today. It'll be great if someone can help.

As the documentation says:
In Doze mode, the system attempts to conserve battery by restricting
apps' access to network and CPU-intensive services. It also prevents
apps from accessing the network and defers their jobs, syncs, and
standard alarms.
Periodically, the system exits Doze for a brief time to let apps
complete their deferred activities. During this maintenance window,
the system runs all pending syncs, jobs, and alarms, and lets apps
access the network.
In few words, while in Doze mode the system suspends network accesses, ignores Wake Locks, stops acquiring data from sensors, defers AlarmManager jobs to the next Doze maintenance window (which are progressively less frequently called), also WiFi scans, JobScheduler jobs and Sync adapters do not run.
Neither setAndAllowWhileIdle() nor setExactAndAllowWhileIdle() can fire alarms more than once per 9 (?) minutes, per app.
And it seems that the Foreground Services are also involved into this "Doze Drama", at least in MarshMellow (M).
To survive in this situation, tons of applications need to be at least rewiewed. Can you imagine a simple mp3 player which stops playing music when the device enters in Doze Mode?
Doze mode starts automatically, when the device is unplugged from the power supply and left on the table for about 1 hour or so, or even earlier when the user clicks the power button to power down the screen, but I think this could depend by the device manufacturer too.
I tried a lot of countermeasures, some of them really hilarious.
At the end of my tests I reached a possible solution:
One possible (and maybe the only) way to have your app running even when the host device is in Doze mode, is basically to have a ForegroundService (even a fake one, doing no jobs at all) running in another process with an acquired partial WakeLock.
What you need to do is basically the following (you could create a simple project to test it):
1 - In your new project, create a new class which extends Application (myApp), or use the
main activity of the new project.
2 - In myApp onCreate() start a Service (myAntiDozeService)
3 - In myAntiDozeService onStartCommand(), create the Notification
needed to start the service as a foreground service, start the
service with startForeground(id, notification) and acquire the
partial WakeLock.
REMEMBER! This will work, but it is just a starting point, because you have to be careful with the "Side Effects" this approach will generate:
1 - Battery drain: The CPU will work for your app forever if you
don't use some strategy and leave the WakeLock always active.
2 - One notification will be always shown, even in the lockscreen,
and this notification cannot be removed by simply swiping it out, it
will be always there until you'll stop the foreground service.
OK, let's do it.
myApp.java
public class myApp extends Application {
private static final String STARTFOREGROUND_ACTION = "STARTFOREGROUND_ACTION";
private static final String STOPFOREGROUND_ACTION = "STOPFOREGROUND_ACTION";
#Override
public void onCreate() {
super.onCreate();
// start foreground service
startForeService();
}
private void stopForeService() {
Intent service = new Intent(this, myAntiDozeService.class);
service.setAction(STOPFOREGROUND_ACTION);
stopService(service);
}
private void startForeService(){
Intent service = new Intent(this, myAntiDozeService.class);
service.setAction(STARTFOREGROUND_ACTION);
startService(service);
}
#Override
public void onTerminate() {
stopForeService();
super.onTerminate();
}
}
myAntiDozeService.java
public class myAntiDozeService extends Service {
private static final String TAG = myAntiDozeService.class.getName();
private static boolean is_service_running = false;
private Context mContext;
private PowerManager.WakeLock mWakeLock;
private static final int NOTIFICATION_ID = 12345678;
private static final String STARTFOREGROUND_ACTION = "STARTFOREGROUND_ACTION";
private static final String STOPFOREGROUND_ACTION = "STOPFOREGROUND_ACTION";
#Override
public void onCreate() {
super.onCreate();
mContext = getApplicationContext();
}
#Override
public int onStartCommand(Intent intent, int flags, int startId) {
if (!is_service_running && STARTFOREGROUND_ACTION.equals(intent.getAction())) {
Log.i(TAG, "Received Start Foreground Intent ");
showNotification();
is_service_running = true;
acquireWakeLock();
} else if (is_service_running && STOPFOREGROUND_ACTION.equals(intent.getAction())) {
Log.i(TAG, "Received Stop Foreground Intent");
is_service_running = false;
stopForeground(true);
stopSelf();
}
return START_STICKY;
}
#Override
public void onDestroy() {
releaseWakeLock();
super.onDestroy();
}
private void showNotification(){
Intent notificationIntent = new Intent(mContext, ActivityMain.class);
notificationIntent.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_NEW_TASK | Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TASK);
PendingIntent pendingIntent = PendingIntent.getActivity(mContext, 0, notificationIntent, 0);
Notification notification = new NotificationCompat.Builder(mContext)
.setContentTitle("myApp")
.setTicker("myApp")
.setContentText("Application is running")
.setSmallIcon(R.drawable.ic_launcher)
.setContentIntent(pendingIntent)
.build();
// starts this service as foreground
startForeground(NOTIFICATION_ID, notification);
}
public void acquireWakeLock() {
final PowerManager powerManager = (PowerManager) mContext.getSystemService(Context.POWER_SERVICE);
releaseWakeLock();
//Acquire new wake lock
mWakeLock = powerManager.newWakeLock(PowerManager.PARTIAL_WAKE_LOCK, TAG+"PARTIAL_WAKE_LOCK");
mWakeLock.acquire();
}
public void releaseWakeLock() {
if (mWakeLock != null && mWakeLock.isHeld()) {
mWakeLock.release();
mWakeLock = null;
}
}
#Nullable
#Override
public IBinder onBind(Intent intent) {
return null;
}
}
AndroidManifest.xml changes.
In the AndroidManifest.xml add this permission:
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WAKE_LOCK" />
Don't forget to add the name of your app in the <application> tag:
<application
....
android:name=".myApp"
....
And finally add your foreground service running into another process:
<service
android:name=".myAntiDozeService"
android:process=":MyAntiDozeProcessName">
</service>
A couple of notes.
In the previous example, the notification created, when clicked,
opens the ActivityMain activity of your test project.
Intent notificationIntent = new Intent(mContext, ActivityMain.class);
but you can use another kind of intent too.
To test it, you have to add some job to be performed into your
ActivityMain.java, for example some repeating alarm (which was
normally stopped when the device falls in Doze Mode), or a ripetitive
network access, or a timed tone played, or.... whatever you want.
Remember that the job performed by the main activity has to run
forever because to test this AntiDoze you need to wait at least 1
hour to be sure the device enters in Doze Mode.
To enter in Doze mode, the device has to be quiet and unplugged, so
you can't test it while you are debugging. Debug your app first,
check that everything is running then stop it, unplug, restart the
app again and leave the device alone and quiet on your desk.
The adb commands suggested by the documentation to simulate Doze
and StandBy modes could and could not give you the right results
(it depends, I suppose, by the device manufacturer, drivers, bla
bla). Please make your tests in the REAL behaviour.
In my first test, I used an AlarmManager and a tone generator to play a tone every 10 minutes just to understand that my app was still active.
And it is still running from about 18 hours, breaking my ears with a loud tone exactly every 10 minutes. :-)
Happy coding!

One of my peer developer has written an intent service that makes an API call and then sleeps for 2 mins. After waking up, it sends again.
Only have a service running while it is actively delivering value to the user. Sitting around for two minutes, watching the clock tick, is not actively delivering value to the user.
Will using alarm manager with WAKE permission solve this?
That depends on what you mean by "solve this". You can use AlarmManager to request to get control every two minutes so that you can do work. While the device is in Doze mode, you will not actually get control every two minutes, but once per maintenance window.

CountdownTimer won't tick even though wakelock was acquired

My app runs smoothly on the emulator - everything working exactly as it should - but not on my phone.
In my app, I use both a countdownTimer which ticks every minute, and an alarm manager, which should ensure that the user will be notified of whatever it needs to be notified of, should the phone be asleep.
Once the receiver receives the Alarm manager's broadcast, I acquire a partial wake lock for 5 seconds (which is even more than should be needed).
I checked, and wakelock.isHeld() returns true. I have the necessary permission, and the onReceive doesn't take that long (it is not at all computationally expensive).
And yet, the countdownTimer doesn't catch up. nothing else is fired until I actually unlock the phone and look at the app.
Any ideas why? I can't for the life of me figure this one out.
edit: Tried moving the wakelock (wl) declaration outside of the function (and even to the outer class), even though things worked as they were on the emulator (and from what I understand it shouldn't make a difference anyway, which it, indeed, did not :( )
code:
public class Class1 extends Binder {
public static class Class1A extends BroadcastReceiver
{
public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
PowerManager pm = (PowerManager) context.getSystemService(Context.POWER_SERVICE);
PowerManager.WakeLock wl = pm.newWakeLock(PowerManager.PARTIAL_WAKE_LOCK, "MyApp");
//Acquire the lock
wl.acquire(5 * 1000); //5 seconds to expiration
// Do a few things
}
/// Some more code setting up the alarm
}
private class ReminderHandler extends CountDownTimer {
#Override
public void onTick(long millisUntilFinished) {
logTxt.append("\nTicked. ");
}
#Override
public void onFinish() {
GregorianCalendar tmp = new GregorianCalendar();
logTxt.append("\nCountdown completed at "+ frmtr.format(tmp.getTime()));
}
public ReminderHandler(int Len)
{
super((((long) Len)*60*1000),60*999);
}
}
}
}
As I said, the alarm is received, I acquire a wakelock successfully, but the onTick doesn't happen until I actually unlock the phone and open the app.

Well, this is not an answer I am happy with, but for now, this is all I have:
It seems the it takes more than 5 seconds (and even more than the 15 seconds I later gave it to test this) for the CountdownTimer to catch up (even if it should have only had 1 onTick and 1 onFinish call to catch up to).
I simply released the wakelock in the onFinish. I don't like this (since if there is some bug, it could end up holding the wakelock for way too long), but for now, this is all I can do.

ACTION_POWER_DISCONNECTED triggered when phone start

I have an app that play a sound when the phone charger is disconnected. Evrything works well but Android triggers the ACTION_POWER_DISCONNECTED when the phone boot, same when the charger is connected with ACTION_POWER_CONNECTED.
I understand why the OS would make such a thing but is it possible to know that this is due to reboot state, so my sound won't be played?
This happens on Nexus 4, haven't tested other devices.
#Override
public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
if (intent.getAction() == Intent.ACTION_POWER_CONNECTED) {
} else if (intent.getAction() == Intent.ACTION_POWER_DISCONNECTED) {
//Don't want to get there if the phone is rebooting!
}
}
Thanks!

Figured a solution to my problem, this could be a general and easy way to make sure device is not booting when charger intent is called.
Just catch the ACTION_BOOT_COMPLETED (don't forget manifest permission and intent) and set the timestant in a shared preference.
if (intent.getAction() == Intent.ACTION_BOOT_COMPLETED) {
SharedPreferences.Editor editor = PreferenceManager
.getDefaultSharedPreferences(context)
.edit();
editor.putLong("uptime", System.currentTimeMillis());
editor.commit();
return;
}
Then to be sure we're not in a boot sequence surround your code with a simple condition comparing to the system uptime:
if (preferences.getLong("uptime", System.currentTimeMillis()) > System.currentTimeMillis() - SystemClock.uptimeMillis()) {
//Your code to be executed there!
}
Hope this will help anyone!

AlarmManager not waking phone up in Air Mode (onReceive delayed)

Problem is that onReceive method of BroadcastReceiver usually "called" by AlarmManager is delayed until device is awoken by the user.
This has never happened to me, only information I have was is from the report sent by user. In the log I saw that in the first case onReceive method call was delayed by almost 2 hours and in the second one by about 20 minutes. In both situations alarm (and onReceive) has started just after the phone was awoken by the user.
Problem has occured twice in two consecutive days and user states it has never happened before. Only distinctive change in phone's settings was that Air Mode was enabled.
My code:
Alarm is set like:
PendingIntent pendingIntent = PendingIntent.getBroadcast(context, 0, alarmIntent, PendingIntent.FLAG_UPDATE_CURRENT);
am.set(AlarmManager.RTC_WAKEUP, timeInMillis, pendingIntent);
Logger.log("posting alarm " + id + " for " + formatTime(timeInMillis);
Broadcast Receiver's onReceiveMethod:
#Override
public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
Logger.initialize(context, "AlarmReceiver");
...
}
Logs received from the user:
481. 20/05 13:00:04 v89: posting alarm 4 for 7:0 (in 17:59)
486. 21/05 08:58:00 v89: logger initialized again from AlarmReceiver
536. 21/05 09:04:54 v89: posting alarm 4 for 7:0 (in 21:55)
541. 22/05 07:22:24 v89: logger initialized again from AlarmReceiver
Is it possible for Air Mode to block phone's awakening somehow? Can I prevent it? Or maybe it is something completely different? Any help is welcomed.
Device is Samsung Galaxy SIII (GT-I9305) with Android 4.1.2
Edit:
Just in case that delay could be somehow caused by the Logger, here's its code. mHandler is created with use of HandlerThread, so I believe it can't block onReceive, right?
public synchronized static void initialize(Context context, String src) {
if (mInstance == null) {//wasn't null
...
} else {
Logger.log("logger initialized again from " + src);
}
}
public synchronized static void log(final String text) {
Log.d(TAG, text);
if (mInstance != null && mInstance.mLoggingEnabled) {
mInstance.mHandler.post(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
//some database operations
}
});
}
}

If you want to schedule your tasks with the specified interval don't use flags AlarmManager.RTC and AlarmManager.RTC_WAKEUP with method alarm.setRepeating(...). Because in this case alarm will be bounded to the device's real time clock. So changing the system time may cause alarm to misbehave. You must use flags AlarmManager.ELAPSED_REALTIME or AlarmManager.ELAPSED_REALTIME_WAKEUP. In this case SystemClock.elapsedRealtime() will serve as a basis for scheduling an alarm.
The code will look like:
alarmManager.setRepeating(AlarmManager.ELAPSED_REALTIME_WAKEUP, SystemClock.elapsedRealtime() + checkIntervalMillis, checkIntervalMillis, pendingIntent);
If you want your long running task to be executed when device in the sleep mode I recommend to use WakefulIntentService library by CommonsWare: https://github.com/commonsguy/cwac-wakeful